Let's Play the NEW Master of Orion

[gamethinktalk]

I've spent some time with the game and wanted to share my thoughts as a longtime MOO fan


Here is a link to my Let's Play with my thoughts on the game summarized below


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSgzA5g2oG0



Has the colorful charm and sense of humor of 1, and the super useful standard view of seeing the entire galaxy on one screen like 2.


Race strengths and weakness seem quite limited. Could go so much deeper to help create different playthroughs. Interested to see how variable Custom Races are.


Overall speed feels slow. Couple slow ship speed with star lanes and ships can easily get stranded 30 turns away from points of interest


I'd like to easily see what each tech does when choosing which to research


Would like a list of structures already built and the ability to see planetary details when choosing production. Too often I had to close the production window to check on: population, morale, planet type, pollution etc


Viewing colonies and planets by production/research/food could be improved.  Viewing planets to send colony ships has no option to filter out those that are blockaded by enemy


I miss experience for ships (would make fighting pirates useful) and the personality of leaders for hire


Auto explore, guard are great additions


When a race declines a negotiation, the 'what would make this work' option is a great addition for give and take. Though negotiation seems too tough.



I'll be playing and discovering more pros and cons and how this game ultimately shakes down.


Will it be a worthy addition to the hallowed franchise or merely a novel distraction for 2016?

 

[Wife Material]

You've posted this twice, and to be completely honest I'm pretty sure nobody here is interested in watching an LP by a person they've never heard of before let alone a double poster.

 

[gamethinktalk]

Apologies for the double post. Was an honest mistake.


Are you a MOO fan?

 

[Salath]

Played it a bit. Diplomacy is pretty neat and has good voice acting (so glad they're doing more then humanoids). Half the races have still yet to be released. If I could describe how this game plays I'd say it's like Civ in space with warp points and planets. Moving in a system (between warp points and planets) takes one turn. Moving through warp points takes multiple turns and I don't think there's a turn back option once you're in one. Star bases can be construted and this type of gameplay makes for good choke points. Oh, and you have to own a planet to put a star base in it. So if you're trying to play nice with another race and they start taking planets near your home system it's going to make things interesting. Space combat is fun to watch and you can control your ships or auto fight. Research actually feels important instead of just giving passive perks. Sometimes there's a choice in what to research as well (A or B). Also multiplayer. I have yet to take Orion and have no idea what will happen if I do. There's one really powerful ship that guards the planet.


Personally I couldn't get into the other games, but this one is pretty fun all thiings considered. Which is high priase considering it's EA.


More info here.

 

[gamethinktalk]

Very interesting to hear from someone who isn't a die hard fan of the originals.  Can I ask when you first tried the others and which ones?   1 is streamlined but has a dated UI in some respects. 2 is much nicer looking but can have a tedious end game, and 3 was a disaster best left untouched.


Also, which strat games are your favs?  I also play a bit of Civ, but haven't found another space 4x I can sink my teeth into

 

[TheDarkMaster]

I'm very interested in the game, but after looking at what's currently available and how the game currently plays, my only conclusion is that I should wait and see.

 

[gamethinktalk]

@TheDarkMaster It hasn't knocked me over the head yet but I've enjoyed my time and feel a compulsion to keep revisiting it. Not sure how much they can tweak the game other than adding more races and perhaps  a mode; the base mechanics might stay relatively unchanged.  


So far it's a fun diversion to explore and a nice novelty to have a different MOO flavor (quite different in many ways).  


Are you a fan of the originals or other space 4x?

 

[TheDarkMaster]

The main problem I have is that the difficulty is too easy and you can't play with a large number of opponent's yet.  I'd very quickly get bored of the game, so there's little reason for me to buy it right now.

 

[Salath]

Is it even worth going after Orion? From what I read up on it you only get advanced technologies from taking it, along with a good planet and that's it. But here's my logic. The ships you send to fight that big ship could instead be split up and used to take over 3+ systems instead. Which would have multiple planets each. Perhaps not "good" ones, but since there's more it balances out easily enough. The only way I can think that going after Orion would be worth it is if you have no enemies yet.


Does taking Orion do anything else in the past games? Maybe they'll add something else down the line or something. Like unlocking a random event or something.