Anyone here play Masters of Orion 2?

[efthimios]

Man I wish I could share your views on MOO series. I love 4X in space but the MOO series just don't do it for me.

[therlun]

Man I wish I could share your views on MOO series. I love 4X in space but the MOO series just don't do it for me.

not the moo series, just moo1!

while many retro games are that good because you made experience with them in your ancient gaming times, moo1 and mom are IMO even today good games.

what dont you like about moo?
and what 4x games do you like?
space empires 4, galciv, and stars! comes to my mind as other games in that style.

[efthimios]

I don't know. It just doesn't feel fun.

The space 4X that I play and like are: Galciv, Stars!, Star Trek BOTF, Ascendancy, SW Rebellion, Imperium.
Don't feel much about Space Empires IV, but I may play a game occasionaly.

[Redpossum]

Gasp! Someone who doesn't like SEIV, I am amazed

Space Empires IV was another game I used to play endlessly.

[honvedseg]

Anyone remember VGA Planets, or the even earlier Trade Wars, from back in the pre-Internet days of private BBS's? Aside from the lethargic pace of the games, they were weak on graphics (I'm being kind), but still could be interesting and challenging, especially against a good group of other players.

[Redpossum]

Oh hell yes, Hound!

I ran the Possumhole BBS for almost 3 years before the net took off, that would have been 91-93 or 94. I remember it was 1994 when I got my first personal internet account.

Yes, Trade Wars 2002 was a fun game, and there's an online game today called StarPort; Galactic Empires that's a virtual clone of Tw2002, with some add-ons, you can find it here -
http://www.playtechtonics.com/

[efthimios]

There is another one, that I haven't played, from MatrixGames, called Supremacy or something like that. It looks interesting and there is ground combat as well. Anyone played that one?

[masterofdarknes5]

I like the way the diplomacy worked in MOO2, where by each faction had a relationship value with each other faction, which you could look at and watch change. Maybe an idea for future slitherine games? It'd be great to be able to alienate two other countries relationship with each other to such an extent they went to war... or whatever

[honvedseg]

I would love to see a diplomatic system implemented in the Slitherine games where: (1) your diplomats could relay how their host nation felt about each other power in the game, and (2) you could score "brownie points" with a nation by attacking an enemy of theirs, as in "the enemy of my enemy is my friend", (3) you could offer either cash, resources, or actual troop units to an allied nation to help prop it up against a mutual foe.

[masterofdarknes5]

I would love to see a diplomatic system implemented in the Slitherine games where: (1) your diplomats could relay how their host nation felt about each other power in the game, and (2) you could score "brownie points" with a nation by attacking an enemy of theirs, as in "the enemy of my enemy is my friend", (3) you could offer either cash, resources, or actual troop units to an allied nation to help prop it up against a mutual foe.

Yep exactly, dont forget negative brownie points too, i.e. become enemies with a nation by attacking one their friends, or bribe them to turn a blind eye. Or stop them being friends by etc.. endless possibilities

[dhanegan]

I have played the daylights out of Moo2, as well as all the earlier games in the series. It sits on my hard drive to this day; I played several games a month ago after becoming reinterested by introducing a friend to the game. I have to agree with the comments from others here that Moo1 was in some ways superior.

Some might wonder why I used the plural for "earlier games". Well, to my mind, Moo1 was a fairly straightforward expansion of the original Reach for the Stars game published by SSG, with just enough changes to avoid copyright infringement. I played the daylights out of it as well, until Moo1 came out, which is completely superior. Reach for the Stars, in turn, was a fairly direct port to computer of the Stellar Conquest boardgame, originally published by Metagaming but eventually bought up and republished by Avalon Hill.

Sadly, Moo3 diverged dramatically form this tried and true development path, it has little in common with Moo1 and Moo2. I have not yet heard any really positive comments about Moo3, nor do I like it much myself.

The Reach for the Stars rerelease available now is a completely different, and much more developed, game than the old 8 bit SSG game though it has the same title. It is a fairly decent game, though I don't like it as well as Moo 1 & 2. I particulary like the way the races have different environmental requirements, instead of all the species wanting the same "terran" planets as in Moo 1 and 2.