Tell me about MOO3

[SpencerH]

I've never played MOO or MOO2 and I'm wondering about MOO3. Is it just civ in the stars or is there really a difference. If so what are the important differences for you? I could read game reviews of course, but they dont tell the real story.

[Trifna]

Alot more depth. It's closer to SMAC (Alpha Centauri). But I never played MOO2 (want to keep my surprise for MOO3) and this is coming from reading absolutely all (no kidding) at www.orionsector.com which is the best source. It's the "official non-official MOO3 site". All's there.

[SpencerH]

Thanks for the reply and link.

[Craig P.]

Moo1 had none of the city-building aspect of Civ, and battles worked rather like HoMM2/3 with unit stacks and a hex grid (IIRC, might have been a square grid though). Diplomacy and tech bore some relation.

Moo2 had the city-building aspect of Civ, and again diplomacy and tech bore some relation. Battles were turn-based, on a square grid, and didn't really work like any other game I've played.

[campfreddie]

The biggest difference is that each MOO is unlike the previous one! Don't expect MOO3 to be MOO2 with better graphics and a few gameplay improvements (unlike Civ3 and Civ2)

MOO3 will have the city (planet) building aspect of civ, but with more depth and many helpful tools and (we hope) AI governors to help manage all the planets (unlike Civ, where it gets annoying to manage each build queue in every colony, and the governor AI is useless).

Movement and exploration are different, with star systems linked by 'star-lanes'. Star-lanes can be upgraded or downgraded a bit like building or pillaging roads and railroads in Civ.

Instead of civ-style fighting units and stacks, MOO3 has fleets (stacks) of task forces (units). Each task force consists of several ships and each ship is highly customisable (size/weapons/shields/engines/ECM/special systems). Ship and task force design is likely to one of the most enjoyable parts of the game.

Combat is REAL TIME. This is unlike the previous MOOs. You will have only limited control of your task forces (move here/attack this guy) but when you design the task force, you can set how it will act from several different options such as 'long range attack' or 'board and capture'. We haven't seen much about exactly how combat will work, but it seems (to me) a 'bit' like Medieval or Shogun: Total War but in space.

Diplomacy and spying - These are fairly important parts of MOO3. Much of the diplomacy is handled via a Star-Wars style galactic senate.

Wonders and Alpha Centauri Victory- Instead of wonders, MOO3 has 'X's. There are 5 of them. That's all we know. The developers are keeping this bit quite secret, but we know that if you can get all five X's you win.

Plot - Master of Orion has an interesting plot. To cut it short: Two powerful alien races had a big fight (Orions and Antarans). The Antarans lost and were exiled for a long time. When they got back, the Orion civilisation had fallen. Several minor races had colonised the area. The Antarans colonised the old Orion homeworld and set themselves up as rulers of the minor races. Something happened to the Antarans (civil war/something to do with the 'X's?) and they are finding it harder to control the minor races. This is where the game starts. You are one of the minor races.

If it's still there, read the backstory on the official site (not just the 'race backstory'). It's pretty long, pretty complicated and pretty cool.

[SpencerH]

Campfreddie

From what you've described it sounds like an interesting game. I dont know why I never tried any of the earlier versions. I've been playing civ since the beginning, and I think SMAC is the best so far. The real time combat could be great, I was expecting that civ3 would have it, and was supremely pissed-off when it didnt (yeah I love the combat side of the shogun games).

[Xentax]

The biggest difference between the Civ-line and the MOO line is the hands-on approach to combat; it's far more abstracted in Civ than in MOO.

As I've said before, get your hands on a copy of MOO or MOO2 (legally, please!). If you like them, you'll like MOO3 -- it's not the same thing rehashed, but most if not all of the core elements are still there, and that's what identifies a game as part of a series. In this case, it's designable ships, planetary empire building, espionage, diplomacy, diverse races, ground combat...the list goes on.

[vmxa1]

The perspective on Moo/Moo2 is skewed a bit by most people here, but I can say that over the years I have gotten a number of people to play both games and all found them to be worth while.

[campfreddie]

Yes, get MOO1 from an abandonware site if you can put up with old-style VGA graphics (Civ 1 stylee). It should be a fairly small download. It's one of those games that is simple to get into but still has a lot of depth.

MOO2 is better in some ways, and is more civ-like, but is a bit too unbalanced and there's too much micromanagement. Technology is a bit too powerful. Imagine playing Civ if Musketeers could beat a group of 10 Phalanx and you'll understand what it's like! It's still good though, and worth picking up if you can find it in a $5 bargain bin or on one of those cheap re-release labels.

Like you, I really hope that combat in MOO3 is handled well. It ceratinly has the potential to be as tactically brilliant as Shogun. Fingers crossed...

[SpencerH]

Thanks again. I saw that there wont be PBEM (which is understandable given the combat mechanism). Does anyone know if it will be possible to stop and then continue a MP game?

[Alex-C]

Constantine's interview at Gamespot confirms that Multiplayer MOO3 is indeed saveable, so yes you can save and resume at liesure

[SpencerH]

Thanks, thats excellent.