thecyclemania:
Ok, I'll bite on the 'what didnt you like about MOO2'.
Lets see. MOO2 was great game for while, dont get me wrong. But it had some serious shortcomings.
1) The pacing was GLACIAL. 24 Turns to get a COLONY SHIP!...Made for some really loooonnggg games. Not always bad, but the early game was repeated 'Next Turn' hitting. That also really dragged in MP games.
2) Ship components and design had far too many 'no brainers'. Missiles and Fighters were nearly useless compared to the best direct fire weapons. You rarely got up to bat unless you had the DF weapons. The starting ranges were too short and the missiles and fighters were too slow.
3) The absolutely SILLY way you had to research! Only being able to pick one item out of field was just plain stupid IMO. Many items were NEVER seen because certain items in the same 'field' were NECESSART...hmmmm, gee, Battle Pods or Survivial Pods? Gee, I wonder!
Same for things like 'Mech-bots for ground combat or Titan Hulls?'...umm..really big decision there...I think not.
4) Loss of the 'flavor' of the AI players from MOO1. The races mostly seemed the same in MOO2. The art work and music for the leaders and the diplomacy were MILES behind that of MOO1. Graphically better perhaps (resolution-wise), but failed to convey the same moods and atmosphere.
5) Tedious Colony micromanagement. It was fine in the early game when you only had a few colonies to manage, but quickly became repetitive and annoying the mid-late game. Sure, you could 'auto build' the colony, but the decisions it made were often silly. I also dont think that 'feeding the empire' is something which should be major issue in spacefaring era game. That was fine for Civ, but it should have been dropped (or muted) for 'Civ in Space' IMO.
6) The tactical combat was often brainless. This is mostly a factor of the above weapons imbalance. Basically all you did was move forward and fire your best DF weapons at the enemy until one side died. Very little maneuver or tactics IMO.
Looking at this list, you'd think that I hated the game.
Well, I did enjoy the game, but I feel that these shortcomings prevented it from becoming the 'time suck' that MOO1 was for me.
What I DO enjoy about SE3/4 is that many of the things we ARE dissatisfied with will be changed and corrected. MOO2 had a few patches and they DID help, but I'm quite confident that the level of support for SE4 will FAR exceed that for MOO2.
Talenn