body{ color:white; word-wrap:break-word; } function setHeight() { parent.document.getElementById('walkthroughframe').style.height = ( document['body'].offsetHeight + 25 ) + 'px'; } Master of Orion III FAQ/Strategy Guide By: Zhaneel [email protected] ============================================================================= Table of Contents Version History [1-1] Notes [2] Personal Notes [2-1] Acknowledgements [2-2] Introduction to the Game [3] For Players new to the Series [3-1] For Players of MOO2 [3-2] Starting a New Game [4] The Main Menu [4-1] Game Options [4-1a] Choosing a Race (including customization) [4-2] Game Settings [4-3] Playing the Game [5] Your first couple of Turns [5-1] The Viceroy and You [5-2] *** Colonizing and Expanding [5-3] *** Development Plans [5-3a] *** All those tabs! [5-4] *** Spying [5-5] Task Forces [5-6] *** Victory [5-7] Combat [6] *** Custom Ships [6-1] *** Space Combat Task Forces [6-2] *** Ground Combat Task Forces [6-3] *** Options before Combat [6-4] *** Stats, Techs, and Numbers [7] Preset Race Modifiers [7-1] Magnate Race Modifiers [7-2] Initial Diplomacy Modifiers [7-3] Antaran X Benefits [7-4] Multiplayer [8] Creating/ing a Multiplayer Game [8-1] LAN Games [8-1a] IP Games [8-1b] GameSpy Games [8-1c] Playing a Multiplayer Game [8-2] FAQ [9] Mods and Links [10] Copyright Info [11] *** PLANNNED SECTION =============================================================================== Version History [1-1] Version 0.6 * Updated FAQ portion, incorporated List of racial modifiers, moved some FAQ questions to appropriate sections, created sections for Starting a Game, Playing the Game, Combat, Multiplayer, Stats and Links. Posted while sections are incomplete as requested. Version 0.5 (3/3/03) *First version. Contains on basic questions and some thoughts and opinions on game play and advice. Lots of planned places for more information. =============================================================================== Personal Notes [2-1] I have not yet beaten the game. I have played a couple of different races and galaxy settings. As such, I still don't have any notes on how to win the game at this point in time. However, what I do have is some good general tips, some of the common questions from the official board, the GameFAQs board, and some other fan boards I have visited. I plan on extending this FAQ and adding some more of the technical behind the scenes details and hints and tips as they come up and come to my attention. I have chosen to use [#-#] as an easy way for people to find the section they are looking for. Something I personally hate in other FAQs is the inability to search for information easily. This work is copyrighted by me, and is only able to be displayed online at and . If anyone wants to feel free to e-mail me . I will not reply to flames, "I hated this game", "You are stupid" or other juvenile responses. I appreciate any corrections, both regarding grammatical and informational errors. If you have a tip that you want included, go ahead and send it. I promise to acknowledge you. Acknowledgements [2-2] I would like to thank my husband who preordered the game for me for Valentine's Day 2003. I would also like to thank Clan Orko for turning me on to the MOO series in the first place. I would also like to thank the hardworking programmers, design team and quality assurance testers at Quicksilver and Infograms for providing the game. Finally, the people who post both questions and answers on the board have been great. I tried to make sure to give credit where credit was due. If you think I didn't credit you, let me know. =============================================================================== Introduction to the Game - Thoughts and Overview [3] For Players new to the Series [3-1] Master of Orion III is a turn-based strategy (TBS) game. This means you will have a turn to do a certain number of things, deal with repercussions of past choices and plan for the future. Some things will take many turns to complete and some things will happen the next turn. You are playing a higher power controlling a galactic empire. You start with one colony and a few simple ships and you want to nurture you empire into the best that is out there. Either by killing all the competition or convincing them you really are the best. There is another way to win: By finding five secret Antaran X technologies, but this is generally pretty hard to do and takes a long time. There is a lot of neat backstory that is worth reading for any player, but it doesn't really affect gameplay all that much. Your main opponents will be the New Orions, who start out technologically advanced and have control of the senate. There will be other races vying to become the most technologically advanced, but they are more on your level. This does not mean you should ignore them, only know that they should generally be below you. Use them and abuse them to gain colonies, technology and money to help in your overall fight. For Players of MOO2 [3-2] While this is Master of Orion III, and therefore follows Master of Orion I and II, it is not the same as either one of them. Just like there were tons of changes in both looks and gameplay between MOOI and MOOII, so are there between MOOIII. Those of you going in and expecting to find a more graphically pretty version of MOOII with some updates are going to be disappointed. This game is a completely new game, and should be treated as such. The team at Quicksilver wanted to redesign MOO for many reasons. I'm not going to pretend I know all of them. However, one thing that was high on their list was to really have a view of controlling a galactic empire. This is no easy task. A galactic empire has billions to trillions worth of population to consider yourself with. You could have anywhere from 1 to 150 systems, which can have 1-8 colonized planets. This generally doesn't happen, as you don't want to colonize everywhere, but you can easily have 100 colonized planets in late game. Do you really want your later turns to take over two hours to complete as you try to view each planet and give them orders? I sure don't. So, Quicksilver introduced the Viceroy and gave the players the option to automate much of the play. Which is representative of how an empire should be run. Each colony shouldn't need the emperor's individual attention. Only the ones having problems, the newly acquired ones and special production centers should see regular visits from the Emperor. Many of the interfaces have changed. There is no more corny Galactic News Network announcements (for good or ill). Your scientists and spies no longer graphically tell you what they have discovered. There is the Situation Report (SitRep) instead. While this gives lots of good information, many people complain that it is too abstract and they lost the feeling of connection with their people. You can no longer specifically choose what technology you want to research. You have to set goals (a little like Alpha Centari Blind) and just hope you are going down the right path. And you no longer get specific information about how these technologies will affect your colonies in their description. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as you have the general idea and the emperor wouldn't understand every piece of technology his scientists discover in reality. I realize many players want this information in statistics, and I will endevour to find and post those. I personally found the backstory very intriguing and I thought it was a neat way to connect all three games in the MOO series. Some people disagree and think it sucks to have the mystique of the races removed and to know about the genetic experimentation, but I think it's a good thing. =============================================================================== Starting a New Game [4] The Main Menu [4-1] When you first load the game (after watching the pretty cinematic) you have a couple of choices. Obviously you can dive right in and start a new game [4-2] or you take some time to setup the options. Once you've played a game, it is from this screen that you can load an old game or just start a new one with all the same settings as the last. You can also start a multiplayer [8] game from this screen or quit the game. Game Options [4-1a] Here you can set your Music, sound and graphics preferences. However, something very important are the Reminders. Reminders: I personally think the incorporation of the reminders is a good idea. It helps me return to reality as this game is easy to lose oneself in, just like its predecessors. And they are pretty unobtrusive in the game. /////////////////////////////////////////// Choosing a Race and customizing [4-2] The first thing you have to do when you start a new game is pick your race. See below [Section 7-1] for information on each specific race. Every race has inherent settings that you cannot change or choose from the customization screen. Some races also don't allow certain customization choices. In addition, each race will also have a set of planets that are "perfect" or the special spot. This is also not changeable. But each race does have a little description and a box that tells you the four highlights of that race's strengths and weaknesses. The four strengths and weaknesses are adjustable. Just click on the customize race button. This will take you to a screen where you can change the different bonuses your race will have. Since each race was already customized, changing those options will either take points or give you points to spend elsewhere. You can start the game with points left over, and it will translate into a percentage increase of your score. You cannot, however, start the game with negative points. Once you have your race and any customization, you can just start the game now right? Well, no not quite. /////////////////////////////////////////// Game Settings [4-3] It is in your game settings that you can adjust how hard or easy or what style of game to play. If you like lots of random events (good & bad) go ahead and choose a high frequency of Specials. Picking how many enemies is an important choice. Too few and you will have trouble finding allies, but many have less wars and easier colonization. Too many and you will be fighting from the get go, but you are more likely to have more friends. This is also coupled with how large of a galaxy you choose. Keep in mind the New Orions do not count in the number of enemies, so there will be X+1 computer opponents. The turn length is important. If you have unlimited turn length, you're budgeting will be a little off as each turn is roughly 1.5 cycles, which makes no sense to me, but whatever. If you have a set turn length you may find yourself with not enough time to complete all actions in a turn. I recommend unlimited for beginning player to get used to the interface and setup. The difficulty level is important as it sets the intelligence of the AI. I have only played on Easy, but I'm a wimp and prefer to win. The number of combats per turn is unclear to me at this time. I don't know if they mean you can only have 6 space combats per turn, or if the number includes all space and planetary and ground. I suspect it means # of space combats, other combats are included in that number. The combat turn length in only for space combats. I find the default of 10 min to be plenty of time. The size of your galaxy will have a major effect on your game. The Armed galaxies have a core and then edges. The edges are not in the senate and are harder to colonize as they are farther apart. The core, however, will be crowded and easier to scout. The Clusters are more circular, which means more ways to get around and more back-end entrances to enemy territory. Each galaxy type also has a max # of stars. They are not in smallest to largest order, they are sorted by type, then size. I think a medium cluster with 6-8 opponents on easy, few specials, unlimited turn length, six combats per turn, and 10 minute combat limit is a good beginner setup. TIP (from Micky Murgo): To get a feel for practice controlling your planets really well, start in a small cluster galaxy with 8+ opponents. Sounds hard doesn't it? At least on easy, not really. Generally you will out tech everyone and will be able to get powerful ships sooner. In addition, if you start as a member of the Orion senate you can get lots of treaties (which boost your economy and research) and alliances. You also don't have as many star systems, but you can colonize by taking over other races planets, to get some of their specials and use it against them. Because you are dealing with so few planets (overcrowded game) you can really get to know the ins and outs of dealing with planets while not worrying about overexpanding. =============================================================================== Playing the Game [5] NOTE: This FAQ will not be a repeat of the manual. Please, please, please do yourself (and me) a favor and RTFM! And the Ree.txt. The Master's Notes are also somewhat helpful and don't forget about the in game encyclopedia. Your first couple of turns [5-1] When you start a game you will have one planet with a decent population, a couple of DEAs, 2 scout ships, 3 system defense ships and a colony ship. I recommend sending your 2 scouts to the closest systems for scouting and colonizing any green or special spot in your home system with the colony ship on your first turn. I also recommend setting your tech preferences up [#-#], setting the rest of your DEAs for you home planet [See FAQ for info on each type of DEA, to be moved], setting your finances [#-#], recruiting your first spy (EXPENSIVE, leave 100 AU free) [5-5] and a couple of Devopment Plans [#-#]. If this is your fist game, however, just do the scouting and the colonizing and reading the Master's Notes. After your first turn you will have a lot of time to wait. I try to have another colony or system colony ship out inside of the first 10-15 turns (depending on population growth and industry). I always move my scouts to another system ASAP. If I run into a Guardian, I take control of the combat and retreat to save my Scout. General Tips: *Only colonize Green or Sweet Spots for your first 30 turns. Unless there is a Magnate Colony, in which case, grab it!!!! Even if it is Red. *Make a system defense ship as your first military project in all new systems (override Viceroy). *Set Migration to all of your new colonies until they are at 5-7 population and growing on their own. *Watch your food (minerals too if playing Mekklar, Cynoids, or Silicoids) to make sure your population isn't starving. *Decide what techs to concentrate on. If you are a member of the Senate, Physical Sciences and Energy will help you keep a Military edge, while Social and Econ will help you keep a diplomatic/trading edge. If you are not a member of the Senate, Concentrate on Social and Econ to improve your expansions as fast as possible. *If you are a member of the Senate, try to get Econ and Research Agreements with as many other races as you can. While your finances will suffer a little at the beginning, in the long run you will come out ahead. And they are less likely to attack you. Don't bother with the New Orions. *Watch your spending. You don't gain interest on a balance, like the manual says, but you do get charged interest for a deficet. I prefer keeping a small (-30->100 AU) negative balance because I'm still earning +60 from the last turn and only getting charge 3-4 AU each turn, which is worth it to me to have more funds for research and grants. /////////////////////////////////////////// Spying [5-5] Spying is a very important part of MOO3. Other empires will spy on you, which means they could steal valuable technology or destroy buildings or kill your leaders. Conversely, you can spy on them and do the same thing. I will discuss offensive spying, then defensive spying. But first, some general tips. If start of as a member of the Orion Senate, start training spies immediately and never stop. You have with a large number of races and they will start sending spies against you as soon as you become more powerful than them. If you start training spies immediately, you will always have some available to you for offense and defense. If you do not start off as a member of the Orion Senate, I suggest waiting until around turn 20 to start training spies. This saves you money, which can be spent on planetary improvements and colonization, but still gets you started in time to have spies when you do make . Again, once you start training spies, don't ever stop. Offensive Spying [5-5a] In order to spy on other empires, you must already have with them [Section #-#]. You must also have trained spies. Head to the Personnel tab, the Spies subtab and look at the righthand side. This side consists of two more subtabs. Active and List of Spies. The Active tab will list the empires where you have active spies and how many you have in each empire. The "List of Spies" is just that, and where you activate spies for duty. In order to activate a spy, select the spy by their name and look at their stats. There will be a "Insert Agent" button, which will expand out to allow you to choose which empire to attack. The Spy will attempt to enter the Empire during the next turn. If they succeed the following turn they will attempt their mission. If they fail, they will keep trying. When entering they can be caught and then you have to wait to see if they come back or die. If the enter they will continually try to sabtage the enemy. You will get updates on their progress in your SitRep, yellow stuff near bottom. You can pull an agent back at any time by going to the Personnel Menu and Selecting the Empire and "Recall Agents" button. There are 6 different Types of Spies, who have different missions. Military: These spies will sabotage building fleets, shipyard buildings and ground troop buildings. Diplomatic: These spies will sabotage Scientific: These spies will either steal tech or sabotage research efforts. Political: These spies will try to assisinate any leaders the enemy has. Social: These spies will create unrest in colonies to slow down production. Government: These spies will blow up government buildings of the enemy. Defensive Spying [5-5b] Other empires blowing up your buildings? Terrorizing your citizens? You can protect yourself. If you have unassigned spies, they will attempt to protect your citizens and catch spies. You can also catch spies by increasing your oppresometer. But be careful, your population may resent having you invade their personal space and become unhappy. Consider increasing your spending toward unrest to prevent production falling. After the spies are caught, reduce your oppressometer, if over maximum. Some people recommend keeping your oppressometer at max at all times, but I think that can reduce research and you don't have to do it all the time. /////////////////////////////////////////// Victory [5-7] You can be victorious several ways, depending on what settings you chose in the setup. If you are the sole empire active, and all others (including the New Orions) have surrendered to you, you win. This is something you cannot turn off. You must be very combat oriented to be able to win this way. If you are elected to the Senate as President, you win (Dipolmatic Victory). In order to do this, you have to have a balance of combat and diplomacy. If you have this victory marked, however, you can lose if some race other than the New Orions is elected. So, make sure to get in the Senate fast and prevent this from happening. Work on discrediting your strongest opposition and making allies out of the weaker races. If your empire finds all five of the lost Antaran Xs (and researches them, I think) you can win. In order to do this, you must send out Expeditions. You do this from the Victory Tab. Once there, there is a subtab for the Antaran mission. You have to click to send an expedition. The computer will take ships from your reserves pool until it decides it has enough and sends out the expedition. I think it is a good idea to wait until you have a large number of ships in reserves before hitting this, because otherwise you might lose valuable ships. Many people recommend waiting until you have a large number of 1-2 rounds of upgrades obsolete ships to put into reserves. That way those ships are doing something useful and your newer ships won't have anyone dragging them down. Some people recommend putting research labs on your ships, so that when they find an X they start researching it as they carry it back to your empire. NOTE: You can still search for the Xs without this victory condition. And it's a good idea, as you get many benefits from the Xs (see section #-# for more info). =============================================================================== Combat [6] =============================================================================== Stats, Techs, and Numbers [7] Preset Race Modifiers [7-1] From the OrionSector Encyclopedia Mod. Which they got from the spreadsheets. HUMAN Max Oppressometer 3 War Tolerance -1 Research Efficiency 105% Senate Effectiveness 115% Relations Bonus +25% Casus Belli Bonus +6% Ground Combat Initiative +30 EVON Max Oppressometer 3 War Tolerance -1 Research Efficiency 105% Senate Effectiveness 115% Relations Bonus +25% Casus Belli Bonus +6% Ground Combat Initiative +30 PSILON Max Oppressometer 3 War Tolerance -1 Research Efficiency 130% Senate Effectiveness 115% Relations Bonus +25% Casus Belli Bonus +6% Population Growth Penalty 10% Ground Combat Initiative +30 MEKLAR Max Oppressometer 6 Manufacturing Efficiency +40% Ground combat Initiative +10 Ground Combat Accuracy +20 Uses Bioharvest Output 50% and Mining Output 50% to Feed Population CYNOID Max Oppressometer 6 Manufacturing Efficiency +40% Ground combat Initiative +10 Ground Combat Accuracy +20 Uses Bioharvest Output 50% and Mining Output 50% to Feed Population SAKKRA Max Oppressometer 6 Polution Tolerance +25% Population Growth Bonus +10% Ground Combat Initiative +10 Ground Combat Attack Strength +20 RAAS Max Oppressometer 6 Polution Tolerance +25% Population Growth Bonus +10% Ground Combat Initiative +10 Ground Combat Attack Strength +20 GRENDARL Max Oppressometer 6 Polution Tolerance +25% Population Growth Bonus +15% Ground Combat Initiative +10 Ground Combat Attack Strength +20 TRILARIAN Max Oppressometer 7 Ground Combat Initiative +20 Ground Combat Evade +30 NOMMO Max Oppressometer 7 Ground Combat Initiative +20 Ground Combat Evade +30 IMSAEIS Max Oppressometer 4 Ground Combat Initiative +20 Ground Combat Attacks +1 EOLADI Max Oppressometer 4 Ground Combat Initiative +20 Ground Combat Attacks +1 SILICOID Max Oppressometer 4 Population Growth Penalty 25% Mining Effeciency +40% Ground Combat Armor +20 Ground Combat Hit Points +2 Uses Bioharvest Output 0% and Mining Output 100% to Feed Population KLACKON Max Oppressometer 4 Population Growth Bonus 30% Ground Combat Initiative +10 TACHDI Max Oppressometer 4 Population Growth Bonus 35% Ground Combat Initiative +10 ITHKUL Max Oppressometer 6 War Tolerance +1 (More likely to have war declared) Senate Effectiveness 60% Ground combat Initiative +10 Ground Combat Rally Chance +2 Ground Combat Rout Chance +2 (Less Routs) ///////////////////////////////////////// Magnate Race Modifiers [7-2] From the OrionSector Encyclopedia Mod. Which they got from the spreadsheets. AJADAR - Protoplasmic Max Oppressometer 4 Ground Combat Rating 3 Ground Combat Hit Points +4 ALKARI - Avian Max Oppressometer 4 Ground Combat Rating 3 Ground Combat Initiative +40 Ground combat Evade +60 AUDRIEH - Plant Max Oppressometer 3 Polution Per Population 25% Ground Combat Rating 5 Ground Combat Evade +30 BRYE-EHTS - NonCorporeal Max Oppressometer 6 Ground Combat Rating 4 Ground Combat Initiative +30 Ground Combat Evade +60 BULRATHI Max Oppressometer 5 Mining Efficiency +10% Ground Combat Rating 7 Ground Combat Initiative +20 Ground Combat Attack Strength +20 Ground Combat Armor +10 Ground Combat Hit Points +2 Ground Combat Morale +2 Ground Combat Rally +2 DARLOCK - Metashifters Max Oppressometer 6 Senate Effectiveness 85% Ground Combat Rating 3 Ground Combat Initiative +30 Ground Combat Attack Strength +20 ELERIANS Max Oppressometer 5 Unrest per Region -30 Ground Combat Rating 3 Ground Combat Initiative +10 Ground Combat Accuracy +10 Ground Combat Evasion +10 Ground Combat Rally +4 GNOLAM Max Oppressometer 5 Trade Level +1 Space Port Efficiency +20% Trade Efficiency +20% Ground Combat Rating 3 Ground Combat Initiative +10 Ground Combat Rout +2 MRRSHAN Max Oppressometer 6 Military DEA Efficieny +40% Ground Combat Rating 4 Ground Combat Initiative +30 Ground Combat Accuracy +40 Ground Combat Evade +10 Ground Combat Morale +4 PHAIGOUR - Fungal Max Oppressometer 4 Military Maintenance 85% Population Growth Bonus 15% Ground Combat Rating 3 Ground Combat Initiative +10 Ground Combat Evade +120 RHEA - Gargantua Max Oppressometer 4 Ground Combat Rating 9 (Best) Ground Combat Attack Strength +20 Ground Combat Armor +10 Ground Combat Hit Points +2 Polution Per Population 200% /////////////////////////////////////////// Initial Diplomacy Modifiers [7-3] Here is the list of initial starting relations. This is how YOU see the races. Of course, it also works in reverse. If there is no modifier, the starts off as neutral (0). So, all humanoids are neutral towards each other. (note: Thanks Thranxes) New Orions, -20 every race. Harvestors, -150 every race except new orions, -10 (NOTE: Apply above to all below) --Humanoid--, -38 Geodic, -60 Cybernetik, +50 Ichthytosian, +14 Insectiod, +30 Saurians, --Etherian--, +40 Geodic, -65 Cybernetik, +40 Ichthytosian, +14 Saurian, --Geodic--, -38 Humanoid, +40 Etherian, -80 Cybernetik, -64 Insectoid, +30 Saurian, --Cybernetik--, -60 Humanoid, -65 Etherian, +38 Geodic, +38 Ichthytosian, -14 Saurian --Ichthytosian--, +50 Humanoid, +40 Etherian, +38 Cybernetik, -140 Saurian --Insectiod--, +14 Humanoid, -64 Geodic, -24 Saurian --Saurian--, +30 Humanoid, +14 Etherians, +30 geodic, -14 Cybernetik, -140 Ichthytosian, +24 Insectiod Example: You are playing Psilions (Humanoid). There are the New Orions, The Harvesters, the Cynoids, the Silicoids and the Klakkon in your universe. Your starting views on these races would be as follows: New Orions: -20 Harvestors: -150 Cynoids (Cybernetik): -60 Silicoids (Geodic): -38 Klakkon (Insectoid): +14 Ow... this would be a very hard game with that many races hating you at first. You would want to cultivate a relationship with the Klakkons immediately, to raise your relations and get some treaties. Then you would probably want to gift the Silicoids to raise them until you can start getting treaties, etc. Unless you are just out to kill everyone, in which case it doesn't matter. ////////////////////////////////////////////////// Antaran X Benefits [7-4] NOTE: Must be found AND researched for benefits. From Tentacle on the boards: Antaran X 1: Social Structure -Reduces Unrest by 7 in ALL regions -Lower Heavy Foot of Government by .75 -Raise Oppressometer upper limit by 1 Antaran X 2: Antaran Outlook -Raise Oppressometer upper limit by 1 -Increase Space Port taxes by 20% -All spy abilities increase by 1 Antaran X 3: Scientific Approach -Increases Population Research effects by 1 -Increases Overruns by 10 in all cases *From Freekill Antaran X 4: Genetics -Increase Luck for ALL leaders and spies by 10 -Population growth +25% -Reduce terraforming costs by 20% Antaran X 5: Antaran Mystery Solved -Improves Mining, Bioharvesting, and Manufacturing by 20% -Reduces Pollution by 50% =============================================================================== Multiplayer: [8] This section is to help people setup those Multiplayer games as the manual is next to useless. There are 3 different ways to play this game over the internet: LAN (local Area Network), IP (One player hosts and others ) and through GameSpy (GameSpy lists the games). The two easiest are LAN and GameSpy. Creating/ing a Multiplayer Game [8-1] LAN Games [8-1a] LAN means that you and all other players are on the same Local Area Network, connected through a hub or switch. You do not have to be connected to the internet to play this way. Generally used when friends get together for a LAN Party or two friends bring their computers together for a weekend. One player creates the game, and the rest of the players . For the Creator: Select LAN as your option, then hit create game (First box). Fill in your Player Name and you Game name, then hit create again (second box). Wait for players to request to and allow them. You'll see a list of the players in the third box. When everyone has ed, hit Launch. Everyone picks their race and the creator picks all the Game settings (universe size, specials, etc.) For the Players: Select LAN as your option. Wait for the Creator to create the game. You should see it listed in your third box. Click on it, fill in your name and hit "Request ." The creator will accept or deny your request and then (if accepted) you'll be able to chat with the other players until the game is launched. Pick/customize your race and wait for the Creator to set all the settings. IP Games [8-1b] I haven't gotten this to work. All comments welcome! GameSpy Games [8-1c] There are two ways to create and find games through GameSpy. You must have installed GameSpy Arcade in order to use the games hosted using this method. Using GameSpy Arcade: Start up GameSpy Arcade. DO NOT LAUNCH MOO3. Once you've logged in, pick Master of Orion III from your list on the left. This should bring up a listing of the current games and from here you can a game or create one. You can even protect your games through this method if you want. Once everyone is in a game room and marked ready, the creator can launch the game, which will cause MOO3 to load and bring you directly to the multiplayer screen. DO NOT change any settings or back up, or you will lose the connection to the game. Just wait until the creator launches again from here to be able to pick your race. The Creator will be in charge of the game settings. From in the Game: I haven't been able to a game through the server listing, but I'm behind a firewall and didn't have the arcade installed at the time of testing. Comments Welcome!! Playing a Multiplayer Game [8-2] The only thing I'm putting here is THE CHAT BOX. It is hidden up a the top of your display, under your summary area. It is a small dropdown tab that you can't see unless you are looking for it. Find it, expand it down and chat that way. You cannot chat between turns and the scrolling is broken (IMO). And the box is very small. But at least its something. The chat box will be on top of all your tabs/menus, so you will have to close it occasionally. How you chose to do a multiplayer game is up to you. If you want to play cooperatively, make sure to both be in the Orion Senate. It is the only way to gaurentee the ability to have communication from the beginning. =============================================================================== FAQs: [9] *What are the different DEAs and what do they do? Quicksilver wanted to encourage diversification and balance. So each region can only 2 DEAs (and a Spaceport DEA). Each DEA increases the effeciency and amount of different points you can gain. Farming DEAs make more food, which feed your people. They are best in Plains, Fertile (Lush) and Green areas. Minings DEAs make more minerals, which supply your industry. They are best in Mountains. I don't think biodiversity matters, but I could be wrong. Industry DEAs use minerals and help make more production points. They also increase your efficiency for making military and planetary installations. Military DEAs help reduce unrest and will fight invaders. You must have a military DEA to build any military infrastructure, such as a Mobilization Center. Government DEAs help reduce unrest. You need these to be able to build a system seat or any other government based planetary infrastructure. Recreation DEAs reduce unrest. They benefit from biodiversity, IIRC. Research DEAs produce test tubes, which increases your efficiency for research spending to make Research Points (RP). Spaceport DEAs (which you can't choose to build) trade with other planets spaceports and general revenue (AU). ///////////////////////////////////////////////// *What is the best race? My first response is it depends on what type of game you want to play. Choose a race based on that. If you want to out research everyone, pick a race strong in research (or make one). The Psilons are a good choice without modificatioins. If you want to have a race that will just out expand everyone, pick the Klakkons. If you want to never worry about food, give the Silicoids a try (they only eat minerals, so expansion could be slow and be aware that a diplomatic victory will be hard) or the Meklar or Cynoids (they eat half food and half minerals). If you want a diplomatic victory, try the Humans or Evons. ////////////////////////////////////////////////// *Why aren't I getting interest on my treasury balance? This was an errata in the manaual. For a full list of the errata in the manual, read the REE.TXT file or see section [#-#] of this FAQ. //////////////////////////////////////////////// *How do I turn off the Viceroy? You can turn off the Economic AI in each, individual planet screen. This will prevent the Viceroy from resetting your economic sliders as well as filling anything into the queue. I believe this also prevents him from decided which DEAs to build. However, you cannot prioritize your DEA build orders, other than through Development Plans [#-#]. ////////////////////////////////////////////////// *I just got Hydroponic Farms [or other DEA improvement], how do I build them? You can't. The DEAs and Viceroy will get around building these improvements as the money (via the economic slider) is available. Also, your development plan will influence which improvements are built first. /////////////////////////////////////////////////// *What do the three classifications of the regions mean? In the Planets Screen, there is a development tab where you can see a break down of each region. The first Picture by a region is an indication of terrain. There are 3 types: Mountains, Broken and Plains. In general, farms do best on Plains, farms and mines do okay on broken, and mines do best in the mountains. However, the manual indicates that certain races will have benefits that change this general rule. The second icon is an indication of the biodiversity. The greener the leaf, the more diversity. Biodiversity will help with farming, research and (maybe) mining. The third listing is an indication of how fertile the land is, ranging from barren to lush. The more fertile the land, the better the farming is. /////////////////////////////////////////////////// *What are the planetary Specials? You can find them in the REE.TXT file on your hard drive or on the 2nd CD of the game. I will include a listing later. NOTE: You can import a mod from to mod your encyclopedia to include the planetary specials and the racial modifiers. The current version is v2.0. /////////////////////////////////////////////////// *What do I do about Unrest? There are several things that cause Unrest and several solutions. You can find out specifically what is causing your unrest in the planet's demographic tab, and the Unrest Subtab. Lets look at the different types of unrest and how to solve them. Empire Unrest: This is most often caused by a Heavy Foot of Government (HFG), which is defined by your oppressometer (found in the Empire Tab) and racial/tech modifiers. If it is set too high, your citizens get annoyed about being watched so closely. Another cause of Empire-wide unrest is high Empire-wide taxes. The setting for the taxes is found in the Finance tab, and the [blank] subtab. A seldom cause is a recent government change. A final cause could be you have violated a law ed by the Orion senate (if you are a part of the senate), which can cause unrest. System Unrest: Caused by too high of a system tax or pirates. You can change the system tax in the Empire tab. Pirates will plague your system if you have more colonies than ships. In order to get rid of the unrest start building a system defense ship, usually pretty cheap. You can also move an old task force to the system until the ship gets built to keep those Pirates at bay. Colony Unrest: Caused by too high a colony tax, decrease it to help (found on the planet screen). Also, if you have a certain level of military funding designated (through the Finance Tab) and you are spending more than the allowed funding on military (yes, including colony ships) the colony will have unrest. You can also build recreation, military and government DEAs to reduce unrest. Building military units (infantry, etc.) may also help, especially if the colony is shared between you and another race. Finally, if you are working your colonists too hard (dark red spending bars) they become unhappy. /////////////////////////////////////////////////// *Why does my planet keep building out of date plans? Even though you've marked the ship design obsolete, the viceroy had still already planned to build ships, many turns in advance. So, if you want to make sure there are no obsolete ships being built, mark the design obsolete. Then go through every planetary military queue and delete the old ships out and put in your new one. Or let the viceroy chose after you've cleared out the queue and hit the turn button. Or mark the design obsolete many turns before you want that design to stop building, depending on the number of planets you have. /////////////////////////////////////////////////// *What does the whole tech tree look like? It is different for each race and I don't have a full listing yet. Look for a future FAQ. /////////////////////////////////////////////////// *Why did they kill off my favorite race? I don't know. They felt like it? It made a good story? Regardless, there is a chance to find a colony of these old races that you can use as forced labor or Magnate Colony. /////////////////////////////////////////////////// *How do I make with other races? You must have a full colony within two starlanes of one of their colonies. If you are a member of the Orion Senate, you automatically have with all other of the Orion Senate. But you will lose these if you leave the Senate or are kicked out. /////////////////////////////////////////////////// *How do I get rid of opponent spies in my empire? You have two options: Increase your oppresometer (found in the Empire Tab), at the risk of making your population unhappy and causing unrest. You can also have spies unassigned, who will automatically defend your empire. /////////////////////////////////////////////////// *Why did the race I already had a trade agreement as for another one? They are either improving the treaty or re-upping it to make sure they don't lose that income. Its worth your while to check on these and instigate them on your own. /////////////////////////////////////////////////// *What do the different colors on the sliders mean? They are a representation of how efficiently your money is being spent. A green, for every AU you spend you get a production (or research) point. At yellow, its 2:1. And the oranges and reds are worse. This information can be found in your manual. /////////////////////////////////////////////////// *What can I do with my old ships? 1) You can scrap them for some money, which can use for one time grants or extra funds. 2) You can send them to your new colonies to help fight pirates while your colonies build their first system defense force. 3) From ThrawFett (on the boards): I just thought of a cheap way to get X's. Put all military ships (not troop, colony, or outpost) into Task Forces. Put a lot of cheap ships (or use obsolete) in reserves and send your expeditions. This will let you get rid of obsolete ships while sending out strong expeditions. Also, the computer randomly selects military ships from the reserves when it creates an expedition. To keep a ship 'safe', just put it in a task force. NOTE: You cannot refit older ships as in MOO2. /////////////////////////////////////////////////// *I've built tons of Research DEAs, but I'm not researching any faster. What should I do? Research DEAs don't produce research in of themselves. They produce Test Tubes, which increase the efficiency of your research spending. You must fund the research using your economic sliders. This will produce Research Points (RPs) which will go towards your projects. /////////////////////////////////////////////////// *How do I defend against spies? (thanks to dakgm for most of these tips) Set the Oppression meter to maximum (after you make your first ) and leave it there for the entire game. In the Victory tab, you can see the rating of your oppression as "Heavy-footed government". The higher the number, the better your defense. You will also have high unrest, so be prepared to counter it beforehand (increase spending against unrest in the finance tab). Start making spies on the very first turn and never stop. When you meet the first race, you're already prepared. You have a screen full of spies to use as defense if necessary. In the Victory tab, check what rating your opponent has for heavy-footed government. Send your spies in when the rating is low. They are never prepared for the results! Then extract your spies and prepare for the counterattack. While you are doing all of this, research all of the spy tech. The spy tech is mostly in the Biology and Social schools. There's also some scattered in the Mathematics school. All the spy tech has an icon with a looking glass in the picture. You can always tell when the opponent is trying to send in spies. Watch for a message in the Sitrep. The message will either say your spies killed one of their's, or it will say your spies are putting the squeeze on all captured spies. This is your clue. If you kill spies, it will tell you who sent the spies. There is no political message like in MOO2 where you can tell them to stop spying, but there is a message that does the exact same thing. Go into the screen and "Threaten" the race that is sending spies. This will usually cause them to stop (unless your race is weak in military), but it can lead to war. to always keep the Oppression meter at maximum. This irritates your population and helps to find the spies. But if you have it at the max from the beginning, your population does get used to it over time. If you're sending in spies in large numbers to enemy territory, before long, you will usually get a leader that is really, really helpful for spies. Another helpful idea is to send it multiple spies at once. You are more likely to get in at least one to do some damage. Always extract them the turn after they do damage. Don't leave them there to die. Finally, look at the stats on each of your spies. High Luck spies are better sent out than low luck. High Cloak means that your spy will be able to hide easier. This helps in getting the spy into a mission and back out again. High Dagger is a representation of how likely the spy is to get away if captured. Finally, there is Loyalty. This is how loyal the spy is to your empire. Low Loyalty spies can be double agents! It is a good idea to retire low loyalty spies before they cause you damage. /////////////////////////////////////////////////// How do I initiate Ground Combat: 1) Make Infantry/Marines/etc. at a System that has a mobilzation center or your home system. 2) Make a Troop Ship to have in reserves. 3) Go to "Ground Force Creation" from the Galaxy screen in the system you are wanting to pull troops from. 4) Create an army of your choice from your Infantry/Marines/etc. according the rules provided. 5) Click Create Force, which will take you to your space task force creation screen. 6) It will pull as many troops ships as it needs for all of your army. I tend to just click accept. 7) The next turn your Troop Task force will come up. 8) Send it to the system you want to invade. There should be no enemy ships in the region, and I prefer to have a military task force there while I'm invading. 9) When you transport arrives, you will have to choose the following when the combat screen comes up: System Combat: Control Combat/Assualt Planet [if no ships in system, you will get an auto victory] NOTE: You must control the combat here to be able to land troops Planetary Bombardment: Control Combat, again you must control here if you want to land troops. Go ahead and bombard at this point if you feel like it, to reduce the ground forces on the planet. Then choose one of the following: Land Troops or Land all Troops Land Troops will land one of your armies. Land all Troops will land all (duh). At this point, the troop transport that were carrying those troops will disband and head to the delay box. Ground Combat Scheduler: I think at this point you can either let the AI handle it or do it yourself. I prefer doing it myself. And from here you can start debating the points of how to run the combat. See pages 138-140 for the Planetary bombardment and Ground Combat screens and info. =============================================================================== Mods and Links [10] http://www.orionsector.com ages/mods/ This has a ton of mods available. I personally really only like the Encylcopedia mod, so that the planetary specials and the race info is easy to have at hand. =============================================================================== Copyright Info [11] Copyright 2003 Dawn Burnell (Zhaneel) This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. This is an unofficial FAQ and has been in no way sponsored by Infograms or Quicksilver. 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