Information AboutMaster Of Orion |
''Master of Orion'' ('''''MOO''''' or '''''MoO''''') is a Turn-based Science Fiction Computer Strategy Game designed by by Steve Barcia , developed by Barcia's company Simtex and published by Microprose in 1993 . Although Alan Emrich coined the term " 4X " (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) in his review of the game, ''Master of Orion'' was not the first in this genre - '' Civilization '' was published in 1991 and '' Reach For The Stars '' in the early 1980s. 5, 10, 15 Years Ago in CGW September 2003 [http://archive.gamespy.com/interviews/february02/moo3/ ''Master of Orion III'' Developer Chat] ''Master of Orion'' is a member of Gamespy's Hall of Fame. Gamespy - Hall of Fame - Master of Orion The "Orion" of the title is a star system which contains an extremely valuable planet - it is the most productive planet in the galaxy for both industry and research, and artifacts left on it by an ancient race provide the secrets of very advanced military technologies. But to colonize this planet, players must conquer the Guardian, a very powerful robotic battleship. So far there have been 2 sequels, '' Master Of Orion II '' and '' Master Of Orion 3 '' (see below). COMPUTER SYSTEM ENVIRONMENT The game runs under MS-DOS or Mac OS . The MS-DOS version uses Memory Management techniques which are incompatible with all versions of Windows , but users of Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME or Windows XP can run it under a DOS Emulator such as DOSBox . There is no need for a CD-ROM or DVD drive as the game was distributed on 4 Floppy Disk s. The game's screens are 320x240 Pixels and in 256 colors - in the early 1990s computers had very limited graphics capabilities, and most monitors were only 12-inch (30cm) or 14-inch (35cm). Sound was also simple - weapons effects and a few MIDI tunes. There is no multi-player mode, only contests against AI opponents on the user's computer. GAME PLAY Victory conditions There are two ways to win - exterminate all opponents, or get elected as the supreme leader of the galaxy. To get elected, you need two-thirds of the total votes (abstentions count as votes against both candidates), and each empire's votes are based on its population. So getting elected requires some combination of conquest and diplomacy (see below). Despite the game's name, conquering the Orion star system does not automatically win the game - but to beat the Guardian you need a large and advanced fleet, so whoever beats the Guardian generally has a winning advantage already. Stars and planets Star systems have at most one colonizable planet - a few have none. Planets vary in three ways:
How planets' economies work Everything, even research, is based on industrial production. All citizens are capable of industrial production, but are several times more productive when assisted by factories. There is a limit on the number of factories a unit of population (notionally 1M individuals) can operate, but you can increase this by researching and building upgrades. Players can allocate a planet's industrial output between: building more factories or upgrading them to allow more factories per citizen; building or upgrading the planet's defenses (shields and missile bases); research; spaceship construction; or "ecology" (pollution control, terraforming, increasing population growth). Pollution is a serious constraint on economic growth in the early game, but you can research technologies which reduce the cost of cleaning it up. The technology tree There are 6 technology areas: computers (combat systems, factory controls, scanners); construction (reduced factory costs, armor, systems for reducing combat damage to ships); force fields (mainly shields, plus a few weapons); planetology (pollution control, terraforming, colonizing more hostile planets, increasing population growth); propulsion (upgrades to ships' range and speed, plus a few weapons and other combat systems); and weapons. Each technology area is divided into several levels, each of which contains 1 to 5 technologies which must be researched individually. To research a higher level technology, you must first have researched at least 1 technology from the previous level. In theory one could research all levels of one subject area and neglect the rest, but this would be very unwise. Players can research several technologies at the same time, controlling the allocation of research resources by means of lockable sliders on the Technology screen. You will generally obtain more advances for a given expenditure by researching a few technologies at the same time than by spending all your resources on one technology at a time; except that in the very early stages you generally have too little resources to research more than one technology at a time. In each game each player is allowed to see a different random subset of the technologies at each level. This is meant to force players to adapt rather than follow the same favorite research strategy each time. Players can also acquire technologies by trading, spying or conquest. Diplomacy ''Master of Orion'' provides a wide range of diplomatic negotiations: gifts of money or technology; one-time technology trades; trade, non-aggression and alliance treaties. But the most effective way to gain favor with an AI player is to attack another AI player with whom the first is at war. The game attempts to give the AI players a degree of personality by varying their facial expressions on the Diplomacy screen and by making them refer to past favors or misdeeds you have done them. Spaceship design Players are allowed to have a maximum of 6 classes of ship active. A player who wishes to create another class must first scrap a class ''and'' all ships of that class. Each player starts the game with 5 pre-defined designs, all at the most basic level of technology; but has actual ships of only 2 classes, colony ship (for non-hostile planets) and scout. Ships cannot be re-fitted (upgraded). The only free upgrades are increases in the travel range and scanning range of your ships; to take advantage of other new technologies you have to design a new class. Combat and invasion Ships can travel to any star system within their range, unlike games such as '' Space Empires '' or '' Ascendancy '' where interstellar travel is possible only via " Wormholes ". Hence in ''Master of Orion'' you cannot create easily-defended Choke Point s. Space combat always occurs in orbit over a planet - it is impossible to intercept enemy ships in deep space. All ships of the same class form a single stack, moving and firing together (unlike '' Heroes Of Might And Magic '', ''Master of Orion'' does not allow multiple stacks of similar units). Space combat is always tactical (hands on), but the "Auto" button makes the software take over the player's ships and finish the battle. You can only invade planets when all defending ships and / or missile bases have been destroyed or forced to retreat. There are no specialist invasion ships (like Stars! ; unlike Master Of Orion II , '' Space Empires '' or '' Ascendancy ''); instead you simply send a large number of your own citizens, which reduces the population of the planet(s) from which you sent them. You cannot control ground combat; the result depends on numbers, ground combat technologies and (if one of the races involved is Bulrathi) racial ground combat bonus. But you see a display which tells you the number of units and the ground combat technologies used by each side. The races Players choose to be one of 10 pre-defined races - you cannot create customized races. The Klackons and Meklar have different types of advantage in industrial production; the Sakkra have very fast population growth; the Psilons are the best at research; the Mrrshans and Alkari have different types of advantage in space combat; the Bulrathi are the best at ground combat; the Humans have advantages in trade and diplomacy; the Darloks excel at spying and sabotage; and the Silicoids can colonize even the most hostile planets without any research and are not constrained by pollution, but are poor at research and have slow population growth. Each race is above average in one research subject and below average in another, except that: the Psilons are very good in all areas; the Silicoids are weak in all research areas except that they are above average in computers, which is useful for spying and sabotage. Each race has a pre-defined initial relationship with each other race, varying from fairly comfortable to spoiling for a fight. The races also have "personalities" which vary from one game to another when played by the AI. Their attitudes to other races can vary from honorable (reliable friend and unforgiving enemy) or pacifist to aggressive or xenophobic. And each has a major policy objective which guides their research and economic management; for example militarists build combat ships as fast as possible and prioritize technologies which have military benefits, while ecologists put a lot of effort into pollution control and terraforming. Their behavior varies from one game to another, because in both attitude and policy objective each has a most probable trait and two less probable ones (9 possible combinations per race). Since a single game can include at most 6 of the 10 races and each race's behavior can vary so much, the early part of a game can range from quite peaceful to a whole series of wars. But any race will go to war if it thinks it has a significant advantage in production and technology. Random events From time to time there are disasters or emergencies which are not caused by the player's actions. These can be disabled by means of a Cheat Code . USER INTERFACE Initially the game was completely mouse-driven, but the version 1.3 Patch introduced Hot Keys for many functions. Most of the main screen is a scrollable map of the galaxy. To the right of that is information about the last planet the player clicked on the map: "unexplored" if the player has not visited it; the maximum population and current owner if the player has visited it; the planet management controls if the player owns it. The buttons across the bottom access other screens. Players use lockable sliders to allocate a planet's industrial output between ship construction (the icon for the selected type of ship is shown at the bottom of the panel), defenses, factory construction, ecology and research. The Technology screen uses a similar set of lockable sliders to allocate research spending between the 6 technology areas. PREQUEL AND SEQUELS ''Star Lords'', dubbed "''MOO 0''" by fans, was the foundation of ''Master of Orion''. Master of Orion: The History of a Game Series — ''Star Lords'' . ''Star Lords'' was an unpolished prototype and never commercially released (its intro opens with "SimTex Software and Your Company present"). Steve Barcia demonstrated it to MicroProse and to gaming journalist Alan Emrich , who got so enthusiastic that he and his friend Tom Hughes helped Barcia to refine the design. Master of Orion: The History of a Game Series — One Man's Telling of a Cosmic Tale MobyGames ''Star Lords'' page. Retrieved on 2007-03-08. Emrich and Hughes later wrote the strategy guide for the finished product. The prototype was made available as {Link without Title} . So far there have been 2 "sequels", '' Master Of Orion II '' and '' Master Of Orion 3 ''. Despite the similar names, the differences in gameplay between the 3 games are about as significant as the similarities. And despite the sequels' more sophisticated graphics, sound and gameplay, some players prefer the original ''Master of Orion''. Sirian's ''Master of Orion'' Page MOO Resources REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS
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