MoOving In: A Detailed Preview of Master of Orion III
PART 3: THE JOURNEY BEGINS (Page 3)
By Daniel Quick | Apolyton CS Co-Owner/Administrator

AUDIO CLIP TITLE	LENGTH
Intro Movie Audio	(2m:49s)

HOW I VALUE THE `SITREP` AND SO SHOULD YOU
In Part 2 I first mentioned the 'SitRep' feature in Master of Orion III although only in passing. First, know that this is the official short-form for 'Situation Report'. It is the equivalent of the newspaper and High Council found in Civilization and Civilization II respectively – except with a more practical application than the former and not as potentially humourous as the latter. It is a summary of any and all key events that occurred in the current turn that have effect on your empire; so important are these reports that regardless of your skill or difficulty level you will perform a disservice to yourself if you do not make use of it. The game manual does not refer to it as “[o]ne of your most valuable tools” ( MoO3 Manual (Page 40) ) for nothing.

For example, in my game's first turn I learn that Missile Armor technology has been discovered while a new system was being explored (see related screenshot). This can influence what types of ships I then choose to build, if any, how many, what defensive and offensive systems they will employ and so on: now and in the future. Before even reading the text of this message I knew that it was an important notice. Messages in 'SitRep' are colour-coded for easy prioritization of attention. Red, such as in the most recent example cited here, are of an urgent nature. Green messages are informative but not critical. The middle-of-the-road message colour is yellow: they are important to note but are not pressing.

As I share more of my game with you in Part 4 and beyond, I will again return to the value of 'SitRep'.

ALL OF THE MENUS LINED UP IN A ROW
I have devoted a fair bit of space in the two previous parts of this ongoing feature, and in this one as well so far, to detailing the substance of MoO3's menus in various constructs across several placements. The tabbed menus that are aligned horizontally along the bottom of the screens you will see most often are among the more vital during gameplay. As will become apparent micromanagement mechanisms are plentiful and at the same time optional, leaving the ball in your hypothetical court to decide which route to take. Given that we are talking about numerous systems each with varying quantities of planets to visit, as opposed to a single world, this is essential to making MoO3's game dynamics manageable.

We begin this latest chapter in our adventure with the Empire menu.

ALL OF THE MENUS LINED UP IN A ROW: EMPIRE
Welcome to domestic policy and development central. You have five policy categories at your disposal. The first is 'Colonization' where you specify your race's current expansion/consolidation strategy. This setting, when enabled, is controlled by the game's artificial intelligence (AI). It will determine whether or not the AI will send out colony task forces to settle as soon as they become available in your reserves.

For the first thirty turns or so in my game I decided against employing this policy – I now realize that this was an error in judgement. Early on in the game this strategy is imperative to set the foundation of your empire's control. Not only does the AI make maximum use of the colonization ability, thereby saving you time in having to oversee it manually, it is also automatic. The AI will pre-set colony ship's destination headings first to systems that I control in whole or in part and then to those that I have previously visited. No idle colonists here!

Of course, no policy is absolutely advantageous all of the time: the outbreak or considerable threat of war is no time to be founding new small and effectively defenceless communities at home or abroad. If you are playing in a distinctly small universe, you will have to from the outset consider the size of surrounding enemy forces and your present relations with them to gauge whether expansion or fortification should be your priority.