After the bashing MOO3 has taken, I think I will save my money for Galciv. I can always get MOO3 in the used bin in a Month or Two.

I didn't like it either. IMO, it's a CAVG : Computer Aided Video Game. IA manages all for you, except Diplomacy (which is bad) and Spying.
I want to micromanage my colonies, my research, my ships, my planets, not just watch them from an Emperor chair. I don't like 4x games that can be played like a football (soccer) team management game : look at numbers, one click or two, then "next turn".

Entilzar.

The game was(sorry to say this)pathetic.However i liked the diplomacy.Sigh...back to botf for me until galciv comes out.

I am a major MOO fan and have been playing MOO3 heavily. It has nice things about it but it falls far short of what it promised and is missing key features of MOO2. I am hoping the AI will be improved (totally redone?) and other items such as refitting ships. Also the fleet function for deploying ships is a pain the the butt. It had and has a lot of potential, but it is burried under problems. (:(

Moo3 was how to put this nicely...extremely boring, buggy and ugly

It's probably evil to suggest this, but anyone who thinks there's a better alternative to MOO 3 could suggest something else as an alternative at http://www.amazon.com/o/tg/stores/detail/-/videogames/B00005Y4Q0/advice/

(hint: GalCiv's ASIN is B0000899ZX ;-))

he he

Gah, let's try that again: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005Y4Q0/