Just the other day I read the Preview about MOO3 in Computer Gaming World (or was it PC Gamer?). It seems like there's going to be some serious accounting and micromanagement available. As in, population that immigrates/emigrates based on economic, environmental, and social conditions. You want more population on a given planet? Lower the taxes there (for example). Very intricate model. You have a limited number of 'Imperial Focus' points to use each turn to focus on micromanagement, so you are somewhat prevented from handling everything.
All in all, it seems like a very well-thought out game...however, it's starting to look a bit overwhelming on the management side. Even combat will be mostly automatic unless you Focus on it. I'm all about the MOO series, but I dunno about MOO3's worrying about individual regions on a given planet. Lots of depth, but will that much accounting be -fun-?
::edit::
And isn't scheduled for Summer 2002 anyway?
[ 06 December 2001: Message edited by: zenbudo ]