Master of Orion 2 pet peeves and annoyances in general

-technology imbalance. Many of the techs are not even remotely a good choice in comparision with others in the same cathegory/level.
-only 2x4 leaders and mostly all of them are of other races you had not even detected.
-cheesy events
-bad AI ship construction

-almost all the above issues could have been removed if the game would have been moddable but it wasnt, so this is another issue.

 

JOM, I agree heavily with what you list but with one qualification, at certain times the AI did field some excellent designs that tore through my own, forcing me to come up with something different to counter. In my view, the AI wasn't bad at construction and design, just very inconsistent. Sometimes they were effective just as often they were not.

 

That was actually a race-dependent. If your race was creative than you could have all three.
Getting back to topic: Micromanagement in the late game was a pain. However, we can not forget that the same miromanagement kept game interesting in early phase where there was not much to do. I think what was missing is some sorf of mechanism that would allow you to automate this at later stages. Easier said than done though.

 

Automation would help but combined with additional methods it could work better. How the game paces and scales is important in this (and other key areas). If the situation sees the player controlling 40-50 colonies each session, then keep things simpler. If on the other hand, 12 colonies is an achievement (it can be done and the player still made to feel that they are fighting for the galaxy), then you can be more sophisticated. Automation, balance, scale, ease of use, ease of understanding, degree of sophistication... all these areas can control micromanagement and enhance the game.

 

Exactly which points of microing in the late game have been so stressful for many people? (not for me, I like micro but I admit that others may think different)

Maybe it just depends on the way the building system works. For example Stars in Shadow has only a few building slots (3 to 8 or so) per planet (not an infinite amount like MOO2) and a few building types (half a dozen and not dozens like MOO2), so the system naturally is almost no micromanagement even when you have dozens of planets because the slots of the older ones are filled up very soon. One of the interesting side-effects of this SiS system is that you can specialize your planets in a nice fashion and it constantly also forces the player to make decisions which building he should put on which planet.

 

Not stressful for me but very annoying: each young colony nags you about building queue every seven or so turns. Especially when you have high income and can buy everything. Getting new building type during late game is ultra annoying, you have to visit each colony, remove trade goods, enqueue new building, distribute labor and later put workers back to research.

 

MoO2 fan here and i have to disagree with you in several points.
Stacking of ships was horrid, i don't want to have that again, with that the combat lost so much immersion and was so childish.. This is a Spiritual MoO2 game, not a MoO1 one.
i love the "more than 10 ships tactical battles". In MoO2 there was very few really big and long tactical battles, because you and your enemies only have one or two "major fleets", and that battles were decisive, so i am not against long battles. And i reaaaally like the idea of "fewer ships, but more important"
i Agree with the planet micromanagement, that was unnecessary, but you can make something like stellaris making sectors, and focus one sector in research, other in industry, others in building ships, food, etc.
Ships/Planets leaders was a CORE part of MoO2. If you say the opposite, then this will not be the game for you.
I like the spies as was implemented in MoO2, i like that. but can be improved.
retrofit ships is another key part of MoO2. You have a glorious ship with a very experienced crew, and you can update all the weapons and systems, shields, hulls, etc, and that things add so much immersion and "love factor". This is a MUST in a MoO2 spiritual successor.

 

Welcome aboard Maximiliano, excellent post and I agree with you across the board with one qualification.
PSS will not need anything like the sector mechanic in Stellaris to contain micromanagement. That particular mechanic is useful but also disliked by some players so it is not entirely a positive asset. PSS has found an approach that allows a player to both diversify and specialise colonies without incurring micromanagement or being arbitrary, when I first examined it I was quite taken aback by how effective and well thought out it is. I too am a huge MoO2 fan and PSS has managed to rectify quite a lot areas that were somewhat lacking there. I have to tell you, I really feel like this is "the one"... and I'm a bit picky so consider that for what it is worth.
Once again, welcome aboard.

 

Thanks you very much for the welcome Chris!, i was a very active member in the "freeorion project", that was years ago.. damn i´m getting old...
I think too that this will be "the one", it will have all the plus from MoO2 and improve where it need to. About the colonies micromanagement i am complete confident in the approach that you describe taken by Adam & Co.
Going a bit more deep in the concept of fewer ships but more important one, i think that one technology to research can be "adaptative AI combat/quantum computer". With this technology the vessel that has it can adapt, through successive battles, to the styles of combat of the different races (if survives, of course). That would translate into improvement of aim, evasion, enemy ship weak points or things like that when you fight that race again with that ship. Only one of my many ideas. (sorry for my english) Thanks again for the kind welcome!

 

Don't worry about your English Maximiliano, You went to the trouble of learning a second language and I respect that.
From what I sense the Devs have shown about a third of their vision so far and they are flexible ways to accomplish the rest. There is already an element of what you propose with the leaders who level up in a way to give an RPG factor to PSS in just the right amount. Doing something similar with the ships may be something to consider as PSS evolves.

 

I have mentioned this, I think, spying extra late game. It is not uncommon in a game that I want to take out all planets that have been colonized,that at the point where a race is down to one planet and maybe size 1 or 2. They are able to steal a tech, while I have 64 spies on defense.

They did not manage to steal the whole game, now they do. It has no impact, but it does annoy me.