Recently I saw a letsplay on the Explorminate channel for a remake of MOO1. Its called remnants of the precursors. Its a perfect remake. It has alle elements of this fine old game AND some new features like a star map with up to 1.900.000 stars Now that blows my mind. If anything in any game design was ever madness than its this.
You know, RotP has a lot of bugs, it's in beta now and is written for Java VM. If you like MoO1, you should also try Dominus Galaxia.
of course its in beta and thus has bugs as every game in beta. I have tried dominus galaxia and I dont like it that much. OTOH RotP has the original beloved and genius races (alkari, klackon etc.) and a nearly identical copy of gameplay to MOO1. So alone this is a reason I prefer it to Dominus. And of course 1.9 Mio stars to explore. So this ensures that I can play one single mega game till I die in 2060.
1.9 million stars sounds intriguing, but I have two questions. Are these single planet star systems as in MoO1? Is the combat similar to MoO1? (stacks of ships reminiscent to HoMM) If the answer to either of these two questions is a yes, that's a deal breaker for me. I like my tactical battles where superior skill can defeat overwhelming odds, ISG has that. I also like to develop my star systems and the various celestial bodies that can be found there, a single planet star system just breaks my immersion, there is only one game that got away with that as far as my tastes permit.
yes to both. the game is almost an exact copy of MOO1. (including lore) Goto the exploreminate channel and watch one of the videos. BTW: its of course not a question: ISG or RotP. One can enjoy both games.
Thanks JOM, I may do that. I understand it's not a question of either or, I was just using ISG as an example of a combat system that hits my sweet spot. Unfortunately I'll be long dead and buried by 2060, so 1.9 million stars may not be that practical, (though I guess I could set the game to less). I'll keep it in mind, perhaps when I have some more free time I'll look into it.
as far as I know you can turn down to 100.000, 1000 or even only 50 systems. maybe for the first years I will begin a training game with a couple of systems (eg. 10k) and in 2030 I will start the big final one.
Well, I'm also to old for 1,9 mln of stars. We'll see how they lead the project. It looks promising, but I see one concern with using Java as main programming language. It's just my private feeling, but Java is good for programming a fridge or vacuum cleaner, but with complicated projects it usually takes revenge quickly in performance or security of the code. But I also think that every small studio deserves support, so I keep my fingers crossed for their RotP project.
Setting aside the morbid humor, let us be reasonable and objective for a minute. 1.9 million stars... screams gimmick to me. With all due respect to the devs, (or anyone that works for a living for that matter), this is not practical. Without being an expert in the field, I can envision problems with machines trying to run a game as these systems start to be colonized. Leaving that aside for a moment, let me give my thoughts on an area where I am an expert, gameplay. I have had 25 colonies and that many outposts in ISG, this was spread out in about two dozen systems. This was comfortable for me, but seemed to be the limit of what I wanted to handle. Even with a colony set on AI governor, (which I would never do), I can't see keeping track of thousands of systems. In Stellaris which I play at 1,000 stars, having 35 systems starts feeling like I control a huge empire. IG2, due to its nature where every colony was like a city sim, got difficult at 18 colonies. No matter how simple the system, no player will control 1000s of systems effectively. Of course the game is going to also have you jumping around the map a lot. Imagine you have just been informed of an attack on one of your systems. Where is it? Even if the game allows you to get to that system via an automated shortcut, where is the nearest fleet that can respond? how do I get there? How do I deploy a fleet to protect 1000s of stars? How many fleets will I need? How do I build them up and reinforce them? Did I forget to send ships to one? Look, I'm not knocking these guys, but 1.9 million systems is not practical by any stretch, and no matter what shortcuts and aids are created for the player, it will never be practical. We play these games in the role of a Hegemon, but unlike a true Emperor, we have no advisors, cabinet, General staff... nothing. One player can only handle so much, and this goes way beyond that.
I remember Ray telling me he was going to do it, back on the old Atari boards for Moo3. After about 5 years he actually did it.
I will refresh this topic, because after years of development, Remnants of the Precursors was officially released in January 2022.
I played it extensivley now. The largest game I had was 2500 planets and over 80 enemy empires. I won it after 2 month of daily gaming (2-3 hours) while having 20.000 ships and over 700 planets. It was manageable but it was very difficult not to oversee something. THAT WAS EPIC. I mean the most epic game i ever played.
