MOO2: shining,spying,cheating

[Master Marcus]

After a 3-year hiatus, I found myself playing again one of my faves all-time. Because of the upcoming MOO3 you say ( well mostly ), still it is almost unprecedented for me to play regularly an older classic ( even a landmark one ).

Surprisingly MOO2 is still shining, and even more well balanced throughout the game than many recent clones.

However what hit me the most is the false spy engine, well engine is a big word here for a 1996 release we must recognize that advanced espionage wasn't yet well developed within video games. Spying or not spying ( only defending agents) or even without any spy, you can be framed the same way by the AI in MOO2: the war default-setting for builder gamers, if you like....

That's some kind of cheating, and after 5 years I really don't get it: how, but HOW can a player be framed when he achieve treaties with all the AI at a point in a game ? Not to mention that you can wreck all the treaties with a long-time ally with a single tech demand...

Still MOO2 shines most than some 4X games released as recently as Space Empires IV ( a good effort though ).

[Zealot]

I found out that if I leave one of my spies (just one) on another race, the change of getting framed is really low, and so is the change of getting a tech. So, my advise is to use a spy on each race. Wich might be expensive if you keep loosing them. but if you keep loosing them, then it might be because the opponent has a high agent percentage, and is also dificult for other AI races to spy, as less to frame anyone.

[Master Marcus]

Even without ANY spy targetted against any AI, AND having only one defending agent ( replacing him regularly until reaching the latter stages of a game where its % is strong ), I have an average of one framing per game.

The real numbers : having less spies than the number of controlled star systems is certainly lowering the chance to be framed; having too much and you can see 5-8 framings per game ( playing mostly at Hard, sometimes at Impossible ). This is an artificial system to keep peaceful builders on their toes, yet the warmonger players should find this suitable.

[Zealot]

I think I never played at hard. Nor easy. Only tutor, medium because of the custom races, and impossible, where the good races to conquer are!
So I can't really comment your post.

[Urban Ranger]

I agree with zealot, that if you keep a spy against every other race you neutralise most of these "framings."

However I also think that's a cheat. Something the computer does to screw you over.

[Zealot]

Originally posted by Zealot
I think I never played at hard. Nor easy. Only tutor, medium because of the custom races, and impossible, where the good races to conquer are!
So I can't really comment your post.

I take back what I said.
My highest score was on hard level...
It was 2504, btw. But it was only that time! Only played once!
Oh, yeah, my second best result was on tutor...
But the rest are almost all on impossible! Honest!

[Master Marcus]

Oh, I believe you, Zealot. I can also win at Impossible, but at a considerable cost of ...fun. Playing at Hard suits the most my combination of fun factor and challenge. I score between 3500-4000, for I like playing with some +++ with only slight disavantages.

I want to know at wich galaxy size and players number you usually play at Imp. Are you a real warmonger?

[Zealot]

No, but I can eliminate every AI and conquer Orion by turn 200. At impossible. On a medium sized galaxy, of course. I don't like to play on Large and hate Huge, because AI expands like rabbits on awful planets that aren't even worth conquer or even destroy!

[Like2frolick]

I play Huge. Hard level.

What are the best race-stats?

[Zealot]

Originally posted by Like2frolick
I play Huge. Hard level.

What are the best race-stats?

Now that's my little secret!

But it changes with the opponents. Usually I play Unification and Large-Rich-Artifacts HW. Sometimes I add Telepathic.

[pchang]

Best Race

The Best Race is too easy
Choose Repugnant (the disadvantage that makes everyone hate you) At Impossible, they all hate you anyway.
Choose Research Everything (what the Psilons have that allows them to research everything)
Put all the rest into research and production bonuses

I particularly like to get boarding shuttles. I can build large ships with about 6 boarding shuttles each. One of these ships has a good chance of capturing the smallest or next to smallest Antaran ships that come along every once in a while. Capturing an Antaran or 3 in the mid game allows you to easily blow by every other race. (All of a sudden you show up with Xentronium Armor and Particle Beams).

[Sikander]

I too like repugnant. My favorite race design:

Repugnant
-10% to ground
-10% ship defense

Creative
Democratic
Large Home World
Subterranean

My research is really excellent, and I have huge populations with Subterranean. This is really good because it makes every facility I build pay off that much more. I never get to the point where I'm not growing due to lack of space.

My early game navy consists of destroyers equipped with loads of mirved fast armored nuclear missles. With fast missle racks a single broadside can easily take out a planet with a missle base in one salvo.

[Kc7mxo]

Well, I only recently "acquired" moo2. But I just won my first game on average yesterday in a large galaxy, 8 species with a fianl score of 2509.

My race was, aquatic
subteranean
unification
-10 spying
-.5 bc
-10 ground
Rich homeworld

As a result I had massive production bonuses from the start, and by the first galactic meeting I already had 3/5 of the galactic population. I could have accepted a win there (did the first time it came up, but I reloaded) but I kept going. After I'd crushed the last of my enemies, I took my fleet to antari and finished the game. Quite a number of my planets were 42/42 pop. :-) yumme

[pchang]

Creative - I finally remembered the real name
is just too powerful. As long as I have this, I can always win.
Without it, things can get pretty dicey at the harder levels.

[Garth Vader]

I play on huge, average start, hard if I am not taking creative, impossible if I am.

I am generally a warmonger as I have conquered a huge galaxy using only lasers

My creative race is usually
lowg, -10 spy, -10 ground
creative, subterranean,
Last six points can be telepathic or
+10 attack, large HW, +1 tech

My non-creative race usually is
lowg, -10 ground, -1/2 food
subterranean, telepathic, cybernetic, +10 spy, large hw