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I probably would not have bought MOOIII if I hadn't had a $25 gift certificate for Best Buy. The neg reviews came close to stopping me. I have not played the other MOOs so I can't compare this one to those. I've played a lot of other strat games. I'd say my favorites were Birth of the Federation (too many bugs, man I wish they'd do a BOTFII), Alien Crossfire (only a few bugs/complaints) and CTP2 (easy to mod, wish they were all this easy). I think CIVIII sucked and didn't waste my money on the patch, I mean PTW. I really don't know why they bother with multi-player on these games, they take so long for each turn and the overall game, who's going to hook up for that long? Just my opinion, I know it would be far more challenging than playing the AI. The only game I've played multi was Axis and Allies, that could take anywhere from an hour to a few days and that was a much simpler game. Another good one but a zillion bugs.
Sorry this is so long but I've been saving up since purchase day. First few games started on easy, rest on medium. I've started about 40 games, lost one by senate pres and turned that off since then. Haven't finished any other games yet, most to around 100-150 turns, one to 320 or so. Large cluster maps, 7 or 8 opponents, normal randoms, few short lanes and average specials. Play most as the Raas.
On to the MOOIII rants and raves.
If you get a Senate president election notice you can't vote for other bills. Of course this happened when there were proposals for total war against my 2 biggest enemies. I was able to vote on one of those on the next turn but missed a chance to vote on the other.
I suppose I'll have the stuff memorized eventually but the little keyboard shortcut card that came with the game is too small to read even with my glasses on.
The strange type with the gray background used for the manual really makes it hard to read. The only part easy to read (if you bother) is the license agreement section. Some of the type on some of the panels is unreadable even using my monitor's presentation mode. Usually 8s and 6s can't be distinguished, I think on the budget/ledger panels, probably others.
A huge readme file. I have a printer, but suppose I didn't. For $50 and all the release delays this stuff should be in the manual or encyclopedia. By the way, on the back of my CIVIII manual there was an ad for MOOIII. "First contact begins 01 2002"
The manual, which I think all would agree is lousy, could have been split into 2 parts. One for the background story and the other part for gameplay. This would make it easier to find out that what you're looking for isn't in the manual anyway.
Trades. Research trading in particular. I have to switch back and forth between the tech and diplomacy panels to see what level the techs are. It appears that the tech level for a given tech changes from game to game but there should still be a way to see the level on the diplomacy panel.
How many times have I tried to right click on a planet on the system panel and why? Didn't count but lots. To try to send a colony, outpost or migration to the planet. Arrrrrggh.
Some of the scoll bars don't make it clear that you have more choices if you scroll down and sometimes it looks like a choice from the scroll bar below is a choice from the scroll bar you are in. I notice the latter on the shipyard panel, maybe others.
There ought to be a button. I tend to start a new game if I don't like the location or think I should have done this or that and would be doing much better. It would be nice to be able to start a new game with the same settings that you started the currect game with using one click instead of having to choose all the same stuff again on at least 2 panels. Plus I've already clicked on new game from inside the game. Why does it take me to the main panel where I then choose new game?
Once I start the new game, the setup takes forever. There should be a way to save and later import dev plans and ship designs. The ship designs that contain something you haven't researched could have "not available" or something over the name.
There ought to be another panel. Piracy or system piracy but I guess you might need planets too. What effect are my ships and/or planetary shields having on the system overall and the planets individually? Do I need to build more ships to eliminate piracy? Let's see, I go to the planet panel and add up all the planet sizes for the planets I control in the system (assume that all regions are developed), then go to the fleets panel and figure out the sizes of my system ships and what effect they are supposed to have. Add in any starships in the system and comapre the numbers. Times 20, or 30, or 40, then add a couple newly colonized planets and recalculate. Maybe I'm missing something again or should just keep a million ships for defense anyway but I'd like to see this info provided.
Another panel? What effect is anything I do having on unrest? All I see is piracy, leader effect, high tax, human. If I build a division, how much of a reduction will I see. If I build a corps or army? Maybe if I boost the budget slider one notch. Two notches, who knows. Reduce taxes, how low? Too much trial and error here. I'd like more numbers.
Bring up the planets panel. Double click on a planet, then economy, then military. What planet are you on? Who knows? You can't tell any longer because the name doesn't appear now. Maybe I'm getting old and losing my memory but going through a ton of planets, every now and then I'll be going down the line and forget. While I'm on this one, I should be able to go from one military panel and on to the next planet's military panel. Instead I have to back out and use a couple more clicks to get to the next one. Same thing for the planetary and economic DEA or buildings panels. I tried the <> keys but they don't work for me. Maybe I missed something.
Ground force creation. Another pain and then the all reserves button or whatever doesn't really list all reserves. For instance there could be a list of all reserves displaying zero commandos. I click on commandos and there are 20 just waiting to be deployed. I did use the scroll. Just doesn't make sense. All reserves should really list them all.
The ground combat looks like it would be more fun if it wasn't such a pain to get the troops there. Build the troops. Build the transports. Create the ground force (too many clicks if you don't want the default). Hope you have enough transports (and escorts if the task force is bigger than I guess a detachment). Send them to the system. Hope you remember to choose the right planet to invade. I just bombard the planets to nothing. Maybe once I play more I'll try to get the planets with intact infrastructure and pop. I suppose that's better strategy anyway, plus I saw somewhere that the patch will give you a random tech on conquest) seems to take more time but then I don't have to worry about colonizing and developing the planet or keeping the other races from trying. Maybe because I usually don't send a big enough force I feel I wasted the time.
Ground forces can teleport to other systems but ships can't without a mob center? I guess they really are teleporting, cause you'd think they'd need ships to get there. Then again the ship created in a system without a mob center teleports to a system with one. I think the ground forces should stay where you create them unless you move them by ship or at least have mob centers. Starships should be deployable from the system created or any system with a mob center if the creating system has a mob center.
The task force battles could have been made more like the ground combat panel or much improved graphically. The little dots don't do anything for me. The weapons fire looks good but that will get old after a while.
AI doesn't attack planets. Incredible!
Economy, I still have almost no idea as to how it works. Just hope I don't go negative.
Galaxy looks okay, systems/planets look great, though you don't spend much time looking at them. Overall, I'd say the game is average. Not great, not terrible if they patch the AI so it will invade planets. I just hope they fix the bugs and add some of the features above to make it easier to play. Then if I ever figure out what I'm doing and what effects it has, I'll be able to apply some strategy.
No movies. Glad they didn't put any in. I look at them once and turn them off if I can. Wasted effort as far as I'm concerned.
While I'm ranting, if they come out with a new manual I hope it's Word or text format and not PDF. I have the free version of acrobat so I can't make any changes to the file. PDFs sometimes have a gray background which wastes my toner and takes longer when I print. Hopefully there will be an updated encyclopedia that covers everything.
Thought I had something else but I guess the old guy memory is kicking in (out?)again. Bored anyone who read this enough by now anyway. I'll put the questions I really hope to get answers to in the help forum to make it easy to find in case someone else has the same question.
Sorry this is so long but I've been saving up since purchase day. First few games started on easy, rest on medium. I've started about 40 games, lost one by senate pres and turned that off since then. Haven't finished any other games yet, most to around 100-150 turns, one to 320 or so. Large cluster maps, 7 or 8 opponents, normal randoms, few short lanes and average specials. Play most as the Raas.
On to the MOOIII rants and raves.
If you get a Senate president election notice you can't vote for other bills. Of course this happened when there were proposals for total war against my 2 biggest enemies. I was able to vote on one of those on the next turn but missed a chance to vote on the other.
I suppose I'll have the stuff memorized eventually but the little keyboard shortcut card that came with the game is too small to read even with my glasses on.
The strange type with the gray background used for the manual really makes it hard to read. The only part easy to read (if you bother) is the license agreement section. Some of the type on some of the panels is unreadable even using my monitor's presentation mode. Usually 8s and 6s can't be distinguished, I think on the budget/ledger panels, probably others.
A huge readme file. I have a printer, but suppose I didn't. For $50 and all the release delays this stuff should be in the manual or encyclopedia. By the way, on the back of my CIVIII manual there was an ad for MOOIII. "First contact begins 01 2002"
The manual, which I think all would agree is lousy, could have been split into 2 parts. One for the background story and the other part for gameplay. This would make it easier to find out that what you're looking for isn't in the manual anyway.
Trades. Research trading in particular. I have to switch back and forth between the tech and diplomacy panels to see what level the techs are. It appears that the tech level for a given tech changes from game to game but there should still be a way to see the level on the diplomacy panel.
How many times have I tried to right click on a planet on the system panel and why? Didn't count but lots. To try to send a colony, outpost or migration to the planet. Arrrrrggh.
Some of the scoll bars don't make it clear that you have more choices if you scroll down and sometimes it looks like a choice from the scroll bar below is a choice from the scroll bar you are in. I notice the latter on the shipyard panel, maybe others.
There ought to be a button. I tend to start a new game if I don't like the location or think I should have done this or that and would be doing much better. It would be nice to be able to start a new game with the same settings that you started the currect game with using one click instead of having to choose all the same stuff again on at least 2 panels. Plus I've already clicked on new game from inside the game. Why does it take me to the main panel where I then choose new game?
Once I start the new game, the setup takes forever. There should be a way to save and later import dev plans and ship designs. The ship designs that contain something you haven't researched could have "not available" or something over the name.
There ought to be another panel. Piracy or system piracy but I guess you might need planets too. What effect are my ships and/or planetary shields having on the system overall and the planets individually? Do I need to build more ships to eliminate piracy? Let's see, I go to the planet panel and add up all the planet sizes for the planets I control in the system (assume that all regions are developed), then go to the fleets panel and figure out the sizes of my system ships and what effect they are supposed to have. Add in any starships in the system and comapre the numbers. Times 20, or 30, or 40, then add a couple newly colonized planets and recalculate. Maybe I'm missing something again or should just keep a million ships for defense anyway but I'd like to see this info provided.
Another panel? What effect is anything I do having on unrest? All I see is piracy, leader effect, high tax, human. If I build a division, how much of a reduction will I see. If I build a corps or army? Maybe if I boost the budget slider one notch. Two notches, who knows. Reduce taxes, how low? Too much trial and error here. I'd like more numbers.
Bring up the planets panel. Double click on a planet, then economy, then military. What planet are you on? Who knows? You can't tell any longer because the name doesn't appear now. Maybe I'm getting old and losing my memory but going through a ton of planets, every now and then I'll be going down the line and forget. While I'm on this one, I should be able to go from one military panel and on to the next planet's military panel. Instead I have to back out and use a couple more clicks to get to the next one. Same thing for the planetary and economic DEA or buildings panels. I tried the <> keys but they don't work for me. Maybe I missed something.
Ground force creation. Another pain and then the all reserves button or whatever doesn't really list all reserves. For instance there could be a list of all reserves displaying zero commandos. I click on commandos and there are 20 just waiting to be deployed. I did use the scroll. Just doesn't make sense. All reserves should really list them all.
The ground combat looks like it would be more fun if it wasn't such a pain to get the troops there. Build the troops. Build the transports. Create the ground force (too many clicks if you don't want the default). Hope you have enough transports (and escorts if the task force is bigger than I guess a detachment). Send them to the system. Hope you remember to choose the right planet to invade. I just bombard the planets to nothing. Maybe once I play more I'll try to get the planets with intact infrastructure and pop. I suppose that's better strategy anyway, plus I saw somewhere that the patch will give you a random tech on conquest) seems to take more time but then I don't have to worry about colonizing and developing the planet or keeping the other races from trying. Maybe because I usually don't send a big enough force I feel I wasted the time.
Ground forces can teleport to other systems but ships can't without a mob center? I guess they really are teleporting, cause you'd think they'd need ships to get there. Then again the ship created in a system without a mob center teleports to a system with one. I think the ground forces should stay where you create them unless you move them by ship or at least have mob centers. Starships should be deployable from the system created or any system with a mob center if the creating system has a mob center.
The task force battles could have been made more like the ground combat panel or much improved graphically. The little dots don't do anything for me. The weapons fire looks good but that will get old after a while.
AI doesn't attack planets. Incredible!
Economy, I still have almost no idea as to how it works. Just hope I don't go negative.
Galaxy looks okay, systems/planets look great, though you don't spend much time looking at them. Overall, I'd say the game is average. Not great, not terrible if they patch the AI so it will invade planets. I just hope they fix the bugs and add some of the features above to make it easier to play. Then if I ever figure out what I'm doing and what effects it has, I'll be able to apply some strategy.
No movies. Glad they didn't put any in. I look at them once and turn them off if I can. Wasted effort as far as I'm concerned.
While I'm ranting, if they come out with a new manual I hope it's Word or text format and not PDF. I have the free version of acrobat so I can't make any changes to the file. PDFs sometimes have a gray background which wastes my toner and takes longer when I print. Hopefully there will be an updated encyclopedia that covers everything.
Thought I had something else but I guess the old guy memory is kicking in (out?)again. Bored anyone who read this enough by now anyway. I'll put the questions I really hope to get answers to in the help forum to make it easy to find in case someone else has the same question.