Rant: Things that sucked about...

[AngleWyrm]

He could even have used my suggestion to make 'productivity' itself a seperate resource. Worker time is also a resource, after all. So count each population point as generating a certain amount of 'labor' and have technologies that multiply this just like you do for mining or farming or whatnot.

This is my favorite economic model, where labor is a valued asset. Farms and Mines could be considered as just advanced tools, much like a complex hammer, for increasing the rate of production.

And producing...There's an interesting word. What about converting one type of resource (minerals and organics) into another (Starships and Farms)?

[narf poit chez BOOM]

I think having to move resources around in Stars! adds a nice strategic and tactical element. And it wasn't that had to make transports to move resources around - Just use the option to set a planets' minerals to something.

[President_Elect_Shang]

It adds in a true value to pirating and raiding your enemies supply network. This in turn would open the door to an entire new dimension of play. Ship capture would truly mean something along with tactics to keep your battle fleet from smashing any cargo ships. Escort ships would be needed and that one little neutral that acts as a speed bump to your empire now; would become a source of supply raiding to feed your demands in a real war!

[Yimboli]

Labor was a valued asset in moo3. So was the efficiency of productivity, expressed in a percentage, and it was possible and obviously desirable to get that efficiency above 100%.

Things take on a whole new light when you have to worry about actually having enough people for your facilities.

moo3 also included unemployment, which would be a negative unrest factor - easy to counter, but it puts a nice check/balance on my SE mentality of "pile as many people on the planet as possible to get that space yard % bonus at its max". Basically people supply becomes a second order function with an optimal point vice a first order "more is better" system.

[Tim_Ward]

Moo3:

1. Many features were cut from the game late in development, but the design was never revamped to account for the cuts, leaving a gaping void in the gameplay where those features used to be.
2. The game is fundementally broken. For example, ECM/ECCM has no effect whatsoever on combat. Many of these problems are due to sheer laziness on the part of the developers. For example, the famously broken diplomay was in fact down a to a misnamed text file.
3. The AIs obsession with troop transports and point defence frigates.
4. That the game had so much potentual, so many good ideas, a few parts that worked well (see: the economic model) and yet is such a shuddering, wretched abortion of a game.

GalCiv & GalCiv 2:

1. The strategic map is one of the worst ever conceived.

Space Empires V:

1. AI based on the martians from Stranger In a Strange Land.
2. Why is the system view isometric 3D, again? Put the full 3D in tactical combat where it'll be appreciated.

[Yimboli]

Tim_Ward said:
Moo3:


2. The game is fundementally broken. For example, ECM/ECCM has no effect whatsoever on combat. Many of these problems are due to sheer laziness on the part of the developers. For example, the famously broken diplomay was in fact down a to a misnamed text file.

Have you tried the moo3 patcher? At the risk of being flamed, I'll just mention that after I applied the moo3 patcher and a few mods moo3 was insanely fun... http://bhruic.dyndns.org/patcher/

One might argue, "why should I need mods to fix the game?"

To which I'd counter, "why the hell are you playing se5? get off the forums you troll."

[President_Elect_Shang]

Yimboli said:To which I'd counter, "why the hell are you playing se5? get off the forums you troll."

I don’t see how this comment was called for.

[Raapys]

With some data patches and mods MoO3 is easily a classic and on my 'best games' list. I wouldn't really compare it to Space Empires or even MoO2 though, it's an entirely different game.

How come you thought the UI was so terrible, Atrocities? I thought it was actually rather ingenius, considering how much information you can access in just a few clicks, and generally the way it's all set up. There's room for improvements, like with all things, but overall I thought it worked nicely.

But yeah, it was released as an Alpha/Beta version, sadly.

[Yimboli]

President_Elect_Shang said:

I don’t see how this comment was called for.

=(

Alas. Didn't mean to stir emotions. perhaps a smilie after that would have highlighted my jovial tone. I'm sorry if you took it harshly.

I only meant to highlight a similarity between moo3 and se5 - they're both much better after you download a couple mods.

In hindsight, that was a dumb way to do it. Too late for hindsight though! =/

[Sabrax]

I hate to admit but with the patches and a couple of mods (strawberry and chocolate for example) I actually thought MOO3 turned out to be alright. Admittedly it's a RADICAL departure from MOO2 and I think that was part of what killed it. My biggest complaint is it gets repetetive (sp?) late in the game but I honestly still play it.