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I recently got board with Birth of the Federation and Shogun and fired up a Moo3 game. It was a typical configuration for me: modified gas bags, with good mining and manufacturing, reduced terraforming and diplomacy, and average everything else. As usual, I chose a despotic government (to reduce spies due to high oppressometer tolerance). Research was 70% physical, 30% bio (to bump mining and manufacturing, then food) until about level 12 or so physical.
I found I was having fun. I was playing with the mod that makes the diplomatic messages intelligible, so diplomacy is worthwhile. The Senate was lively, with the Evil Meklar being kicked out early and the other Meklar suitably humbled and quiescent. Being in near the hub of a 3-armed huge galaxy available space quickly filled up, but that was OK since I had a NA treaty with almost everyone (lizards, sneaks (Evon), gas bags, and fishies). Slowly I gained contact with a few races not in the Senate.
Eventually I met the hated Ithkul, of course. They are busy beating the snot out of the AI (who are in between him and me). My objective now is to get a planet near them so they can have diplomatic relations, then have them declare war on me. That way my fleets of judgement will start pushing them back, and I can get lots of brownie points from the AI for fighting their enemy.
I have a decent lead in Planets, so my population will jump nicely since I like big planets. There’s not much room for expansion, though. Three pathways to the rest of the galaxy are blocked by Guardians.
My comments after a respite:
* Development plans seem useless. It’s better to build out a planet’s DEAs, then let the AI do its thing
* The revised diplomacy text mod makes the game MUCH more interesting. I’m shocked that Moo3 was released with the unintelligible gibberish the AI’s spouted.
* The game is still very slow, with real fleets not showing up for a very long time. This can get tedious between the time of staking out territory (which is a race, as in all empire games) and when real fleets are running around
* Building ships is fun, and I do like the fleet combat model. Most people don’t, I know
* The tech tree is filled with too much junk and needs to be pruned. I think the tech tree needs to look more like the Social and Economics area, with blank areas and fewer techs that actually mean something. Everything else is so much clutter.
* I LOVE the Ithkul as Bad Guys. They add so much flavor to the game for me. They are like the Believers or Hive in SMAC.
Moo3 will remain on my hard drive, but will probably only be fired up occasionally. Its mechanics are still overly ornate/complicated, making competitors (like BotF and SMAC) more interesting for games that won’t take days. Too bad there aren't more turn based games out there (I intensely dislike RT games).
Just a few thoughts.
Hydro
I found I was having fun. I was playing with the mod that makes the diplomatic messages intelligible, so diplomacy is worthwhile. The Senate was lively, with the Evil Meklar being kicked out early and the other Meklar suitably humbled and quiescent. Being in near the hub of a 3-armed huge galaxy available space quickly filled up, but that was OK since I had a NA treaty with almost everyone (lizards, sneaks (Evon), gas bags, and fishies). Slowly I gained contact with a few races not in the Senate.
Eventually I met the hated Ithkul, of course. They are busy beating the snot out of the AI (who are in between him and me). My objective now is to get a planet near them so they can have diplomatic relations, then have them declare war on me. That way my fleets of judgement will start pushing them back, and I can get lots of brownie points from the AI for fighting their enemy.
I have a decent lead in Planets, so my population will jump nicely since I like big planets. There’s not much room for expansion, though. Three pathways to the rest of the galaxy are blocked by Guardians.
My comments after a respite:
* Development plans seem useless. It’s better to build out a planet’s DEAs, then let the AI do its thing
* The revised diplomacy text mod makes the game MUCH more interesting. I’m shocked that Moo3 was released with the unintelligible gibberish the AI’s spouted.
* The game is still very slow, with real fleets not showing up for a very long time. This can get tedious between the time of staking out territory (which is a race, as in all empire games) and when real fleets are running around
* Building ships is fun, and I do like the fleet combat model. Most people don’t, I know
* The tech tree is filled with too much junk and needs to be pruned. I think the tech tree needs to look more like the Social and Economics area, with blank areas and fewer techs that actually mean something. Everything else is so much clutter.
* I LOVE the Ithkul as Bad Guys. They add so much flavor to the game for me. They are like the Believers or Hive in SMAC.
Moo3 will remain on my hard drive, but will probably only be fired up occasionally. Its mechanics are still overly ornate/complicated, making competitors (like BotF and SMAC) more interesting for games that won’t take days. Too bad there aren't more turn based games out there (I intensely dislike RT games).
Just a few thoughts.
Hydro
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