Life's too short...

[mrbilll]

to play galactic spreadsheet simulators. The acolytes of Moo3 insist that you've just gotta dedicate 20-30 hours of your life to learning to love it. I'd rather just skip ahead to the cyanide cool aid.

Where to start? The migraine inducing fonts. The bland, Byzantine maze of uninformative interface screens. The inscrutable galaxy map, where all names disappear at any useful zoom level. The flat, uninteresting ships and combat screens.

I don't give a rat's behind about DEA's,AU's,PP's, RP's, and all the rest of this crap, especially when you're not supposed to even MESS with it anyway, and let "uncle viceroy" take care of everything.

They should've named this one "Galactic Bureaucrat Tycoon". If I wanted this kind of experience, I'd join the U.N. Anyone who genuinely enjoys this mess should seek help.

Yeah, I know that all the faithful are going to jump on me now, flaming away about what a wuss I am, how I don't understand it, etc.,etc. Save your breath guys. I've got three words for ya.

Bite me, Fanboy.

[Alex]

FLAME WARS! FLAME WARS!

[Harry Seldon]

Do they make cyanide cool aids? How exactly does it aid your 'coolness'? Can you give factors and percentages, because I sure could use some cool points.

[mrbilll]

Wanna know about cyanide kool aid? Go to your search engine and type in Jonestown.

I'm really not out to cause trouble. I just wanted to register my genuine disappointment and disgust before I take Moo3 back to the store for a refund. Maybe someone will listen, and a patch or mod will improve things, but I kinda doubt it.

I've been looking forward to this one for a long time. I've been hoping the optimists were right. They weren't. Mark my words, this one's gonna go down in the "coulda been a contender" file. I wish it weren't so. I really wanted to like this one, and I DID spend a good 15 hours reading the manual, playing several games out, and so on. It just isn't working for me, and I suspect that's going to be true for 4 out of 5 people who try to sink their teeth into it.

[installationCD]

While I can't comment on the actual gameplay yet, because the game is all pausing(see MOO3 keeps pausing )thread, I have to say that being a gaming vet of 13 years since the days of the sega mega drive, anyone remember that!!.
Apart from the star map it looks pretty dated! IMHO..
But hey.... It may play fantastic..Also it seems ironic that the game I have looked forward to most for about a year, is the only game I can't get running!?!?
Oh well!

[SithUK]

As Space Strat fans we've been stuck for choice for years. Don't panic if Moo3 isn't for you. Galciv ( www.galciv.com ) is out 25th March :-)

Check its forum and read the postings from Beta Testers etc. Its set to be very fun! Not complex as hell to the point where u need to spend 1/2 u're life learning it first before u can enjoy it!

Btw I'm buying Moo3 if it gets released in the UK. The genre needs the sales support.

Sith

[Yodasplat]

I am enjoying MOO3 but I am definetly gonna look into getting GalCiv too!

[Romanus]

mrbill

I appreciate your opinion of the game, dont see you as causing any trouble at all. In fact, to some extent, I agree with you. I spent several hours playing yesterday and last night, and my initial impressions are mixed.

What bothers me more than the learning curve and sometimes overload of info, is that I dont get that feeling of being in a living universe. When I play Civ3, its apparent what your opponent civs are like. They definately have personality. Even Imperium Galactica2, flaws and all, gives me that feeling.

I will admit, I probably havent played far enough into the game to be too judgemental. So far I only know of two races. Im going to restart a game and just micromanage the heck out of it until it gets too overwhelming. I think if I feel a little more control over the whole thing, it may increase my enjoyment.

I traded American Conquest in for MOO3, so thats it for EB, cant take MOO3 back. So I really want to put it thru a workout before I pass final judgement.

[mrbilll]

You make a great point, SithUK. GalCiv has been in the back of my mind for a while now, and it's now on the front burner, for obvious reasons. I had high hopes for Moo3 because of the pedigree. But GalCiv is said to be a very different game, and after trying Moo3, I find that hopeful.

Good luck with Moo3. I gave fair warning with my post, but if you can get enjoyment out of it, more power to you.

[Romanus]

Oh yeah...GalCiv will be added to my software library also......im primarily a single player gamer, so its at least intended primarily for my crowd.

[Lemmy]

The inscrutable galaxy map, where all names disappear at any useful zoom level.

I've feared this when i heard they fixed the resolution at 800x600...i've tried to discuss it with a fanboy, but got portrayed as a graphics intensive RTS-loving teenager

[TrainWreck20]

Yeah, the resolution on the 'galactic' map appears to be somewhat of a problem. The starlanes concept (circa 'Ascendency') helps to limit the the important galactic areas to few planets. However, it would be nice to color code or something so you could zoom out and get a good picture of territory.

[Craig P.]

Hit the 'b' key when you're in the galactic map to switch to the "borders/flags" view. It will do some kind of color coding on the starlanes (not 100% sure how it decides to do it).

[TrainWreck20]

Ahhh...that would help. Will have to wait until I get home to try all this schtuff I am learning today

[booje]

MOO3 first impressions update: I am running an experiment on MOO3 and it's not going well (depending on your point of view!)

The experiment involves DOING NOTHING! I'm simply hitting the next turn button to see what will happen.

After 2+ hours I'm at turn 200. We shall see.