[MoO] Master or Orion 4

[scratchthepitch]

MOO3 felt more like "work" than "play" to me. I can see how just a remake of MOO2 with better eye candy and AI would be a mistake, also. Something altogether new would be much better. It could cater to both micromanagers and macromanagers through settings chosen by the player when they start up a game, so both MOO2 and MOO3 fans could be accommodated. But some fresh ideas and concepts need to be implemented to revive interest. That's what I've been waiting for somebody to come up with in this genera.

 

[vmxa]

What I would like to see them (owner's of the rights) do is to decide to make a IV. Elect to make it a special offering by taking Moo1 and Moo2 and giving them to a small team of interns to just incorporate some of the fixes implemented by fans already.

Get them to work natively in Win7 and maybe upgrade the graphics a bit. This could be a training tool for interns/new hires. Maybe even toss in some new grahpics, but you want to keep most of the familiar stuff.

Put the updates package out on a online only basis to get interest fired up for version IV. Alternatively make a special package of IV that has the upgraded I and II.

Well of course it is not going to happen, not even sure if IV will. I suspect that at some point IV will happen as someone owns the rights. It is very hard to come up with new 4x space games and not step on existing ones.

 

[Aabraxan]

Welcome to CFC, Quigley!

I didn't care for Moo3, but I've been tempted lately to reinstall it and give it another go. Maybe it's not as bad as I remember it being. As for a Moo4, I'm skeptical that it will happen. In the meantime, I'm thinking that maybe I'll finally give MOO1 a shot, or maybe try my hand at Space Empires.

 

[thelibra]

The day I played MoO3 was the day a little part of me died inside. Perhaps saddest of all was the ending, after winning. After a grueling month, or however long it took to play one game to completion and win, I got no end-movie, no cool graphics, no musical score. I got a single sentence that said something like "You have won the game."

I ruined a perfectly good monitor that day.

If MoO4 comes out, I'll buy it, of course, but MoO3 was, to me, what "Drawing of the Three" was to the Gunslinger series by Stephen King. It was boring, it wasn't the story I'd bought into, and more work than pleasure, with very zero payoff in the end other than a "wait for the next book."

Perhaps the only good thing about MoO3 was the manual, which had a pretty cool (and very long) backstory, even if it was terribly confusing the first read-through.

 

[JLeal]

I don't have to re-install MOO3 to determine if my experience with the game was less than expected. Not that I have a particularly good memory, I don't, but the MOO3 experience was indelibly etched into my mind.

It wasn't that bad a game if spread sheet games are what one prefers. I don't. I'm kinda hoping someone does pick up the MOO torch and runs with it to do a 4th remake. Brad has done a decent job remaking Galactic Civilization of the old OS/2 game. Whether he can do the same with MOO is the question. Revamping an old DOS game can't hurt, but will it sell? I don't know. I'd buy it if it was decent. Matrix games did okay with Steel Panthers, when they converted it from DOS to Windows.

IMO whomever does get the chance to do MOO4 -if ever that should happen- will need to build something from the ground up, rather than convert or revamp a existing game. The basic game mechanics can remain as the backbone, but new options for technology, combat, diplomacy, ship construction and etc really need to be developed, with the main focus remaining to keeping it simple and fun.

Come on, MOO2 is more a beer and pretzels game than a serious treatise into exopolitics and science. And if MOO4 was developed as more than that, well...it wouldn't be the true successor of MOO2.

 

[GoodGame]

They'd just make Gal Civ 3 with land combat.

 

[vmxa]

I think I would rather play Moo3 with the strawberry mod, than Galciv.

 

[scratchthepitch]

I preferred the Tropical mod over the Strawberry. In Strawberry the game begins requiring ground combat to get any where, while in Tropical there were a lot more options and more changes. I really cant stand the way ground combat worked in MOO3. It was much better in MOO2, though not very good, either, but there was the telepathic trait to get around that. Both improve MOO3 quite a bit, but neither kept my interest long enough to finish a game. I had less experience with GalCiv2, but I think it was more fun to play.

 

[GoodGame]

The OP was they wanted to reinvent MoO, not poll what your favorite MoO3 mods were.

/facepalm

My point was GalCiv3 is more likely then Stardock reinventing MoO at this point, despite that Elemental is a bit of a MoM rehash.

 

[vmxa]

Actually there is no point.

 

[JLeal]

Perhaps a new MOO game could have the Antarians with a greater role -breaking out of the pocket universe in force, and maybe the player who gains Orion, having a better chance of driving them back with the technology gained from Orion. It's just off the cuff, as I don't have a idea what track would be best for a new MOO to take.

One thing I've noticed is too many developers bog down a 4X game with a long "wish list". I'm no developer, just a simple gamer, and some games come across as requiring PhDs to play. More often than not, I just don't have the time to indulge in an extensive time consuming game, but a simplier game, like MOO 2, enables me to get some decent gaming in from time to time without marrying the thing.

If there is to be a new MOO, whomever gets the chance to develop it, I hope they do use the same characteristics that has made MOO 2 such a great game to play over and over. It doesn't have to be an extension of the older game, just similar to it.

 

[plasmacannon]

He's got my vote. Make it.
They have to keep the ship customization, tactical movement and fire options to consider it MOO.
I remember GalCiv2 didn't have tactical combat, we just saw the battle afterwards, instead of participating in it, lame.

I had thought of other Race Picks that needed to be added, such as:
Race - Tiny - unable to build Doom Stars
Race - Giant - unable to build fighter craft

Cyber should have different percentages to just how much cybernetic each of these different races really is. I suggested:
Cyber - The base - 1/2 food 1/2 prod to feed each citizen
Cyber - The more Organic - 3/4 food 1/4 prod to feed each citizen, mostly humanoid, some AI
Cyber - The more Metal - 1/4 food 3/4 prod to feed each citizen, mostly AI, some humanoid
Other benefits could be added instead of the auto repair for all cybernetic lifeforms.

Enhance Subterranean to include a 2nd Race Pick:
Deep Subterranean - description - undetectable population residing 1000s of feet below sea level. Too deep to be detected or bombarded from orbit. Must be taken out by ground troops to be eliminated.

Add Asteroids back from MOO1 to the tactical map. This created a strategy to hide a ship behind the asteroids to allow some of the missles targeted on the ship to be destroyed while the missles passed through the field.

Do Not put lines in space. There are none, don't add them. MOO3 did this to try to create choke points, but, there are no lines in space requiring any ship to follow along. Rediculous.

 

[Horizon]

It seems that nearly 2 years after the original announcement of Stardock wanting to build a MoO4, there is no confirmation of the development by Stardock of a Master of Orion 4.

Anyone has seen anything hinting about something MoO4 related being done by Stardock in the past 2 years ?

 

[vmxa]

No, but it has been more than a year, since I last visited their site.

 

[GoodGame]

No they're close to releasing Elemental. I'd guess they'll do at least 1 expansion for that before they consider another game. Hard to tell if they wouldn't just due a GC2 expansion or actually make a MoO-remake or a GC3.

Sword in the Stars 2 was announced, which should still have tactical battles. I suspect that'll be your MoO successor.

 

[Psyringe]

It seems that nearly 2 years after the original announcement of Stardock wanting to build a MoO4, there is no confirmation of the development by Stardock of a Master of Orion 4.

There never was any official announcement of that sort. There was a casual remark by Brad Wardell in an interview, saying that they "would like to" do a MoO4, but don't own the rights. That's all - if they ever actually tried to acquire the rights to a sequel, then they've done that in secret.

I don't think there's much of a point though. For one, Stardock has established its own SciFi strategy franchise, GalCiv. Second, they already failed in acquiring the rights to the "Master of Magic" title (which they tried to do, and had hopes to accomplish), that's why their current game is called "Elemental", although it's a successor to MoM in spirit. Third, the MoO brand ist mostly forgotten among today's gamers, and of those who know it, a large portion feels quite burned by the last installment, so reviving the franchise would be a burden at least as much as an asset.

 

[Cmcastl]

I thought that MOO3 with the subsequent MODs became almost the space strategy game that it aspired to be. I would still play it but I have left off for a while to see what else is emerging. Sadly, not a great deal it would appear.

I salute Star Dock for continuing the space strategy game tradition but sadly GalCiv is not as amenable to and robust with MODS as MOO3 was - believe me a lot of frustration has gone into that remark. The B5 Mod for GalCiv looks interesting but the Star Trek mod hardly features ST ship designs at all.

There is some hope that a privately-developed game called Star Trek: Supremacy might prove a worthy successor to Birth of the Federation but I for one am not holding my breath! Though I have bookmarked their site!

The basic problem for all of us who love to play the galactic "clash of empires" 4 X strategy games is that the market is skewed towards the "shooters". I much me fear that unless somehow companies such as Star Dock, God bless 'em, and 2K, God bless them, too, can make strategy games profitable and marketable again, those of us who like our games more cerebral, and less relentlessly physical and narrowly oriented towards killing the next alien soldiers appearing over the next rise, are in for a long, dry patch.

Live long and prosper.


After, and with apologies to Plato. "But you are speaking of the perfect space strategy game, which surely cannot exist?" "Not here, oh Radeimantus, not here, but in another player's world."

 

[Distorted Humor]

I would love a 4x game that had these features.

Simple Economy like MoO1
ship customization like say, the Moo and GaCiv2
some tatical combat, even if it is giving general commands to your fleet or land forces and watch them go at it.
Good AI, perhaps with it being modular so you can swap out the AI.
Good Tech Tree

Perhaps having Multi-cultural planets where you have more then one alien race, of course till you have one they would be revolt prone.

 

[vmxa]

One thing that most tbs space games have done is to put in very large tech trees, which I did not like as you spent too much engery on that and have little time to use the tech or cannot even figure out what value it may have.

 

[Distorted Humor]

One thing that most tbs space games have done is to put in very large tech trees, which I did not like as you spent too much engery on that and have little time to use the tech or cannot even figure out what value it may have.

Can't disagree