What space sim most closely resembles MOO2?

from Stardock Forums
Some friends of mine and I absolutley love MOO2, and still spend many hours playing it. I have very limited time to play games, and would really appreciate some input from the forum as to which of the space sims currently available could be considered as "good" upgrade to MOO2?

Our favorite aspect of MOO2 was shipbuilding, and the combat screen. Transporters, ship stealing, etc.

Thanks in Advance!

:)
564 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
I only ever checked out the demo (and didn't care for it) but I believe Space Empires IV is probably the closest thing out there to MoO2.
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
GalCiv is what me and alot of others really consider MOO3 - however, exactly the parts you mentioned have been removed (no custom ship designs & no real animated combat). Aside from that however, it's a very great game. MOO3 has both, however it is VERY different from MOO2, it is ridiculed with an insane amount of bugs, and the produces don't seem to care at all about their customers, so I would highly discourage spending money on it.
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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Definitely Space Empires IV.
It's massive... in terms of everything. Ship options, techs, etc, etc... micromanagement...

Not as fun I found as galciv though.
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Space Empires IV is a lot of fun. It has tons of options in terms of what you can build--from ground troops, to satellites, fighters, mines, base stations, etcetera. One thing I really like about Space Empires IV is that all the systems are separated from each other by warp points. This lets you build bottleneck-type defenses until you gain the ability to build your own worm holes.

Another cool feature of Space Empires IV is the ability to "Mod" everything. In fact, I woud imagine that the ability to "mod" Gal Civ and/or the infamous MOO3 was largely because of the success of SEIV.

The single player AI of SEIV is nowhere near the quality of Gal Civ. I wouldn't even say the AI is as good as that in MOO2. But, on the other hand, SEIV has very good multiplayer support. The gaming community has setup a PBW (Play be Web) server that is absolutely incredible. Even as awesome as I expect the Gal Civ AI to be at the toughest levels, there just isn't any comparison to playing against real live people. (Of coruse, you can play a game of Gal Civ in a large galaxy or smaller in just one day whereas a PBW game of SEIV will typically go just one turn per day.)
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
one turn per day?
did i read that right?
what, a game lasts several months?

how come i've never heard of this game or this company for that matter?
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
I didn't like the warp point part of SE4. Once you get that battlestation built on the 2-3 points to your space the game is over. I never had the computer even drop the shields on a battlestation, but they kept throwing away ships every turn trying.

I haven't found a successor to Moo2, Galciv is good, but it's more Civ than Moo.
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
MOO 3 is a great game. The data patch is out and the code patch is due in the next week or so. Most of the so called bugs are due to "this pos doesn't do what I want it to do so there must be something wrong with it". It's a common syndrome these days. I play MOO 3 every day and its is a brilliant game with so much depth and variety it's almost unbelievable. Go visit the forums now that all the 'short attention span whiners' have found something else to knock. BTW the developers are on line with update news almost on a daily basis, even on Good Friday!! MOO 3 and GalCiv compliment each other. I play both and luv 'em to death!!

~SDC~
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
Space Empires IV is distributed by Shrapnel Games and is available online only. It was originally a shareware game that has grown and grown and grown. Yeah, play by email at one turn a day seems a little slow to me as well. But Space Empires IV has about a gazillion more options for play than Gal Civ. On the other hand, with all those options, the single player AI just doesn't exist. If you want the ultimate game to play against other people, Space Empires IV is the game that sets the standard. Check out: http://www.shrapnelgames.com

With respect to Master of Orion III, does anyone know if they have plans to improve the combat mode. The number one problem I had with the game was the combat mode. Back in MOO1 and MOO2, when two scouts or unarmed colony ships met, the combat would last a second or two before the AI ship retreated. In MOO3, if I remember correctly, the combat takes the full 10 minutes while you watch the ships circle each other shouting insults at each other. I rebooted my computer so many times rather than wait 10 useless minutes watching this happen. I never even got to the point in the game where you discover that the game has no AI.