Master of Orion is coming back

Master of Orion is coming back! I am so excited. I know it’s a computer game not a board game, as this blog is intended to review. But I want to talk about it so I will.

I started in to the Master of Orion series in junior high. A friend handed me some bootleg disks and told me to give it a try. I know, bootleg is wrong and I did buy all of the versions later on. But MOO1 was my introduction to 4x gaming and I’ve loved it ever since. Oh yeah, we called it MOO. Acronyms are cool, and calling a space game MOO is freaking funny.

The series was a big part of my teen years. Nostalgia has me excited for this next installment.

I’m excited because some of the original development team is back including the original lead designer, composer, and art director. This promises that the heart and soul of the series remains intact. Moreover the company that took over the title has announced that this will not be a free to play style game like their World of Tanks game. The microtransaction model would never fit this style of game, it would just kill it. So happy news that we have a proper retail game.

I am a little wary of the game though. Can this fill my expectations?

Psylons are my default race.

I was originally glad when I heard the team would be completely ignoring MOO3. The third installment in the series had a user interface that even the most masochistic of accountants would hate. The AI was terrible and the game was just riddled with bugs. In short MOO3 was not a good game. But by ignoring this installment I think the designers of the new Master of Orion game are throwing the baby out with the bathwater. There is something that MOO3 did so amazingly right: Character development. The alien races are beautifully designed and detailed. They had rich back stories. More importantly they weren’t childishly cartoonish. I’m a little tired of simplistic racial designs of animal-person hybrid aliens. The bird-man Alkari, the Cat-Alien Mrrshans and so on are too simplistic. I want a rich back story. The original two games came up with bland racist alien archetypes. Russians/Bulrathi, Gnolam/Jews, humans/Caucasians. MOO3 actually moved away from “all people of a certain race are this way because sci-fi racism.” Instead each race acted a certain way because of histories of wars, slavery, genetic engineering, or even religion. The AI had storied reasons for hating each other not just "birds and cats don't get along eh!" This is creativity the genre desperately needs.

Arrr space pirates!

Another thing I liked from MOO 3: terraforming. It was looked at differently. Each race had different biological needs so therefore each race had a specific ideal environment. Planets with little value to you could be a perfect place for your neighbour for a farm colony. Another race could sweep in to take a planet of strategic significance and begin terraforming it into their ideal but your inhospitable wasteland. The first and second installments ignored this about alien life. Ground combat modifiers could apply to each races environmental needs. It added to the costs of taking over alien worlds. It's thematic and a factor I felt brought more to the game.

Are those star lanes? NOOOOO!!!

The other thing I worry about is star lanes. For those who don’t play 4x games star lanes are essentially highways in space. The game either forces you to travel along star lanes or as in MOO3, travel outside of star lanes is obscenely slow. It’s just not how space works. It doesn’t make sense in the medium of a space game. The sole reason star lanes exist is they essentially make programming a game’s AI easier. I hate them. The only way I could see star lanes as being something thematic is if they were some kind of tech players could research and build, something reminiscent of the trade lanes in the old Freelancer game. A series of gates players could build to make travel between two systems faster. Essentially this could eliminate FTL (faster than light) engine requirements within your empire space. Great for defensive ships and for freighters (freeing up internal space) but then you would need a separate class of attack ships for moving outside of your space. This could be an early tech that would later be replaced by wormhole technology or efficient FTL drives. It could have an upkeep cost, and could create bonuses in trade if you constructed them to another race’s planets. What I’m getting at is I don’t want star lanes unless they are made more thematic.

In other news: local nerd writes blog post!

I am happy so see random events will be coming back with the Galactic News network. It was always fun to see a space creature moving to attack another player, or having to reevaluate a plan of moving ships when a creature begins eating ships in hyperspace. I found this factor highly thematic and the challenges they presented made the game more interesting for me. It was also satisfying to have GNN announce that you had colonized a number of star systems far outreaching anyone other empire. It was a fun and quirky way of delivering some random challenges to the game.

I like the look of this cleaner tech tree design

The best part of the MOO series was the optional nature of play. A player could chose from several races or customize one of their own. A player could customize their ships, and could chose which technologies to research. The player had a myriad of options on how they wanted to play the game. Trade, alliances, treaties, diplomacy and a galactic council all added flavour to the game in such fun and diverse ways. This created a highly replayable game you could battle in time and again against either your friends or the computer.

One thing that I'm eagerly awaiting is news of the Guardian of Orion. Will it still be there? What will it look like? How powerful will it be? Will there still be a derelict ship to claim? Oh and will there be Antarans? I liked the random attacks, and the techs to be gained from boarding their vessels. I would love for them to return but I don't want beating them to be a win condition. Make it a hard to claim/hard to return from planet. When your ships come back they appear randomly on the map, and anyone with the right tech can attack it from anywhere they have the gate. 

For those who want a taste of the original Master of Orion it is available for free play on archive.org. Also for those who wish to follow along with the release of the new game the official website is here.

Until next time you know I’m just going to get more excited as that release date just keeps MOOving closer.

Edmonton Expo 2015

Another Edmonton Expo came and went. Of course the wife and I had to go. We love nerding it up.

One day I will have a Lego room.

This year we drove friends of ours who had a table in artist alley. These were the folks at Perfectly Chaotic. We got to use their parking pass so that was a big plus. The downside was having to walk all the way around the outside of the building to be let in. I guess I could use the exercise so it's all good.

I find the Edmonton Expo center is well designed for a comic expo. Multiple halls with multiple access points allow for more routes of traffic. My only problem with moving around was in the hallway between halls C and E, it smelled like a sewer backup all weekend.

As usual I was disappointed in the timing of guest announcements. Tickets went on sale before we knew who was coming. Meanwhile Calgary expo had a guest announcement in the program for this years Edmonton Expo. (Lucy Lawless… now I have to go to Calgary) It feels like the organizers don't put forth the effort they should. I hope they work on that for next year.

The food was all located in the central corridor or outside in food trucks. I wondered why the food trucks were left outside when I’ve been to other events at that center with the trucks indoors. There were tables set up in hall B which would have been a perfect location for the trucks. It was a little of a pain to try to exit through the entryway just to get to the food trucks. Because of that we just avoided them.

As for the show itself my wife was excited to meet Cary Elwes. She’s got the hots for him. I like Princess Bride, Men in Tights and his Saw appearances so we went to the panel and got a photo with him. He’s hilarious. His panel was mostly about Princess bride but there was a smattering of questions about his other roles. For some reason everyone kept saying Prince of Thieves by mistake when it came to talking about Men in Tights. It got to the point where even he started saying it in error. At the photo op he took the time to shake our hands, ask our names and how the show was going. Much to the photographers chagrin. I really like it when the guests don’t follow along with rushing people through like the con tries to enforce; being nice to fans while sticking it to the man makes me smile.

Billy Boyd was great at his panel although he seemed a little fixated on peeing. He was hilarious and it was nice to hear he took part in the local culture by going to the art museum. I’m regretting missing out on the Beecake concert now. At the very end of the show we came over to the signing area and noticed he was just getting ready to leave. We raced over for a signature. While the money was changing hands with his crew he started a drawing game with us. He made a scribble on the signing table and we were supposed to finish the drawing. My wife made an Ogopogo and I made a poorly drawn Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors. I decided since it was the end of the show I could be a little audacious and ask for a photo. He said he really shouldn’t but what the hell. He grabbed my phone and proceeded to take several selfies with us. It was great.

Since I’m a fan of the Walking Dead I had to meet Michael Rooker. We went to the Guardians of the Galaxy panel featuring him and Sean Gunn. The two of them really riffed with comedy together. My wife loved it since she is big into Gilmore Girls and Guardians. Michael Rooker is like a big goofy kid in real life. He kept laughing and really engaged with the fans; Pretty much the complete opposite of his Merle character. I would totally hang out with that guy. Which we were told we could at the ATB booth. Well, suckers we were because ATB just pushed another run through thing. The funny thing was he brought Sean Gunn along so my wife went all Gilmore Girls girly fangirl. She ran to Sean Gunn when Michael Rooker tried to meet and greet us. When I told him why we lost her he just bellowed “Hey Gilmore Girl Turn AROUND!” Sean Gunn beamed at having a fan and pulled her in for a photo.

We also went to the Buffy panel with Amber Benson, Eliza Dushku and James Marsters. Marsters seemed the most comfortable on stage while Eliza Dushku seemed a little unsure of how to do the con thing. She was still fantastic and I enjoyed the panel. It was a little weird when Spike sang country music: Especially since I hate country.

The only other panel we went to was with Jenna Coleman. I am glad we hit that one up since it was her first time speaking in public about the departure from Doctor Who. She’s just as cute and bubbly in person as she is on the show. Everyone around me got a little irritated with the moderator who didn’t understand his role. He treated it more as a personal interview than a Q&A panel. I personally felt he should have reigned in with his attempt at Diane Sawyer questions and let the fans have their experience. When the panel ended there were a good 40 fans still lined up at the mics. When Jenna finally got the opportunity to answer questions she was amazing and she gave some fantastic insight into her character portrayal.

I had to miss the first few minutes of the panel as my wife had bought me a photo op with Ivy Doomkitty. She knows I have a little crush on this cosplayer because well, smart, funny, curvy, and cosplay. Pretty much everything I’m attracted to. My wife got some Cary Elwes time so she got me Ivy Doomkitty time. Mrs. Doomkitty was supposed to be dressed as Velma, and I love that character so I'm a little disappointed timing made her unable to wear the planned costume. I’m sure there’s always next year. She was still all cuddles, happiness, and cuteness so I totally forgive. I didn’t get any talk time as I had to race to the Jenna Colman panel where my wife was saving a seat. Ivy, if you read this my favourite cosplay of yours is Dr. Doom... Someday I will cosplay him too and maybe get a photo together?

For show swag my wife and I got the show shirts, she got a scarf and I got the limited edition TMNT print. I even got Kevin Eastman to sign it which was really cool. My wife got a Tardis Toque, a Vader purse, a bookmark, and some lightsaber earrings. We also bought a print of Death Jr on Pale Horse. It’s cute and dark. I finally picked up a copy of ’68 as I’ve been meaning to read it forever. Luckily local artist Nat Jones was there to sell me a signed copy. But most importantly I finally got my functional bearded axe, which I’ve been walking around the house with since then. I have to chop something with it soon. The wife’s all “Not the furniture” and “Not the hardwood floors.” She didn't even let me drive around waving it out my driver side window. Seriously no fun at all.

And of course we spent quite a bit of time admiring cosplay. We still haven’t attempted it but I’ve got together everything for a Krieger outfit (I even have a piggly) and my wife is working on a Pam outfit so maybe next year. We went to the costume contest and it was great. My wife’s favourite was the Sanderson Sisters, mine was the Valkyrie costume. I love Thor comics so it was cool to see the character.

Can I pull off Krieger?

Thus ended another fun year of comics, entertainment and geekery. I hope to see you again next year.

Cowabunga this was COOL!