What is MOO3?

[vmxa1]

I am sure millions of people have never heard of Moo in this country, just that they are not pc gamers and internet travelers, by and large. Anyway Moo is a space colonization type game, they are refered to as 4x, Expand/Exterminate/Experiment/Explore (I think). You start with a single colony and try to take over the universe through the 4x methods. It has space and land combat, spies,trade and the like. Moo came out in 1993 so the graphics are very old, but even people that I have shown the game to in the last year, still have fun. Moo2 in newer circa 1996 (too lazy to check). It was a Dos game as well, but did have a Win95 version. Both games paly in all the windows OS and OS2 as well. Some web sites have very detailed strategies outlined, if you get to the point you may want to play.

[Imhotep]

Originally posted by vmxa1
...they are refered to as 4x, Expand/Exterminate/Experiment/Explore (I think)...

Just a small nitpick: eXplore/eXpand/eXploit/eXterminate.

Thank you for your attention

[vmxa1]

I knew I did not have it correct, but at least they get the idea, thanks.

[wervdon]

Heh people are now comparing moo to botf Thats priceless


Actually, botf was not all that bad. I played it for a bit, and the one aspect I can really praise them for is the minor races thing....it adds so much atmosphere and works really well since they could pull from all the material created for the various series.

The bad part of botf is that it leaks memory like a bat out of hell and basically becomes unplayablely slow (mouse cursor movement and such) after about 100 turns. Oh and the galaxy map is basically useless, you can either choose the zoomed in setting, which is so close you can only see like 1/8 of a large map, or the zoomed out setting where you can't see anything cause its too small :P Oh and it truelly stinks that you can't design your own starships

Basically botf was an awsome game idea (star trek moo clone), that was designed sort of bad, and implimented even worse.

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Oh and to answer the original question, if you want to know what moo3 is, your best bet might be to go to your local EB and grab a copy of master of orion 2. I've been seeing it in the bargain CD bins for around $10 everytime I go lately, and you seriously won't regret it. Conversely you could check out the original master of orion (I dont know where to get it these days) as alot of moo3's design seems to come from it instead of moo2, but I have trouble getting it to work well under windows 98/ME, it does work but the sound just doesnt

[Atragon]

Since we're discussing other galactic empire building games...

Has anyone here ever played Into The Void? I saw it played once and it looked kinda cool, though the reviews I read bashed it heavily...so, I ask this, has anyone here played it? and did they enjoy it?

[Mr. Orange]

The MOO series IMHO the only SF game which ever lived up to "one more turn" as your interstellar race battled for supremacy of the galaxy.

BotF was fun for a few goes, but if it weren't for Trek, it would have been horrible. When you have a game going where the Vulcans and Andorians join the (your) Fed first, you rationalize the horrible playability.

[Grumbold]

Alien Legacy was great, imo, although its not strictly an empire building game.

[vmxa1]

I played Alien Legacy again about 2 months ago. Lots of building to do and planets/asteriods/gas to work. Pax2 was fun, but really had a lot of micromanaging to do. Ascendancy also had a ton of micromanagement to do.

[moomin]

Pax2 was interesting. I really liked how strong planetary defenses were and how you needed combined arms for effect. However, the spying was so horribly broken the late game was unplayable.

[Lee Johnson]

Into the Void... I played it once and that's it. I'm not even sure I kept the CD afterwards. I suppose I could go look for it and maybe try it again. It made such a strong impression on me that I can't remember anything about it. :-P

Ascendancy... the Game That Might Have Been--were it not for its non-existent AI, mouse-happy CTS-inducing user interface, and busted combat mechanics. It has atmospheric personality, I'll grant you that, but that's about ALL it has.

Pax Imperia: Eminent Domain... Dull. Dull, dull, dull. I *did* like the strategic importance of the space routes in the game, but on the whole, it wasn't compelling enough to keep me playing long.

Alien Legacy... It was actually fun, but it was also a micromanager's dream. You needed obscene amounts of production to get to the end of the game, and it was oh-so-easy to crash your economy if you weren't right on top of everything. Still, I did manage to finish.

I'm trying not to get my hopes too high for MOO3 just yet. Parts of it look fascinating, but it remains to be seen whether the game will actually be fun. I hope it will. :-)

[player1]

Originally posted by Lee Johnson
Ascendancy... the Game That Might Have Been--were it not for its non-existent AI, mouse-happy CTS-inducing user interface, and busted combat mechanics. It has atmospheric personality, I'll grant you that, but that's about ALL it has.

The only game that had realistic aliens (not some "man in the suits").

If only AI was better.
And that races were a little more balanced.

[vmxa1]

Originally posted by moomin
Pax2 was interesting. I really liked how strong planetary defenses were and how you needed combined arms for effect. However, the spying was so horribly broken the late game was unplayable.

Yes, I hated the idea you could steal a whole planet. One you did ot even knew existed.

[vmxa1]

Player1, it also had the best combat effects for the time combined with the sound, I still fire up a game once in a while to listen to the battles. It playes fine on my XP system.

[vmxa1]

Originally posted by Lee Johnson

Alien Legacy... It was actually fun, but it was also a micromanager's dream. You needed obscene amounts of production to get to the end of the game, and it was oh-so-easy to crash your economy if you weren't right on top of everything. Still, I did manage to finish.

Yes that was one of the worst parts, it was very tricky to keep the research going, especially on the space dock labs. Searching all the land got tedious as well. I did enjoy the finding of items and the exploration of space, but no tactic combat. I finished 3 times including this years run.

[player1]

Originally posted by vmxa1
Player1, it also had the best combat effects for the time combined with the sound, I still fire up a game once in a while to listen to the battles. It playes fine on my XP system.

Agreed!