Who let me into the senate?

[drsparnum]

I finished my first of two MOO3 games just now (I have one going at each of the places I have computer access). I won by senate victory in a game on easy. I won't bore you with too many of the details of my campain much more then necessary to ask my question.

I didn't start in the senate but all of a sudden I found in my sit rep that some senate bills demanded my attention. I looked in the foreign tab to see that I could now see the senate screen now, which I couldn't before. Brief side note, of the two existing laws one was a resolution to declare total war against me although, since only 1 of the 4 AI powers was at war with me I think alot of them, especially my ally, were ignoring that. There was a bill to defame an AI power I was pretty indifferent to. I remembered reading that not voting pissed off the New Orions so I was unsure how to vote not knowing who to piss off more. Then I looked at the vote totals and I controlled more then half the votes myself. Now fearless, I decided to abstain just to piss off the NO ****** who had spied on me all game, kinda hoping they would attack me. Next turn a proposal came through to elect a new senate leader. I voted for myself and I won (lame lame lame game ending- what happened to the movie telling me I was the Master of Orion?!? Am I the only one who likes those kind of things?).

When did I get in the senate? How did I get in the senate? Shouldn't someone have told me I was in the senate? Shouldn't it have had a bit more pomp and circumstance then just having a bill show up in the sit-rep? Did something similiar happen to anyone else?

Overall, I think I will like this game (especially the multiplayer I am really training for). Just confused about the senate (as well as a few other issues not related to this).

[Iasius]

Happened in my firstever moo3 game, too. I was voted into the senate although at that point I only knew 2 other races and I was at war with one of them (me being silicoid).
Anyway I usually miss the reports of new proposed bills among all the other SitReps demanding my attention.
So far having started with 6 different races I was only once a starting member of the senate(as Psilon) with choice being "random" every time.

[drsparnum]

This is not on topic of my original thread but I agree with you that stuff like this is easily missed in the sit-rep. Some of the items that are green are things I will be very interested in (spy stuff, unrest stuff, that one senate bill). Most stuff (construction of various items - especially non-military stuff) could go. The assignment of all these things to green forces me to either take or leave the whole lump. So, every turn I have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the green info to see the spy stuff. This was where I saw the senate stuff.

[Arnelos]

The thing that most annoys me about the Senate and the sitrep is that you get a sitrep warning when a new bill has been proposed and needs a second, but you DO NOT get a sitrep warning when the bill is ready to be voted on (which, if it gets a second, might be the next turn).

So if you're handling a bajillion other things, it's easy to forget the next turn that a senate bill had been proposed on the previous turn.

The sheer number of bills that I've seconded that I forgot to vote on is staggering...