Watch Quill18's LP of the new MOO. I like what I have seen so far. Not yet in early access, but it is better than I expected.
Watch Quill18's LP of the new MOO. I like what I have seen so far. Not yet in early access, but it is better than I expected.
Big patch (Early Access 40.13) was released today.
Here are the patch notes from the devs that was posted on the MOO forum:
Please remember that our game is still in development, some changes may be subject to further review. We are eager to get your feedback! Some of the things that we are testing are:
Improvements in the AI.
A more varied galaxy in terms of planet classes and mineral richness (please remember to randomize the seed to try different generated galaxies).
[Balance] Costs for Ship Upgrade and Buyout increased.
[Balance] Command Points exceeded changed from 10 to 20BC.
[Balance] Marine barracks now give +5% Morale.
[Balance] Capitol morale bonus reduced to 25% (from 30% ).
[AI] Lowered priorities for pirate bombardment and engaging.
Tactical
[Tactical] Fixed FX for Torpedoes.
[Tactical] Fixed Anti-Missile Rockets.
[Tactical] Optimization for defensive weapons.
[Tactical] Proton Torpedo exception fixed!
[Tactical] Added one more ring on the big battlefield grid.
[Tactical] Tweaked scales for ships now contemplates pirates.
[Tactical] fixed the big battlefield limits.
[Ship Design] Disable models and decals for Pixel Ships in Ship Design.
BTW.: I would be very glad, if there will come an upgrade of the new MOO that allows turn based combat again, as in my eyes this was the best and central feature of the former MOO games.
Same for me. RTS (not perse, but for Moo) ist just an unnecessary attempt to get "modern" and creates all kind of problems (like assymetry between human Player and AI in terms of how many ships you can effectively control individually at the same time). Gameplaywise, I'm convined that it would have been be better for the whole game if they had decided to put all the ressources they have scheduled for getting RTS battles somewhere just in improving the old-school TBS battles (improving AI, comfortable interface, squishing bugs, balancing weapon/special system stuff around this, exting the entire system to land battles and so on)
Sadly I have very little hope that the developers will hear to this![]()
I've now been playing it for a while and commenting in the thread in Other Games, but to summarise for people not reading that: definitely it's better than expected and the MOO feel is there.
It seems a bit too conservative - it's close enough to a straight remake of MOO 2 that features like star lanes and pseudo-real time combat seem out of place and don't obviously add anything to gameplay, but on the flip side they don't detract from it to the extent I'd feared (or much at all, really).
Given that the space 4x genre is by nature very conservative, having added little over the years to the MOO 2 formula (certainly when compared with the extent to which Civ games have evolved over time), a near-remake of MOO 2 still feels relevant and at this Early Access stage it's already better than recent published space 4xes I'm familiar with.
It would also require two sets of technologies that are affected by such change; some techs give x effect per turn or in case of moo4 x effect per time intervalSupposedly they had a turn based Combat system at the beginning of development but opted to go RTS instead after a bit. Now there are many that are bring up to the Devs why not have an Option for either. Problem is with this (even though it would be a great thing to have) it would require 2 sets of Combat AI, if I understand it correctly from the coding side.
I've logged 38 hours so far. And it does have the MoO2 feel. But when I post it's the MoO2.5 that everyone expected and wanted from MoOIII, boy howdy does the "flak" start flying!Of course saying I actually "Loved playing/modding" MoOIII starts the MoOIII and "you" suck replies.
Distant Worlds is still the game that MOOIII should have been - the new MOO is good as MOO 2 redux, but it's overly-long and colony management - being basically lifted wholesale from MOO 2 - is really too basic for a modern 4x. The combat system that should be its highlight is fine mechanically, but the AI's performance with it is atrocious - not tactically, just in terms of building appropriate ships and using them in appropriate numbers.
And finally,
@Pfeffersack,
Supposedly they had a turn based Combat system at the beginning of development but opted to go RTS instead after a bit. Now there are many that are bring up to the Devs why not have an Option for either. Problem is with this (even though it would be a great thing to have) it would require 2 sets of Combat AI, if I understand it correctly from the coding side.
I don't think the combat is RTS, and the above explains a lot. Torpedoes, for instance, fire once every two turns according to the tooltip, and shield recharge appears to be turn-based, where in an RTS it occurs continuously. What they seem to have done is tried a turn-based system, and instead of recoding everything to make the game a true RTS in combat, they just removed the pauses between turns so that it seems real-time.
Of course that makes it easy enough to reinsert them as an option. For exactly the same reasons it doesn't make sense to code a real-time game to be turn-based, evidently the designers felt it didn't make sense to code a system they started with as turn-based as true real-time.
I really don't find it an issue - what MOO had (and the new game has) that every subsequent space 4x didn't was a tactical system that allowed you to control your units and activate the modules and upgrades you gave them, rather than having those just act as passive modifiers. This is the important feature the new game captures - and frankly the old turn-based system could be a chore a lot of the time.
Once they fix AI behaviour in recruiting and using fleets, and allow it to make varied designs in a given ship class, I think the system will outperform the turn-based MOO2 system. As it is there's an option to slow the battle speed, and the patch change increasing the size of the map made a big difference.
It would also require two sets of technologies that are affected by such change; some techs give x effect per turn or in case of moo4 x effect per time interval
Everything in the new game, at least as described in its tooltips, is turn-based - while there is a DPS rating, this isn't even accompanied by a rate of fire stat for weapons, and appears to bear very little relation to actual gameplay. Only continuous fire appears to require real-time coding of some sort.
I think they have done better than I hoped and more may yet be coming for this reboot. My issue is the missile swarming. This was a problem in Star Drive 2. Late game the Ai would make a lot of ships filled with missiles and wreck ships.
You've actually played games where the AI has a lot of ships?
Missile swarming, if it exists, is an issue only because it can be exploited - the AI isn't going to use heavy armour on missiles and it doesn't build PD weapons of its own, while it's easy enough for a player to make ships effectively immune to missile attack.
I want to see a relational strength for ships. I do not want to see 6 frigates take down a titan or doom star. Battleships, should beat destroyers. You should need numbers to offset better ships and or tech.
That would disfavour the AI even more as it stands, since it appears unable to build ships of those classes - where it has any edge at all it's only in those cases where it does pull large numbers of destroyers and frigates together. Also bear in mind that there are races that are designed explicitly around swarm tactics - the Klackons' industry bonus in the older games was all about letting them spam vast numbers of ships.
One thing that should be changed to help the AI is the removal of single frigates in build options. You should be able to build destroyers either singly or in 5s, but frigates should be buildable only in squadrons of 5 or 10. The AI's tendency to move ships as individuals, with other fleets strung along behind them, also needs to be looked at.
Swarming missiles, not ships. Doom star with about 175k rating (3x the guardian) was taking down by about 7 ships. None were larger than a cruiser. The Doom star had scores of PD, but could not deal with the missiles.
7 is a lot compared to one, but I really only mean that all the ships had been missile boats. The AI also took down a fleet of maybe 18 ships, with maybe 10 ships. The fleet of 18 had a titan and a few battleships, but was wiped by missiles.
It is not so much that missile were OP, as the battle field is smallish and the missiles get on them quickly. The limited PD options are not able to deal with it and the human player did not use missile extensively.
As it seems to stand now, there is little reason to make more than cruiser that packs lots of missiles.
The development team at NGD Studios is hard at work on the next phase of Early Access, and we’re excited to share the first details of the new content and features that will be introduced.
New Features/Content
Here’s what will be brand new for Early Access 2:
Three new races: Klackon, Meklar and Terran Khanate
One new victory condition: Technological
New feature: Custom Races
Support for Mac OS X 10.6 - 10.11 (Snow Leopard - El Capitan)
Additional language support
Changes to Existing Features/Content
In addition to new features and content, we are planning balance and usability updates for the following:
Tactical Battles
AI
EA 1 races: Alkari, Bulrathi, Human, Mrrshan, Psilon and Sakkra
Ship Design
We’re still in the process of locking down the exact timing of this update, but we wanted to share some of what’s coming. We’ll have more details on the new features and content, as well as the changes to existing features and content once we’re closer to the next phase of Early Access.
Early Access phase 2 is on its way. No date for the release of the patch yet but here are some details from the devs of what EA 2 will bring:
Well, that just means then that the tooltips are incorrect, and need to be updated, as there is no my-turn, your-turn. Weapons have various cooldown periods. It is RT with an option to pause, not TB.Everything in the new game, at least as described in its tooltips, is turn-based - while there is a DPS rating, this isn't even accompanied by a rate of fire stat for weapons, and appears to bear very little relation to actual gameplay. Only continuous fire appears to require real-time coding of some sort.
Question re ships: is there an incentive to have fleets with a mix of ship sizes? And is there an incentive to fit those ships with a mix of armaments?