give me a list of reasons why.

I have Civ3 and AoM already to take care of... how good is this game, with (i heard) restrictions on micromanagement??

I am finding MOO3 very strong so far. Its not a perfect game so far Id rate it about an 8 out of 10. They patch it up and fix a few things and it could get a 9 with little problem.

I am a huge turn bases strategy fan though. I have played all the Civs ( minus Call to Power ), Alpha Centauri and of course the MOO series.

I could list 100 reasons why you would want to buy this game. However since we are on a Civ themed website. Ill use these.

1> It is a very strong game, lots and lots of depth for you to explore. Have you "figured out" Civ3? Do you have tactics and strats that work "all the time" vs the cpu?

2> Taking over the world getting a little stale? Expand! Move up from there, take over your solar system then a chunk of the galaxy.

3> Ship combat is handled real time and is many notches better than Civ's poke poke, die combat animations. Fleet vs Fleet combat looks like it could be alot of fun. Simple to use and rewarding when your point defence ships manage to destroy salvo after salvo of the enemies missiles.

4> Planetary Bombardment :)

Cheers,

I have to second Angmar here. This game has a dimension (:lol:) of it's own. Lots to learn here.

Do you think MOO3 is mainly for Sci-Fi fans? I have to confess I haven't played any MOO games before. :blush:

I won't say it's mainly for Sci-Fi fans (talking about the whole series here), but if you really hate Sci-Fi you probably better keep away.
However it should also be attractive for Civ players in general, as it is a 4X series after all, and there are not that many on the market.

Considering MoO3 in particular my opinion can be read in the other threads. As I said there I don't want to keep anyone from buying it, it's just that I don't like it at all. To me #3 is far less 4X than the others.
A reviewer called it the "anti Sid Meier school of game design", which is quite fitting in my opinion.
But if someone, like TF, never played 1 or 2 he won't see the difference and so might still like it alot.

MOO3
I think this sums up what playing MOO3 is like. Your planet builds a scoutship right, you want it to go scout...... heres what you have to do in moo3

Close this window, open that one, click on this button, there you are, now you want your newly built scout ship to go out and explore?

clear task force
add scout ship
change task force size to detatchment
change task force mission to recon.

press escape
press escape

now, wait a turn for the task force to be made
and next turn you can move it to the planet of your choice! :b: :rolleyes:

in MOO:
wanna move your scout ship?
click on the stack, select the scout ship, tell it to move to the next planet

So basically one form of "micromanagement" was traded for another.

Neomega has it right - it is a little weird how much it takes to move one ship, the first time.....but it makes it easier in the long run when moving multiple ships (from what I can see).

Move a ship?

Just press the taskforce, then the system you want to go to... that easy.

Although you have to create a Taskforce if you don't have one.

Right, but what I am saying is that in order to move the ship you first have to put it into a task force. And that is why after the first time moving the ship it isn't as hard to move the ship.:)

I would suggest not buying the game right away, in it's current state it offers no challenge whatsoever and has a few problems. This game has potential, but I would wait untill it there is a decent patch, or third part mod.

Picked up this game over the weekend. Spent over 4 hours playing it and then reading the manual for about 1 hour.


My initial impression is this; I am pondering returning this game. I'm not sure if I like it or not. Civ3 even with all it's horrible flaws grabbed me right out of the box. Moo3 while having no major flaws right out of the box(aside from the claim by many that the AI is not aggressive at all, but too early for me to see for myself) did not reach out and grab me the way Civ3 did. Maybe time will tell but the return policy is 14 days. We'll see what happens.

Reason to buy: Because I said to, *****! ;)

Just discovered GALCIV.

It is a cross between Civ2 and moo2. With a wicked AI.

Looks great.
I will buy that.
http://www.galciv.com/

Moo3 is my first Moo game. I am really enjoying it so far but it does have a large learning curve.

As for the taskforce stuff I kinda like that feature. It makes sense to have your ships part of task forces and once you start to get a larger number of ships it becomes increasingly more manageble as you could put a whole bunch of ships in a single task force and they move/attack as a whole.

When playing today I just realised that I can move the two scouts and the colony ship I get at the start of the game separately. Before I would move them all together. :lol:

Bought the game today - holy hell talk about throwing you in the deep end. :eek:

On the whole though it looks interesting, and being a MOO2 fan I'll keep at it.

Best thing so far has been the background story in the instruction book. :D

why should u buy moo3?, frankly you shouldnt. I played the original MOO before ever playing civ and loved moo2. But Moo3 is something else.

Let me clear up one thing, if this game hadnt had the name "Master of Orion 3" I doubt that even 10% of the people willing to put hard hours into just learning this game would be even be doing it. I read the entire manual for this game cover to cover, something i havent done for a game in years,,, and i still dont understand half of what is going on, mainly because they leave so much out.

I dont want to go into details because frankly there is too much wrong with the game too explain it all. But considering Gamespot, a very well trusted site for thier reviews gave it a 6.7, that isnt saying much. If you really want to know how the game is, wait for PC gamer to give thier review, then average it with the gamespot one, im predicting thiers wont be much better.

I agree with naf4ever and have returned the game since my last post seen above. Life is too short to have to deal with this fiasco.

I'd give it an 8 out of 100. Not good at all. They had lofty goals and grand concepts, and I preached that it would be a good game, but I see now that we were decieved. As stated before, without the MOO name, no one would give this game a second look.

If you're intent on it, though, see if some one else you know already has it, and borrow it from them for a couple nights and see if you like it. Maybe you will. Otherwise, wait till patches come out and the price drops. I've only ever bought about 6 games as they just came out (and thank God this wasn't one of them), the rest I wait till they're $20, or $30 if I really want them.

What games did I pay full price for? UT1, UT2, Civ3 (actually given to me for Christmas), Quake3, EU1, and EU2. UT2 and Quake3 were not really worth it, in my opinion, but not that bad of a deal, I suppose. Had I not gotten EU1, I'd've felt I got a good deal on EU2. Quake2, UT1, EU2, Diablo2, and Civ3 are some of the best recent games I've got.

Originally posted by SunTzu
give me a list of reasons why.

Hmmmm

Hmmmm

Hmmmm

Okay - you shouldn't.


Ashoka

Don't, save your money for Galactic Civilizations instead.

MOO3 is one of THE biggest disappointments of the last few years, a total piece of crap.

Buy it!

If you are expecting MOO 2.5, then don't. If you were hanging around these boards when Civ3 first came out, you will notice a lot of similar criticisms of MOO3 that you heard about Civ3. Having never played MOO2, here's the objective viewpoint.

MOO3 is a great game. Or at least, will be a great game when the patch comes out; right now it is merely a very good game, and worth buying to plod through all of the menus and to figure out the interface to the point where a few clicks will get you exactly where you want to go. Having spent about 10 hours on this game so far, I'm hooked. I'm now exploring the depth of the game - there are so many management tools at your disposal that it will take awhile to get the hang of.

The steep learning curve is due as much to vast number of features to explore as anything else. If you think Civ3 is a complex game, than MOO3 is probably not for you - there are so many things to explore about this game that it will take awhile to get used to. I think many people gave up an hour or 2 into it due to impatience; if you are impatient this game is also not for you.

One thing - get used to not knowing what is going on. The one glaring weakness of this game is the lack of documentation - with all that is going on, there is no explanation anywhere about why things happen when they do, how different buildings affect planetary development, etc. Thankfully, the good people at Infogrames message boards have begun explaining many of the features already, and in the coming weeks will have completely revealed the inner workings of the game:

http://moo3.quicksilver.com

The bottom line is that the game takes a little getting used to, and is quite unique in its implementation. Don't expect a ton of eye candy - the graphics do their job adequately, but if it's eye candy you're looking for than you're in the wrong genre. I think it is a brilliant gaming concept, but there are many gamers who think the opposite, so caveat emptor.

My advice would be to buy it, but make sure your game shop will give you a full refund if you don't like it. Don't dismiss it after an hour if you find it too cumbersome, but if you still don't get it after a couple weeks, go get your money back.

hey metalhead, I'm glad I'm not the only freak that loves this game ;)

Actually I played MoO2 and I like MoO3 more, it's totally different so comparing these two is almost impossible.

I think MoO3 is one of these rare games where it's impossible to say in advance, whether or not you will like it. You will just have to try yourself.

Its good to see other people are also enjoying the game.

It took me about half a week to understand the game but I am still learning new things even now (a month on).

Once the patch comes out for the game it will be a masterpiece IMO.

metalhead: a better manual is also in the works by QS.

Originally posted by bladester
Its good to see other people are also enjoying the game.

It took me about half a week to understand the game but I am still learning new things even now (a month on).

Once the patch comes out for the game it will be a masterpiece IMO.

metalhead: a better manual is also in the works by QS.

I agree. Once the patches are out and we have full documentation, I don't think I'll be able to tear myself away from this game. I'm glad I ignored all of the negative reviews when I decided to buy it.

Galactic Civilization was good out of the box. I didn't even have to wait for the first upgrade patch (upgrade=operative word). The first patch was actually a bonus pack that added features to the game. After wasting my money on MOOIII I was very happy to see GalCiv come out right after and at least soothe my need for 4x TBS.

Tough one. I bought it right away. I started to play it. It took me a while to get the basics. After that I started to read the manual. (I always do it in this order... :) ) I like the possibilities the game offers. You have a lot of options, possible strategies to get the upper hand. However, after about ten days playing I started to play civ3, steel panthers and IL2 again. The game didn't grab me as it should have. I really don't know if this is a great game. Sun tsu, if I were you: wait. Wait for the mods, wait for the price to drop because you can't be sure that it is worth your dollars.

Buy Galactic Civ. Its far superior.

Another reason to buy MOO3 - THE NEW PATCH IS OUT!

For all those who are saying buy GalCiv instead and so on, I own both GalCiv and MOO3 and enjoy them both immensely. The reason I bought both is that I generally can't pass up the opportunity to buy a good game.

GalCiv has more of a civ flavour to it so it is immediately accessable to probably everyone here but MOO3 on the other hand will require some adjustment as it is not your typical game.

However, I would recommend MOO3 to anyone who enjoys taking a high level approach to empire management.

I LOVE it! But I love games where I can tweak and micromanage and fiddle and fine-tune.

The MOO3 site has some good info posted if you're having trouble with the whole mathematics of production points, the three-tiered economy, DEAs, etc.--it can be overwhelming at first, I gave up my first game after turn 150 or so when I found out I was running things far from optimally! Now on my second game, as the Evons (I'd recommend playing them, they're a lot like humans but BETTER), I'm kicking some serious ass and won the Orion Senate presidency by turn 200 (which can be a victory condition, but I toggled it off--it's conquest for me, baby!). (Note: the Orion Senate functions somewhat like a UN but different--different empires (but not every one) have voting memberships, based on population.)

One thing I really like is designing new warships (wish you could refit existing obsolete ships though)--you get to control what weapons systems (different beams and projectiles, missile systems, fighters (for carrier craft), etc., on a variety of different sized mounts or chasses), armor/shielding, engines and thrusters, countermeasures, cloaking, and recon equipment to put on ships of different hull sizes (you might have to tweak a bit to get it all to fit!). Boys and their toys, huh? :D Anyway, it is quite satisfying coming up with a design that effectively exploits the weaknesses of an enemy design!

Now, when you get to the point where you have 50 or 100 or more planets (there are I believe 256 star systems on a huge galaxy map, averaging maybe 4-6 planets apiece), turns WILL get long, especially when you keep going in and tweaking what the AI that normally runs each planet (the "planetary viceroy") does (the AI does okay, but sometimes it puts some stupid things in the build queue, or prioritizes the local budget differently than it should, or what you'd like--I recommend doing a planet-by-planet check every 5 or so turns, the AI generally will run with whatever changes you make for about that long, before going back to what it was doing before). But it's like Civ that way--if you like tweaking your cities, you'll be fascinated at how much MORE you can tweak your planets!

The research is definitely something I like, as it's far more realistic. YOU budget research monies into six different "schools" (Economics, Mathematics, Energy, Physical Sciences, Biological Sciences, and Social Sciences), but you don't specify what specific advances you're going for--they come on their own, and not one at a time (I always thought that one of Civ's flaws was how the research worked--you commanded your scientists to discover "Railroad", then only when they were done with that, you could command them to discover "Industrialization", etc.--whereas in reality, research often overlaps, and sort of develops organically rather than by decree). I think there are several hundred different advances, and you WON'T get them all--you'll have to trade or send spies to get some that you might not otherwise.

Diplomacy can be hard to get a hang of. You have 16 different races, and each has their quirks and customs, and there are different ways to optimally deal with each (there's one race that LIKES to be insulted--you will only get anywhere with them by insulting them!). It's trial-and-error (like I suppose it would be in "real life"), unless you buy the strategy guide (which I did), which gives you a few hints. Even with the strategy guide though, it'll still take you a while to cultivate good, mutually-productive relations with a lot of races, and figuring out all the other races' little quirks.

I for one like the game a lot (I've all but forgotten about CivII for the time being). There are a few bugs in it though, but that's what patches are for. But this is the first MOO-series game I've had, so I'm not looking at it in the comparative manner that some here are. I WILL tell you that it is NOT the game for someone without a lot of patience, or someone not that, well, anal--but in Civ2 I'm a control freak, and I can REALLY "get my control freak on" with this game :lol: .

I love empire building and complexity but I get annoyed with to much monotony, your description sounded like once your empire is big it can get monontous, is this true?

(the AI does okay, but sometimes it puts some stupid things in the build queue, or prioritizes the local budget differently than it should, or what you'd like--I recommend doing a planet-by-planet check every 5 or so turns, the AI generally will run with whatever changes you make for about that long, before going back to what it was doing before).
This was one of my major objections to MOO3. We all know from the CIV games that the AI doesn't have a clue as to what to build for you. If you want to play optimally, you have to control production yourself and keep the AI off of it. (Some people complain about micromanagement, however if you want to win at higher levels in any strategy game you have to micromanage.) MOO3 won't let you do the micromanagement easily.

In CIV3 or MOO2 you set up a build queue and when the queue is empty the game tells you, makes a silly suggestion as to what to build next, and puts you into the right screen to build what really needs to be built. MOO3 has a planet finish building the one item you can tell it to build and, without telling you or taking any input from you, starts building an obsolescent destroyer instead of doing the terraforming needed to keep the population from starving.

I understand the concept the folks at Quicksilver had. They wanted the player to not have to worry about what each individual planet was doing and instead concentrate on the Empire as a whole. However, the AI isn't smart enough to run each individual planet. So the player has to do it, with the AI fighting him all the way.

Do not buy the game unless it's in the $5 bin at your local store. If you really want it that bad, pm me - you can have my coaster copy.

Do not buy it. The best part of it is the manual. You will be constantly hampered by the awful parts of the AI, but slightly impressed by the good parts of it. It will do amazingly intelligent military decisions, like producing 500 transports. Unarmed transports. Most of your time will be spent trying to avoid the game wrecking your plans.

I bought it. I like it. A LOT.

(so far, says Tathy suspicious of all the negative revews).

Course I've only got about six hours clocked up so far....

Originally posted by Tathlum
I bought it. I like it. A LOT.

(so far, ays Tathy suspicious of all the negative revews).

Course I've only got about six hours clocked up so far....


I bought it. I liked it. A lot.
But then the lousy governor AI got to me, and I got very irritating.

If they had cut out the governor AI, or at least modified it to be less stupid, I might like it hell of a lot better. It had great potential, but some minor points that turned out to be major irritants destroyed it.

Oh, and keeping your space fleet updated is a pain as well, in addition to that the other empire's AI was nearly impossible to trade tech with (At least in all my games).

I need to offer 3 techs to get one. Regularly works only with my allies...Still am way ahead on tech so far..

I have both MOO3 and GalCiv and have spent a considerable amount of time with each (MOO3 first, GalCiv more recently.)

Civ 3 - I liked it, got pretty good, played mostly RB SGs (incl. 1.29 Deity games.) Large games have too much micromanagement for my taste. Never got PTW, didn't seem to be worth the price. Planned to get Conquests until I heard it had even more micromanagement. May still get it, not sure. Overall between MOO3, GalCiv, and Civ3, Civ3 has the best AI.

MOO3 - Wanted to like it. The interface was cumbersome, but I could deal with it. I didn't trust the AI to do what I wanted with planets so I ended up microing a lot. I think if I had been willing to accept more inefficiency in my empire and been willing to spend a substantial amount of time learning how to manage my empire globally instead of micro'ing it, the game would still have been playable and been less tedious. However, the game was not well-balanced (especially victory conditions,) and the AI was not very bright. Overall, the game was much too complex and was never pared down sufficiently in scope. This resulted in the game doing many things poorly instead of a few things well. I think the major faults were introduced at the very beginning, as the original publisher wanted the game to be exceedingly grand in scope. A more realistic vision would likely have resulted in a better-produced game.

GalCiv - Better than MOO3, but still has flaws. Benefits from being a simpler game, is much easier to get into. However, the AI is not a strong point. It gets massive bonuses on the hardest difficulty and is still easy to beat most of the time. The AI initially appears to be strong, but only because it can be fairly aggressive. Once you look deeper than that, the AI is actually not that good and has many large holes in a variety of areas.

The AI only poses one threat - if it is significantly stronger than you militarily and you don't take steps to keep it happy, it will go to war with you, and if you can't distract it, it will conquer your empire. However, it's relatively easy to keep the AIs happy or otherwise occupied with one another, and once you've done that it's pretty simple to get to the point where you are stronger than they. In comparison, Civ3's AI won't go for the throat as much, giving you a chance to catch up, but it's harder to catch up to and if you don't catch up, it can win even if you never go to war.

For space TBS games, I still prefer the original MOO. :)

I still play MOO2, and am greatful that WinXP only makes it slightly creaky. After all I've heard from people who've bought MOO3, I wouldn't take the time to play it if I got it free. I was extremely eager for this game to come out, and when it finally did . . . man.

I still play MOO2, and am greatful that WinXP only makes it slightly creaky. After all I've heard from people who've bought MOO3, I wouldn't take the time to play it if I got it free. I was extremely eager for this game to come out, and when it finally did . . . man.

Some people do thoroughly enjoy MOO3... I haven't become one of them but there are lots of people on the Atari boards that claim it is great if you give it a chance.

Originally posted by BlueBomberDude
Some people do thoroughly enjoy MOO3... I haven't become one of them but there are lots of people on the Atari boards that claim it is great if you give it a chance.
I gave MOO3 over 100 hours worth of chance and I still think the game is thoroughly unenjoyable.

I play and enjoy GalCiv, CivIII (PTW & C3C) and MOO2. I don't play MOO3 because the game is unplayable.

I'm one who's in favour of MOO3 and think it's one of the "deepest" games around.
The MAJOR reason that so many people don't like it though is that the game has a steep learning curve and there's absolutely NO MANUAL worthy of that name.

If there had been a better explanation how everything works this game might have been n°1 for a lot of people.

Today people are still not 100% sure what Development Plans exactly do, how they work and how they should be used to max efficiency.
Thàt situation is unacceptable.
A game, as complex as MOO3 , simply MUST have a good manual.

If we just could have had a "Civilopedia" in MOO3 ......

Both MOO and MOO2 had a full, comprehensive manual integrated right there in the game. Besides having all possible questions asked in advance, you could always right-click on ANYTHING and be prompted a dialog box offering you help regarding that particular object in the game. MOO3 is arguably more complex than MOO2, but having 1. many hamperings of the AI when trying to get the control over and 2. lots of unintelligible and indiscriminate stuff then that ends being less. I prefer to have 3 choices to make than 300 AI-able configurations to endure, because it's ME who wants to play the game, not the computer. Since I've payed the money, then I'm not going to watch the damn computer enjoying it. Make IT bring the money up, then IT can play and enjoy it as much as IT pleases. It's significant most of those who said they liked it NEVER played the series before. Having such a lame start doesn't put them into a position of preaching us what to think about the 3rd part. At first, there are too many interface-problems, as underlined by too many users before me: click here, click there, select task force, select type, select this, select that, browse an Excel- or Word-type list (they could have done it at least more graphic in appearance!) then pop! - you have a task force! Wow! What a thrill! I'm pleased to report a HUGE bug: why bother deploy task forces in advance along your borders, then watch them crawl at a sluggish speed through the galaxy, when you could sit and comportably wait for an attack to be made by the enemy forces then deploy as many task forces as you see fit (since you can detect an enemy fleet at least 2 turns in advance, I cannot see why not using it...) All you have to do is having a particular item (mobilisation center) built on any planet of each system, then voila!
The combat is horrible, I've never seen something worse in my whole life! The combat area is a huge black spot; I remember playing "battleship" at school when young using a pencil and an eraser. My schetches ressembled a lot those "spaceships". Keep you map small, and you'll never know what's going on; scroll it down, and you'll have to push your mouse hundreds of times in order to meet the enemy ships (which, by the way, you'll rarely see face to face since most of the projectiles and beams either come on or get out of your - black, as I said - screen). Sometimes even the combat went over before I could realise it: either my missiles or his completely destroyed the opposite force. Most horrendous change: the combat isn't turn-based anymore. It is REAL TIME. Yeah, baby!!! I've seen plenty of ****ty Star-Trek productions having real time battles which popped up once then fell down into the abyss that created them. Why they always choose the unpopular way of doing things, anyway?
I even hate the star-lane concept. If properly implemented (a lane linking two galaxies) this could have worked. But you have lanes that link star systems (in a manner that reminds me wormholes) and they end by being so numerous (they designed it as being the "proper" way of exploring the Universe) even on the lowest option. If I choose not to use a lane, that particular spaceship could have not travelled the "space" between two star systems by the time a game has already been over. I always thought a game is something that offers you options. This game only offers you limitations. Try driving your car with your hand-brake ON. You'll end having a much pleasant experience than playing MOO3.

Amazon is asking $7.99 for MOO3, a year after it came out. Coincidentally, they want $9.99 for the MOO2 jewel case. (Vanilla Civ3 is selling for $9.97, after three years and two expensive expansions.)

14.99 CND for PTW, MoM2 and MoM3.

Question: What is so great about MoM2? It seems interesting (and at the price its selling, no harm in buying), but I would like to know more about it.

14.99 CND for PTW, MoM2 and MoM3.

Question: What is so great about MoM2? It seems interesting (and at the price its selling, no harm in buying), but I would like to know more about it.

Some of the appeal might be nostolgia, as it's a very low tech game by today's standards and new players might not get sucked in. But the interface is very smooth, the various empires are cool, the combat is fun for those of us to old too handle real time, it's fun to customize, build and update warships, the internal documentation is excellent (I haven't played in several months but if I recall correctly right clicking on almost anything gives you detailed information). This is a totally inadequate response, I'll try again when I've had some sleep.

I think MOO3 is OK (but just OK). It's certainly no MOO2, and shouldn't carry the MOO title at all. They should have just called it 3.

You have to realise that it's not the same game. Later in the game micromanagement becomes impossible. The only way to play is to let the governer do it for you and try to adapt to the inefficiency. The AI will still do stupid things, for example: building system-colony ships in systems that are already fully colonized.

The task forces are hard at first, but later they become useful when you have 100's (possibly 1000's) of ships. You will be disappointed by the strict organization of the task forces though. (I.e. an armada MUST have 2 recon ships and 4 escorts).

Development plans are ways to influence the AI's development of your planets, but take a lot of getting used to. Don't read the manual here, the official website forums are good places to get the info (note: the fans provide the info, not the company who have stopped supporting the game). DevPlans give priorities to different needs. A Primary setting forces the AI to build those improvements. Secondary tells them to build it as soon as more urgent needs are met, and Tertiary tell them to only build once every other need is met first. It's not perfect, but managing 100's of planets this way is faster.

One annoying thing about ship designs is that the AI will always try to build your cheaper ships first, even when capable of building them all. The better ships cost more for the same hull size, so unless your 'better' ships are in smaller hulls then you will end up with reserves of scouts and no warships. To get around this delete all ship designs except the one you want, then when your reserves run low create a new one.

The situation report (sitrep) is too hard to read, as each message takes up 1/4 of the screen, meaning you have to scroll down to read it all (and you must read it to know what the hell's going on). If you don't read these you may suddenly find that you have no spies (didn't you see the message?) or that your ships are outdated.

The AI only sends occasional attacks, although these are fairly heavy assaults. For most of the game though you will be constantly hitting the end turn button and answering your foreign diplomacy messages.

If you do feel like playing, try out the silicoids first. They only use minerals and not food, so it makes it easier to learn how to manage your production.

I've been looking at this whole 4X TBS genre for a little while now.

I know I'll be buying MOo2 and MOo3, simply because I can get them for $5 and $3 at my local gaming store, and I'm always up for experimentation. Even if they suck, then oh well, I can afford to live without such a small sum of money.

The question, really, is this GalCiv game... I've played through the demo twice now. I enjoyed it, yes. The problem was... it just seemed like there wasn't too much to it. Take someone over? Build a fighter, use it to kill all those colony ships the AI has in orbit, build about ten transports, and invade. Congratulations, you won. I did enjoy the events, although I was disappointed to get a couple of the same ones in a row. It just seems like it's a little one sided, and while that wouldn't be a problem if the price was like that of MOo2 and MOo3, it is a problem with it's $40 price tag.

Is it worth the money, or should I hold out until I get a better deal?

Yeah, I'm a miser with my money, but hey, it works. ;)

GalCiv bored me, but supposively the AI is intelligent. What I mean is, it studies your moves and adapts. That was one of the selling points of this game. So if you find yourself with some easy pickings early on - the AI may have a counter for it later. Again, I was bored with it so I can't verify this.

OF the 3, go with Moo2 only. I don't care if Moo3 is 50 cents, it's not worth it.

I'd say go with moo2 and GalCiv

GalCiv can get a bit repetative, but there is an expansion, and a good bit of mods out there if you get bored, and it still has one of the better political systems, plus cool features like multiple minor races (that can do everything a major can, except win) the combat is a little shallow, the most fun part is probably having to take care of your economy, relations, and morality, all while beating (or bribing) off the AI, its one of those games, where war is some times a VERY bad idea, and some times your only choice.

Moo2 is of course a classic and has some nice features GalCiv should have had, but does'nt (planetary bombardment, ship design, a real weapons system, etc)

I would totally avoid moo3 unless its super-cheap, as its probably not worth the money, and you would have more fun with some game like Spaceward ho! or Stars! which you can get for free (with some digging for registration codes and the like ;) )

There is one more little known game you might want to consider, which I have bought and played, and is really quite good, its called Space Empires 4, and is some thing like the anti-galciv, focusing more on a simulation, tons of technology, ship designs, special weapons, totally modable, etc though it does tend to have a more mechanical feel to it (it lacks all the nice racial pictures, random event, Galactic news net, etc that adds to the atmosphere) if you want more of a hard space 4x wargame, then thats the way to go.

http://www.malfador.com/se4.html

I'm interested in getting moo3... but frankly, it doesn't seem that much beter that 2 (which i have) when i've read about it before.

New Mods and Fixes for Moo3 can be found at:
(There are also Screenshots.)
http://www.cdgroup.org/forums/tbs/moo3/viewtopic.php?t=82

Questions for gameplay and winning can be answered here.
http://www.ina-community.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?forumid=278

My latest Mod including CodePatches is here.

INVADER-Mod 4.0 (http://www.cdgroup.org/forums/tbs/moo3/download.php?id=132) Full V1.2.5

INVADER-Mod 4.5.4 (http://www.cdgroup.org/forums/tbs/moo3/download.php?id=174) Spreadsheets & Patch Only Requires 4.0

I'm interested in getting moo3... but frankly, it doesn't seem that much beter that 2 (which i have) when i've read about it before.

I hear it's much, much worse. Before I left 4 months ago I downloaded the WinXP Service Pack 2, and now MOO2 doesn't work! I'm devastated.

Well, the only good thing about moo3: It was so crappy that I went back to moo2 and started with moo2 online games. :D

The sad thing is moo was a very promising series and the unpopularity and failure of moo3 has probably killed any chance of further development.

There is the 1.4 project from LordBrazen (we use his patches on kali) to improve Moo2. Your ideas are welcome in this new forum: http://www.spheriumnorth.com/orion-forum/nfphpbb/

I hear it's much, much worse. Before I left 4 months ago I downloaded the WinXP Service Pack 2, and now MOO2 doesn't work! I'm devastated.

I am running Moo2 on XP SP2, what problems are you seeing? Is it a sticky mouse?

I'm interested in getting moo3... but frankly, it doesn't seem that much beter that 2 (which i have) when i've read about it before.

It has many issues and yes I did not play it after the last patch. I found it very very long learning curve and lots of tedious things to do. Little impact in my choices.

I did enjoy the large scale space combat. I have the patch, but have not been able talk myself into playing it as I will have to learn the game all over as it it has been so long.

barseer

There is the 1.4 project from LordBrazen (we use his patches on kali) to improve Moo2. Your ideas are welcome in this new forum: http://www.spheriumnorth.com/orion-forum/nfphpbb/

Thx, I'll check it out tonight after work.

Last night I did attempt to install and run moo2 but discovered it didn't work, wouldn't even start. I had a hard drive melt down about 2 weeks ago and had to reinstal xp. The formula I posted below for getting the game to work with xp no longer worked. Looking about on the web last night, I saw one forum where someone posted that the problem was directx imcompatibility. They said the game worked with directx up to 7, but directx 8 & 9 didn't work with it. Here is the link:

http://www.masteroforion2.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=General;action=display;num=111378505 6

I have not had time to try it. Not sure, but I think what has to be done is copy the orion disk to the hard drive, swap those files with the ones in windows, then burn a new cd with those changes. Didn't see any of those files in the folders the game normally downloads on install, but they are on the disk. And it is system32 rather than the system file in the windows directory that one needs to copy from.

I prefer the 1.4patch based on the 1.31 dos version (orion2.exe).

You wont have these issues then.

http://lordbrazen.blogspot.com/2005/01/installing-master-of-orion-ii-v140-on.html

barseer
Last night I did attempt to install and run moo2 but discovered it didn't work, wouldn't even start. I had a hard drive melt down about 2 weeks ago and had to reinstal xp. The formula I posted below for getting the game to work with xp no longer worked. Looking about on the web last night, I saw one forum where someone posted that the problem was directx imcompatibility. They said the game worked with directx up to 7, but directx 8 & 9 didn't work with it. Here is the link:

I have not had time to try it. Not sure, but I think what has to be done is copy the orion disk to the hard drive, swap those files with the ones in windows, then burn a new cd with those changes. Didn't see any of those files in the folders the game normally downloads on install, but they are on the disk. And it is system32 rather than the system file in the windows directory that one needs to copy from.

I am using lastest directx (9.c?) and play Moo2 all the time. The only issue was the sticky mouse. I was able to hold the enter key and get it unstuck for all but the tax screen.

I now use Moslo and run at 47% and do not have any mouse issues. Not running in compat mode either. I use 1.3.1 patch.

Thx for the info, everyone. Very helpful.

VMXA

I now use Moslo...

Never heard of Moslo, what is it? Is it downloadable off the web?

Looks like directx isn't the cause of the start-up failure of moo2 if you're running it. Obviously. :)

Discovered a few other glitches in my set-up, such as the windows media player packing it in and other programmes behaving strangely, and will have to reinstal xp from scratch to clean up the mess (Gawd, I hate microsoft-this about the 4th time this year). Once I get this box back in order, I'll try out those moo2 mods and see if I can get them working.

You should try MOO I which you can have for free. That gives you a taste of game. Obiously the game is not similar to any othe game. You should try it. You can not simply compare it with CIV or any other game. Micromanagement in MOO I is very small. I have never seen any game like this. Well obviously you have to move your ships, what do you expect? And you have to design your ships too, that is important part of the game. I played MOO II but I have never like it. I keep playing MOO I since 5 years ago and I still enjoy it and learn more.

Thx for the info, everyone. Very helpful.

VMXA



Never heard of Moslo, what is it? Is it downloadable off the web?




Yeah :

http://www.hpaa.com/moslo/moslo.asp

Thx VMXA

Still searching for that mythical free day to rebuild this box.

Just wanted to give an answer to the question:
Yes, you should buy Master of Orion 3 for three reasons.

MoO3 is a very good multiplayer game
it is the most complex space strategy game ever released
there are many people trying to improve it until today

The game (MoO3) is worth to get and its only ten bucks for it in some places. If you patch it up and get the plugins it would really shine but in some cases i didnt like what they did to it so i modified them. I even add special species customize to allow the race to terraform from between lvl 1 to 6, boost max population by 75% capacity. Those mods cost some points but it kinda cheating tho and i dont like cheating i rather earn them instead.

Anyway the plugins i have is...
1)Mega mod V5.5.1
2)Nebula mod

One thing about Mega mod is the task force size, so i modify it switched back to normal (IE: armada would be 18 ships). I also reduced all species research abilities so it wont jump so far in game so fast with techs.

Cynoids prob the most powerful species in the game due to heavy builders if you give up Diplomacy for 20pts and reduce RaceBioharvesting (home planet) you could get Maufacturing at the highest level and pick Natural Builder at the custom screen.

So my favorite specie is the Ithkul, gotta love em!

I am a huge fan of MOO II (my favourite TBS ever), but MOO III is the biggest dissapointment in my gaming life. I wanted to like it soooo bad. I read and reread the forums, I downloaded patches but to no avail. The game just plain sucks...

There are some good ideas in the game but the whole thing is a mess....

MOO3 is has a really high learning curve, so If you're into complex micromanagement, then fine, but I think this game was never fun for me.

I just noticed my post above was from September. I still have not had time to rebuild my computer so i can use MOO2 again.