[Freeciv-Dev] Re: What we can learn from MOO3

[astuckey@xxxxxxxx]

Quoting Raimar Falke <rf13@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
> MOO3 is disappointing.

Absolutely.  Mostly, it's a re-implementation of Pax Imperia, but a decade later
and with less to recommend it.  It also has the most useless manual the world
has ever seen.

> They removed the combat you know from moo1 and moo2. Big loss IMHO. It
> was quite nice to see your new weapon perform: "They said this is
> naturally shield piercing. Lets see. Yes it is is. Sweet. And the
> enemy ship can't move anymore. Very nice....."

Real-time combat is a bug.  IMHO in general, but certainly as implemented in
MOO3.  The "Watch your AI-controlled combat" option is irritating, and the
"control your own combats" option is worse.

I completely agree that there are vast levels of satisfaction missing from
previous MOO games.  My favorite race to play in MOO2 were Bulrathi-like
Pirates.  Get tractor beams, engine-targetting missiles, and high combat rolls,
and take over enemy vessels.

> Technologies are anonymous. You get about 2 new techs per turn. Why so
> many? They splitted Laser in Laser, Autofire Laser, Continuous Laser,
> Laser Miniaturization 1, Laser Miniaturization 2 and Armor Piercing
> Laser.

Yes, the tech improvement rate is far too fast, with no noticable benefits and
micro-options that shouldn't be separate.

> Planets are split into regions. Size (6-12) of planet is the number of
> regions. So if you use half of the plant surface for research you can
> end up building 12 research labs. A lot of clicking. For this they
> added an AI (which is sanely on by default). However now you don't
> have much to do as the planets build themself.

It provides more granular control over production than MOO2, but frankly just
doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things.  A micro-management point, and the
effects of development plans aren't described well.

> Taskforces (unit groups on steroids) were added. Rather complex. And
> you have to first create a before you are able to move anythings
> around.

And disbanding them introduces arbitrary and idiotic delays before those units
can be re-formed.  Documentation is poor.

> They added an auto-colonize. You build the ships and the AI sends them
> to planets. No auto-explore however.

I could never get it to auto-colonize contested systems.  Asserting control of
contested areas before it gets well-developed is something any 4X AI should do.

> Now about the interface. They have managed to assign the right mouse
> button exactly one function: dragging the main map. On all of the
> other dialogs the right mouse button has no use. What a waste.

Zooming the main map is useless, as things like star lanes and names disappear
at the further levels.  You can't fit any significant portion of the main map on
screen at once.

> These helps are inadequate. Two examples: there are certain icons
> which show sometimes and certain sliders change their color. I know
> these elements want to tell me something. But I don't know
> what. Another example is ship building: you want to know what were the
> effects of spinal mount. No tooltip and it isn't included in the
> general help. So you have to go back to the technology overview and
> search. "... is this is maths, energy or physics?...". 

Yes.  Far, far more information neeeds to be at your fingertips on the ship
design screen.

> My summary: they took a good game and made it more complex. Since this
> game was than too complex they added features which enabled the player
> to cope with the added complexity. This however made the added
> complexity rather useless and also descreased appealing of the game.

... while simultaneously gutting any channel of information that the player
might care about.