The correct answer is none of them because they're all insane in their own unique ways.
>Gaia
It's 'okay' if you're a hippie who just wants to farm or live in tune with nature, but for everyone else they operate on the basis of brownouts and rationing of all luxury goods. Ain't no fucking vidya under a green economy.
>Hive
1984, only North Koreans and CCP elites have fun here.
>University
r/atheism: the Faction
>UN
Everything wrong with the neoliberal west is exemplified by this faction with no upside.
>Spartans
Only people that peaked during basic or prison will have fun here
>Believers
I hope you really like hearing 'Jesus loves you' as if it is a profound and novel statement, because that's all this faction amounts to. Miriam is based, though.
>Morgan
Everything wrong with modern corporatism is exemplified by this faction with no upside. In 1999 this was a parody of Microsoft, in 2024 this is the norm.

>>1750661
I'd be more worried about the psychic worms and the planet being alive.

>>1750663
That affects everyone, though. Except for Cult of Planet, but they're Jonestown.

>>1750657
Expansion counts too?
>>1750661
>Miriam is based, though.
She's technically only, because everyone else is too unhinged. Like she's the only one who asks "We can, but maybe we shouldn't," but she herself is kinda blind to the fact the planet wants to kill everyone and probably they're the last of the human race. Hence why some bit of radicalism is required.

>>1750661
>>Believers
>I hope you really like hearing 'Jesus loves you' as if it is a profound and novel statement, because that's all this faction amounts to. Miriam is based, though.
Bruh, in one quote Miriam basically tells you that you are God experiencing the universe. Miriam is far more advanced than many real world theologians. It's her followers that are all Deus Vult fanatics.

>>1750661
Also Dierdre is clearly the most insane as she regularly sics mind worms on civilians "and that's a good thing".

>>1750657
Spartans or UN. I'm not going to explain, the benefits are obvious.

>>1750657
Believers sounds like the only reasonable one. Even if you were the most atheistic man alive you'd still get to be in a relatively nice place. Like being an atheist in Utah or something like that. Maybe the Mormons there are a little forward about their religion but the place is clean and safe and orderly and the people are pleasant overall.

>>1750991
lmao

>>1750976
The thing about Miriam is that she's wise and thoughtful in her quotes, but the actual Miriam you interact with is a warmongering bitch. All the other leaders, even Yang, are peaceful and try to make trades and agreements when you meet them. Miriam from the start is rude, demands teach with no compensation and declares war if you turn her down a couple times

>>1750976
As I said, Miriam is based but the average Believer is just your standard evangelicalist, whose understanding of theology is so shallow they may as well not believe in anything at all.

>>1751213
Yang and Miriam share the same aggression.

>>1751228
Miriam's problem is nobody follows her ideology, while Yang's ideology is police state that has plenty of sympathizers (in-game).

>>1750657
I'd pick the Spartans if it was led by a man.
A weak woman giving orders to men that could easily rape her...it's just downright heretical.

>>1751730
I haven't been in Europe for over 1600 years tho

>>1750661
UN it is

>>1750657
the one with wypipo

im black btw

>>1750661
>>University
>r/atheism: the Faction
Oh no! That's just as bad as the North Koreans and Hyper-capitalists. Retard. They're obviously the most based and best faction to live in, but only if you're intelligent enough to be of use, which obviously you wouldn't be.

>>1751730
not to defend albanians, but non anglo europeans are basically gods compared to (you)

>>1751823
Wrong. University is atheism flavored Believers, only instead of being cautious with technology they think that restricting scientific progress on ethical grounds is unconscionable. You vill sign up for the experimental cancer treatment, you vill have no legal right to sue for damages when it fucks up your liver, you vill agree with whatever the scientific expert council says at all times.

>>1751939
>they think that restricting scientific progress on ethical grounds is unconscionabl
HOLY giga based. And they're absolutely right. Scientific progress itself is a great moral good, as such nothing in the name of scientific progress can ever be "unethical", unless it threatens future progress. Very true and I agree fully. You just said yourself you need to "sign up", but you can simply experiment on prisoners or dissidents instead. You don't experiment on the random population since it'd be very hard to retrieve data that way and it would be disruptive to society, and as such, future progress.

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>>1751959
Enjoy all the consequences then!

>>1751968
Comfort, pleasure, discovery, happiness and a longer or immortal life? I will, thanks!

>>1751987
But that's not what you get. The University is the one faction that the game itself shits on constantly. Zakharov is shown to be a fool whose inventions result in:
>an AI controlled city that murders people for vandalism
>a wormhole that steals souls
>"immortality" that leaves you as just a brain in a vat
>a brain in the vat experiment that is too successful, and the one brain that knows he is such is terminated
And then he gets fucked in the ass by the Gaians, who send mindworms to eat his brain while she and her hippies become Gods.

>>1751959
>>1751987

>t r/atheism

>>1750661
>>1750682
>Its 2024
>Miriam still filters retards who can't grasp that she's a parody of populists who make themselves look good by shitting on everyone else while being even more unhinged in the background

>>1751990
Where do you get this from? Some retarded novels or something? Hardly "the game". What some idiotic writer forced into the story doesn't matter, what matters is the actual realistic ideas and how they would work in real life. In real life there are no soul sucking machines nor brain forms, hippies overdose at the age of 20 and scientific inventions vastly improve everyone's life.

>>1752280
Pretty sure those are literal secret project texts.

>>1752299
I've read most of them and I don't remember anything about Zakharov having RFK brain worms, just that he hates them. And anything can transcend, not just the Gaian hippie subhumans, Zakharov even narrates the The Voice of Planet cutscene

>>1750661
Let me fix that for ya

>Gaia
>It's 'okay' if you're a hippie who likes worship Planet and like psychic worms up your ass with no recourse.
>Hope you like recycling your own family for the Greater Good.


>Hive
>1984 final destination, you VILL EAT ZE BUGS, YOU VILL WORK TIL DEATH, chink edition.

>University
>Hope you like science because you and your family have been designated as guinea pigs in the upcoming bioweapon tests for safety purposes.
>It's science I ain't gotta explain shit!


>>UN
>Everything wrong with the neoliberal west, no frontiers, unlimited immigration works; Hope you have a loicence for that m8!
>"I love democracy!" - Lal after his 10 consecutive mandate.

>Spartans
>No retreat no surrender, 100% conscription rate! Also best mil tech evah, super soldier drugs for everyone and their kids to.The DoD would be proud if they could even mimic Santiago.
>"I'm doing my part! " ~ "Service Guarantees Citizenship"

>>Believers
>I hope you really like hearing 'Jesus loves you' but remember He hates bugs. Deus Vult!
>Please report to the conclave to the lecture and mass hypnosis (+2 support)
>Cleanse! Purge! KILL!


>Morgan
>Everything wrong with modern corporatism is exemplified by this faction with no upside. In 1999 this was a parody of Microsoft, in 2024 this is the norm.
>Money can't buy any love, but it can buy your ass!
>Human experimentation just like University; But at least you get paid.
>Mercs are expensive and so is the housing market!

>>1750657
>woman
>mutt
>tranny
>arab
>troon
>irish angela merkel
>nigger
Pure wokeslop. Do boomers really...

>>1752448
Zaky is Russian and the captain of Unity was a white western male.

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>>1750661
>Did I meme this right, guys?

>>1752448
>>mutt
he's a chink?

>read https://paeantosmac.wordpress.com/first-time-here/
>realize what a genius Reynolds was and want to pick up SMAC again
>spend a few hours fumbling around and get filtered by the interface again
C'est la vie.

>>1750657
Clearly the UN so I can become the globohomo corpostate i despise

>>1750661
>le capitalism is le bad
morgan has the best vidya by far

>>1750657
> Ain't no fucking vidya under a green economy.
1: Oh no. /sarcasm. 2: Why?

>>1750657
Hive.

>inb4: Why?
Because then I wouldn't be asked these stupid fucking questions.

>>1755434
Story of my life. Tried to get into it multiple times but the UI always filters me

University.rjnv8

>>1758621
>>1755434
Best argument against all those "new bad, old good" faggots. God, that quality of life is unthinkable to play without now.

>>1758621
game is playable with PRAX mod once you realize its civ2 with different skin, obviously you need to know how civ2 worked then UI kinda makes sense

>>1750657
>No meta knowledge
Peacekeepers
>Meta
Gaians, with Peacekeepers still a 2nd option

Anyone claiming otherwise is retarded and too brain-damaged by twitter-tier politics to think straight

>>1758621
>>1759912
>Game has fast, effective shortcuts to every possible option
>Clean, transparent menus with distinctive options and links
>Zoomers filtered, because it's not like an app on a phone
Another reason to mock you dumb faggots for being too stupid to use tools at hand and then bitching how "antiquated" they are.
I bet you wear velcro shoes, because "tying shoes is for boomers".

>>1750661
>University
>r/atheism: the Faction
I always saw it as being more like being trapped in acadamia forever. Only Post-Graduate bums and tenured research professors would like it.

>Morgan
>In 1999 this was a parody of Microsoft
Was it? I always thought of it as the cliche of the "mega corporation", and not really targeting any business in particular.

>>1763259
>I always thought of it as the cliche of the "mega corporation", and not really targeting any business in particular.
Of course we'll bundle our MorganNet software with the new network nodes! Our customers expect no less of us. We have never sought to become a monopoly. Our products are simply so good that no one feels the need to compete with us. --Where do you want your Node today?

>>1751959
>HOLY giga based. And they're absolutely right. Scientific progress itself is a great moral good, as such nothing in the name of scientific progress can ever be "unethical", unless it threatens future progress. Very true and I agree fully. You just said yourself you need to "sign up", but you can simply experiment on prisoners or dissidents instead. You don't experiment on the random population since it'd be very hard to retrieve data that way and it would be disruptive to society, and as such, future progress.
Science exists to serve man, not the other way around. There is no inherent moral good in scientific progress itself.
>BUH BUH MODERN MEDICINE
The only reason you consider this a moral good is because it saves lives. It's the saving lives part that is good, not the discovery. Besides that modern medicine is unironically a meme. Look at the modern day hunter gatherers(no access to modern medicine yet fit af and pristine teeth) and then compare them to average americans(fat grotesque goblins).
It's literally just a tool. It's like saying "using a hammer is a moral good, so it's ackshually morally righteous if I bash somebody's brain in with a hammer"

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>>1750657
None of the above, matey

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>>1755434
>>1758621

Get the Thinker mod and PracX patch:

https://github.com/induktio/thinker?tab=readme-ov-file
https://github.com/DrazharLn/pracx?tab=readme-ov-file

These go a long way towards making the UI more user friendly. You can see all current/potential tile yields, get info on tiles just by mousing over, scroll-wheel zoom, widescreen monitor support, plus a bunch of fixes for stuff that's been broken for a while.

My only real gripe is that no one has ever modded in a tech tree into the UI, but I get that that might be too big an ask for a game this old. Just use this image for quick reference.

>>1763259
>>In 1999 this was a parody of Microsoft
>Was it?
The fucking state of zoomers

>>1763453
>"using a hammer is a moral good, so it's ackshually morally righteous if I bash somebody's brain in with a hammer"
There are two major world religions that operate on this logic, you know

>>1763908
Ok, after several multi hour sessions and restarting each time, asking GPT every time I was confused about something, I feel comfortable with the UI and early game now.

For me it basically came down to:

-only building clean units and figuring out the workshop
-turning on the current tile yield view in pracx settings and grid base view in regular game settings so I knew where to center my bases
-increasing priority on putting base on energy tiles for initial research, lower priority on nutrients
-getting a feel for general build order to queue up, especially the base:former ratio
-increasing priority on having multiple early scouts always moving and picking up as many free things as possible, especially 1 ship out early if you can cause 5 tile move range is op
-prepping roads from each base up to your neighbor and stacking 3-4 infantry right next to the border before declaring a war for a quick blitz and reinforcement
-prioritizing former tech, then building unlock techs, then weapon/armor techs
-getting comfortable with terraforming hotkeys, and spacebar/H to heal military units.

>>1761852
>shortcuts good!
>barriers of entry are good!
Trying to mock anyone just makes you look like a lunatic, sitting in a swamp, declaring how you are the Queen of France.

I don't doubt for a second that even Beyond Earth has more concurrent players than Alpha Centauri.

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>>1765545

>SMAC's UI is so bad players have to research pre-sentient algorithms just to figure it out

>>1750657
>Gaia
appreciate the fresh air. -1 Police means no nerve stapling, meaning they won't go dystopian on you because you because your right taillight just broke. Also pet mindworms and strict garbage disposal rules aside, it seems to be an overall pleasant faction.

>Peacekeepers
humanitarian focus tries to bring in the best out of humanity. I assume the reason for inefficiency is, since everyone is doing their favourite job, there won't be enough garbage collectors and street sweepers, but I'm OK with this. It has the best doctors, the best car mechanics, the best pizza bakers.

>Free Drones
a society that guarantees you minimum rights is definitely worth a try. Also if you need a new house, you just call up the lads and lasses and you have one within 2 weeks, and don't need to pay mortgage for 25 years instead. Probably the faction with the best beer o'clock.

>Data Angels
Again -1 Police is worth a try. But then again, due to the factions nature, every interfactional incident would make your faction the prime suspect, which sucks. Conventions must be a blast. But then again, back in the 90ies they didn't know how things would evolve so knowing what we know now, this would be the faction with the most programmer socking wearing femboys and discord server mod community trannies. Let's hope the harsh realty of interfactional prevents their citizens to devolve from this. Also Sinder Roze creeps me out. It's not without reason Garland called her the second most dangerous person on the ship (after Yang), and she may or may not be responsible for the genesis of 3 out of 4 human leaders in the expansion.

>>1750657
Peacekeepers because they would probably regulate the shit out of all the fucked up sci fi horror tech from later in the game. The chances of their weak ass getting conquered at the beginning of planetfall is kinda high though.

If the peacekeepers are conquered then I’d rather live with the Gaians or Believers. Better to pray to regular Jesus or worm Jesus than live in the other fucked up societies.

>>1750661
>>Hive
>1984, only North Koreans and CCP elites have fun here.
the lore makes it clear that Yang himself lives by the harsh rules he imposes on others.
In a way this is the kung-fu monks faction and Yang is the strict teacher.

>>UN
>Everything wrong with the neoliberal west is exemplified by this faction with no upside.
Neolibs hide their disdain for the non-Western world and their greed and thirst for resources and money behind the paperthin mask of freedom, democracy and human rights. Absolutely no one outside the US believed Bush when he claimed this was the reason he was bombing Iraq. This is why the US made sure, these kind of people are no longer in charge at least in Europe, so awkward insubordinations like the case of Germany (liberty cabbage) and France (freedom fries) don't ever happen again.
Lal's peacekeeper think themselves as the only ones who stick to the original mission, which is why they also claim the UN tag for themselves.

>>Believers
>I hope you really like hearing 'Jesus loves you' as if it is a profound and novel statement, because that's all this faction amounts to. Miriam is based, though.
For some very weird reason, Miriam never name-dropped Jesus even once in her quote. To me it seems like she's some sort of Christian, if not entirely Abrahamist revisionist who sees herself as a prophet, if not THE prophet. She even has a book called "The Last Testament" which she quote once and which some interpret as the part of the plot where she and her followers die

>>University
>r/atheism: the Faction
More like
>I don't care what government and economic model you run. Keep the grants coming and I stay out of politics. Some research may go into nowhere and strain the faction's budget, sure; but then again *bam* Superstring Theory, now our "security" has chaos guns.

>>1751228
Yang is a turtler though.
There is a chance you may forget that you are at war with this dude.
Miriam on the other hand has the attack bonus and religious hackers and is an all around pain in the early game and God forbid, you are Zak and end up as her neighbour. Thank God she has -1 ecology, so even if RNGesus blessed her with a Manifold Nexus, she would not be able to tame worms and run away with it.

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>>1752360
>>Hope you like recycling your own family for the Greater Good.
Every faction has these tanks. Every faction does that.

>>1755434
Reynolds is wasting his talents on Zynga.
But then again, I won't diss him for going after easy, grind free money.

>>1755434
Hey it wasn’t just Reynolds. Michael Ely wrote quite a lot of SMAC too. He even did the novelizations.

I just tried using Miriam with Blind Research in Thinker Mod. I'd like to see someone else try, because I'm really getting my ass kicked. I can't beeline for probe so my early game is toast. Even after i do, in this mod everyone do use their probes so it's hard to sneak probe a city.

>>1765555
>Shortcut
>Barrier of entry
This is your brain on 85 IQ

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>>1765545
>after several multi hour sessions and restarting each time, asking GPT every time
This game comes with a manual explaining everything and a fucking shortcut list if reading more than a single page is too much for you, you absolute troglodyte

>>1766028
Reynolds is not working for Zynga for well over a decade. On top of that, he literally retired in 2015.

>>1765545
... is this game your first pre-2010 4X?
Sincerely asking

Also
>-turning on the current tile yield view in pracx settings and grid base view in regular game settings so I knew where to center my bases
What for? You can see how much nutrient and minerals the field is generating just by looking at it, and the only tricky part is the exact value of energy you're getting out of it. This is something you should be able to figure out on single eye-ball after about 2-3 hours of playing, even if this was your first time
>-getting a feel for general build order to queue up, especially the base:former ratio
>-prioritizing former tech
Rookie mistakes. Formers are worthless early on, and a great way to get fucked HARD, because you stall both your research and also don't really profit that much from having them in the first place. To get a single former paid off in early game, you would need to spend (in the most optimal scenario) 50-60 turns. Build two and you are now well over 100 turns to pay them off if this was early game. Only then it would turn profit. By 60 turns, you should be at either crawlers or unlock tech.
The only exception are Gaians, as they start with the related tech and are also the unofficial noob faction, since they are significantly easier to play for people totally new to the game
> especially 1 ship out early
Depends entirely on the map. Unity Foils are terrible naval units, you are better off with an extra rover for the sheer utility it gives
>-getting comfortable
As opposed to... what, exactly? Not knowing how the game controls work?

>>1765555
>Press single key to get what you want done
>This is somehow bad
Nani?

>>1752360
>>"I love democracy!" - Lal after his 10 consecutive mandate.
more like every single leader from every Civilization that picked Republic or Democracy since Civ 1.

>>1750661
People who view Alpha Centauri cynically fundamentally cannot understand it.
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/alphacentauri_en/images/6/6a/Fac25.mp3/revision/latest?cb=20211006190204

>>1765545
What the other anon said - formers are a noob trap. You are operating under caps, there is no fucking way to make formers profitable, especially when you have to research them first.
>b-but those special fields
Aren't worth it early on. Let's do a recap:
Rocky mine = Road+mine on rocky mineral = actually lost profit and effort until you remove caps. You would get more out of it by squeezing 2 solar panels on a fucking sea level than by chasing those minerals and the time it takes to get them
Borehole = you need Weather Paradigm first, which means it's not even in the equation
Nutrient tile = good as it is, squeezing more is only worth if you have rainy/rolling
Mineral tile = good as it is, tricky if its rocky
Energy tile = set up the fucking base there, you idiot
And if you are upgrading any other tiles early on, you are retarded. That even includes solars, since you will get more out of it by building a base than by working solars.
Early focus should be entirely on shitting out new bases, as they pay-off MUCH faster than formers, and the energy they provide can be used to get shit done faster, as opposed to trying to figure out how to increase your energy by +2 in fucking 10 turns.

There is, however, the reason to research the tech that gives you formers. It's Weather Paradigm, THE strongest and most important project in the game and one that won't get you nuked (as opposed to Cloning Vats and Cloudbase Academy which are both worth nuking