Was the original MOO3 concept better?

[The diplomat]

I remember back when MOO3 was still in early development, I was really excited about the design concept. There was the Ethos system, a compex economic system, and the intriguing Imperial Focus Point idea, just to name a few.

Then these and other promising ideas were cut...

Now, I realize why they cut these ideas. But I was just wondering:

Would MOO3 have been better without the cuts?

[Wooglin]

I think that it would be hard to argue otherwise. The original talent was exceptional. They got rid of it and lost the vision.

--Woog

[Lorizael]

The Ethos system really had me hooked. I was very, very disappointed when I learned that was out.

[CharlesBHoff]

Since we donot have the orginate idear in final computer codes and as than finish game it hard to answer this question. Sometime people have great idear on paper which sound great and look great but when trying to code then they donot look great.

[Proteus_MST]

Yep, I agree with CharlesBHoff.

The ideas they had sound great, especially the Ethos System. The big question would have been how it had been implemented.
And maybe difficulties with Implementation were just the reason why some of the great Ideas didn´t make it into the final game.

[Grumbold]

Seems pretty obvious that they cut them because the actual implementation wasn't working. That's the great strength of the kiss principle. If its a simple idea its not likely to fail at implementation stage, although the interface may be poor.

[DarthVeda]

IFP wrecked the game. They took it out but its effects linger.

Now you have a game that simply runs itself with very little player interaction.

[Vince278]

I know I would have hated IFPs and probably would be intrigued by ethos but the part I liked the most was when it had the extra huge map that was compared to a galactic simulator (I realize that makes me sound like a masochist ).

[CharlesBHoff]

There are something that a computer role-playing games cannot do which paper and pencil one can do. The IFP sound
like a great idear but than computer system to handle it not available yet. The human brain is still the best to handle something over than computer.

[Grumbold]

I dunno. IFP would be pretty indistinguishable from just limiting yourself on how much you micromanage per turn in a normal game. I think they were right to take it out because most people prefer to micromanage all their ships or planets in one turn before sitting back and maybe letting 10 turns go past quickly. Trying to track which 10 planets and 2 ship designs to update per turn would just make it more cumbersome.

The D&D Birthright game effectively had IFP's, but it got on ok with that system because the amount needing managing was pretty small. Sure you might be limited to 3 of the 10 economic things you wanted to do in a turn, but the possibilities never reached the hundreds or thousands that a developed MOO game reaches.

[Harry Seldon]

IFP could have been really cool, I think. Makes for more challenging decisions when you can only touch so many projects directly.

[Vince278]

I don't think they would have been able to give out enough IFPs to make up for the damage the AI causes.

[TCO]

I like the idea of limiting micromanaging. In the beginning when you have one settler, you are allowed to micromanage like crazy. When you have 200 cities, you have to use ques and strategy. Makes sense.

Oh...and stormdog and Alan screwd the project up.

[13Matt13]

Oh...and stormdog and Alan screwd the project up.

StormHOUND. And you DO know that they basically WERE the project, right?

[TCO]

They were the part that had to be cut to save the project.