A new (mostly unhelpful) preview.

[SnowFire]

Check out IGN for this.

Nothing I didn't already know about the game, just worrying comments, like "the game is nearly feature-complete, and almost into the alpha stage." What?! I thought the game was feature complete long ago and they've been stripping features! And "almost" in the alpha stage? Being that they were originally on track for a spring release, they should be farther than that- I remember Brian talking about how they got an alpha version of SMAC running almost immediately so their tinkering would be more obvious.

With any luck, the guy simply doesn't know what he's talking about (no way they didn't have an alpha already, or else this game is totally screwed when it comes out in 2 months).

[moomin]

Thanks for the pointer, Snowie. From the comments in that piece it would seem those who claim a Q1 03 release are right - he says the dev team told him "end of the year", and we all know what that means, don't we?

The one thing I worry about is the ground combat he's describing - even in Moo2, unless I happen to be telepathic, I just don't bother with conquest - I just do genocidal wiping instead. If they intend to make conquest even more mm intensive then I forsee myself really getting into playing Space Stalin.

[Xentax]

Originally posted by moomin
Thanks for the pointer, Snowie. From the comments in that piece it would seem those who claim a Q1 03 release are right - he says the dev team told him "end of the year", and we all know what that means, don't we?

The one thing I worry about is the ground combat he's describing - even in Moo2, unless I happen to be telepathic, I just don't bother with conquest - I just do genocidal wiping instead. If they intend to make conquest even more mm intensive then I forsee myself really getting into playing Space Stalin.

This subject -- Ground Combat vs. Orbital Annihilation -- was often mulled over on the Delphi Forum back in the day.

There are some people who insist on having rich ground combat in MOO3 -- among other reasons, because Ground Combat played a key part in MOO/MOO2 (unless you were telepathic in MOO2).

Others, notably Tom Holsinger, pointed out that between the time and cost of massive numbers of troops, and the low penalties for orbital annihilation, most players would just wipe out a planet and recolonize it (or just move on).

Tom's concern for MOO3 (and mine, and others) is that the penalties for orbital wipeout will be much higher in MOO3, yet the costs of ground invasion in terms of time (multiple turns instead of 1 in many cases) and economic costs will make the game....stall. Think WW1 trench warfare, where two warring empires won't be able to make significant gains against each other's well-forftified and reserve-backed border worlds.

Tom was arguing that simply establishing space superiority of a planet should give the attacker ownership of the colony -- for gameplay reasons and the argument that the population would be suicidal to refuse when the alternative is annihilation from orbital bombardment.

Other people (as I mentioned) have to have ground combat -- it was bandied about that having Ground Combat not unlike the new Space Combat would have been nifty, for example. I like the *idea* of ground combat, but I see Tom's point about how much it can slow down the game, as well. And, if the penalties for embracing the alternative ("wipe them out...all of them") are too steep, the player will feel punished -- neither choice is a very good one.

Of course, the game *is* designed so that you can't wipeout a dozen+ planet empire in a single campaign; so it makes sense that you can only occupy/capture a handful of planets in any single war. That's probably a good thing, overall. But I worry that if capturing significant planets is a multiple-turn affair, which gives the defender time to reinforce with reserve fleets/troops, the game could stalemate, with players unable to dislodge each other.

Makes me hope that most combats can be resolved in a single turn. Or, maybe, that well-timed espionage can be a swaying factor, or...

[vmxa1]

You make a good point about capitulation. Even Japan surrender and was occuied.It could be tricker to set what that point is, but it could have racial component. I am thinking of conquest in history, where some civs were often conquered and others put up a huge battle before raising the whit flag.

[Hagbart]

Thanks for posting it. I think MarkG said that the release was not delayed.

[Gamble]

Originally posted by moomin
Thanks for the pointer, Snowie. From the comments in that piece it would seem those who claim a Q1 03 release are right - he says the dev team told him "end of the year", and we all know what that means, don't we?

Actually I'm pretty sure he saw the game at some IG event (gamespot mentioned that's where their screenshots/movie come from), with an IG person doing the presentation. And everyone probably has realized by now that IG knows mostly nothing, and generally mess up any PR. Also IG is the publisher of course, the *actual* dev team still maintains they want to be done in Q3.