"According to a company representative, the game is undergoing some significant changes that require additional development time to implement."
I'm not sure what the real cause of all this last-minute retooling is, but there is *NO WAY* that the game will come out the better for it. You don't take a game that was in development for years and turn it around in a few months.
I don't know if it's completely doomed, but it is definitely struggling. Go to the forum and read what the designers are saying (particularly Alan Emrich and Rantz Hoseley). It's possible they are just shining all the fans on, it's possible that Infogrames will limit their ability to finish the game... but it's possible that they will come out with an excellent game fter all is said and done. From the messages about what's being retooled, it sounds like they found some issues in alpha or early beta that caused them to rethink some of the game mechanics -- the question is whether they are good enough designers to fix those problems without crippling the game.
Alan Emrich is no slouch, but the bottom line is, no game (or any other artistic endeavor, for that matter) was ever improved by being "improved" at the last minute.
I have been a huge fan of MOO and MOO2 and pissed away a ton of money on everything that looked like it since then. Nothing has measured up. I recently bought a game called Space Empires Gold IV from a small company Shrapnel Games. It has a "cult" following and tons of mods and is better than the MOO series hands down. I highly recommend it to any 4X fan, you won't miss MOO3 at all.
I have been a huge fan of MOO and MOO2 and pissed away a ton of
money on everything that looked like it since then. Nothing has
measured up. I recently bought a game called Space Empires Gold
IV from a small company Shrapnel Games. It has a
"cult" following and tons of mods and is better than
the MOO series hands down. I highly recommend it to any 4X fan,
you won't miss MOO3 at all.
I hear that that game is micromanagement hell. True? If you hate having to tell every unit and planet what to do every turn, is it still a good game?
Actually it is up to you. I happen to be a "hands on" type and enjoy the involvement. There are "Ministers" (computer AI) for just about every chore in the game and you can turn them on for something as small as individual planet management or a particular ship or globally to handle a particular type of item like ship design or diplomacy for example. There are several dozen different responsibilities you can click on and off at will and every single item in the game can be individully chosen for control. If you like to be involved in everything you can que up construction and many other items and just let something run for a while as you turn your attention elsewhere. You set a destination for a fleet or ship which may take several turns to move and don't go back to it until it gets there. It has excellent summary reports for ships, fleets, planets, colonies and a turn activity log that can take you to any event that occured at a glance. There were hardly any of these tools available in MOO or MOO2. More races, huge tech tree, larger galaxy potential and the tactical combat is excellent. Once again you can let the computer control as much or as little as you want of the combat for example. The game comes with a comeplete explanation of how to edit and/or create every facet. The "cult" community has created hunderds of new races and game elements which you can use to modify your game. You can recreate Star Trek or Babylon 5 type games. The versatility is exceptional. I hope that helps.
Comments
http://gamespot.com/gamespot/stories/news/0,10870,2860340,00.html
... and reading it over, it's all bad.
"According to a company representative, the game is undergoing some significant changes that require additional development time to implement."
I'm not sure what the real cause of all this last-minute retooling is, but there is *NO WAY* that the game will come out the better for it. You don't take a game that was in development for years and turn it around in a few months.
Oh well. Another one bites the dust.
_/ C
I don't know if it's completely doomed, but it is definitely struggling. Go to the forum and read what the designers are saying (particularly Alan Emrich and Rantz Hoseley). It's possible they are just shining all the fans on, it's possible that Infogrames will limit their ability to finish the game... but it's possible that they will come out with an excellent game fter all is said and done. From the messages about what's being retooled, it sounds like they found some issues in alpha or early beta that caused them to rethink some of the game mechanics -- the question is whether they are good enough designers to fix those problems without crippling the game.
[url=http://forums.prospero.com/masteroforion3/]MOO3 forum[/url]
I might get my money's worth out of Civ III then. Although I *still* feel stiffed that tech posters wasn't included... grrr...
Alan Emrich is no slouch, but the bottom line is, no game (or any other artistic endeavor, for that matter) was ever improved by being "improved" at the last minute.
_/ C
You don't have the trees memorized yet? Ha! 8)
--MH
I have been a huge fan of MOO and MOO2 and pissed away a ton of money on everything that looked like it since then. Nothing has measured up. I recently bought a game called Space Empires Gold IV from a small company Shrapnel Games. It has a "cult" following and tons of mods and is better than the MOO series hands down. I highly recommend it to any 4X fan, you won't miss MOO3 at all.
Shrapnel Games
I hear that that game is micromanagement hell. True? If you hate having to tell every unit and planet what to do every turn, is it still a good game?
Actually it is up to you. I happen to be a "hands on" type and enjoy the involvement. There are "Ministers" (computer AI) for just about every chore in the game and you can turn them on for something as small as individual planet management or a particular ship or globally to handle a particular type of item like ship design or diplomacy for example. There are several dozen different responsibilities you can click on and off at will and every single item in the game can be individully chosen for control. If you like to be involved in everything you can que up construction and many other items and just let something run for a while as you turn your attention elsewhere. You set a destination for a fleet or ship which may take several turns to move and don't go back to it until it gets there. It has excellent summary reports for ships, fleets, planets, colonies and a turn activity log that can take you to any event that occured at a glance. There were hardly any of these tools available in MOO or MOO2. More races, huge tech tree, larger galaxy potential and the tactical combat is excellent. Once again you can let the computer control as much or as little as you want of the combat for example. The game comes with a comeplete explanation of how to edit and/or create every facet. The "cult" community has created hunderds of new races and game elements which you can use to modify your game. You can recreate Star Trek or Babylon 5 type games. The versatility is exceptional. I hope that helps.
Shrapnel Games