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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 9842495" data-attributes="member: 18">Wow I just got hit by a flashback like I fought in Vietnam.I know exactly why MOO3 used star lanes, because MOO3 did this bizarre thing where they basically blogged the WHOLE of the development of the game, with both the lead designer and art director blogging genuinely regularly and in detail about what they were doing and why.And star lanes were a very, very conscious and intentional choice made because they felt like it was the only way to make a game with a larger universe really "tactical" but not overwhelming, because if you don't use them, people can sort of miss each other and it can become endless tag (less possible in MOO1/2 because of the smaller map) and if you have them and a lot of other travel methods, it can become very overwhelming (which is why Stellaris also ditched the original design with three different basic space travel methods for one more similar to MOO3).The sad thing is, I do think it's actually the right decision if you're trying to make a relatively accessible mass strategy gamer market (not even true mass market, just strategy gamers) 4X. I'm not happy about that, and I'd like to see a game manage to be accessible and playable without doing that, but I don't think it's as easy as I wish.(MOO3 also revealed some other really wild stuff via the blogs, which I don't think are online anymore sadly, like that the art director really hated humanoid races, which lead to really cool and interesting aliens - much better than Stellaris has ever managed, I note - and that the main designer was a really axe-grindy guy who was obsessed with the Heavy Foot of Government, and seemed to want to assume all sapient species would essentially baseline be massive fiscal libertarians lol which seems um, a tad unlikely and an odd basis for SF.)</blockquote>

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