Master of Orion FAQ
Welcome to the Master of Orion (MOO) FAQ. This is version 1.3.1 of
that guide. Thanks to all those who contributed. This document has
undergone a good deal of editing since version 1.2, including a new
editor, and the excision of the strategy guides (which can be found by
selecting the link).
The original work and editing was done by:
Dave Chaloux
chaloux@mandolin.mitre.org
_________________________________________________________________
Index
1. What is MOO?
2. Frequently asked questions
* 2.A Is there any speech?
* 2.B How do you move the center of the map?
* 2.C What differences are there between the difficulty levels?
* 2.D When does the council meet?
* 2.E How do I change which ship icons I use?
* 2.F What affect does power have in designing ships?
* 2.G How powerful a machine do I need to run it?
* 2.H What good is the planet button in the combat display?
* 2.I When bombing enemies, does it make a difference how long the
film runs?
* 2.J How do you transport troops?
* 2.K Is there a good way to split half of a huge fleet?
* 2.L How do I turn ships around in midflight?
* 2.M Could someone please make the combat algorythm more
understandable?
* 2.N Why is the Internal Security percentage changed under 1.2?
* 2.O Will there be a version 1.4?
3. What bugs are known to exist?
* 3.A Bugs in 1.0
+ 3.A.1 BACKGRND.LBX bug
+ 3.A.2 Diplomat bug
+ 3.A.3 Slow mouse response bug
+ 3.A.4 The Gaia bug
+ 3.A.5 The too many ship bug
+ 3.A.6 The Doc check bug
+ 3.A.7 The colony ship bug
+ 3.A.8 The Orion terraforming bug
+ 3.A.9 The base maintenance bug
+ 3.A.10 The 1999 limit on Factories bug
* 3.B Bugs in 1.2
+ 3.B.1 The Maximum Planet Terraforming bug
+ 3.B.2 The Divide By Zero bug
+ 3.B.3 The Espionage Report bug
+ 3.B.4 The Lockup bug
* 3.C Bugs in 1.3
+ 3.C.1 The Biological Weapon Bug
+ 3.C.2 The Missile Fire Bug
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1. What is MOO?
MOO is a game of interstellar exploration and conquest. At the start
of the game, you have just 1 planet, some population, and a few
starships. From that meager beginning, you have to explore the galaxy,
create industry, colonize other worlds, research technology, conduct
diplomacy (when you run into other alien races), deal with disasters,
design and build your ever changing fleet of starships, and eventually
either get elected Emperor of the galaxy or by military might subdue
the other races. If all of this sounds quite complex, it is and that
is the appeal of this game.
In defining what it is, some words about what it is not are also in
order. It is not an arcade or action type game. All aspects of the
game are conducted at your leisure and reflexes are not an issue.
Also, although it does include ship to ship combat, this aspect of the
game is not the primary focus. In fact, it is possible to push an auto
button and the game will automatically play out the ship to ship
combat. You will normally (but not always) use that button. If a more
detailed tactical ship to ship combat game is desired, something like
Rules of Engagement 2 might be a better choice.
MOO has a lot of replayability for a number of reasons. First, you can
play any of 10 different races. Each race has its weak and strong
points. For example, the Alkari race is a bird like species. They are
excellent pilots and they are also good at researching propulsion type
technology. The Darloks on the other hand are shape shifters and they
are excellent spies good at inciting rebellion, conducting sabotage,
and stealing other races technology. Second, each time you start a new
game, the map is randomly generated. What fate hands you can make a
large difference in your approach. For example, the presence of a
nearby artifact world can help in researching technology. Third, you
have control over the # of stars in the game and the number of alien
races you are playing against. Finally, there is a difficulty setting
which affects how rapidly new technology is discovered.
You should be aware that games can take a fair amount of time; as an
extreme example, my first game took about 16 hours to complete. From
my own experience, the average game takes about 4-6 hours. Because the
game is so complex (and thus provides such a rich experience) it can
be rather frustrating to learn at first. This guide in part is
intended to help you through that learning stage. However, it does not
stop there and it is hoped that even experienced players will find
something of use here.
_________________________________________________________________
2. Frequently asked questions
2.A) Is there any speech? It mentions speech in the installation but I
don't seem to get any.
Answer: There is no speech. The speech part of some soundcards is used
for special effects but not for speech.
2.B) How do you move the center of the map?
Answer: Point at a blank part of the screen you want centered and then
click the left mouse button. To move using the keyboard, see pg 4 of
the Technical Supplement and Reference. If using the 1.2 patch, ALT-C
will recenter the map on the currently selected planet.
2.C) What differences are there between the different difficulty levels?
The manual mentions that it affects opponents production rates,
expansion rate, technology development, and willingness to ally with
you. It is also supposed to affect the size of your initial fleet.
It definitely affects the cost of developing new technology. New
technology costs:
Tech_level^2 * Difficulty_Factor * Race_Factor.
The Difficulty factor is:
20 - Simple
25 - Easy
30 - Average
35 - Hard
40 - Impossible
2.D) When does the council meet?
It first meets when two thirds of the planets have been colonized. It
then meets every 25 years on the 24th, 49th, 74, and 99th years.
(Example 2449).
It also bears mentioning that if you eliminate all races but one, the
vote will no longer take place. You will have to play the game out to
the bitter or not so bitter end. You then get the "Tyrant" ending.
Contributed by: Dave Chaloux
2.E) How do I change the ships icons that I get? I change races but the
icons stay the same.
The icons that you get to use depend on the color of the flag you
select at the beginning of the game.
2.F) What affect does power have in designing ships?
If you look at the Engine type popup, you will notice a column for
number of engines of the selected type. If you select something new
which requires power, then the number of engines will go up to provide
the necessary power for the new item. Of course if new engines are
required, the cost of the engines and space required for the new
engines goes up in addition to the cost and size of the new item. So
the power is integral part of building ships.
Contributed by: P. Michael Haffley
2.G) How powerful a machine do I need to run it?
You must have 2 Meg of memory. That said the following report was on
the net.
I'm currently running MoO on a 286-12. The box says that you need at
least a 386, but I took the chance and bought it and it runs fine on
my 286. (I am planning on buying a 486 this month, so I figured I
could always wait for the 486 if it wouldn't run at all on the 286)
The only problems I've had are mouse response problems. It would get
to the point that it would take a second or two to respond to mouse
button actions at times. I just downloaded the first patch, and that
seems to have fixed it. It still takes a half second or maybe a bit
less to respond, but it's not to bad. I think the delay is in the
sound area, since the button graphics tend to respond in a timely
manner, but there is a slight pause before there is sound or any other
result besides the button being depressed.
This isn't exactly a CPU hog like actions games are, so lack of CPU
power isn't crippling. You should have no problems at all on a 386-33.
Contributed by: Keith Hearn
2.H) What good is the planet button in the combat display?
It will tell you the weapons, factories, and population of a planet.
Useful if you don't want to bomb it to dust. And useful to know when
it's a lost cause and your fleets should bugout.
2.I) When bombing enemies the little film keeps continuing. Do I do more
damage if I keep it going?
Answer: NO
2.J) How do you transport troops?
Click on the transport button. Take the arrow like cursor that appears
and click on the place you want to send them. It will give you a
slider asking how many to transport. Select the number you want and OK
it. They will NOT appear on the map right away but will when you go to
the next turn.
This is one of those things that should have been made much clearer in
the manual.
2.K) Is there a good way to split half of a huge fleet?
You DON'T have to click 500 times to split 1000 ships. It will remove
over 5% of your group of ships if it is a large group (over about 50 I
think). This is hidden in the manual somewhere. If you want to send
500 out of 1000 ships start with 1000 ships and REMOVE 500 at 5%, if
you want to send one ship out of that 1000 then start with 0 and click
+1.
Contributed by: F. Rodgers
[Editors note: The percentage is now changed to 10% in large groups
under 1.3]
2.L) How do I turn ships around in midflight?
You don't until you get the Hyperspace communications tech advance.
Then you simply click on the fleet and give them a destination just
like you would if they were orbitting a planet.
An exception to this is important in the 1.2 patch. If you have just
given a fleet orders or if a fleet has just retreated, a new
destination can be given even without hyperspace communications.
2.M) Could someone please make the combat algorythm more understandable?
Ok, I have been seeing a certain amount of confusion concerning
starship battles in MOO, so I am going to attempt to explain the
algorythm. If you are not mathematically inclined, don't panic, the
combat is really quite simple.
Step 1) The computer compare's your ships ATTACK to the defenders
DEFENSE rating. If you fire beams he defends at beam defense, while,
naturally, he uses his missile defense against missiles. All attack
bonuses and defense bonuses are added at this point. The resulting
comparision is reduced to an ABSOULTE DIFFERENCE. Thus if you attack
with a level 6 battle computer and he is defending at level 3 then
your attack score is (+3).
Step 2) The computer generates a random number (sic) between 1 and 100
and compares it to your attack value (found on page 58 of the manual
by using our attack score, computed in step 1). If the random number
is greater or equal to your attack roll then you hit.
Step 3) The computer uses the SAME roll to computer raw damage. A roll
of 100 indicates full damage, while your minimum attack roll indicates
the weapon strikes for minimum damage. Rolls in between do more damage
as they approach 100. For you mathematical types:
DAMAGE CAUSED = (MAX-MIN Damage) * (1-[ (100-ATTACK ROLL)) ])
| --------------------- |+ MIN Damage
[ (100-Minimum attack score)]
EXAMPLE: I hit with a Hard beam (8-12) damage. I rolled a 70, while I
needed a 20 to hit. Thus I strike for:
(12-8)* (1- (100-30))
------- + 8
100-20
or
4 * (1-30/80) + 8 = 10.5 rounds to 10 damage.
Step 4) The computer subtracts the defender's shield level from your
computer damage. Thus a 4 point laser hit does only 1 point of damage
against class III shields. Weapons which halve opponent's shields,
naturally, subtract only 1/2 their shield strength (rounded up, I
THINK).
The computer iterates these 4 steps for every weapon on every firing
ship in your attacking fleet.
So what does this mean?
* Good shields can make poor weapons next to useless.
* PUT ON THE BEST TARGETTING COMPUTER YOU CAN! It not only
determines IF you hit, but also HOW WELL you hit and HOW MUCH
DAMAGE you do.
* Weapons which 1/2 enemy shields have a longer obsolescence cycle.
* Note that excess damage will not carry over from target to target
UNLESS you are using a streaming weapon such as a gravitron beam.
What this means is that a Death Ray will still only kill ONE small
fighter.
* Good ship designs often carry a number of top notch weapons for
general purpose work (Auto- blasters or megabolt cannons), some
hard beams for the occasional heavily armored target, and a few
dozen light weapons for fending off fighter swarms.
I hope this helps to clear up some of the confusion regarding combat.
Contributed by: Pat Casey
2.N) Why did the Internal Security percentage change in 1.2?
Under versions prior to 1.2, the Internal Security percentage shown on
the Race Screen was composed of any racial bonus, any internal
security spending, and 1% per level of computer technology.
This was not wholly accurate, as the computer technology modifier is
not 1% per level of your technology, but 1% per level of the
difference between your technology level and the person attempting to
spy on you.
Version 1.2 and beyond does not show your computer technology level.
2.O) Will there be a version 1.4?
At present, there is no word on whether or not there will be a 1.4.
Given the bugs still in (or introduced in) version 1.3, I certainly
hope there will be a 1.4
_________________________________________________________________
3. What bugs are known to exist?
Compared to many other games on the market, MOO is remarkably bug
free. However, it does have a few. The good news is that a patch
exists to fix the more serious ones. This patch is available in the
following places:
* The Microprose Bulletin Board. The # is (410) 785-1841. You need
settings of 8,N,1 and it supports up to 14.4 Kbs. The latest patch
is moov13.zip. New copies of Moo are supposed to start shipping
with this version in the near future.
* The most recent patch (1.3) is also at ftp.uml.edu. It is located
in /msdos/Games/Patches as moov13.zip.
The known bugs are as follows, and are categorized by the versions in
which they appear.
3.A) Bugs present in version 1.0 of Master Of Orion 3.A.1) The program
bombs out with a message similar to, "BACKGRND.LBX[xx] exceeds number of
LBX entries". This problem happens on machines with 7 Megs or more of EMS
memory. The patch fixes it. Another fix is to configure your machine to
have less than 2 Megs of EMS memory available. There have been some reports
of LBX problems in 1.2, but these should be fixed by 1.3.
3.A.2) The Diplomat Bug: Sometimes the game will lock you out from access
to all diplomatic functions. This is normal after a counsel vote electing
someone else emperor. However, it occurs in other situations where it
should not. The patch also fixes this problem. It can easily be worked
around by saving and restoring the game. It is apparently linked to someone
accepting tribute.
3.A.3) Sometimes mouse response time become very slow. It stays slow until
you turn off all sound. This has reportedly been fixed in version 1.3.
3.A.4) The Gaia bug: One of the high technology discoveries is supposed to
allow for incredibly fertile plants. When you get the discovery you are
supposed to crank up the ECO bar and the planets are converted. They never
convert. This fixed in later versions.
3.A.5) The to many ships bug: If you have over 32768 ships (16 bit signed
integer) then your number of ships goes negative. This is fixed in later
versions.
3.A.6) The Doc check bug: Has anyone else noticed this - I was playing MOO
when the copy protection screen came up. It said that the picture was
between pages 27 and 27. No problem, I look up page 27 and see that it
appears TWICE on the list of choices! Uh oh, which one...
I chose the first one, and failed.
The second go around was normal and I passed.
Contributed by: James Borynec
[Editor: I have heard no reports since 1.2 of this problem]
3.A.7) The colony ship bug: When you have many different types of ships on
a planet, AND a colony ship it will NOT ask you if you want to colonise
every turn, and you have to move and come back OR move off all the other
ships. This bug is not consistant but it has happened enough to be annoying
early on but now that I know the game I only have extra colony ships when I
am waiting for greater tech range and want to grab planets fast.
Contributed by: F. Rodgers
[editor: This bug occurs when you turn down the initial request to colonize
the planet. This was clear in the original context. I have heard no report
of this bug in some time and I think the patch fixes it.]
3.A.8) The Orion terraforming bug: This bug was first brought to my
attention by Pat Casey and I have also seen it. In my case I was running
the 1008 patch. If you capture Orion and then terraform it you can really
start cranking out the Research Points. In my game I was up at 180 max
population because of +80 terraforming. I then got the soil enrichment
technology. Of course this is way out of order (tech 16 vs tech 38) and the
game did not handle it very well on Orion. I spent the credits to
supposedly up the population but it did the opposite. I went from 180
population to something like 125. I did not notice this happening on any
other world.
In Pat's case this happened with Atmospheric terraforming and the affect
was even more drastic dropping the max population to 50!
This was fixed in 1.2, only to run into the Max Population Bug (see 3.B).
3.A.9) The base maintenance bug: Several people have mentioned that if you
get a large number of bases, your base maintenance cost can sky rocket. You
might go from a maintenance cost of 5% to 80% or 90% in one year. This has
only been reported with really large numbers of bases like 150 or so on a
planet. Moral of the story is make sure you don't forget about a planet
that is cranking out bases. It might completely hose your economy all at
once. Also, since there is no way to scrap bases you end up having to go
back to a save file. This is fixed in all versions beyond 1.2.
3.A.10) The 1999 limit on Factories bug: It is possible with Maximum
Terraforming + Gaia to get planets with populations of 300. With Robotic
controls VII it should be possible to get 2100 factories. With Meklars and
their + 2 on controls they could get up to 2700 factories. However, the
game limits you to a max of 1999 and when you reach it does not adjust
industry spending appropriately. This is fixed in 1.2 and beyond.
3.B) Bugs from version 1.2 of Master of Orion3.B.1 The Maximum Planet
Terraforming bug: Some planets (including Orion) would stay set on
Terraforming even after reaching 300 million in population. Increased
spending could result in reversion to the base value for the world's
population, or even wiping out the colony. This is fixed in 1.3.
3.B.2) The Divide By Zero bug: Under some circumstances (which seemed to be
a combination of machine configurations and the bug), the program would
crash with a Divide By Zero (in enormous letters) during ship combat. This
is apparently fixed in 1.3.
3.B.3) The Espionage Report bug: Under 1.2, you would never get any reports
of enemy spies being captured at the espionage report screen. This is fixed
in 1.3.
3.B.4) The Lockup bug: Under 1.2, depending on the galaxy and the system,
the
computer would lockup. This is supposedly fixed in 1.3 [It has been
reported to
exist in 1.3]
3.C) Bugs in version 1.3 of Master of Orion3.C.1) The Biological Weapon
Bug: Bringing ships with Biological weapons into a system will reduce the
population, even if the ships retreat immediately or are destroyed before
ever coming near the planet. Found in multiple versions (other symptoms
include biological attacks even when the Bombing option is cancelled if bio
weapons are present).
3.C.2) The Missile Fire Bug: Planetary missiles which should be destroying
incoming fleets do no damage (under some circumstances) when fired
manually. However, when the Automatic Combat is selected, the missile
weapons work as they should.
