Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri/Social Engineering

Social Engineering is equivalent to what the Civilization games refer to as form of government. However, Alpha Centauri's system is the most flexible of any Civ game (until Civilization IV): you can not only choose the form of government, but fine-tune its economy, values, and how it embraces advanced technology.

In Civ games, it is usually the rule that you must switch out of your starting form of government as soon as you can get any other form. This is not always true in this game. It is surely important to adjust your Social Engineering choices, but the time must be ripe. Would you want to switch to a Police State if you're already inefficient? No! You should only use Police State if your empire is reasonably efficient and will remain so.

Diplomacy

Your Social Engineering choices affect the AI factions' attitudes toward you. Each faction has a "preferred" choice and an "aversion" choice. For example, Morgan will begin to like you if your economy is a Free Market (his preferred choice), and will hate you for running Planned (his aversion). Likewise, Deirdre will hate you for running Free Market, and love you if you're Green. Factions will dislike you slightly if you use any other choice in the category of their preferred choice. To use the previous examples, Morgan will be wary of you if you are using Green economics, and Deirdre if you are running Planned. Listed under each socio/economic model are the factions whose attitudes are affected if you are using that model.

A faction may not select its aversion as a current engineering choice, regardless of whether it is AI-controlled or human-controlled.

Politics

Frontier

No advantages or disadvantages. While it is balanced, it lacks focus. Yang will want to switch to Police State as soon as possible because it will grant him great advantages with the only penalty being the upheaval cost, due to his immunity to inefficiency.

Police State

+2 Support, +2 Police, -2 Efficiency (except Yang)

This is Yang's best option because he incurs no penalty from it, and he starts with the option to boot. Everybody else is likely to suffer great inefficiency, so for them, Police State must either be balanced with other Social Engineering choices with positive Efficiency modifiers (e.g., Green) or with being a faction with bonus efficiency (e.g., Deirdre).

Seemingly a less preferable choice, it reveals its merits on higher levels when you need everything to cope with the chronic rioting of your bases. The support rating in addition with the police rating leads to a free recreation common in every base (and you keep in most cases the bonus minerals) and you can build recreation commons on the top. Balancing it with green to cope with inefficency slows down your vertical growth, which has it advantages concerning the amount of drones resulting of growth.

This is the Hive's preferred choice, and the Peacekeepers' aversion.

Democratic

+2 Efficiency, +2 Growth, -2 Support

Not a good idea for militaristic players early on, but great for pacifists. The extra efficiency will strengthen the economy, while the growth will help the faction expand, both horizontally and vertically. Watch out when sprawling those bases, though - you lose the 10 free minerals for new bases under a Democracy.

One popular strategy is to have a Democracy and a Planned economy together for +4 growth. Any base that has a Children's Creche will have +6 Growth, causing it to grow every turn as long as there are sufficient nutrients (similar to the Cloning Vats).

Later on in the game, the support penalty becomes much less severe due to Clean Reactors.

This is the preferred choice of the Peacekeepers' and the Data Angels, and is the aversion of the Hive and the Usurpers.

Fundamentalist

+2 Probe, +1 Morale, -2 Research

When a faction switches to Fundamentalist, they mean business! This choice was designed for one thing: kicking butt. Your research will be crippled, so forget about it unless you can balance it (with Knowledge or your faction's traits), or you wish to start the war to end all wars.

If playing as Miriam and using a Fundamentalist government, your research will be so badly crippled, it's not even worth putting energy towards it. Simply use your probe teams to steal any technology your opponents have that you don't in order to maintain parity, and use your superior troops to obtain a conquest victory.

This is the preferred choice of the Lord's Believers, and the aversion of both the University of Planet and the Cybernetic Consciousness.

Economics

Simple

No advantages or disadvantages. While it is balanced, it lacks focus. Yang will want to switch to Planned as soon as possible because it will grant him advantages with the only penalty being the upheaval cost, due to his immunity to inefficiency.

Free Market

+2 Economy, -3 Planet, -5 Police

This is only good for one thing: bringing in lots of money. Forget about balancing out the -5 Police; reversing or minimizing the -3 Planet is doable. The penalty isn't too bad if you know what you're doing. It is if you don't. If you are playing as a faction with an economy bonus, free market is a waste, as +3 economy gives +1 commerce, +1 energy per square, as opposed to +2 economies +1 energy per square. +1 commerce is almost never worth -5 police -3 planet. Wealth is a far superior way to achieve +1 energy per square if +1 economy is inherent to your faction. However, running Free Market may be necessary until you achieve wealth.

Advanced players may want to switch to Free Market as early as possible by researching Industrial Economics at the first opportunity. The base tile of each base is free from early game restrictions, and not much energy is being produced elsewhere because the focus is on creating Colony Pods, therefore the energy output of each base can often be doubled, or nearly so. This strategy is not universally accepted, however. Especially on transcendent level the lack of police can initially cripple your empire, hence you need the 2-citizen-workforce ... because on transcendent level, every citizen except the first is a drone. Which is fun.

The Spartans are uniquely capable of lowering the drone penalty for free market before the advent of Thought Control. This is done by use of Police State/Aesthetic Virtues. This yields a -1 police rating, allowing one police unit but no nerve stapling.

This is the preferred choice of the Morganites, and is the Gaians' aversion.

Planned

+2 Growth, +1 Industry, -2 Efficiency (except Yang)

Again, Yang will usually want this because he suffers no disadvantages. Otherwise, the efficiency hit can be crippling. The combination of Police State with Planned is signing your faction's death certificate — unless you're Yang, in which case it's your most optimal combination! Otherwise, it is often good for a Democratic faction (in order to give a further boost to Growth), especially because the efficiency of Democratic will balance perfectly against the inefficiency of Planned.

This is the preferred choice of both the Caretakers and the Usurpers, and is the Morganites' aversion.

Green

+2 Efficiency, +2 Planet, -2 Growth

Best if you wish to fight with Mind Worms — both in the sense of fighting against them and fighting using them. Initially, the +2 Efficiency seems to not be worth the -2 Growth, but the Growth penalty is easily negated by building a Children's Creche, which gives the base in which it's built +2 Growth. Also, keep in mind that once you have many many bases, +2 efficiency will benefit your economy as much as FM's +2 economy without all the drawbacks.

This is the preferred choice of the Gaians and the Planet Cult, and the aversion of the Free Drones.

Values

Survival

No advantages or disadvantages. All other Values will hurt you militarily in some way or other, but Power will more than counterbalance that. The others will not; therefore, choosing a Value can be the most determining factor in whether or not you will play a military-focused middlegame.

Power

+2 Support, +2 Morale, -2 Industry

Another choice that warmongers will want, although the -2 Industry can also hurt their cause. There is no reason to choose Power unless you wish to use your military might extensively. The Cloning Vats removes the penalty to Industry, making this choice much more feasible.

This is the Spartans' and the Pirates' preferred choice, and the aversion of the Data Angels.

Knowledge

+2 Research, +1 Efficiency, -2 Probe

This choice is good either for boosting your Research through the roof or making Fundamentalist more practical. While The Hunter-Seeker Algorithm does not improve your Probe teams, it does make you immune to being Probed, so the defensive half of the penalty is removed.

This is the University of Planet's preferred choice, and the Lord's Believers' aversion.

Wealth

+1 Economy, +1 Industry, -2 Morale

As the name implies, this is for the money-grubber. Especially useful for Morgan, as he can run Wealth instead of Free Market and get the much-desired +1 energy per square.

Alternately, Morgan can use both Free Market and Wealth for a +4 Economy rating. This yields +1 energy per square, +2 energy per base square and +2 on the commerce multiplier. The arrangement is powerful for transcend/economic victory strategies. It impairs conquest and defense by keeping the police penalty of Free Market and adding a morale penalty to Morgan's already harsh support value. This means the smaller forces he does possess will be weakened, especially against a mass attrition attack.

An advanced tip is to focus this strategy when on an archipelago map and less so on continental ones. On an island map, Morgan can use his superior energy reserves and industry to rush very expensive naval units that the more warlike factions cannot build in numbers. Thus he can repel landings and build in peace. On a continental map, a Wealth/Free Market Morgan is free game for swarms of dirt cheap landunits that will mill down his smaller concentrations of weakened units.

This is the Spartans' aversion.

Future Society

None

No advantages or disadvantages. As with Values, all other options will hurt you militarily, but Thought Control will counterbalance it by far if you have enough positive modifiers to Support elsewhere. Future Society is geared towards helping you bring the game toward the end, and selecting one will likely be the final Social Engineering choice you make.

Cybernetic

+2 Efficiency, +2 Planet, +2 Research, -3 Police

Mind Worm lovers will love this.

This is the preferred choice of the Cybernetic Consciousness (who else?). Additionally, the Consciousness is immune to the Police penalty, as is any faction that has built The Network Backbone.

Eudaimonic

+2 Economy, +2 Growth, +2 Industry, -2 Morale

A boost to infrastructure, for those who like to make use of newly-conquered empires near the endgame.

This is the Free Drones' preferred choice.

Thought Control

+2 Morale, +2 Probe, +2 Police, -3 Support

An all-military option, despite the -3 Support. The Cloning Vats removes the -3 Support penalty.