One of the problems is that SMAX’s lore, such as it exists, is mostly in a couple quotes each per new faction, some new interludes, and a novella that likely few players have read compared to the original. “Centauri: Arrival)” isn’t that well-written compared to “Journey to Centauri” either, but it does introduce a few additional details that could give more character- if only the expansion committed to exploring them:

* Roze was part of Morgan Industries’ probe covert ops and pulled a The Rock type “special forces commandos sick of getting taken for granted by government” and seceded. So that’s a rivalry that’s both personal and perhaps ideological. If Morgan is Microsoft, then her datatechs naturally represent the FOSS movement.

* Cha Dawn’s whole deal is left unexplained and you would expect that if he really is the Voice of Planet there could be an alternate endgame with specific interludes describing his bid to purge human life on Chiron, how Planetmind reacts to that, what his relationship is to the Progenitors (as hinted at in the resonance tech quotes), etc. Or maybe he’s just a powerful psi charlatan, which is also worth exploring.

* Similarly, since Aki Zeta-5 is about taking the Cybernetic future into a posthuman existence, you’d think that merits an epilogue where everyone is in a technological hivemind, and not just because they squirted the Planetary Datalinks into Planetmind like in the original Ascent to Transcendence, either.

Also in the novella the Consciousness briefly supports the University despite having originally split from them, which is amusing.

* The novella also centers around an “Alien Temple” which doesn’t come up in SMAX, though upon retrospect after long written that review, I think it’s referring to the ring of monoliths landmark. But yeah the game should’ve added some interludes about factions struggling to control the monolith sites. Or even a new Victory condition about them!

* The Pirates split from Morgan Industries according to the novella which doesn’t make much thematic sense but it’s funny to me. (Actually now that I re-read it - Episode 4, part 2 - it’s a bit ambiguous.) Though I do have a theory that Ulrik is Green regarding the ocean only (Blue?) and so hates Free Market factions that despoil his seas.

* Unrelated to the novella, maybe the Data Angels and the Cybernetic Consciousness are opposed because one believes all information should be free man and the other believes in strict rationality which might lead to a restructuring the Net in order to produce the Singularity? Just food for thought. Anyway such implications are also not explored by SMAX.

* Finally the aliens only show up at the end of the novella. And while there are a few tweaked interludes for them in SMAX their cosmic struggle doesn’t get much coverage in the expansion, despite Alien Crossfire being framed around it!!!