Yeah, my favourite is definitely Hearts of Iron III, absolutely brilliant!



But back to ES, I've got to say I expected the learning curve to be steeper but then I am a massive Civilisation fan. Maybe that's helped out.



It might be cool to be able to toggle management features on and off so players can just focus on the bits they want. Would probably be a bit too complex for ES, the devs would have to make more content just to make this possible.

DannyD wrote:
agree. ES for me is easy to lern but hard to master in high level. And when MP will be ready...

Atm we've 5 unique race, with a great background and each with his ability, in the final release the races will be 8. And the tech tree? we can choose between many options according to our strategy; diplomacy/military/economic.

I personally found the learning curve to be pretty shallow. The AI is just so bad and building ships and fleets that it's easy to stomp them at any difficulty.

It is playable.

And rather fun.

Just not complex enough. And no tactical combat.

But it is polished for a alpha. I see more buggy release version than this.

towerbooks3192 wrote:
Is the game playable in its current state? what worries me in these stages of a game is that if it is playable like I could play a short game and end it just like a normal game but with lesser features because of its current state?

YES the game is very playable. It's as good or better now in Alpha than some games are when there released.

Going about the tech tree is just one of many complexities I've come to like about this game. Can't wait for MP though.



I've been waiting for a game like MOO for a while, and ES has that potential from what I've experienced.

Sarissofoi wrote:
It is very similar to Galactic Civilization 2.

Strategic map is difrent - system are connectec by nodes so no free move at start(later you can get tech to move in freespace).

Colony development is simlar although more simplistic but in my opinion better than GC2. You can dedicate planet to resarch production farm or trade and also built system improvemnts. Not on level with MoO I or II tho.

There are four resources food industry spice and resarch. Only spice(cash) is stored. Industry is the king - you can build fast and you can always convert(at somelose) to resarch or cash.

There is little diplomacy now. Aliens get offended by everything and dont nderstod when they should ask peace.

The biggest weakness is a battle/ship design system.

I will call it double trinity system. Missiles /beams /kinetic countered by chafs /shields /deflectors. Defence system work only against one type of weapon. So it is more like scizors papers stone game.

Battle system didnt help. Fleets are limited in logistic and this mean only few ships for fight. Fleets fight on long/medium/close range where missile have most advantage on long and kinetic on close range. Problem is that you can only affect fleets playing one card by phaze and you cant manevr fleets. So you cant rush kinetic fleets to close combat or try to kite enemy fleets with missilies. Also defense system can make your fleet completly usseles or overpowered compared to enemy.



Game is playable and it rather fun but simple. AI now rather weak. No CTD so far which is plus.

Hero system is overpowerd and not really interestng.

Anyway I am little disapointed hope that it will turn in better game.

agree. ES for me is easy to lern but hard to master in high level. And when MP will be ready...

Atm we've 5 unique race, with a great background and each with his ability, in the final release the races will be 8. And the tech tree? we can choose between many options according to our strategy; diplomacy/military/economic.

It is very similar to Galactic Civilization 2.

Strategic map is difrent - system are connectec by nodes so no free move at start(later you can get tech to move in freespace).

Colony development is simlar although more simplistic but in my opinion better than GC2. You can dedicate planet to resarch production farm or trade and also built system improvemnts. Not on level with MoO I or II tho.

There are four resources food industry spice and resarch. Only spice(cash) is stored. Industry is the king - you can build fast and you can always convert(at somelose) to resarch or cash.

There is little diplomacy now. Aliens get offended by everything and dont nderstod when they should ask peace.

The biggest weakness is a battle/ship design system.

I will call it double trinity system. Missiles /beams /kinetic countered by chafs /shields /deflectors. Defence system work only against one type of weapon. So it is more like scizors papers stone game.

Battle system didnt help. Fleets are limited in logistic and this mean only few ships for fight. Fleets fight on long/medium/close range where missile have most advantage on long and kinetic on close range. Problem is that you can only affect fleets playing one card by phaze and you cant manevr fleets. So you cant rush kinetic fleets to close combat or try to kite enemy fleets with missilies. Also defense system can make your fleet completly usseles or overpowered compared to enemy.



Game is playable and it rather fun but simple. AI now rather weak. No CTD so far which is plus.

Hero system is overpowerd and not really interestng.

Anyway I am little disapointed hope that it will turn in better game.

Similar level of complexity to Civ5, may be less IMO.

znork wrote:
try crusader kings 2

Already did and I have to say its one of the simple paradox strategy games (hoping game of thrones did their games like crusader kings). I gave up on hearts of iron 3 and wanted to get victoria 2's expansion since they said its got economics and I love economics.



Anyway I have my hopes up for this game and so far its going great. I prefer to invest my money on least known games and indie companies than AAA companies that produce disappointing watered-down simplified games. I stopped playing SotS1 because I felt its too simple (compared to orion despite not delving deep into it but I'll give it a chance soon)



For me MoO2 hits the perfect spot between complex and simple. Space empires 4 is my highest level of complexity limit and anything below orion will be considered simple and it will depend if it would hold my attention or not.



Will try to play more of this game on thursday since its my only day off and will see what I could contribute in the development of this game despite my limited knowledge. I am currently playing a bit of minecraft 360 and pc and the patricians and port royale series (as Ive said I love economics and trading) and I missed space so I am craving for a 4x game

well as you play and learn the game try fideling withe game settings youll discover that the hours start flying.

I just found the forums for this game so forgive me if I posted on the wrong part.



I was wondering how complex this game is? I am a sucker for micromanagement and I loved Space Empires 4 (despite not wrapping my mind around it until now) and its complexity so I was wondering how deep is this game going to be? Is this aiming to be as complex as space empires or as simple as Sword of the stars (simple in my opinion being used to paradox strategy games) or hit the right spot like master orion (not too simple and not too complex) ?



Will this game give us more freedom in terms of shaping out our empire like could we name our own buildings and design a unique ship (like in space empires where you could outfit the ship to your liking as long as you dont exceed the weight the chassis/ship body class could handle.)?



Forgive me if I keep referring to space empires and I needed a new game and hoping this game will be complex enough to draw me in.



So far its looking good and the space battle sort of reminds me infinite space in the DS because its sort of a rock,paper, scissors sort of way.\





Will land battles be present like develop and outfit your land units and use them for planetary invasion?





and lastly I am not a technical kind of guy but I managed to run alpha on my MBP 13' 2010 despite having a capable computer, so will this game be very graphic intensive or will it be designed to run in different computer ranges (like with starcraft 2 being able to play well on my MBP without eliminating that "eye candy" factor while it is running at playable framerates) ?

@znork: Did, own it and love it (^^,) but to be honest i think Victoria is more difficult .. to truly understand pop promotions and the world market takes ages.



@Jashbeast: Completely forget about that one.. but to be honest I didn't like it as much as liked the other Paradox strategy series.

(Hearts of Iron, Victoria, CK)

For me, Supreme Ruler Cold War by Paradox is one of the most complicated strategy games I've come across

try crusader kings 2

I think it should be more complex and the complexity is a little below MoO II.

But well .. I love games like Hearts of Iron, Victoria, etc. which take month (or even years) to understand completely (^^,)

this game is more master of orion more catuial macro then micro.



i persoly have played this game for 40houers. i was one of the first to play this game and the more i play the the moe i discover. i can change settings and its a new game to play. this game is allredy bether then other relased games.



and the price you are paying i belive you get alot for youre money

towerbooks3192 wrote:
Is the game playable in its current state? what worries me in these stages of a game is that if it is playable like I could play a short game and end it just like a normal game but with lesser features because of its current state?

Its more playable than some AAA titles are on release.

Is the game playable in its current state? what worries me in these stages of a game is that if it is playable like I could play a short game and end it just like a normal game but with lesser features because of its current state?

The focus is on the macro, not the micro. but there's some complexity in how some things work. There may be less depth than in Space Empire, but still enough to let you think.



Land battles are abstracted. You just let your ships in orbit, tell them to invade. And you can see the ownership gauge slowly becoming yours. Some modules can be added to ships to fasten the process.