Do I? No, not really. Sure both were TBS, but I see a lot more in common with the MOO series. SMAC was a great game, but to me at least it felt fairly different.

Yeah the reason I picked up Galciv2 was because I saw some similarities with Alpha Cent. He he I missed the expansion pack bya couple years and when I went looking for it no store had it.. flash forward another 2-3 years, I see it in a giant bundle pack with 4 other games including the origonal game and buy the entire pack donating the games I hate or have to friends.

Alpha Centauri was an awesome game... I still play it along with Homeworld and Myst....Classics still rule........

The expansion pack won't work with P4 computers. It has a stupid message that say's 'cpu not supported'

It will work with both P4 computers (which I used to use) and AMD computers (which I use now) by adding this line to the [Preferences] section of the "Alpha Centauri.ini" file.

ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=1

Enjoy!

P.S. Still a great game. I started a new game of Alien Crossfire yesterday

I loved SMAC a lot, but it did seem to have a weak core engine riding around in a fabulous chassis. I found it very immersive and IIRC it had one some of the strongest support for micromanagers that I've ever seen.

But in the end, the rival AIs were much more stylish than they were clever. PC games are kind of like food in that you eat with your eyes first, but for both games and meals, the main ingredients need to be the best you can get.

I couldn't stand it anymore due to the crap AI, and the fact none of my friends play MP anymore

Yes the AI is the one thing that lets the game down. The multiplayer i never used, tried it once but seemed like you cannot micromanage during somone elses turn. Big fopar for Alpha considering that civilisation multiplayer (an older game) does let you micromanage off turn.

I hated bombard from that game *shudders* I still have nightmares of AI invasions bombarding the same unit even though it couldn't die from it (I believe).

That is true, not so dumb though since constant bombarding prevents unit from healing.

Myst link is http://www.cyan.com/

Anyway speaking of classics, I'm headin back to my game of PONG

Ah so it is a Dungeonsiege type game?

Nooooo.... Myst (at least the older ones, I never saw the later ones) was a pre-rendered point and click puzzle/adventure type game. Not really an RPG, and definitely nothing like Dungeon Siege.

Personally I can't see more than surface similarities between the two games. In fact, GalCivII might benefit a bit from the immersive style of SMAC. In SMAC, while playing the TBS you were also playing out this incredible story of the transition of humanity from mortals to a form of immortality. Also, the AI leaders were really individuals, with their own personalities and ways of acting. GalCiv actually has a strong, interesting backstory, but personally, the campaign just isn't worth playing through to get the story. Also, the AIs seem to pick standard patterns of behaviour that are available to all of them, so they may be very different from game to game, but from their own previous behaviour, not necessarily from each other.

With that said, the most obvious difference is that SMAC was confined to one planet, and GalCiv features a whole galaxy. I find playing on galactic maps just more enjoyable than on planetary ones.

the most obvious difference is that SMAC was confined to one planet, and GalCiv features a whole galaxy

I don't see the difference? What you call 'planets' in galciv, are the equivalent of 'cities' in Alpha centauri. Except that the planets in Galciv do not even have a fraction of the features an Alpha city does.