In-House Preview Online: Part 5

[DanQ]

The fifth in a six-part detailed preview of Master of Orion III is now online. This five-page article, accompanied by ten screenshots, is written by Apolyton CS Co-Owner/Administrator Daniel Quick. It is entitled "Not All Quiet On The Galactic Front".

In late December, 2002, an advanced beta copy of [MoO3 arrived in my mailbox. Since then, I have had the opportunity to examine this much-anticipated turn-based strategy title first hand – both inside and outside of the gameplay itself, says Quick. What has been posted today is the fifth of six installments of this feature. In this edition, it's truly not all quiet on the galactic front with a brief engagement discussed followed by a rundown of the 'Technology' screen and a return to diplomacy from the perspective of the 'Foreign Matrix'.

On behalf of the Apolyton CS staff and administration, I would like to thank MoO3 Producer Constantine Hantzopoulos and the rest of the game's team at both Infogrames Interactive and Quicksilver Software for this opportunity.

As a bonus, fourteen pieces of mostly never-before-seen concept art have been compiled into one easy to browse collection as apart of this edition's screenshot gallery. The concluding piece of this ongoing feature, Part 6, will be posted next Thursday barring any unforeseen circumstances. Comments on this article are welcomed in this thread.

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Dan; Apolyton CS

[Main_Brain]

Wohoo.

Foreign Matrix ("Turn 1") doesnt work for me though


//and posting the Install screen ist just plain Evil! :=)

[kalbear]

Zeemac is not the name of a race/species - it's the name of the leader of the race. In this case, I believe that's a Tachidi.

You can clearly see 'Hithoru' being a Sakkra as well.

I'd hope that DanQ would correct this misinformation, especially now that places like PA are linking to the preview.

[Jack Frost]

. . . . I just give up. The bottom line: Dan didn't play the game.

[DanQ]

Originally posted by kalbear
Zeemac is not the name of a race/species - it's the name of the leader of the race. In this case, I believe that's a Tachidi.

You can clearly see 'Hithoru' being a Sakkra as well.

I'd hope that DanQ would correct this misinformation, especially now that places like PA are linking to the preview.

My apologies. I appreciate your pointing these out. They were the result of unintentional copy/paste errors on my part and I have corrected them.

In fact, I had realized these errors at about the time you posted the above message. As such, you likely saw the older versions of the affected pages shortly before they were modified.

Again, sorry about that folks!

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Dan; Apolyton CS

[Main_Brain]

I think on Page 5 a new paragraph misses before 'Advances'

[DanQ]

Originally posted by Main_Brain
Wohoo.

Foreign Matrix ("Turn 1") doesnt work for me though

I have corrected the link to the full-sized version of the "Foreign Matrix ("Turn 1")" screen (a minor HTML issue). Thanks for the heads-up.

I think on Page 5 a new paragraph misses before 'Advances'

Ah! HTML code fixed here too.

//and posting the Install screen ist just plain Evil! :=)

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Dan; Apolyton CS

[Zero_Washu]

Gee, not only can the reviewer not write he can't even play the game well.



Who would have thought that?



I was actually expecting some decent screenshots this time, but damn if this wasn't the most disappointing one of the series.

Sketches should have been kept to the first article or perhaps a summary article, they have nothing to do with this phase of the review.

[Main_Brain]

and yet they return everytime to read the next one :P
Ah the downsides of no censorship..

[Alexfrog]

QW-314-LOEH is not an unplayable race! It is the name of an empire of the Meklar.....who attacked your scout. Your scout couldnt detect them because you dont have sufficient detection technology....its not like QS is trying to make you always fight unknown battles....detection tech is important.

Similarly the Hithoru mentioned last time was an empire name.

The only "unplayable races" are the magnate races who you get colonies of, and the New Orions. The only non-playable race that can have an empire is the New Orions.

Just wanted to make that clear, and I hope the preveiw is updated to not keep calling these all "unplayable races" when they are simply the name of the EMPIRE of one of the playable races.

[Grumbold]

Interesting reading Dan. A pity that you didn't have time to build a new fleet to reinvestigate the area where your unarmed scout foolishly decided to blockade a whole planet

Minor quibble: in this and previous sections of your review your spellchecker seems to like turning 'a part' into 'apart' which of course has a different meaning.

[ggorrell]

I feel like the woman on the only Wendys commercial "Where's the beef?" This review has no new information. I could have written a more interesting preview of the game, and I don't even have the game! Even the screenshots were disappointing this time.

Obviously the author did not play the game long enough to review it, if he only got into one battle, and that was a scout stumbling into another empire!

I hope that the last segment of this preview is better.

[Mr.Moustache]

Originally by DanQ
"Perhaps the most aggravating part of the whole encounter was running into one of those non-playable races I spoke about in Part 4. They were identified only by a rather cryptic designation: QW-314-LOEH."

On the first page, last paragraph is the above quote.

Like Alex said, QW-314-LOEH is the NAME of a certain EMPIRE (which I think is either Meklar or Cynoid in this case), like "Apolyton" is the name of YOUR empire, and not race. So if you picked the Humans to play, and named your empire "Apolyton", then your race isn't "Apolyton", its still Humans.

For example, say I was playing a game and I ran into an empire called "Apolyton". We then decided to talk about a non aggression, I would then know (by the race animation, or picture) that this empire is a Klackon race. (which the Klackons are a playable race)

The only non playable race is The New Orions, and there are magnate races (like the Alkari, Darloks etc) that can't make ships and expand, you can colonize those worlds and those magnate races become a part of your empire.

I hope you understand what I'm trying to say, because in my opinion thats a pretty big mistake in those previews.

[Alexfrog]

magnate*, not magnet, but yeah....I agree, its a big mistake.
It needs to be fixed....since most of the people reading this preveiw arent going to be those of us who spend lots of time over at IGMOO and know everything already...

Magnate: 1. A person of rank; a noble or grandee; a person of influence or distinction in any sphere.

I would consider it an odd choice to name the unplayable races....since they are "minor" races.... but I guess they play a large role in the game still. I guess they are the most influential of the various lesser forms of life found spread around the galaxy, (or of course the previously powerful but now much weakened races that were destroyed by the new orions)

[LDiCesare]

No info on fights there.
Fights, ship design, were a VERY important part of MOO.
Fights have become real time, which is a HUGE change.
Isn't it possible to have SOME info about it?
You mayn't like to play fights, but they do and will occur, and half of your research is geared around them anyway. I want info on fights to decide if I play the game. You give two screenshots and the surprising info that scouts are easily killed by warships. Whoah!