Post
by DirtyFinger » 2003-03-16 17:19
moo3 was the greatest piece of crap that got recently released and the biggest letdown ever.
The userinterface is unsophisticated and extremely unclear.
First, the resolution is stuck to 800x600 and the fonts used are LARGE, thus theres not much info they can put on each screen.
The navigation from one menue to the next is not always clear, sometimes you don't even have a button that allows you to go back.
Sometimes data is shown that can't be manipulated or even visited from the current place.
Example : You want to build a destroyer on a planet of yours instead of a transport, ok ?
Doubleclick on starsystem -> zoom to system view,new menue.
Click on planet -> Window pops up showing stuff including an indicator showing the next 3 things in the building queue. Mind you, you only see 3 ugly icons with no explanation whatsoever what they mean. No tooltip saying that next-in-line is a transport, not a troopship or a frigate(same icon). You can't manipulate the queue here either or access it.
Doubleclick on planet -> Planet menue, clutter with many useless data. No sign of the building queue. No button even saying remotedly where the building queue might be.
Click on some menue (forgot the name. economy or enviroment or something) -> many data you'll never need because you can't really influence it. The building queue ! 3 ugly icons again. no info, no interaction. But theres a button allowing you to change it!
Click button -> Edit the queue. wow. You can now edit the queue and determine the NEXT 3 ITEMS to be built. Moo2 let you specify 10 ! Even better, you can't immedeatly delete an item in production. changes happen in the next turn so you can basically only set 2 items.
Thats 4 steps to change the production (3 if you use a 'shortcut') where Moo2 needed only 2. And you see the bloody queue twice without being able to use it.
The AI is so dumb it would loose in tic-tac-toe if you'd let it place 2 O's beforehand !
It declares war to you, engages in combat when you meet his fleet but nearly never attacks your systems ! And if it does, it doesn't conquer planets because it can't seem to build troopships (although your colony-viceroy turns them out even if you don't want them).
The diplomacy is so fucked up, they sometimes offer you to go to war with them. And you can REFUSE !!!
Or even better, you might receive two messages in the same turn from an alien leader.
Message one : We gladly accept your peace-treaty.
Message two : We have had enough. We are now at WAR !
You can't research technology.
Sure, you can set some sliders determining that you want more research points in biology than in physics or so, but first the AI adjusts your sliders back to normal after a few turns and second, all that happens is that you advance a level in research.
If enough levels are reached, researchable inventions become visible or researchable.
But even when they become researchable you can't choose what to research. The get all researched automatically and you'll get informed in the Situation Report (sitrep) about progress eventually.
At different times in the game you got those messages in the sitrep for each and every tech you research :
Tech blablabla is now visible.
Research on tech blablabla has begun.
Research on tech blablabla is nearly finished.
Research on tech blablabla is finished and we are making a prototype.
The prototype of tech blablabla is finished and we can use the tech now.
And the joke about that is, that you CAN'T use the technology in some instances, e.g. Hydroponic Farms. They just get applied automatically, turning some number from 739 to 744.
Spacecombat. Think Asteroids. Some dots with a yellow pentagon around it. No tactic. Theorhetically you can move them yourself, but why bother ?
The only thing you can accomplish is making thinks worse.
And when ships fire on each other you see how much damage one ship took, but you don't know which one did it. Thus you have absolutely no idea if your new ship-design is good or not.
Ship design is very uncomfortable, too, even though it somewhat resembles that of moo2.
And the different species ?
Nonsense. If in moo2 you immedeatly felt the difference if you race produces +1 industry or -1, you don't feel a thing here, because you never get down to a level where you can actually see what matters. Besides, everything is automated, so after a few turns everything flats out.
Race custumization is cumbersome,too.
Where you could see in moo2 immedeatly what your race can or can't do, strenghts and weaknesses, all traits and racial picks, in moo3 you can't.
No all-in-one view of your traits. Some traits are not even shown at all !!!
Silicoids e.g. don't need food. No mention of that neither in the manual nor in your race statistics.
And the fifth X for experience ?
Well, let me describe how a typical game runs.
Start with one planet, 1 colony ship, 2 scouts.
Set AI to autocolonize.
Send scouts out, colonize a planet or send colony ship out.
Press Next Turn until scouts arrive.
Colonize planet if not done already and send scouts out.
Press Next Turn until scouts arrive and send them away again.
Press Next Turn until scouts arrive and send them away again.
.... repeat about 50 times or so.
---Status : You control about 4 planets in 2 or 3 systems and researche some tech you never looked at.
Press Next Turn until scouts arrive and send them away again.
Press Next Turn until scouts arrive and send them away again.
Press Next Turn until scouts arrive and send them away again.
... about 50 times again.
You meet another alien and start to build a fleet with the current tech. just in case. You do some diplomatics and either make treates or declare war. No big difference, really.
Press Next Turn until scouts arrive and send them away again.
Press Next Turn until scouts arrive and send them away again.
... fast forward 150 turns or so.
---Status : You control about 40 planets in 10 or 20 systems and researche some tech you never looked at. You build a fleet with some new ships and some old ones (because you can't upgrade old ships). You met 5 species, are friends with 3 and war with 1. You ignore the enemy.
Press Next Turn until scouts arrive and send them away again.
Press Next Turn until scouts arrive and send them away again.
Press Next Turn until scouts arrive and send them away again.
... fast forward 150 turns or so.
---Status : You control half the galaxy, feel a bit bored and decide to build a fleet to crush every other race for a challange.
Press Next Turn until warhips arrive and send them away again.
Press Next Turn until warhips arrive and send them away again.
---Status : You control half the galaxy , eliminated 2 species and lost because someone won election in the orion senate you have never seen anywhere in your game.
Thats a huge galaxy with maximum opponents on impossible difficulty.
Anyone here you wants to buy it ?
Neomodus sucks.
The client is terrible.
The hub software is dreadful.
The only thing worse is the protocol.
And then they had to top it by choosing vbs for scripting.
I still marvel at the fact that sharing with Direct Connect turned out so good.
