Definitely a shame. I was very excited when I saw that SMAC would come to GOG. Would definitely shell out 10$ to have a nice Win-7 compatible installer of SMAC+X. I even dared to hope that perhaps it would be multilingual (I have a German copy lying around and liked the translation).

But now that it's just the base game, without add on or other incentives... I'll pass, sorry. I'll be back when Alien Crossfire is added.

I was thrilled when I heard GOG had acquired EA's back catalog because I knew it meant Alpha Centauri was finally on the way. It's one of a handful of games that really exemplifies the purpose of this site in my opinion.

That said, until the expansion is added, I won't be buying it. It is important to the whole experience of the game and I know two people personally for whom this also the case.

Yeah, It's sad, but I'll be among the first to buy it the moment it is added.

IIRC the unofficial SMAC/X patch enabled the DirectDraw=0 "fix" for widescreen resolutions even in classic SMAC:

http://www.civgaming.net/forums/showthread.php?p=162396

This would be an instant-buy for me too, if the expansion were included.

Hey, the pirates and the drones are lots of fun to play.

It looks to me that the build of this is based on SMACX: I just had a quick boot-up and, when I entered into a Peace Treaty, the information popup came up and offered, "Peace treaties with Progenitor factions have no economic bonuses" (or something like that, anyway).

The Progenitor factions are only available in SMACX, so I'm not sure what's going on, there. I admit, it's been a while since I played it last, but I don't remember that being in the original release.

I noticed that the Readme in the install directory also has patch notes for SMAX.

I suspect that the lack of bonus content at the moment is probably due to GoG expecting to upgrade this with SMACX in the (hopefully) near future.

I can't imagine them releasing the expansion as a separate purchase. It's been a long, long time since i've played it but im pretty sure the expansion is unusable without the original game. GoG have never done that with a game so far.

Probably just tied up in EA politics at the moment. It would be great if a GoG staff member would comment on this and let us know that they're at least trying to get the expansion and not just leaving it as it is.

The "official" answer is here

Looks like they want to get them to us, but they and EA have some talking to do. I think they wanted to get these gems out ASAP, instead of waiting to get all the expansions too and delay the release.

My 2 cents.

Thanks for finding that, hope there's some good news coming - I really liked some of the new factions.

Please, add an expansion and I will buy it.

Got AC from GoG.com, and been playing it alot. While the obvious features of the expansion aren't in (no civ-editor, no alien race, no alien crafts in pods etc) It does seem to be build upon the Crossfire expansion due to small alterations in the game (as spotted above, peace-treaty mentioning the Progenitors) also some techs seem to hint at crossfire.

I'm no expert on SMAC, but the word is from experienced player's that the expansion is crap anyway.

Here's a quote:

"SMAX was something that should've never come out, considering that it wasn't even Firaxis - it was EA milking the game because none of the core people (and especially Reynolds) worked on it. So no wonder it only ruined SMAC."

from this thread:

[url=]http://www.rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=56203&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0[/url]

ah, rpg codex :) The forum full of angry and sad nerds :)

I wouldn't listen to anyone from RPG codex, since every game that they don't like "should have never come out" (e.g. Fallout 3).

GoG fulfilled my expectations when they acquired the Age of Wonders series and now Alpha Centauri :)

I really want the expansion pack. Nothing was better than starting a random game and seeing who lands on the planet with you. If both alien races landed, then my glorious University of Planet would have time to tech away and fight the late game. If only one landed, well crap, this could be bad. I would hope they landed on the other side of the planet, preferably next to the damn Believers :)

Please bring in Alien Crossfire.