Beta Test Master Of Orion 3

[NullUnit2000]

Infogrames is holding a contest to find 25 beta testers for the 4X strat game Master Of Orion 3.

Go here (http://moo3.quicksilver.com/beta.html) for details.

[Bires]

Ikthul is the mystery race? I couldn't find a picture of them or the Eoladi, so I figured the harvester race would be the one not pictured. Thoughts?

I am very much looking for forward to this game, but I hope they take their time and release it bug-free.

[NullUnit2000]

Eoladi are the fouth row down on the left and the Ithkul are the mystery race.

Ithkul and Harvester are one and the same. BTW, wait until you see the Ithkul in the game. They are BAD ASS!

[Ladogaboy]

Originally posted by NullUnit2000
Eoladi are the fouth row down on the left and the Ithkul are the mystery race.

Ithkul and Harvester are one and the same. BTW, wait until you see the Ithkul in the game. They are BAD ASS!

Harvester is the type of race, right?

Anyway, yah, they are the mystery race. Geeze, though, I had to pull some of those races out of my ahhh... wow. :2far:

[Bires]

Yep...that's what I put.

I would love to give the designers a piece of my mind. (Saveable colony build ques, please!) I think I would pay even M$'s beta charge to beta test MOO3

Oh...and the art looks awesome. I hope it is well animated and optimized for OpenGL.

[sleepminded]

what is this game?:confused: :confused: :confused:

[NullUnit2000]

Turn based strat game. Master Of Orion I & II are considered classics of the genre.

Official Web Page (http://www.moo3.com)

I'm actually on the development team. Lead artist to be exact. So be sure to buy it when it comes out. :D

[sleepminded]

ooooh...sure will :)

[Bires]

Originally posted by NullUnit2000
I'm actually on the development team


THEN YOU MUST TELL THEM!!!! WE MUST HAVE SAVEABLE BUILD CUES TO REMOVE TEDIOUSNESS LATER IN THE GAME!!!!

TELL THEM



what are you waiting for?

TELLLLLL THEMMMMM!!!!!!

:bigmouth:

[NullUnit2000]

Not my department I'm afraid. If you had asked me to make the Grendarl's nose a little bigger I could help you out.

We have an army of designers and coders to handle that sort of stuff. And truth be told at this point we're just trying to get what we have working perfectly for release. Any new features will have to wait for MOO4.

And before you read too much into that last sentence, no, there are no plans for a MOO4...yet.

[gear02]

Originally posted by NullUnit2000
Turn based strat game. Master Of Orion I & II are considered classics of the genre.

Official Web Page (http://www.moo3.com)

I'm actually on the development team. Lead artist to be exact. So be sure to buy it when it comes out. :D

Are you $*@$#@^ SERIOUS??? That's pretty cool. Can you explain the delay of the release? Just curious...I've been waiting for this game for a while.

Can you hook us got|apex games staff up with review copies? ;)

[NullUnit2000]

Hmmmm, kind of a long story. Basicly, there were two sides of the team. Those who wanted to make the game as deep and complex as it could possibly be and those who wanted a more simple compact design.

Much butting of heads occured. Those who wanted complexity fought hard to keep everything they had worked to design in the game. Before long it became obvious that the game was going to be too complex. Some very key features had to be removed and other related features had to be reworked.

In essence, the game had been over designed. It was very late in the development that this became clear. The extra time was needed to scale the game down and keep it fun and playable.

The game is very near to completion now. Infogrames, our publisher seems very pleased. At this point we are just excited to get the game in stores and finally let the fans have at it.

RE: Review Copies. Not sure. I'll be happy to try though.

[Ladogaboy]

Originally posted by NullUnit2000
I'm actually on the development team. Lead artist to be exact. So be sure to buy it when it comes out. :D

Nice. I can't wait for this to come out.

I still want to be a Beta tester though. :shifty:

[gear02]

Originally posted by NullUnit2000
Hmmmm, kind of a long story. Basicly, there were two sides of the team. Those who wanted to make the game as deep and complex as it could possibly be and those who wanted a more simple compact design.

Much butting of heads occured. Those who wanted complexity fought hard to keep everything they had worked to design in the game. Before long it became obvious that the game was going to be too complex. Some very key features had to be removed and other related features had to be reworked.

In essence, the game had been over designed. It was very late in the development that this became clear. The extra time was needed to scale the game down and keep it fun and playable.

The game is very near to completion now. Infogrames, our publisher seems very pleased. At this point we are just excited to get the game in stores and finally let the fans have at it.

RE: Review Copies. Not sure. I'll be happy to try though.

I remember reading about a redesign on the interface. I believe before it was hard to navigate and had a lot of submenus. I also believe after the redesign it became really good and crisp. Am I correct?

Also what key features were removed? I'm just very curious since this is one of the few times I get to talk to a game developer (not director or producer). Being a developer myself (not games), it's also interesting to see the dynamics before a product hits shelves.

[NullUnit2000]

I have to say, the interface turned out pretty sexy. The goal was always to make it so that any screen in the game was no more than two clicks away. While we were able to stick to that, the sure amount of information the player could access was a bit over whelming.

When features were cut from the game the side effect was that many of the screens had to be redesigned to reflect the changes. Basicly it was an unintentional second pass. The up side being that, yes, the UI (user interface) came out looking much cleaner and easier to use.

As for the stuff that was cut, we have the official cut list (http://moo3.quicksilver.com/official/cutlist.html) up on the MOO3 web site.

For further info you may want to chack out the MOO3 Forums (http://www.ina-community.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=224). There are several team members who post there. Plus the comments and speculations of some of the fans can be down right entertaining.