In-House Preview Online: Part 6

[niteshade6]

"Actually, I would assume he had to have played it to get the screenshots. I doubt he was sent them and asked to write an article about his impressions with only screenshots to guide him."

I didn't say he didn't play the game at all, just that he didn't bother to play the game all the way through, or even more then smalll fraction of the way through. Notice how he has not even been in any space battles except for with one scout. So clearly he doesn't have enough info to really know if you need to fire a leader or not when your at 4.

"And, I've noticed, when he gives incorrect information in his articles he usually corrects it or concedes the point to another"

I have never seen him to do that. Perhaps you can refresh my memory about when that has happened? We even went out of our way to correct him about his "non playable empires" in part 4, and he continued to talk about them in part 5.

[Don T]

Originally posted by Harry Seldon
You could have eight total leaders, four for colony and four for ships. If you left one slot open you still had leaders applying for positions but when all eight were filled that was all you got until you let one go.

My mistake
Thanx for setting me right there, I was remembering the separate ship-leader as an 'applying leaders'-panel...

And if may post my former question again, ship-leaders are out it seems?

[Alexfrog]

ship leaders are gone...

but maybe there are some leaders that help your combat stats? I dont know.

moo3 isnt about individual ships really, its about task forces of ships...

[Kc7mxo]

The point was about how in moo2 once you filled up your leaders, you weren't offered anymore. Which is, IMO, moronic. Whats more moronic, is that it appears they kept this system for moo3.

[viciouscycle]

Yeah, the leader thing was annoying in MOO2 and it probably will be in MOO3, but whatever. It is a minor detail and even though it is frustrating, it does add another element of strategy: once you have four leaders do you let one go in hopes of getting a better one or stand pat?

The preview is now over. This last part was good and I liked the examples and manual referrences. Overall, the preview could have been tons better. I wish the preview would have spent some time talking about governments.

[Master Marcus]

"from entrepreneur to emperor"....

--Morgan, SMAC.

Thank you, Dan, for the 6-part preview. Well done, aside the lack of inputs regarding fleets, battles, general AI behavior and aggressiveness. With so much financial data regarding the empire's management, MoO3 seems to be quite an ambitious mix of conquest & empire-building, yes, but also a more defined economic simulation than any other 4x TBS: perhaps we can even say....." from emperor to galactic entrepreneur"...or: Capitalism IX: galactic macromanagement.... --moi, MoO3

There's no graphical gimmicks in the data screens, that's for sure, and I know the game is conceived around gameplay for an epic management, but let's just hope that all the data the average player should digest for the months to come shall not be too arid for the eyes, well that windows clicking over plain, arid fonts and screens remain to be seen be my own eyes when I'll play the game.

[Mr.Moustache]

Also remember, Dan is playing an old beta from December. So there could be infact more spots for leaders or they could have added something that would let you decide to keep your current leaders or accept the new leader and kick one of your previous leaders out.

Example:

Say you have all 4 spots filled with leaders.

Then "Jojo" wants to join your empire, a box pops up (or something similar) and you get to see that new leaders stats as well as your current ones. Then there are a few options you can choose, like "Keep current leaders" or "Hire Jojo".

When you choose "Keep current leaders" then of course, you won't hire Jojo. But if you choose "Hire Jojo" then it will ask you to choose which leader you want to dismiss. Then click on the one you want to dismiss and Jojo will join your empire.

Of course though, we have to play the game to see what happens.

[viciouscycle]

Originally posted by Mr.Moustache
Also remember, Dan is playing an old beta from December. So there could be infact more spots for leaders or they could have added something that would let you decide to keep your current leaders or accept the new leader and kick one of your previous leaders out.

I think we are stuck with the four-leader thing. Dan's beta copy was late December and at that point they are doing regression testing which means bug squishing and maybe some number tweaking for play balance. High probability QS was in code lock at that point and no features were being added, deleted, or changed.

[niteshade6]

Have there been any other indications other then Dan about the leader issue? It's still just hard to imagine that Dan would even know, given that he hasn't played the game enough to even have space combat. I got the sense he never had more then one leader to begin with.

[billybaruch1]

It is perhaps an understatement when I say that there is a lot of material to cover in this article and, given that this is the sixth and final installment of my Master of Orion III preview series, it is best that we dive into it right away. I realize that it may be hefty going at times, but detail is what has been promised and detail is what is going to be delivered.

WHERE HAS ALL THE REVENUE GONE
Three weeks to the day that this article was published, I promised in an earlier installment of this feature that I would return to the 'Ledger' screen of the Finance menu. Unlike its cousin 'Budget', 'Ledger' is a summary screen where there is no direct action you can take here let alone are required to. I will get to indirect measures of action shortly, but first to analogize the 'Ledger' screen to Civilization III for a moment. CivIII's 'Trade' screen is similar in part to its said counterpart in MoO3. The 'Ledger', however, it is setup on a more macromanagement than micromanagement scale in mind. You are not presented with a meticulous breakdown of individual planets or systems of planets' income and expenses ratios but rather a balance sheet for your galactic empire as a whole. To see a more micromanagement-style setup, you will need to profile planets through the Planets screen – see page 4 for more on this.

This guy's team are slow learners.

Without further ado, in other words, "right away." In order to beat into the ground this detailed preview with yet another instalment, there's a lot to be covered that was purposely held back as a tease. I understand my explanations do not further the reader's grasp of the game's essentials, much less the fine points, but you have been warned!

'Ledger' is a summary screen where there is no direct action you can take here let alone are required to. I will get to indirect measures of action shortly

Indirect measures of action? No direct action? What's up with that? What are the requirements? An Honours course in English? What's the big deal about a "Summary Screen?" Why will I "need to profile planets" and see page 4? I just want to see what is fun about this game. These six previews are afu, imo.

There is plenty of information from the manual. No question or dispute there. But nothing DanQ wrote will be remembered (or considered important) after I play the game the first time.

Others' mileage may vary.

[niteshade6]

Well I'll certainly remember what Dan wrote, it's quite memorable. Even if we ignore the writing style, never before have I seen somebody write 36 pages about a game he didn't even bother to play for more then a very short time. Why he would do that will still be one of those mysteries that haunts me forever. I bet he won't even buy the game when it comes out, but yet he's a co-creator of a moo3 fansite. It's just too wierd to forget.

[Jamski]

Um, its called Apolyton Civilisation Site. Its nice of Dan and Mark to make space on the server for other games too. Thanks again !

-Jam

[niteshade6]

No, it's a Masters of Orion Fansite, that just happens to be linked to a Civilization Fansite, and which still uses the original name of the Civ site. But that doesn't change the fact that's it's a MoO fansite. Open your eyes.

[OmniDude]

Cudos to Dan, even if his writing skills are not uniformly stellar (or just not utilized properly in this case).

As for the genuity of his Moo3 passion, who cares? The man has definately earned his wings as the man behind THE website for classic TBS-gaming.
That probably does not leave a whole lot of time for gaming, still he stays on the job.
Speaking from experience, I'll have you know that very few people who actually have a life and are not still living with (or off) their parents, have the time to do any serious strategy gaming. Reality bites.
Let's be grateful that upon receiving the Beta, Dan did not just dig into it - like most of us would - not to be heard from unless to air frustration. Instead he sat down, wrote and published the most comprehensive preview I have ever seen (for free).
I, for one, is glad that he's not as much a hardcore gamer as he could be, otherwise I probably would not have the opportunity to write this, since Apolyton would then long since have been taken down due to lousy economy

[Grumbold]

Originally posted by niteshade6
No, it's a Masters of Orion Fansite, that just happens to be linked to a Civilization Fansite, and which still uses the original name of the Civ site. But that doesn't change the fact that's it's a MoO fansite. Open your eyes.

Hmm, definitely says Apolyton Civilisation Site at the top of my screen. Civilisation is the inspiration behind the site. Everything else has subsections because it is like Civilisation, inspired by Civilisation or just talked about enough by Civ fans that Dan & Mark gave it its own forum. Should the MoO3 pages be treated as if they are a totally seperate (sub)site? Why?