MoOving In: A Detailed Preview of Master of Orion III
PART 2: FOR CUSTOMIZATION'S SAKE (Page 2)
By Daniel Quick | Apolyton CS Co-Owner/Administrator

TO `START NEW GAME`
The “Random Event Generator” is the first component of the 'Start New Game' screen. Any race can be targeted for a random event so choosing the frequency of their occurrence will not only impact your but all civilizations. To that end, some random events affect all races although certainly the practicality of its impact will vary from race-to-race. These self-explanatory occurrences always lead off your 'SitRep' reports, which will be discussed in greater detail in Part 4 of this preview. We now come to the frequency aspect which is what you have at your disposal to control to a certain extent. In my game of Master of Orion III, I kept the level of random events at Normal. In the eighty-four turns that I saw come and go, just three came to pass. In these instances each one of them directly impacted my race only and all had positive intent and effect. I will look at each of these a little more closely in Part 4 as well. The Normal designation suggests the presence of Rare and Frequent also, and it is true on both accounts.

The “Difficulty” settings come in a trio: Easy, Medium and Hard. I admit I chose the first setting for my game, but remember I am just getting into the MoO of things (and pardon this terrible pun)! “Number of Computer Players” is an even less ambiguous setting. The range runs from one through fifteen. For me, I chose '8'… yes, the default value again. As for “Specials”, they are described in the game's manual as “galactic anomalies, such as solar winds, wormholes, black holes, and ancient space dust debris that can affect the galaxy and combat in a certain way for a random number of turns” (MoO3 Manual (Page 34) ). Although labeled differently than that of the “Random Event Generator”, the modes for this part of the game set-up are similarly Fewer, Average and More.

No adequate discussion of game settings would be complete without a mention of the “Victory Conditions”. I am purposely not saving this part of my presentation for last for two primary reasons: first, it is not as in-depth a decision as a couple yet-to-be-brought-up elements. Second, this is the likely the element of interest to most and you have been patient in wading through the minutiae so far. 'Sole Survivor' is as the name applies and is the only one of the three that cannot be disabled. Let's be honest: for most, this game would be little or no fun with one civilization present for an extended period of time. 'Election To Lead The Orion Senate' is the purely diplomatic option open to you, while the most challenging is 'Uncover The Antaran Mystery' (listed as 'Discover All Five X's' on-screen). Speaking of victories, you can use the “Combats Allowed Per Turn” control to limit the number of combats per turn in which each player can participate. Naturally, unless one is gearing up for multiplayer action, the default '5' setting is apt to suffice. Its purpose is not to annoy but rather to ensure a reasonable game pace is maintained when more than one human is participating. It is not limited for use in single-player gaming action, though, as alluded to above.