Version History [1] Notes [2] Personal Notes [2-1] Acknowledgements [2-2] Introduction to the Game [3] For Players new to the Series [3-1] For Players of MOO2 [3-2] Starting a New Game [4] The Main Menu [4-1] Game Options [4-1a] Choosing a Race (including customization) [4-2] Game Settings [4-3] Playing the Game [5] Your first couple of Turns [5-1] Micro versus Macro [5-2] Colonizing [5-3] Colony Ships [5-3a] Outpost [5-3b] Acquiring Colonies from the enemies [5-3c] Important Specials [5-3d] All those tabs! [5-4] Spying [5-5] Task Forces [5-6] Victory [5-7] Combat [6] Custom Ships [6-1] Space Combat Task Forces [6-2] Ground Combat Task Forces [6-3] Options before Combat [6-4] Stats, Techs, and Numbers [7] Preset Race Modifiers [7-1] Magnate Race Modifiers [7-2] Initial Diplomacy Modifiers [7-3] Antaran X Benefits [7-4] Multiplayer [8] LAN Games [8-1a] IP Games [8-1b] GameSpy Games [8-1c] Playing a Multiplayer Game [8-2] FAQ [9] Mods and Links [10] Copyright Info [11]
=============================================================================== Version History [1] ===============================================================================
Version 0.7 * Changed section separators; extended and improved upon sections 5-1, 5-2, 5-3; removed redundant questions from FAQ; corrected an error in the race modifiers; change mod link as Orion Sector is no longer hosting mods, allowed GameNation to post FAQ. Version 0.6 * Updated FAQ portion, incorporated List of racial modifiers, moved some FAQ questions to appropriate sections, created sections for Starting a Game, Playing the Game, Combat, Multiplayer, Stats and Links. Posted while sections are incomplete as requested. Version 0.5 (3/3/03) *First version. Contains on basic questions and some thoughts and opinions on game play and advice. Lots of planned places for more information.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Personal Notes [2-1] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have not yet beaten the game. I have played a couple of different races and galaxy settings. As such, I still don't have any notes on how to win the game at this point in time. However, what I do have is some good general tips, some of the common questions from the official board, the GameFAQs board, and some other fan boards I have visited. I plan on extending this FAQ and adding some more of the technical behind the scenes details and hints and tips as they come up and come to my attention.
I have chosen to use [#-#] as an easy way for people to find the section they are looking for. Something I personally hate in other FAQs is the inability to search for information easily. This work is copyrighted by me, and is only able to be displayed online at , , and . If anyone wants to contact feel free to e-mail me . I will not reply to flames, "I hated this game", "You are stupid" or other juvenile responses. I appreciate any corrections, both regarding grammatical and informational errors. If you have a tip that you want included, go ahead and send it. I promise to acknowledge you.
I would like to thank my husband who preordered the game for me for Valentine's Day 2003. I would also like to thank Clan Orko for turning me on to the MOO series in the first place. I would also like to thank the hardworking programmers, design team and quality assurance testers at Quicksilver and Infograms for providing the game. Finally, the people who post both questions and answers on the board have been great. I tried to make sure to give credit where credit was due. If you think I didn't credit you, let me know.
=============================================================================== Introduction to the Game - Thoughts and Overview [3] ===============================================================================
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For Players new to the Series [3-1] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Master of Orion III is a turn-based strategy (TBS) game. This means you will have a turn to do a certain number of things, deal with repercussions of past choices and plan for the future. Some things will take many turns to complete and some things will happen the next turn.
You are playing a higher power controlling a galactic empire. You start with one colony and a few simple ships and you want to nurture you empire into the best that is out there. Either by killing all the competition or convincing them you really are the best. There is another way to win: By finding five secret Antaran X technologies, but this is generally pretty hard to do and takes a long time. There is a lot of neat back story that is worth reading for any player, but it doesn't really affect gameplay all that much. Your main opponents will be the New Orions, who start out technologically advanced and have control of the senate. There will be other races vying to become the most technologically advanced, but they are more on your level. This does not mean you should ignore them, only know that they should generally be below you. Use them and abuse them to gain colonies, technology and money to help in your overall fight.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For Players of MOO2 [3-2] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
While this is Master of Orion III, and therefore follows Master of Orion I and II, it is not the same as either one of them. Just like there were tons of changes in both looks and gameplay between MOOI and MOOII, so are there between MOOIII. Those of you going in and expecting to find a more graphically pretty version of MOOII with some updates are going to be disappointed. This game is a completely new game, and should be treated as such.
The team at Quicksilver wanted to redesign MOO for many reasons. I'm not going to pretend I know all of them. However, one thing that was high on their list was to really have a view of controlling a galactic empire. This is no easy task. A galactic empire has billions to trillions worth of population to consider yourself with. You could have anywhere from 1 to 150 systems, which can have 1-8 colonized planets. This generally doesn't happen, as you don't want to colonize everywhere, but you can easily have 100 colonized planets in late game. Do you really want your later turns to take over two hours to complete as you try to view each planet and give them orders? I sure don't. So, Quicksilver introduced the Viceroy and gave the players the option to automate much of the play. Which is representative of how an empire should be run. Each colony shouldn't need the emperor's individual attention. Only the ones having problems, the newly acquired ones and special production centers should see regular visits from the Emperor.
Many of the interfaces have changed. There is no more corny Galactic News Network announcements (for good or ill). Your scientists and spies no longer graphically tell you what they have discovered. There is the Situation Report (SitRep) instead. While this gives lots of good information, many people complain that it is too abstract and they lost the feeling of connection with their people.
You can no longer specifically choose what technology you want to research. You have to set goals (a little like Alpha Centari Blind) and just hope you are going down the right path. And you no longer get specific information about how these technologies will affect your colonies in their description. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as you have the general idea and the emperor wouldn't understand every piece of technology his scientists discover in reality. I realize many players want this information in statistics, and I will endeavor to find and post those.
I personally found the back story very intriguing and I thought it was a neat way to connect all three games in the MOO series. Some people disagree and think it sucks to have the mystique of the races removed and to know about the genetic experimentation, but I think it's a good thing.
=============================================================================== Starting a New Game [4] ===============================================================================
Please do not expect this FAQ to take the place of the manual and in-game help. It is not meant to do that. I highly recommend you read the manual and Readme.txt in addition to this FAQ. I try to note where my information is more up to date than the manual. Also, take advantage of the in game encyclopedia (which can be easily modded, see section [10]) and the Master's Notes. Yes, I know, they are confusing but they do have helpful information.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Main Menu [4-1] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When you first load the game (after watching the pretty cinematic) you have a couple of choices. Obviously you can dive right in and start a new game [4-2] or you take some time to setup the options. Once you've played a game, it is from this screen that you can load an old game or just start a new one with all the same settings as the last. You can also start a multiplayer [8] game from this screen or quit the game.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Game Options [4-1a] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here you can set your Music, sound and graphics preferences. However, something very important are the Reminders. Reminders: I personally think the incorporation of the reminders is a good idea. It helps me return to reality as this game is easy to lose oneself in, just like its predecessors. And they are pretty unobtrusive in the game.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Choosing a Race and customizing [4-2] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The first thing you have to do when you start a new game is pick your race. See below [Section 7-1] for information on each specific race. Every race has inherent settings that you cannot change or choose from the customization screen. Some races also don't allow certain customization choices. In addition, each race will also have a set of planets that are "perfect" or the special spot. This is also not changeable. But each race does have a little description and a box that tells you the four highlights of that race's strengths and weaknesses. The four strengths and weaknesses are adjustable. Just click on the customize race button. This will take you to a screen where you can change the different bonuses your race will have. Since each race was already customized, changing those options will either take points or give you points to spend elsewhere. You can start the game with points left over, and it will translate into a percentage increase of your score. You cannot, however, start the game with negative points.
Once you have your race and any customization, you can just start the game now right? Well, no not quite.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Game Settings [4-3] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is in your game settings that you can adjust how hard or easy or what style of game to play.
If you like lots of random events (good & bad) go ahead and choose a high frequency of Specials.
Picking how many enemies is an important choice. Too few and you will have trouble finding allies, but many have less wars and easier colonization. Too many and you will be fighting from the get go, but you are more likely to have more friends. This is also coupled with how large of a galaxy you choose. Keep in mind the New Orions do not count in the number of enemies, so there will be X+1 computer opponents.
The turn length is important. If you have unlimited turn length, you're budgeting will be a little off as each turn is roughly 1.5 cycles, which makes no sense to me, but whatever. If you have a set turn length you may find yourself with not enough time to complete all actions in a turn. I recommend unlimited for beginning player to get used to the interface and setup.
The difficulty level is important as it sets the intelligence of the AI. I have only played on Easy, but I'm a wimp and prefer to win.
The number of combats per turn is unclear to me at this time. I don't know if they mean you can only have 6 space combats per turn, or if the number includes all space and planetary and ground. I suspect it means # of space combats, other combats are included in that number. The combat turn length in only for space combats. I find the default of 10 min to be plenty of time.
The size of your galaxy will have a major effect on your game. The Armed galaxies have a core and then edges. The edges are not in the senate and are harder to colonize as they are farther apart. The core, however, will be crowded and easier to scout. The Clusters are more circular, which means more ways to get around and more back-end entrances to enemy territory. Each galaxy type also has a max # of stars. They are not in smallest to largest order, they are sorted by type, then size.
I think a medium cluster with 6-8 opponents on easy, few specials, unlimited turn length, six combats per turn, and 10 minute combat limit is a good beginner setup.
TIP (from Micky Murgo): To get a feel for practice controlling your planets really well, start in a small cluster galaxy with 8+ opponents. Sounds hard doesn't it? At least on easy, not really. Generally you will out tech everyone and will be able to get powerful ships sooner. In addition, if you start as a member of the Orion senate you can get lots of treaties (which boost your economy and research) and alliances. You also don't have as many star systems, but you can colonize by taking over other races planets, to get some of their specials and use it against them. Because you are dealing with so few planets (overcrowded game) you can really get to know the ins and outs of dealing with planets while not worrying about over expanding.
=============================================================================== Playing the Game [5] =============================================================================== This is mainly an overview. I will discuss possible strategies, but there are a lot of races and many different types of players. Pick what suits you and experiment. After all, that's part of the fun of playing a game, right?
General Tips: *Make a system defense ship or a planetary shield as your first military project in all new systems (sometimes overriding the Viceroy). Pick whichever one has less production points. This will get your piracy under control ASAP. Or you can just stick a single ship there, perhaps an obsolete one. *Set Migration to all of your new colonies until they are at 5-7 population (early game, late game 15-19). This is done under the Planets Tab. You can also Set Migration to Outpost planets (less than 1000 pop) to decrease the time until they become a full colony. *Watch your food (minerals too if playing Mekklar, Cynoids, or just minerals for Silicoids) to make sure your population isn't starving. *Watch your spending. You don't gain interest on a balance, like the manual says, but you do get charged interest for a deficit. I prefer keeping a small (-30->100 AU) negative balance because I'm still earning +60 from the last turn and only getting charged 3-4 AU each turn, which is worth it to me to have more funds for research and grants.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your first couple of turns [5-1] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When you start a game you will have one planet with a decent population, a couple of DEAs, 2 scout ships, 3 system defense ships and a colony ship. I recommend sending your 2 scouts to the closest systems for scouting and colonizing any green or special spot in your home system with the colony ship on your first turn.
For the next couple of turns you'll have a lot of sitting and waiting, less if you are a member of the Orion Senate. If you are member of the Orion Senate, you will want to start cultivating those diplomatic relationships. The sooner you get trade relationships and research relationships, the better off you'll be. In addition, you'll be laying the foundation for full alliances, which are very important in this game as you can end up fighting 5 races just because you declared war on 1 race with 4 full allies. Much better to have that go the other way around.
During this time you'll be scouting with your scout ships. If you enter a system with a Guardian, take control of the combat and immediately retreat. You're ship will retreat to the last system visited. Note the system where the Guardian is so you can avoid it until you can take it on. The map will NOT mark it for you. I note the name of a nearby system and the color of the star where the Guardian is so I can avoid it.
Your viceroy will probably be trying to build a colony ship of some kind and/or another scout ship. This is just fine, although you can speed this up if you want through micromanagement [see 5-2] or change the priority of colonization versus exploration. If there is another green/sweet spot in your home system, consider building a system colony ship as they are cheaper than a colony ship (no warp drive) so you get another colony faster. If there are no other green worlds in your home system (and you still have your original colony ship) then step up the scout ship production to find some good planets quickly. On the other hand, if you were able to colonize a planet you might want to just start building another colony ship as your scouts should be able to find something by the time it builds (they take a while early on). The idea here is to colonize the good worlds first and out-expand the other empires. This will help you later on as you'll have more planets to produce from and more votes in the Orion Senate. However, be careful not to over-expand. If you have too many planets you may lose some to starvation or to warlike enemies.
Some other things you'll want to take care of during your first couple of turns (no matter what style of play you are focusing on) is to set your technological goals [see #-#] and your budgetary stances [see #-#]. A general tip is to concentrate on Biological and Social Sciences if you're not in the Orion Senate so that you can develop your colonies quickly and expand. If you are in the Orion Senate, Physical Sciences and Energy are good to keep ahead in the arms races and Social Sciences can help with the many spies you will receive.
I also recommend getting spies started training during your first 2-3 turns. But be warned, this is an unplanned budgetary expense, so try to leave at least a 100 AU surplus the turn you first request training to start or you'll find yourself severely in debt. If I'm in the Orion Senate, I start training spies on turn 1, if I'm not, I wait until turn 3 so that I can concentrate on early development. But the timing is up to you.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The SitRep [5-1a] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
During your first couple of turns get used to using the SitRep. It is very handy. On the other hand, there are things it won't tell you and sometimes there are things you'll wish it wouldn't tell you.
The first thing to understand is that you can filter the SitRep. I don't think the filters are the best in the world, but there is something to be said for being able to shorten this late game.
Red Items: These are very important. Tech breakthroughs that result in positive overruns, tech that will be running late, responses to diplomacy offers, new spies and unrest problems will show up under this setting.
Yellow Items: All DEA and DEA improvement upgrades, all planetary & military construction, non-positive overrun techs availabilities and prototypes, slight unrest problems, colony founding, enemy/offensive/defensive spy activity and planetary migration will show up here.
Green Items: Task Force deployment, task force delay, tech level breakthroughs, and new techs available to view will show up here.
You can also filter just to see/hide Tech Breakthroughs or Task Force Creation.
There are certain things you cannot filter away. Declarations of War, results of any combats, Antares X Mission reports (losing a ship, task force loss, change in status) and landing of a colony ship (whether or not it makes a fully colony) will always show up with an opaque background.
I tend to leave them all on then sort by type rather than level as I disagree with the red/yellow/green levels. I will also do a quick scan of it all (even in late game with over 40 lines) to make sure I don't miss anything. And then there are turns where I just don't care, so I only check red items and spy activity. How you use the SitRep is up to you, but you should use it. There is a lot of information there and if you are playing a macromanage style you need some of this information to maintain your empire.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Micro versus Macro [5-2] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You'll want to decide early on (at least by Turn 10, but as early as Turn 1, though you can change through out the game) whether you want to Micromanage or Macromanage your empire. Micromanaging means that you don't trust your Viceroy at all will deal with every little thing that comes up. Macromanagement means you trust your Viceroy completely and only want to deal with the larger things like diplomacy, wars, and general empire goals. I tend to do a combo of both.
If you want the Viceroy to stay out of your business, go to your Planet's development screen and uncheck the "Planet Econ AI" box under your economics tab. You will need to do this for every planet you colonize/take over if you want to control that planets development. You will be responsible for setting the econ sliders [see #-#], designating Military and Planetary build queues [see #-#], setting the planetary tax, and planning the DEAs to be built on every world. If you don't set something they won't do it. If you need something to be changed, you have to go in and change it. It is a lot of responsibility and a lot of work and I don't recommend it unless you like 30 minutes turns and are very knowledgeable about the behind the scenes calculations the game does. I don't do nearly as well when I over control as when I let the Viceroy do some things.
If you don't want to deal with your colonies on a personal level, let the Viceroy handle it. Be sure to set-up Development Plans [see #-#] for Important planet types (New, Frontier, Secondary, All Planets, Mineral Rich, Unrest, Starving, etc.), designate your Regional Zoning [see #-#] so that the desired DEAs get built, and turn on auto-colonization [see #-#]. The viceroy will take care of everything as best he can. He'll develop your worlds, colonize new ones, build ships and ground troops, fund research, terraform, and set planetary tax rates as well as he can given the information you supply him with. Sure, you might end up with 100 troop ships. Sure, one of your planets might be starving because the Viceroy didn't build any bioharvest DEAs. Sure, unrest will run rampant as the Viceroy refuses to build military/recreation/government DEAs (unless you are running a Balanced Zoning). But that's all good right? As I said before, I tend to do a combo.
My personal combo is the following: I designate all DEAs on all of my planets on the turn they become a full colony. This way, I know what's being built where and I can set long term plans. I don't trust the Regional Zoning to do a good job. I also set the military queue for all new planets, and whenever I'm in the middle of a war or I feel I need something fast. The Viceroy tends to build too many troop ships for my taste so I nip that in the bud by watching the military queues. You can also prevent the troop ship build up by marking that design obsolete in the Shipyards panel, but the Viceroy will just find something else to build too many of, so I just pay attention to the queues. I will admit its a lot of work, and sometimes I just ignore a planet too long and the Viceroy sneaks something in. I leave the econ sliders alone, unless I want to rush a job. I leave the Planetary build queue alone too because I find the Viceroy does a good job there. I set up only a few Development plans, but one of my mainstays is: All Planets; Infrastructure: Tertiary. This way I guarantee that my colonies will have the most up to date improvements for their DEAs ASAP, which means more efficient colonies more quickly.
Other combos I've heard about include Microing everything for the first 50 turns to get a good empire going and then only microing the new planets, turning the more developed ones over to the Viceroy. Its up to you. Find your balance.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Colonizing and Expanding [5-3] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: I play with Autocolonization Off, so all of my notes reflect this method.
Expanding your empire is a necessary part of playing MOO3. If you don't expand you become stagnant and able to be easily conquered (witness the New Orions). In addition you will have fewer planets to build a navy from, which means longer ramping times. Finally, your votes in the Orion Senate are based on your population. No population = no vote. So, now that you know how important it is, lets look at how to do it effectively.
There are 7 ways to gain a new colony in this game. They are via system colony ships, via starship colony ships, via outposts, random migration of your people, via conquering an enemy planet, gaining a planet as part of a demand or tribute from another race, and the special "Splinter Colony." Each of these methods are discussed below.
For now, lets talk about what are the best places to colonize. Each planet you know about has a survey done on it. This will tell you many things about the planet, and help you decide if you want a colony there or not. The first thing to pay attention to is the desirability of the planet. This desirability range is (from better to worse): Paradise, Sweet Spot, Green I, Green II, Yellow I, Yellow II, Red I, Red II. The desirability affects not only how well your population can manage once the colony is established (building maintenance, population growth, DEA effectiveness) but how easily you can settle a planet. Paradise, Sweet Spot and Green planets allow the full complement of your colonists to land. This means that if you send a colony pod bearing ship, 1000 colonists will drop to establish a full colony. If you send an outpost pod bearing ship, 250 colonists will drop, giving you a quarter of a population. However, when landing on a yellow planet only half of the population will survive to establish an outpost/colony. This means that 1 colony pod is only worth 500 population, and an outpost pod is only worth 125 population. You can solve this problem by building bigger ships that carry more than one pod. A Red Planet is even worse, however. Only a quarter of population from a pod will survive the trip down (250 for colony, 60 for an outpost) and the maintenance costs are prohibitive. Still, sometimes its worth it, and terraforming is always an option.
Other important considerations for colonies are the Fertility rating (a rough guess at how many regions will support a bioharvesting DEA), the Mineral Abundance (rough guess at how many mountains there are and the effectiveness of Mining DEAs), the biodiversity (affects Bioharvest DEAs and Research DEAs), the size (how many regions the planet has and how much population it can support) and the gravity (which affect maintenance costs and ground combat if different from native), and of course the specials (see 5-3d and 10 for a mod listing). Good specials include Magnate Race (ALWAYS COLONIZE, no matter what the desirability see 5-3d for more info), Rare Gems, Ancient Artifacts, etc. Bad specials include Active Volcanoes, Ancient Battle Damage, Pollution, Hostile anything, Erratic anything, etc.
Sometimes a Mineral Rich Yellow II planet can be worth colonizing if you need minerals, or a Green Planet with Active Volcanoes worth skipping depending on your empire's needs and desires.
Colonizing via System Colony ships and Star Colony ships are very similar, so we treat them together. If you find a planet in a star system that is not a colony of another race, you can colonize it via a Colony Ship. If the planet is in the same system as another colony you have, it is in your best interest to build a system colony ship from that planet. System colony ships, as designed, are cheaper and quicker to build than Star Colony Ships because they are smaller and have no warp drives. The only exception to this rule is if you really want to control that planet quickly and your in-system colony is still new and under development. Then building and sending a Star Colony Ship is justified. Star Colony Ships can travel the starlanes to colonize frontier worlds and newly discovered systems.
You'll notice I said building and sending. It is not enough just to build the ship. You must tell it where to go (or have autocolonization turned on and let Viceroy send the ship). There are 2 ways to send a colony ship out. The first is to pre-mark all the planets you want to colonize. In order to do this either select the planet from the system screen, click on the "Forces" tab at the bottom of your screen, and then the "Send Colony" button OR go to your Planets tab from the Galactic Screen and find the desired planet among your list (remember to filter and sort appropriately in order to easily find the planet) and select it, go to the "Orders" tab at the bottom, and then the "Send Colony" button from there. Either way you do it there will be a new icon by the planet indicating your order. When the next colony ship is built it will automatically form into a task force and head to the planet and colonize it. The other method for ordering a new colony is to build the colony ship, organize a task force [see 5-6], order the task force to system, and order the ship to colonize the planet when it gets there.
There are pros and cons to both methods. The presetting method is good because you don't waste a turn to create the task force once the ship is built and another turn once the ship arrives at the system. However, if you have many planets preset and several colony ships built, all the colony ships will head to the same planet until it is colonized, at which point all NEW ships will go to the next one while the other ships continue to the planet. Once they get there, you will receive a message in your SitRep that will let you know they tried to colonize but couldn't, so you have to go in and clear the AI order and redirect them manually. However, if you are paying attention, you can clear the AI orders before the ship arrives in the system and redirect the ship to a different potential colony. Another Con is sometimes the Viceroy decides to colonize in a different order than you would prefer. Obviously the pros to the manual method is complete control over where you are colonizing. But the con is wasting at least one turn to create the task force, more if you forget that the ship was built.
As a late game note: If you send a colony ship from a planet that contains more than one type of population, the colony ship will have both types of population when settling. And if you have planets marked for colonization, the AI will figure out which of the marked planets is best for that population and the colony ship there.
Outpost ships function similar to Star Colony ships, except that they only carry a quarter as many colonists. When a planet is settled with less than 1000 people (by any method) it become an outpost. Outposts are good just for establishing a presence in another system. In addition, outpost ships are cheaper than colony ships, so you can settle the planet and then set migration to it to speed up the colony without spending the time/money on a colony ship. There is a rumor (rumor because I haven't bothered to verify this) that if an outpost is put on a red II planet, then the full colony (if allowed to grow naturally) will come up as a yellow II planet.
Sometimes you will gain an outpost when you haven't sent a ship to that planet. This is a result of your population migrating on their own. Perhaps this new planet is good for them (ie: Magnate/Conquered race) and/or one your planets is getting full. These are hard to keep track of. The way I follow it is by using the Planets Tab, sorting by population with the Uncontrolled; Within Borders filters on. This will put any outposts you have at the top of the list. Then you can set migration to them to speed up the process. Look for the white circle around the planet to determine if you have a settlement there or just look at the orders tab to see if you can migrate there.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Acquiring Colonies from the enemies [5-3c] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are two methods of acquiring a colony from another race. First, you can demand that the race give you that planet. If you are overpowering them or are good friends or whatever, they may give it to you. I've never managed to get this to work, but then I haven't really tried.
The other way is to conqueror a planet through ground combat [see FAQ for how to do this]. If you win a ground combat, you will gain the planet with any intact developments and population.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Important Specials [5-3d] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Splinter Colonies are a one-time special that will give you a new colony the turn the system is discovered. It comes with 2-5 population and no development, but early game this can basically double your production and expansion rate.
Abandoned Colonies don't give you a new colony, but are good to settle on as you will get a research bonus.
Force Labor Specials are planets that once you have 1000 population of your colonists will start with a random amount of forced labor units who will start working on that planet for you. Note that these units can have different needs than your civilization, like more food or minerals.
Magnate Colonies are planets that once you have enough population (half or 1000, I forget) you will gain that race as part of your empire. They will auto migrate, give you ground units that are better suited for certain environments than yours, colonize other types of planets and be an active workforce for your new planet. These are totally worth getting. Check out section 7-2 for information on the Magnate Races.
Spying is a very important part of MOO3. Other empires will spy on you, which means they could steal valuable technology or destroy buildings or kill your leaders. Conversely, you can spy on them and do the same thing. I will discuss offensive spying, then defensive spying. But first, some general tips.
If start of as a member of the Orion Senate, start training spies immediately and never stop. You have contact with a large number of races and they will start sending spies against you as soon as you become more powerful than them. If you start training spies immediately, you will always have some available to you for offense and defense. If you do not start off as a member of the Orion Senate, I suggest waiting until around turn 20 to start training spies. This saves you money, which can be spent on planetary improvements and colonization, but still gets you started in time to have spies when you do make contact. Again, once you start training spies, don't ever stop.
In order to spy on other empires, you must already have contact with them. You must also have trained spies. Head to the Personnel tab, the Spies subtab and look at the right-hand side. This side consists of two more subtabs. Active and List of Spies. The Active tab will list the empires where you have active spies and how many you have in each empire. The "List of Spies" is just that, and where you activate spies for duty. In order to activate a spy, select the spy by their name and look at their stats. There will be a "Insert Agent" button, which will expand out to allow you to choose which empire to attack. The Spy will attempt to enter the Empire during the next turn. If they succeed the following turn they will attempt their mission. If they fail, they will keep trying. When entering they can be caught and then you have to wait to see if they come back or die. If the enter they will continually try to sabotage the enemy. You will get updates on their progress in your SitRep, yellow item with blue circle, near bottom of yellow items. You can pull an agent back at any time by going to the Personnel Menu and Selecting the Empire and "Recall Agents" button.
There are 6 different Types of Spies, who have different missions.
Military: These spies will sabotage building fleets, shipyard buildings and ground troop support buildings. Economic: These spies will sabotage Spaceports and other money making developments. Scientific: These spies will either steal tech or sabotage research efforts. Political: These spies will try to assassinate any leaders the enemy has. Social: These spies will create unrest in colonies to slow down production. Government: These spies will blow up government buildings of the enemy.
Other empires blowing up your buildings? Terrorizing your citizens? You can protect yourself. If you have unassigned spies, they will attempt to protect your citizens and catch spies. You can also catch spies by increasing your oppressometer. But be careful, your population may resent having you invade their personal space and become unhappy. Consider increasing your spending toward unrest to prevent production falling. After the spies are caught, reduce your oppressometer, if over maximum. Some people recommend keeping your oppressometer at max at all times, but I think that can reduce research and you don't have to do it all the time.
You can be victorious several ways, depending on what settings you chose in the setup.
If you are the sole empire active, and all others (including the New Orions) have surrendered to you, you win. This is something you cannot turn off. You must be very combat oriented to be able to win this way.
If you are elected to the Senate as President, you win (Diplomatic Victory). In order to do this, you have to have a balance of combat and diplomacy. If you have this victory marked, however, you can lose if some race other than the New Orions is elected. So, make sure to get in the Senate fast and prevent this from happening. Work on discrediting your strongest opposition and making allies out of the weaker races.
If your empire finds all five of the lost Antaran Xs (and researches them, I think) you can win. In order to do this, you must send out Expeditions. You do this from the Victory Tab. Once there, there is a subtab for the Antaran mission. You have to choose the size of the expedition and then click accept. The computer will take ships from your reserves pool at random until it has enough and sends out the expedition. There are three stages to an expedition: Outbound, Destination, Inbound. During Outbound and Inbound stages your task forces can loose ships. While at destination, it has a chance to make a partial discovery until there are 6(?) discoveries at which point you have found an X and must bring it back. Once the X is back in your empire you have the victory condition met. Researching the Xs is a good way to get some neat techs [see 7-4]
I think the best way to do this is to specifically design ships to go on these mission. They should all have research labs and be fitted with the best engines. I don't think having weapons affects the mission, so you're better of just have a lot research labs. Then, put all your normal ships that you don't want leaving (unless you have obsolete ones you'd rather send than scrap) into Task forces. You'll disband them this turn and get them back in 5 turns. But while ONLY colony, outpost, troop trans and your Antares ships are in reserves create the expedition. In order to do the Armadas remember you have to still have a Couple of Recon ships for the picket area. Then just go into your Fleets tab and disband all of your other task forces to get your ships back.
Some people recommend waiting until you have a large number of 1-2 rounds of upgrades obsolete ships to put into reserves. That way those ships are doing something useful and your newer ships won't have anyone dragging them down.
NOTE: You can still search for the Xs without this victory condition. And it's a good idea, as you get many benefits from the Xs (see section 7-4 for more info).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How do I initiate Ground Combat? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Make Infantry/Marines/etc. at a System that has a mobilization center or your home system.
2) Make sure you have a Troop Ship in reserves or make one so you'll have one.
3) Go to "Ground Force Creation" from the Galaxy screen in the system you are wanting to pull troops from.
4) Create an army of your choice from your Infantry/Marines/etc. according the rules provided.
5) Click Create Force, which will take you to your space task force creation screen.
6) It will pull as many troops ships as it needs for all of your army. If you don't have enough it won't let you accept.
7) The next turn your Troop Task force will come up.
8) Send it to the system you want to invade. There should be no enemy ships in the region, and I prefer to have a military task force there while I'm invading.
9) When you transport arrives, you will have to choose the following when the combat screen comes up:
System Combat: Control Combat/Assault Planet [if no ships in system, you will get an auto victory] NOTE: You must control the combat here to be able to land troops
Planetary Bombardment: Control Combat, again you must control here if you want to land troops. Go ahead and bombard at this point if you feel like it, to reduce the ground forces on the planet. Then choose one of the following: Land Troops or Land all Troops
Land Troops will land one of your armies. Land all Troops will land all (duh).
At this point, the troop transport that were carrying those troops will disband and head to the delay box.
Ground Combat Scheduler: I think at this point you can either let the AI handle it or do it yourself. I prefer doing it myself. And from here you can start debating the points of how to run the combat.
See pages 138-140 for the Planetary bombardment and Ground Combat screens and info.
=============================================================================== Stats, Techs, and Numbers [7] ===============================================================================
From the OrionSector Encyclopedia Mod. Which they got from the spreadsheets.
HUMAN Max Oppressometer 3 War Tolerance -1 Research Efficiency 105% Senate Effectiveness 115% Relations Bonus +25% Casus Belli Bonus +6% Ground Combat Initiative +30
EVON Max Oppressometer 3 War Tolerance -1 Research Efficiency 105% Senate Effectiveness 115% Relations Bonus +25% Casus Belli Bonus +6% Ground Combat Initiative +30
PSILON Max Oppressometer 3 War Tolerance -1 Research Efficiency 130% Senate Effectiveness 115% Relations Bonus +25% Casus Belli Bonus +6% Population Growth Penalty 10% Ground Combat Initiative +30
MEKLAR Max Oppressometer 6 Manufacturing Efficiency +40% Ground combat Initiative +10 Ground Combat Accuracy +20 Uses Bioharvest Output 50% and Mining Output 50% to Feed Population
CYNOID Max Oppressometer 6 Manufacturing Efficiency +40% Ground combat Initiative +10 Ground Combat Accuracy +20 Uses Bioharvest Output 50% and Mining Output 50% to Feed Population
SAKKRA Max Oppressometer 6 Pollution Tolerance +25% Population Growth Bonus +10% Ground Combat Initiative +10 Ground Combat Attack Strength +20
RAAS Max Oppressometer 6 Pollution Tolerance +25% Population Growth Bonus +10% Ground Combat Initiative +10 Ground Combat Attack Strength +20
GRENDARL Max Oppressometer 6 Pollution Tolerance +25% Population Growth Bonus +15% Ground Combat Initiative +10 Ground Combat Attack Strength +20
Here is the list of initial starting relations. This is how YOU see the races. If you want to know how a race feels about you, look for them and then their reaction to you. If there is no modifier, the starts off as neutral (0). So, all humanoids are neutral towards each other. (note: Thanks Thranxes)
New Orions, -20 every race. Harvestors, -150 every race except new orions, -10
Example: You are playing Psilions (Humanoid). There are the New Orions, The Harvesters, the Cynoids, the Silicoids and the Klakkon in your universe. Your starting views on these races would be as follows:
Ow... this would be a very hard game with that many races hating you at first. You would want to cultivate a relationship with the Klakkons immediately, to raise your relations and get some treaties. Then you would probably want to gift the Silicoids to raise them until you can start getting treaties, etc.
Unless you are just out to kill everyone, in which case it doesn't matter.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Antaran X Benefits [7-4] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: Must be found AND researched for benefits.
From Tentacle on the boards: Antaran X 1: Social Structure -Reduces Unrest by 7 in ALL regions -Lower Heavy Foot of Government by .75 -Raise Oppressometer upper limit by 1
Antaran X 2: Antaran Outlook -Raise Oppressometer upper limit by 1 -Increase Space Port taxes by 20% -All spy abilities increase by 1
Antaran X 3: Scientific Approach -Increases Population Research effects by 1 -Increases Overruns by 10 in all cases *From Freekill
Antaran X 4: Genetics -Increase Luck for ALL leaders and spies by 10 -Population growth +25% -Reduce terraforming costs by 20%
Antaran X 5: Antaran Mystery Solved -Improves Mining, Bioharvesting, and Manufacturing by 20% -Reduces Pollution by 50%
This section is to help people setup those Multiplayer games as the manual is next to useless. There are 3 different ways to play this game over the internet: LAN (local Area Network), IP (One player hosts and others join) and through GameSpy (GameSpy lists the games). The two easiest are LAN and GameSpy.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAN Games [8-1a] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LAN means that you and all other players are on the same Local Area Network, connected through a hub or switch. You do not have to be connected to the internet to play this way. Generally used when friends get together for a LAN Party or two friends bring their computers together for a weekend. One player creates the game, and the rest of the players join. For the Creator: Select LAN as your option, then hit create game (First box). Fill in your Player Name and you Game name, then hit create again (second box). Wait for players to request to join and allow them. You'll see a list of the players in the third box. When everyone has joined, hit Launch. Everyone picks their race and the creator picks all the Game settings (universe size, specials, etc.) For the Players: Select LAN as your option. Wait for the Creator to create the game. You should see it listed in your third box. Click on it, fill in your user name and hit "Request Join." The creator will accept or deny your request and then (if accepted) you'll be able to chat with the other players until the game is launched. Pick/customize your race and wait for the Creator to set all the settings.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IP Games [8-1b] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I haven't gotten this to work. All comments welcome!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GameSpy Games [8-1c] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are two ways to create and find games through GameSpy. You must have installed GameSpy Arcade in order to use the games hosted using this method.
Using GameSpy Arcade: Start up GameSpy Arcade. DO NOT LAUNCH MOO3. Once you've logged in, pick Master of Orion III from your list on the left. This should bring up a listing of the current games and from here you can join a game or create one. You can even password protect your games through this method if you want. Once everyone is in a game room and marked ready, the creator can launch the game, which will cause MOO3 to load and bring you directly to the multiplayer screen. DO NOT change any settings or back up, or you will lose the connection to the game. Just wait until the creator launches again from here to be able to pick your race. The Creator will be in charge of the game settings.
From in the Game: I haven't been able to join a game through the server listing, but I'm behind a firewall and didn't have the arcade installed at the time of testing. Comments Welcome!!
Playing a Multiplayer Game [8-2]
The only thing I'm putting here is THE CHAT BOX. It is hidden up a the top of your display, under your summary area. It is a small dropdown tab that you can't see unless you are looking for it. Find it, expand it down and chat that way. You cannot chat between turns and the scrolling is broken (IMO). And the box is very small. But at least its something. The chat box will be on top of all your tabs/menus, so you will have to close it occasionally.
How you chose to do a multiplayer game is up to you. If you want to play cooperatively, make sure to both be in the Orion Senate. It is the only way to guarantee the ability to have communication from the beginning.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *What are the different DEAs and what do they do? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quicksilver wanted to encourage diversification and balance. So each region can only support 2 DEAs (and a Spaceport DEA).
Each DEA increases the efficiency and amount of different points you can gain.
Farming DEAs make more food, which feed your people. They are best in Plains, Fertile (Lush) and Green areas.
Mining DEAs make more minerals, which supply your industry. They are best in Mountains. I don't think biodiversity matters, but I could be wrong.
Industry DEAs use minerals and help make more production points. They also increase your efficiency for making military and planetary installations.
Military DEAs help reduce unrest and will fight invaders. You must have a military DEA to build any military infrastructure, such as a Mobilization Center.
Government DEAs help reduce unrest. You need these to be able to build a system seat or any other government based planetary infrastructure.
Recreation DEAs reduce unrest. They benefit from biodiversity, IIRC.
Research DEAs produce test tubes, which increases your efficiency for research spending to make Research Points (RP).
Spaceport DEAs (which you can't choose to build) trade with other planets spaceports and general revenue (AU).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *What is the best race? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My first response is it depends on what type of game you want to play. Choose a race based on that. If you want to out research everyone, pick a race strong in research (or make one). The Psilons are a good choice without modifications. If you want to have a race that will just out expand everyone, pick the Klakkons. If you want to never worry about food, give the Silicoids a try (they only eat minerals, so expansion could be slow and be aware that a diplomatic victory will be hard) or the Meklar or Cynoids (they eat half food and half minerals). If you want a diplomatic victory, try the Humans or Evons.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Why aren't I getting interest on my treasury balance? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This was an errata in the manual. For a full list of the errata in the manual, read the README.TXT file or see section [#-#] of this FAQ.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *How do I turn off the Viceroy? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can turn off the Economic AI in each, individual planet screen. This will prevent the Viceroy from resetting your economic sliders as well as filling anything into the queue. I believe this also prevents him from decided which DEAs to build. However, you cannot prioritize your DEA build orders, other than through Development Plans [#-#].
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *I just got Hydroponic Farms [or other DEA improvement], how do I build them? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can't. The DEAs and Viceroy will get around building these improvements as the money (via the economic slider) is available. Also, your development plan will influence which improvements are built first.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *What do the three classifications of the regions mean? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the Planets Screen, there is a development tab where you can see a break down of each region. The first Picture by a region is an indication of terrain. There are 3 types: Mountains, Broken and Plains. In general, farms do best on Plains, farms and mines do okay on broken, and mines do best in the mountains. However, the manual indicates that certain races will have benefits that change this general rule. The second icon is an indication of the biodiversity. The greener the leaf, the more diversity. Biodiversity will help with farming, research and (maybe) mining. The third listing is an indication of how fertile the land is, ranging from barren to lush. The more fertile the land, the better the farming is.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *What are the planetary Specials? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can find them in the README.TXT file on your hard drive or on the 2nd CD of the game. I will include a listing later. NOTE: You can import a mod from to mod your encyclopedia to include the planetary specials and the racial modifiers. The current version is v3.0.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *What do I do about Unrest? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are several things that cause Unrest and several solutions. You can find out specifically what is causing your unrest in the planet's demographic tab, and the Unrest Subtab. Lets look at the different types of unrest and how to solve them.
Empire Unrest: This is most often caused by a Heavy Foot of Government (HFG), which is defined by your oppressometer (found in the Empire Tab) and racial/tech modifiers. If it is set too high, your citizens get annoyed about being watched so closely. Another cause of Empire-wide unrest is high Empire-wide taxes. The setting for the taxes is found in the Finance tab, and the [blank] subtab. A seldom cause is a recent government change. A final cause could be you have violated a law passed by the Orion senate (if you are a part of the senate), which can cause unrest.
System Unrest: Caused by too high of a system tax or pirates. You can change the system tax in the Empire tab. Pirates will plague your system if you have more colonies than ships. In order to get rid of the unrest start building a system defense ship, usually pretty cheap. You can also move an old task force to the system until the ship gets built to keep those Pirates at bay.
Colony Unrest: Caused by too high a colony tax, decrease it to help (found on the planet screen). Also, if you have a certain level of military funding designated (through the Finance Tab) and you are spending more than the allowed funding on military (yes, including colony ships) the colony will have unrest. You can also build recreation, military and government DEAs to reduce unrest. Building military units (infantry, etc.) may also help, especially if the colony is shared between you and another race. Finally, if you are working your colonists too hard (dark red spending bars) they become unhappy.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Why does my planet keep building out of date plans? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Even though you've marked the ship design obsolete, the viceroy had already planned to build ships, many turns in advance. So, if you want to make sure there are no obsolete ships being built, mark the design obsolete. Then go through every planetary military queue and delete the old ships out and put in your new one. Or let the viceroy chose after you've cleared out the queue and hit the turn button. Or mark the design obsolete many turns before you want that design to stop building, depending on the number of planets you have.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *What does the whole tech tree look like? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You will never get the full tech tree in any game. At most (without spying or trading) you can get 60-70% of the tech in a game, and that is only if you are very creative and get lots of retro-research. Some techs are guaranteed to every race. These include the ship chassis, the system drives, the warp engines, and probably some other things [comments welcome]. All of the other techs have a percent chance to be researched. In addition, the level of the tech is a range. Each tech has a base level, but it can be discovered +/- 2 levels from that baselevel. So some games you get things sooner, some later, some never at all. It is for these reasons that a full tech tree listing is unlikely, though I will try to get a listing of the Major required techs and their base levels in a future FAQ.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Why did they kill off my favorite race? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't know. They felt like it? It made a good story? There are a couple of theories and rumors, but I don't particularly care. Regardless, there is a chance to find a colony of these old races that you can use as forced labor or Magnate Colony.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *How do I make contact with other races? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You must have a full colony within two starlanes of one of their colonies. If you are a member of the Orion Senate, you automatically have contact with all other members of the Orion Senate. But you will lose these contacts if you leave the Senate or are kicked out and don't meet the above condition.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Why did the race I already had a trade agreement as for another one? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
They are either improving the treaty or re-upping it to make sure they don't lose that income. Its worth your while to check on these and instigate them on your own.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *What do the different colors on the sliders mean? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
They are a representation of how efficiently your money is being spent. A green, for every AU you spend you get a production (or research) point. At yellow, its 2:1. And the oranges and reds are worse. This information can be found in your manual.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *What can I do with my old ships? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) You can scrap them for some money, which can use for one time grants or extra funds. 2) You can send them to your new colonies to help fight pirates while your colonies build their first system defense force/planetary bases. 3) From ThrawFett (on the boards): I just thought of a cheap way to get X's. Put all military ships (not troop, colony, or outpost) into Task Forces. Put a lot of cheap ships (or use obsolete) in reserves and send your expeditions. This will let you get rid of obsolete ships while sending out strong expeditions. Also, the computer randomly selects military ships from the reserves when it creates an expedition. To keep a ship 'safe', just put it in a task force. NOTE: You cannot refit older ships as in MOO2.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *I've built tons of Research DEAs, but I'm not researching any faster. What should I do? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Research DEAs don't produce research in of themselves. They produce Test Tubes, which increase the efficiency of your research spending. You must fund the research using your economic sliders. This will produce Research Points (RPs) which will go towards your projects.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *How do I defend against spies? (thanks to dakgm for most of these tips) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Set the Oppression meter to maximum (after you make your first contact) and leave it there for the entire game. In the Victory tab, you can see the rating of your oppression as "Heavy-footed government". The higher the number, the better your defense. You will also have high unrest, so be prepared to counter it beforehand (increase spending against unrest in the finance tab).
Start making spies on the very first turn and never stop. When you meet the first race, you're already prepared. You have a screen full of spies to use as defense if necessary. In the Victory tab, check what rating your opponent has for heavy-footed government. Send your spies in when the rating is low. They are never prepared for the results! Then extract your spies and prepare for the counterattack.
While you are doing all of this, research all of the spy tech. The spy tech is mostly in the Biology and Social schools. There's also some scattered in the Mathematics school. All the spy tech has an icon with a looking glass in the picture.
You can always tell when the opponent is trying to send in spies. Watch for a message in the Sitrep. The message will either say your spies killed one of theirs, or it will say your spies are putting the squeeze on all captured spies. This is your clue.
If you kill spies, it will tell you who sent the spies. There is no political message like in MOO2 where you can tell them to stop spying, but there is a message that does the exact same thing. Go into the screen and "Threaten" the race that is sending spies. This will usually cause them to stop (unless your race is weak in military), but it can lead to war.
Remember to always keep the Oppression meter at maximum. This irritates your population and helps to find the spies. But if you have it at the max from the beginning, your population does get used to it over time.
If you're sending in spies in large numbers to enemy territory, before long, you will usually get a leader that is really, really helpful for spies.
Another helpful idea is to send it multiple spies at once. You are more likely to get in at least one to do some damage. Always extract them the turn after they do damage. Don't leave them there to die.
Finally, look at the stats on each of your spies. High Luck spies are better sent out than low luck. High Cloak means that your spy will be able to hide easier. This helps in getting the spy into a mission and back out again. High Dagger is a representation of how likely the spy is to get away if captured. Finally, there is Loyalty. This is how loyal the spy is to your empire. Low Loyalty spies can be double agents! It is a good idea to retire low loyalty spies before they cause you damage.
=============================================================================== Mods and Links [10] ===============================================================================
http://www.moo3mods.com/ This has a ton of mods available. I personally really only like the Encyclopedia mod, so that the planetary specials and the race info is easy to have at hand.
=============================================================================== Copyright Info [11] ===============================================================================
Copyright 2003 Dawn Burnell (Zhaneel)
This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright.
This is an unofficial FAQ and has been in no way sponsored by Infograms or Quicksilver.