One time called Master of Orion Gold, another time known as Master of Antares, Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares is the final name of the sequel to the classic Microprose/SimTex game of space exploration and empire building. Still a great game, Microprose has taken the original Master of Orion (MOO) and expanded it greatly with things like multi-player options, new races (and custom races), more detailed colony design, Master of Magic-like heroes (planetary governors and ships' officers), new, more involved ships and technology, and a new threat to the galaxy in the form of the Antarans, a xenophobic race from another dimension).
The story behind MOO2 is basically the same as that behind the originalûgamers become the emperor of one of several pip-squeak empires looking to expand its elbow-room. Gamers start with one planet, a handful of ships, and a whole lot of galaxy to explore and conquer. As before they will allocate resources, build up fleets, explore, colonize, deal with alien races, and in general try to come out at the top of the galactic star heap. New to the game are the Antarans, an advanced and very xenophobic race from another dimension. At some point during the game the Antarans will start punching wormholes through and dropping into our galaxy. At first they'll be a bother, attacking ships (anyone's ships) with their scouts. Eventually they'll become a crisis and even a dire threat to all the empires in the galaxy. Adventurous emperors can, with the right technology, bring the fight to the Antaran dimensionûdefeat them and one will gain the benefits of their advanced and specialized knowledge. Of course, the lost planet of Orion and its unforgettable Guardian are still out there somewhere, waitingûthe gamer who can get Orion and its technologies will fare much better against the Antarans.
The first thing you'll notice about MOO2 is its prettier face. Graphics are now in SVGA and look gorgeous. The galactic screen glitters, and the maps for the individual systems are very detailed. The user interface is spruced up some, and because of the higher resolutions looks neater than before, but shouldn't cause any old MOO gamers too much trouble. Displays like the reduced galaxy map and fleet movement screens are now windows (displayed over the main galaxy display) which can be moved and resized. An on-line help system will provide information on technologies and help with procedural questions on actions such as colony creation or troop movement. Despite these improvements, the hardware requirements shouldn't be too stringentûgamers may even be able to play the game (if not some animations) just fine on a lower-end 486 (but this remains to be seen).
Perhaps the most welcome new feature to MOO2 is the addition of multi-player options. Via either hot-seat, serial null-modem, dial-up, or network up to eight players can compete against each other. Computer-controlled players (and the vicious Antarans) will help add spice to the mixture. While no specific handicapping features will be included, the ability to customize races can be used to give experienced players weaker races and newer players stronger ones. "Strategic" ship combat can be used to have the computer manage all ship design and to calculate the results of a meeting of fleets (useful for speeding up multi-player games), or gamers can choose to slog it out at a tactical level.
The ten original MOO races are still represented, and are basically the same. MOO2 adds three new races: the Elerians, a matriarchal warrior society; the Gnolams, dwarf-like traders; and the Trilarians, aquatic telepaths. Players will also be able to create custom races, adjusting such factors as spying, science, government type (MOO2 now has four different types), and special abilities like lucky (the race doesn't suffer from galactic disasters, and has a better chance of benefiting from good ones), warlord (crews start at higher experience levels, and may become ultra-elites), and repulsive (makes it hard to deal with other races).
Colony development has been greatly expanded in MOO2. First off, systems can now contain more than one planet or asteroid belt, and each planet can be colonized by a different race (making for a very delicate situation in that planet). Worlds can be tiny (Pluto-sized) to huge (Saturnine), with familiar classes like inferno, barren, or terran. Specials can occur either system-wide or on particular planets and include such items as ancient artifacts, a small space monster, pre-space flight natives that can either be killed off or integrated with, salvageable debris, etc. Players can either form a new colony on a virgin planet or take over one of their enemies' colonies. If a gamer chooses the later method, he or she needn't wipe out the other inhabitants; instead they can be given a chance to assimilate into the player's empire (although, at first, they won't do it happily). There is even a small chance that some new technology will be acquired from one of the buildings in the captured enemy colony. Depending on the level of technology reached, players will be able to build a wide array of buildings for their colonies, including such facilities as the holo simulator (increases a planet's morale), the hydroponic garden (provides food, even on lifeless worlds), and the galactic cybernet (increases research by +3 for all scientists). Because the freighter fleet (that now needs to specifically built) can move goods and supplies as well as colonists, different colonies can now specializeûa colony won't have to grow food if it can import all it needs from other colonies.
Ship design and employment is another area that has been extensively reworked. First off, in games designated as "strategic" players don't have to worry at all about the details of design; instead, technology bonuses are added to the five primary ship designs (frigate, destroyer, cruiser, dreadnought, titans, and doom stars). This feature was added with multi-player games in mindûby removing opportunities for micro-management game play is sped up. In MOO2 there are only five templates for new ship designs, but unlike the original game, existing ships of an old design are not destroyed when gamers find the need to create a new designûinstead they are kept in play until destroyed or until specifically scrapped. Ships themselves are more complex, with factors such as weapons mounts and facing, shield directions, and marines being added in MOO2. Special modifications such as heavy mounts, point defenses, autofire, and enveloping let space-admirals tailor the weapons on a design for a very specific mission (a more useful option than in the original as players can build a number of the specialized ships then scrap the design without scrapping the ships). Many special systems can be added (up to six), including old familiars such as the cloaking device and high energy focus and such new ones as transporters and troop pods.
Ship combat occurs much as it did in the original but with some added twists. Again, if the "strategic" option was set at the beginning of the game, the computer will play out the combat automatically (much as the auto feature worked in the original, except this time around it won't even bother showing the combat animationsûinstead it will quickly run through the combat algorithmically and display the resultsûsame result, only much faster). In addition to moving, attacking, scanning, or retreating players may also attempt to board an enemy ship to either raid it (destroy key controls) or secure it for capture (or to retake a captured ship from the enemy). At the end of the battle the victorious player gets all captured ships and can either integrate them into his or her fleet or take them apart looking for new technology. Players will need to maneuver ships so that weapons with a firing arc are oriented correctly and to move the side of a ship with weakened shields away from the line-of-fire of enemy vessels.
Orbital bombardments have been modified to take into account the changes in colony formation. In general, military buildings (missile bases, stellar converters, shield generators, etc.) have a greater chance of being hit with ground troops and armor being next in line. Too much damage and a planet can be reduced to a lump of slag (particularly easy to do to smaller planets).
While the diplomacy functions of MOO2 aren't finalized, it appears that things will work pretty much the way they did in the original game. Players come into contact with races, either forming alliances with them, keeping them at a distance, or becoming openly hostile (or even a mixture)! Spying will help to keep an eye on friends and enemies alike, and may even give players an important insight into new areas of technology. Not clear at this time are the changes that will be made to the diplomatic functions to support multi-player gaming.
The whole technology tree and the functions of technology research and development have gotten a major facelift for MOO2. The tech tree will be completely visible from the start, and in general it is much less linear than before and is much more "tree-like." The empire's scientists can research over 60 individual technology fields split into eight major categories: biology, power, physics, construction, force fields, chemistry, computers, and sociology. Each field (which can be researched in any order) will give players access to one or more applications (which can be buildings, troop or spy equipment, ships and ships' systems, etc.). Most of the original MOO technologies are still in the tree, with the majority of the additions coming in the area of colony development (individual building types) and new goodies for your ships. The flexibility of the new tech tree should let gamers pursue many more strategies in building up their empires than were possible in the older game.
New to the MOO line but familiar to players of Microprose's other "Master of" game, Master of Magic, is the concept of heroes (called officers if ship-based and governors if planet-based). While not fully implemented yet, these characters could add an interesting edge to gameplay (but not providing the nearly all-powerful effects they had in MOM). Planetary governors can be brought in to shore up a failing or weak colony, and officers can pump up the effectiveness of a ship they are on (they are apparently a big help when sending a fleet up against the Guardian of Orion or the Antarans). While officers and governors are pretty long-lived (they don't age), they can be killed in combat or under bombardment. Advanced technologies like cloning and escape pods, however, can help ensure that they live to fight (or administrate) another day.
This summary barely scratches the surface of all the additions, tweaks, and changes made to the MOO. While it appears that there are no radical changes in the game system (after all, why mess with a good thing?), Master of Orion 2: Battle at Antares looks to have added enough to please both new wet-behind-the-ears emperors and the old war horses.
