I was deep into turn 87 when I realized something.

I had no idea what technology I'd invented.

I didn't know because I didn't need to. See, you don't command in MoO3, you pose suggestions to the AI which it may or may not listen to. As a result I instantly stripped the AI out of every area that I was allowed to, which, I've found, is none of them.

You don't pick a technological field to research, you move a "research budget slider" which the AI will adjust for you next turn because you probably wanted it to.

Let's say I just invented hydroponic farms (which I apparently did at some point). Hydroponic farms are a DEA upgrade. All your planets will automatically build hydroponic farms. Want to tell them where and when? You can't. You can only suggest by creating a sort of "planet template" which is basically a command to do one thing a whole lot, and it may or may not listen to you.

But you can still fight massive space battles, right?

er.

You can fight massive space soup. You control the soup's ingredients! But in combat you're basically watching a swarm of dots (yes, dots). How is your newly designed ship holding up? You dunno! Your newly designed ship is just a dot among dots. Is that it? did it just die? I dunno!

Is this new genere of game to be known as Template-o-rama? Wind-it-up-and-watch-it-play-itself? Is this a bureaucracy sim?

All the game needs is a digital finger to hit shift + mouse3 as needed, and I don't even need to be there to play the game! I can sit back and watch the soup boil (my metaphor for the game's space battles) and eat potato chips.

mmm. barbecue.

MoO3 takes the hands-off approach introduced by B&W and that game where you hit Pac Man with a slingshot to make him do things to a whole new level, and removes the fun parts, like hitting pac man in the nuts or teaching your cow to throw flaming poo and eat rocks.

[ 02-28-2003: Message edited by: Maradon XP ]

quote:

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Frog had this to say about pies:
That post must have been hard to write.

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Yeah.

Essentially, what did you like to do in MoO2?

Well, you can't do it in MoO3.

Maybe there's other stuff to do. I dunno. I sure as hell haven't found it.

more money to put in the Xenosaga fund, then.

quote:

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And I was all like 'Oh yeah?' and Suchii was all like:
Oh god I was so looking forward to playing it, too. Sorry you had to take the fall, Mara, but you just saved me a hunk of cash.

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BUT WHY?!

The beta testers said they were having fun! SOMEONE MUST BE HAVING FUN WITH THIS GAME!! HOW!?

I mean, this game must have been made for SOME reason! THERE'S GOT TO BE SOMETHING I'M MISSING!!

[ 03-01-2003: Message edited by: Maradon XP ]

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Ja'Deth Issar Ka'bael painfully thought these words up:
the Old Orions took the Fun with them.

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There are people on the message boards - in fact, a majority by the results of the polls they've conducted - that say the game is fun.

I'm grilling them for information.

quote:

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Maradon XP thought about the meaning of life:
There are people on the message boards - in fact, a majority by the results of the polls they've conducted - that say the game is fun.

I'm grilling them for information.

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Ask them if they've played the other MoO games. If not, that should be the biggest red flag there.

They tried too much to reinvent the game, and not keep around what made the others what they were.

Though I dont really have much of an opinion on 3 yet (not much time to play) this is what im gathering from other's opinions on 3.

For a game to be a sequel, it has to keep alot of what helped make the original good, while adding new stuff.

Case in point, the warcraft series. Each game kept alot from the previous ones, but added new stuff that meshed well with the old stuff. THATS the way to make a sequel

[ 03-01-2003: Message edited by: Falaanla Marr ]

The player does not matter. There is nothing in there to make you feel relevant or connected to the happenings taking place in any way. You don't even have a name.

You are the player, your empire should break down without you, as is it runs just fine. How fun would jagged alliance have been if your soldiers just killed the enemies by themselves if told to, recruited themselves and moved around on their own?

This is how the president of Austria must feel....sure he has a neat title and can make suggestions as to how the goverment is to be formed and whatnot, but in the end noone really takes him seriously, well at least he has a name.

All those silly little animations in Moo2? They were there for a reason. They made you feel connected to what happens in the universe. When you saw bomb impacts on a planet it had a much bigger effect than reading a ShitRep of 'Bombed planet Chara IV'(yes that's it, no numbers effects etc, nothing).

You don't even know why things are happening most of the time, they just do. Feedback is utter crap.

The AI diplomacy routines were seemingly written by some complete xenophobe who believed that aliens must be complete bumbling retards permanently high on acid, because they have the personality of a wet dishcloth and the coherency of hyper-active baboons. Or maybe they're just bored with clicking 'Turn' too, and declaring war / peace / alliance / war all they long is all they can do.

I played a game of Alpha Centauri after about 10 hours of MOO3, it felt like coming home from work. The game was actually complex without burying me in spreadsheets. The opponents had a clear personality and felt 'real'. I could micro my bases, and if it got too boring I could automate a few to build queues I can set myself. (albeit in a text file).

I made decisions, controlled unrest, set forms of goverment, conducted espionage,
waged war, designed units, researched tech I could choose myself (and even if I played on semi-random mode whith setting priorities I still got what I needed most of the time), voted on council resolutions, built wonders.....without a single frikken slider or spreadsheet.

Firaxis got it right years ago, why QI thought that making the game suck would make it more 'complex' or 'intellectual' is beyond me.

MOO3 almost sounds like a self-playing science fiction mod of Sim City or something.

And now I'm going to delete this and reinstall MoO2.

Although the question is, do I replay Xenogears first?

[ 03-01-2003: Message edited by: Someone Else ]

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Someone Else spewed forth this undeniable truth:
I need to get Xenosaga. I just remembered.

Although the question is, do I replay Xenogears first?

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Welp, Xenogears is one of my favorite games but I just can't bring myself to ever replay the game. The text just scrolls too damm slow. You don't need to replay the game to understand Xenosaga.

Ah well, I better reinstall MOO2

I'm not a huge fan of micro-management (I hated B&W), and this game was designed so that you're NOT the Emperor/President/etc. of your Empire, you're simply the force that nudges it and all of its leaders towards victory.

I hope I didn't waste £40.00 getting it from Germany.

High council chambers:

Emperor: Ok folks, so the Meklar have declared war on us (once again,) and are sending fleets of two ships each to be wiped out at our planet defences, the orbital cleaning crews? union is complaining, so how do you suggest we deal with this?

Military advisor: Your highness, I suggest we build an armada and wipe them out once and for all.

Emperor: I?m all for that, Viceroy order a fleet built, we?re going to war!

Viceroy: Speak louder please, y'know, the whole gas leak accident....

Emperor: Yes I'm sorry I NEED A FLEET; ya know?....to KILL SHIT.

Viceroy: Ah, I see, what kind of fleet does your highness wish?

Emperor: Hmmm?..how about two long range fire task forces, a carrier group and three short range battle squads? That should win us some battles.

Viceroy: 60 troop transports full of cattle and lettuce, got it. wanders off.

Emperor: We?ll need to improve our weapons too; Bob put maximum priority on weapons research.

Science advisor: Of course, I'll send Fred the janitor and his two interns to reinforce the weapons research team, which should speed the whole affair up, they're highly trained professionals.

Emperor: Are you really sure that?.

viewscreen starts bliknking

Emperor: Oh what now?

a bad Megatron-knock off appears on the screen

XYZ-322: The Meklar people greet you, noble emperor, we wish to offer you an alliance against the Psilon empire.

Emperor: Wait a minute we're at war and the Psilons are my allies..

Viceroy whispering to Emperor: No they aren't, they blew up your holiday estate planet two hours ago I was just about to tell you.

Emperor to Viceroy: It's gone? Even the slave girls?

Viceroy to Emperor: I'm afraid so, they put the stellar converter we gave them to good use I'm afraid.

Emperor: to Viceroy: Well fuck. Why the heck did they attack us anyway?

Viceroy to Emperor: They said it was because of your 'evil actions'.

Emperor: Well fine, we're allied now and at war with the Psilons, does that mean you'll stop attacking us?

XYZ-322: No.

Emperor: What?

XYZ-322: We seriously condemn your actions.

Emperor: What actions?

XYZ-322: We hereby declare trade sanctions against you. We can no longer tolerate your actions.

Emperor: Didn't you just want to ally with me?

XZY-322: The people of Meklar wish a trade agreement with your glorious empire.

Emperor: Did you pick up a virus while porn-surfing again? I told you those freesexdialerhere.asp links are....

XZY-322: For hot Klackon lesbian action, dial 1-500-33?..

Emperor: Viceroy cut the video feed, I've got enough of this crap, I'll go sleep for a while then we just blow them both to Orion.

Viceroy: There's one more little thing your Excellency?

Emperor: Oh what now?..

Viceroy: We?re short on minerals

Emperor: I own at least three mineral rich planets, how the heck can we be short on minerals?

Viceroy: Well they're all full of factories, I ..umm..forgot to build any mines, and my cousin's roommate had this sweet deal for factory machinery...

Emperor: Why did I hire you again?

Viceroy: Because you're married to my sister and I keep my mouth shut about the slave girls.

Emperor: Right.

[ 03-01-2003: Message edited by: Gevarien / Modrakien ]

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There was much rejoicing when Baron Von Mortay said this:
....
I hope I didn't waste £40.00 getting it from Germany.

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To bad you already ordered it I would send you my copy free(Well depnding on the shipping)

BTW, whats up with the random question marks?

quote:

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NecroPope had this to say about Jimmy Carter:
OMG! Modrakien that was histerical

BTW, whats up with the random question marks?

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Dunno, they appeared when I copy-pasted this from Word, didn't notice them 'till it was too late.

Only problem is finding a copy nowadays, and getting the damn sound to work right on high-end computers

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Maradon XP thought this was the Ricky Martin Fan Club Forum and wrote:
BUT WHY?!

The beta testers said they were having fun! SOMEONE MUST BE HAVING FUN WITH THIS GAME!! HOW!?

I mean, this game must have been made for SOME reason! THERE'S GOT TO BE SOMETHING I'M MISSING!!

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This game was made for the same reason that Denny's, Perkins and Embers were founded. For the completely exhausted or very stoned. You don't need to do anything, you just sit, point and relax.

[ 03-01-2003: Message edited by: Bummey the Fool ]

It's mystifying.

I want to hurt someone over this. I mean, I want to deal actual, physical pain to everyone who assures me the game is great and I'm just not getting it.

How can a game that plays itself be great?

quote:

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Gevarien / Modrakien's account was hax0red to write:
~snip~

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Anyway, my own opinions aside, I'm sorry you got burned Maradon. I know you've been looking forward to this for a long time now.

La la la la, I'm not listening.

I'm actually starting to enjoy the game. Designing build templates for planets is pretty much the same thing as setting up a build queue in MoO2, except you do it once for each planet type, instead of once for each planet, which is good because you'll find yourself colonizing a lot more planets than in MoO2.

My advice:

1) Don't play your first game in the biggest galaxy size. Most of the game's entertaining moments come when two races interact, and starting out in the biggest galaxy delays that by about 200 turns (yes, it's that big).

2) Relax. Use the build templates. Get used to indirect control. It's not really all that bad.