The Official
Master of Orion III
Frequently Asked Questions

SHIP COMBAT

• Not as such, no. You might consider the ships at the core of your task force to be Flagships although no ship actually carries that distinction.

• Fighters can. Some ships can repair and re-supply, but not "dock" as such.

• Yes and Yes.

• While you select doctrine for ships, task forces, and fleets when they are designed/formed, by controlling a battle, you have considerable flexibility in adjusting your doctrines with the changing situation.

• Ramming is out. Sorry.

• Orbital defenses will be more varied, and you can design them. They will even feature a much larger size classes. The limited line of sight issue is still pending decision.

• Range is one of the elements in the "evolutionary rules of combat". The principle we are trying to use it that space combat mechanics will change with technology and time. The early days of combat will take place using short range, low accuracy projectile weapons that will cause severe damage on impact. Fast speed and good scouting will keep you winning. The combat will slowly move to feature more powerful and resilient ships, that will leash our powerful, accurate, long range beam weapons. Battles will be a factor of ship strength more then accuracy.

• Well, we do that in an interesting, slightly abstract manner with a supply train system. I think you'll like how we deal with this.

• Inflicted damage will be one of three types: one that will be repaired during combat ( or immediately after ), another that can be repaired on board after combat, for a cost, and three, damage that will require refit at a ship yard. So, a badly damaged ship might get back on it's feet, but will require to go to a ship yard to get back into full health.

• Oh, yes. Crew experience effect the ship entire performance, from speed to weapon damage, increase the speed in which a ship repair itself in combat, and reduce the chance the crew will flee a dangerous battle.

• Fighters will be important as scouts and info gathers, not to mention they will be a much more viable, and dangerous, attack option.

• The bigger the ship's size, the thicker it will be, by a 2:1 ratio (a ship 4x as big is 2x as thick). The deeper the internal system, the harder it will be to hit, but it will get easier as the ship takes damage.

• As with nearly every component of MOO3, there will be a "leader" (actually a hierarchical AI node) which will make decisions for you. Ship captains are a product of your race, government, military traditions, etc. You will not have to select from a pool of captains. It's only the ones that rise through the ranks and get promoted up to highest levels that you'll ever have to really deal with. There's three levels of doctrine (Ship, Task Force, and Fleet) that the captain will base his decisions on. The doctrines will depend on your race, government, military traditions, etc. NOTE: leaders, as we knew them, have been removed from MOO3. They are still there, just under the visable scope of the player.

• A Task Force is a group of ships that you can issue an order to. The order is issued during the Planning Phase in the Pre Battle Combat Screen, with each Task Force represented by a ship icon. The order will then be executed in the Combat Phase. Task Forces act and behave, under the command of the captain, just like you expect a real navy force to act. A TF (Task Force) is made up of three sections: pickets (which scan the area, gather information, and conduct light harassing tasks), escorts (which intercept dangerous ships, fighters and missiles) and the core section, which is the "meat" of a TF.

• I think it's safe to assume there will be more balance in this issue.

• Yes. A player can call for reinforcements, which will bring nearby friendly and allies ships into the frey.

• Combat will support more than two PLAYERS, but no more then two SIDES. Several allies can unite their armies under a single commander banner and fight together.

• Yes, small ships will play a much bigger role. Beside being cheaper to build and maintain, small ships could easily swarm and confuse the enemy, creating a large flotilla of ships to target. Small ships will also gather more information in the combat arena, and will be important to keep trade routes safe, repel localized raids and do scouting of new systems.

• There are two possible modes you can view combat in: tactical and strategic. Strategic is an "iconified" version of combat: each task force, and it's relative position to all the other task forces, friendly or hostile, is shown by an icon. It's a useful mode to get clear, fast information on the current status. The tactical look is a real camera that can follow and zoom in on one of your task forces. You can zoom out or switch task forces to get the global view with tactical. Tactical also shows all the graphic output, like incoming missiles, fighters, and hull damage. The view itself will be in 3D which you can rotate and view from every size, but ships themselves will play on a flat 2D plane. This will simplify strategies.

• The game will support up to about a thousand ships all around, on the combat arena at any given time (2 sides, up to 12 task forces each, up to 64 ships per task force). Ships may join later as reinforcements if others have been destroyed.

• Real time. However, there will be ample time for you to think under the pressure and easy for you to issue commands on the Fleet and Task Force level. The reason is simple: Imagine a battle with 1,000+ ships. How can you do that turn based? We're concerned about pacing (multi player), focus, and we have a really good task force approach that should neatly do the trick. Even if we wanted to create two different combat methods, it would just be too time consuming, since that would require two different AIs.

• 800x600 - Some may feel that's too small, but that's what most people are running on, and now you can too!

• Yes, you select them when you begin a new game. The only victory condition you may not turn off is "Sole Survivor" of course.

• Yes. Players not participating in space combat will also be able to view and do a variety of things.

• You can have several empires of the same race (4 seperate Klackon empires for example), but you can't "share" an empire control with another race.

• No.

• A graphics accelerator will not be required to play (surprise!)

• No, but it's only a matter of time before someone makes one.

• Sorry, hotseat is unsupported.

• The AI will be more realistic, even surrendering when he should.

• No cheating (hopefully). At least, that's what the designers would like.

• Yes, dubbed "victory points", and there's a data dump on those as well (a bit out of date).

• There are gobs of fan-submitted events. They can effect all things great and small. You'll just have to wait and see.

• Killing everyone. Senate presidency. Finishing the mystery of the Antarans.

• The game can support up to 32 players in a multi player or a single player game. Up to 16 empires can begin the game. However, only up to eight human players can play at the same time ( eight out of the 32 players ).

• Not directly. The player can only try to nudge his empire into a direction of a new type of government.

• It is still unknown whatever there will even be an expansion pack. However, MOO3 is designed in a way it is easy to add more ships, technology, races, and so on.

• Yes.

• Probably not. But hey, mice only cost 5 bucks. Get with the program and go buy one already.

• No.

• Well that depends, now doesn't it? Probably as long or short as you want to make it.

• Like we said in the previous answer, GNN reports will be replaced by CGI mini videos that will illustrate what's going on. Maybe they will be similar to GNN in content, however... The GNN newscast has been replaced by the Situation Report (SitRep).

• There are two CGI sequences types: Cinematic, like the introduction movie and conclusion movies (yes plural). These will be short, full screen movies that impart a significant piece of info, but can be 'escaped' from should the player choose to do so. The second type are Events. These are the MOO2 equivalent of the GNN events. When a major, significant event comes up in your situation report at the beginning of the turn, it will be accompanied by a small, short movie that illustrates the event.

• We are not reusing any of the MOO2 game code that I am aware of. We're doing it all from scratch.

• C++.

• For the most part we're using 3DSMAX R3, DeepPaint3D and Photoshop. We're running Dual Processor systems with a truck load of RAM, and WACOM Intuous tablets. The game will also include the use of polygons, voxels, bitmaps, and procedural rending methods.

• No. Why would you?

• We are trying to support Win2k. Because work began on MOO3 long before XP was releases, XP will probably not be officially supported, but should work pretty well anyway.

• No, but you may be able to use Wine/WineX if you are lucky.

• Yes. Will it be MAC OSX compatible? Maybe ("we're working on that").

• No. You can run MOO3 on a PII 266, I believe. How? That's "engineer magic" and I couldn't even begin to explain it.

• P2 266, with 64meg of RAM. (that's too get the game running adaquetely, not optimally)

• Nobody knows. Probably January.

• No.

• Just the planetary view you can see on the pictures.

• Yes, planets will have regions, from 1 to 12. It will effect the amount of military facilities you can construct, your economy, population maximum, and ground commbat.

• Pending.

• NO. Let me rephrase that... NO!

• Many things are possible through terraforming. Gas giants and asteroid belts are already colonizable however, given the right race.

• No.

• Yes, we have brown dwarfs, which will be the largest possible planet.

• No. Neither is creating a new one.

• Each planet and moon has it's own values in gravity, heat, atmosphere density, fertility ( per species ), resource levels, and various specials.

• Even more so, you can colonize and settle asteroid belts.

• There are moons and you can colonize them.

• Not exactly, no.

• Actually, war increases birthrates. Deathrates, too, of course, but particularly birthrates.

• Societies have a range of different variables that will shape the demands and expectations they have of the player as a ruler. You as the player will have to mold those needs and wants to match your own in order to get ahead game-wise.

• About socialism/capitalism: the government you chose, the political agenda and the way you spend your money are viewed as your government stand on socialism vs capitalism.

• Yes, you can.

• Yes. In addition to the direct investment in "infrastructure," the costs all that other social jazz is abstracted into the "Heavy Foot of Government" (which you can think of as the "cost of doing business" in that Empire).

• Yes, just like any other leader, your supreme leaders ( emperors ) will die and be replaced. They will probably be replaced constantly in a democratic regime. You are the "guiding force", puppeteer one leader after the next.

• We will have pirates, and they are abstracted in relation to trade. You can even have policies and treaties that allow you to squelch, or support, pirates.

• That's a tough question. Of course, you will always need a few ships, even if only to repel pirates and keep the order. However, you will find that the "measure of power" of an empire is a long calculation of political, economical, social and technological levels, and not so much the strength of your navy.

• When your empire splits into civil war, you can choose which of the "pieces" to continue playing as and which side to let go of.

• Yes.

• Part of the "second X" (eXplore) will be constant monitoring of information via spies. So, yes, you'll have to keep your information "fresh."

• No, you have other means to do that than using assassins.

• Spies can do numerous things. Inciting the masses is one of them.

• Specific tasks.

• Oh, dear, the list is huge. All sort of assassination, sabotage, espionage, counter intelligence and a lot more depth and intrigue then you can shake a stick at.

• Yes. You can train a spy to be the "cloak" or the "dagger", gathering intel or doing your dirty work. You can also train him to succeed in certain specific tasks.

• There needs to be some level technological parity or it wouldn't be much of a game, would it?

• Range will probably be unlimited in MOO3, but the further away you are from ho me, the greater the logistic cost it will be (because of supply trains).

• Probably, but it's going to have some significant political repercussions.

• No, MOO3 is working with a totally new paradigm.

• There are about 7 different kinds of outposts in MOO3, each with it's own unique traits and they play a slightly more expanded role in MOO3.

• No, you don't have genetically enhanced troops... but you sure have a volley of different technologies to use.

• Yes. We will have a factor of randomness and luck in the tech tree.

• Not anymore. Just pick what techs you want and go (a lot like MOO1)

• Yes. We have a lot of cool features that will keep you on your toes every time you play.

• Mutual research treaties are under consideration.

• Oh, yes, the tech tree will be a lot bigger. Even three times bigger. On "creative": there won't be quite such a racial trait that will allow you full access to the tech tree, but some races will have larger tech trees then the rest.

• Yes, there is no unique technology for each species. However, some species may be better in some fields. You can now see the the wheel of technology by clicking here.

• You will have a much larger variety of shield and weapons sizes.

• Yes, more like like MOO1.

• No.

• Telepathy as in MOO2 does not exist.

• No. It's not just a picture, but a whole network of 3D models.

• No, they will not. Which ever race you pick as your starting race will be the visual depiction you get.

• No. The common currency is the Antaran Unit.

• All races in the game are complete empires out to get you. There are no "minor races".

• To quote Rantz; "It *does* seem a bit unlikely they all vanished, doesn't it? That this massive group of powerful beings should just disappear? Wholesale, with not one left? Seems unlikely...". But then, Rantz says a lot of things.

• Yes, the Antarans are back (those who didn't "transcend"). They are not a playable race, but rule the Orion Senate (and call themselves Orions) and shape the plot and history of the Orion Sector (the known galaxy).

• We realize that there are some real fans of some of the MOO2 races, and some of the beloved ones might show up in some form or fashion (it's been indicated that at least some of the "old" races will make cameos in MOO3). However, some of the other races such as the Mrrshans and Bulrathi were axed because we didn't want any aliens that would be animporphs of people and looked like they could be bred together (No "people" in cat or bear costumes). The races in MOO3 are more unique.

• We are dealing with some very complex issues regarding game-play and art. Each of these species is being fully fleshed out in every way: from ships, ground installments, and units to characters. Species will not look like human actors in rubber masks and bad prosthetics. This level of detail takes time, and we felt that it was better to get the strongest species from MOO3, update and flesh them out and get the product out sooner, rather than later. Besides, there are four different races for each species, so there should be enough variation to satisfy everyone.

• The special "abilities," per se, won't be too dramatically different from those in MOO2. However, every species will have a lot more flavour than MOO2. Government types, their views on social issues, they types of planetary environments they prefer to live (and fight) in, etc. The species will be much more fleshed out so that a player running a particular civilization will know his "people's" motivations. The details of species in MOO3 lay out the framework for the entire galactic epic story as the players unfold it.

• Yes, you can customize your own races and name them. However, if you choose to work within a certain species model, you can only vary characteristics within those boundaries. For example, you can't make a Geodic race not lithovoric. Also, customization will be more balanced then in MOO2.

• Expect more variety. But really, how do you tell a female Eoladi from a male (assuming they even have a gender)?

• There will be no details or screenshots until the game is released. period. What we do know: The are bigger than a breadbox, do not have "a number of eyes equal to two," like cold planets, were Antaran ground troops at one time, but got out of control.

• The plan is to have up to three races for every species, to a total of 16 races overall. The names were revealed quite recently by Rantz Hoseley, and are as follows:
  Cybernetik: Meklar,Cynoid
  Etherean: Imsaeis, Eoladi
  Geodic: Silicoids
  Harvesters: Ithkul
  Humanoid: Humans, Psilons, Evon
  Ichthytosian: Trilarian, Nommo
  Insecta:Klackons, Tachidi
  Saurian: Sakkra, Raas, Grendarl

• The Cybernetik, Humanoid, Ichthytosian, Saurian, Etherean, Geodic, Insecta and the Harvesters.

• In MOO3, there will be 8 species. Each of these species will be divided into four races. So, for example, you will have the Humanoid species, with the humans being one of the races. Each race within a species will have similar underlying features that characterize that race as that particular species. For example, the Silicoids are a race of the Geodic species, and each race within the Geodic species will be a lithovore of some kind.

• Yes, but with less authority or course.

• No, it's a fixed plot element. You can try to ignore it if you want.

• Of course! What would MOO be without it?

• No. There is only one Senate. You may form your own alliances though.

• The Senate also has its own ships!

• No. Players may join and be expelled. Membership means being able to get elected president. But those under its jurisdiction must obey the Senate's rules, lest they be punished by the Senate, both politically and militarily. Not being a member means you are unfettered by Lex Galactica.

• Every so often (was that vague enough?). Slowly, usually.

• Yes, but don't expect it to be even remotely easy. Orion can be seized and there are great rewards for doing so.

• Yes, but, well, you know...

• Yes, the senate can take sides in disputes. They can take sides in a number of ways, including those you just mentioned.

• Yes. They are powerful, but you can take over them.

• Make and enforce the laws of civilized races. Elect a president of a particular civilized race, and end the game.

• A species that once ruled the entire sector, and was then banished by the Orions. In MOO2, they haunted and raided the ethnic races of the sector. In the span of time between MOO2 & MOO3, the Antarans rose and conquered the sector again. They live on Orion and rule the Orion Senate.

• Leaders can become moles, go corrupt, be bribed... you name it. They are a serious danger as well as your helpers.

• Every empire will have it's own goal, but they will be selected without the player control. Those can emphasize science, military power, economy, ecology, social welfare, and so on. Your goals are based on your race picks, government, etc.

• Dozens! The players won't be able to select the exact kind of government they want, but will only be able to aim toward a certain goal.

• Generic/Random based, but some legendary heroes (maybe even those that will be a blast from the past) will be available for occasional hiring or you might find them somewhere across the cosmos.

• Great commanders are born, not made. A leader's Ability Rating is more or less a "fixed" thing. There's no certain or sure way to raise it (though that can happen).

• Yes, you have grand council and of course you get their view. They set the original decisions as well, which you are welcome to override.

• Each planet / task force has it's own leader. Leaders get promoted/demoted over time but you have little control over it.

• You can assassinate and bribe leaders.

• Leaders have personalities which dictate their behaviour, action, and how well they do their tasks. Leaders are generated into a specific openings, and promoted according to their performance and opening generated by further promotions and/or death of leaders.

• Each facet of AI is cotrolled by a leader, but most of them are faceless. There will be a "council" of leaders that represent your basic areas of game interest, all with varying stats. Some are randomly generated, others introduced via events.

• We're going to have those ship class distinctions: Orbital, System, and Interstellar. You can design all of them.

• We're balancing EVERY aspect of ships defenses and weapons in MOO3, including fighters and missiles.

• Yes, each individual ship has a name that you choose. But there will be a lot of ships...

• Each species has it's own ship look.

• Refitting can be done automatically by the AI, or by the player. You cannot refit ships of different species.

• It will be more like MOO1. There are two basic drives: one for intersteller movement and combat, another for spacelane movemenet.

Will there be specialized ships to repair the others?
• There will be an abstracted "fleet train" to keep your fleet up to snuff, but there will be no medical frigates present for your control.

Will there be ship maintenance fees that are proportional to ship size?
• Maintenance costs will be relative to the cost to build a ship, not it's size

Will we still have a planet busting weapon like the stellar converter?
• Probably. It's still under review.

Will ship design still include weapon firing arcs? Will different weapons have different ranges, and different mods assigned to them?
• Oh, yes. There are four types of weapons groups: Spinal mounted (powerful forward facing platforms), turrets, emitters (wide arc beam weapons) and emitter array (Star Trek 360 facing beam weapons). Different weapons have different ranges, and each weapon can be enhanced with up to four different weapon mod. Each weapon will have a different mod list available to him.

Will the miniaturization of weapons, shields, drives etc. return?
• Yes, weapons as time goes by. They will also fire faster, do more damage, have greater accuracy and range, and obtain special forces and modifications over time.

Will ships be constructed in ship yards?
• Yes.

How many ship sizes will there be?
• The current number is 14. It might be changed later due to game play and play balance issues.

Will there be a limited amount of ship designs I can make?
• No.

Can I edit my ships pictures?
• In a way. You can add accessories and gadgets to an existing 3d model, but you cannot make your own graphics from scratch.





---




DIPLOMACY

---



Will computers be able to ally with other computers, unlike MOO2?
• Yes. Actually, they could in MOO2 as well.

Will it be possible to deliver an "Ultimatum" to another race - even when at war?
• Probably not.

Can you choose the type of wording to use in diplomacy?
• Yes. You can say things with a variety of different emphises. You might say, "Would you please kindly remove your ships from our territory?" or possibly, "Move it or lose it, bub!".

Will it be possible to enslave other species?
• Yes. But we prefer the term "Forced Labor Units". FLU's come in two flavors: organic and inorganic (robotic).

Will AI allies actually help you fight a war?
• Yes, the AI will be much more intelligent and realistic.

Will you have the potential diplomatic option of proposing a sort of neutral zone?
• Pending

Will you be able to make counter proposals to an answer? Will you also be able to make threats?
• Yes, on both counts

will there be better benefits to being allied with another race?
• Yes, of course! Allies can share information and intelligence, get increased trade revenues, better political standing with that race ( which will be more in favor of you in the Senate, and inter racial intrigue ). Not to mention, just like real life, powerful friends rub on you. Your "measure of power" also include political power, so having powerful friends make you more powerful, and will make your enemies think twice before attacking you.

Do we have borders? Do they effect diplomacy?
• In a way. You can lay claim to systems you discover and there are other ways to keep other races from penetrating too far into "your turf".

How will trade be improved?
• You would be able to exchange several items for several other items, in a Quid pro Quo system. This could include credits, ships, systems, technology, and a lot more. Obviously, many factors in the diplomacy AI will be looked at: needs, likes, traits, policies, tensions and a bucket-load of other stuff that we keep track up and put those on both sides of the scales, too. And THEN we will define a grey area for "counteroffers" ("If you declare war on my enemy, then you've got a deal!").

How is diplomacy going to be improved from MOO2? What kinds of new options can we expect in the diplomacy screen?
• A more realistic AI logarithm (one that will act like a "real" human, and won't break treaties out of a whim), far more diplomatic options then ever before, exciting trade, inter racial conflicts, the works. There are a lot more options in the diplomacy screen, including more treaties, more diplomatic relations levels, a comprehensive trading system... you name it.

Will the species have natural friends and enemies like MOO1?
• Yes. While at the start of the game the species do not know each other, they each have a unique history that affects their attitudes about other species.





---




GALAXY

---



Can I destroy and build lanes?
• Unknown. Lanes can be upgraded and degraded though.

Can I still move between systems without lanes?
• Yes, you can move between systems that are not connected by a warp lane. It's going to be considerably slower, however.

What are the changes in ship movement compared to MOO2?
• The ship movement system MOO3 will use is somewhat different then what is was in MOO2. All systems will be linked to several other near-by systems with space lanes. Those lanes allow ships to move at higher speeds between those two systems.

Can we print a view of the galactic map?
• No.

Unlike MOO2, are the computer players able to use the wormholes?
• Yes.

Will i see colored-in empirical borders
• Pending.

In MOO2 there was no representation for stores, hotels, housing, movie theatres, malls, etc... Will there be more "infrastructure" in MOO3?
• There will be more infrastructure both on planets and along your "space lanes", however don't expect to see stores and shops popping up on your planet ala SimCity. Planet views are from a space perspective, not the colony close-ups of MOO2.

Will there be twin (binary) stars?
• Not as such, No.

Will new star systems appear or disappear during the game?
• No. Like matter, you cannot destroy or create stars. (and yes, that rules out "nova bombs" and the like).

Will there be any kind of secrets to discover?
• Yes. We've got a very wide array of regional, planetary, solar and galactic specials, that will do everything from bringing a smile to your face, or ruin your day.

Will space Eels and Hydras play a larger role in the game?
• That was the plan. Space monsters have reluctantly been cut from the program however.

Can i move into deep space. Can i build a space station out there as a base?
• No. MOO3 uses a starlane/spacelane system. You can move through deep space, but not stop in it or intercept fleets throught it.

Will there be a lot of specials like nebula, black holes, neutron stars, etc?
• There are many galactic specials, but we aren't saying what they all are.

What is the maximum size of the game universe? Will we have moons? Can we colonize them?
• The maximum size of the galaxy will support up to 256 solar systems. Each system can have up to eight planets, and each planet up to five moons on it. You can colonize the moons as well. Yes, that over 12,000 maximum colonies.

Will the galactic layout be in 3D?
• Yes! Pan, rotate, zoom, and flip in full 3D. In fact you can seamlessly zoom right up to see individual planets. However, generally speaking, real galaxies are basically flat anyway.





---




COLONIES

---



Do planets run out of minerals or do they have an unlimited amount like previous MOOs?
• Minerals will never run out.

Can you set a planet to be a certain type, ie., research, production, frontline, etc?
• Yes. This is helpfull for issuing macro orders.

Can colonies actually defend themselves, unlike MOO2?
• Colonies have their own military installations of course, but you can also build system ships for defending that particular system. System ships are only used for defense.

Are there frighters for moving things around?
• Freighters are abstracted into the background, but yes, there are freighters for moving things around, subject to piracy and the like.

Do i move colonists around into jobs anymore?
• No, there is a new model that depends mostly on money and where you focus that revenue. It does not deal with the people themselves ala MOO2.

How will population be measured?
• In "population units," but whatever you think they might represent is up to you.

Is it possible for 2 or more races to coexist on a single planet or system?
• Only once empire can settle a planet, and all it's accompanying moons. Races can coexist if they belong to the same empire. Two empires however, can share the same solar system. You can have multiracial colonies under one empire though.

Will your home world be your main center of population and power ( like it should be )?
• It can be, but you can also move your seat of power elswhere.

What sort of special elements and minerals will there be? What use will they have?
• Special resources are pending, however there are many planetary specials to be had upon exploring the planet.

Are you keeping the Mineral classifications of Planets/moons?
• Yes.

Will colonies be micro managed or macro managed?
• It will be a combination of both. There are macro commands that you can issue to all colonies of a certain type ("all research colonies build autolabs") or you can give orders to a specific colony.

Will colonies use MOO1 slider system or MOO2 build queue?
• Colonies will use a combination of both.

How will colonies look in MOO3?
• The colony view will be from a satellite perspective. With this view, you will see the sprawl of a budding civilization slowly engulfing the world as it grows in population, as opposed to a cluster of representational buildings.





---




GROUND COMBAT

---



Don't we have air support for ground combat?
• Not as such, no. Think of it as being abstracted into the game.

Will ground combat units be able to gain experience?
• Just like ship crews, yes.

Can a planet defend itself without any official defense armies?
• Yes. Planets have militia and local armies as well.

Can i attack the planet without defeated the orbiting fleet?
• No.

Will the terrain have any effect on combat?
• Yes, furthermore, the defending side can decide where to fight so as to play out its own advantages.

In such a large game, will dwelling into every little battle make the game long and boring?
• MOO3's approach to most aspects of the game is that "you don't have to if you don't want to". You won't have to fight every battle if you don't want to, unlike MOO2.

Will NBC weapons hurt the environment?
• Yes. If you should take control of the planet, you will need to clean up the place before moving in.

Will there be special weapons like Nuclear, Biological or Chemical (NBC) weapons?
• Yes. Of course there will be political/social consequesnces to go with them, but they do quite a bit of specific damage.

What kind of units will ground combat include?
• Infantry, space marines, mobile infantry, armor, and battleoids, and possibly more. Battles can be fought with a combonation of any of them.

How many sides can be in the battle?
• Many battles can be fought on the planet, but only between 2 sides at a time. One battle must be resolved before another can begin.

Will ground combat be turn based or real time like space combat?
• Turn based. You select the missions and objectives for your armies, then watch from a general's point of view. You do not take any active part in ground combat like you do in space combat however.