Master of Orion III
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| Master of Orion III | |
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| Developer(s) | Quicksilver Software |
| Publisher(s) | Infogrames |
| Release date(s) | February 25, 2003 |
| Genre(s) | Turn-based strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X |
Master of Orion III (MOO3) is the third computer game in the Master of Orion series. MOO3 was developed by Quicksilver Software [1] and published by Infogrames in February 25, 2003.
It is notable for its remarkably open development, whereby fans could vote on certain features and offer suggestions to designers, themselves mostly fans of the first two games.
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[edit] Game Play
Master of Orion III is a turn based strategy game with the goal of rulership of the galaxy. Each turn the player makes all decisions that will be performed during that turn from exploration and colonization, diplomacy, trade, and Senate votes, technological research, espionage ,and space fleet design, construction, and deployment into combat.
[edit] Victory Conditions
The goal of the Master of Orion III is win control of the galaxy through one or more predetermined means. The winning conditions, set at the beginning of the game, can be domination of the galaxy, leadership of the Senate, and/or discovery of the five Antaran X’s. The easiest to achieve is leadership of the Senate where the periodic vote for leadership is based on the power of each voting member. When the game begins the New Orions’ power level is one hundred times higher than any other race and they dominate all Senate votes. Through simply colonizing as many worlds as possible in the early stages of the game and then developing and defending them it is easy for the player to quickly develop a voting power level that exceeds all of the other races combined. At that point merely voting for your own race to be President of the Senate will result in victory. The victory method with moderate difficulty is the discovery of the five Antaran X’s through exploration and sending out special high priced exploration fleets. The most difficult method is galactic domination where you must completely subjugate all other races in the galaxy including the New Orions. This requires the military conquest of all world’s controlled by the other races and can take thousands of turns to fully complete in the largest, densest galaxies.
[edit] Colonization and Exploration
Colonization is of individual planets located in the numerous star systems randomly generated at the beginning of each game. Each star system will have from one to eight planets and each planet is rated on a scale of habitability related to your race’s physical requirements. Red 2 and Red 1 planets are the least habitable to your species, with Yellow 2 and 1 and Green 1 and 2 designating increasingly friendly environments up to Sweet Spot, which is a planet perfectly suited to your race. The factors that can affect the habitability include temperature, toxicity, atmospheric density and composition, and gravity level. The various races of the game each have preferred planet types from terrestrial races preferring the variations of the Earth/Mars-type terrestrial worlds to the etherian races that prefer Jupiter-type gas giants. Worlds of any type can be colonized, however, as technological advancements will allow the terraforming of worlds to suit your race’s requirements with the most hostile planets requiring more initial settlers to gain control and large reductions in the population’s growth rate. Planets are discovered through exploration and trade. By sending a starship to a given system the basic information and an assessment of each world’s habitability is discovered. Extras such as pre-space flight magnate civilizations, stranded leaders, rare resources, and other unusual and unique attributes can add additional bonuses or penalties to each world. Information on star systems and their worlds can also be gained though trade negotiations with the other races resulting in an exchange of intelligence.
[edit] Diplomacy
In the Orion Senate laws, treaties, and resolutions are voted upon and periodically the President is chosen. All diplomacy with other races is also performed here through each race’s senatorial ambassador. Declarations of war and peace, alliances, trade relationships, technological trade and outright blackmail are performed in the Senate. Votes are also periodically proposed on various laws that will be binding to all races in the galaxy (although you can opt out for a small penalty in race-relations). These can be rules of war, labor laws, taxes, and other regulations.
[edit] Technological Development
The key to success over the other races is through technological development where knowledge in six fields of research can be advanced. The six fields are Biological Sciences, Economics, Energy, Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Social Sciences. Development in these fields will result in advancements in technology that can benefit all other aspects of game play from the ability to terraform you worlds to better suit your race, larger and more powerful space fleets, better equipped ground troops, stronger economic development tools, and more capable spies.
[edit] Espionage
Espionage is broken into espionage and counter-espionage through the recruitment of spies. Spies can be recruited with the specialties of Social, Political, Diplomatic, Scientific, Economic, or Military. Recruited but not deployed these spies will assist in counter-espionage activities in their area of specialty. Inserted into another race’s territory they will attempt hostile actions in their area of specialty. For example a Social spy inserted into another race’s territory will attempt to foment social unrest that will disrupt production on one or more planets, while a Military spy held in reserve will attempt to identify and thwart enemy spies attempting to sabotage your military infrastructure and space fleets. Inserted spies can be very effective in slowing the advance of an enemy and disrupting their plans, while enemy spies can create havoc in your own systems. It is wise to maintain a balance to ensure that each area is protected while focusing on inserting spies into your strongest opponent’s territory.
[edit] Conquest
Combat in the game results when the space fleets of two or more races occupy the same star system. The combat progresses in two phases: Space combat and Ground combat. Space combat is fought in open space or near one of the star system’s planets, which is determined by the attacker and defender at the beginning of combat. If the attacker’s goal is the conquest of a planet in the system then the space combat will be fought near a planet with that planet’s defenses included in the battle. If the attacker’s goal is merely the destruction of the enemy space fleet or occupation of the star system then the battle can be fought in open space between the fleets only. The player can either manually control the fleet, which can be difficult due to the cumbersome and less than intuitive control system, or the AI can be allowed to take command of the fleet, which can result in losses due to the less than intelligent artificial intelligence – although the enemy’s AI is just as bad. The player is not even required to watch the battle, but can let the game decided the outcome and display the resulting winner and the number of remaining ships. If the attacker is victorious in space with the goal of conquering one of the system’s inhabited planets and brought ground troops with the fleet then the second phase of combat will follow. Ground combat involves the confrontation of the attacker’s landing ground forces against any of the enemy’s ground forces that were previously assigned to that planet as well as a portion of the planets population. Ground combat can be fought over multiple game turns and is concluded when the attacking forces are defeated or when the planet’s forces are defeated. As in space combat the player can control the attack by designating an overall plan or allow the AI to take command, and the battle can be watched or allowed to play out with only the final results reported. Victory means gaining control of the planet, its surviving population, and all surviving planetary improvements.
[edit] Development and Reviews
[edit] Criticism of Master of Orion III
Although highly anticipated and much lauded by some gaming publications, MOO3 was only a moderate seller and not the breakout hit that the previous games had been. This is generally attributed to an unwieldy and cumbersome user interface, poor space battle A.I., a number of software bugs that caused the game to crash and were never fixed (save for the two patches that addressed a few of the worst bugs, Infogrames provided no support following the game's release), the suppression of many popular features of the previous games (such as genocide and refitting of obsolete space ships) combined with the absence of many of the promised new features (such as racial ethos systems and colonization of moons and asteroids, as opposed to the player being limited to planets), and lack of micromanagement or the general character and charm of the predecessors. One significant problem was poor enemy AI (although subsequent unofficial, community-created patches made small improvements). The automated player AI was very effective, and could control almost anything, making it much easier to leave the game to play itself.
Quicksilver focused MOO3 into a very robust and realistic space empire from the macromanagement point of view, lacking the characteristics that made MOO I and II a hit. It could be most aptly described as less ruling an empire than running the bureaucracy of an empire.
None of the original development team was involved in the production.
Several fan-made modifications have been made in an attempt to resolve many of the broken features and bugs that plague the game, even after applying the two official patches by Quicksilver, and to add new content.
[edit] Background story
In Master of Orion III, the player discovers that what was thought to be Antares in Master of Orion II was really a forward base, "ConJenn". The Antarans kept passive for 25 years, then returned and, following a vicious 25-year war, defeated the races of the Orion Sector and enslaved them.
However, a thousand years later, the Antarans mysteriously disappear. Only two groups remain: those on Antares itself and those that rule the Orion Sector from Orion. The Antaran overseers on Orion see the writing on the wall and break off contact with Antares. In a fit of arrogance, they declare themselves the "New Orions" (as opposed to the true "Ancient Orions"). Anticipating rebellion, the New Orions grant the conquered territories a new Orion Senate, pretending enlightened leadership. Half a dozen races from the previous games challenge them, only to be beaten into near extinction (isolated colonies and refuges of these races can be found throughout the Sector). False rumors also abound about a Legitimate Heir to the Orion Throne. Meanwhile, on Antares, the Antarans try to engineer a living weapon that will defeat the wayward New Orions; the virus-like parasites known as the Harvesters. They escape control, though, becoming a sentient, spacefaring race: the Ithkul, Harvester Zeta.
Like its immediate predecessor, the game features three ways to win: defeat all other races, become president of the Orion Senate, or discover all five Antaran "X's" — pieces of lost Antaran knowledge that hold the secrets of life.
[edit] Trivia
- At least two names of star systems within the game, Gomaki and Yossi, are the nicknames of members of Morning Musume, a Japanese pop group.
[edit] Reviews
- 45 online reviews gave it an average score of 6.0
- GameSpot 6.7/10
- IGN 9.2/10
- GameSpy 72/100
- PC Gamer 57/100
- PC Game World 74/100
- Pelit 84% by Niko Nirvi,[1] who later strongly recanted, calling the game "brain-dead" and lamenting that he'd rated it as though the AI was working.[2]
More reviews and links at [2]
[edit] References
- ^ Master Of Orion 3 review, Pelit 3/2003, page 34.
- ^ Galactic Civilizations review, Pelit 5/2003, page 50.
[edit] External links
- ataricommunity.com Forums - MOO3 Forums. Chat and support.
- Master of Orion III - Official website
- www.moo3.at - Fan site with modifications for Master of Orion III
- The Orion Sector - Fan site with reviews and links to other sites about Master of Orion III
- Master of Orion 3 iMOD - quite a huge selection of graphical and gameplay changes
- Ultima Orion - Fan site offering a huge patch for MoO3 (Note that this site is written in German)
- Bladrov's Palace - Another fan site, hosting a number of resources for the series (I-III)
- Master of Orion 3 at MobyGames
- Apolyton Master of Orion 3 Site
- MoO³ Editing - A site dealing with the internal Editor of the Game 'Master of Orion 3'
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Master of Orion computer games
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Master of Orion • Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares • Master of Orion III |
