difficulty vs luck! (MOO1)

[Zygot]

Hello, everybody!

Nice to meet you, I'm from Italy and I discovered this forum today!!
I'm a great fan and player of MOO1. I'd like to retrieve MOO2 and play it too.
I read some nice posts about MOO1. In some of them, the difficulty level was mentioned.
Now I almost don't play MOO1 anymore, 'cause I've played it so many tomes
that winning at "impossible" level has become too easy (I usually play with a medium galaxy size)!
Though, I'm strongly convinced that luck in finding good start conditions is much more relevant than difficulty level in winning a game.
I mean: winning a game at average diff. level with poor, unhabitable, or too small planets available next to your home one is much more complicated than succeeding in a game at impossible diff. level with large, fertile, rich and/or artifacts planets nearby.
Another factor that counts more than diff. level is "isolation" level, expecially if you're playing a race that doesn't get any benefit in meeting and fighting other races early in the game (I like to play the Psilons).
I mean: in some games, many time passes before another race attacks you, due to the disposition of planets in the star maps, or just because other races are too busy in other areas of the map during early game. Those games are far easier to win.
What do you think about it?
What's your favourite race to play with?
Can you suggest how to get MOO2?
Thank you very much!!!
Goodbye,

Emanuele

 

[vmxa]

Here is Atari's web and they offer it as a download:

http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=598514

I think you can see my fav race.

You may want to look at this site:

http://www.realmsbeyond.net/forums/index.php?

 

[sargon0]

Zygot: Welcome to the forum!

Winning on Impossible regularly is impressive but, as you say, there is more to the challenge than just the difficulty level. The starting map position and isolation you mention are some of the factors, as is the race. I loved playing the Psilons and they are one of the strongest races so now I play someone else (probably not Klackon or Human also). The game has good variety if you avoid favourites and explore the possibilities. As well as this CFC site, the realmsbeyond site vmxa mentioned is a good source of MOO1 info including Exploit rules, variant games and tournament games to compare with others - we just played a game without any Planetology tech allowed! As long as you can keep up the challenge the game remains interesting.

 

[Sullla]

As others have said, the best way to get some more challenge out of Master of Orion is to play races other than the (vastly overpowered) Psilons. And yes, you are certainly correct that a good or bad start can make a larger difference than difficulty level. We are playing low-pressure tournament games on Master of Orion right now at Realms Beyond, and would love to have you join us:

http://realmsbeyond.net/orion/

 

[Horizon]

Last december, there was this challenge :
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=252896&page=3
That had some extra difficulty due to the starting position being unfavorable.
And having the presence of the AI Psilons that have time to develop itself in such game made it even more challenging.