Master of Orion

Skyfire

Spaceman
I've heard, recently, about this Master of Orion game-sounds kinda like a mix between Civilization/WC Armada. I was actually wondering if anyone has played it before (either the first or second one), as I've only heard a little bit about it, I'd like to know more.

Since it sounds like a good version of Civ/WCA I'd kinda like to see if I could purchase it. Anyone have any information/thoughts/feelings about it?
 
I've played both 1 and 2. They're two great games i would recomed to any strategy fan. Recently PC Gamer released Master of Orion 2 as a free game on their cover disk.
 
I've played both games and recommend them as well... They have a nice and varied gameplay. MOO 2 is even better since you can estabilish more than one colony per system (if the system has more than one habitable planet) which makes the huge universe even bigger. It's one of those games which hardly ever left my HD, like Privateer, Commander Keen, or Pirates! :D

--Eder
 
I personally prefer the first game, myself. I like some of the elements of the second (such as outposts, and the option to establish more than one colony in a system), but I prefer the more abstract economy in the first to the 'sim-cityish' approach in the second.
 
Originally posted by Ghost
MOO2 is very good, it have the mighty Bulrathi!

Uh...

They BOTH have the mighty Bulrathi...
And the Mrrshan (although I understand the Mrrshan are being pulled from MOO3).
IIRC, the new races in MOO2 were the Trilarians and the Elerians.
 
I'm debating as to whether I should try to get the 2nd one (since it's pretty easy to get) or purchase the 3rd when it comes out. Eh, maybe I'll end up doing both.
 
Originally posted by junior


Uh...

They BOTH have the mighty Bulrathi...
And the Mrrshan (although I understand the Mrrshan are being pulled from MOO3).
IIRC, the new races in MOO2 were the Trilarians and the Elerians.

Mrrshan are not a playable race in MOO3 although they are hidden in the game somewhere. The Darlocks won't be in the game at all, but their ancestors will. The Elerians aren't a playable race but they're in there somewhere. The Bulrathi and Alkari are not in there at all as far as Quicksilver is saying.

I recommend getting all three games. MOO is downloadable for free. MOO2 only $10 or so. MOO3 should be coming out in Sept.
 
I only played MOO2 but I recommend it too. It's a bit slow at the beginning when slowly expanding and a bit annoying at the end when you have to manage your dozens of colonies but nevertheless a very good game.
Though I don't think it bears that much similarities to WCArmada. I mean you can't fly for yourself and have much more to manage.
 
Originally posted by Hoops


Mrrshan are not a playable race in MOO3 although they are hidden in the game somewhere. The Darlocks won't be in the game at all, but their ancestors will. The Elerians aren't a playable race but they're in there somewhere. The Bulrathi and Alkari are not in there at all as far as Quicksilver is saying.

Haven't been following the development much, lately, but I thought the devs had decided that anyone who wanted to play the Elerians could just modify the basic human template until it was identical to what the Elerians had once been?
 
I associated the building of fleets, setting up starbases, etc. (Although I can see your point, Mekt)

Any suggestions as to whether I should just jump straight to 2 or play 1 then 2. As I've never played them, I can't really know what comparisons/differences there might be between the two.
 
If you're worried that playing 2 might spoil something from 1, don't. There's no storyline to speak of in either game (although that might change with 3), and no real 'surprises'. In addition, the games actually play quite a bit differently from each other.
The first game bases its colony economy on a list of bars. Each bar represents the amount of money that you're spending on that segment of the colony, and can be adjusted to suit your needs. So you've got money that's being spent to increase industrial capability, build defensive missile platforms, build starships, research new technologies, take care of (or clean up) the environment, and maintain (or increase the population). In addition to providing new ship systems, tech advances might also increase planetary conditions by making it cheaper to maintain the environment, reduce the amount of population required to operate a factory, etc...
Tech advances were represented by six different categories of technology, which were all worked on simultaneously (although you could emphasize some technologies at the expense of others). Eventually, given enough time and resources, you could research every single technology in the game.
Ship movement range was determined by the maximum range that your fuel technology provided. The initial range was 3, which meant that your ships could move anywhere within three parsecs (i.e. spaces) of any of your planets. No need to return to base to refuel. You just couldn't move past this range.
You were allowed to have a maximum of six ship designs. Once you had more than this, you had to scrap an older one. Fleets often consisted of hundreds of fighters backed up by dozens of larger ships.
Hidden somewhere on the map was the planet Orion, which was a huge amazingly fertile planet with ancient technological artifacts, and guarded by a very nasty battleship called the "Guardian of Orion".
The Galactic Council met once a certain portion of the map had been colonized. The two largest races were nominated to rule the galaxy. Each race had one vote per system, and if one of the nominees got two-thirds of the vote, he was declared supreme ruler. If you won the vote, you won the game. If a computer player won the vote, you could contest it, at which point, every race would declare war on you. The other way to win the game was to conquer the galaxy (which involved abstaining in the vote once you controlled over two-thirds of the galaxy).

MOO2 had very different mechanics.
The races in the game each had their own advantages and disadvantages, but you could also create a custom race.
Planetary systems resembled cities from Civilization. Citizens could be moved between three areas (industry, farming, research). The bars from the original game were completely gone. Buildings were constructed (just as in Civ), and provided different enhancements for the colony (along with requiring cash to maintain). Which buildings you could construct was determined by the technologies you researched. While different research areas still existed, Technologies were clustered in groups of three (four?), and you could only work on one technology within each group (unless you had a special racial advantage). The other technologies within that group could only be obtained by trading with another race. You could also only focus your efforts on a single technology, as opposed to spending resources on a number of different technologies.
While the six ship design limit was removed, it was replaced with something very different. You could only have five buildable designs at one time (while you couldn't build other ships, you didn't have to scrap them, though), and you could only maintain a very limited number of ships. A single MOO1 fleet was often bigger than the entire collection of ships of all races in a single MOO2 game.
The same methods of winning the game were still present, but an additional method was provided as well. Mid-way through the game, an extra dimensional high tech race known as the Antarrans would start launching random raids against various planets. One of the tech advances would allow you to build a portal to the source of the raids, and you could launch a counter raid. If you won the battle, you won the game.
 
WC mod for MoO2

Hello, gang!

You know, You can play custom scenarios for MoO2.
For example:
Last year one guy from our wc-site from Volgograd sent me a ftp-link, where I found a scenario named: Kilrathi War .

You need MoO2 v1.31 patch, then download scenario, follow install instructions and enjoy!

From DESCRIPT.ION file:
==
The KILRATHI WAR scenario for Master of Orion II:
Battle at Antares Version 2.0

This scenario is a contribution to the Wing Commander saga. In future, the
Human race is locked in the long-lasting war with cat-like creatures, who call
themselves the Kilrathi. They are very agressive and are going to enslave the
entire Galaxy. Depending on the side you play, your goal is either to save the
future of Human race from the cruel furbags, or show the hairless apes their
real place - beneath your foot. Another option is to play the scenario with
a friend in a hot-seat game.

Author: Alexander Krasnyanski (kavtig@advent.avtlg.ru)

Testers: Maxim Krasnyanski (kavtig@advent.avtlg.ru)
Dmitry Yulmukhametov (Yulmukhametov@bsu.bashedu.ru)
Geoffrey Tobin (G.Tobin@latrobe.edu.au)

Cast: the Terrans - the Humans
the Kilrathis - the Mrrshans
the Firekkans - the Alkaris
the Nephilims - the Antarans
 
MOO3 doesn't have a storyline but it does have a huge background story you can uncover (it's also part of one of the 5th X, and a way to win).

I'd play the games in order. MOO is more simple than MOO2. There is also Starlords, which is kind of a MOO0. It was never released and it was turned into MOO. It's still kind of fun (and I played it first). It's avalible off the MOO3 site moo3.quicksilver.com and several other places.

The Guardin of Orion was in MOO2 too.

The reason the fleets are smaller in MOO2 is because you're busy building tons of buildings on your colonies. In MOO the only buildings are missile bases and shields.


The link to the mod doesn't seem to work, Joker.
 
Originally posted by Hoops
The reason the fleets are smaller in MOO2 is because you're busy building tons of buildings on your colonies. In MOO the only buildings are missile bases and shields.

Perhaps in your games, but I never seemed to have that problem. It was far, far too easy to create fleets that were just too big to properly maintain.
Quicksilver (the devs of MOO3) is ramping the fleet numbers back up, although I'm not certain if they'll get quite as big as they did in the first game.
Its also probably worth noting that one of the Civ 2 mods in the Civ 2 mod add-on was based on MOO2.
 
I meant fleets that were in your means. The closer you get to the end of the game the more ships you can build without the support. You can't afford to do that in the beginning of the game, where as in MOO you can continue to build ships without limit (and your established colonies usually have nothing better to do, save the occasional upgrade).
 
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