Master of Orion 2

[dollarone]

#1688

I believe rnlf originally suggested this. Looks like it’s lined up for November, so I just wanted to point people at this weekly sale in case you want to be prepared: https://www.gog.com/game/master_of_orion_1_2

[rnlf]

#1698

Yeah, we tweeted about it, it’s a damn good deal!

[Mgoddard]

#1868

I always wanted to be better at the game. Maybe now’s my chance?

[Fatherbeast]

#1904

Umm, Why are we doing the second game instead of the original Master Of Orion?

[rnlf]

#1905

Because that’s what I suggested and it’s a much better game :-p

It’s not the first time we pick the second game in a series, we’re also doing it with WC2 and Sim City 2000 for example (and technically, Nitemare-3D and Duke Nukem 3D are not the first in their series either).

That doesn’t meant we can’t also play MoO1 in this month. Just that the focus should be on MoO2!

[vogonpoet]

#2055

Hi folks. I like both the first two MOO games, always liked both. But:

Problems with MOO2:
1. My god the starting algorithm is a wayward sick puppy sometimes. I rolled up a medium sized galaxy with just 4 opponents for my Meklar race. It was on hard, so I was probably gonna get beat after not playing the game for months, but still, should be fun. Straight up, I have just one poor second planet in my home system, which is surrounded by blackholes.

Research happens, and it turns out only one other system is reachable by my scouts to begin with, home to a poor and an ultra poor planet. That’s a harsh start – just 3 planets in reach of my new fangled long range fuel tank, the best an arid poor medium sized good for nothing.

Of course my way out past the blackholes was blocked by the AI…

2. The default races all seem horribly gimped in comparison to those available by abusing the custom system. Playing a bog standard repulsive UniTol gets boring, but gaaaaaaaa, moral, production, yuck.

3. Not as good a game as the original MOO :), IMHO.

Not that I am any good at either of them, but although MOO2 feels awesome to begin with, in terms of decision making vs clicking the damn mouse again, MOO1 is better

[Tijn]

#2058

Oooh, I’ll have to try MoO1 then, it sounds interesting to check out.

I must admit I quite like MoO2 now though. I’ve been playing it for the last few weeks quite a lot. At first it was quite intimidating, as there are a lot of things going on which you need to understand before you can really have any success with this game.

What helped for me was to first play without tactical combat (which also means no ship design). This way the game is more strategic in nature and it’s mostly about managing your empire. There are still battles in this mode, but instead of going into detail, it just shows an outcome based on stats. Just like Civ really. It makes for a very streamlined experience, I really quite like that the game gives you the option to play it how you like.

[Ninetongues]

#6559

I simply LOVE MOO2. Instant nostalgia. I always keep this game on my disk, together with Albion by Blue Byte. And this episode is what lured me to DOS Games Club.

I don’t know if there’s anything new I could add… It’s one of those games that bought me instantly with presentation – intuitive (for me at least) interface, colors, cute little animations, character illustrations… And this music! My God. So perfect!

This is one of those games that made me become a professional video game narrative designer.

Maybe one thing I could add would be the soft fantasy aspect of the game. Fighting space dragons and eels guarding “treasures” (good planets), Orion Guardian boss fight, race creation that makes you think of RPG characters… Also some of the races look pretty fantasy-like, especially Elerians, Darloks and the Alkari.