Master of Orion 1 unofficial patch

[Ingos]

@Ingos
Does the "Death" word represent Death Spores?

Yes, i checked it stealing the technology, is is indeed Death Spores

Also thank you for your work and patience, and thanks for your work at the MOM patch, before your patch i didn't like that game very much but since i discovered your patch i looked again at the game and now i feel that is as much as entertaining to me now that MOO itself, thanks!

[kyrub]

I hope to really make it better by improving the AI. When I made the patch for my most favourite game (MoO), I was a noob in reverse-engineering. Then I moved on to other games I loved, and I've become much better at my job. So, paradoxally, they have got better treatment than MoO.


I will create a MoO suggestions 1.50 thread. That will allow us a discussion about the AI and other requested features.

[Catwalk]

tsk tsk kyrub, you forget that I'm a MoO fan too. I'd even go so far as to say that I enjoy playing MoO more than I enjoy playing MoM, it just doesn't appeal quite as much to my creative urges. Whenever I play something, my objective is always to come up with at least one new rule each game!

[qynalon]

Qynalon, take a look at your planets. While you have no ships, you do have 22 stargates. Stargates' maintenance was always counted in ship maintenance (it was the partial cause of 8th stargate bug). 22 * 100 = 2200. 22*100 + 1 = 2201.

Mystery solved. No bug. Thanks for the report!

Stargates! I feel so stupid.

@Ingos
Does the "Death" word represent Death Spores?

All the tech names and descriptions are in "RESEARCH.LBX". Too long planetology tech names that bug the REPORT are there too. "Controlled Barren" should be changed there. But there is no "RESEARCH.LBX" in "MoO_patch_140m.zip".

[HyperSuperDuper]

Nice to meet you as well. You seem to be quite eager to suggest things.

Maybe you should read the "AI enhancement" thread with more than 13 pages to see that the AI discussion is going on for a pretty long time already. Also, I recommend reading the MoO Exploit list thread (the old discussion thread may be even better, try searching for it), which will give you some interesting info from very experienced players - for instance, the "bait" situation you described actually helps AI to get rid of its useless ships, so it is not so bad as you (and I) thought.

That said, the current AI is surely very far from solid and I intend to change it with a second, 1.50 patch. If you have some more suggestions that are NOT in those thread I mentioned, put them in the AI thread, please. You may use a wall of text, although the points are preferred, for clarity.

I'll read the other threads and see if they missed something. I posted because I tried the patch and noticed no significant difference but it seems like the changes I really want are in the next patch.

The baiting can help AI upgrade ships but if the player can keep doing it constantly it's very bad but you have a point still.

Catwalk is right. Sorry for being rough, there, Hyper. I appreciate anybody who is trying to contribute to make this game better.

Oh, and don't listen to Catwalk's tempting. MoO in its conceptual simplicity is far superior to the over-featured world of MoM. Stay with us.

It's all good you weren't rough at all in my opinion. Thanks for making these patches moo1 is still the best game of it's genre and improving it further will be awesome.

I have never tried master of magic maybe I should give it a chance sometime.

[kyrub]

I'll read the other threads and see if they missed something.

I am looking forward to the cooperation. Also, feel free to discuss even old themes, it is just useful to read the threads beforehand.


(M.o.magic... very different experience from MoO, a game that looks superficially like a slow Civ, but it is strictly not a Civ-game, because the Civ-like elements are downplayed and the main features are: tactical combat, chaotic system of mighty spells and a sophisticated mana economy).

[HyperSuperDuper]

I read the threads and all the issues that could be called exploits are known.

Are you open to modding the game extensively? A lot could be achieved by reducing the effect of a planet's shields against beam weapons for example. AI ships often are equipped with beam weapons that are efficient against ships but can't even damage missile bases because the planet's shields are multiplied by 2 against them. If the multiplier were removed the player would need to rely on ships more and not just research planetary shield V and forget the other races even have ships.

It would also make construction more useful because of better armors. Currently i never research construction at all because it's mostly useless.

[Catwalk]

Are you open to modding the game extensively?

Ooohhh, I know this answer to this one!

HELL NO now go away evil modder

You really should come over to the dark side and play MoM, us modders need to stick together.

[kyrub]

HELL NO now go away evil modder

In general, I agree that the planetary shields + bases tactics is too strong. But since we've not even tried to make AI better, can we say they are unbreachable?

What if we first try to teach AI to never equip on its ships something that cannot potentially damage player's bases (if there's a contact)? What if we try to remove all behavior that human player can exploit, and AI cannot? Or even better, what if the AI could dodge missiles like you do (gulp)? If it could block planets with scouts like you do (if the scout was there before your one)? Many ways should be explored before one turns to the you-won't-even-name-the-stupid-activity.


(If you wish to correct the shields you can probably do it right now, without any help of mine. The ship components tables can be found easily with a simple hex-editor and 30 minutes of patience. Also, their locations are known to few people here. Just don't ask me...)

[HyperSuperDuper]

Your opposition to modifying seems quite irrational when you are going to modify the AI in the next patch. Unless it's some specific modifying you are against.

You could make the main issue disappear by modifying the AI but the game would still suffer because there are less viable choices.