One last MOO II game

[shmily_dana]

I wanted to play one last MOO II game this weekend, but family stuff got in the way. (I have twin toddlers and not much time...)

Anyone play one last game of MOO II?

Since CivIII came out, I never went back to Civ II. The same with Age of Kings when Age of Mythology came out. Do you think you'll go back to MOO II?

[Main_Brain]

Well I have one MoO2 MP still unfinished ;=)

[Kc7mxo]

What do you mean last?

[Anguille2]

If MOO3 was "the" game, i guess that i would do that. I hope that MOO3 is good but i don't think it's the game i have been waiting for. I even suspect that MOO2 has some parts better than MOO3 (Leaders, Planetary viceroys (ever seen a fertile planet with people starving?) or even battles)....
So i think that i will be playing MOO2 some more years until another team tries to make something better (MOO4).
What's more: i still play the original Age of Empires (haven't finished the scenarios of the extension, yet) and Age of Kings. I have to say that i don't like those 3D games so much: doesn't look that good yet, maybe in some years.

[Harry Seldon]

I'm sure I will. Just because a game gets older doesn't mean it's obsolete. I still pull my Atari 5200 out every once in a while to throw down on some Dreadnaught Factor. One day I'll beat that one hundred ship armada

[Pallidyne]

I still play MOO1 AND MOO2... MOO3 will definately take a place in the rotation. If its stupendous, then it will have bigger spaces in the rotation.

(Course I still also play Civ and CivNET and DO NOT play Civ3 at all)

-P

[Araanor]

I played a fair bit yesterday. Despite my fond memories, MOO2 bores me by now. Too much micromanagement, gameplay that stays the same and annoying AI. Suddenly I'm at war with the Sillicoids, no warning, their ships enclosing on several of my systems. I couldn't bring myself to fighting them. Quit game.

[Eric S]

For the first time in my two months of play (bought MoO2 to warm up for MoO3), I got my butt kicked after I thought I had hit critical mass Saturday :-) I got framed, war was declared, and I wasn't ready. I quickly got ready and held my own, despite having a glaring gap in my tech tree. I forgot to push on to Titan construction, so when the largest warmonger on the map starts throwing DoomStars at me and all I've got are BattleShips, it was interesting. Of course, my ship design was better, so I only needed about a 75% advantage numerically (ie 14 BS to 8 DS) to win. I was building up strength when he threw 40 DS at my homeworld, defended by almost my entire fleet. I knew it was going to be tough, this one battle would decide the outcome of the war, and I thought I was going to be able to pull it off. Until the first shots of the war, that is. The bugger had managed to research stellar converters, and this entire DS fleet had them. Talk about game over. Half my fleet didn't even get the chance to shoot.

I won't let that be my last MoO2 game.

[drsparnum]

What happened

I played MOO2 yesterday, thinking I would get a confidence booster. You see, among my friends I was the guy who never lost. The first one to win on impossible in a small galaxy and some other feats. Anyway, I lost. I lost twice! My usual formula is that the game is 90% technology and 10% everything else. After reading lore weaver's strategy guide about how the insecta are a good first choice in MOO3 because they breed, farm and build ships out the yin yang (even if those ships are technically inferior) I played as the Klackons. So I played as the Klackons and tried to expand much more then usual and tech'd less, since the klackons don't get tech choices (although I got the research lab as an option - I feel cheated if I don't at least get the research lab or automated factory). I started right by the Silicoids and after a short while they surprise attacked me and destroyed my home world. Undettered, I played a second game as the Silicoids (can't beat 'em join 'em). I again emphasized expansion over tech. The Bulrathi attacked me (everyone hates the silicoids) and I beat them. Before the Bulrathi fight ended the Alkari had attacked me. I wiped them out too and got a moment respite. I think the wars put my poor misunderstood crystals too far behind technologically though, since the Trilarian's (thats right-THE TRILARIANS) came over after a while with a fleet that I could not catch destroying all my planets. Even if I could catch them I'm not sure I would even dent any of there ships. Thus the Silicoid empire lay in ruin. Trully I am not the Master of Orion. So much for a confidence booster.

[Kaptain Ken]

Moo2 will survive just like Civ2 has survived the third.

[vmxa1]

Eric good story, the moral of it is to keep an eye out for the fleets. Do not let them get so large they can not be stopped. If they get first shots, it is bad news.
I still play Moo1 and Moo2. I am going to install Moo3 as soon as I finish this post, so I shall see if it will be in the rotation or not.
Civ3, did make it hard to play civ2 any more, but I would expect to fire up a game once in a great while. Civ3 is so much like Civ2, there is not much need to fall back.
Moo2 is not so similar to Moo1, that it feels the same. I may play Moo2 and then play Moo1 the next day, or visa versa. Have fun.

[Eric S]

All too true. The Lizards had over a third the galaxy, I should have been more prepared.

On the other hand, in my followup game, I had something very funny happen Huge/pre-warp, and I had a good/bad starting position. Decided to wean myself off of telepathy since it isn't in MoO 3, so I picked aquatic instead. Got a starting world almost dead center of the map, with another large ocean world in the same system. That was the good news. The bad news was that while I could get scout ships to other stars, the only star close enough to get to without improved fuel cells was Orion. Still, I managed to contact the other 7 empires fairly quickly, establishing non-aggression pacts with everyone and trade/research agreements with many. Funny thing happened when the first Senate election took place. Everyone was just about even on population counts (I almost never see that). Because I was an aquatic with two ocean planets in my home system, I was in the #2 position, despite the fact that I had problems expanding, and my opponent wasn't a peace-nik like myself, so other than my opponent, everyone votes for me. If they had had two more votes, they would have voted me in against my will!

I can certainly see why this game has remained popular for so long I can't say that no two games are alike, but at least every third game puts me in a position that has never happened before.

[vmxa1]

True

[The Mad Monk]

My last MoO2 game will probably occur shortly before my demise.

[vmxa1]

Now that is how I see it. The frequency may go down a tad, but not to zero.