History VideoGame / SidMeiersAlphaCentauri

* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: Flavor text for the secret project "Longevity Vaccine" has Morgan saying: "I plan to live forever, of course, but barring that I'd settle for a couple thousand years. Even five hundred would be pretty nice." Funny how five hundred years is also the allotted length for a normal game.

* {{Feelies}}: The Virtual World Secret Project.

VideoGame/{{Civilization}}, [[RecycledINSPACE IN SPACE]]!

* BornUnderTheSail: The Nautilus Pirates are more or less a faction of old-school Earth {{Pirate}}s but RecycledInSpace. They start the game with a number of sea-related bonuses, including the technology to build aquatic bases. Their agenda is even listed as "Pillage and burn".

* RecycledInSpace: ''[[VideoGame/{{Civilization}} Civilization II]]'' IN SPACE! Most of the game mechanics are either exactly the same or very similar.

** Morgan Industries: Using any economic system except Free Market. Justification: "You are stifling the market with your socialist policies!"[[note]]He gets angrier about this ''vis à vis'' Planned than Green, though, as Green merely subjects the market to limitations while Planned bans it entirely. Morgan-Gaian alliances are actually not terribly uncommon, as they're both peaceful factions that agree on practically everything but economics.[[/note]]

* FantasticCasteSystem: Alpha Centauri has access to advanced psychological science and genetic engineering, but the availability of these benefits is uneven, resulting in a three-tiered system based on intelligence: the tiers are Talents (elite, highly-educated transhumans with full access to the benefits of their faction's technology), Citizens (average joes with limited access to psychiatric education) and Drones (inferior humans, treated as slaves and kept under control by BreadAndCircuses, armed police or [[PunishmentBox nerve stapling]]). The Free Drones attempt to avoid this form of social stratification, but it's still in effect nonetheless.

* MoralEventHorizon: InUniverse example when using a Planetbuster, which completely annihilates the target but causes ''everyone'' to turn against you, even if you repealed the UN Charter against atrocities (It only covers minor atrocities, such as using chemical weapons and nerve stapling.) or use them against aliens. Including Planet. People will get nervous if you so much as ''build'' one, and when another faction lets you know they have, you know they're about to try to extort you for something. Nerve Stapling will result in a ''very'' negative reaction as well.

[[ADateWithRosiePalms Likes to press the on/off switch]]\\

[[ADateWithRosiePalms Likes to press the on/off switch]]\\

Deirdre's got a Network Node\\
Likes to press the [=on/off=] switch\\
Dig that crazy Gaian witch"\\
-- ''Spartan barracks march, "Yes sir!"''

* VideoGameCaringPotential: Build an enlightened democracy. Adopt a Eudaimonic society with peace and justice for all. Take good care of your citizens, and cultivate your Talent pool. Be good to Planet, with Centauri Preserves and all the environmentalist Secret Projects. The people will reward you with Golden Ages and the increased cash flow and productivity that comes with it; Planet will reward you with an army of mind worms.

* GloriousMotherRussia: Zakharov's University is not very overt about it, but there's a clear Russian overtone present, albeit with a strong emphasis on the technocratic aspects of the Soviet Union and Russia's scientific tradition.

** The Spartans, by contrast, latch onto the chronic instability of much of Latin America at the turn of the century. Also a country where discipline, loyalty and self-determination are fiercely promoted, where EveryoneIsArmed, and suspicion of foreign powers leads to a huge "defence" budget - i.e, it's conservative USA.