Progenitor (SMAC)

The Progenitors are a highly advanced race of starfaring creatures added in the Alien Crossfire expansion pack, whose technological sophistication is evident in the and s they left behind on Planet. Research into these structures, or direct contact with the Progenitors should they return, can yield new technologies, weapons, and base facilities. 
In recent millenia, the Progenitors have split into two warring camps: the and the . These factions conflict over the uses of the s, which include Planet. The Caretakers wish to leave the Manifolds in their original, pristine state, while the Usurpers wish to initiate and control . If either faction is successful in their quest, it most likely means an end to humanity's presence on Planet.
The Progenitors have evolved complex biological systems that can sense fields imperceptible to humans, including at least electrical and magnetic fields. The collective term for this sensitivity is resonance, and permeates all Progenitor communication, art, and culture. The sensitivity also confers valuable combat bonuses to Progenitor forces. With a great deal of training and mechanical aid, humans can learn to sense and utilize this resonance as well.
Eons ago, the ancient Progenitors constructed six Planetary Manifolds, which they intended as massive experiments into sentience on a gigantic scale. One of the Manifolds, in the Tau Ceti system, achieved an early sentience, gaining the ability to project undreamt-of power across the galaxy. The "Flowering", as this event was called, engulfed numerous star systems and plunged Progenitor culture into a dark age from which it has not fully recovered. In the ensuing millenia of chaos and fragmentation, the locations of the Six Manifolds were lost.
Progenitor factions do not engage in with humans. However, their experience with recycling does provide them with an Energy Grid at each base. Each Progenitor base facility is connected to this grid; every two base facilities generate one energy added to the base total, rounded up. Every two generate five energy added to the base total.
 causes widespread disaffection among Progenitor citizens, resulting in the shutdown of the Grid for a limited time.
==Progenitor Victory==
The two Progenitor factions can achieve victory by calling in reinforcements from their respective homeworlds. To broadcast the hidden location of the to their leaders offworld, either Progenitor faction can construct a Resonance Communicator. The Communicator consists of six s, which must be built in bases of size ten or greater. 
Players who build the Resonance Communicator are awarded 2000 points minus 2 for every game turn elapsed. No cooperative victory is possible for this victory condition; if either Progenitor faction succeeds in the completion of such a Communicator, it heralds the end of human habitation on Planet.
Category:Game concepts (SMAC)
Category:Alien Crossfire