MOO3 officially moved to Q3 2002
 

For those of you (like I) waiting for this game here is the official announcement...

http://forums.prospero.com/masterofo...es/?msg=7324.1

Re: MOO3 officially moved to Q3 2002
 

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
I have entered into the forum, and saw that someone was asking for a 4x game, to wait until the Moo3 release... Then, I wrote a reply suggesting SEIV Gold (of course) with a link to MM. A few seconds later, the whole topic was deleted!!!!!

Re: MOO3 officially moved to Q3 2002
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Master Belisarius:
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
I have entered into the forum, and saw that someone was asking for a 4x game, to wait until the Moo3 release... Then, I wrote a reply suggesting SEIV Gold (of course) with a link to MM. A few seconds later, the whole topic was deleted!!!!!<hr></blockquote>

Pfft, how open-minded... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

Re: MOO3 officially moved to Q3 2002
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Master Belisarius:
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
I have entered into the forum, and saw that someone was asking for a 4x game, to wait until the Moo3 release... Then, I wrote a reply suggesting SEIV Gold (of course) with a link to MM. A few seconds later, the whole topic was deleted!!!!!<hr></blockquote>

That thread is back, including your post, so maybe there was just a glitch.

Re: MOO3 officially moved to Q3 2002
 

Very strange!
In fact I did several "Refresh" to be sure that the topic "disappeared", before write here!

Re: MOO3 officially moved to Q3 2002
 

It also "seems" to be a publisher decision for marketing purposes.

This is what happens when you sign up with a large publisher, you have no control over certain things about your game.

Re: MOO3 officially moved to Q3 2002
 

I've been reading (and posting in) the MOO III forums for a while now. The general consensus from active members on the forums seems to be that they'd rather have a finished program a little later than an unfinished one rushed out just to meet deadline and then have to wait for patches. The moaning and groaning about the delay seems to be coming from lurkers who haven't been speaking up during the requests for ideas and opinions.

Also, I was in chat the day before this was announced, when Alan Emrich appeared and talked about events at the QS offices that day. He said that there was a top person from Infogrames visiting and checking up on the progress of development. While I didn't specifically ask what the QS staff told him they wanted to do, I got the impression that the Infogrames exec was listening to them rather than just arbitrarily 'giving orders' that the game be delayed. Alan said that he expected the release date would be pushed back further and didn't seem upset about that, nor were the people in chat very upset about it because they understood that the delay must be necessary. MOO III is a huge original development project, not some boiler-plate business program, and it often happens that development schedules on such projects are over-optimistic.

Also, Master Belisarius, there are several threads discussing SE IV as well as Stars! Supernova and other games on those forums. I have posted to them, and once even refered people to the PBW site. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif They only delete a thread if it gets into Banned topics (politics or religion) or deteriorates into personal flame wars. If the topic was deleted there must have been a reason other than the mention of different computer games.

[ 29 March 2002: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]</p>

Re: MOO3 officially moved to Q3 2002
 

One or two month ago, i saw a thread in the MoO3-Forum, discussing SEIV. I wrote some Posts (good ones :-)).
I don´t think, that they will delete such infos. As you can see, the MoO3 forum has more OT-Posts than MoO-Posts. Funny thing, they don´t show any screenshots of spacecombat.

I don´t thrust them at all.

Greetings from Germany
vonManstein

Re: MOO3 officially moved to Q3 2002
 

Might be, and I do like the QS guys, but I don't trust Infogrames as much as I can throw them. They have done some TERRIBLE things as a publisher that I am slow to forgive.

And Infogrames has a history of telling developers to put a game out now versus later, so while I am sure the game does need tweaking I am also sure that fit into the marketing plans of the Infogrames folks.

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:
I've been reading (and posting in) the MOO III forums for a while now. The general consensus from active members on the forums seems to be that they'd rather have a finished program a little later than an unfinished one rushed out just to meet deadline and then have to wait for patches. The moaning and groaning about the delay seems to be coming from lurkers who haven't been speaking up during the requests for ideas and opinions.

Also, I was in chat the day before this was announced, when Alan Emrich appeared and talked about events at the QS offices that day. He said that there was a top person from Infogrames visiting and checking up on the progress of development. While I didn't specifically ask what the QS staff told him they wanted to do, I got the impression that the Infogrames exec was listening to them rather than just arbitrarily 'giving orders' that the game be delayed. Alan said that he expected the release date would be pushed back further and didn't seem upset about that, nor were the people in chat very upset about it because they understood that the delay must be necessary. MOO III is a huge original development project, not some boiler-plate business program, and it often happens that development schedules on such projects are over-optimistic.

Also, Master Belisarius, there are several threads discussing SE IV as well as Stars! Supernova and other games on those forums. I have posted to them, and once even refered people to the PBW site. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif They only delete a thread if it gets into Banned topics (politics or religion) or deteriorates into personal flame wars. If the topic was deleted there must have been a reason other than the mention of different computer games.

[ 29 March 2002: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]<hr></blockquote>

Re: MOO3 officially moved to Q3 2002
 

Does anyone know if MOO3 will have some sort of way to play other humans aka PBW. PBW makes SEIV better than any other 4X game by far. Playing against the computer gets old FAST.

Re: MOO3 officially moved to Q3 2002
 

I am praying that Moo3 will be a success.
Because it means ...(drums rolling)... MOM II ..!!

Well, that was what Alan said once.

Re: MOO3 officially moved to Q3 2002
 

I somehow doubt that, but I could be wrong.

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by oleg:
I am praying that Moo3 will be a success.
Because it means ...(drums rolling)... MOM II ..!!

Well, that was what Alan said once.<hr></blockquote>

Re: MOO3 officially moved to Q3 2002
 

I think MOO3 was written for the LCD people ( lowest common dem....) So I think we will eat it up for a few weeks and then toss it.... Face it we like complex games that have a 2 month learning curve...and a game that cannot be mastered.

I am still learning seiv a year later. MOO3 most likely will not have that to back it up.

If it does I will be very happy.

I loved the first one. Moo2 was disapointing,,,but playable.

Re: MOO3 officially moved to Q3 2002
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by augustinetorres:
Does anyone know if MOO3 will have some sort of way to play other humans aka PBW. PBW makes SEIV better than any other 4X game by far. Playing against the computer gets old FAST.<hr></blockquote>

Yes, MOO III supports multiplayer for up to 16 humans. And it is supposed to work across TCP/IP without any dedicated 'host' program being needed. As far as I know this will all be in the first release. I'm not sure if you can take control of battles against other humans or not. If they can do tactical combat between two human players across TCP/IP then you can see that they've been doing some very serious programming! No wonder it's taking a while to iron out all the bugs.

[ 29 March 2002: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]</p>

Re: MOO3 officially moved to Q3 2002
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by oleg:
I am praying that Moo3 will be a success.
Because it means ...(drums rolling)... MOM II ..!!

Well, that was what Alan said once.<hr></blockquote>

He has said that would make it more likely, not certain. I don't think anyone is certain about it. That's up to the management at Infogrames who hold the rights. In one chat he said it was referred to as "MUM II" in-house. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: MOO3 officially moved to Q3 2002
 

Too bad. I've been watching both MOO3 and Stars!SN for a long time. Last time I looked, Stars! SNG appeared to have almost gone into hibernation. A real shame. Thank God Space Empires 4 made it out the door in good shape.

I bought Reach for the Stars 2 the week it popped out but after playing it for a week or two I renamed it "Reach for your wallet 2" and haven't played it since.

Re: MOO3 officially moved to Q3 2002
 

The way I understood it (please correct if mistaken), MoO3 will use a 'focus point' system to keep you paying complete attention to _all_ aspects of the management of your empire. You have a limited amount of these points, and so can only control, personally, a limited amount of your empire.

You can spend some points to get complete control of a battle, it seemed to say, but your points might be better spent elsewhere.

This sounds very good for playing agaisnt other people, like the time limits in SMAC, but limits micro-management. Being a confessed control freak, micro-management junkie, this idea makes the game sound just a little less appealing.

Trusting any aspect ofthe empire to an AI does not sound very good. The ministers in SEIV are certainly ... impressive. But letting them do their thing is like letting my roommate (who gets a monthly check from The State for a 'learning disability') do the dishes: it means I won't have to do it, but does not mean it will be done well.

Re: MOO3 officially moved to Q3 2002
 

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Richard:
Might be, and I do like the QS guys, but I don't trust Infogrames as much as I can throw them. They have done some TERRIBLE things as a publisher that I am slow to forgive.

And Infogrames has a history of telling developers to put a game out now versus later, so while I am sure the game does need tweaking I am also sure that fit into the marketing plans of the Infogrames folks.

<hr></blockquote>

Well, the general drift of the hints and pantomimes coming from the NDA'd members of the MOO III forums are suddenly much grimmer today. Apparently your past experience is about to be vindicated. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif I guess the upper management at QS waiting until the first of the month to let the hammer fall. MOO III is getting feature-slashed pretty bad in order to meet a deadline and get a product out the door, and some of the programmers and artists are being laid off.

Maybe it won't be as bad as it seems, since it is April 1st. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif We'll see when more details of the feature cuts are released.

Re: MOO3 officially moved to Q3 2002
 

I am not surprised. Hard core strategy games can make money, but most publishers are SCARED of them because they want to reach everyone.

Unfourtanetly the Last game that I can use an example is RTFS. It was a game that was too silly to please the hard core, and too complex for the softest of players. And thus it failed.

When you try to please everyone, you just end up failing and please no one.

Hopefully though this is not the case with this game, I want to see MOOIII.

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:


Well, the general drift of the hints and pantomimes coming from the NDA'd members of the MOO III forums are suddenly much grimmer today. Apparently your past experience is about to be vindicated. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif I guess the upper management at QS waiting until the first of the month to let the hammer fall. MOO III is getting feature-slashed pretty bad in order to meet a deadline and get a product out the door, and some of the programmers and artists are being laid off.

Maybe it won't be as bad as it seems, since it is April 1st. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif We'll see when more details of the feature cuts are released.<hr></blockquote>

Re: MOO3 officially moved to Q3 2002
 

Hmm, I don't know if I should be happy or sad about the trepidation concerning MoO3.

If its a great game- then great! I am looking forward to playing it.

If its a bomb- then great! I get more SE4 time. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Re: MOO3 officially moved to Q3 2002
 

Richard, what's the F stand for in RTFS? "failed" or "messed up" or something?

Re: MOO3 officially moved to Q3 2002
 

Sorry should be RFTS, Reach For The Stars.

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Suicide Junkie:
Richard, what's the F stand for in RTFS? "failed" or "messed up" or something?<hr></blockquote>

Re: MOO3 officially moved to Q3 2002
 

I've been inteested in MOO3, since I own copies of MOO and MOO2. But I'm am wondering...

It requires a lot of CPU power to pump out those kinds of CGI images and art. I wonder how much is dedicated to complex game systems...

Re: MOO3 officially moved to Q3 2002
 

UPDATE

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Infogrames' upcoming turn-based strategy sequel gets a new release date and a new game plan.

Last week Infogrames announced that its upcoming turn-based strategy game Master of Orion III would be released in the third quarter of 2002 rather than the previously scheduled second quarter. According to a company representative, the game is undergoing some significant changes that require additional development time to implement.
A number of Posts on the official Master of Orion III message Boards by designer Alan Emrich and executive producer Bill Fisher indicate that the game's previous design was overwhelming and it is now undergoing a process of streamlining and simplification. Two major changes made to the game include streamlining the user interface and reducing the amount of automated management in the game, since the designers found that the game was doing "too much for the players."

Master of Orion III is the latest game in the popular Master of Orion sci-fi turn-based strategy series. It will include a variety of improvements on the previous games, including better graphics and a number of new gameplay options and features. For more information about Master of Orion III, take a look at our previous coverage of the game. <hr></blockquote>

From Gamespot.com

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

[ 07 April 2002: Message edited by: Atrocities ]</p>

Re: MOO3 officially moved to Q3 2002
 

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif is right.

Strange things are happening at QS, the devolper for the game. What was once a healthy development and PR for MoO3 seems to all of a sudden turned cancerous; employees getting laid off, Delphi forum Moderators being axed, feature cuts, and a general conspiracy feel to the whole thing seems to have crept up over the past few weeks.

I am getting a bad feeling about it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif

Re: MOO3 officially moved to Q3 2002
 

Hmm. I guess it is time to wait for GalCiv. Moo3 looked like it could be good but is suffering from publisher-itis and so looks like it will fall short of its goal. Stars SN looked very good also but is suffering from having no funds. Galciv promises to be a good game and it's developer has complete control over it and so it should be everything it is supposed to be.

Re: MOO3 officially moved to Q3 2002
 

Quote:

"A number of Posts on the official Master of Orion III message Boards by designer Alan Emrich and executive producer Bill Fisher indicate that the game's previous design was overwhelming and it is now undergoing a process of streamlining and simplification. Two major changes made to the game include streamlining the user interface and reducing the amount of automated management in the game, since the designers found that the game was doing "too much for the players."

Great news ! If only they throw out the real time tactical combat as well !

I would be very glad if they finish up with Moo 2.5 that I always wanted.

Re: MOO3 officially moved to Q3 2002
 

Yeah well, having gone through MOO2 withdrawal and anxiously awaited the arrival of a new 4X game (MOO3 or Stars:SN), I stumbled upon SE4 Last December. I suppose it'll tide me over for awhile http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif