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The Long-Awaited MOO!

Posted by michael on from the moo-baby-moo dept.

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."

34 of 319 comments (clear)

  1. The best? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Then you must have never played Trade Wars 2002.

    1. Re:The best? by sweetooth · · Score: 4, Funny

      They have, it's called the Internet... only this time it's real!

  2. Will it live up to the hype? by rblancarte · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
  3. With a little luck... by aengblom · · Score: 5, Funny

    With a little luck maybe it's finished too! ;-)

    --


    So close and yet so far from the world's perfect ID number
    1. Re:With a little luck... by Steveftoth · · Score: 4, Interesting

      This comment is modded funny, but this is a serious concern. I personally will take a wait and see attitude with this game and WAIT until the actual reviews of the hard core people are posted on the internet.

      Also one HOPES that all the crashes are gone for good. I always like to wait for the first patch to come out until I buy a product :).

      I still play MOO2 sometimes. The ironic thing is that it actually plays better (to me) in linux in wine then under win2k. In linux it doesn't have sound, but in windows the screen goes wonky and I can't click anymore (the cursor dissapears).

      But all negativity aside, I will eventuatly buy this game. How soon depends on wether or not the first version is playable. That and I don't NEED to lose a month of my life just yet.

    2. Re:With a little luck... by sweetooth · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Not only do we have to hope that it's finished (Sim City 4 shipped WITHOUT online support WTF!) but we have to worry about them shipping with copy protection that makes it unplayable (Never Winter Nights, UT2003). I've personally about had it with Game publishers. If you can't ship a finished product in a playable form then maybe it's time to get into a differant business. Then again, maybe I'm just bitter.

    3. Re:With a little luck... by Gojira+Shipi-Taro · · Score: 4, Informative

      It DID interfere with legit copies. Because of the nature of the protection system used, it conflicted with widely popular CD drives (you know, the kind that also BURN CDs) It also seeks out virtual drive software and other software used by developers, and "accidentally" crashes if such is found.

      I bought TWO copies legitimately the day it came out, to be able to play with friends on my LAN. My main machine was unable to run the game. It wouldn't recognize either ORIGINAL disc. only this particular sceme (Safedisk 2 I think) causes this problem. Both copies went back. I had to threaten a lawsuit in order to get a refund. Against the clerk who had assured me that there would be no such problems. Obviously the store wouldn't care, but threaten to sue an individual, well, things happen much more quickly ;)

      It was suggested that I replace my brand new (and perfectly compliant with all standards) 40x burner drive with a NEW CD drive to resolve this. I suggested the PUBLISHER not expect me to replace perfectly legal and properly functional hardware (I use this drive to back up my network, incremental backups) that cost more than their GAME did.

      Eventually, I believe they either fixed the game or the bug in their implementation. I'll never know, because I wrote that game off permanently.

      Publishers need to remember it is NOT the responsibility of people with CD drives, new ones, to worry about a game being compatible. It's the publishers' responsibility to make sure their copy protection doesn't BREAK on current hardware. Nothing less is acceptable. Unless they want to put "WARNING, THIS PRODUCT IS PROTECTED BY (Insert protection scheme here) AND THERE IS A SIGNIFICANT CHANCE THAT IT WILL NOT WORK WITH YOUR CD DRIVE", coupled with an easy to read list of known incompatible drives, in readable text, on the box (NOT IN IT).

      --
      "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
  4. Best series by wednesdaywar · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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...

  5. From the requirments; by jericho4.0 · · Score: 4, Funny
    # 300 MHz Pentium II or better

    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
    1. Re:From the requirments; by aengblom · · Score: 4, Funny

      You insensitive clod, that IS my machine!

      --


      So close and yet so far from the world's perfect ID number
    2. Re:From the requirments; by SweetAndSourJesus · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Just because a game doesn't require a 1GHz+ cpu doesn't mean it's old or low tech. Maybe they just know how to give you more bang per cycle than the latest greatest blockbuster developers do.

      Carmack, I'm looking in your direction...

      --

      --
      the strongest word is still the word "free"
  6. please...let it be worthy of the series by captainfugacity · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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...

  7. Unprecedented by Amsterdam+Vallon · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.
  8. Technology trap by vlad_petric · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I hope the game hasn't fallen in the "technology trap" as its predecessor - in MOO2 it wasn't really worth playing anything but Psilons, as the quick research advancements very easily overweighed the intrinsic advantages of other races (e.g. growth, flying skills).

    That said, I can hardly wait to get my hands on it!

    --

    The Raven

    1. Re:Technology trap by amuro98 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Creative was mostly a waste of time. Since you had a choice of which tech to research (unless you took uncreative - which I would, just to make things interesting again) you could pick the same old tech over and over again...

      Sure, there were a few sucky choices, and sometimes I'd have to forego my normal choice in favor of something I needed *right now* (eg. better weapons because I got into a war)

      But overall, I'd plow the points I would have put into creative and chose +'s to production and farming.

      Offensive spying never worked for me - even when playing with all the +'s, so I just take the maximum penalty, and build a large number of defensive spies.

      Problem is, this same old same old strategy got boring... At least in Moo1, the choices would be randomized, with each race having various advantages in certain areas, like the Psilons would tend to get more engine choices, and a larger overall tree. The randomness made things more interesting... I once played a game where no one got anything faster than warp-2 engines. And in a huge galaxy, that meant it took years to get anywhere. I managed to take Orion, and was given warp-4 engines, which allowed me to more quickly decimate my opponents.

  9. Hmm... by Anonvmous+Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Man, it really has been a long time. They should have researched Automated Factories or something.

  10. That explains it. by Bodrius · · Score: 4, Funny

    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...
  11. Some useful links by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative
    ...for those of you who haven't been following MOO3's development so closely.
  12. Development... by Orne · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

    1. Re:Development... by markh1967 · · Score: 3, Insightful
      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.

      I don't know where you get the idea that the reason this game isn't using a modern 3D accelerated engine is because it's been in development for so long. The reason this game isn't using a modern 3D engine is because it's a strategy game, not a 3D shooter. I will be very surprised if this game has a single 3D element to the graphics anywhere and is anything other than sprite-based. This game's appeal is in the complex mechanics and strategic depth - the graphics are nice but functional.

      As for the game running on a 300MHz Pentium II; what's so bad about this? It's not as if frame-rate is going to be an issue here. The only limiting factor to the game's playability is the time it takes the AI to make its moves. I would bet that some patience would be required to play the largest galaxy sizes on a minimum spec machine but it would probably be playable on lower systems than the minimum spec with a small map.

      --
      Input error. Replace user and press any key to continue.
    2. Re:Development... by paganizer · · Score: 4, Informative

      As a longtime Tradewars, MOO, MOO II player, when I heard that there was a MOO III Alpha out, I had to go Spelunking in the dark recesses of the web.

      Eventually, I stumbled across the Austrailian Alpha Release.

      People, I love complicated; I used to buy up Every Traveller book and spend hours designing Spacecraft that were never used, just because it was neat; I wasn't even bothered by the bugs in MOO II, because the game was just so freacking cool.

      The Alpha is from the pre-dumbed down version of the game; apparently, they decided the general public wouldn't appreciate it; I heartily agree.

      If the Gold Version is 50% as complicated and in-depth as the Alpha, then this is going to be the cause of Many, Many, MANY divorces.

      --
      Why, yes, I AM a Pagan Libertarian.
  13. PC game. by ziggles · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:PC game. by Wraithlyn · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "It's pretty much a guaruntee that it will have at least one major bug, and many minor ones. [...] 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."

      Your logic completely escapes me. How does longer overall development time equate to less time for bug testing? How does a very long development time mean they are putting it "out as soon as every major feature is in"?? Wouldn't that be something you'd expect from something with a SHORT development time?

      --
      "Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
  14. Re:I'm not going to get it. And you shouldn't eith by Anonvmous+Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    "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.

  15. Moo? by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.
  16. Harvesters anyone? by Valdrax · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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").
  17. but will it be as good as VGAP? by Technik~ · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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

  18. Re:Preview on Gamespot by ggwood · · Score: 4, Informative

    Sorry here is a proper link:
    Master of Orion III Preview
    phew.

    --
    a war on terrorism? How can we end a war on a method?
  19. Another golden oldie space game renewed by Weasel+Boy · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

    1. Re:Another golden oldie space game renewed by Alsee · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Think of it as the core essential fun gameplay elements of MOO without all the extra complicated junk.

      Dude! Real strategy players consider the "extra complicated junk" to BE the "core essential fun gameplay"!

      :)

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
    2. Re:Another golden oldie space game renewed by cei · · Score: 3, Funny

      "Spaceward Ho!"??? Sounds like another sequel to "The Leather Goddesses of Phobos"...

      --
      This sig intentionally left justified.
  20. News of the Mac Version by Nova+Express · · Score: 3, Informative
    From Mac Gamer's Ledge:

    "Production on the Mac version of MOO3 has been proceeding closely with the PC version, so the game should make it to shelves for Mac users very soon via distributor MacSoft."

    --
    Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)

    http://www.lawrenceperson.com/

  21. Damn ... by DogIsMyCoprocessor · · Score: 5, Funny

    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."

  22. Re:When will we see a Linux version? by TrixX · · Score: 3, Informative

    From the "Official Master of Orion III FAQ":

    Will there be a Linux version?

    • No, but you may be able to use Wine/WineX if you are lucky.

    I hope to e lucky.