10-07-2002 22:42									#1
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try reading info here: moo3.quicksilver.com

or here: www.orionsector.com

	11-07-2002 00:32									#2
	Re: What is MOO3? Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

quote: Originally posted by Tassadar5000 What is MOO3? Not what the acronym stands for (Master of Orion), but what do you do in the game? I have heard it being compared to Birth of the Federation (which ive played). What are the differences between the two games? What do you do? I've read reviews, but thus far I am still confused. The more detail you put in your response, the better. Tassadar

It shares a lot of surface similarities with BotF -- a Space-oriented, Turn-based Strategy Game. Multiple colonizable planets per Star. A research model, a diplomacy model, an economic model, an espionage model, etc. MOO1 and MOO2 also shared turn-based combat with BotF.

But MOO3 is different (and hopefully far better) in many ways. You can colonize moons of planets as well as the planets themselves, and asteroid belts. You can design your starships and static defenses (there's a full range of designable permanent defenses, not just the outpost/starbase). The economic model should be more complex. The diplomacy and espionage systems are definitely more complex, and the research model is more interesting in light of the designable ships.

Also, space combat is "real-time" -- somewhat of a misnomer really, but basically, "not turn-based". It's continuous, but things are supposed to transpire slowly enough that you can still make reasonable decisions rather than winning by fast reflexes (unlike most RTS games, where your mouse dexterity counts nearly as much as your tactics).

That's about covers the significant differences. There are 16 races to choose from rather than 4, and up to 32 empires at any time (compared to the 4 or less of BotF, where each race corresponds to exactly one empire throughout, not counting the single-system minor races). Up to 8 human players in a multiplayer game. Multiple victory conditions. Customizable race abilities. I'm sure there's a few things I'm forgetting...

	12-08-2002 08:55									#3
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so it's going to be like botf.... professional!!!

cool!!!


botf could've been the best gmae ever if they had just spent a little more time on it. ah well. if only

	24-09-2002 06:32									#4
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quote: Originally posted by erikmistal so it's going to be like botf.... professional!!! cool!!! botf could've been the best gmae ever if they had just spent a little more time on it. ah well. if only

BoTF was once touted as the Successor to Moo2, I seen a few dozen players still pay it on MSN gaming zone - so it can't be all that Bad.

Moo2 could've been the best game ever if they had just spent a little more time on it. (Deja-Vous)

Probably the same will be said of Moo3 - 4 years hence.

	12-10-2002 17:52									#5
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MOO3 is going to be a really really good turn-based strategy game.

It will have 16 UNIQUE alien races.
Hundreds of researchable technologies.
Most realistic and comprehensive diplomacy model to date.
You get to design your own spaceships.
Thousands of colinizable bodies (planets, moons, asteroids).
Advanced macro-management tools.
You can micromanage but dont need to. (See above).
Very intricate spy system.
Good graphics.

I could go on and on.

	12-10-2002 22:43									#6
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I hope it will not be too much like Birth (botf) as I played it through once or twice and gave it away. It was not bad, but did not grab me. The combat looked good, but was hard to have much impact upon.

	13-10-2002 13:41									#7
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It's going to be like BotF?

Count me out, then.

	13-10-2002 17:03									#8
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Well, it ain't gonna be like Abort of the Fedreration. That, after all was a festering pile of dung, not a game. Moo3 might turn out to be bad, but I feel confident there will actually be a game somewhere in there.

BOTF and RFTS set new standards in uselessness when they came out. I really don't expect Moo3 to do that.

	13-10-2002 22:17									#9
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RFTS raised the std way above BOTF. I could not even play rfts.

	14-10-2002 14:30									#10
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RftS isn't that bad. It has some interesting ideas, and micromanagement is minimal. I like the way you can organise fleets, too.

	14-10-2002 20:59									#11
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what is RftS? i can't figure out the acronym

	14-10-2002 22:33									#12
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Reach for the Stars.

	16-10-2002 04:37									#13
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never heard of it

	16-10-2002 04:54									#14
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If You are talking about rfts, you did not miss anything, at least the recent one. If you mean Moo/Moo2/Moo3, where you been?

	16-10-2002 22:06									#15
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obviously living under a rock. I've never played moo1 or moo2, and i know absolutely nothing about moo3

	17-10-2002 00:57									#16
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I am sure millions of people have never heard of Moo in this country, just that they are not pc gamers and internet travelers, by and large. Anyway Moo is a space colonization type game, they are refered to as 4x, Expand/Exterminate/Experiment/Explore (I think). You start with a single colony and try to take over the universe through the 4x methods. It has space and land combat, spies,trade and the like. Moo came out in 1993 so the graphics are very old, but even people that I have shown the game to in the last year, still have fun. Moo2 in newer circa 1996 (too lazy to check). It was a Dos game as well, but did have a Win95 version. Both games paly in all the windows OS and OS2 as well. Some web sites have very detailed strategies outlined, if you get to the point you may want to play.

	17-10-2002 01:33									#17
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quote: Originally posted by vmxa1 ...they are refered to as 4x, Expand/Exterminate/Experiment/Explore (I think)...

Just a small nitpick: eXplore/eXpand/eXploit/eXterminate.

Thank you for your attention

	17-10-2002 02:27									#18
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I knew I did not have it correct, but at least they get the idea, thanks.

	18-10-2002 09:08									#19
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Heh people are now comparing moo to botf Thats priceless


Actually, botf was not all that bad. I played it for a bit, and the one aspect I can really praise them for is the minor races thing....it adds so much atmosphere and works really well since they could pull from all the material created for the various series.

The bad part of botf is that it leaks memory like a bat out of hell and basically becomes unplayablely slow (mouse cursor movement and such) after about 100 turns. Oh and the galaxy map is basically useless, you can either choose the zoomed in setting, which is so close you can only see like 1/8 of a large map, or the zoomed out setting where you can't see anything cause its too small :P Oh and it truelly stinks that you can't design your own starships

Basically botf was an awsome game idea (star trek moo clone), that was designed sort of bad, and implimented even worse.

-----
Oh and to answer the original question, if you want to know what moo3 is, your best bet might be to go to your local EB and grab a copy of master of orion 2. I've been seeing it in the bargain CD bins for around $10 everytime I go lately, and you seriously won't regret it. Conversely you could check out the original master of orion (I dont know where to get it these days) as alot of moo3's design seems to come from it instead of moo2, but I have trouble getting it to work well under windows 98/ME, it does work but the sound just doesnt

	18-10-2002 13:17									#20
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Since we're discussing other galactic empire building games...

Has anyone here ever played Into The Void? I saw it played once and it looked kinda cool, though the reviews I read bashed it heavily...so, I ask this, has anyone here played it? and did they enjoy it?

	21-10-2002 02:58									#21
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The MOO series IMHO the only SF game which ever lived up to "one more turn" as your interstellar race battled for supremacy of the galaxy.

BotF was fun for a few goes, but if it weren't for Trek, it would have been horrible. When you have a game going where the Vulcans and Andorians join the (your) Fed first, you rationalize the horrible playability.

	21-10-2002 17:15									#22
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Alien Legacy was great, imo, although its not strictly an empire building game.

	21-10-2002 20:57									#23
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I played Alien Legacy again about 2 months ago. Lots of building to do and planets/asteriods/gas to work. Pax2 was fun, but really had a lot of micromanaging to do. Ascendancy also had a ton of micromanagement to do.

	21-10-2002 23:10									#24
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Pax2 was interesting. I really liked how strong planetary defenses were and how you needed combined arms for effect. However, the spying was so horribly broken the late game was unplayable.

	22-10-2002 01:58									#25
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Into the Void... I played it once and that's it. I'm not even sure I kept the CD afterwards. I suppose I could go look for it and maybe try it again. It made such a strong impression on me that I can't remember anything about it. :-P

Ascendancy... the Game That Might Have Been--were it not for its non-existent AI, mouse-happy CTS-inducing user interface, and busted combat mechanics. It has atmospheric personality, I'll grant you that, but that's about ALL it has.

Pax Imperia: Eminent Domain... Dull. Dull, dull, dull. I *did* like the strategic importance of the space routes in the game, but on the whole, it wasn't compelling enough to keep me playing long.

Alien Legacy... It was actually fun, but it was also a micromanager's dream. You needed obscene amounts of production to get to the end of the game, and it was oh-so-easy to crash your economy if you weren't right on top of everything. Still, I did manage to finish.

I'm trying not to get my hopes too high for MOO3 just yet. Parts of it look fascinating, but it remains to be seen whether the game will actually be fun. I hope it will. :-)

	22-10-2002 02:16									#26
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quote: Originally posted by Lee Johnson Ascendancy... the Game That Might Have Been--were it not for its non-existent AI, mouse-happy CTS-inducing user interface, and busted combat mechanics. It has atmospheric personality, I'll grant you that, but that's about ALL it has.

The only game that had realistic aliens (not some "man in the suits").

If only AI was better.
And that races were a little more balanced.

	22-10-2002 05:08									#27
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quote: Originally posted by moomin Pax2 was interesting. I really liked how strong planetary defenses were and how you needed combined arms for effect. However, the spying was so horribly broken the late game was unplayable.

Yes, I hated the idea you could steal a whole planet. One you did ot even knew existed.

	22-10-2002 05:09									#28
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Player1, it also had the best combat effects for the time combined with the sound, I still fire up a game once in a while to listen to the battles. It playes fine on my XP system.

	22-10-2002 05:14									#29
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quote: Originally posted by Lee Johnson Alien Legacy... It was actually fun, but it was also a micromanager's dream. You needed obscene amounts of production to get to the end of the game, and it was oh-so-easy to crash your economy if you weren't right on top of everything. Still, I did manage to finish.

Yes that was one of the worst parts, it was very tricky to keep the research going, especially on the space dock labs. Searching all the land got tedious as well. I did enjoy the finding of items and the exploration of space, but no tactic combat. I finished 3 times including this years run.

	22-10-2002 12:29									#30
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quote: Originally posted by vmxa1 Player1, it also had the best combat effects for the time combined with the sound, I still fire up a game once in a while to listen to the battles. It playes fine on my XP system.

Agreed!