Master of Orion - III - The Challenge of Control

[@l0rf]

For me, Masters of Orion 2 will forever be the best 4X game that I've ever played.

[@Desolator84]

It is the most difficult and complex game i ever played, with the Mt. Everest of a learning curve. This game isn't made for wide audience to squeeze out as much buck as possible by trying to appeal to newbs, and is merciless to noobs, and that's what i respect about it. I LOVE its cumbersome interface, the animation and sounds when they open, the amount of details you can tamper with in the game, and all the frustration in learning to play it. Master of Orion 3 can only get better on this base.

[@missingnote]

This game is one of the definitions for "love it or hate it". It's really, really difficult to learn, but once you get things going it's incredibly fun. I loved the new style of gameplay and the whole style the game had. I've spent so much time on this game over the years, and I always come back to it every now and then for a new game.

[@fubaralakbar6800]

Let the haters hate. I like this game. It's like SSI's Star General meets Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. I don't say that it's without it's share of flaws, but the sheer size and pleasant graphics make it quite addictive.

[@Mathenaut]

This game has an incredibly steep learning curve. Alot of people get frustrated stumbling up and give up on it. It's understandable. There is alot to learn in playing this game and not everyone enjoys a game that requires that kind of extensive education. Though, for those that climb to the top of that curve, this is a hell of a great experience. Particularly with a few mods that round off the polish. One of the most complex and in-depth games of it's kind.

[@ShadowWolfTJC]

Here's a long list of features that I'd like for Master of Orion 4 to incorporate: The return of real-time space combat. - Do away with grouping ships into task forces and look at various rts games (like the Command & Conquer franchise) to get an idea on how micromanaging and macromanaging your ships could be done quickly through various hotkeys. - A pause feature would also be nice, though a pause feature where you could give commands while paused would be even better.

[@Anguille2]

I still play MOO3 as well...it's one of my favorite games...and will remain for a long time. It's one of the deepest and most complex game in the genre...

[@ShadowWolfTJC]

The return of jump lanes from MOO3, though with some way to prevent ships from travelling too far (like a fuel system). A planetary management system that's quite similar to the city management system from Civilization 4. - Asteroid mining. - Colonizing moons. - The return of planetary, systemwide, and empirewide tax rates (with each broader level of taxation being more inefficient in terms of redistribution of collected taxes due to things like embezzlement and shipping-and-handling).

[@Desolator84]

Other than that, i'd continue the game in this industrial high-tech dark theme, as space IS cold and dark - and NOT a cartoon. But at the same time it can be as wondrous and appealing as that soothing sound Tachidi make. Oh, and i love to play as Cynoid =) The other game i'd recommend is Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. Life changing experience.

[@missingnote]

Its scale and complexity. The game becomes very worth it once you get an idea of what you're doing. There are also quite a few excellent mods out.

[@sunprojection]

Yes.. I agree. Truly an apex of Space 4X complexity, but not for the faint of heart.

[@Desolator84]

The most frustrating thing about it IMO is Diplomacy. Other factions make threats, impose sanctions and declare war on you, tell you to stop doing what you are doing, and you are left on your own to figure out what that is. The other thing is lack of option for refitting built ships with new tech. These need major improvement. Tech tree also needs better design. Dark, atmospheric and unintrusive music is perfect, only needs more variation.

[@ShadowWolfTJC]

I've played through this game, along with the other 2 games in the Master of Orion series, and while it wasn't able to dethrone Master of Orion 2 in terms of being my most favorite game in the series, I still found it more enjoyable than the original Master of Orion. If they come out with a Master of Orion 4, I hope that they take a look at what made Master of Orion 2 into such a huge success that continues to stand the test of time (lol at Civilization 2 reference). (Continued...)

[@Desolator84]

Dat menu. I love the heavy, bulky, industrial feel of it and its sound effects. I hate streamlined, overly simple menus. Endless Space was pretty cool, but i hated how unchallenging it was. When i finally bridled this beast (MoO3) after YEARS of attempting and failing, i truly felt like master. Even though i'm certain i suck at it compared to other players, i finally finished a game and started taking enjoyment from it. Diplomacy is a letdown imho, but evrthng else gives you feels on epic scale.

[@CMCDragonkai]

IMHO I actually liked this game. It had incredible depth. Sure it was confusing, but once you got past it, it really is intriguing and exciting as your empire grew.

[@ShadowWolfTJC]

Evil raiding parties. (Essentially being Master of Orion 4's equivalent of the Civilization series' "barbarians", they could be space pirates, Antarans that wish to recapture the Orion sector, or any of the newer threats that were mentioned in MOO3 lore, like the Mizara or the Varakesh.)

[@VideoMatoran]

When I first saw the Ithkul assimilating that human, I was horrified. If nothing else, the Ithkul is definitely a positive (albeit horrifying) quality about MOO3

[@LoneCloudHopper]

I don't get why people called this game complex and difficult to learn. I found it is disappointingly easy to figure out and to master. I won on my first try and I don't think I ever lost. The game could have been better in different respects, but I was won over by its sense of awe, open-universe feel and the many choices you could make. I would love to play a sequel where you could play as the Antarans, creating new intelligent races and trying to manage them while they take on their own identities, forming their own destinies and warring with one-another. Trying to maintain some degree of control and balance in the universe would be an interesting challenge.

[@Hardin4188]

This is one of my favorite games. It's a shame it was so buggy at launch, it gave it a bad reputation. But I think it has improved slightly over the years after people saw what this game could be with mods. Also mods > dlc.

[@Desolator84]

I never played older MOOs, and i absolutely love how dead-serious and gloomy MOO3 is. Maybe 2nd had better things to it, but it would be completely repelling to me, when there is absolutely no escape from all the cartoon-y themes in video games these days. Master of Orion 3. I attempted to play it many times over the years, sometimes with two year pause in between, and each time i realized with gratification that i was getting better at it and understood it more.

[@ShadowWolfTJC]

The return of the MOO2 races that were unplayable in MOO3, along with some new races altogether (some of which could be offshoots of other existing races, like the Mrrshan or Psilons). (The Ithkul, given their hostile nature towards most of the other Orion races, could become unplayable raiders for all I would anticipate in this next game.) That's all that I can think of for the time being. More ideas may pop up later.

[@TotallyAnnihilated]

Speaking of wrecks, Kaval, I think that ship is pretty much a mess.

[@leded13]

i literally had an eye tear up a little when i played this for the first time. i think a testament to its failure was seeing used copies of this game on amazon for around 5 bucks a mere week or so after its release. as far as the story goes for the game tho. who is the genius that thought the Antarans were a good idea to be in charge of anything? its not they were even a threat anymore. their homeworld is bombed into shit at the end of MOO2 so its not like they strong-armed their way into it

[@ShadowWolfTJC]

Doing away with the whole "Heavy Foot of Government" system in favor of a maintenance cost that increases slowly, but exponentially, for every planet and system that you colonize (to act as a check for expanding rapidly, similar to how Civilization 4 handles rapidly-expanding civilizations). The return of GNN (which reports whatever spectacular events, both good and bad, happen throughout the sector) for nostalgia's sake.

[@VectorOmega]

Great intro. Pity they didn't do a Master Of Orion 4. BTW at 1.26, what is happening (does it happen in the MOO universe and who is being invaded there)? Also at 2 minutes in the intro...who is being attacked by the tentacled lifeform?

[@Xenodamus]

What I like a lot about MOO3 was that it focused more on macromanagement yet allowed micromanagement as well. Unfortunately that concept was badly implemented. The planetary tag assignment was unclear, and planet sections that were manually assigned were overridden by the shoddy AI. For the battle system, I like the concept of fleet arrangements it introduced, but the rest of it was crap. There were also a lot of bugs and missing features. A real shame.

[@missingnote]

A lot of people talk about how you can hit next turn a few hundred times and still win. I have no idea why people say this. It's blatantly obvious it's not true if you try it. I think it's cool (or not, I guess) how there are tons of people who abhor this game with a passion, and some few like me who have spent more time playing with it more than any other game. :)

[@EvilSkaine]

Best game intro ever. Too bad for the game... (big ass MoO2 fan here)

[@ikvsabre]

No, it is not a lie. We were worried. He disappeared for almost two weeks.

[@l0rf]

Well, Sword of the Stars does a halfway decent job. It's fun to play, but you can tell it's not MoO pretty quickly, it misses some bits, I haven't yet noticed a difference between the six races apart from propulsion. Still, crushing an enemy planet with Dreadnought-sized Anti-matter cannons has a certain appeal to it.

[@SeverEnergia]

This was the best part of that damn game. Dot wars, ugh.

[@EmisoraRadioPatio]

But after I understood everything, it was very fun, and still is.

[@ikvsabre]

I bought the game. I played it. It was an exercise in frustration. Lots of stuff going on, nothing I could do about it. The interface was terrible. I know a guy who worked on the game. When it came out, he was so distraught over how bad it was, he contemplated suicide.

[@ShadowWolfTJC]

Speaking of the Antarans, what if you could revisit the Antaran's pocket dimension for a 2nd time, but this time, to finish them off for good? (Perhaps, if there are other enemy factions that you would have to deal with in addition to the Antarans, you could undo what the Orions did to imprison the Antarans initially and warp the Antaran sector into the middle of your other enemies' empire for catastrophic results? How's that for an ending?)

[@jessica5000000]

my only issue was you couldnt destroy a planet as you could in master of orion 2 turning it into rubble. The steller beam could just ruin the planet destroying all life but when you got advanced enough, they could just convert the environment back to normal.

[@EmisoraRadioPatio]

Am I the only one that likes micromanagement? The only thing I didn't like about MOO3 was the vagueness in some of the options. It took me a while to understand what I was doing (I still don't know in some things!)

[@kay4x4]

@AxelTheManly He also gave many people jobs, and created usefull highways( But that was for his troops too ) But i agree with you, if he used his power to create peace it would have been an better world...

[@missingnote]

I still like it more than MOO2, and I've played both extensively for many games. MOO3 shouldn't have been a sequel to MOO2 because of their lack of similarities. The gameplay of each game is completely different. People played MOO3 expecting a better MOO2, and it clearly had very little to do with MOO2, so fans of the MOO series didn't want it. If it had been its own game or even a spin-off, it probably would have been better received. I wouldn't call it unfinished so much as poorly documented.

[@missingnote]

I haven't seen this much hate for a sequel in a long time. What a tragedy it is that this game is so misunderstood. It's just too atypical and difficult to play, and the documentation was utterly worthless. The lack of direction made it so everyone would initially be lost and soon lose patience. FYI, if you'd like to find a way to learn and enjoy it, use a Google search and hit up the MOO3 official forums. They're surprisingly active, even today. You just might find some enjoyment.

[@Sir_Flopsalot]

Underated game.

[@timonio222]

Lol if you read the story in the manual you would know that the world destroyed at the end of moo2 was just one of the hundreds of worlds the Antarans possessed. Most of them got exterminated by that virus thingy they created (can't remember the name).

[@comnenus42]

I tried it recently and had an interesting but disappointing experience. The AI is too weak. It never concentrate forces, it allowed me to colonize worlds in the middle of his empire during a war and never attacked them until the mobilization center went up. The AI just mass produced missile cruisers for me until most systems were conquered one by one. And thats my first try.

[@CyanideSovereign]

@TheLongasen '..i know..I'm a Noob' No mate, it took me months to figure this game out.

[@iamRageTheWolf]

i figured it out but thanks for your time :)

[@l0rf]

Fallout has no official third part, period. And not even Deus Ex or Half Life were perfect, nothing is. MoO just had so many little details, the animated research and galactic news, the diplomacy screen, that's something no other game has done afterwards.

[@Mozbone]

it's the control mechanism of the anthrans :D

[@jessica5000000]

i actually liked it

[@slithersls]

ok WT HECK was that thing eating the guy? It looked like one of those small aliens from Dead Space or are they aliens?

[@timonio222]

Well when I started to play it I have had the feeling of too much control (so many options aaargh)!

[@maliciousMayfly]

Oh, they are still there. You just have to find them... before the harvesters do:p they are really hidious things, arent they...

[@marapanatenta6021]

MAKE AFREAKING MOVIE ALREADY!!!! >:( you know staring people like David Tennant IN IT!!! please at least a notion.

[@Gargamelsmurf]

moo2 was so much better in my opinion; somehow more limited and therefore more strategical

[@TheLongasen]

Even now i still never got the hang of this game..Had no frickin idea how to play this..i know..I'm a Noob :P

[@Dooldeen]

moo2 was much betyter than 3, even the graphics look somehow better, I guess it is more stylish

[@caleron0]

a huge fan of moo2 but stopped playing moo3 after one hour this is intro is all about control.. and thats exactly what i missed in this game.. too much of trivial information tell me why i should give it a second chance

[@Time_Line_Archive_Project]

ya need to play pax imperium m8 thats the best ever

[@ndaemon1718]

hmm, bought it a day back and whiel i was a fan of moo2 back in the day, this game made war feel more like a side annoyance then a proper way to handle things. for christ sake.. it took 23 turns to wipe out an entire system. 23 frelling turns for ONE system!. that said, the empire ai was fairly decent in this game anyways :)

[@weldonwin]

@GodsNotReal95 This came BEFORE Freespace

[@AllathSummerstilt]

The game is great! It would only help if I understood how to play it...

[@Webstor]

Pity the rest of the game isnt very good... i really enjoyed the Intro but have never managed to be able to sit through the entire game because its almost impossible to do anything... pity really.

[@thegameisclear]

Is it just me or do all of these epic strategy games always kinda make it feel like the goal is to become Hitler invading Poland? I know that there are lots of ways to play them, but in the end the easiest thing to do is just nuke people into submission. Its crazy. Like this comment if you think people who love these games should read "Gravity's Rainbow."

[@TheCrazyFinn]

@EvilSkaine I thought it was just me. I loved MoO2, but 3 just felt wrong...=\

[@gidk8d]

i love the game haven't played online yet but omg i only know how to cuaze a war and win

[@iamRageTheWolf]

hey could you help me with something

[@TheBladeKnight12]

I like to try this game can anyone tell me the minimum requirements for this game? p.s. I've tried the master of orion 2 but It wasn't as exciting to me but I'm sure I will like the 3rd version of master of orion so please reply kindly

[@Zanteogo]

An alright intro for a flawed and crappy game. Sad thing is it could have been so good..

[@missingnote]

This was such a good damned game, as long as you had the patience to learn it. I had the CD-ROM version (bought from an EB Games for five dollars, no less) before owning the GOG version. The reward was well worth it, but, to be fair, maybe not for everyone.

[@timonio222]

Yeah but patches can fix many bug problems.

[@Mathenaut]

Sure

[@weldonwin]

@projectlevydelta It was peace for the few, wherein only those who would fit in with his vision of the perfect sociaty would be allowed to live in it. Examine history and you find that many of the very worst dictators and tyrants, at least in their own minds were working towards a corrupted ideal of peace

[@caelumarisen]

hahaha nice vid info

[@Forserean]

Klaxon!

[@timonio222]

If you didn't like moo2 then you will not like master of orion 3. It has really much micromanagement!

[@timonio222]

Try master of orion 2 it's easier (less micromanagement).

[@komninosm]

The thing that really sucked in MoO3 was spaceship deployment and combat. Too many illogicalities and bugs and stupid interface.

[@timonio222]

Well ill bet you didn't tried on impossible difficulty. If you wan't some real challenge play that. If you did then your very good at strategy games cause impossible in moo2 is HARD!!

[@JokesOnYou11]

Lol just press next turn until you finish the game HAHA

[@slashingraven]

Blech. Hated this game. MoO1 and 2 were the only real members of this series, MoO3 should be struck from the records and remade by Microprose and Simtex.

[@Anguille2]

It's not for kids...go play in the playground...

[@wrichcirw]

This video is as sterile as the game itself. There's a placcid sound track underscoring someone who sounds like they're reading from a technical manual. The description from this "technical manual" reads like something the architect from the Matrix would say; the architect is another character that rendered a different franchise inert. The point of control is central to the Matrix, but the Matrix thrived on action and colorful imagery (Alice in Wonderland) to illustrate its point. This game on the other hand relied upon an interface that can be described as "window boxes over window boxes" and a game engine that played the game itself and detached itself from the actual person playing the game. A recipe for disinterest, boredom, and sterility.

[@zilfondel]

+wrichcirw You've obviously never met a real architect, now have you?

[@MyVerkOuts]

Worst game ever. Control? The designers of MOO3 did not understand this "axiom" at all. It applies to video games as well - the idea that you want to actually "control" the game and not just push the turn button over and over while it plays itself. Oh and why are the combat graphics worse than in the first two moo games - made in the 90s? Master of Orion 3 is one of the worst abomination sequels ever created. The abomination tarnishes the name of two great classic games MOO1 and MOO2.

[@alphamone]

moo3 antarans suck, they were much cooler in moo2.