[Lemmy]

Alpha Centauri - This is another good game. My favorite thing is to go as the Giains and then just use mind boils to kick the living daylights of all the other factions. At the end of the game when the fungus is blowing up in ten places every turn, destroying all my improvements, I'm even better off then before! Still need to use settler type units for terrain though. It maddens me no end.

What would I use instead of settlers? Good question, glad you asked. I like what Call To Power did. Every turn a certain percentage of total empire production went into a 'Public Works' account. You then spent from that account to built roads and change terrain. You can change the amount you send into the account from 0-100% but the more you send to public works, the less you have to build buildings and units with. Interesting idea, I hope to see more of it in the future.

Yep, of all the civ-games, SMAC and CTP had the best features/ideas, maybe Civ3 with culture, but the bad implementation nullifies that .

Best things from SMAC:
Unit Workshop
Social Engineering
Diplomatic Model
Background stories, the interludes, the tech voiceovers, the faction profiles, it makes the entire game feel alive.
CTP2:
Public Works (micromanagement begone!), may seem as a small thing, but it makes playing a huge map a hell of a lot more bearable, no more hundreds of workers to move as with Civ3