MOO Advice

[Bosh]

Just downloaded MOO. Am playing as the Klackons on simple with 5 opponents and a huge galaxy. I've explored a good chunk of my area of the galaxy and established nine colonies. I just ran into the Mrrshans (sp?) and they attacked my poor litte scout ship before it was able to escape (which didn't establish diplomatic relations with them, how do you do that?).
My main problem is I can't seem to figure out how to build transport ships (or spies for that matter) and without them I'll have a damn hard time invading the Mrrshans As far as invading them goes how would you recomend going about that? Is it worth it or should I explore more? I don't really have any military right now but I can crank one out pretty fast if need be. Any other general tips?

[Urban Ranger]

Dipomatic contact: You can't establish a contact until you can reach the other side (or that it can reach you) with your ships. Therefore a longer ship range enable you to do this quicker. Ships with extended fuel tanks don't count.

Planetary invasion: You don't need to build transport ships. Just click on a colony, click on the Transport button, and click on the destination. If that's an enemy planet, an invasion occurs.

R&D: I usually invest heavily in Planetology and Construction. The former gives you all sorts of colony bases and waste reduction facilities. The latter gives you armour and more waste reduction facilities. IIRC Construction also increaases your productivity. Ship range and speed is also important.

You should be on peaceful terms (non-aggression) with as many alien races for as long as you can. Use diplomacy to get their neighbours to fight them. Concentrate on R&D and production.
[This message has been edited by Urban Ranger (edited April 18, 2001).]

[catullus]

Diplo contact is made automatically when one of his planets is within your range or (more likely, since Klackkons stink at propulsion tech) one of your planets are within his range, i.e. when distance between your two empires are less than or equal to max range tech of your two empires. Skirmishes (or even large battles) will occur in frontier zones without diplo contact (or diplo penalties) before planets in the zone are settled or one of you gain a range tech.

You don't build transports in MOO as you did in MOO2. Since all planets are self-sufficient, there is no need for food transports as you know them from MOO2. The personell carriers are really huge fleets of tiny unarmed ships, very cheap to build. The same as you use for transport between own planets. So you don't build them as such, they are made automagically when you choose transport between systems (to own planet or to the enemy).

You don't build spies, either. You allocate resources to security. In planets screen, you have a slider for federate tax level (to treasury) and to internal security (goes to educate spies for counter-espionage). In races screen, you have a slider for each race for resources allocated to spy network building in that empire. You can't rotate a spy buildt for one role into another role.
The spies themselves are mostly invisible, you usually only see their results. But you can get an update on number of spies caught by a keyboard shortcut (alt-s? look up in readme-file)

Most MOO players wait a while before invading (unless playing Bulrathi or Sakkra), since resources are better spent developing new worlds than getting bogged down in an early war. And Mrrshans are a warrior breed, tough from the start. Unless you are locked in a planetless corner of the galaxy, or the intended invasion object is very valuable (science or production), I would recommend to wait.

Other tips?
Do not neglect military. Defend border planets with some rocket bases and keep a mobile defense hanging around.
You can keep only 6 ship models. Plan them well. Name them after year or use another number system so you know which to scrap.
Watch your back.

The old Orion's place is found at http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare...630/index.html
(not updated for two years...)

The new Orion's palace is found at http://www.crosswinds.net/~stlo_blaze/index.html
(click Orion, not updated for one year... but the forum still has great activity)

Resources also found at http://www.gamepedler.com/ibm/masteroforion/index.html
including a link to the awesome html FAQ and the equally impressing html strategy guide (MUST HAVE!).

Consider yourself lucky to have found this truly outstanding gem of a game. I still play it, even more than Civ2.

C.

[Rex Little]

Don't forget that when you do invade, you want to wipe out any enemy warships at the target system, and the planetary defenses, before your transports arrive. You might also want to bomb the planet to reduce the population (and therefore the resistance to invasion), but be careful not to bomb so much that you kill all the population. If that happens, your transports won't be able to land and will be lost. You'll have to use a colony ship to occupy the planet.

[Bosh]

Thanks guys I'm really getting into this game, it has a realy elegant simplicity that a lot of RTS games lack. And my klackons aren't bad rangewise I pump a lot of point into propulsions and crank out a lot of colony ships. I found an artifact world and transported millions of people there so now I'm kicking quite a bit of ass tech-wise

[Father Beast]

Wait until you have a military before mounting an invasion. you could click on TRANS from one of your planets without any military support, but your transports will probably be shot down, and even if they land and win, a Mrrshan fleet and set of transports will soon be there to retake it. send a fleet to take out the defenses and bomb them (just don't kill them all off) and hold the place when the revenge fleet comes.

If you have enough people for a BIG invasion, you might not want to bomb. just land your troops (preferably with a third supriority if your ground combat modifiers are equal) and take over their factories and pick up some tech.

On the other hand, you might want to stave off an invasion if a lot of your planets are still undeveloped. don't want to leave yourself open for invasion.

[DaveV]

I agree with avoiding early war. Colonize all the planets you can reach and defend them ferociously. I usually centered my defense around missile bases. If you want to exploit the AI, build defense ships with lots of different weak missile types. Fire the missiles at AI invaders, they'll back away to avoid your missiles even if the missiles wouldn't even scratch their armor. Meanwhile, your planetary batteries are pounding the AIs into dust. I always figured I had the game won once I picked up MIRV missiles.

I highly recommend the strategy guide for this game. It has more information than you ever realized you needed.

[Urban Ranger]

Something obvious.

Develop Planetology quickly so you can colonize the good planets as the rich and ultra-rich planets usually can't be used in the beginning.

Terran or Gaia planets are very good for growing population, and you may want to colonise these even if they are of the poor variety.

Should build a new colony ship type with extended fuel tanks as soon as you can.

[Father Beast]

quote: Originally posted by Urban Ranger on 04-21-2001 11:56 AM Should build a new colony ship type with extended fuel tanks as soon as you can.

Hey, I forgot that one. Don't remember how many times I've been ticked that my scouts could get to a good star, but my colony ship couldn't. used to colonize a relatively useless planet in that direction just for a stepping stone. once a colony is founded, all your ships can get there!

[Urban Ranger]

That's why the addition of outposts in MoO 2 is the best improvement they made.