Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

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{{Infobox CVG |title = Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri |image = Image:Alpha Centauri cover.jpg |developer = Firaxis Games |publisher = Aspyr (Mac OS);
Electronic Arts (Windows);
Loki Software (Linux) |distributor = |designer = |engine = |version = |released = 1999 |genre = Turn-based strategy (4X) |modes = Single player; multiplayer over IPX, TCP/IP or modem |ratings = ESRB: Everyone (E) |platforms = Linux (Alpha/PowerPC/x86), Windows, Mac OS |media = CD (1) |requirements = P133 MHz CPU, 16MB RAM, 60MB HD |input = Keyboard, mouse }} Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (sometimes abbreviated to SMAC) is a turn-based strategy 4X computer game created by Brian Reynolds and Sid Meier under the auspices of Firaxis Games in 1999. It is based on a fictional attempt by human beings to colonize a planet in the Alpha Centauri star system. It picks up where the games Sid Meier's Civilization I & II left off. An expansion pack, Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire (aka SMACX or just SMAX) was later released. Both -- the original Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri and the Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire expansion pack -- were later released in a combined edition called a "Planetary Pack."

Contents

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Storyline

According to the storyline of the game, Earth has destroyed itself through war, disease, famine, and other catastrophes. The United Nations manages to launch a colonization starship, the Unity, to Alpha Centauri, where an Earth-like planet, Chiron (often just called "Planet"), has been discovered; it is hoped that the best and brightest of mankind aboard the Unity can build a perfect civilization there.

As the Unity approaches Alpha Centauri, a malfunction occurs, waking the top officers from suspended animation. During the crew's attempt to repair the damage, the commander, Captain Garland, is assassinated. Due to the critical damage of the Unity, the ship's seven top officers each, together with likeminded crewmembers, lay claim to an escape pod and land on Chiron. These seven, with their conflicting personalities and ideologies, then begin to build seven separate societies according to those ideologies - leading humanity once again to factionalism and war.

(Note: The game's intro video depicts an eighth escape pod separating from the Unity, only to explode shortly thereafter, though there is no mention of an eighth faction at any point in the game.)

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Game play

Image:SMACx-DiploScreenshot1.jpg Within the game, the player assumes the role of one of the seven faction leaders and attempts to expand their colony and achieve victory. Players engage themselves in a race against the other factions, and are free to adopt any number of strategies in pursuit of their goal. Scientific discoveries within the game determine what technologies are available to particular factions, which in turn determines what facilities and units they can build at their colony bases. Unlike the previous Civilization games and Civilization III, Alpha Centauri allows the player to fully customize units. Civilization IV expanded on this system.

Also, while not unique in this regard, Alpha Centauri is an unusual civilization-building game because it is open-ended and has multiple, customizable parameters for victory. The player can choose to work toward a victory based on diplomacy, economics, conquest, or transcendence.

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The Datalinks

A crucial part of the game is the Datalinks, an information system that contains any and all information that you may need. It is similar to Civilization's Civilopedia. Most important is the tech tree, which shows a complete system of all technologies available in the game, along with prerequisite technologies and all benefits the technology gives (new chassis, weapon, armor, reactor, or special ability types, along with new former abilities, base facilities and secret projects, bonuses to xenofungus squares, social engineering choices, etc.) In all technology trades the game allows you to consult the Datalinks to find exactly what is being offered (or demanded).

In addition, the Datalinks store the quotes involved with all technologies, base facilities, and secret projects. Many Alpha Centauri fans enjoy the quotes in particular and the thought behind them. The game's creators did an excellent job of developing the personality and ideology of all the faction leaders through these quotes, as well as thoughts on human psychology. For instance, the Virtual World secret project is accompanied by Chairman Yang's view that reality is only what you perceive it to be, while Provost Zakharov denounces the general simplistic views on genetics when such technologies are discovered.

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Terrain

The game is represented on a three-dimensional map of the planet surface, upon which bases are built and units deployed. Local features of the terrain influence the amount of resources a base harvests from any particular square. For example, rocky squares yield minerals but no food unless cleared, while river squares produce extra energy. The altitude of terrain influences how much energy can be harvested there, can create rain shadows downwind, etc. Terrain can be enhanced and altered (including raising and lowering altitude) by units equipped with a terraformer module. The terrain also affects combat. For example, defending units receive a +50% bonus in rocky squares, while artillery units receive bonuses when attacking from higher elevation.

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Units and combat

A unit is made up from different parts such as chassis, weapon, armor, reactor, and special ability slots. As new technologies become available, old designs may be brought up to date and existing units upgraded.

Generally, only friendly units (your own or those of an ally) can occupy the same square. Enemy units must be eliminated in order to move into their square. Combat usually initiates when a unit from one faction attempts to enter a square occupied by units from another hostile faction. Many factors affect the outcome of combat, including:

  • The attacking unit's weapon rating;
  • The defending unit's armor rating;
  • The hit points of both units, determined by the type of reactor used;
  • The morale status of both units;
  • Any attack or defense bonuses brought about by base facilities and Secret Projects.

Researching certain new technologies unlocks progressively better equipment (weapons, armor and reactors.) Morale upgrades are gained through various means: possessing certain support infrastructure such as Command Centers as well as creating units with certain special abilities allows units to begin with higher morale, gaining access to the mysterious alien monoliths that dot the planet, or defeating enough enemies to gain experience will upgrade an existing unit's morale.

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Native Life

Adding to the trouble of the human factions is an indigenous semi-sentient fungus (called xenofungus) that spans the planet. Concentrations of xenofungus can spawn more aggressive native life forms known as mind worms. Xenofungus acts as the planet's immune system, and will react against heavy industrial pollution by growing over terraformed sites and concentrating multiple hostile mind worm units against offending cities. In accordance with its semi-sentience, the fungus can grow and reclaim land when the player, either through terraforming or industry, is seen as adversely affecting Planet's ecosystem.

Moreover, mind worms can be captured by factions with a deep understanding of Planet's fragile ecology and used as instruments of war and police.

In the course of the storyline, it is discovered that Planet's ecosystem is an increasingly sentient hive mind, which communicates with faction leaders in cut-scenes from time to time. However, contrary to the concept of a benevolent Mother Earth, the planetary mind is suspicious of humans and abhors their technological intrusion on its ecological balance, often using violence to try to destroy colonists that it perceives as a threat. Quotes by faction leaders scattered throughout the game reveal that all of them, with the notable exception of Lady Deirdre, consider the planetary mind to be distrustworthy, dangerous or even evil, although the Transcendence victory condition allows the player to unite human consciousness with Planet's mind, thus 'civilizing' it, achieving the next step in human evolution, and granting vast psionic powers to Transcended humans.

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Bases

Image:AlphaCentauriGameCD.jpg Bases, like cities in the earlier Civilization games, are the center of the game. A base is essentially a self-contained city that can be built and captured, as well as destroyed (either intentionally through war casualties, starvation, abandonment by constructing a colonizer at base size 1, or weapons of mass destruction, or unintentionally through ecological disruptions or being overrun by native mind worms). A base collects resources from the surrounding environment, using the manpower of the local population, or mechanically through resource crawler units. Mineral resources are used in building units and maintaining their upkeep, or can be converted to energy credits. Nutrient resources feed the local citizens, with more nutrients harvested leading to a higher rate of population growth. Energy collected from boreholes or solar collectors are piped into three priorities: PSYCH, ECONOMY and LABS. PSYCH represents how much energy is being used in improving the living standard of the inhabitants. ECONOMY represents how much energy is diverted into energy credits. LABS represents how much energy is being diverted into powering research. The output of all three can be enhanced by facilities or by special inhabitants called specialists. Energy credits created by the economy are the currency of the game. It can be used in hurrying production orders, commencing secret projects, or as an object of barter in diplomatic encounters. Some covert missions or prototype construction also require energy credits. Depending on a faction's social policies and the individual base's distance from the capital, a portion of collected energy can be lost to inefficiency.

Citizens are the inhabitants of a base. One citizen represents 10,000 inhabitants. It takes one citizen to harvest the resources of one square. New citizens are produced when a base has accumulated a set quantity of excess nutrients. The amount of nutrients needed to create growth becomes higher as the population multiplies. Social engineering choices or facilities can help reduce this required amount during each stage of growth.

Bases build all of the faction's units, and by extension, new bases. A new base is created when a previous base builds a unit equipped with a colony pod module and the unit is deployed at the desired location. Building new units require a set amount of minerals, depending on how complex or advanced the unit is. Each turn, minerals processed by citizens are added to the current task until it is completed. This process can be hurried by spending energy credits. New technologies are also researched in a manner. LABS output from every base is accumulated each turn until it fulfils the required cost to research the technology. All of these aspects can be enhanced by facilities and other factors.

A base can also build facilities and secret projects. Facilities, which are analogous to the buildings of the original Civilization games, creates or alters some function of the base it is located in. Similarly, Secret Projects are comparable to the Great Wonders of the original Civilization. They are expensive and can only be built once, but usually have dramatic benefits ranging from free facilities to social engineering effects and special unit abilities.

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Diplomacy

When two factions have established contact, they can engage in a variety of diplomatic actions. New technology, energy credits and bases can be bargained for or demanded with the threat of force. Factions can sign treaties and pacts, declare war or ask for a temporary cessation of hostilities. Treaties lead to commerce between faction bases and an increase in income for both factions. Pacts allow units to enter allied held territory and bases, and doubles the commerce modifier between the two factions. Computer controlled factions will remember past dealings, betrayals and atrocities, and will base their reactions to the player's diplomatic overtures accordingly.

Once one human faction has made contact with all other human factions, it can choose to convene the Planetary Council and elect a Planetary Governor. Thereafter, factions can periodically convene the council (at most once every 20 years for each faction; the Planetary Governor only has to wait 10 years) to make proposals such as electing a new governor, salvaging the Unity fusion reactor core, or creating a global trade pact. With the exception of the Planetary Governor or Supreme Leader elections, each faction has one vote, with the governor holding veto power. In Planetary Governor or Supreme Leader elections, each faction casts a number of votes that is based on its total population and modifiers from secret projects.

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Society

Despite being set in the future, the problems of human society still plague the inhabitants of Chiron. Reflecting this are the existence of drones in the population. Drones represent the undereducated, discontent segments of society. When the number of drones overwhelm the number of well educated citizens, called Talents, a drone riot occurs. During a drone riot all productive activity within the base are suspended. If not stopped, prolonged drone riots will eventually escalate in severity until facilities are destroyed, or in extreme cases, the entire city defects to another faction.

Drone riots can be suppressed through the use of in base military units as police. The amount of suppression allowed depends on the degree of tolerance the society, under current social engineering models, has for policing. There also exists the temporary and more extreme solution of nerve stapling. This directly suppresses the violent tendencies of the population, preventing drone riots for a short period of time, but carrying it out is considered an atrocity and can negatively impact diplomatic reactions.

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Social Engineering

Social engineering is another decisive game element reflecting human nature. Here, political, economic, social and future society models may be chosen. Each choice has its benefits and drawbacks. When combined, these models shape the faction's overall society. The aspects of social engineering affect a diverse range of gameplay elements, ranging from contentment and growth of the populace, unit morale and fighting strength, to the amount of energy credits received, among other things.

  • Politics represents the method your society uses to make political decisions.
    • Frontier is the default system. This represents the informal government used in the young colonies, before the settlements reach a substantial size, which require a more sophisticated government system.
    • Police State is the system in which the government uses brutal police force to discipline the citizens and keep them in line. The leader has great power over the military and the citizens but the economic efficiency is decreased.
    • Democratic is the system where the citizens take part in the government by electing their representatives. The stability this government type offers increases growth and efficiency, but the citizens become suspicious of large military deployments.
    • Fundamentalist is the system where the society is heavily based on a religion. This government type provides loyal citizens, and tends to make the citizens more resistant against brainwashing. However, scientific research suffers greatly under this government.
  • Economics represents how your society manages its resources.
    • Simple is the default administration. It represents the informal, ad hoc economic system, which is utilized in the early years after Planetfall.
    • Free Market is the system where the market forces are released. This system generates a lot of wealth, at the expense of severe environmental damage and unhappiness of people who are suddenly rendered poor by unscrupulous moguls.
    • Planned is the system where the market forces are tied very tight by strict government regulations. This benefits the production and growth, at the expense of efficiency.
    • Green is government with nature preservation as its top goal. Extensive recycling increases the efficiency and reduces ecological damage, but growth is sacrificed due to deference for native life.
  • Values represents which value system your society is based upon.
    • Survival is the most important value in the early struggles of surviving on the foreign planet.
    • Power is the value of having a strong leader with power to enforce his will and have large military budget. But the industry suffers from this exaggerated 'defense' budget.
    • Knowledge is the society value where science and knowledge are highly prized. It promotes free flow of information, which increases scientific progress but tends to render the player's society more vulnerable to probe attacks.
    • Wealth values the acquisition of money and material goods most highly. The benefits for the economy and for industry are apparent; the morale of the society suffers, however, due to greed.
  • Future society represents advanced social engineering models, which can be used very late in the game after extensive research and much experience with social engineering.
    • None is the default future society. This represents that the player's society has not yet developed a future society.
    • Cybernetic is the future society where artificial intelligence has taken over the menial tasks of society, allowing humans devote their time to creative pursuits. Its downside is the civil unrest often caused as people have their jobs taken by machines.
    • Eudaimonic is virtue in accord with excellence: the citizens of this society achieve ultimate happiness by striving to fulfil their greatest potential.
    • Thought control is the future society where mind-control methods are used to utterly subjugate the citizens of the player's society.
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Factions

The original seven factions in the game are as follows below (the Alien Crossfire expansion adds seven more):

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Spartan Federation

True to their name, the Spartan faction places the highest priority on strength, discipline and combat readiness. Commanded by Colonel Corazon Santiago, a survivalist from Puerto Rico, the Spartans make planetfall with the technology Doctrine: Mobility. Spartan units receive morale upgrades (making them better fighters) and their disciplined society is naturally tolerant of police actions, allowing two military units to help suppress a colony's drones. The Spartans' skilled military expertise allows them to build prototype units without extra mineral cost. However, the excessive labour developed to military production imposes a 10% penalty to industrial production. The Spartans may not pursue Wealth as a social engineering choice. Their founding base is Sparta Command.

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Gaia's Stepdaughters

A faction that values living in ecological harmony with Planet and abhors ecological destruction. They are led by Lady Deirdre Skye of Scotland. The Gaians make planetfall with the technology Centauri Ecology. The Gaians' ecological safeguards allow them to avoid ecological damage and to capture native mind worms, and their experience with lifecycles and recycling gives them an efficiency bonus. The Gaians also receive one extra nutrient from fungal squares and their infantry units can move through xenofungus without movement penalties. The Gaians are pacifistic and freedom-loving, giving rise to their weaknesses: low troop morale and a lower police rating which prevents nerve stapling. The Gaians may not use a Free Market system in social engineering. Their founding base is Gaia's Landing.

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University of Planet

A faction that values knowledge and scientific advancement, although not necessarily ethically obtained. Led by Academician Prokhor Zakharov of Russia. The University makes planetfall with Information Networks, as well as another randomly selected technology. The brilliant researchers of the University allow them to discover new technologies 20% faster than normal, but the openness of their academic networks leaves them prone to infiltration from other factions. Every University base comes equipped with a Network Node, which boosts research by another 50%. Due to the University's lack of ethics, one in every four citizens is a drone. The University may not use a Fundamentalist government in social engineering. Their founding base is University Base.

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Peacekeeping Forces

This faction works hard to keep the peace through diplomacy and to maintain the United Nations charter. Led by Commissioner Pravin Lal of India, the Peacekeepers make planetfall with the technology Biogenetics. The United Nations style bureaucracy of the Peacekeepers causes them to lose efficiency. The Peacekeepers do attract intellectual elites, causing every fourth citizen to be a talent. The Peacekeeper colonies may grow two sizes beyond normal population restrictions. In votes for Planetary Governor and Supreme Leader, the Peacekeepers' votes are double its population. The Peacekeepers may not use a police state government in social engineering. Their founding base is United Nations Headquarters.

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Human Hive

A totalitarian faction based on Communist/Collectivist principles. They are controlled by Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang of China. The Hive makes planetfall with the technology Doctrine: Loyalty. The Hive has its growth rate boosted by 10% and its brutal serfdom decreases the mineral cost of units and facilities by 10%, however the lack of political freedom causes each colony to generate one less unit of energy per turn. In the original version of the game, the Hives' belief in the greater good greatly raised the morale of Yang's army. In the expansion pack, the Hive loses its morale bonus but is given an immunity to inefficiency, which greatly bolsters the Police State government used by Yang, as it removes all negative side effects. The Hive may not use a Democratic government. During development, this faction was named "The Labyrinth" and had a stronger science inclination, before being changed to "The Hive" in the final release. Their founding base, fittingly, is The Hive.

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Lord's Believers

A fundamentalist faction wary of secular technology. Led by Sister Miriam Godwinson of the United States. The Believers make planetfall with the technology Social Psych. The Believers' convictions give them a 25% attack bonus as well as increasing the morale of their Probe Teams and increasing the cost of their enemies' probe attacks. Their eagerness to defend their faith allows each colony to support up to four units without a cost of minerals. Because the Believers feel that Chiron is their promised land, ecological tensions are increased and production of resources in fungal squares is decreased. The Believers are also skeptical of secular technology, thus their research rate is decreased by 20% and they may not accumulate any research points in the first ten years on Chiron. The Believers may not use Knowledge as a social engineering choice. While the game was being coded, this faction was named "The Conclave" before being changed to "The Believers" in the final release. Their founding base is New Jerusalem.

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Morgan Industries

A neo-liberal free-market capitalistic faction, and led by self-made mogul Nwabudike Morgan of Namibia. The Morgans make planetfall with the technology Industrial Base and an additional 100 energy credits. Because they are an industrial conglomerate, they receive an energy bonus in social engineering - an extra unit of energy in each colony, and one energy per square and even larger bonuses if this is combined with social engineering values such as Free Market or Wealth. However, because of the expensive tastes of its followers and the demand for creature comforts, Morganite units have high mineral maintenance costs and colonies cannot exceed population size four until the Hab Complex Facility is built (the default is seven). The Morganites receive extra energy from commerce due to their marketing expertise. They may not choose a Planned economy in social engineering. Their founding base is Morgan Industries.

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Victory conditions

There are several victory methods available in Alpha Centauri.

Cooperative 
A Cooperative victory allows multiple allied factions to win the game if one of the factions achieves one of the following methods.
Military 
A military victory occurs when all factions are annihilated or have surrendered to one player. If cooperative victory is enabled then there may be up to three pact brothers and sisters who can share the victory (excluding those who have surrendered).
Economic 
When a player has enough energy reserves (roughly equal to what it would take to mind-control all the remaining cities on planet), he or she can win the game through economic victory by cornering the global energy market. This takes 20 turns to achieve, and can be prevented if during this time the faction's headquarters falls to an enemy.
Diplomatic 
A player achieves diplomatic victory by uniting the Planetary Council behind him or her. To do this, the player must get a certain percentage of the votes, by population, at Planetary Council. The percentage varies based on difficulty level, up to 75% at the highest difficulty (transcendent). If the vote succeeds but remaining factions oppose the decision, they must be eliminated by force to achieve a military victory.
Transcendence 
The transcendence victory is achieved by building the Ascent to Transcendence secret project, which becomes available after the Voice of Planet secret project has been built (by any faction). This concept of a post human era is very closely related to the idea of the technological singularity. After this project is built the human inhabitants of Chiron leave their material bodies to merge with the emerged planet intelligence.
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Inspirations

They are countless but to name just a few, Chiron (the name of the planet) is the name of the only non-barbaric centaur in Greek mythology and an important loregiver and teacher for humanity. The native life and singular planet mind of the game draws heavily from Frank Herbert's novel The Jesus Incident. Vernon Vinge's Singularity is the origin of the Transcendence concept.

The arrival on Chiron is referred to as "Planetfall", which is a term used in many science fiction novels, including Robert A. Heinlein's Future History series and Infocom's celebrated comic interactive fiction adventure Planetfall.

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Influence

While not being a direct sequel of Civilization II, Alpha Centauri was considered a continuation or a successor of that much acclaimed game, because it had the same general principles as Civilization II did, and had been made by many of the same people. It was also thematically linked, as the earlier game had ended with mankind leaving Earth to travel to Alpha Centauri, the moment at which Alpha Centauri begins. Alpha Centauri was built on the Civilization II engine modified for voxel graphics. Firaxis made Alpha Centauri after Civilization II as a spiritual sequel to the series. At the time, the Civilization franchise was in dispute since Sid Meier and Brian Reynolds had left Microprose to found Firaxis. Unable to make Civilization III, they made Alpha Centauri, instead, beginning the game where the storyline had left off in Civilization.

The magazine PC Gamer US awarded Alpha Centauri a score of 98%, which was the highest score ever given by that magazine—Civilization II being the previous holder of this record with 97%. In 2004, PC Gamer gave Half-Life 2 a score of 98%, making it tied with Alpha Centauri. The magazine also gave Alpha Centauri Editor's choice and Turn-based strategy game of the year awards in 1999.

Alpha Centauri has also won several Game of the Year awards, including those from The Denver Post and Toronto Sun. It won Turn-based Strategy Game of the year award from GameSpot as well. The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences named Alpha Centauri best strategy game of the year. In 2000 Alpha Centauri won the Origins Award for Best Strategy Computer Game of 1999.

In the community of Civilization players, many quotations from Alpha Centauri, which are shown at different points in the gameplay, are also quite popular.

The game has also sparked a trilogy of novels (see below) and a strategy guide by Chris Hartpence ("Velociryx"), which was later printed and published. Steve Jackson Games also published GURPS Alpha Centauri, an expansion for the GURPS role-playing game set in the Alpha Centauri universe.

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Technology

Unlike comparable games at the time of publishing, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri employs (orthographic) 3-D rendering for both the terrain and units. This is made possible by the "Caviar" voxel library by AnimaTek International (now Digital Element), which renders the voxel models and terrain geometry using self-modifying assembler routines.

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Alpha Centauri A system

Although the details of the Alpha Centauri A system do not play much of a direct role in the game (apart from α Cen B's "perihelion" affecting the energy harvest 20 years out of each 80), they are nevertheless documented in the game files. There we learn not only of Chiron's two moons (Pholus and Nessus), but also of the mercurian planet Eurytion.

Stellar data
  Sun α Cen A (Ratio)
Mass (kg) 1.99Template:E 2.15Template:E (1.08)
Luminosity (W) 3.89Template:E 5.63Template:E (1.45)
Radius (m) 6.96Template:E 7.59Template:E (1.09)
Planetary data
  Earth Chiron (Ratio) Eurytion (Ratio)
Mass (kg) 5.98Template:E 1.10Template:E (1.84) 5.16Template:E (0.09)
Equatorial radius (m) 6.38Template:E 7.54Template:E (1.18) 2.82Template:E (0.44)
Semi-major axis (m) 1.50Template:E 1.60Template:E (1.07) 7.06Template:E (0.47)
Obliquity (°) 23.45 2.00 (0.09) 0.00 (0.00)
Surface area (m²) 5.10Template:E 7.18Template:E (1.41) 9.98Template:E (0.20)
Gravity (m/s²) 9.81 12.85 (1.31) 4.33 (0.44)
Escape velocity (m/s) 11,184 13,947 (1.25) 4942 (0.44)
Density (kg/m³) 5,519 6,150 (1.11) 5,503 (1.00)
Apparent angular radius of sun (°) 0.27 0.27 (1.02) 0.62 (2.31)
Period (d) 365.3 388.6 (1.06) 113.8 (0.31)
Year (local solar days) 365.3 532.0 (1.46) Synchronous (∞)
Solar day (h) 24.00 17.53 (0.73)
Maximum altitude (m) 10,626 8,112 (0.76) (unspecified)
Horizon distance (m) 5,051 5,493 (1.09) 3357 (0.66)
Ocean tide (m) sun: 0.12 0.12 (0.94) n/a
moon 1: 0.27 0.18 (0.67)
moon 2: n/a 0.11 (n/a)
total: 0.39 0.41 (1.05)
Temperature (base+greenhouse) 253+36 K (15.4 °C) 261+32 K (19.7 °C) 438 K (165.3 °C)
Solar constant (W/m²) 1,383 1,750 (1.27) 8,999 (6.51)
Atmosphere
Surface density (kg/m³) 1.22 2.06 (1.68) none (0.00)
"Flammability" (mmol K/J) 7.17 2.87 (0.40)
Atmospheric pressure (Pa)
Total 101,325 176,020 (1.74) none (0.00)
Nitrogen 79,125 (78.09%) 160,000 (2.02) (90.90%)
Oxygen 21,228 (20.95%) 15,000 (0.71) (8.52%)
Argon 942 (0.93%) 1,000 (1.06) (0.57%)
Carbon dioxide 30 (0.03%) 20 (0.67) (0.01%)
Lunar data
  The Moon Pholus (Ratio) Nessus (Ratio)
Mass (kg) 7.35Template:E 5.20Template:E (0.01) 6.50Template:E (0.09)
Radius (m) 1.74Template:E 3.50Template:E (0.20) 8.00Template:E (0.46)
Semi-major axis (m) 3.84Template:E 1.00Template:E (0.26) 2.00Template:E (0.52)
Surface area (m²) 3.80Template:E 1.54Template:E (0.04) 8.04Template:E (0.21)
Gravity (m/s²) 1.62 0.28 (0.17) 0.68 (0.42)
Density (kg/m³) 3,342 2,895 (0.87) 3,031 (0.91)
Synodic month (d) 29.5 2.7 (0.09) 7.7 (0.26)
Synodic month (local solar days) 29.5 3.7 (0.13) 10.6 (0.36)
Synodic months per year 12.4 143.76 (11.60) 50.2 (4.05)
Apparent angular radius (°) 0.26 0.20 (0.77) 0.23 (0.88)
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Fiction

The original story of the journey and splintering of the colonization space ship from Earth to Alpha Centauri was detailed in multiple installments that were released periodically by Michael Ely of Firaxis on the web, immediately prior to the release of the game, as part of a marketing mechanism. During the course of the installments, the names of regular forum members on the official Firaxis forums were incorporated into the story in cameos. The resulting short story Journey to Centauri can be downloaded from the official website [1]. A second short story, Arrival, introducing the Alien Crossfire factions, is also downloadable from that site.

For further reading, game story developer Michael Ely has also written a trilogy of novels based on the game.

There is also a graphic novel Alpha Centauri: Power of the Mindworms written by Steve Darnell and illustrated by Rafael Kayanan.

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See also

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External links

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