EXCLUSIVE! Master of Orion III review AND an interview with William C. Fisher

[JonahFalcon]

Conquest of the New World Deluxe Edition has been included in many bundle packs, but I bought it when it first came out. It was a great game - extremely fun. It was the advanced 3D version of Seven Cities of Gold.

(sigh) Just realized I never mentioned a key part of the game - development plans. Ah well... I guess I stressed the Big Picture angle enough for people -- and there's a screenshot of the development plans screen.

[Sirian]

Well written review, Jonah. I found it informative in many regards. I also enjoyed the interview. What else is there to say? Not much. The Moo boards are already full of people saying a whole lot of nothing about nothing to fill the vacuum of anticipation waiting for the game to arrive, so I'll skip that phase if you don't mind. Good work and thanks.


- Sirian

[RolandtheMad]

I wonder when this fabled patch or expansion will come out?

[darcy]

I'm a bit disappointed that you gave in to this silly hystery and censored your review. I think it compromises your independence and integrity as a reviewer to give in to the wishes of the people you are supposed to criticize.

I liked how you explained the workings of mechanisms of DEA and research, I begin to understand how they work now. I wish there was more on combat, though -- space, and especially ground combat are the most exciting parts. What tactics can be employed?

And what is that about an expansion? Not very promising if the game feels like lacking an expansion right out of the box.

[JonahFalcon]

There's no "go ahead" word yet on an expansion - that's IG's decision. However, they're definitely working on a patch - no fixes that I know of, but a ton of AI tweaks and other tweaks. Basically the patch is an improvement patch, not a fix patch.

[RolandtheMad]

Originally posted by darcy
I'm a bit disappointed that you gave in to this silly hystery and censored your review. I think it compromises your independence and integrity as a reviewer to give in to the wishes of the people you are supposed to criticize.

This has been an issue before with other reviews and they also removed it. Like Matt said, some of us have remained unspoiled to the secrets of the Ithkul and we would like a little suprise.

And what is that about an expansion? Not very promising if the game feels like lacking an expansion right out of the box.

My thoughts too, but I think Moo will beat any other TBS that will be released for a long time and hopefully they`ll patch it up.

I still can`t believe how some things have been over looked though. No renamable systems? Refitting? Mountains and plains on gas giants? An E for effort!

[JonahFalcon]

Originally posted by darcy
I'm a bit disappointed that you gave in to this silly hystery and censored your review. I think it compromises your independence and integrity as a reviewer to give in to the wishes of the people you are supposed to criticize.

I liked how you explained the workings of mechanisms of DEA and research, I begin to understand how they work now. I wish there was more on combat, though -- space, and especially ground combat are the most exciting parts. What tactics can be employed?

And what is that about an expansion? Not very promising if the game feels like lacking an expansion right out of the box.

Well, the BEST way to describe DEAs is that they are now the "buildings", and what used to be buildings in MOO2 now augment or supplement the DEAs and/or regions.

Incidentally, Hydroponic Farms was a bad example - a viceroy will build a Farm in any region regardless of DEA. Soil Enrichment, when built, directly augment EACH Bioharvest DEA individually.

[darcy]

This has been an issue before with other reviews and they also removed it. Like Matt said, some of us have remained unspoiled to the secrets of the Ithkul and we would like a little suprise.

Your decision, but you shouldn't read reviews then. This is alot like all censorship arguments: Should material be censored for everyone because a few people are offended by it, or should the few people just be careful and stay away from the material that offends them?

[JonahFalcon]

It's a non-issue, really. If they didn't like the "spoiler", that's okay - it has nothing to do with gameplay itself. It was changed because it was a minor part of the review.

[darcy]

And here's another non-issue because I'm in nitpicky mood:

How can you plug holes that are missing? (last sentence)

And did I get that right, buildings are are built for the whole planet not just for one DEA?

[JonahFalcon]

That was a grammatical error on my part. (shrug)

[Green Giant]

The review was good but its hard to judge it without being able to play the game and gauge how fair and honest the review was. There was nothing wrong with it that I saw. I really liked the interview though. I look forward to seeing how much of the original concept is represented in the final product

[JonahFalcon]

Er, the point of a review is to judge it for you whether or not to buy.

If you like, read multiple reviews.

[darcy]

Problem is, none of them (at least none of those I've read) explains the tactical (ground) combat in detail.

I want to know whether smart decisions can actually overcome a numerical disadvantage.

[JonahFalcon]

Yes. There are 29 types each of attack and defense, and picking the right one, like a ruse, can give you an advantage bonus in combat. For example, if you're attacking, and you do a Ruse, you'll get a 90% bonus to your ratings if the defense attempts a massed assault.

That is, if you succeed in your ruse.