10.5.01: new screenshots

[Master Marcus]

http://www.voodooextreme.com/articles/mastersoforion3shots.html

many new ones, namely imsaeis and psilon screens, and at last some solar systems views ( planets and moons ).

[TresXF]

i like the style of those grafix. reminds me a little bit of Babylon 5

[Bleyn]

Some of those game interface screens are absolutely cool. And there is that almost B5 feel to some of it isn't there.

I really like what they've done with the Planets screen. Primary and Secondary ordering criteria, with species viewing selector and numerous filters. Very nice.

The addition of having tax rates adjustable at multiple levels is also nice. Very realistic, and quite useful. Lets you place most of the tax burden on the oldest and most developed planets and systems, and allowing the newest frontier colonies time to mature.

I do have some questions though. What exactly is that screen with the Secret Police/Disinformation/Codes stuff all about?

I mean the Codes part makes sense and is an absolutly boffo part of the game. Though the cost to change the diplo codes seems a quite steep compared to the other two, considering that historically diplo codes are usually a little easier to crack than military or intel codes. And I think I understand the Disinfo. portion also. Though its not clear if the selections are for one time or continual disinformation. But the Secret Police part is weird. Guess we'll just have to wait and play the game to understand that.

I also like the Ground Combat screen. That little region section on the left almost makes it look like Ground Combat may actually be able to be stretched out over multiple turns, and invasions are a very serious thing to contemplate. Add the other planetary regional stuff shown on other screens and I start to wonder if multiple empires can actually share a planet?!?

Overall, MOO3 is looking cooler and cooler, and I really hope QS can get the contract for MOM2 down the road.

[Don K Hotay]

Very cool! I feel a litted bit short changed though, because I get the feeling that all the screenshots we've seen so far are not even nearly the tip of the iceberg that is MOO3. I still feel that a games such as MOO3 is too good to be true, especially after hearing Alan E. and the MOO3 team say that they would be cutting a part of the game that seemed at first so crucial (ethos). And of course, the've said more cuts maybe on their way.

On the planetary info/tax/revenue screens, I liked the feature of viewing the numbers in terms of monetary units or percentage. It definitely adds to my notion that this game is going to require more than just clicking through build queues and the likes, and I know it will require great thought and strategy.

And finally, I'm hoping that a MOO3 forum savior can pop in to this thread and clarify on the number major and minor civs possible during gameplay. Hopefully, they won't cut this area of the game, because I don't see how we could play without any civs (the game would just be a massive collection of cool screenshots)!

Quixote

"Now what do we have here? A comedian...Private Joker. I like you, hell you can come over my house and f*** my sister!"

Drill Seargent, Full Metal Jacket

[Stormhound]

Okay, answering various things here...

Yeah, it does remind one of B5...hadn't really thought of that myself. Neat.

What's the Secret Police/Codes screen all about? Well, you can set levels of an "Oppressometer" on various subsets of your people. Setting it higher gives you one group of effects, setting it lower a different group (the screen itself may mention that). So, for instance, if you really want to crack down hard on your leaders to help eliminate corruption and such, then crank that puppy up...but be prepared for a somewhat lower quality of leader overall, as your best and brightest look elsewhere.

The number on the Codes cost is a placeholder, nothing more. It won't really be that expensive. Same goes for many other numbers you see on those shots.

Ground combat CAN (and often WILL) take multiple turns. And while two civs can contest a given planet, only one can be getting any actual benefit from that planet. So no, no worlds like Traveller's Esalin.

At the start of gameplay, there can be up to 16 total civs, of which up to 8 can be human-controlled. During the course of the game, there can be up to 32 total civs. This part of the game isn't getting cut. And just in case you were asking something different, there are 16 different playable races in the game, and unlike the prior MOOs you can have more than one of any one of them at game start. (I remember a favorite thing of mine in MOO2 was doing a custom race and taking the Elerian picture to "lock them out" of the game; that won't work in MOO3).

[Don K Hotay]

!Molto grazie Seniore Stormhound! Now, if you could just tell us everything else you know about MOO3....
This may not be likely, so I'll ask just a few very small questions:

Elerians were always trouble in MOO2, and as long as you've brought it up, I'd like to ask you about the tech tree and research. I've read on the site that researching all techs will not be possible, but is this true of every race? Is there no way to compliment such a race trait (was it omniscience that granted access to all tech) with some sort of severe handicap? Will there be race specific techs? And also, will races or civs tend to research certain technologies game by game?

And another note on the new screenshots. I noticed that the "star lanes connecting the stars" screenshot slightly resembled an old, no content, a little bit addictive, shareware game called Stellar Empires. Ring a bell?

Also noticed the "To Do List" tab...will this be a memo pad sort of thing, or...?

You've told us that planets cannot be shared (cannot benefit two civs), but solar systems can, right? How about moons? Can moons be split up among several civs, or are they basically attached to whoever colonizes the planet?

So many more questions to ask!
Why torture us with this game. You should have simply released it without an PR!!

snuck back in to ask a final question: You mentioned 16 playble civs, and upto 32 civs in one game. Will there be like different factions of the same race, that is humans living under 2 or three different goverments in neigboring systems?

Quixote

[DanS]

Yeh, I like the graphics too. They are slightly stylistic, which to me is good. It almost makes you feel like you're in a story, rather than a simulation.

I also noticed the layered tax system and empire administration. Very nice.

I'm somewhat dubious of the oppressometer, but will have to see how it plays.

[Stormhound]

(g) If I told you everything I knew, I'd have to shoot us both.

Tech research: It's theoretically possible that you could research all the techs, in much the same way as it's possible for it to snow in Atlanta in July (it might happen, but it's not what you'd call likely). All techs are open to all races, but not all races will necessarily take the same path to any given tech. As for tendencies to research, probably, but that's an AI issue and I don't do AI.

Stellar Empires...I'm sure I've heard of it, but I don't recall anything about it. The concept of lanes isn't anything remotely new, and I've seen comparisons to various games.

I'm not sure that I can say much about the "To Do List", other than that it would be a way to pre-plan actions for the next turn. The idea is that especially for games using the timer, faster players could do some planning ahead instead of just sitting and twiddling their thumbs.

Solar systems can be shared. Moons/asteroid belts/etc. are treated like individual planets, and can't be shared, but each moon can be owned by someone different.
Races: if you decide to play humans, and I decide to play humans, then our two groups are completely unaffiliated and may well reside in distant parts of the map. You can have an entire game full of nothing but humans (or any other race) with independent civilizations...in fact, there are some parts of the design which might make that a very interesting sort of setup. The way you can get to 32 is by revolts and civil wars, in which case you could certainly end up with several contiguous civs of the same race. Have I answered your question yet? (G)

[Master Marcus]

I really like the icons design in the Secret Police screen.

About the 16 races at the start with a possible 32 later on, resulting from revolts/civil wars, can we say that the average number of players will generally be no more than 20-22, since it should be highly unlikely to see the 16 empires be torned apart by rebels in any particular game ? I know this is an interesting feature part of the AI programming , but will it be hard to control when playing ?

[Stormhound]

At this point, I lack sufficient data to give a meaningful answer, MM.

[Bleyn]

Stormhound, Thank you for the clarifications.

The Secret Police thing makes much more sense now, although I would have thought that with the way you describe it, there should be an indicator of how much that is going to cost you on that screen. Two other questions now come to mind, though.

1. What with the extensive use of AI governers, does the Secret Police have any tendancy to try to increase its pervasiveness, or resist reduction of said opression, under any of the government types? For example, if you had set the Secret Police setting for Friendly Leaders to a strict setting then later moved it to a lenient one, will you have to watch it to make sure it actually stays low? I am wondering because I know under oppressive governments there is a very strong tendancy for the Secret Police apparat to resist any reduction in their powers once they have gained them.

2. On costs, something just came to mind that I'm not sure I've ever seen in any sort of Civ-type or 4X empire game, and that is a government type where any level of defict spending was allowed. No chance that we'll see something like this is there? Like the Secret Police power thing, it would make sense that certain government types would be able to defict-spend to some degree. Though I could understand if it were not included because it would be rather tricky to balance so that civ wasn't able to go completely hog-wild and overwhealm everyone else.



As for the possiblity of games where everyone is the same race. Very Nice. Very Very Nice. If nothing else, it becomes a good way of showing someone who really is better in an MP game by eliminating the excuse that the map wasn't a good one for their race.

[Stormhound]

1) There is a constant political dance going on over both the Secret Police settings and many other policies; this dance is influenced primarily by which species your race is, which type of government you have, and which factions are the most powerful within that government. Internal Security is, BTW, one of the factions. So we've got you covered.

2) Deficit spending is allowed, and there are limits to how much you can do and what effect it'll have on you, and you have to pay interest on the deficit. Also, since there are multiple levels of banks, individual banks can run deficits while others have a surplus; there are ways to move that money around to where it's needed. I don't think I can pass out more details right now, but again we've got you covered.

[Don K Hotay]

Firstly Stormhound, you did indeed answer most of my question(s), except about the "To do list", but from what you did mention about it, I guess it will be primarily used for multiplayer (so it does not concern me that much).

Nice, so deficit spending is in. I guess that means there will be different ways to accumulate debt. How exactly will we be able to use debt? Lets say I want to rush buy a building or a ship, and my treasury is already at zero, can I simply click on buy and go automatically into debt? Or, would bonds be issued. Aside from being gifted money from another civ, is it possible to loan and be loaned money from other civs?

And as long as we are talking about money, what ways besides taxes will be sources of cash inflows? Will civs be able to trade arms/resources/food/slaves/tech....what else? And rather than recieving annual income from this trade, is it possible to get lump somes of money for like a one time deal?

Also, what will "Planet Classification" be all about?

[Stormhound]

Don't count on being able to rush-buy things in MOO3. Aside from that, if you have your economy set up to allow deficit spending, and you allocate more money than the budget would allow, you simply go into a deficit. The interest rate you pay will depend on some factors I can't get into yet, but it'll be turn-by-turn rather than issuing bonds. I don't think you'll be able to loan money between civs in a formal, binding way, but see the answer to the next question.

Taxes will be the primary source of income, but civs WILL be able to trade some things. A quick list of things that can be traded (just from my memory): Cash, ships (loaned or given), planets, access to strategic minerals, technology, ships, star maps, military intelligence, support for Orion Senate votes, trade concessions, various levels of military alliances, tribute. Any of these can be traded for any other in combinations of up to five items. So yes, you could make extra money by (for example) building high-tech ships cheaply and selling them to your neighbors for a profit.

Planet classification...if you could tell me a little more of what you mean (is it with regard to terraforming, or grouping worlds for giving orders, or what?) then I'll be happy to tackle the question for you.

[Sarxis]

THis game is looking great

Thanx for more screenshots