Slashdot Mirror
The Long-Awaited MOO!
Number13 writes "Quicksilver's Master of Orion 3,
declared vaporware by Wired magazine, has gone gold! Set to hit the streets on Feb. 25, MOO3 is the the successor to what many consider the best space strategy game series."
Then you must have never played Trade Wars 2002.
That is the biggest question. I mean, as long as people have waited for it, will it be all that? So far I don't think any game that has been awaited THIS LONG has ever really lived up to it all.
RonB
It is human nature to take shortcuts in thinking.
With a little luck maybe it's finished too! ;-)
So close and yet so far from the world's perfect ID number
The article said "best space strategy game SERIES". Methinks your little Trade Wars is a but a speck compared to the glory that was MOO and MOO II. Bring it on, we can't wait any longer...
This game has been in development a _long_ time.
"A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
I didn't have time to read the article, but I saw moo and vapor, so this must be about global warming right? Man, it's NOT from the cows, it's from the factories!
It was fun for a few days, but that game was waaaay too easy to beat.
After you've beaten the Red Dragon and been reset five or six times, it really loses it's charm.
--
the strongest word is still the word "free"
My fingers are crossed that it is not the type of sequel that MythIII was. They've had a lot of time...hopefully they played the first two to get an idea of what worked...
After seeing the advertisements on the back of other game guides, and inserts to game boxes, I finally gave MOO a try. I got to admit, I hope this game does well because it is definately worth the hours and hours of time I have subsequently invested in this game.
Enlightenemnt dr 17......
It's not set to hit the streets for a month - it could still get canned, delayed, misplaced, pulled because of some software patent owned by Microsoft, or any other number of things.
And probably I've missed the chance for FP because I hit the preview button....
Now all we need is Duke Nukem Forever and some flying cars.
Check out *nix.org , a dynamic, informative, and fun portal for fans of BSD, Linux, OS X, & Solaris!
Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate. Ex-O'Reilly/MIT employee, now a full-time Google employee.
MOOOO! MOOOOOOOO! MOO1 and MOO2 killed so much time for me. I just hope that this one is finished, unlike MOO2 which went through various iterations before achieving acceptable stability.
At last, I hope it was worth the wait. I will definitely be getting this. I was completely addicted to MOO II for the longest time.
-You may license this sig for only $6.99.
Then sleep time would be moo time!
...then it'll be on the Internet, what, second week of February? Place your bets here.
"Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
Is this a new meaning to the term 'gone gold'?
Now, how many of the site's vistors are going to understand what the >= sign means on the front page?
REAL TECHIES INVOLVED!
I have higher hopes for the game already!
That said, I can hardly wait to get my hands on it!
The Raven
Don't have a cow, man!
sulli
RTFJ.
Will it play on the GNU? If not then what good, by buying you promote the Windows and crush all legitamate business. I am one of the original Netscape programmers, so this post should go on the front page!
Hopefully it'll run under wine. Hmm. Decisions decisions... start a heroin habit or buy MOO3. My office will see about as much of me either way...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Man, it really has been a long time. They should have researched Automated Factories or something.
Um... MOO stands for MUD Object Oriented. MOO 2/II is the nicknames of both CoolMUD and HybridSphere. Never heard of this Master of Orion thing... I run a MOO for kids or teens, though anyone is welcome these days... You can check it out at http://kids.moo.mud.org/
Luke-Jr
I hope this game's released before my Colony Ship is finished.
"Derp de derp."
The article didn't mention a Mac version... I wonder if there's one in the works, or if I'll just have to sit this one out?
On other news:
3DRealms has announced that in order to meet the expectations of fans for Duke Nukem Forever, and to give them a better idea of WHEN it will be ready, it will stick to its promise to deliver a flying car with every box of the game.
"Actually, the game has been almost ready for some time..." said an anonymous insider source, "we've just been trying to bring down the costs of this flying car thing for the last couple of years."
Freedom is the freedom to say 2+2=4, everything else follows...
That alien has the closest resemblance of Mr. T I have ever seen, human or not...
"Ford," he said, "you're turning into a penguin. Stop it."
Holy cow!
(Sorry, sorry, I just had to milk this topic for a pun!)
Good judgment comes from experience.
Experience comes from bad judgment.
Thanks Slashdot for killing the site :) But you can still get to the communities to hear from the dev's themselves...
Anyways, I saw an incredulous comment above that the system requirements are Pentium II @ 300 MHz... the game has been in development for so long, that the game engine is not based on modern 3D-accellerated engines. Instead, the engine is voxel-based, which has angered some in the past because the game's "smoothness" is software speed based, not add-on hardware or slickness of video card.
The game supports 8 human players, with up to a total of 16 (assuming the other 8 are computer AIs). Human players can drop connections and re-connect without reloading from a saved state (like Moo2 makes you do). Battles between players are executed in real-time, and multiple battles between two exclusive sets of players will happen simultaneously. Between turns, when battles are resolved, non-battling players are forced to wait.
Does anyone else who can barely get to MOO's Page after a good slashdotting, think its ... a joke? ...
Funny!
does it have 16 highly distinctive alien races, or 8? Inquiring minds want to know...
Sorry, maybe it's just me.. but I find it hard to get excited about any newly relesed PC game. It's pretty much a guaruntee that it will have at least one major bug, and many minor ones. I'll get excited when the first patch is released.
Especially with a game that has been in development a long time. That generally means they want to get it out as soon as every major feature is in, and don't have too much time for bug testing and the smaller things.
It's a pity.
"Isn't Windows that MS OS? And isn't MS the company that does really bad and illegal stuff, undermining yours and my rights, bribing it's way around every law that apears in sight?"
Well it is ironic that the point of the game is to be like Microsoft.
I think there should be a central anachronim repository so that there aren't so many conflicts. MOO, RPG, etc.
That's all I really want to know.
I refuse to be forced to install Windows just to play a single game.
That's not true - It's available for Mac as well! That covers all relevant Operating Systems - what else do you want?
-- The plural of 'anecdote' is not 'data'.
... another 2 years worth of weekends in front of my computer. *sigh*
Some sort of Reach for the Stars descendant? What's cool about it?
Knock Knock? .....
Who's there?
Interupting Cow.
Interupt
MOOOOOOOO
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
It's about time this damn thing was released. Have you seen the screenshots for it? Man, they look so dated it's unbelievable.
:-\
Though this might be a good sign, as they all say "Crappy graphics make a great game."
Or something along those lines. But either way, I'll give this a try. The only decision I have to make now is which P2P network I want to download it from.
because if I found you after the first before 150 turns and saw you had creative I knew you were toast.
Unification, Tolerant, +1 Production eats any creative race's lunch.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
damn my typing sucks :)
Basically, creative only works versus Computer opponents. Versus a human opponent you are toast if you wasted the 6 or 8 points on creative (depends on patch).
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
...YEEESSS!!!!!!! :)))
Master of Orion 3 is being developed by veteran developer of classic strategy games Quicksilver Software, Inc and features a wide range of multi-player and solitaire play options, 16 highly-distinctive alien races, crisp graphics and an intuitive user interface. Master of Orion 3 is available for Windows 98/ME/2000/XP PCs.
Oh... 16 races... and the paragraphy immediately below this one:
From Quicksilver Software, Inc., the developer of such classic strategy games as STAR TREK: STARFLEET COMMAND, CONQUEST OF THE NEW WORLD and CASTLES, MASTER OF ORION 3 features a wide range of multi-player and solitaire play options, 8 highly distinctive alien races, and a level of graphics and interface design that will raise the stakes for the entire genre.
Hmm...
sig.
Um, no. Windows is that OS that works. The one that all the software runs on. The one that 90% /. itself admits to be running at home.
...my preciousssss.......!
If it's released in late February, I'm betting the NASDAQ will be down in March.
Sell shares! Buy MOO3!
-SurturZ
Good! Maybe those of us who've been following the game's development can finally find out what exactly the Harvesters are. The Harvesters have been kept under complete wraps throughout the development process, and no one outside Quicksilver and Infogrames knows anything about what they are. All we know is that they like cold planets, that they have "the Need" as one of their traits, that they can't join the Orion Senate, that they don't strongly cling to belief systems, that they can't have a representative government, and that they communicate "wetly" according to a cryptic reply by the art designer on the message boards.
I'm going to be hitting the message boards for the next few weeks occasionally to see if they finally give in and let people know what they are.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
Um, no. Gold means (and has always meant) they're finished development for the initial release, and it's ready for mass duplication, packaging, and distribution.
"Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
duh, this is slashdot there needs to be at least one typo in each psot. :)
sig.
Man, I love strategy games. I wish there were more turn-based strategy games on PC and consoles.
Advance Wars on the Gameboy Advance absolutely kicks ass. Other than that the genre has been pretty dead for the past few years. I've always liked turn based strategy.
I played Warcraft II and Command & Conquer pretty heavy when they first came out. But after them the genre stagnated and I haven't played any since.
I'm looking forward to this.
obviously no deficiencies vs. no obvious deficiencies
There are some reviews on amazon that may be of interest(one who claims to be a beta tester) and many useless reviews.
Remember that? I'm not the only one who forked over $14 to Tim Wisseman for that game just to play on a BBS. It was one of the best I've ever played, addictive as all heck.
Just about every turn-based, galactic conquest game has been a pale shadow of that one. I had a brief email discussion with the author when he decided to do the Windows version (I was among those who wanted a new DOS version or a port to *Nix) and found him to be a really cool guy.
VGA Planets Home
Maybe I should dig out that floppy disk and load up freedos.
- technik
I played the original Master of Orion for hours, every race had their own flavor. I loved the little midi like music for each race as well. Hmm, I wonder if I can find it on MP3.
--------
Free your mind.
No kidding. Psilons made great pets when you could get technology through invasion or capturing and scrapping ships. Or espionage. I liked the Bulrathi beat down bonus, but the superspy security bonus was handy too.
I might not end up with the ultimate in every technology, but when you want the sweet antarian tech, badass fighting bonuses didn't suck.
It's BOTH! Spork! Foon!
Moderation totals: -1 Trite, -1 Useless
"Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
Preview can be found here:e ws/0,10 869,2902095,00.html
http://gamespot.com/gamespot/stories/previ
Enjoy
a war on terrorism? How can we end a war on a method?
http://www.tradewars.biz/aspectus.htm
Theonlyuse of monkeys is to testthings onthem.Some peoplemay say"Hey That'scruel!"and myresponse is"I don't like monkeys
are you sure that they mean "gold" as in "the code is done"?... that alien's jewelry puts Mr. T to shame.
If this comment was closer to the top you'd be +5 insightful by now.
Which of course would be +5 funny.
--Jimmy has fancy plans; and pants to match.
GW was my favorite BBS door. My friends and I used to play that for hours, building our own long cooridor sections of space filled with mines to protect our starbases... For some reason we never could get into Trade Wars.
Sure Psilons were a good race if left alone in a big galaxy, but if you're closed in, they're easy to take out and contain until they get their second planet.
You can play psilons off one planet if they're not bothered, I had an insta win once, because I was Psilon WAY out of range of any other planet so I went into a research frenzy.
I normally like the Klackon, or I want a REALLY fast game, the Sartha(fast population, lots of invading)
God spoke to me
... though in theory it's on the way, MacSoft are the folks who won't be bringing OSXers the Neverwinter Nights Campaign editor..
Still, I'm not too psyched for MOO3.. I'd much rather have something that crosses MOO and Homeworld, and can be skinned with models from Babylon 5..
Aren't I living in the real world? Doesn't it suck that reality doesn't conform to my juvenile wishes? Go ahead and deny yourself the pleasure of a fine game series but kindly let everyone else make that decision on their own, thank you.
"All animals are created equal, but some animals are more equal than others." - George Orwell
For those of you who have Macs (and consider Masters of Orion only the second best space game), the classic Spaceward Ho! version 5.0 shipped recently. Think of it as the core essential fun gameplay elements of MOO without all the extra complicated junk. Main attractions of the new version are TCP/IP Internet play, and it's now MacOS X native. This is my second-favorite computer game of all time.
Awwww, but I really want to. Please can I?
Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people's medicine for fuel.
MOO3 would have been released sooner, but Quicksilver came under attack by the Klackons!!!!!
happy? Hows that for a series.. hmph!
I could guess that the reason for requring MacOS 8.6 is that's the oldest version that will support CarbonLib.
Now if they made THAT game playable over the net.. woah... /DaBj
"GNU's not Unix....it's Linux" / Kami "kokamomi" Petersen
I'm so excited about this game coming out my nipples are hard!!!
Sure MOO and MOO2 are fun games and hopefully this one will even better, but I always prefered Master of Magic to Master of Orion(1 or 2). It's going on about 9 years now that I've been waiting for a sequel to MOM. Hopefully now that Quicksilver has finished MOO3 they can start on one of the most requested sequels ever. If you think I'm exagerating just search Google for "Master of Magic 2" and you'll get a whole slew of petitions and editorials saying we need this game. If nothing else I'd like just a port to a modern OS with perhaps some graphical updates and possibly some multiplayer support.
I played Moo and Moo II but Galciv (originally for OS/2) was where it's at and guess what? It's coming out for Windows machines at the end of February this year after a long set of beta testing. And it has HUGE HUGE HUGE galaxies and feels a lot more like a super Civ in space...
www.galciv.com
I guess that in the Linux version, any technology you did research would be Open Source and automatically shared with all other players...
This does not bode well for my upcoming Master's thesis defense...
While I've never played any other MOO game, I doubt that it has anything to do with Dragonball Z. So why does the Yahoo article say this?
"I guess that in the Linux version, any technology you did research would be Open Source and automatically shared with all other players..."
But to use it, you have to hire programmers to come in and make it usable.
was set conservatively to Feb 25 in early Jan while they were still doing the final regression testing. Since they've finished it plenty early, it's not at all unlikely that we might see it on store shelves in about a week or so, although Feb 25 is being kept as the official CYA release date.
And I was agast to find this pimpin' gangsta alien with the big ass chains. I couldn't help to think to myself "sO-k'mu talata!" (translated to english as "whaddup mah niggaz!?")
Why bother.
Yes, but when does the Mac version come out?
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
Ditto here. For some reason, I never quite 'clicked' with MOO, but MOM I played until dawn. But of course I will try out MOO3 when it comes out. Who knows. (I wander if I can find my old MOM floppys, and if it runs under WXP)
J.
I worked so hard to get a life, only to hear that it will be shortly taken away.
"And this is my boy, Sherman. Speak, Sherman." "Hello." "Good boy."
What about Lambda?
And if not, why should Slashdot readers give a flying fuck about this game?
This is true.
I assume you are referring to prewarp or average tech starts. In the advanced game scenario, Creative is pretty much essential, even though it costs 8 points. If you don't have it, chances are, you will have a large research/production disadvantage, because the game selects a random set of earlier technologies for you.
Unification, Tolerant, +1 Production eats any creative race's lunch.
... and Unification, Telepathic, Omniscient, Rich Artifact Homeworld eats the Unification Tolerant for lunch and only gets stronger. An early (i.e. turn 60-70) cruiser with MIRV nukes will take out almost anything you can throw against it.
Unification Tolerant and other high-production races perform quite stunningly against the computer, but they are weak enough in research that there is a vulnerable period between the time they start colonizing en masse and the time the consequent high population allows them to erase the technology gap. Similarly, races such as Democracy, Lithovore, Artifact Homeworld can stay on their homeworld for about 100 turns before building a Guardian-killing fleet when playing against the computer, but they can expect interference if there are other human players.
For prewarp and average starts in multiplayer situations, balanced races such as Subterranean, Lithovore, Large Artifact homeworld, and the canonical Telepathic blitz races work much better.
"Your notation sucks!" -- Serge Lang (1927-2005)
Ladies and gentlemen, the world of commercial PC-based games trembles. Head for the exits - women and geeks last.
Pax Imperia was the best game in this genre. Don't get me wrong, I like MoO as well, but Pax is the crown jewel. Too bad the company is out of business.
why your comment was modded AT ALL, nevermind funny.
HEATHENS! Everyone who is anyone knows the best space strategy game is Space/Star *insert random name here*. I cannot think how you forgot that one.
This sig was cut off by the sla
I have NEVER heard of MUD's until reading about them on slashdot a few weeks back.
He probably isn't exagerating about the 1000 to 1 or so ratio either.
I know places like Electronics Boutique won't screw their customers, and will return PC software if it's been less than 24 hours (as you state). Bad software is bad software, they'll tell you as much (go into one and ask about LOTR: Fellowship for GBA; they should tell you how it locks up!).
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
10th of March, 2003. Go ask at your local video game store about a preorder. Ask them when it's coming out!
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
My free time... slipping..... away.........
They push release further and further back, it's still vaporware and suddenly it has gone gold ???
I always liked the Darlocks from the original MOO.
You didn't have to develop a stinkin' thing of your own; all you had to do was steal from everyone else and frame other races for the theft
(insert software company comparison here)
You could keep the other races fighting against one another while you built huge fleets full of incredible dreadnoughts. Let the plunder begin!
Ah... I miss that game.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
1. It crashes. Oh my god it crashes. Be prepared for having to restart the game a few times a night.
2. The strategy isn't bad. Colonization of planets and resource management is definitely an improvement over the original, and they also improved ease of use.
3. The graphics are very attractive, and the high res graphics really do the game justice. Except that it crashes.
If they can work out the stability problems with a few patches, this will be a masterpiece.
They should all follow the same code of ethics. Any place where they're serious about selling, they should be talking to people and helping them. Unhappy customers aren't customers anymore.
Granted, he was just following the letter of the return policy, but the spirit of it is a little different. I learned that doing sales for a while. Maybe this guy just hadn't learned yet. Getting extra angry at them won't help, it only makes them defensive. You should just ask to speak to a manager, the know how to handle such situations.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
The mac version is being released at the same time. The news story just forgot to mention it. See here.
Their website is hard to navigate, not real user friendly. Maybe that is because they don't really want you to find their screenshots: http://www.orionsector.com/pages/art/art-screens.s html
Maybe its just me, but these graphics look very very outdated. And the gui and controls match that.
There is even a link to buy the Mac version in German on the MOO3 page - just that it links to MOO2 - D'oh. The fact that the processor requirement Amazon Germany gives for this is at least a 486 also makes me wonder ;-)
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
The best game I played of the original Master of Orion I played as the Darloks. Their spies were phenominal. Everyone started off hating me until I got spies. My spies did all kinds of nasty sabotoge and tech stealing, and because I was so good at it I could blame other races. By midgame, all the other players hated each other and loved me (I believe harmony was the highest race relations stat) because they all saw each other doing all this nasty sabotoge. It was hilarious. It was much better than creative because I destroyed all trust between everyone and at the same time got ALL the tech.
MOO2 disappointed me with their spies. I hope MOO3 fixes that mistake.
I don't see it being nearly as popular because I think most gamers gravitate toward fast pace genres (FPS and RTS). I remember having to wait almost 45 mintes between turns when playing a LAN game w/ a roommate of mine because he was convinced his micromanegement would prove valuable. It never did.
At least MOO3 should be better than CIV3. I'm sorry, but ANY game that allows SPEARMEN TO KILL PANZERS only because the spearmen are defending is pathetic.
Hello? How about, oh, 800x600 32-bit 2D with lots of animations all with many frames. That'd put a bit of a strain on a 486. + Music + AI/game code.
You are ignoring a large part, maybe the largest part, of Id's business. Selling game engines to companies making next year's games. When Id releases a game it is in part an advertisement for their engine, a proof-of-concept, a working example, etc. By the time someone licenses the engine and releases their own game the once rediculously high requirements are mainstream.
The problem with games that take long to release is usually that by the time they make it to market, technology has evolved quite a bit (especially graphics). At the same time, the hype has also increased and this creates a level of over expectation - also note that people who wait anxiously for it are comparing it to the current standards in graphics and gameplay. This usually isn't the case when games take forever to ship. Therefore, the over expectation leads to disappointment.
Find a job you like and you will never work a day in your life.
MOO2 is still a great time waster. Every few months I need to pull it out and pay it for a few hours.
I deleted my sig years ago.
I bought MOO and it seemed like a poor man's Pax Imperia.
Heck, Spaceward Ho! was a lot more entertaining.
Graphics may have evolved a bit, but BFD. It's a turn based strategy game, not an FPS, so I imagine most of their target market doesn't give a shit.
Gameplay, OTOH, evolves very very slowly. Rogue is still more developed than most MMORPGS, and BF1942 is little more than a buggy Tribes mod.
I know all you Linux users can run Wine, so don't moan about the lack of a nix port.
The real question is there any chance MOO3 will be released for the Amiga ?
I guess it will beats Earth and Beyond flat.
There are some non-serious computer users I still like to play games with once in a while, and they are still running a legacy operating system.
It's good to hear that there is yet another Linux game available. This "Masters of Orion" sounds novel, like TradeWars only for X.
Remember way back in the nineties when people used to dual boot to play games? I almost thought Windows would become a viable gamer's platform when I saw the Cygwin port of Nethack, but alas.
After I get this last fellow to convert, I won't even know anyone that runs Windows anymore, and most people I know have never even heard of it.
Funny, that the official press release forgot about the Mac port that they develop themselves.
And that Amazon UK does not stock.. sigh :( Funny, Amazon US would happily ship me Region 1 DVDs (watch out for MPAA!) but would not send me a video game. C'est la vie...
Michel
Fedora Project Contribut
Anyone else read this and think distributed.net, and then realize that slashdot is no longer a site for nerds as much as high school gamers?
;-)
shiat
--DarkFrog
If the dead rise again, we're going to have some serious population control issues.
now some flaming homo with the stereotypical cheesy gay mustache will be describing his "woes" with a PC (in an Agidor Sparticus voice) and then extol the virtues of the Mac (along with his beat up VW bug).