Complete Master of Orion Newbie

[BRickAstley]

The Original, not the new one.

I've bought and am going to try out Master of Orion for the first time. Right now I just want to learn and experience it, not trying for optimization or beating time thresholds or anything yet. Is there anything (besides reading the manual) that would be helpful to know beforehand? Is the base version from GOG enough to start, or I see there's a patch stickied, is it necessary?

[DaveV]

The patch is for making the game harder, as I understand it, so you don't need to worry about that. The base game is well balanced and bug free. The manual is good and gives you everything you probably need to play the game. The strategy guide is really helpful if you want to learn the details.

Something that falls in the optimization category but I was surprised to learn after a lot of play: your starting ships are more expensive than they should be. You should design a new scout and colony ship, and they'll be something like 5% cheaper than the default designs.

I hate the random events in this game, and always disable them (done by holding the Alt key and typing EVENTS). YMMV.

Enjoy! This game is a classic for good reason.

[Psillycyber]

I recommend using the unofficial MoO patch that is stickied at the top of this forum, but it is not a required thing. There are some nice additions to the interface which make some things easier to follow, such as being able to review the descriptions of previously researched techs on the tech screen by clicking on them, and other little things (like the starting ship cost bug being fixed, so that you don't have to redesign your scouts and colony ships to cheapen them).

One thing that might be helpful to know is that natural population growth follows a sigmoid growth curve, which means that planets start out growing slowly, grow the fastest when they are about halfway full, and then level off as they reach their max population.

Another thing that you absolutely need to know to really play the game (and which I WISH was explained in the original in-game interface!) is that technology comes in "rungs" every 5 levels. So, levels 1-5 are the first "rung," levels 6-10 are the second "rung," etc. You will need to research or acquire at least one technology in each "rung" to unlock technologies in the next highest "rung" (and actually, your starting level 1 techs don't count towards the first rung, so you'll need to research something in levels 2-5 to advance to the second rung). You are guaranteed to be able to research at least one technology in each rung, and sometimes you will get more than one option in each rung if the RNG is being kind to you. Which tech(s) you get the option of researching are entirely random each game, which forces you to adapt to what the tech tree throws at you.

So, for example, here is the weapons tech tree:
http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Master_of_Orion/Weapons
(I recommend keeping these tech pages open as you play, as unfortunately the in-game interface does not show you this information ahead of time).

You see that, for the first rung (levels 2-5), there are the following possibilities:
*Level 2: Hand lasers
*Level 4: Hyper-V rockets
*Level 5: Gatling lasers
(Notice that there is no level 3 tech. This is not a typo. It is typical.)

In any particular game, you MIGHT only get the option of researching hand lasers in the first rung. Or, only Hyper-V rockets. Etc. OR, you might get lucky and have the option of researching 2 or 3 of those above. If you pick one between your options in this case, the option to research the other one(s) at a later time remains, although you will then also get the option of moving on to researching a "2nd rung" tech, such as:
*Level 6: Anti-missile rockets
*Level 7: Neutron pellet gun
*Level 8: Hyper-X rockets
*Level 9: Fusion bombs
*Level 10: Ion cannon & Heavy ion cannon (you basically get two weapon types for the price of one if you research this).

In any particular game, you might have only fusion bombs for options for your 2nd rung techs, or only neutron pellet guns, or maybe 3 out of the 5 techs as choices. It varies. In any case, once you research one of these "2nd rung" techs, then you can research a "3rd rung" tech (Levels 11-15), or you could go back and research any 1st or 2nd rung tech options that you were given that you passed up on before.

As you research more techs and higher-level techs, your "tech level" increases. This is the number over on the right of the tech screen next to each category. As your tech levels increase, previously-researched components in those categories will become cheaper and more "miniaturized," meaning that you will be able to pack more of them onto ship designs. So, sometimes it still pays to outfit your ships with obsolete components because they will be cheapened and you will be able to fit more of them on your ships. It depends. Ship design is really where the most fun is at in this game, in my opinion.

That's about it! The rest you can probably figure out as you play the game. Good luck!

[rho21]

The patch is for making the game harder, as I understand it, so you don't need to worry about that. The base game is well balanced and bug free.

The patch does fix a few bugs in the base game, most of them very rare, as well as providing some assistance for optimisation. It's definitely optional though.

Something that falls in the optimization category but I was surprised to learn after a lot of play: your starting ships are more expensive than they should be. You should design a new scout and colony ship, and they'll be something like 5% cheaper than the default designs.

I'd call that a bug. :P It's fixed in the patch, and is the main reason I use it.

I hate the random events in this game, and always disable them (done by holding the Alt key and typing EVENTS). YMMV.

Another keyboard command I didn't know about. The game is full of them.

[Mardoc]

For your first games, I would suggest Humans, Klackons, or Psilons. Probably Humans very first. They're the strongest options, but more importantly, they have the most intuitive benefits. Wait to try to Silicoids and Darloks until you understand the 'normal' gameplay style, so they don't teach you bad lessons. The other five can come in whatever order you find interesting.

There aren't many buttons, so it's worth spending the time to figure them all out. Maybe not all the keyboard shortcuts.

Missile bases are really strong for their cost. No good for offense, of course, but if you're trying to defend, use them rather than ships 90% of the time.

Let us know how much fun you're having!

[SvenBent]

I too just restarted non MoO a couple of months back and are still going back between this and other modern games.

I will second that starting with klackons is probably a real good idea it will get you started a bit faster on the game. it was the race i did the first couple of times when i returned to the game.

I'm currently playing psilon i do like them more ( i think they are more powerful mid- to lategame). and it would be my second starter choice

as other mentions humans makes for a very well balanced race with mostly diplomatic benefits. it can give you a bit of wrong understanding of how easy/difficult diplomatics are but still this race is not that different from other in regards to ordinary play

Silicoids is special one i would advice NOT to start with due to its fundamental different way the race play.

The rest is pretty grouped together in my opinion


A little Tip i will advice is to never let rich or ultra rich to science.

ultrarich and rich should into the reserve
use rich for building ship
use the reserve fund to help start up newer planets or pour it into rich planets for boosting ship building or into artifacts for boosting science

[Molach]

I like Sirians warpcore, very readable.
All solo game reports are on impossible, but still valid for all levels. Also intro to the game, lots of info.

Two things in particular I never learned alone:

About growth curve, to take advantage of it, you send pop away to new colonies. After you make first colony, keep you starting planet at 40 pop while siphoning off population to the new world until it is 1/4-1/3 full. I never figured that out by solo gaming.

Also that second colony should probably not max out on factories, because in due time you will send off pop from that planet. And then you will either be left with unused factories which is a waste, or you need spend lots of $$ to force-grow the pop back up. Research a bit or do other stuff than building the unneeded factories.

[BRickAstley]

Thanks for all the tips guys I'll hopefully get to start a game in earnest tonight...

[HansLemurson]

Technology levels give passive bonuses regardless of the actual tech they provide. Your "Tech Level" is the level of your highest technology plus 1 for every tech you know in that field.

Computers: Espionage Bonus
Construction: Make ships (and missile bases too, I think) cheaper. The cost of an existing ship design will drift downwards over time.
Force Fields: Miniaturizes the Shield modules, making them smaller and cheaper.
Planetology: Increases the base production value of population (whether working factories or no). This is what makes your planetary production numbers look so funky. Also miniaturizes colony modules. You can eventually fit them onto a Medium hull.
Propulsion: Miniaturizes engine modules.
Weapons: Greatly miniaturizes weapon modules.

Each ten levels of technology above the minimum required level decreases the size of the device by 25%.
Weapons miniaturize at a rate of 50% for every 10 levels.

Your initial ships were designed with tech level 0, but you begin the game with 1 level in each category.

[Psillycyber]

Wow, you know what? I never knew that more planetology tech increases the actual output of each population point. Thanks for the info, Hans!