[Atrocities]

Ya I remember when Tribes 2 came out, the backlash and negativity about the game cost Dynamix is company.

The problem was, and might be for MOO3 as well, was the pressure from fans and corporate overlords was to get the game out ASAP with the attitude that we can fix the problems on the fly in patches. A truly bad philosophy that often more than is the driving force behind game design and marketing.

Dynamix was a company full of revolutionary programmers who loved the game they were making. If people would have READ the requirements for the game before buying it, then perhaps all of the BS could have been avoided. Tribes 2 is a wonderful game, but many Tribes 1 fans never gave it a chance.

The thing about MOO3 though is that it should have been at least as good as MOO2. Hell BOTF was based off of MOO2 and it was a great game. (Although not at first warmly received by fans with to high of expectations.)

I love the Galaxy map system in MOO3, and wish that other 4x developers would follow that concept.

One thing to know is if you compare SEIV to other 4X games you will see that Aaron focused the majority of the available game area on the System map and very little on the Galaxy map. He used icons instead of menus, and his pop up windows all have a basic symmetry to them. Everything flows together well, and logically.

Moo3's interface was claustrophobic at best, nicely colored but with bad fonts. I liked a lot of that were included in MOO3, but over all the lack of ease of use and the feeling of always being trapped in the menus ruined the game for me.

I hated the fact that there were no right click menus, and every time I clicked on a fleet that damned "Do you want disband the fleet" window popped up.

Combine the fact that there were no easy ways to do anything in MOO3 really tanked the game. I love how easy it is in SEIV to build and send a colony ship to a specific planet. In MOO3 that was virtually impossible.

I loved how I can easily and simply research new technologies, design ships, and control my planetary construction ques. MOO3 was far to complicated and did not allow for the freedom needed in order to give the player a sense of control.

The SitRep was flat out atrocious. It was neither intuitive nor helpful. The LOG in SEIV is very helpful and intuitive by contrast.

Over all, MOO3 had a lot of great ideas, but poor implantation and questionable design choices really undermined the entire game. For that I am very sorry, but what can one do? Either learn how to play it, or do what I did and give up on it.

[ June 12, 2003, 10:06: Message edited by: Atrocities ]