Master of Orion remake!

Master of Orion – Wargaming revives classic space strategy game



Master of Orion 2 was one was of my favorite games as a child. On the one hand, I'm glad to see someone try and resurrect the series. On the other, I'm kind of skeptical regarding their chances of success.

It already looks like they're going to add that stupid "space lanes" feature from MoO3 (you know... the game that killed the original series) into the new game just from the teaser trailer. It's going to piss me off if they do that.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for updating and adding new features, but there is a right way and a wrong way to do that. I'm not necessarily sure that they'll get it right.

If nothing else, at least it looks pretty, however. :mrgreen:

Hmm "space lines".. that is pretty mainstream for decades. If I remember right, even Master of Orion 2 had space lines, they were just not visible.

PeteEU said:

Hmm "space lines".. that is pretty mainstream for decades. If I remember right, even Master of Orion 2 had space lines, they were just not visible.

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Not in the sense that you were basically forced onto arbitrary little paths which limited your options for travel to a handful of unnatural chokepoints. In Master of Orion 2, you could start from one star, and travel to basically any other star you wanted, given that your ships had the range.

Actually, some of the most successful space 4X games of the last decade or so have either forgone that kind of thing entirely (i.e. the 'Galactic Civilizations' series), or made it only optional, with some races using star lanes, and others having more freerange movement (i.e. the 'Sword of the Stars' series).

They tried to add star lanes to Master of Orion 3, and all it did was add to the generally "blah" flavor of the game that ultimately lead to its failure.

Gathomas88 said:

Not in the sense that you were basically forced onto arbitrary little paths which limited your options for travel to a handful of unnatural chokepoints. In Master of Orion 2, you could start from one star, and travel to basically any other star you wanted, given that your ships had the range.

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Hmm you sure? I remember it as you had to go through individual star systems (aka line paths) and if they were controlled by someone else then you got in trouble. Granted it is like half a life time ago I plady Masters of Orion 1 and 2 and 3.

Actually, some of the most successful space 4X games of the last decade or so have either forgone that kind of thing entirely (i.e. the 'Galactic Civilizations' series), or made it only optional, with some races using star lanes, and others having more freerange movement (i.e. the 'Sword of the Stars' series).

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Hmm could swear that Galactic Civilizations had hidden space lanes as well.

PeteEU said:

Hmm you sure? I remember it as you had to go through individual star systems (aka line paths) and if they were controlled by someone else then you got in trouble. Granted it is like half a life time ago I plady Masters of Orion 1 and 2 and 3.

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You could only move between different stars, yes. However, the only limit on which one was the fuel range of your ships.

It wasn't like there was a hardset path between any two particular stars, and you had to follow a little "road" in space to get anywhere, with no option to do anything else.

My problem with the "space lane" concept is that it has a tendency to result in situations where two stars will literally be right next to one another, but you can't travel between them because there's no "road" paving the way. A lot of times, you might wind up having to go deliberately out of your way to find an alternate path to get there.

That just slows the game down, IMO. While some games can make that work, an MoO remake should really stick to the original game's formula, and avoid it.

Hmm could swear that Galactic Civilizations had hidden space lanes as well.

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Nope. It's basically just Sid Meyer's Civilization in space. You can move however and wherever you want.

You even fly in little loop-de-loops, or park out in the middle of nowhere and stay there if you want.

Regardless.. we need a new big strat game of some sort... rehashing the same crap over and over again is getting tedious.

PeteEU said:

Regardless.. we need a new big strat game of some sort... rehashing the same crap over and over again is getting tedious.

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True. I never said that it should be the exact same game.

Space lanes are just one of the tired old cliches of the genre that I don't particularly care for, and something which a lot of rather innovative and successful games that have come out in recent years have managed to avoid. I'd prefer if a MoO remake didn't have them for that reason, given that the original games didn't have them either.

However, I guess we'll just have to wait and see how it all works out. :shrug:

Gathomas88 said:

True. I never said that it should be the exact same game.

Space lanes are just one of the tired old cliches of the genre that I don't particularly care for, and something which a lot of rather innovative and successful games that have come out in recent years have managed to avoid. I'd prefer if a MoO remake didn't have them for that reason, given that the original games didn't have them either.

However, I guess we'll just have to wait and see how it all works out. :shrug:

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Dont get me wrong.. Master of Orion was brilliant and a remake is well in order. My point is that we constantly get games that are orientated against online PVP in the fantasy world with dragons, witches, orges and so on. Once in a while a space games comes out but they are far in between and when they do come it is another freaking PVP bull**** game. Elite Dangerous really disappointed me since it seems to be PVP in space.

Even the new Star Wars Battlefront is leaning towards PVP from what I can see. Not a fan of that crap.

I had high hopes for the newest Sid Meir Civilizations Beyond Earth.. but it was just Civilization on an alien planet basically.

Two of my favourite games is Star Wars Rebellion and Star Trek - Birth of the Federation.. games like that are sorely needed with a modern twist.

If they really wanted to remake on of the classic 4X games, I wish they would have gone with Spaceward Ho! Older, better, and much more fun. On the other hand, since I fully expect this will be dumbed down for the console game/WoW crowd, maybe it is better they don't do my favorite.

PeteEU said:

Dont get me wrong.. Master of Orion was brilliant and a remake is well in order. My point is that we constantly get games that are orientated against online PVP in the fantasy world with dragons, witches, orges and so on. Once in a while a space games comes out but they are far in between and when they do come it is another freaking PVP bull**** game. Elite Dangerous really disappointed me since it seems to be PVP in space.

Even the new Star Wars Battlefront is leaning towards PVP from what I can see. Not a fan of that crap.

I had high hopes for the newest Sid Meir Civilizations Beyond Earth.. but it was just Civilization on an alien planet basically.

Two of my favourite games is Star Wars Rebellion and Star Trek - Birth of the Federation.. games like that are sorely needed with a modern twist.

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Redress said:

If they really wanted to remake on of the classic 4X games, I wish they would have gone with Spaceward Ho! Older, better, and much more fun. On the other hand, since I fully expect this will be dumbed down for the console game/WoW crowd, maybe it is better they don't do my favorite.

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True, on both counts. The trend in these kinds of games for quite a while now has been to simply do the same thing over and over again, while gradually dumbing things down.

Frankly, what I'd really like to see would be a Paradox style "grand strategy game" set in space. I'm really kind of at a loss as to why we haven't gotten one even remotely like that yet.

Perhaps it's time for developers to stop living in the past, and try to create something new for the genre, instead of just trying (and usually failing) to imitate Master of Orion 2.

Stars! is my favorite old-school 4x. Single-player, it's lousy. The AI is dumb as a brick and doesn't get any smarter on higher difficulties, they just get outlandishly efficient production and research, but still don't manage to be a challenge even for a beginner. But against other players, it's awesome. Unfortunately it's not very popular these days.

Gathomas88 said:

True. I never said that it should be the exact same game.

Space lanes are just one of the tired old cliches of the genre that I don't particularly care for, and something which a lot of rather innovative and successful games that have come out in recent years have managed to avoid. I'd prefer if a MoO remake didn't have them for that reason, given that the original games didn't have them either.

However, I guess we'll just have to wait and see how it all works out. :shrug:

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Im actually hoping they keep the exact same mechanics of Master of Orion 2, the reason part 3 sucked so bad was they tried to do something different, it became a spreadsheet set in outer space. Civilization has been around forever and its basically the same game since part 1, its just got more choices and enhancements. This is the reason why I couldnt get into the XCOM remake, it was a different game: too linear and lacked the sandbox openness of the original.

With that in mind, I hope they make a sequel to Star Control 2, part 3 sucked as well.

PeteEU said:

Dont get me wrong.. Master of Orion was brilliant and a remake is well in order. My point is that we constantly get games that are orientated against online PVP in the fantasy world with dragons, witches, orges and so on. Once in a while a space games comes out but they are far in between and when they do come it is another freaking PVP bull**** game. Elite Dangerous really disappointed me since it seems to be PVP in space.

Even the new Star Wars Battlefront is leaning towards PVP from what I can see. Not a fan of that crap.

I had high hopes for the newest Sid Meir Civilizations Beyond Earth.. but it was just Civilization on an alien planet basically.

Two of my favourite games is Star Wars Rebellion and Star Trek - Birth of the Federation.. games like that are sorely needed with a modern twist.

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Not to mention Star Trek Armada..

Tim-

In regards to Star Trek - Birth of the Federation, there is a great Dominion War mod which replaces the Ferengi Alliance with the Dominion, it was pretty awesome and I played it for months, made the game so much better.