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[Jude]

Oh man....such a great game from my childhood. Really, the only major thing this game is missing is an AI that really knows how to systematically rip an empire to shreds.

I just started, hoping to challenge myself (since I can win easily on Impossible with the Klackons or Psilons) by playing the Darloks, but only on hard. In retrospect, I should have done Impossible. Also, I'm just now remembering that smaller galaxy sizes are supposed to be harder - I just like playing on Huge because I enjoy massive sprawling empires.

Anyway, my Darlok tactic of surpassing everyone in technology by stealing all of theirs really paid off. I'm now in a position to hold off enemy assaults indefinitely (due in large part, unfortunately, to the AI's aforesaid lack of ability to mount a truly devastating assault) so there's two a couple of paths to winning - one, get the Silicoids (who don't hate me anymore because they ran out of technology for me to piss them off by stealing, and because I was going around smashing planets belonging to every empire near me, of which they happened to not be one - and they were enemies with those guys so it scored me Silicoid points!) to like me enough to stop abstaining in the elections. Or two, just keep obliterating colonies belonging to the Klackons and Bulrathis until my population is a large enough chunk of the total to just take the vote all by myself.

The thing is, I really want to find Orion. I've scanned every unowned planet except for two in the very top right corner, which is really obnoxious location for Orion...but as soon as I crack the bases on a Bulrathi colony within scanning range of it, I can send in the deathfleet.

The AI has done a couple of noteworthy things, such as send in attack fleets to disrupt my assembly point and destroy the fleet I was putting together, but it's just kind of lame because even that could have been averted if I had just not been retarded and retreated my ships, since they don't have the brains to build ships that can handle my missile bases. They keep stacking up warships with stream projectors and lasers, which is giving hell to my own starfleet but can't do jack to my planets. This is because stream projecters only reduce the MAXIMUM health of my bases, so even if the bases have a max health of one, their lasers can't actually destroy them.

Anyway, ITT, discuss Master of Orion. I really hope people read this thread after I (just realized I) spent like 15 minutes typing it.

Also, suggest ways to play, i.e. styles of play or self-restrictions, that would make the game more difficult. Even if you don't know about MOO, it's basically the prototype of space 4X games and pretty much fits the mold.

Hell, if you don't know about MOO, you should. It pretty much launched the genre. The gameplay is quite simple and abstracted compared to some other games like Space Empires 4 or Civilization (planetary development is limited to twiddling five bars that represent percentages of that planets resource allocation) and it's much more focused on military tactics, and of course researching technology and then designing killer spaceships.

There's ten races, and the gameplay style (as well as difficulty) varies quite radically between them, as each has a racial bonus, as well as certain areas of research they're better or worse at, and ease or difficulty of relating with each other race. The easiest races to play are probably the Klackons (antlike, get huge production bonuses, although everyone hates them) and the Psilons (huge research bonuses in all areas, most races like them). There are a bunch of good-to-OK races, and then there's the harder ones...Mrrshans and Alkaris both have space combat bonuses, but these aren't that good, and everyone hates them...and then the Darloks, who are shapeshifters which makes them awesome at spying, but everyone loathes them because they can't be trusted.

Various horrible things can randomly happen to your colonies, such as being smashed by comets or supernovas, or eaten by space monsters. or bombed into nothing by enemies, or gassed to husks by bio-weapons.

There's also a sweet jackpot planet, called Orion, which has huge research bonuses if you colonize it, and also gives you a bunch of free technologies, including the almighty Death Ray. It's guarded by a big, badass spaceship called the Guardian which you have to build up quite a mighty fleet to defeat.

[Granite26]

I liked 2 better, mostly because of the heroes and slightly lumpier tech tree.

I wish they'd make a Master of Orion III

[BishopX]

They did. It sucked.

[Shadowlord]

They didn't, someone else did.

Simtex developed MoO I and II, and Microprose published them. MoO III was developed by Quicksilver Software and published by Infogrames. A couple months after MoO III came out, Infogrames went "Oh crap our reputation is shit now," and apparently came up with the solution of renaming themselves to Atari (since they owned Atari) and thus inheriting whatever good reputation they thought Atari still had.

Another way to look at it is like the situation with Star Control III. Most Star Control II fans insist that there is no Star Control III, as it was not made by the authors of Star Control I and II, diverged heavily from the plot, did major retconning, and was generally considered to be much worse than Star Control II.

Even so, Star Control III was infinitely more playable and fun than Master of Orion III.

For a game that brings back the MoO feeling in a modern game, I'd suggest looking at Sword of the Stars. The Complete pack that had all the expansions was $15 or $16 on Impulse and Steam a week or two ago, but that was a sale price right after the ANY expansion came out. It looks like you can't get that deal anymore on Impulse (where I got it), but it's still on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/sub/1699/

SotS is also on gamersgate, but I don't know anything about that, and direct2drive, but I avoid that like the plague.

They did say it was going to be a sale that ended on the 29th of june, so I'm a little surprised it's still on steam.

[Sowelu]

I liked 2 better, mostly because of the heroes and slightly lumpier tech tree.

I wish they'd make a Master of Orion III

They did. It sucked.

Last panel:  http://xkcd.com/566/

[ILikePie]

Oh I love MOO, but I've never played more than an hour. A great game, I should play longer.

[olemars]

For a game that brings back the MoO feeling in a modern game, I'd suggest looking at Sword of the Stars. The Complete pack that had all the expansions was $15 or $16 on Impulse and Steam a week or two ago, but that was a sale price right after the ANY expansion came out. It looks like you can't get that deal anymore on Impulse (where I got it), but it's still on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/sub/1699/

I bought the complete pack on impulse. Haven't had much time to play it yet, but it seems to be good enough value for the money. The realtime combat is very nice although I've only had small skirmishes so far. I feel the game doesn't have the same immersion and atmosphere that moo2 had though. Moo2 had a lot of depth and detail that gave the game a lot of life. Most of the "new" space 4X games feel more like you're playing chess against the computer rather than ruling a galactic empire.

I still have Moo and Moo2 installed and play them regularly. I also have Sins of a solar Empire and GalCiv 2 and haven't played either for monts.

[Granite26]

I liked 2 better, mostly because of the heroes and slightly lumpier tech tree.

I wish they'd make a Master of Orion III

They did. It sucked.

Last panel:  http://xkcd.com/566/

Thank you.

[Puck]

Moo3 wasnt half bad IF:

The different tax levels were properly explained... right now I have a hard time understanding whats the difference between system and galactic tax and the all over tax are...

and then there is this development plans... very interesting concept... IF the friggin majors were able to trash zones and IF that concept was a bit ... better explained. I read the manual, and it sucks, and there are tons of guides out there, and everybody is wording it really differently.

It's not that all that stuff is overly complex, its just very badly explained imho, therefor Moo2 for instance is a lot more enjoyable. But moo3 still has potential.

[Deon]

Moo3 was a way too-different for me.

Moo2 was my favourite, we spent countless nights at my friend's apartment playing a 2-4 player hotseat games . It's much more funnier than vs. AI, and when you have some beer/gin and a hookah it's a double-fun.

[Granite26]

Moo3 wasnt half bad IF:

You are dead to me

[Antioch]

in MOO 1 sakkras are definatly my favorite race, they have twice the normal population growth and have acces to almost all the planetary improvements. You can practically take over any planet and steal enemy technology because you just send wave after wave of soldiers at them

I didnt really like Moo2 if contained way to much boring micromangement and an inferior research system I only really liked the boarding.

[Jude]

I never got too much into MOO2 but yeah: lots of micromanagement required, research system was a pain, took so much longer to get to the good parts.

I really like the simplified, abstracted planetary development in MOO. Keeps micromanagement to a minimum so you can focus on the big picture.

I stayed up till what I thought was 11 but was actually 2AM last night, finishing my Darlok game. I wanted to win by a diplomatic victory, and had the Alkaris and Silicoids on my good side, but the Bulrathis and Klackons hated me (Meklars had been wiped out by Klackons long ago). So I set about smashing Bulrathi and Klackon planets to bits until their populations were so insignificant as to not matter. But then, they kept offering me peace and I realized the election would come quicker if I just hit "next turn" right away every turn instead of fighting another battle over a planet. So I made peace with them. Then I just tributed them technology until they loved me, and I was allied with everybody. I kind of set up the New Republic before the election.

Then this morning in about an hour and a half or less, I lost a a Meklar game. Medium galaxy IS a hell of a lot harder! My goal was to play as pacifists who would only attack in retaliation for being attacked, never initiate conflicts. But I never got to a stage where I could practice that...Silicoids signed a non-aggression pact but kept invading one of my planets, so I threatened to attack and they declared war. Somehow my population was high enough to be in the election running, but the Bulrathis, the other party, were in contact and friendly with everyone, and they got ALL the votes except mine. I rejected it, but obviously I didn't last long against the New Republic. Ugh.

Also, I'm running the game with VDM sound but I can't get the sound to work. Has anybody figured out how to do this?

[Shadowlord]

I'd run it in DOSBox, personally. That's what I did with MoO II.

[Mephansteras]

I've still got MOO2 on my laptop and fire it up every once in a while. Awesome game.

MOO3 had some neat ideas but....it just ended up too dull. Never did play much of it, even though I own it.