The Most Frequently Asked Questions
for Master of Orion III

• When is the official release date?
• What races are in the game?
• What happened to the old races?
• Why are there star lanes / space lanes?
• Why is space combat real-time now?
• Can I still make my own ship designs?
• Will it have multi-player support (and better than MOO2)?
• What is the Orion Senate?
• Are there more ways to win?
• Will MOO3 Support Hotseat Multiplayer?
• What there be sequel to the Master of Magic series?

When is the official release date?

• Nobody Knows. Probably January

• Races are divided into 8 race groups and further divided into species. Originally, there were 32 total planned, but were scaled back to 16 for release. They are:
  

  Humanoid Humans Psilon Evon Etherean Imsaeis Eoladi Geodic Silicoids Cybernetik Meklar Cynoid

  Ichthytosian Trilarian Nommo Harvesters Ithkul Insectoid Klackons Tachidi Saurian Sakkra Raas Grendarl

• The Mrrshan, Alkari, Elarian, Bulrathi, Darloks, and Gnolems were cut for basically being cheezy sci-fi cliches or looking like "people in suits." Scream all you want, the decision is final and no amount of complaining will bring them back as playable races. If you want to read about what "really" happened to them, read the game fiction and background story. Some of these deleted races will make cameos in the game however, though not much word on which ones. There has already been much arguement (open warfare really) about this topic, so please don't rehash it again!

• The main reason is to throw another element into the strategy of the game by creating "choke points" in intersteller travel and producing a very literal border to your empire that enemies will have to penatrate before grabbing at your internal colonies. This is another war-inducing topic and its developement is also very solid, so please don't try to argue with the designers about this one either.

• One of the biggest reasons to switch to real-time combat was to give the multiplayer games some speed and because the game board can potentially host as many as 1,000 ships on each side (plus reinforcements if available). To manually move, shoot, move, shoot, move, shoot, would be extremely tedious. It also gives a more fluid and realistic feel to combat. Basically you (if you even choose to watch the battle) will be the "guiding force" to direct the ships as you see fit. Quicksilver has assured fans that real-time combat will not be another WarCraft clone, or a high speed clickfest. This decision was not made to mainstream the game or join the real-time bandwagon. The decision was made in the best interests of the players - even hardcore 'been there since the beginning' players - and the Xperience (the fifth 'X').

• What would a MOO sequel be without getting to outfit your ships? YES! you can design your own ships and there will be even more features to play with in MOO3.

• MOO3 was built from the ground up with multiplayer support in mind. Many of the main features (IFPs, real time combat) were introduced because of the need to make multiplayer games a more fluid and enjoyable experience and not "uh oh, they're doing battle again. Guess i'll go find something to eat..."

• Its just what it was in the first two MOOs plus more. The Senate can now include or exclude empires, pass bills, enforce policy or just declare war on you! By the way, the Antarans control the Senate now :)

• Yes. You can still be elected Senate Leader, and you can still stomp everybody in the galaxy. However, you can also produce an heir to the Orion throne or find the answer to the ancient "Antaran Mystery". What and how that is, you'll just have to wait and see. Now, we wanted to be able to add a series of hidden, extra victory conditions, but this is probably going to be impossible.

• No. Hotseat was never even planned to be supported. The largest reason is because of the real-time nature of combat. It's hard to control opposing sides of a space battle on one computer at the same time. And no, hotseat play will not be added in later by any chance, so you can uncross your fingers now.

• Not exactly. One does not necessarly FOLLOW the other. However, success with MOO3 makes is MORE LIKELY for their to me a Master of Magic II ( because if MOO3 is a hit, it will demonstrate that the strategy game genre should continue to besupported ), and more likelky to be done by Quicksilver ( because if MOO3 is a hit, Infogrames will know we can "deliver the goods" and should be worthy of developing MOM2 ).