07-03-2003 12:22									#1
	Does anyone REALLY know how this game works? Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

I've been playing MOO3 for less than a week but I have some big criticisms. Basically I think this game has some serious flaws, but lets not get into that. Let's just try and play a game which we all spent waaaay too much money on. (note to self: if MOO4 comes out get a pirated version and don't spend $90 on a stupid game with a pathetic useless manual)

Now for some questions to those who call themselves masters:

1) Does anyone know why there are three different tax rates? Empire & system tax is set on 'empire' screen and a third one can be set on the 'planet' screen. Why are there 3 tax rates and where does the money go?

2) What does the empire treasury do? planets seem to have enough money to do exactly what they want and do not need "subsidies". Often my planetary treasury is overflowing but at empire level i am paying stupid amounts of interest because I owe money. This is stupid and the cash flows are not clear.

3) Why do my planets continually spew out junk ships (Eagle Attack, Hawk Defence and the hated Troop Transport). I know what ships I want, where I want them and when. I dont need the stupid AI guessing where I would like a new fleet. When I want a fleet I will build one. The only solution I have found is to mark almost all ship designs as 'obsolete' but this is a joke. Is there a better way?

Thats the big ones so far. Apart from there not being enough green planets (one in 10 systems has a green planet and even then its far away and strategically poorly positioned). And the stupid aliens who keep declaring war. Damn Ithkuls. Well anyway... this game sucks the big one... gimme my $90 back you *******s. Its crap games like this that make software piracy flourish. Why should I pay good money for a crap game?

	08-03-2003 04:57									#2
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

I'll attempt a brief response. However, anyone who publicly advocates pirating deserves little attention or credence.

1. Think of Empire, System, and Planetary as the general equivalent of federal, county, and city taxes. The empire taxes are the source of your major slider adjustments in the Budget screen. Planetary taxes go only to the given planet. System taxes are available at the system level.

2. Set your budget priority to Balanced or Saving, make sure your budget sliders don't spend more than you have, and watch your treasury grow.

3. The techniques for controlling the military production involve good design selection (which does require determining which designs are obsolete) along with the military budget selector (the bigger the budget, the bigger the ship the Viceroy thinks he can build). Or of course you can just micromanage all queues yourself.

I certainly haven't had the experience of only finding a few Green planets in my games. However, even that sort of handicap could be overcome by proper use of Magnate races.

The rest of your comments are mostly insults, which I guess you use to justify your immoral position on pirating. Many of us consider MOO3 to be a thoughtful and intelligent game design with considerable depth and commendable ability to modify. There are many features to improve; the same was true with many classic games.

Andy Weill