[MoO] Looking for a handful of testers

[Ray F]

Hey guys, I have been working on a Java-based MOO1 and am looking for a few interested gamers to give an alpha version a run-through for constructive criticisms and comments.

You can check out the game at java-moo.com. There should be a version available by the end of the week as I am doing a lot of last-minute polish before starting on the next round of changes.

The "Alpha 1" is almost everything in MOO1 except playing against races. Basically you can play as any of the 10 races, design and build ships, research the tech trees, colonize planets, develop colonies. Diplomacy is coming in the next alpha, but almost all of the UIs (except Races) are done so this is a good checkpoint to let total strangers try to break things.

Anyway, thanks for the consideration.

 

[humbe]

A for effort. I no longer remember the difference between Moo1 and Moo2. Just vaguely remember that there was nothing in Moo1 I missed in Moo2, and there were some really great features like the custom race stuff, and avoiding fleet combats with hundreds of ships.

I never got to play much moo1 at all before moo2 came out though, so I guess I'm a bit biased towards the second version anyhow.

I tried something similar with Civ1, but project currently stranded on getting all the UI up.

Might find time to take a look at yer stuff..

 

[Ray F]

A for effort. I no longer remember the difference between Moo1 and Moo2. Just vaguely remember that there was nothing in Moo1 I missed in Moo2, and there were some really great features like the custom race stuff, and avoiding fleet combats with hundreds of ships.

Actually, there are significant game design differences between MOO1 and MOO2. The latter moved the game strongly towards the Civilization model wherein players optimize their citizens and use build queues. Which is great if you like it, but it creates a lot of micro-management in the endgame.

MOO1 used generalized sliders to manage colonies, which made it much easier to manage large empires in the endgame. It's all personal preference, of course, but I definitely prefer the MOO1 approach since the Civilization games do the other one so much better.

Abstraction of ships into stacks also made building and managing huge fleets in combat workable.

I never got to play much moo1 at all before moo2 came out though, so I guess I'm a bit biased towards the second version anyhow.

I tried something similar with Civ1, but project currently stranded on getting all the UI up.

Might find time to take a look at yer stuff..

The effort in doing UI work is always underestimated. Everyone thinks the game logic is a bigger deal, but UIs are far more time-consuming to get done.

 

[Rocco.40]

I also liked the spying better in MOO1. Was more logical and you had more influence over type of actions to take. Also, if there was no spy at the enemy, you could not see his state of techs.

 

[Rocco.40]

Have posted this link before in another thread:

http://androidarts.com/spaceconquest/gamedesign.htm

edit: have sent you a pm

 

[Ray F]

Just fyi, if anyone is interested in the test, I've updated the blog with details on how and when. I will, however, need an email address for anyone who wants to test. You can privately message me here, or email me directly.

 

[Rocco.40]

Download was good, now running your game!

 

[Ray F]

Download was good, now running your game!

I've already got a list of visual glitches noticed by some of the testers. I'll probably gather all of them up and fix them before starting on Phase 3. Make sure you let me know how the game is working for you.

 

[Rocco.40]

I have to say, really impressed with the progress you are making.
Also very nice to see regular updates on your blog.
Have made a habbit of checking it regularly.

Playing in the JAVA_MOO galaxy map is quite an improvement over Classic MOO.
The wink to Metropolis you are making with the new Meklar diplomat is such a great idea.

I do hope that you will be able to recycle (some of) the MOO1 sound effects, coz for me they really defined that game. (Ship withdraw sound, weapons, the little popping sound when selecting things).

 

[Ray F]

I have to say, really impressed with the progress you are making.
Also very nice to see regular updates on your blog.
Have made a habbit of checking it regularly.

Playing in the JAVA_MOO galaxy map is quite an improvement over Classic MOO.
The wink to Metropolis you are making with the new Meklar diplomat is such a great idea.

The Meklars are a good race to do that with since they can be any form that they want!

I do appreciate the nice comments. One reason the progress is so fast is that I am basically re-skinning the original Java MOO game I wrote about 10 years ago. It was probably about 80% complete (mostly just some ship combat AI missing) and I often have to disable some of the code until the new UIs are ready. For example, in my testing now the AIs keep trying to establish trades and treaties with the player. But since those new UIs don't exist yet, they can crash the game All in all, it's not a bad problem to have!

I do hope that you will be able to recycle (some of) the MOO1 sound effects, coz for me they really defined that game. (Ship withdraw sound, weapons, the little popping sound when selecting things).

I will definitely try to recreate sound effects as closely as possible, but the original MOO1 music will definitely be replaced.

 

[Rocco.40]

Yeah the music can go, I wouldn't expect you to be fiddling around with some oldschool MIDI songs

 

[Rocco.40]

That is one nice Mini Gun!!
YEAH
Don't mess with the Bulrathi

 

[Ray F]

That is one nice Mini Gun!!
YEAH
Don't mess with the Bulrathi

I think that one is my favorite so far.

 

[<Nexus>]

Wow!
Just rushing through the blog, but it's pretty impressive
Those artworks are just great! I really like those labs. Did you yourself do all the job alone? Programmer and artist in one person?

 

[Ray F]

Wow!
Just rushing through the blog, but it's pretty impressive
Those artworks are just great! I really like those labs. Did you yourself do all the job alone? Programmer and artist in one person?

No, I am the programmer. I have hired a professional illustrator for the artwork. So currently it's a two-person project

 

[<Nexus>]

All of these messages will be overhauled and rewritten once I get a writer on board, but it’s not too hard for me to come up with some temporary placeholders until then.

Looks like you are looking for some help?
What exactly do you mean? Maybe I would be interested in it.
But first I have to tell you that English is not my mother tongue (though I feel very comfortable with it) and the amount of my free time is very... fluctuant

 

[Ray F]

Looks like you are looking for some help?
What exactly do you mean? Maybe I would be interested in it.
But first I have to tell you that English is not my mother tongue (though I feel very comfortable with it) and the amount of my free time is very... fluctuant

I certainly appreciate you volunteering , but I will eventually find a professional writer for this role.