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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Staffan" data-source="post: 2279286" data-attributes="member: 907">Gameplay-wise, the big differences between Alpha Centauri and the Civ games (both Sid Meier's games and Call to Power) is that Alpha Centauri is much more modular. This modularity primarily shows itself in three different areas of the game: terrain, units, and government.In Civ, you have a dozen or two different terrain types. In AC, terrain has three major features: elevation, rainfall, and rockiness. High elevation means you get more energy (which takes the place of money) from solar cells, lots of rainfall means you get more food, and lots of rocks give you more minerals (production). It's not quite that simple, but that's the basic idea.Also in Civ, you have about a hundred different units, each with an offensive value, a defensive value, a movement value, and possible special abilities. In AC, you instead design your own units, combining a weapon (attack), armor (defense), chassis (move), power plant (hit points), and one or two special abilities. Each thing you want to include requires a certain tech, of course. There are also some units that don't have attack values, just like in Civ - mainly terraformers (workers from Civ 3), colony pods (settlers, but can't change terrain, that's what workers are for) and probe teams (spies).Finally, there is government. In Civ, you choose a government type from a list of about a dozen. In Alpha Centauri, you instead choose aspects of your government in different areas: economy, values, and (can't recall what it was called, but it concerned the level of control the leaders have over the people and vice versa), plus in the late game, futuristic options. Each of these choices have an effect on a few of the ten or so values that modify how your civilization works, including military support, population growth, efficiency, science, ease of espionage, ecology, and so on.Another big thing that separates Alpha Centauri from the Civ games is that the faction you choose has a major influence on how the game turns out. Each of the factions have a modifier to some of the values mentioned under government, each prefers certain social engineering choices and has others forbidden, and most also have some other special abilities. For example (working from memory), the Gaians get a big bonus to ecology, a smaller bonus to efficiency, but a penalty to population growth (I can't recall what special stuff they had at the moment). Meanwhile, the militaristic Spartans get a bonus to morale (troop strength) and support (require less production to support units in play), but a penalty to industry (need more production to build things), and got a break on the additional cost for the first unit of a new type. I know that Civ 3 took some steps toward making your civilization matter, but not to anywhere near the degree Alpha Centauri does.Yet another thing, that's not a biggie, is that instead of barbarian invasions, you occasionally get attacked by the planet's native life forms, called Mind Worms. These attack psionically, which means that weapons and armor are irrelevant - just morale/growth levels (growth serves the same purpose as morale for natives). The more ruthless you are toward Planet (that is, the more ecological damage you do), the bigger the chance is that you'll get attacked by mind worms of various sorts. If you have a society with a high Green value, you have a chance of taking over mind worms you attack (but not that attack you), and eventually you'll be able to build them yourself (which is an attractive option if you're behind in the arms tech race - doesn't matter if your best weapon is the laser and your opponent has grav guns, when you attack him with mind worms).</blockquote>

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