Splinter Colonies

[Proteus_MST]

That´s only natural.
For a Star Name to be visible your Scoutship has to stay one turn within the System.
As the Orions always attack Ships entering their System (which causes them to flee or, if they have less luck, to be destroyed) you won´t have a chance to see the System of the New Orions as long as you don´t have a TA: Intelligence with one of the Senate Members or with an Empire, which has Colonies 2 turns away from the New Orions.

[Vince278]

That still doesn't explain how I could see everyone else so early in the game. You have read the entire thread?

[Proteus_MST]

Could it be that you have accepted an TA:Intelligence without knowing it?

If aliens try to communicate to you the thing the alien ambassadors say to you are most of the times misleading and you can only know what they want from you by reading the Headline.
So could it be you were contacted by an Alien Race, thought you accept anything, but instead accepted a TA:Intelligence?

[Grumbold]

That would certainly reveal most things if almost everyone had previously signed up to a TA: Intelligence with the race who gave you yours, but ought to reveal Orion too unless no council member had shared their map.

Another thing to look for would be guardian systems. If you can see Fieras, Draconis, Ursa etc then the guardians must be dead, which is very unlikely before turn 200.

[Turk Man]

i hate the fact that splinter colonies are few.

[Turk Man]

and that are small colonies

[Vince278]

Originally posted by Grumbold
That would certainly reveal most things if almost everyone had previously signed up to a TA: Intelligence with the race who gave you yours, but ought to reveal Orion too unless no council member had shared their map.

Another thing to look for would be guardian systems. If you can see Fieras, Draconis, Ursa etc then the guardians must be dead, which is very unlikely before turn 200.

Did have TA:Intel with one of my two neighbors about a dozen turns before it happened. They are not a Senate member and their only (known) neighbor on the other side from me is an Ithkul empire. Off the top of my head I remember seeing Fieras and Draconis but still no Orion.

I had a thought. Wasn't there a leader (in Moo2) that brought a map with him when he joined up with someone?

[Grumbold]

Yep the leader effectively had the psychic race pick although they called it something different. I haven't stumbled across anything like that in MoO3 but then I don't pay too close attention to what I get when doing Intel deals. Maybe the other races just don't quite see the game world the way we do...?

[Turk Man]

they need to more splinter colonies that are big

[Vince278]

What I'd like to see is an active magnate. Someone who has a well developed and defended planet with a small fleet. Kinda like the non-player races in BOTF. It should take some effort to take these instead of having them surrender to the first colony ship to show up.

[Grumbold]

I guess the arguement is that if they were capable of building starbases and starships they'd be a standard player like everyone else. Might be interesting if you had to fight and conquer their ground troops though. It does strike me as odd that they like anyone who shows up no matter how different they are to them.

[Proteus_MST]

Originally posted by Grumbold
I guess the arguement is that if they were capable of building starbases and starships they'd be a standard player like everyone else. Might be interesting if you had to fight and conquer their ground troops though. It does strike me as odd that they like anyone who shows up no matter how different they are to them.

It might be interesting if they would be semi-Independent like the minor Races in Tar Trek: Birth of the Federation.
There you have (aside from Worlds to cólonize) a large grup of independent minor Races. They inhabit one Star System (never more), have already Facilities for Food-Production, Industrie and the like on their Planets (whose Tech-Level varies with Races and can even be higher than the Tech-Level of the Player or other major Races) and they often also possess a small number of Ships (but aren´t able to build new ones), which explore nearby Star Systems.
Their attitude towards your own Empire varies with Race (Vulcans for example like the Federation, whereas Sheilak don´t like the UFP).
The Attitude can change with diplomatic Interactions and you can either try to get them to voluntarily join your Empire (i.e. make them really like you and then ask them to join) or you can conquer and subjugate them (which often isn´t easy, as their Star Systems most of the times have their own Defences).
Of course the other (AI-)Players could also try to peace- or forcefully integrate them into their Empire.

Such thing, adopted for MOO3 would surely rock

[Grumbold]

The only down side of the BotF method was that getting the right independent to join you early could catapult your economy above everyone else. In MoO the big advantage is their ability to colonise planets that are quite different to your preferred ones and occasionally to bring other advantages like superior combat troops. I don't think they need other advantages unless their dislike of you meant you couldn't get them early enough for these to be unbalancing.

[CharlesBHoff]

Also there might be legal problen like trademark's and copyright that stop then from doing this.

[Vince278]

SE IV also had independents. They acted as AI players except that they never left their home system.