Kinda OT: Master of Orion 3

In case some people didn't know, MOO3 will be released (i.e., in stores) starting February 26th. The game looks darn impressive, from what I've seen.

If people want, I'll post after-action reports from various beta testers and reviewers. (Or you could get all the information from http://www.ina-community.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=224)

I'm looking forward to the game. As one beta tester said, to paraphrase, "MOO2 is a preparation for MOO3 the same way that 2nd-grade arithmetic is a preparation for calculus." People who have been playing the game for months are still figuring out strategies.

I just hope it resembles Moo1 more than Moo2. It went
back a couple of steps in several things (like diplomacy).

I'm looking forward to the game, too. But it keeps getting pushed back, and pushed back. I'll belive it's in the stores when i see it. The stratgey guide has been out since december.

I was a huge MOO fan, but I hope this installment automates more of the cumbersome micromanagement. MOO2 often became unplayable at the mid-end game. The best option, of course, is to allow customization of how much you want to get your hands into and how much you want to leave to the computer.

KenM said:

I'm looking forward to the game, too. But it keeps getting pushed back, and pushed back. I'll belive it's in the stores when i see it. The stratgey guide has been out since december.

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Makes you wonder what use the strat guide will be, doesn't it?

Dinkeldog said:

Makes you wonder what use the strat guide will be, doesn't it?

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Don't buy the strategy guide. Under any circumstances. About the only thing good in the strat guide are the charts. And the charts frequently have errors between them.

It's a good fix, if you're waiting for MOO3, but this close, don't bother.

jonesy said:

I just hope it resembles Moo1 more than Moo2. It went
back a couple of steps in several things (like diplomacy).

Click to expand...

It's apparently got incredible diplomacy.

*rummaging around*

http://www.orionsector.com/pages/etc/osreview.shtml

Okay, the above link shows the good and the bad about MOO3.

Diplomacy
leiavoia
Diplomacy is much rounder than in previous MOOs while retaining the same basic feel. There are more options with more effects. Since I haven't played too much on the higher difficulties, I can't say if it's very effective, but I like the choices. I especially like the ability to make deal-sweeteners and trade for tech, planets, and "go kill so-and-so first" replies. I also like the tachidi. They're kind of cute in an insecty kind of way.

Klemeroni
Diplomacy is where the graphics in Moo3 shine brightest. Any time a race contacts you, their representative talks to you (in their own freaky language) and one of a number of animations plays. The music, sound effects, and animation all work together seamlessly. I have yet to see a Diplomacy transaction that didn't impress me.
As far as the actual options go, they are fairly extensive and you can put an emphasis on everything. These range from openly fawning to downright rude. So you can "politely" accept a trade agreement, "coldly" declare war, etc. It adds a new level to the typical diplomacy options and can be quite fun! Last comment, Harvester diplomacy.......creepy...


DeadDireWolf
Yes, there are more options than in any other game of this type. Yes, the rhetoric from the ambassadors is unique and adds an element which has not ever before been seen in games of this nature. Let's hope these aspects set a precedent for the genre. Once again further clarification through instruction or documentation would really help the understanding of diplomacy though. I find it difficult to conduct items exchanges in particular. Why won't the Raas exchange techs with me even though our relationship is good and we have an abundance of trade treaties between us? Is it my tone? Clarification would have been good here.
The ambassadors' graphics, however, did not overly impress me and I am one to keep my expectations of graphics low. Yes the animations were neat but in trying to push the race's atmosphere too far it's my feeling they cluttered up the background with too much junk. The focus is lost on the what the object of interest should be - the speaker, the ambassador, the animation. Not his environment. The entire diplomacy aspect once again shows the importance of substance over appearance. That great gameplay is not mutually exclusive with graphics to have a great game.

Click to expand...

I don't buy strategy guides unless i really need it.

Lazybones said:

I was a huge MOO fan, but I hope this installment automates more of the cumbersome micromanagement. MOO2 often became unplayable at the mid-end game. The best option, of course, is to allow customization of how much you want to get your hands into and how much you want to leave to the computer.

Click to expand...

The game lets you get only so deep into the micromanagement. You are unable to (1) dictate what buildings get built within a DEA (dominant economic activity; think zoning from the simcity games); you can dictate what buildings are built outside of the DEAs, but not inside, and (2) dictate how FLUs (forced labor units; think slaves, indentured servants, prisoners of war, convict labor) are used; you can dictate whether or not they'll be used, but not how and where.

Given that, each planet can be told to follow two development plans. Basically, there are about (I think) 10-20 different building emphases (e.g., Planetary Defense, Mining, Industry, Research, and so on).

There are about 40 stock development plans, wherein you refine (rather than define) the priorities. For instance, the Mineral Rich plan might have (1) Mining, (2) Industry, and (3) Recreation. (Primary emphasis gets built a lot, secondary emphasis gets built some, and tertiary gets maybe one or two built.) You might decide to change the secondary emphasis to (2) Planetary Defense, which will cause beam bases, missile bases, fighter bases, and maybe even ground troops (which range from marines, armor and battleoids of MOO2, to such things as psy-ops, hackers, commandos, and so on, each with their own benefits and expense) to be built. So, as I said, you refine the priorities. (Note: You can skip a level of priority if you want. You can have only first and third priority, or only second priority, or whatever. It'll still follow the level of emphasis.)

Once you've got the stock development plans set up, you can then define up to five user-defined plans. You then take all these plans, look at the planet, and give the AI viceroy up to two plans to follow. At any time you can change a plan. So, you just settled a new world. You give the viceroy New Planet plans, and another (sorry, I'm not a beta tester or a reviewer, so I don't know what all the plans are). Later on, once the planet has developed enough, you switch it from New Planet to Research. Later on, the enemy has broken into your borders, and the planet is in jeopardy. So, you switch it to either Military (building Military DEAs, which I think helps you with ground combat; and building military ships) or Planetary Defense (again, orbitals (3 per planet, plus 3 per moon), ground-based platforms, armies). Later on, you see that the planet is high in minerals, so you give it the plan of Mineral Rich. And so on. The amount that is built depends on how much money you give to the viceroy.

The reviewers, the beta testers, they've all said that you can concentrate on macromanagement, and leave the micromanagement to the AI. But don't blame the computer if you've defined the development plans wrong...

Oh, yes, on planetary development:

In addition to setting the planet development plans at the planet level, you can also influence all your viceroys at the empire level.

There are three development policies.

Natural: Focuses on planet's current needs. Once those are met, it'll concentrate on the planet's strengths. (For instance, if there's unrest, they'll build military, government, or recreation DEAs and buildings. But once the unrest is gone, it'll build what the planet is good for. I.e., minerals, food, etc.)

Specialized: Focuses on the planets strengths.

Balanced: Makes each world independent.

Start out as natural, but switch to specialized later.

Also, you can tell the viceroys to spend more than they produce (Spending), or spend exactly as much as they produce (Balanced), or spend less than they produce (Savings). That way, if you have a surplus, you can go on a spending binge. If you are close to zero, you can make the viceroys stick to a budget. And if you're in the red, you can take money from the planets, reducing how much they can spend.

There's all sorts of stuff in the game, it seems to be very deep.

Luckily, according to a reviewer, this game has no apparent (emphasis on apparent...) major bugs in it. It was delayed month after month, so that they could fix the bugs that kept showing up. So the patch, which they're working on and waiting for input from customers, just to fix some minor bugs (e.g., when you save the game, it saves only to the beginning of the current turn; you end up losing your summary of events), as well as tweaking the races, and hopefully including some detail text about the techs...