For sound effects, I always like the Heavy Blast Cannon and Megabolt Cannon from MOO1.
In MOO2, you could tell by turn 200, or earlier, who was going to win the game.
In MOO3, I quit at turn 360, because, it looked like it would be turn 2000 before the game was over.
And the lack of information of helpful information was so bad.
How much does Empathy help? It doesn't say.
It wasn't targeted at a high school level for mass audiance appeal.
I remember reading words like caeses belias and thinking what the heck is that? or the several ship building structures with complicated names.
You couldn't just build a sb and start building the larger hulls, it took a new building for each of the new hull types. insane. MOO1 had 4, MOO2 had 6, MOO3 had 17 different hull types. just overly complicated. 8-10 would have been fine, with possibly another building upgrade like a Heavy Battlestation, or Super Star Fortress, something along those lines.
sorry, for the off-topic rant. I was so disappointed with that game. $50 for the game + $20 for the guide, down the drain.
The only way an excellent MOO4 will really be built, is if Atari pays Steve Barcia to work his magic and restore the good name of Master of Orion.