Master of Orion hasn’t been front and centre on most people’s radar for quite a while. It’s a shame for such a classic property, but it appears as though Wargaming is ready to put it back on the map again.
The revelation came courtesy of a series of emails I had with Wargaming’s PR representatives. Typically, as a member of the press, I’ll receive a swath of those whenever a new patch is released or a launch is happening. You know, the usual things you would expect PR staffers to send to writers, journos and freelancers.
With Wargaming, it’s typically about World of Tanks, although World of Warships has gotten more focus of late. But as everyone prepares their schedule for PAX Australia, one note in the round of otherwise unremarkable communiqués stuck out: Master of Orion.
It’s not clear what kind of specifics Wargaming will announce at PAX Australia. What we already know is that some of the former SimTex team have been consulting on the reboot at Wargaming’s office in Austin, Texas.
The core of development is being handled by NGD Studios in Argentina, whose previous titles include Finn and Jake’s Epic Quest, Bunch of Heroes and Champions of Regnum. Out of those three, Bunch of Heroes is the only one I directly remember (Finn and Jake’s obviously being related to Adventure Time), having played a couple of hours co-op with my housemate a few years ago.
None of them immediately scream 4X cred, but it’ll be interesting to see what Wargaming has to say about the IP. What would you like to see them do with the Master of Orion reboot?
Comments
17 responses to “Wargaming Wants To Talk About Master Of Orion At PAX Australia”
Please no F2P.
Agreed, I couldnt think of a better way to ruin that style of game.
You mean ruin it more than MoO3 already did?
Wargaming
no F2P
*Error* Does not compute
It’s Wargaming so I’d be more surprised if it wasn’t F2P.
You must be joking if Wargamming is going to ask us to play this version of Master of Orion. It is an Epic fail already without Tactical combat. If they believe they can even pay us to play it, I will throw it out the window, or even waste my time with it. Tactical combat add depth to the game.
This game is already heading toward the MOO3 path and definitely crossing out on my list of game to be purchase this year.
@alexwalker: do you know if they’ve announced any of their other plans for PAX AU yet? Last few years it’s been tanks tanks tanks, but I recently have gotten way into World of Warships so I’m curious if they’re planning on having anything relevant to that there.
Nothing specific, but I can ask.
Super curious because they’re adding a full German cruiser and Russian destroyer tech tree into the game mid-October and I think PAX AU will be the first convention they’re at after that, so timing would be right for potentially having something new to announce.
So the response: you’ll be able to play World of Warships on the show floor. Other than that, nothing special.
Missing a golden opportunity to debut HMAS Australia in Australia. 😛
Oh man that would be so cool!
It’d slot in fairly well and it’s just a County-class Heavy Cruiser which they’ll almost definitely be adding when they get around to the Royal Navy so it’s not like it’d be wasted effort making the model.
Do we really think Wargaming cares that much about Australian players? I mean we are still stuck on a non-English speaking server and get the butt end of any deals or specials on the premium shop. I honestly dont think Australia is on Wargamings radar at all.
@player_one7: no, I don’t think they care at all. It’d be nice though.
F$#@ YES! MoO2 is my favourite game of all time – the pinnacle of space-based 4X games.
I mention this every time the discussion about franchises ready for rebooting comes up – MOO is begging for one. The core mechanics are near-flawless, so don’t need much tweaking. Overhaul the graphics, keep the gameplay nearly unchanged, but fix the minor quibbles with MOO2’s gameplay, namely;
Expand the build queue – this was pretty frustrating, since when you started/captured a new colony you could only queue like, 8-9 build orders
Bring in saved build queues – again, starting new colonies there’s always a list of core buildings you want – being able to just click one button once you colonize and get the building going would cut down alot of the fuss people had with excessive micro-management in MOO2
Balance the tech tree better – Sure, once you hit the endgame there were more possibilities (although the ol’ time-warp facilitator / phasing cloak was too damn good), but the reality was that the aim of the game was basically expand as fast as possible, research tier-3/4 chemistry, and then pump out cruisers packed to the brim with MIRV nukes. This was so effective that there was literally no other early/mid-game strategy that was viable. Likewise, some of the tech was absolutely worthless… so better balance there would be nice.
Improve the graphics, but keep a similar style – Don’t fix what ain’t broke. The UI was great, just overhaul it with a modern graphics engine.
Make diplomacy more impactful – It was a bit hit-and-miss in MOO2 – sometimes you could demand super-important tech from a neutral race and they would hand it over no worries, other times you would ask for an innocent-seeming piece of tech from a race that you were in an alliance with, and they would immediately cancel the alliance and launch an all-out attack on you. Make it more consistent, make it have more of an impact on the game.
Tactical invasions I think having more control over planetary invasions would be amazing! You’ve got the framework there already (it’s just a space battle on the ground!), but would add a whole new dimension to it! In MOO2 you just hit invade and skipped through the battle, since you had no influence on it. Also, being able to target orbital bombardments might be nice (maybe add it as a part of spying, giving you intel on where facilities on the planet are so you can bombard them prior to invading).
Expand on spying I loved the espionage aspect of MOO2, so would like to see it rise in prominence. I already suggested collecting intel on planets might be a start, but maybe adding a levelling system to your spies, with higher level spies able to target particular facilities for sabotage or steal particular tech? Not sure if it would work, but worth looking at.
More leaders! A limit of 4 plantery governors and 4 fleet leaders? For a galactic empire? Naaaaaah. Add it into the sociology part of the tech tree, with research allowing you to unlock more leaders for your planets and fleets.
That’s all I have the time for now, but like I said, 95% of the mechanics of the game don’t need to be changed. Just tweak what’s there, overhaul the graphics, and you will have a bona-fide masterpiece.
I don’t see how that works with a free to play model. I guess we could charge for planetary leaders if you want more the the original 2 (Although you can grind for more as well)
Cash shop speed ups for build queues, great idea
I know what you’re trying to do, and I am going to take the high ro…..
HOW DARE YOU THIS CANNOT BE A F2P GAME I WON’T ALLOW IT DON’T YOU EVEN THINK IT