Master Of Orion

[Father Beast]

I got away from this for a while, but tried it again since I have to put EVERYTHING back onto my computer.
Gak! it's just as addictive as ever. I told myself to take a nap, then my nap time was gone and I was late for an appointment.

What is so great about this game?
maybe it's the movement. send a ship to another system and it will take 3 turns. the ultimate GOTO function.
maybe it's the management. the slider bars and tweaing for best production.
Maybe it's the suspense. seeing a huge Klackon fleet coming to invade and wondering how much stuff you can get there in the 5 years before arrival.
maybe it's the multiple tech trees, and the sliding for allocating to each.

Gosh, I don't know, but it won't let go while I'm playing. I'm afraid to play unless I have a lot of time.

[Father Beast]

Oh ,and did I mention that all this addictive gameplay is done without sound? my computer has a real problem with sound for dos programs.

But sound or not, it's a fantastic game!

[shmily_dana]

I just got a new PC and it was one of the first games I reinstalled...

(btw I now have larger font sizes for the system names then on my old pc...what happened?)

[Urban Ranger]

Font size is a function of your video card.


FB,

Maybe they could just make MoO 3 to be more like the original MoO instead of MoO 2.

[DaveV]

I found this game even harder to stop playing than Civ. My theory is that a lot of the addictiveness was because of the tech tree. There is always some great new tech on the horizon that will let you colonize a new type of planet or build some super new ship design. The ship design was really well done, the AIs managed to have realistic personalities, and the strategy guide was the best I've ever seen.

Why am I playing Civ now instead of this game? Every game followed the same pattern for me: start an Impossible game, try to survive long enough to overcome the early AI surge, then gain a big lead and sweep the map if I did survive. It seemed like the transition from way behind to way ahead went by too fast. The AI is easily exploited on the tactical battle screen, and the bug where space monsters morph into the Guardian of Orion and wipe out Orion is very irritating.

[Urban Ranger]

What bug is that?

[DaveV]

quote: Originally posted by Urban Ranger on 04-12-2001 05:27 AM What bug is that?

You capture Orion. Some time later, one of the Space Monsters shows up in the Orion system. When you go to the tactical screen, you're fighting the Guardian again instead of the monster. No problem, you've beaten him before, you do it again. Well, even though you won, Orion is stripped of its population. It's been a long time, but I think your fleet is destroyed also. Strangely enough, you can transport colonists back to the empty planet, instead of needing a colony ship.

This happened at least twice to me, and I read a complaint about it on Usenet.
[This message has been edited by DaveV (edited April 12, 2001).]

[Father Beast]

Uhh, DaveV, the space monster thing is in MoO2 I believe.
If you think the tech tree is awesome in MoO2, try it in MoO1. you get to research several techs simultaneously! it can be a bother sometimes when you simultaneously discover reduced industrial waste and improved terraforming, and the AI wants to reduce your enviromaental bar to minimum and increase it at the same time!
far more fun than MoO2

[VetLegion]

Well, MoO2 is already a pretty old game, but I never played it. I have picked up the old MoO I on an abandonware site perhaps a year ago and despite the 13h graphics (like original civ graphics) it has that addictive gameplay i it. I finished a couple of games on medium levels and this game is highly recommended. I really look forward to MoO3 (although the features I read about on the site sound a bit exaggerating)

[ravagon]

Losing ones planetary population sounds much like the effects of the space crystal (Moo1), if its left unchallenged if I remember correctly. All factories, etc are left alone and said planet can be recolonised. I've never heard of it looking like the guardian though.
Maybe thats an effect/bug specific to the Orion system?

[Father Beast]

I have to agree with you, grumbold. I remember making my huge monster ships with enough firepower to put out anything, and being frustrated as hell when I got attacked by 500 small ships and only being able to kill 15 per round, ARRGHH... my colony takes a huge hit, if it's not destroyed.

That is, until I started using streaming weapons

Accursed MoO2 had that damned "command points" nonsense which seemed designed to make you play in certain ways. I never could get into it as much...

[Grumbold]

The part of MOO that I loved and was lost in the transition to MOO2 was the ability for small spaceships to remain dangerous almost throughout the entire game. I will never forget the sheer rush of trying to eliminate thousands of virus or bomb armed fighters before they reached the planet and wiped my population. In MOO2 the ship limits were clever but eliminated what I thought was one of the strongest AI tactics.

[Urban Ranger]

I also don't like the fact that, in MoO 2, you can't do anything to improve the conditions of toxic worlds. Toxic worlds become the pits, even if they are ultra-rich.

The only way to deal with them is to bring a planet buster in, blow them into little chunks of rocks, and then make planets out of the rocks.

The thing I really like about MoO 2 is the ability to build outposts. I use that constantly during the first half of a game.

[DaveV]

quote: Originally posted by Father Beast on 04-13-2001 05:25 AM Uhh, DaveV, the space monster thing is in MoO2 I believe.

Maybe, but I encountered it in the original. I've never even played MoO2, so I'm absolutely sure it was MoO. And ravagon is right, this happens only when a space monster attacks Orion.

[Father Beast]

quote: Originally posted by DaveV on 04-20-2001 09:52 AM Maybe, but I encountered it in the original. I've never even played MoO2, so I'm absolutely sure it was MoO. And ravagon is right, this happens only when a space monster attacks Orion.

OH, sorry, you mean when a space crysal or amoeba attacks Orion? ok, that never happened to me. usually if a space monster appears, I haven't colonixed orion yet, or my fleet is so bad a** that they kill the monster off at the first system it gets to. which has never yet been Orion.

Damn, I'm scared to play, it sucks away so much time.