game guide or help of any sort

[vee4473]

Does anyone know a place to get a MOO2 game guide?

I saw gamespot's, but it is pretty pathetic.

also did a search and nothing af value turned up.


I just keep getting my ass kicked. My fleets get crushed, my colonies toen apart. Even when I think I have a great fleet with good shields and weapons.

I must say that I think MOO2 is not very easy to grasp.
Not in the way the civ games are.

I hope MOO3, if it ever comes out, does a better job at explaining how things work.

[vmxa1]

Vee, what game settings are you using? Map size, age, difficlty, tech (prewarp/adv). How many players, what about antaran, events, combat is it tactic or not?
What race are you using, is it custom and if so what are the traits?
If you want to run through a game, let me know. By that I mean, you can send me a save of your start and maybe a log of you first 20 turns. (vmxa@sbcglobal.net)
If you are new to the game, do not jump on impossible maps until you are very comfortable with hard. At hard and above the AI has advantages that will need to be offset. On impossible, some races get extra picks.
Orion archives has/had some link to good post, but it seems to be down.

[vmxa1]

Re: game guide or help of any sort

vee4473 here is a document that at least has a lot of info on Moo2. watch out that some of it is not valid, due to patches. Things like Creative is now 8 picks not 6. Plasma cannons and Gyros have been changed to make them less powerful. I post it in case you do not have any manuals. I am not the author.

[Urban Ranger]

Computer races oftn gets an extra "Repulsive" and a whole bunch other traits at Hard and above. They also get gross bonuses. You should start at average.

[vee4473]

thanks for the guide vmx. It looks like it could help out.
And i'm embarrassed to admit that i am getting my ass kicked on tutor level...sad i know. I usually start on pre-warp too.

however i turned off the antaran attack, because they usually were my downfall by popping out of nowhere and killing me before i could get a handle on how the game works.

by the way, do you wait until you have decent equipment and shields before making fleets? or do you just make fleets of weak ships and then upgrade? i mean, even though it leaves your planets defenseless, i have found that making fleets of weak ships doesn't defend anything, you just get to watch them blow up.

[Main_Brain]

Jep but the AI only regards to your Fleet as Powermeasureance :=)
Antarans? A Missile Base keeps them at Bay until their Cruisers appear.
Also its normally easier to start at advanced level granted you miss some researchs but alle the Empires are more or less balanced and you dont need to worry all the Time wheter you are behind planetwise or not?
Than after some games switch to prewarp :=)

[vmxa1]

Vee, if you play prewarp games and are not creative racially, you need to have a good understanding of the game in order to make the correct choices for tech. If you are creative then at the lowest levels, prewar or not is fine.
I tend to make a ship as soon as I can get my infrastructure up, unless I am a tele, then I woul dbe inclinded to do it sooner get on that neighbor before it can get enough defense to stop me.
Lets ignore expert type playing for your purposes as this is a learning exercise. One thing to consider is that if you want to avoid being the target early, you need to have ships, even if they are empty hulls. The AI will bully you if you have no perceived power and ships if a factor.
Key things to get early are AF (automated factories) and RL (research labs). Labs will give you 5 rp (research points) regaurdless of other factors. This will let you move pop off of research and on to other task if you want to do it. AF adds production and that helps everything. So you will want to beeline for these normally. There are some special tactics that could be used that would change this, but for your purposes they can be ignored.

[vmxa1]

Rather than try to fill the board with a ton of stuff here is a doc that has some guidelines. Caveat is that it is not completely in concert with my style, but it does give you some ideas and help. I have been stripping it down over time so it is now missing large chunks.
It uses fighter bays instead of Reinforced Hulls, this makes no sense to me. It also says hydroponic farms instead of biosphers. This is a variable that depends on a number of things and is not the best choice IMO in most cases. The justificattion seems to be that yu can move a worker off of farming, but the bio gives you two more workers, that is one worker for farming and for industry or research. Anyway this choice is highly dependant on your race and game plan. I am sure there are a few others.

[vmxa1]

Here is the rest of that doc, again with the understanding that it is not specific for all races and games. Things like morale structures do not apply to all races as pollution reducers are not use by all races, but it gives you a start point.

[vmxa1]

When you have a specific race you want to use post it and then some adjustments can be made to process that are geared for that race and game setting.
Really the key data is what the race is and the game settings.

[vmxa1]

vee4473 well how did you make out? Any thing useful?
Are you using a stock race? Here is a race that is very strong and does not require any special handling.
Unification Tolerant +1 production. Minus use Repulsive, -Ship def and -ground combat.
Repulsive means no trades or diplomacy todeal with as everyone will hate you. You will still get leaders, just not as easy. Unification means that when you capture a planet it will take forever to assemilate the population, so be sure to keep some ships and make a marine barracks right away. AMC if you have the tech. This race does not need morale oosting structures, so do not built them, it does not need pollution reducers either (unless you mix races with your pop).

[vee4473]

Hey,

The guide is helpful and I have been getting better. I play the humans every time, since I figure getting a grasp of the game is easier if you don't switch races all the time.

But, I must admit that I can't stand the fact that most of the planets in my games are toxic or radiated etc. that don't support farming and I spend most of my time building freighters and shuffling workers so that I maintain a positive food number.

But, taking the antarans out of the equation has helped me get furhter along in the game in order to see how the later techs affect things.

I even built a fleet that took orion.


Thanks for the help vmx.

What're your thoughts on expectations for MOO3?

[vmxa1]

I read the guide for Moo3 and it has some possiblities, but who knows. I will get it and give it a shot and hope it is fun.
Unification will help with food, or you could go with a Livore trait as they eat rocks.
You could also choose organic rich game, instead of Mineral.
Personally I think Humans are a middle of the road race. Klacs, Psilons are better starting standard races. Sakkras are good also.

[Old n Slow]

Ok,

After having the game on the shelf for five years, I finally pulled it down & started. Good game so far; I’m still at the simplest situation (stock races, small map, no Antarans) starting at pre-warp. Won the first, quit out of a losing second & my third looks to be in the bag.

Thanks for posting the hints -- a lot of good stuff & reference that I’ll have to absorb later.

I noticed a funny thing in my first game. I was running the Elergens against two other races, one of which were the Sakkra. Late in the game (I’m playing slow mind you), I held three systems & they had five. Relations were fine; a couple of times one of their ships enters a system where one of mine was stationed & I was asked about combat (which I avoided). On the second or third time, their diplomat shows up and…gives up! Their entire civilization surrenders and five new systems become mine!

I could like this game!

[vmxa1]

Was this a 1.2 or ealier version? I recall that the AI would surrender at the drop of a hat before 1.3 or 1.31.
The leve of difficulty could factor in as well. I can only say that on impossible, I do not recall the AI surrendering to me, no matter how bad it was being thrashed.
It will surender to other races for reason that I was not able to fathom.
Maybe they need the Federation tech as in Starships unlimited. You have to have the tech and have premo relations and then you could form a Federation and take over thier planets.