Master of Orion Mod

[Camber]

You really don't want to have cities or colonies in space. The AI won't do it, for one thing. Second issue is that roads in space (water) make all harbors obsolete.

One of my favorite aspects of MOO was the race-specific traits for infantry. I loved finding some gargantuan secondary races and using them to build my ground troops. I also liked the way they autocolonized for you, jumping onto planets within your borders that fit their liveability standards.

I wonder if you could make certain terrain unpassable to wheeled units, and then make some of the more unusual secondary races able to build unwheeled units. The secondary race would be like a resource, and making their units (and the settlers to go with them) would require the resource. There might even be an auto-produced colony ship that pops out of secondary race small wonders.

 

[fe3333au]

@camber - that would work great with minor races ... you find their 'resource' and then that would enable a string of unique units or wonders or specific building and also influence the research, cash, pop or shields ...

And the Darlocks if a minor race ... would be able to produce better espionage at a less cost for missions, and hidden nationality units with stealth ...

Psilons would have big research boost ...

So the tech would be all the non-space ship techs? ...
Its a pity in Civ3 you can't research schools and then receive the random breakthrough from that study ... or can you?

 

[tjedge1]

Those gargantuans were the Rhea in Moo3. I have a pic of them. Actually I have pics of all the ones I made a list of.

There should be a resource for all races that units or small wonders could be made for them. Even playable races. Since all maps would be custom maps, then each race would have a resource of their own race at their starting point. This way all units and buildings would be buildable by any race that could get the resource. Of course there would have to be a standard unit and the starships that would not require races so in case a civ lost thier homeworld, they could still build units.

With this method, if you were playing the klackons and conquered the Sakkra homeworld, you could suddeny build Sakkra based units. Just as in Moo3.

 

[vbraun]

Of course there would have to be a standard unit and the starships that would not require races so in case a civ lost thier homeworld, they could still build units.

Shouldn't there be races on each planet?

Never played Moo, but I felt like pitching in.

I'll be lurking.

 

[tjedge1]

No, probably 90% of the planets were uninhabited in Moo3, not sure about the others, and a few would have a random race that was either a playable or unplayable race. I always loved find Mrrshan and Bulrathi planets in Moo3, since for some reason they made them unplayable. Excellent troopers with those. If I found an Alkari world I would build all my starhips on their worlds. Each race would give bonuses to different units and such. They also had advantages in certain terrains, but that may not really matter with this mod. This way an empire would consist mostly of the main playable race and would have a few worlds with other races to mix things up.

Was always odd to play Sakkra and then find a race of Meklars on a planet, and then go to war with my Meklar neighbor. I did enjoy using their own race against them though.

 

[vbraun]

If you were to have a general unit it should be really weak. But if you loose your homeworld/any inhabital planets arn't you pretty much screwed anyway?

 

[tjedge1]

Pretty much, which is why I agree with making the standard unit weak, but you have to have it included. If a civ ever reaches a point where it cannot build anything, the game will crash. It's a bug or something. So the best bet is to be able to build some kind of unit and ship.

 

[fe3333au]

I placed a query on the MOO3 site on this forum for tech list -

Member barseer replied

moo2 techlist: http://www.moo3.at/moo2/technologies.php which links to the Guardian Site

 

[Thorgrimm]

I placed a query on the MOO3 site on this forum for tech list -

Member barseer replied

moo2 techlist: http://www.moo3.at/moo2/technologies.php which links to the Guardian Site

Whatever the thoughts on the playability of MOO3, I think we should use the tech tree from Moo3 instead. As it has far more techs and buildings already integrated. Then they are already linked to what other techs are required to discover that tech.


Cheers Thorgrimm

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

Okay, here's the next LH report: I've almost got the Psilon LH done, just need to come up with a background image (which I'm building in Bryce as I speak).

As for the Alkari, I found a figure of some kind of demon/alien on renderosity that would work perfectly for them. I also aggree with using more of the techs from MoO III, since they had a larger variety (and enough to make 4 eras out of). Speaking of which, I say that for the diplo victory, have an "Orion Senate" wonder and for the space race, have the 5 Antaran "X"s, but require the techs for them to cost a whole lot and each X cost around 1K+ shields....

Preview of the Psilons:

 

[vmxa]

flamescreen is this going to be a mod for CivIII using an Moo flavor? Either Moo1/2/3 or I guess Starlords?

There was a Moo1 scenario in CivII and I was hoping to see one for III. I still play I and II, but have not gone back to III. I have the patch, but it just seems to never get a look.

 

[Steel General]

Preview of the Psilons:

Looks good, though I think its skull needs to be a bit more bulbous (sp?) to account for their enlarged brains. But if that's a real pain in the butoski to do then I'd leave it as is.

 

[tjedge1]

I also think the Moo3 techs would be better, and their pretty much organized to. You could just seperate the levels of technology into eras. I can't remember how many levels there are, but there was tons of techs.

It would be cooler to hae the Psilon with his head enlarged, but like Steel General said, if it is too much trouble then leave it. It looks great so far.

What happened to flamescreen?

 

[fe3333au]

Have got list of MOO3 Techs thanks to vmxa

I will order them in a read friendly format and then begin to separate techs into groupings of effect ...

Do I discard the ship specific techs, planetary defence and ship building?

This will help when you guyz get around to discussing tech tree, also civilopedia entries are present ...

 

[flamescreen]

So I'm back from my vacation THAT I ANNOUNCED I'D HAVE in my posts...
Glad EVERYONE seemed to Notice...
Let me add once again, that I DON"T HAVE MUCH TIME AND UPDATES WILL NOT BE FREQUENT(usually Weeknds that I drop by).

Anyway, I like the excitement everyone has on this, but I must say all can't be done as I'm seeing things right now. Hikaro, nice work on that Psilon for now. I prefer the MOO2 look myself, so if you could add a visible brain or something like it, this would look great, probably. I'm leaning in using more than one model for each race were possible, since I hape the deep one as well, it looks good for a sea civ and might use some sea horses and Medusae I also have.

I'm checking whatever everyone else said, but one has to consider possibilities, like how the AI will use things implemented. Which is why I'm hesitant about cities built in space. Besides, if there'll be land units, it might be a problem.

Also, many races are good, but I'd rather go for individuality for every race. I don't even know if all races from MOO 2 will be in yet. I don't think smallheads can be customised to be different for each race, so I might use some of their looks for each different advisor.

I've asked Kinboat to release some of his models for possible use in the Mod, I'm thinking of using Horus for the Alkari(among others), Lizzardman for the Sakkra and the others like Anubis, I don't know.(some were requested for the Trek Mod).

some of my other thoughts for the Sakkra:

More on it in the following post

 

[flamescreen]

Difficulty Levels: Governor, Planetarch, Star Smudge, Starlord, Dauphin, Emperor, Deity

Unit Rank:Green, Veteran, Elite, Legend


I'm thinking about 50-54 planets in all in a 160x160 map, each designed for up to three cities, but there maybe moons closeby with resources.

Team win/Financial/domination/princess captured victories could be allowed
Barbarian units are stealth and due to their strength, it's possible they could wipe out a civ, under certain condition, so I've set them to scarce appearences. Probably early will be the Amoeba/Hydra and later on Crystal(or was that only trek?) and Antarrans.

RACE DESCRIPTIONS(unknown if I'll be able to implement all, we'll see)

Alkari(Descedants of an ancient Avian species): Dictatorship, better aerial units, units have ranged attacks, better pilots(never lost during space expeditions)

Bulrathi(Bearlike): Dictatorship, Sturdier Units, have better defensive abilities, settlers and workers can defend and thus never captured. Slower units, since they go for the bulk, less science

Darloc(Shape Shifters):Veteran Spies, Dictatorship, Stealth, starts with map revealed and embassy on each world, might be the only race with spies or spy units are better, all units have stealth. Big corruption problems(Due to their nature)

------DARLOCS were Orion slaves, bred inside their ships and designed to serve them as their eyes and ears in the various worlds. With time they gained valuable knowledge of alien territories and civilisations------ Part of my Civpedia for them

Elerians(Matriarchical, Female elves): Only Female combat Units, Feudal stratocrats, Fanatics, Can build missile type land units, units start at veteran status, are backwards technologically, can see two tiles away

Humans: Charismatic Diplomats,possibly the most Democratical gov., commercial, Cheaper Units, Cultural bonus(might keep for other race), minimal battle readiness, can't maintain large army


Klackons(Insectoid): Always content, Hive Mind Govment(but rulled by Queen), agricultural, No corruption(as they're driven by instinct to work towards a common goal, the mere concept of corruption seems inconceivable), Low culture(Culture requires a certain level of individualism Klackons simply do not have),


Meklars(Cybernetic Exoskeleton): Cybernetic, Industrious, machine based world, production is faster(more of it), Dictatorship, more expensive units due to materials used and higher production values

Mrrshan(Cat-like predators): Warlords, less support for units, weaker economy, Dictatorship, units are faster and have better attack, can retreat from battlefield, all units can detect most stealth units except maybe the barbarian ones

Psilons(Super size head intellects): Many artifacts world, Dictatorship, Scientific, Faster Reasearch, Technologies none other can research, refined level of research, Very resistant to conversion, due to their technological mindset. Weaker land units(prefer to be a scholar than an athlete),

Sakkra(Reptilian, with Regenerative abilities): Pop Growth, Live both in surface and under it, Feudal, Starts with city and extra settler, settlers don't require populace reduction. Possible largest closeby moon(enough to hold another city), or bigger planet

Trilarian(Naval Superior lifeforms):Expansionist, Spacefaring, starts with space travelling techs and in a city closer to space launching window(many sea-water related buildings).

Silicoids(Crystaline- Sentient): Lithovores, Repulsive to all races, Workers can transform everything to habitate from the start. They ignore city-wide force fields{can eat their way under them}, also have a nack for recycling(read: eat everything in their way), so they're pollution free.

To that, I'll consider the proposition (I think tledge1) for doing the planets more habitable to some and less to others.

One of the Sakkra's is a Kinboat model, I just replaced the head. Might lose the winged ears also for it.

Btw, Hikaro, I'm probably doing this MOO2 only, as I said. I'll not get the game just for the mod, and so I don't want to add something I'm not familiar with. The Arachnid model you have I've tried to make a walking path for it before(for a drow), but couldn't then, so the leaderhead itself only will not do.
Unless I can make it work, but then I have to come up with traits for that race too.

I'm thinking I might want at least 5-7 units for land for each race(plus the leaderhead into unit as the king) but probably more. Which is why I'm rather negative so far for new civs. I'll see what can be done with the already conceived and we shall see from there. I can't exclude something, but can't say something will be in.

Keep it in the back burner, but don't work on it(unless you're planning a MOO3 mod, which as I said will sholve a few problems since I might disagree with posters on a few things and don't want to limit their vision), as I don't want to add needless work on your back.

More this weekend(Probably, have to do some artwork and I've neglected a combat armor I'm making for Wasteworld).

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

Right, well, if any of you even bothered checking the MoO LH thread, I've already got the Psilons done. The next race I'll be working on is the Elerians, but not today: I'm re-compiling one of my C-Strike maps for Condition Zero in anticipation of visiting with one of my friends this weekend (Condition Zero bots couldn't figure out that you had to push a button to open this one door, so I got rid of the buttons).

Anyways, like I said earlier, Flamescreen, I'll be doing my own mod based on MoO II/III that's more or less like the Civ II ToT Sci-Fi scenario, where all the races are outpost ships crash-landed on some far-off alien planet far from their homeworlds and they have to adapt to the new planet and vie for supremecy, ultimately getting into a race to be the first to build a FTL spaceship so they can make contact with their homeworlds and get reinforcements.

That project is way on the back burner due to the FF mod taking priority, so I'll just wait until you guys get this one done and just mod that to my specs (thus saving me a lot of time in the long run). I'll continue making whatever LH's I can/want to, wether or not anyone has any kind of immediate use for them (such as MoO III races).

Like I said, the Elerians are next, especially since I have DAZ's Aiko 3 figure with all her advanced morphs and such, so creating a slightly grey-skinned race of female space elves won't be too difficult.

 

[flamescreen]

Well, I have to admit it's probably the first time I hear about a MoO LH thread. Is it ok, if I'll use materials from there that seem to fit to MoO 2?
The way I'm making it, it's more based in MoO 0(starlords), 1 and 2, but we have a saying "all the good people fit in the same room".

So glad to see you'll unleash your creativity. Don't know if the direction this mod will be heading will fit you(it'll probably be islands based with space as sea), but my best for it.

Don't expect too much too soon from this. If you'll read my posts in the start of the thread, I've announced so I have it in mind. Will be working on it along with the other stuff but it could be released like, during 2006. I can't know how much work must be used, I might take shortcuts to go faster ofcourse.

 

[Bjornlo]

I want a Moo2 based MOD as well. But I don't see where anything Hikaro Takayama doesn't fit. I think his work is just brilliant. Some of the names need to be changed to match Moo2, like rename his bugs the Klackons. Not a big deal.
I've got a few spaceships I've been working on. Problem is I"m still new to the render-the-unit thing, but I'll try and contribute too, since the islands in space thing seems to be Extremely interesting to me.
It might be not as playable as Hikaro Takayama's vision, but both should be fun.
Since you are modeling your game after Moo playstyle, maybe you should call yours Moo Space Mod
And maybe Hikaro Takayama could call his "Moo - Marooned" or something...
That way you can both do your derivative works, and leverage what the others have done.

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

Actually, if I can find a Praying mantis for Poser, I'll be more than happy to do the Klackons as well. As for my mod, I'll most likely use this one to build it off of, kinda like how Clearbeard used Master of Myrror to build his Sorcerors mod off of. The Final Fantasy mod takes first priority over all my other projects, and I'm so close I can almost taste it right now... So other than some LH and other misc graphics, I'll be mostly content to watch this from the sidelines. I just figured that making a library in the Graphics customization forum (with links in the LH lib and my sig) would be a great way to pool/keep the LH's organized.