oooo aaron! - looks like moo3 is flopping... ;) do se5 faster?

[tesco samoa]

well atleast their is

UFO: Aftermath

O.R.B.

IG3

Homeworld 2

Chrome

or worst case

UnderDogs.Org for some abandon ware.

And hopefully someone somewhere in the summertime *1 will release Super Nova...

*1 Simple Minds

[dominion]

Galactic Civilization is coming out next month (3/25). It is also published by Infogrames. Hope that game is much better than MOO3.

[raynor]

It looks like Master of Orion III is designed in such a way that you as the player will never need to or be able to control what is being built on the individual planet. In fact, there are many, many facilities that you absolutely must rely on the computer to build automatically. If you are looking for a game where you can tweak each planet, this is not that game.

I bought the game, and I don't like it. I want to be able to control what is built on each planet. But in this game, that just isn't possible. Oh well...

[ February 28, 2003, 06:54: Message edited by: raynor ]

[Talenn]

Let me start off by saying that I have been looking forward to MOO3 for a long time. I've followed the Boards and read all the hype. I'm not one of those folks who thinks that you cant like a variety of games about the same subject (4x in this case). I enjoy SE4 a lot, but the lack of AI and 'chrome' were things I hoped MOO3 would remedy.

But, after almost 12 hours of playing/fighting/reading/fighting with Moo3, I can say that the game is NOT fun. Its not rewarding. Its not addicting. The UI is TERRIBLE. Its meant to encourage 'macromanagement' by making 'micromanagement' almost impossible. Even tasks you'd expect to be fun like designing ships are a chore and filled with tedium and unintuitive menus.

I could go on and on about how frustrating the game is to play when you try to manage things and how empty it feels when you give up and play the way they intended you to. But what it all comes down to is whether or not the game is enjoyable. At this point, the verdict is a resounding "NO!". I'm not even sure patching would help. Its that bad....

Believe me, I tried to like it and I WANTED to like it, but in the end, I DONT like it. MOO3 is easily the most disappointing title I've played in a LONG time.

If you are thinking about picking it up, my recommendation would be to buy it from a retailer who allows open returns. There are some features that are really neat, but they're buried in a morass of contradictory info and needlessly difficult input screens.

Just my $.02 on it.

Talenn

[PsychoTechFreak]

Restricted planet micromanagement I think is bad enough. I guess I would not even like to test it in this case...

Are you able to change AIs and similar things like game physics in MOO3?

EDIT: At a german CIV forum I have seen a mod has been about to close the MOO3 forum after 2 days of the game has been published. It looks like too many are disappointed and want their 50 bucks back. Infogrames strategy to publish MOO3 before GalCiv obviously has been correct from a capitalistic point of view.

[ February 28, 2003, 11:53: Message edited by: PsychoTechFreak ]

[klausD]

What are the good things in MOO3 and what could be translated into SE5 and what shouldn't ever?

I played the game 10 hours or so, then I pressed the uninstall button.
The good things of MOO3?:
-assembling of fleets (good for big numbers of ships)
-assembling of ground force armies
-possiblity to travel along star lanes or without them
-the orion senate system with bills and advantages if you are a member - similar to the board game twilight imperium
-ground combat system and the way ground combat units are handled (they are units similar to SE3)

the bad things of MOO3
cannot tell them all, too many. but the main thing told alreay Talenn in a post below. (inability to do much)

klaus

PS: I sell my copy for 20 euros or so at ebay

[PsychoTechFreak]

Micromanagement should be possible from what I can hear out of the MOO forums, it seems you just have to click through zillions of windows to get down to e.g. planet facility level. And, it seems to be possible to change a facility in the AI queue and the AI changes the rest to match with this change (like build a research planet in case of the ruler spits in a comp. complex or similar).

[klausD]

psycho freak.
every detail of your explanation is correct.

klaus

[raynfala]

Originally posted by gregebowman:
Yeah, I didn't even know of the Space Empire series of games until I read a review in PC Gamer

Same story here. After I read that review by Trotter in PC Gamer, I fired up Google, went SE-IV huntin', found the Shrapnel Games web site, and the rest, as they say, is history.

I remember playing Reach for the Stars way-back-when on my Macintosh SE... remember those? The ones with the 40MB hard drives? Then, years later, when I finally restored my sanity and bought a PC, I bought Master of Orion and rejoiced. I shied away from MOO2 for fear of just buying into the "same ol' same ol'". Besides, X-COM had started siphoning off all of my free time.

It's been a long time since I've had a chance to buy into a good 4X-style game. But now, I, like many others, am firmly Aaron's *****, and quite happy about it

I'm enjoying the opportunity to kick back and watch the cat fights on that MOO3 board, while wrapping myself up in the warm, snuggly blanket of gaming goodness that is SE-IV.

You may puke now

--Raynfala

[raynfala]

Originally posted by Tenryu:
"Where have all the good games gone? Long time passing..."

Two games that, I am convinced, could still do quite well today with just a graphics face-lift and a serious round of bug fixes:

* Master of Magic
* Magic Carpet

The presence of "Magic" in both games is purely coincidence.

--Raynfala