JagreenLern said:
I've tried MoO3 before, never could get into it. What exactly would you say is good about it? I'm looking for a seriously detailed 4X, and I can't seem to get Aurora working right. Also, could you recommend any good sites to help someone get into it? I remember liking all the weird races, and would like to give the game another shot.
I think I might do an LP soon so that it can serve as a point of reference whenever the subject shows up. Just don't expect me to finish it ;D I might go for a small map tightly packed with civs though, makes for some interesting gameplay.
To cut it short: what I love about the game is that it's the only one that ever gave me the feeling of controlling a huge, sprawling empire. As you start you can micromanage and keep track of everything that's happening. Every new planet is important. At some point however you can't keep up with micromanagement. You just have to learn to let go because microing 20 planets is a pain in the arse and you're sure to get at least 50-100 in a standard game. So you set up development plans for new planets and check on tax rates from time to time if need be. At some point you notice that most of your attention is driven towards diplomacy, foreign and internal policy, technology priorities and warfare. You get reports that planets have been colonised without your input, ships are being built, dozens of planetary improvements constructed every turn. Yet your enemies grow the same too so you must focus on looking for ways to gain an edge, especially if you know a neighbour isn't going to be friendly towards you long-term.
In one game I won by making quite a gambit. I knew that a neigbour is going to start a shitstorm soon and he was stronger than me. I was playing Nommo and they were Klackons - my tech advantage wasn't enough to make up for their production and pop growth, they carved a significantly bigger portion of the map than I did. They had literally thousands of ships waiting at my doorstep.
First thing I did was making everyone else friendly towards me and keeping the Klackons at bay by paying them tribute. I even gave them a couple of planets. In the meantime however my plan was to expel the Klackons from the senate and goad the senate into first embargoing them, then declaring war against them. At the same time I invaded them with spies of various kinds and (after diverting a shitton of resources towards Mathematics' research and sending some spies towards civs that were more advanced, signing research agreements) sent about 80% of my total ships to the Klackon capital but not through the starlanes - through the open space. The travel would take ~50 turns and my ships would be outdated by then but I counted on a quick victory and the fact that the Klackons were lagging behind me. To cut it short - I managed to break through their system defenses and take their capital along with a couple of the neighboring systems before they managed to sign some peace treaties with other aggressors and turned against me. They were, however, crippled and I managed to negotiate a very favorable peace treaty. Some 80-100 turns later I DOW'd them and conquered them system by system, planet by planet.
The point is - if it were not for the gambit I've made the Klackons would've raped me while my smart move made me tt power in the universe and victory was practically secured at that point. That's why I love this gamehe greates.
? Whats wrong with it though, in detail ?
Monocause, thanks for the info, I'll check moo3 out.
