Master of Orion I + II

[Asher]

$5.99 on Impulse today for the two of them.

Classic games

[DrSpike]

MOO is pretty much entirely superceded by MOO2 though, so you may as well just get that. Still, $6 for the one game is worth it.

[Whoha]

They are different enough games that both will be interesting to play.

[Spaced Cowboy]

They are different enough games that both will be interesting to play.

Correct, I actually prefer one over two.

[DrSpike]

Lies.

[Snotty]

I saw one guy beat MOO2 in 49 seconds on speed demos archive. makes we want to play now

[Spaced Cowboy]

Lies.

Misinformed.

[Asher]

DrSpike is more interested in newb games for the mainstream like The Sims and Call of Duty.

[LDiCesare]

I got it since I played MoO a LOT and don't have much worth playing around now I'm done with rogue survivor.
I feel MoO2 quite confusing. I played 5 times so far, won the third game diplomatically, but never won a space battle. So I am clearly just trying to learn the ropes.
Is there a "guide for MoO players wanting to play MoO2" somewhere?
For the moment, my impressions are:
-I liked the tech UI in MoO and dislike that of MoO2
-I can't see the fun stuff I loved in MoO (ion stream projector, black hole generator, warp dissipator). Are they still there or are they gone as apparently, the ship regen techs are?
-You can land on any planet without needing to learn a tech there are penalties and lack of food, but I preferred the simpler model.
-Tactical combat requires you to move your viewpoint to see the enemy as first action
-Klackons now ****.
-No race having better research costs for a given kind of tech?
-Antarans. I must learn to build a fleet, ok. Got it.
-Food management is rather nice, allows for specialization
-Leaders sound cool, but limited in number, and what with the pilots? How can I assign them to a fleet or something? I can't even see them after recruiting them, although they are here, the assassin guy (Mystic X the unknown, directly from MoM) managed o kill spies, spies and more spies, so he was there, somewhere.

Apart from race customization and food trading/freights, what's really different from MoO1? I get the impression from a few reads that the only feature that makes MoO2 superior to MoO1 is the fact you can create your custom race.

[Whoha]

Go to the Leaders screen, at the top you see a button for colony leaders, and ship leaders, the ship guys are there.

Moo2 has a bigger battle space, and a more complicated combat engine than Moo1. Specials have been reworked as a result of this, the BHG isn't nearly as awesome as it was. Planetary defense was simplified so that planets couldn't just be impenetrable fortresses, so ships are much more important.

Being able to land on any planet means that you can get fuel to explore further, whereas in Moo1 you were screwed if you got stopped by a hostile planet. This means that the game is less unfair with regards to random starts, but the silicoid picks are still incredibly valuable ones despite this.

Food doesn't really add anything to the game except some picks that help with food early on that you must have atleast one of.

Production in Moo1 has been differentiated into production/wealth/research in moo2 and there really isn't the planetary grant system in Moo2. In exchange for the grant system which I thought was really good if not quite as automated as it needed to be, construction can be hurried as in Civilization.

Research in Moo1 is better than in Moo2. Creative races in Moo2 get all techs available as researchable techs, non-creatives have to pick what to research, but not all choices are anywhere near equal, so it winds up being just 1 optimal path. Uncreative races can't choose their own research, and since all or even some choices aren't equal they do poorly.
Other race picks like +science, democracy, and artifact homeworld add to the amount of research that your workers will generate(if only on 1 planet), while feudalism and -science subtract from it. Tech costs are equal but not all races are equally as good at researching.

In short they revamped the combat, exploration, and economy of Moo2 compared to Moo1. in some instances they improved conditions, in others not so much.

In moo3 they tried to tweak it again, and if that game had just had about another decade of development it would have been good

[Main_Brain]

-I can't see the fun stuff I loved in MoO (ion stream projector, black hole generator, warp dissipator). Are they still there or are they gone as apparently, the ship regen techs are?

Ion Beams (useless against Monsters, Antarans and anything with decent Shields), Warp Dissipator are still in, Black Hole Generator is a Special Technology which is not researchable but can be captured in the later Game. Also features: Timetravel, Phase Cloaking, Grav Suits, Battleoids, Planet Building, Planet Destroying, well you get the drift.

-You can land on any planet without needing to learn a tech there are penalties and lack of food, but I preferred the simpler model.

The "new" System also means Planets which are (again until the later Game) not food sufficient, meaning an enemy fleet can blockade a system which is too well protected to be assaulted and starve the Population. Freighters FTW

-Tactical combat requires you to move your viewpoint to see the enemy as first action

I dunno, I never use the latest Patch, meaning in my Version the Attacking Fleet moves first with all ships followed by the defending Fleet. The whole Initiative Concept was IMO meh. At least you can use the Minimap to jump.

-Klackons now ****.

Unification + Extra Production + Uncreative = Masses of kinda obsolete Ships Use Spies

-No race having better research costs for a given kind of tech?

Nope

-Antarans. I must learn to build a fleet, ok. Got it.

Seem to attack the Strongest Player first so good for you =) Capture them to gain their Awesome Technology

-Food management is rather nice, allows for specialization

Yes, but your Homeplanet will bear the brunt of Food Processing for quite a while.

-Leaders sound cool, but limited in number, and what with the pilots? How can I assign them to a fleet or something? I can't even see them after recruiting them, although they are here, the assassin guy (Mystic X the unknown, directly from MoM) managed o kill spies, spies and more spies, so he was there, somewhere.

Its been a while but under the 'Leaders' Tab there are 2 Tabs: Planet Leaders and Ship Commanders you can assign the Commanders to Ships there? Although then they die with the Ship..

Apart from race customization and food trading/freights, what's really different from MoO1? I get the impression from a few reads that the only feature that makes MoO2 superior to MoO1 is the fact you can create your custom race.

Well Space Combat in Moo2 consisted of Masses of Ships, in MoO2 Ships tend to be specialised, fewer Ships. (RE:Antaran Raider etc.) Also I think you could not build Doomstars or destroy Planets in MoO1.
The Races now feature a whole new range of feats unknown on MoO1, especially telepathic requires a different playstyle.
Invasion Combat doesnt require you to carry billions of your own people to drop and die on Planets Which in return leads to captured Populations

Besides that, MoO2 has way superior Graphics to MoO1

[LDiCesare]

Thanks for the tips. The location of the ship leaders should be useful.
I finally understood the tech system. I still managed to win once on normal without understanding what I did though... Looks like uncreative si really bad and creative is not fun.
I'm currently playing humans and stole so much tech from the Silicoids before jumping on them. They were on their knees and then the antarans came and I sent my fleet and got wiped, so have to rebuild in order to conquer a few more silicoid worlds now they no longer beg for peace.

[Heppo]

I recently started playing this game again (much fun) - but I'm reminded now of a question I had already years ago when the game is new - what are the requirements that you can develop Stargates? Not every time I played I got the option to research them at all

thanks
Heppo

[Whoha]

You aren't guaranteed research in moo1, though you might be able to steal,conquer, or if the game difficulty is low enough even trade for them.

[Proteus_MST]

Well, same goes for MOO2 if I rermember correctly,
unless, of course, you´re creative