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.
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...