New Preview over at Apple.com

[Hrett]

Not a lot of new info, but some neat screens. Just wish I knew how to blow them up. Credit Arcite at IGMoo for the find.

http://www.apple.com/games/articles/2003/01/moo3/

[billybaruch1]

Thanks for the link. I didn't know the history of the "New Orions" - that they used to be the Antarans.

"The End of the Antarans, the Beginning of the New Orions
Soon after they entered the Orion Sector, however, the Antarans lost their strangle hold on it. Their science experiments produced a virus that killed indiscriminately and spread rapidly. When it was accidentally — or perhaps purposely — released into an Antaran colony, it spread so fast that most of the population died before the government could contain it.

The Antarans still in the Orion Sector realized that they didn’t have support from their trans-dimensional brethren anymore and decided to transform themselves into “enlightened leaders” before the Orion races discovered what happened. The Orion Senate, which had fallen into disuse, jumped to life once more as all the races, including the Antarans, elected representatives to the august council.

The Antaran who served as President of the Senate declared that his race would now be known as the New Orions and that a new, enlightened age would come to the galaxy. Four races angrily denounced his speech, so the New Orions brought decimation to their home worlds. The point made, the New Orions and the Orion races met once again in the Senate to discuss a body of laws for the galaxy.

Meanwhile, somewhere among the many planets in the sector lie five relics, the Antarans’ long-lost technology, known as the “Antaran Xs.” Popular myth says that the race which controls all five Xs will unlock an incredible source of power and control the entire sector.

This is the state of the Orion Sector when you begin playing the game"

[Cyrai]

So the Xs don't correspond with the 5 Xs of the empire building genre? The Xs aren't eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate, eXplore, and eXperience?

[kalbear]

Damn. Now that, that's a great preview. Nice integration of screens with the storyline, nice background. Good bios on all the races.

Wonder how purty it looks on one of them cinema displays.

Nice job finding it.

Also, what the hell is that third pick in the four-pic banner, with the evon and trilarians on the outside and a 'hall of fame' as one of the two middle pics? An organic trumpet?

[darcy]

hmm... I'd say either an Imsaeis or an Ithkul.

[AIL]

That picture was discussed on the INA-Forum aswell and I can tell you it's neither an Imseis nor an Ithkul.

It's a Spaceship-Design of the Gasbag-Races.

[Rantz]

Originally posted by Cyrai
So the Xs don't correspond with the 5 Xs of the empire building genre? The Xs aren't eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate, eXplore, and eXperience?

Ok, here's *my* personal problem... calling MOO3 a 5X game is all fine and good, but saying that you have to find the '5 antaran Xs' is something I've argued about until I am blue in the face because it's confusing as all shiat. THAT little tidbit is a holdover from the original design that never got changed...

Think of it this way... the 5X genre thing is what you noted.

From the game victory conditions, there is Solve the Antaran Mystery, part of which is discovering lost technologies that may, or may not have been the original Antarans, as well as figuring out how they work singularly and together.

hope that clarified a little...

[patrickjb53]

Any information is good information.