Master of Orion

I played mainly MOO2 which was great game (played it numerous times) ... I always used custom race

I still haven't played the newer big budget Master of Orion.. got it on steam though.. All the complaints put me off rushing to play it haha... will play it one day. Good to see some people are enjoying it.

I'm one of those weird people who likes MOO3 haha.. although with fan mods (there's some great ones out there). Without the mods its too buggy.

But yeah nothing beats MOO2 though.

Speaking of which I've recently found this love letter to Master of Orion 2! Has anyone here tried Interstellar Space Genesis? If so was it good? Was it stable? Apparently the indie team behind it consists of only 2 people haha! It looks pretty awesome so am thinking about trying it out now that it's finally on sale (it's normally pretty pricey lol).

https://store.steampowered.com/app/984680/interstellar_space_genesis/

This guy has a done a nice gameplay vid of a recent release which making me think about hitting the button on it!:

If people miss Master of Orion 1's style of play there's also another game currently being made called Dominus Galaxia that's pretty much a love letter to MOO1 but with some cool modern ideas.. infinite techs.. dynamic AI.. wormhole/starlane game or not.. super customizable UI & gameplay. What's even cooler is that he's released a very playable build (not just a demo) of the game for free on his kickstarter (which thankfully was a success). Do you like free stuff? I like free stuff!

https://starchart-interactive.itch.io/dominus-galaxia

This guy has a done a nice gameplay vid of the early release:

Yeah in the end time was running out on the ISG steam sale and the general response I was getting in most places I asked was either silence or 'never heard of it so I don't know if it's good' haha.. However after watching that let's play series I posted above that sold it for me and I hit the button lol!

As expected it’s graphics aren’t exactly revolutionary lol but damn is it addictive and fun to play. Last few days I've barely eaten, slept, worked.. it’s all gone to hell haha!! There's room for improvement though so I've been posting lots of feedback on the steam forum as the devs actually read your comments and respond which is a rarity these days haha!

While searching for some nicely looking game which can run also on my notebook with integrated GK I decided give a try to on steam available Master of Orion. Don't look at minimum requierements, notebook with i5-8250U can run it perfectly on Ultra graphic (more RAM can be helpfull, I have 16 GB). I suspect that you will need much more computational power of your CPU as GPU especially at later stages of the game when is counted "next" turn. This game is not the same like MoO2 (eventhough it feelt very similar), but to be honest I really like it so far .

If you are MoO2 nerd like myself, and will decide give it a try, here is few starting tips which can save you headaches:

1. Dont't bother playing "vanilla" game and right from start install (subscribe) two most used mods (some good rebalancing, but MAINLY numerous bugs fixing)
   • 5X - The Ultimate Balance Mod and Unofficial Code Patch (UCP)
   • both above mentioned you will find in steam/Master of Orion/workshop/most_used right on top
   • to get both running at once you will need subscribe also 5X UCP Compatibility Mod (please read in description how should look mod load order)
   • UCP is needed install how is described in included “ReadMe.txt” !!! (in my case I used manual installation and it worked flawlessly)
2. And now read "Tips for New Players": https://steamcommunity.com/sha…filedetails/?id=765587684 ... this game looks similar to MoO2, but there is for some "things" used quite different logic and this article is very helpfull and informative.
3. Enjoy! There are numerous settings and you can get very different experience based on your mood from fast action to long game.

the best are the GNN messages, pretty funny sometimes

Martind Forlon those shots are gorgeous. I have 'new MoO' on steam but have yet to try it out as I know it won't be so good on my old comp so it's on hold until I get a new one. I saw some of the bad feedback it got so it pleases me greatly to hear fans are modding it into something great. Fan mods turned MoO3 from something bad into something I quite enjoy so it's good to see talented and passionate fans delivering again.

It seems that the game's devs went full silent shortly after release (could be also due some of publisher action (link) ... ), official forum dont have any offical post after 2017. Fortunatelly for us there were few great modders which saved this game. Numerous bugs were patched, game was re-balanced, and UI tweaked. That's the main reasons why I suggested start right away with mods. Is fact that at later stages of the game turns needs more time, but game (modded) is at least for me very stable. For now I played 90 hours and I had only 2 crashes so far, both easily solved with latest save reload.

Strategical side is perfect including diplomacy or espionage, far more nicely done as old Moo2. Ships combat lacks some features (like boarding which was my favourite tactics), eventhough with mods you can apply there tactical moves and use also environment especially if fight going on in asteroid field ... I think it can offer much more as what I learned so far. Ground combat is the most disapointing, it have only very basic interface. So, suming it up there is big unused potencial in vanilla, but with mods it is playable and fun.

Take care about food 1st. This last MoO is very different in this regard and colonies need to make enough food for themselves. I strongly suggest read guide which I posted link above, it will make play much easier.

i have the latest game of moO not down loaded any mods for it but thinking about it now after seeing your posts

If people are interested in more info on the 'MOO2 like' ISG I've finally just written a belated steam review with a big list of the game's pros and cons (IMO).

https://steamcommunity.com/pro…803521/recommended/984680

Also just released some videos covering my thoughts too:

Part 1

Part 2

something for the winter months

still has a few bugs in game playing a game now has the Elerians and my spies have 4 of them in the sakkra stole

• Planetary radiation shield have stolen this item now 8 times and the tec tree mod right at the end of it i think there's something missing not got that far yet so we will see that said still lots of fun

have a few mods on the game have noticed that the custom screen no longer fits is there a work around

Ooooh just heard about another MOO like project called Alliance of the Sacred Suns (that seems to have been doing public betas for years under the name Imperia5x) when I saw it's kickstarter campaign. Looks like an interesting attempt at being different from regular Master of Orion like 4x space strategy games by focusing more on you the emperor.. feels kinda of like a 'Dune - Padishah Emperor simulator' managing those pesky greedy disobedient houses haha! Planetary management looks interesting, those separated regional environments and developments remind me of MOO3. A simple thing but I also love how the planets moons just swing past the camera while you're managing the world. Haven't seen any space battle footage so I dunno how that's managed. It's kickstarter period is over half way through but it's not even at half funded which is a bit worrying. It's been worked on for many years and seems so far along so hopefully the project would survive a KS failure.