Detailed Preview of Masters of Orion 3

garibald writes "Constantine, the head developer, promised that there would be a detailed preview of the game this week, and here it is at Apolyton. Constantine also said the game was in it's final regression testing. Here's hoping that the game will be out by the end of this month." Oh, Lordie, if I counted the hours I spent playing MOO and MOO2 - I'm really looking forward to this one.

Comments

Re:What kind of convoluted logic course did he tak

[Anonymous Coward]

By the way, still playing computer geek games past the age of 12? GROW THE FUCK UP!

Let's all guess who just turned 14 and thinks he's the hot shit now...

Not really a review.

[jericho4.0]

This 'review' is just a cut'n'paste from the manual section describing the species, plus screenshots of the species description screens. Oh, and he throws in a screenshot of the logo selection screen. Some info about, ya know, gameplay and such would have been nice.

Favorite MOO2 Memory

[LordZardoz]

A friend of mine gave me access to his copy of the game when I was attending school. I ended up choosing a Lithovore race (can live in toxic environments by eating rocks). I was doing ok, but an aggressor species kept attacking me and demanding tribute. I had a few plantets, but had lost most of them quite quickly.

But lucky for me, I had some excellent research abilities. I managed to discover Planetary Converter lasers (one shot kills a planet) and Doom Stars. But I was so heavily out numbered, that I kept losing most direct confrontations. But I had enough to hold back the attackers from wiping me out.

At this point in the game, I had maybe 5 planets, and my opponent had everything else (about 100 planets). I was despearate, so I started sending my ships to planet colonies of the attacking race, and vaporising every planet in the system, and moving on.

Initially, he continued to demand my surrender and 75% tribute. After toasting about 20 systems, He demanded 50%. Another 20 systems turned to asteroid fields, and he was willing to settle for 25%. A few systems later, he was saying that I was no longer worth his time to squash, so lets call the whole war off. After destroying his home system, he began offering me tribute.

I ended up destorying every star system in the entire galaxy and all life (except my own). It was the only time I can recall winning a game by committing wholesale galactic genocide.

I look forward to buying MOO3.

END COMMUNICATION

Re:Favorite MOO2 Memory

[DarklordJonnyDigital]

My favourite tactic in MOO2 was not to destroy anything, but to ally with everyone and become their best friends. Seems kinda pathetic, I know, but read on.

Eventually, my people would be in perfect harmony with the Psilons - the most technologically advanced race in the game who not only get more technologies than anyone else in every field of research, they also gain them all faster. In MOO2, technology is a huge power, one that can make or break the game, and if all goes well I'm perfectly allied with these guys. What few enemies I have won't stand a chance.

Now, here's a the excellent part. When you're in perfect friendship with the Psilons and 'demand' one of their technologies, they'll give it. No questions asked - you're their ally, and they really do love you that much. "Hey blueface, how about some of those planet destroying beams of yours?" "No problem, human ally!"

And it's not just technologies. They'll give you entire star systems as well. ENTIRE STAR SYSTEMS. Systems with Gaia planets, systems with Ultra-Rich planets, systems of strategic importance, systems they just spent their hard-earned cash colonising - systems with expensive superpowerful ships at them. Systems choc-full of superbrainy Psilon scientists.

Of course, there's one thing they won't give you, and that's their homeworld. Of course, by the time you demand their homeworld, you've got every other star system of theirs, ninety percent of their fleet and all of their technology.

Luckily, my pacifist race (the Web Designers) is Telepathic, so I once I use ninety percent of their own fleet against the remaining ten percent, I simply Mind Control their home planet into loving my race and serving my faithfully..

Assuming it supports LAN play, I look forward to buying MOO3 for my brother's birthday.

END COMMUNICATION

It's all fun and games...

[imag0]

Remember kids, it's all fun and games until someone commits wholesale galactic genocide.

Great Series, don't let the screenies fool you

[Alcimedes]

The MOO series is probably one of the best strategy series of all time.

it is constantly recommened by long time gamers who have experienced the joy that was MOO1 and MOO2. to put it in perspective, it is the sole reason i keep a DOS machine around, just to play this one stupid game. :)

Some other player's opinions can be found all over the 'net, and they love the MOO series.

and it's not just the fans, game sites constantly wax nostalgic about the MOO series as seen here

the third title, which is close to Gold at this point looks to be another great game in a great series, although it's not going to have the best graphics ever, it will likely have excellent game play, if it's anything like its predecessors.

don't let the anemic review above be your sole example of MOO3, there are lots of better ones around (although i don't have links on-hand)

Re:Er..what kind of game is it? (Part 1)

[tigress]

The observant reader might notice the subtle hints, like "PART 1: LET'S MEET THE PLAYERS" and suspect that (surprise) there might be OTHER parts in the article, perhaps posted LATER. And that those OTHER parts of the article might contain more information about OTHER parts of the game. =)

Re:favorite part

[meringuoid]

Ok, I guess I reply instead. Turn based combat worked just fine in MOO and MOO 2!

No, it didn't. Two fleets of identical ships face off, and they are built so that it takes a full volley of fire from two ships to destroy one. Suppose there are 100 ships in each fleet. What is the deciding factor in the outcome of the battle?

Answer: who shoots first, wins.

Fleet 1 fires, destroying as many ships as possible and leaving the others undamaged. Fifty of Fleet 2's ships go down in flames. Now it's Fleet 2's turn - but because half of them are dead, they only take down 25 of Fleet 1. Fleet 1 returns fire again and demolishes 37 of Fleet 2's ships, seriously damaging one other. The thirteen remaining ships (if they are at all sensible) turn and run.

And the player _always_ got first shot. I ended up piling on as many weapons as possible to my ships at the total expense of armour and shielding. If the enemy fired a shot at me, I was going down, but I knew full well that they weren't going to get the chance.

It got worse at the end of the game; the defence technology didn't keep pace with the weapons. Shield-piercing autofire (3 shots instead of 1 at a 20% accuracy penalty) heavy phasors coupled to a good computer (making up for that penalty) and an Achilles targeting system (which totally bypasses the target's armour and massively increases damage) were so good they were almost like cheating. Phasors miniaturised well, so you could pack a whole lot onto a ship. It got to the point where one ship could take down several enemy ships in its turn. With a kill rate of 1 a turn or greater, Fleet 2 aren't going to fire a shot; they're just going to be mown down.

One cute thing to do is to conquer all the galaxy except one enemy world - then give them 10% tribute. With such enormous cash supplies they build fleets of hundreds of ships, which you can then use as target drones. See how many you can take down with a single ship...