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Master of Orion 3 Released
Kintaro writes "The long awaited Master of Orion 3 is now in stores. The reviews so far have been unusually mixed, but rest assured the game is still complex - in fact that seems to be a recurring complaint among those that don't like it. And as an added bonus, the game actually runs on Linux right out of the box."
That statement is rather misleading -- there is no native binary version available.
I played it a little bit, and from what I can tell, it's got the same problem that Civ 3 has. It dosent really add anything of value, and it tacks on a bunch of semi-thought-out variables that add very little. It's fun, but not enough to make me read the whole manual.
People who think they know everything really piss off those of us that actually do.
The Moo3 manual is 161+ pages. A good third of that is backstory.
The strat guide was a DISAPPOINTMENT, compared to classics such as MOO1, or Master of Magic.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
But apparently soon. We shall see... that's what they said about Neverwinter Nights, too... and where is it?
-fred
Sign #11 of Slashdot overdose: You see the phrase 'moderate Republican' and you wonder if that would be a +1 or a -1.
I was 'fortunate' enough to be a beta tester for this game, and I was extremely disappointed with the game. Simply put, there are fundamental issues here.
I highly recommend that people read the review at http://www.quartertothree.com
From this tester's perspective, that review is the clearest picture of what I feel is wrong with MOO3.
actually is doesn't run on linux "out-of-the-box". if you read the thread, it needs wineX
too bad
Least expensive: CompuExpert has it for $39.90 and BuyPCSoft has it for $39.85. Most expensive: Chumbo.com for $52.99 It looks like standard retail is $49.99
I don't think this really qualifies as running on Linux. I started using linux to get away from proprietary software and crash-prone dll libraries.
And now to play moo3, I'd need to install WineX, which if I'm not mistaken is a proprietary extension of Wine, and requires authentic windows dll files to run.
Note: Moo3 does not currently work for me with the latest version of WineX. Early on in the game, it seems to forget that I have a keyboard attached and also stops registering mouse clicks, though I can still move the mouse cursor around. I strongly suspect this will be an easy fix but at the moment, Master of Orion 3 does not work in Linux for me.
Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.
Unreal Tournament 2003 runs on linux right out of the box, but it doesn't mention linux at all on the box as I recall. No need for Wine, either, as it uses SDL, I believe.
J
There's a shell script on one of the CDs that you run and that's pretty much it. There is a slight flaw in the script that you should take note of, though -- when it says to put in CD 1, it's actually refering to Play CD 1 and not the installation CD. Or something to that effect. There are probably some BBS threads out there or some FAQs that explain it better. It's been a while since I installed it.
Loki seems to have been at least partially responsible for the port, as it uses the Loki update utility to install updates and such. It was the first game I installed on my new laptop and it runs great. I'm using gentoo on a Dell Inspiron 8200, which uses a GeForce 4 mobile. I'd recommend getting the Nvidia binary-only drivers for OpenGL if you're running the game on a linux box versus the XFree86 OpenGL drivers, as they seem to run better and the difference in framerate is noticible.
I've compared the game running on identical hardware in linux and WinXP, and you can barely notice a difference. The framerate is pretty close on both, although my linux laptop seems to run slightly smoother, probably because I shut down pretty much every running process and play the game out of twm.
The only issue I had on linux was getting the sound to not suck. I ended up using OSS that worked well. ALSA made things pretty choppy.
J
Just the important details:
The game itself and the Linux installer consider the disc labeled "Disc One" to be the "Play Disc" and the discs labeled "Disc Two" and "Disc Three" to be "Disc One" and "Disc Two" respectively. The Linux installer isn't mentioned clearly on anything that I found, but is on "Disc Three" in the root directory and is called "linux_installer.sh."
I'd suggest copying the install script to a local filesystem and then executing it because the script will try and unmount your CD-ROM drive and then re-mount it. (I think it uses /mnt/cdrom as the mount-point - ensure you use the appropriate CD-ROM device for the fstab entry for /mnt/cdrom!)
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
I picked up my copy of MoO3 earlier today, and I've been playing it ever since. The transition from MoO2 (which I was playing just last night) is rough, to say the least. Many, many things have changed. Not better, not worse, just very different. I don't know if I like it yet. Some things seem to be more complicated than they need to be... Others seem too simple... The in-game documentation is either well hidden, or missing. There isn't much of a tutorial. Numbers appear to be the preferred representation...rather than any kind of graphical charts or meters. And there's an awful lot of AI assistance available to keep things moving along. Visually, it's a disappointment. The graphics are very dated. The GUI is stark, dull, and cluttered. But... I'm still being drawn back to it, to play some more. We'll see.
If anyone is curious, I'll be posting my impressions to my blog.
yrs,
Ephemeriis
"Work is the curse of the drinking classes." -Oscar Wilde