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Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares

Revision as of 19:55, 17 September 2010 by Dream Focus@legacy41592783 (talk | contribs) (1 revision: try this one again since it didn't get them all)
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"MOO2" redirects here. For the chemical MoO2, see Molybdenum dioxide.
Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares
Boxart
Developer(s) Simtex
Publisher(s) Microprose (PC), MacSoft (Mac)
Designer Designer Missing
Engine Engine Missing
status Status Missing
Release date October 31, 1996 (NA)
December 16, 1996 (EU)
Genre 4X, Turn-based strategy
Mode(s) Single player, Multiplayer
Age rating(s) Ratings Missing
Platform(s) MS-DOS, Windows 95 and later Windows versions, Apple Macintosh
Arcade system Arcade System Missing
Media Media Missing
Input Inputs Missing
Requirements Requirements Missing
Credits | Soundtrack | Codes | Walkthrough

Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares (MOO2) is a 4X turn-based strategy game set in space, designed by Steve Barcia and Ken Burd, and developed by Simtex, who developed its predecessor Master of Orion. The PC version of the game was published by Microprose in 1996, while the Apple Macintosh version was published a year later by MacSoft in partnership with Microprose. The PC version is still on sale as a download, and is still played online.

Master of Orion II won the Origins Award for Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Computer Game of 1996, and was well received, although reviewers differed about which aspects they liked and disliked. It is still used as a yardstick in reviews of more recent space-based 4X games.

Victory can be gained by military or diplomatic means. Major elements of the game's strategy include the design of custom races and the need to balance the requirements for food, production, cash and research. The user interface, which is mainly mouse-based but includes keyboard shortcuts, provides a central screen for most economic management and other screens that control research, diplomacy, ship movement, combat and warship design.

Backstory

Long before the time in which the game starts, two extremely powerful races, known as the Orions and the Antarans, fought a war that devastated most of the galaxy. The Orions won and, rather than exterminate the Antarans, imprisoned them in a "pocket dimension". The Orions then departed from the galaxy, but left behind a very powerful robotic warship, the Guardian, to protect their homeworld.[1] Whoever beats the Guardian gets military technologies which players cannot research for themselves; and the opportunity to colonize the Orions' homeworld, which is usually the best planet in the galaxy in all respects.[1]

Some time after the start of a game, the Antarans, breaking out of the prison dimension to which the Orions banished them, begin sending increasingly powerful fleets against players' colonies,[2] simply to destroy rather than to invade.[3] The only way to stop the Antarans' campaign of terror is to carry the battle to their home universe through a Dimensional Portal.[4]

Gameplay

Victory conditions

Despite the game's name, conquering the Orion star system does not automatically win the game. There are three routes to victory: conquer all opponents; be elected as the supreme leader of the galaxy; or make a successful assault against the Antaran homeworld. To be elected, a player needs two-thirds of the total votes, and each empire's votes are based on the population under its control.[5]

Stars and planets

Star systems have at most five colonizable planets, and a few have none. Players can colonize all types of planets although gas giants and asteroids require the planet construction technology. Colonizable planets vary in several ways, making some more desirable than others:[6]

  • Population capacity, which on most planets can be improved by terraforming. "Toxic" planets cannot be terraformed.[7]
  • Ease of growing food, which is important for the reasons described below. At the start of the game most planets are incapable of supporting agriculture, but terraforming can remedy this, except on "toxic" planets.[7]
  • Very rare "splinter colonies", which automatically join the empire that discovers them and acquire its racial advantages and disadvantages.
  • Sometimes other features that increase or decrease productivity in one or more of farming, industry, research and cashflow.

The most desirable systems are usually guarded by space monsters, much less powerful than Orion's Guardian but still a severe challenge in the early game, when fleets are small and low-tech.[8][9]

How planets' economies work

Without food, a colony will starve to death. If an empire as a whole has a food surplus, it can prevent starvation by sending food in freighters,[10] but using these costs money.[11] Just one tiny hostile warship can prevent this by blockading a whole system.[12]

Each player can change each of its colony's output by moving colonists between farming, industry and research,[13] except that natives can only farm.[6] All normal colonists pay a standard tax to the imperial treasury and in emergencies one can set a higher tax rate, but this reduces industrial output.[14] A player can use surplus money to accelerate industrial production at specified colonies, but not to increase agricultural or research output.[15]

Maintaining buildings costs money and so does running an excessively large fleet.[16] Ships of different sizes require different numbers of "command points". These are provided by orbital bases, which are major construction projects for small colonies. This severely limits the size of empires' fleets in the early game, where one can have only one frigate (smallest type of ship) per starbase or one battleship (largest type of ship in the early game) per 4 starbases without having to "buy" command points, which is very expensive.[17][18]

Research, usually followed by construction of appropriate buildings, can improve all types of productivity including cashflow and command points, and can also reduce or eliminate pollution,[18] which otherwise is a serious constraint on industrial output in the early game.[10]

The technology tree

File:Moo2ResearchMenu472.png

Research Menu, showing the eight divisions of the tech tree, and highlighting the subject currently chosen

Falling behind in technology is likely to be fatal. There are eight research areas,[18][19] each divided into several levels, each of which contains one to four technologies. To research a higher-level technology, one must first have researched the previous level.[19] "Creative" races get all the technologies at a particular level by completing one research project at that level; most races must choose only one technology from each level; "uncreative" races get no choice and the game software randomly selects a technology for them at each level.[19] Players can also acquire technologies by trading, spying, planetary conquest, or capturing and dismantling enemy ships.[19]

All weapons and some other combat-related components benefit from miniaturization, in which further advances in the technology area that provides them will reduce the size and production cost of these components.[20] Miniaturization also makes available modifications for most weapons, which usually entail a significant increase in their cost and size but can greatly improve their effectiveness in the right situations.[20]

Diplomacy

Master of Orion II provides a wide range of diplomatic negotiations: gifts of money or technology or even all the colonies in a star system; opportunities to demand such concessions from other players; technology trades; trade, non-aggression and alliance treaties.[12] The diplomacy menu, called "Races" in the game, also enables the player to allocate spies between defensive duties and spying or sabotage against other empires, and to check opponents' technological progress and diplomatic relationships.[21]

Spaceship design

The designs of colony ships, outpost ships and troop transports are fixed.[22]These three ship types will be destroyed instantly if they travel without an escort and are attacked by anything, even the weakest combat ship.[23]

Colony ships, outpost ships, troop transports and warships benefit from technology advances which increase the travel range and speed of all of an empire's ships free of charge.[18]

Players can design warships, provided they choose the "tactical combat" option in game set-up.[24] One can design a maximum of 5 classes at a time, but can have an indefinite number of classes in operation. Players can also refit ships to take advantage of technology improvements which do not provide free upgrades.[22]

Combat and invasion

Ships can travel to any star system within their range,[25] unlike games such as Space Empires or Master of Orion III where interstellar travel is possible only or mainly via "wormholes" and it is possible to set up easily-defended choke points.[26][27][28]

In Master of Orion II, space combat occurs only within star systems, either over a planet one side is attacking or on the outskirts of a system, if one side is driving away the other's blockaders or trying to prevent an enemy buildup. If the defending side has warships and several colonies in a system, they automatically scramble to defend whichever colony is attacked.[29] Limitations on the size of empires' fleets mean that most battles involve only a handful of ships on each side.[30] Ships do not form stacks as in Master of Orion,[31] but move and fire individually.[32]

At the start of a game the gamer chooses whether all space combat should be "tactical" (controlled by the player) or "strategic" (controlled by the software), but choosing strategic combat prevents the gamer from designing his/her own ships.[24] In tactical screen the gamer can use the "Auto" button to make the software take control of the player's ships and finish the battle.[32]

Enemy colonies can be taken over only after all orbital and planet-based defenses have been destroyed and all defending ships have been destroyed or forced to retreat.[33] Telepathic races can mind-control enemy populations, but mind-control is thwarted if the defending system belongs to a telepathic race or is governed by a telepathic leader.[33][34] In other cases the only way to seize control of an enemy colony is by invading. In order to do this, the attacking fleet must include some troop transports, which will be lost if the invasion fails, and at least transports will be permanently deployed on the planet if the invasion succeeds.[33][35] A player cannot control ground combat: the result depends on numbers, ground combat technologies, racial ground combat bonuses, and some Leaders if present. However the game displays the progress of the combat and the ground combat technologies and bonuses used by each side.[33]

Mind-controlled colonies are instantly loyal to their new owners.[36] Other recently-occupied colonies on the other hand are disaffected, have poor productivity, and may rebel and rejoin the empire which founded them. Productivity slowly improves and the risk of rebellion slowly recedes, and there is a way to speed up these improvements.[37]

Instead of invading, a victorious attacker may destroy an enemy colony by various means.[33]

Leaders

From time to time players get opportunities to hire leaders, for an annual salary and usually a hiring fee. Colony leaders improve the farming and/or industrial and/or research and/or financial productivity of all colonies in the system to which they are assigned, and some improve the efficiency of defensive or offensive spies. Ship leaders improve the combat effectiveness of their ships and some improve their travel speed. A few leaders of both types also improve the performance of warships and/or ground troops under their command, or contribute directly to a player's finances, or attract other leaders, usually for a reduced hiring fee.[34]

Random events

From time to time there are lucky breaks, disasters or emergencies which are not caused by any player's actions. These can be disabled in the game start-up menu.[24]

Playable races

File:Moo2RaceDesignMenu.png

The Race Design screen. It highlights options already chosen, and grays out those that are no longer available. The bottom shows the number of picks still available.

Master of Orion II provides 13 pre-defined playable races,[38] three of which are additions to those available in Master of Orion.[3] The game also allows players to create custom races,[39] and a group of enthusiasts regard race design as a crucial element of strategy.[40] Each player starts with 10 "picks" (race design points). Choosing advantageous traits reduces the number of picks available, while choosing disadvantages increases them, but players cannot choose more than 10 picks' worth of disadvantages. Most of the options are major or minor advantages and minor disadvantages in farming, industry, research, population growth, money, space combat, espionage and ground combat.[39]

The race design system also offers "special abilities" that have various effects on various aspects of their effectiveness. The most expensive of these are:[39]

  • "Tolerant" races have a higher population limit on colonized planets than most other races, and their industrial productivity is not reduced by pollution.
  • "Lithovores" feed on the natural minerals of a planet, and do not need to farm.
  • "Creative" races research all the technologies at each level by completing one research project; all other races must choose one technological application to develop out of a given research project; "uncreative" races get no choice and the software randomly selects an application to be developed out of each research project undertaken.[39] "Creative" is the third most expensive option.[41]

The player chooses the empire's form of government,[39] which has almost as much influence on how it performs as the choices described above, but the "best" governments cost a lot of picks.[39] Dictatorships are the most common governments for the pre-defined races,[38] and cost no picks.[39] Democracy provides major advantages in research and money, but is the most vulnerable to spying and sabotage. Unification government provides advantages in farming, industrial production and defense against espionage, but does not benefit from morale. Feudalism provides a large reduction in spaceship construction costs, but suffers from very slow research; the race design menu treats Feudalism as a significant disadvantage.[39] Each government can be upgraded once by research, but the upgrades generally increase the advantages of each without decreasing its disadvantages.[38]

User interface

File:Moo2GalaxyAndSystem400.png

The main screen: the pop-up window displays information about a specific star system, while the large window under it displays the galaxy as a whole.

This is mainly mouse-driven, but some screens also have hotkeys for important functions.[32][42]

The main screen consists mainly of a map of the galaxy, which can be zoomed but not scrolled. Stars have names which are color-coded to show which empires have colonies round them, and dotted lines show friendly and enemy ship movements. Clicking on a star that the gamer has already visited produces a pop-up window which shows the planets round that star. Clicking a fleet allows the player to give orders and displays a pop-up which shows each ship in the fleet.[43] The buttons along the bottom give access to various menus,[42] and the icons on the right provide information about the status of the empire and access to additional menus.[16]

File:Moo2ColonyList400.png

Colony List, with sort buttons along the bottom. The cursor (hand) on the right is about to open a colony's Build Menu.

Gamers can manage their economies almost entirely from the Colony List, which can be sorted by any of one of: Name, Population, Food production, Industrial production, Research production, the item currently being built, or Cash (BC) generated. The Colony List allows the player to access any colony's Build Menu, and to change a colony's output by moving colonists between Farmers, Workers and Scientists.[42]

The Build Menu allows the gamer to queue up to 7 items (buildings, ships or spies) for construction at a colony, to refit ships in that colony's system and to design ships which may then be built at any colony.[44]

At the end of each turn Master of Orion II shows a report in which items link to the appropriate display, usually to a colony's Build menu when a construction project has been completed.[42]

The Information menu gives access to: a History Graph which shows how the gamer's empire compares with rival empires; the racial characteristics of all empires with which the gamer is in contact; the technologies the gamer has researched; and descriptions of all technologies, including the exotic ones which the player cannot research but may gain by beating Orion's Guardian or by capturing an Antaran ship and scrapping it afterwards.[42]

Development

The game was designed by Steve Barcia and Ken Burd,[45] and developed by Barcia's company Simtex, which had previously developed Master of Orion, published in 1993 by Microprose.[46] For Master of Orion II Simtex provided: additional pre-defined races and the option to create custom races; and multiplayer options.[9][3] The first "Orion" game's graphics had also been heavily criticized, and the second included higher-quality artwork displayed at a higher resolution.[46]

In June 1995 Microprose agreed to buy Simtex,[47] and turned it into an internal development division.[9] The acquisition continued to be known as "Simtex Software", and the Simtex logo appears briefly before Microprose's while MOO II is loading.[9] Microprose released Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares for IBM-compatible PCs in 1996,[48] and an Apple Macintosh version was published a year later by Microprose in partnership with MacSoft.[48][49]

Reception

 Reception
Review scores
Publication Score
TotalGames 92%[50][51]

Reviews shortly after publication were generally very favourable,[50] and the game won the Origins Award for Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Computer Game of 1996.[54] However, reviewers' detailed comments on aspects of the game differed, especially in comparisons with its predecessor Master of Orion. Some liked the additional gameplay features in Master of Orion II, while others preferred the simpler approach of Master of Orion.[55] Some reviewers criticized the level of micromanagement needed in Master of Orion II,[56] but Tom Chick found it fairly easy to control.[9] Opinions also varied about: the single-player AI,[8][9] tactical combat,[3][8][55] warship design facility,[8][55] and custom races.[3][55] However, reviewers appreciated the replay value provided by the wide range of galaxy, race and other options.[3][46]

There were complaints that the loading of copious artwork from the CD made the game run slowly,[46] and both a reviewer and enthusiasts now advise players to avoid this by loading all of the files on to their hard disks.[9][57] A review specifically for the Mac version complained that the user interface was "clunky", as this PC port lacked features common in programs originally developed for the Mac.[58]

Chick's retrospective review described Master of Orion II and its predecessor Master of Orion as "looming large" in any discussion of space-based strategy games.[9] Master of Orion II has been used as the standard for comparison in reviews of more recent space-based 4X games such as Space Empires IV (2000), Galactic Civilizations II (2006–2009) and Lost Empire: Immortals (2008).[59]

Post-publication

Atari still sells the PC version of the game as a download. [60] The game is still played online, and one group of enthusiasts has developed a patch for the MS-DOS version, which fixes some bugs and adds more game set-up options, and a few mods which adjust the game balance.[61] Difficulties have been reported in running the game directly under Windows XP, Windows Vista and Mac OS X, and the same enthusiasts recommend running the MS-DOS version under the control of the emulator DOSBox, which they say also offers some advantages for online multi-player games and works equally well for Linux and Mac OS users.[62]

So far there has been one sequel, Master of Orion 3. Comments by reviewers and players have mostly been unfavorable.[63] Despite the similar names, there are large differences in gameplay between Master of Orion II and Master of Orion 3.[64]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 MOO II Manual (PC), p. iv
  2. ↑ MOO II Manual (PC), pp. 8-10
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Ward, T.C. (November 26, 1996). Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares Review – Gamespot. Gamespot. CBS Interactive Inc. Retrieved on 2009-05-10
  4. ↑ MOO II Manual (PC), p. 93
  5. ↑ MOO II Manual (PC), p. 145
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 MOO II Manual (PC), pp. 47-52
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 MOO II Manual (PC), p. 88
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Mayer, R. (1997). Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares. Strategy Plus, Inc.. Archived from the original on April 18, 2004 Retrieved on 2009-05-11
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7 9.8 Chick, T. (2001). PC Retroview: Master of Orion II. IGN. Retrieved on 2009-05-09
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 MOO II Manual (PC), p. 57
  11. ↑ MOO II Manual (PC), p. 75
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 MOO II Manual (PC), pp. 139-140
  13. ↑ MOO II Manual (PC), p. 57-58
  14. ↑ MOO II Manual (PC), p. 137
  15. ↑ MOO II Manual (PC), pp. 35-38
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 MOO II Manual (PC), p. 34
  17. ↑ MOO II Manual (PC), p. 137
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 MOO II Manual (PC), p. 65-99
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 MOO II Manual (PC), pp. 64-65
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 MOO II Manual (PC), pp. 100-102
  21. ↑ MOO II Manual (PC), pp. 42-43
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 MOO II Manual (PC), pp. 105-111
  23. ↑ MOO II Manual (PC), p. 104
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 MOO II Manual (PC), p. 11
  25. ↑ MOO II Manual (PC), pp. 30-31
  26. ↑ Geryk, B. (November 28, 2000). Space Empires: IV (PC). GameSpot. CBS Interactive Inc.. Retrieved on 2009-05-09
  27. ↑ Parker, S. (March 6, 2003). Master of Orion III Review. GameSpot. CBS Interactive Inc.. Retrieved on 2009-05-10
  28. ↑ Wood, A. (2004). Master of Orion III (PC). Daily Game. Retrieved on 2009-05-09
  29. ↑ MOO II Manual (PC), pp. 118-119
  30. ↑ Mayer, R. (1997). Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares. Strategy Plus, Inc.. Archived from [www.cdmag.com/articles/002/057/moo_2_review.html the original] on Jul 14, 2002 Retrieved on 2009-05-09
  31. ↑ Barcia, S. (1993). Master of Orion (manual) (1.2 ed.). MicroProse Software. 
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 32.2 MOO II Manual (PC), pp. 119-130
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 33.2 33.3 33.4 MOO II Manual (PC), pp. 130-132
  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 MOO II Manual (PC), pp. 114-116
  35. ↑ MOO II Manual (PC), p. 75
  36. ↑ MOO II Manual (PC), p. 23
  37. ↑ MOO II Manual (PC), pp. 81 and 132
  38. ↑ 38.0 38.1 38.2 MOO II Manual (PC), pp. 13-15
  39. ↑ 39.0 39.1 39.2 39.3 39.4 39.5 39.6 39.7 MOO II Manual (PC), pp. 16-24
  40. ↑ "Cybersaber" (2005). Master of Orion II Online: Strategy Guide. Retrieved on 2009-05-11
  41. ↑ "Creative" originally cost 6 picks (MOO II Manual (PC), pp. 16-24) but the last Microprose patch increased this to 8: ReadMe file for patch 1.31 to PC version of Master of Orion II. Microprose (11 April 1997). Retrieved on 2009-05-11
  42. ↑ 42.0 42.1 42.2 42.3 42.4 MOO II Manual (PC), pp. 35-44
  43. ↑ MOO II Manual (PC), pp. 27-30
  44. ↑ MOO II Manual (PC), pp. 60-62
  45. ↑ MOO II Manual (PC), p. 153
  46. ↑ 46.0 46.1 46.2 46.3 Meinfelder, E. (1997). Rule the Galaxy for $50. InfoMedia, Inc.. Archived from the original on Nov 14, 2006 Retrieved on 2009-05-09
  47. ↑ SEC Info - Microprose Inc/DE - 10-Q - For 6/30/98. Fran Finnegan & Company. Retrieved on 2009-06-08
  48. ↑ 48.0 48.1 GameSpy Company Bio: Microprose. Retrieved on 2009-05-09
  49. ↑ GameSpy Company Bio: MacSoft. Retrieved on 2009-05-09
  50. ↑ 50.0 50.1 50.2 50.3 50.4 50.5 50.6 Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2009-05-09
  51. ↑ Smith, M.. Masters of Orion 2. TotalGames. Archived from the original on May 05, 2003 Retrieved on 2009-06-08
  52. ↑ Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares. CBS Interactive Inc. Retrieved on 2009-06-08
  53. ↑ Ward, T.C. (November 26, 1996). Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares. Gamespot. CNET Networks. Archived from the original on July 10, 2001 Retrieved on 2009-06-08
  54. ↑ Origins Awards for 1996. Archived from Academy of Adventure Gaming the original on Apr 18, 2008 Retrieved on 2009-05-09
  55. ↑ 55.0 55.1 55.2 55.3 Geryk, B.. History of space empire games – Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares. CBS Interactive Inc. Retrieved on 2009-05-10
  56. ↑ Geryk, B.. History of space empire games – Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares. GameSpot. Retrieved on 2009-05-09
  57. ↑ "Lord Brazen" (January 1, 2005). Installing Master of Orion II v1.40 on Win XP. Retrieved on 2009-05-09
  58. ↑ Corbett, C.. Master of Orion II (Mac). Dimension Z Online. Retrieved on 2009-05-11
  59. ↑ Examples:
  60. ↑ Atari Video Games - Master Of Orion 2: Battle At Antares. Atari Inc.. Retrieved on 8 August 2010
  61. ↑ Master of Orion II Mods - An Overview. Retrieved on 2009-05-09
  62. ↑ DOSBox Guide for Online Play. Retrieved on 2009-05-09
  63. ↑ Master of Orion 3. Retrieved on 2009-06-08
  64. ↑ Hammond, B. (January 09, 2006). Master of Orion 3. netjak. Archived from the original on May 05, 2008 Retrieved on 2009-05-11

Bibliography

  • Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares. Chipping Sodbury, South Gloucestershire, England: MicroProse. 1996. 

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