Eye on MOO III (gamespy)

[TresXF]

dieses mal ein ausführliches interview von gamespy mit Bill Fisher, Cory Nelson, Alan Emrich und Rantz Hoseley.

GameSpy: The original Master of Orion was published in 1993, followed by Master of Orion II: The Battle at Antares three years later. Both titles have fared very well under review by both industry and fans alike. How was the decision to create Master of Orion III reached and why now?

Bill Fisher: There's quite a tale behind this.

It all started at E3 in 1999, when I literally bumped into a producer at MicroProse, Michael Mancuso. Mike and I sat down at a table in the lunch area and found that we liked many of the same things. He had just completed MechWarrior 3 and was looking for a new project. We were wrapping up Star Trek: Starfleet Command and were also looking for a new project. Many of us have been MicroProse fans for years, so it was basically a no-brainer that we wanted to work with them.

Mike and his boss came down to visit us over the next few weeks. He was a huge MOO and MOM fan and had been wanting for years to see a new version developed. It was just a matter of time, really. Then he made us an offer we couldn't refuse: he gave us a list of four potential projects to choose from, all of which would have been very cool. We decided we wanted to do MOO III. It was an easy choice.

Adding fuel to the fire, I knew that one of our designers, Tom Hughes, had worked very closely with Steve Barcia on MOO I (he's the one who ultimately found the copy of Star Lords, a.k.a. MOO Zero, that we posted on our Website). My very old friend Alan Emrich had written the MOO I strategy guide with Tom. Alan and I go way, way back -- all the way to kindergarten. So I called Alan and saidn, "If I happened to have the chance to work on one of the greatest 4X game properties of all time, would you perhaps be interested in working on it?" I had to hold him back from buying a plane ticket that very day.

A few months later, the startup paperwork was signed and we started moving on the design. Then MicroProse was bought by Hasbro, which then shut down the Alameda facility. Our producer and his boss were both out of a job. Fortunately, we ended up with an old Avalon Hill board-game guy, Bill Levay, in their place. Bill insisted that he was the one who should carry the Barcia flame, and we've certainly been very pleased to work with him. Bill then brought in Constantine Hantzopoulos, our current producer, who also joined in large part because of the chance to work on such a great title. Needless to say, we have a very enthusiastic team at all levels of the project.

One final note: last year, we started a new project with the US Army, a company command simulator. As it turns out, we needed a first-class wargame producer. It was destined to happen: At the Computer Game Developers' Conference, I ran into Mike Mancuso. Turns out he'd just left his position at Maxis and was looking for something new. I told him not to move, that I had a project he'd love to do. I hired him that day, and he's been doing a killer job on the project ever since.

GameSpy: The game is being marketed as containing the "fifth "X." For those that are not familiar with this terminology, what are the first four "X's" exactly and what is the fifth bringing to MoO3 not previously harnessed in its predecessors?

Alan Emrich: Oh, there's an old chestnut. The term '4X' game is one that I coined in the pages of Computer Gaming World magazine back when I was their first strategy games editor. I heard it from my MOO3 co-designer, Tom Hughes, liked it, put it in print, and was very chagrined to see the term '4X' had made it into the gaming vernacular when I read it in an ad (of all things!). The term '4X' means eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate. These are the basic elements for every discover-the-world-and-then-conquer-it kinds of games.

With the '5th X,' I'm hoping to take this beloved genre and add more of the eXperience one should expect from the subject matter. Normally, these games give the player total knowledge, total control, and unlimited ability to do everything at all times within the limits of their resources. The '5th X' says that there's more to it than that. If you're leading a race that is supposed to me militaristic, and you conduct affairs in a pacifistic manner, you should suffer with unrest, revolt, or even revolution.

If you're sitting at the top of your civilization, you should be reading reports sent up from underlings, not managing every single spy or battle yourself -- you should be functioning at your level, like a chief executive, not like everyone from the janitor on up!

So, the '5th X' builds in some more simulation to a strategy game. There's more of a world capable of living and breathing on its own that you're there to guide, not micromanage. The player will enjoy the heroes and suffer the fools that emerge from within their civilization and must always make the best of things while pushing through to victory.

[TresXF]

GameSpy: While a more cosmetic consideration rather than a substantial one, a common thread of criticism was the graphics in both MoO and MoO2. What is being done in MoO3 to address this component while at the same time not being overindulged at the expense of other elements, i.e. gameplay?

Rantz Hoseley: Well strategy games for the most part kind of treat visuals as 'painting the house'. In other words, it's something that *has* to be done, but not something that's really considered from more than a utilitarian approach. With wanting to really add that eXperience aspect to MOO3, it was vitally important to bring the visuals up to a level that would not only get attention by the strategy players, but also attract gamers who tend to not look at the strat genre, and hopefully even attract some of the 'tourist' gamers. That is, the gamers who will occasionally pick up a game because they heard about it in Time magazine, or Rolling Stone or something.

The Key ingredient in attracting those types of gamers, for good or bad, lies in the visual seduction capability of a game. Once they are 'in the door,' the gameplay has to hold them there. The graphics and visuals should *support* that gameplay experience though, helping the player suspend their sense of disbelief, and allow them to fully immerse their mind in this alien universe. And we're worked very very hard to bring that across to the player. We've got some of the most complex animations and political interactions that you'll see in a game like this, with the alien leaders talking to you in their own languages, their expressions, movements, and vocal tone indicating their current disposition. And, disposition is a dynamic thing, it changes over time and with various political conditions.

In addition, we've really worked to have the ship designs be extremely unique per species, and that they look cool, as well as be easily recognizable during ship combat. The ship combat engine *looks* like a large space battle, with these fleets moving against each other, fluidly attacking, rather than it being one ship plinking shots at another on a straight line. So, there are a lot of ways we're very consciously addressing the visual aspect of the MOO series.

But, yes, we're keenly aware that the visual element is what draws them in, and that it's been under-addressed in the previous games.

GameSpy: Speaking of gameplay, what is the player's objective here? Are there scenarios/campaigns to complete? Is there an open-ended storyline, a combination thereof or something else entirely?

Alan Emrich: Master of Orion III is pure space opera. You begin at the opening of a carefully crafted story. The chaos in the Orion Sector of space is expanding, and you must find the dominant place in it before someone else does.

There are four victory conditions in Master of Orion III, each of which can be turned on or off separately (when they're all off, it's a 'sole survivor' game). These include the traditional Lone Superpower (i.e., military dominance) and Galactic Presidential Elections from the previous MOO games. In addition, MOO3 adds the Legitimate Heir victory condition (every civilization proffers their own heir as 'legitimate;' if you can wrangle enough others to abandon theirs and support yours, you win).

Finally, there is solving the Antaran Mystery, or 'discovering the 5th X,' that gives you their power of dominion and allows you to win the game. You'll have to send a lot of ships off for a long time on risky expeditions, but every piece of the puzzle they bring back offers immediate practical rewards in terms of gameplay, as well as propelling the player closer to victory.

GameSpy: MoO3's official Website has been well supported by both Quicksilver and Infogrames, the game's publisher, with frequent and substantive updates. Will this schedule (or something similar) continue once the game is released later this year? Do fansites influence this schedule and if so, in what regard?

Bill Fisher: Quicksilver started its tradition of strong online support way back in the dark ages of the Internet, in 1996, with the release of Interplay's Conquest of the New World. We actually got written up in newspaper reviews that crowed about how we actually listened to our fans. We'll definitely continue that interaction with them after we release the product, though of course we'll also be spending more and more of our time on new projects that are just now getting under way.

Our fans are very important to us, and we're happy to hear from them about what works and what doesn't. Ultimately, their enthusiastic feedback, along with sales of the product, will help determine what we do next with Infogrames.

I expect that fan sites will pick up some of the traffic once the game is out into the public space. That's typically been the trend with other, similar titles. We will be releasing some "inside" information about the game after it's shipped, talking about the way we've set up our data files and such, so I expect to see plenty of discussion about the inner workings of the game and how to optimize play. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

[TresXF]

GameSpy: On the said site, the latest announcement posted under the "Beta Testers" section is that you are not currently compiling a list of potential beta testers. This was six months ago. What stage are you at now in regards to selecting beta testers and what criteria are you using/did you use to determine who will get a shot to test drive MoO3?

Cory Nelson: That's actually one of the decisions that going to be made shortly. We're big fans of the beta tester process and had always planned on starting one up for MOO3 as soon as the project went beta. With the recent delays, however, we're not sure how much time we'll have available for an open beta test before we go final. Now that doesn't mean that the program won't be thoroughly tested, we've already gotten some input from the Infogrames' QA Department and they'll be starting full testing in the next month or two. As soon as we make a final decision on an open beta test we'll be sure to post it up on the site.

GameSpy: The Master of Orion series is often compared to another strategy line of a similar thread, Civilization, with many citing the former as the latter's "cousin in space." Do you feel that this comparison is fair or misleading today, and if so how so?

Alan Emrich: It's a fair cop. They're both 4X games with a highly addictive quality to them.

Rantz Hoseley: I think Civ established so much of the TBS genre that it's inevitable that comparisons will be made to it if you're doing a TBS. Even more so, because Civ and MOO were both Microprose products, and are now under the Infogrames' publishing umbrella. Civ is the high water mark that the public measures these games by. I mean, remove the MOO brand for a second. Say we were doing a TBS that dealt with underwater empires. It would still be compared with Civ.

GameSpy: Speaking of Civ, Civilization III which was released last October came under fire for not including multi-player capabilities out of the box and this much petitioned-for component is still in demand.

Rantz Hoseley: Oh, people want multiplay for MOOIII? Oh dear... LOL

Alan Emrich: If you're asking if MOO3 will support multiplayer out of the box, the answer is "yes."

GameSpy: On the release date front, can you confirm that Master of Orion III is still on target for a second quarter, 2002 launch? Can you give us a more definitive date at this time?

Bill Fisher: Software development is as much art as science, so I can't pin down the date any more at this point. What I can say is that Cory's doing a great job of managing the project to stay on track, and the team is working very hard to get the game done on schedule. So far, we're right where we wanted to be.

This is possibly the most intricate 4X strategy game ever developed. There's a tremendous amount of detail that needs to go into it and there are an amazing number of interface screens needed to be able to access and understand all of the features we've included. And that's after we've trimmed back our original aspirations. I'm very happy with the game right now, and am still comfortable with that time frame.

GameSpy: In closing on a light-hearted note, how exactly did you come up with the names for all the various races included in the game -- besides the humans, of course?

Rantz Hoseley: Some of the names I came up with, and the rest we actually solicited from fans on the MOO3 discussion boards. I came up with the Evon, which is made up of a couple of elements and inspirations, but I not going to say where or what those are. The Grendarl are the other race that I named and that was a tip of the hat to Matt Wagner and his Grendel comic series. They look nothing like the characters in the comics, and have little relation to them other than the fact that they are a clan-style warrior race. But Matt's a great guy, and the comic is excellent, so there's a lil' homage/inspiration there.

Other than that, the new race names are the products of the fans fevered imaginations. A creative bunch, they are to say the least. They keep us on our toes -- that's for sure!

[MichaelZ]

Für mich klingt: "Derzeit sind wir soweit, wie wir wollen, aber bei Softwareentwicklung weiß man ja nie." so, als ob es später werden könnte als Juni...
...obwohl wiederum das Nichtdurchführen eines Betatests aus Zeitschwierigkeiten, auf einen konkret geplanten Termin hindeutet.
Naja, mal abwarten.

[Fal Shilde]

Naja, sie sagen nichts weiter das sie bis jetzt im Zeitplan liegen, sich aber nicht auf das Erscheinungsdatum genau festlegen wollen, da immer noch ewas dazwischenkommen kann..

Heist ja nicht das sich das Spiel jetzt (nochmal) verspätet, sie wollen sich nur ein Hintertürchen offenhalten.

[JIG]

Nur mal ne Frage (ernstgemeint)...Gibt es ne Wortbegrenzung pro Eintrag oder warum drei Stück für ein Interview?

[Mark]

Jup, Begrenzung.

Eine Bitte: Gibt es einen Screenshot von MoO3? Ich kenne die Spiele der Serie GAR nicht und habe auch noch keinen Vorabbericht zum dritten Teil gesehen. Kann ich mir das wie "Birth of the Federation" vorstellen? Das habe ich zwar auch nur mal angucken , nicht spielen können, kenne es aber zumindest.

[Fal Shilde]

Schau bei www.moo3planet.de nach, da gibt es VIELE Screenshots.

[MichaelZ]

@ Mark: Birth of the federation ist sowas, wie die MoO Reihe. Bei MoO2, welches ich Dir sehr empfehlen kann, gibt es aber ein Planeten-Micromanagement eher wie bei Civ, also umfangreicher als bei BotF. Ich weiß auch nicht mehr, ob BotF einen taktischen Raumkampf hatte, wie MoO2.