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Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares
Developer(s)Simtex
Publisher(s)Microprose (PC), MacSoft (Mac)
Platform(s)MS-DOS, Windows 95, Apple Macintosh
Release
  • NA: October 31, 1996
  • EU: December 16, 1996
Genre(s)4X, Turn-based strategy
Mode(s)Single player, Multiplayer

Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares (MOO2) is a 4X turn-based strategy game set in space, designed by Steve Barcia and Ken Burd, and developed by Simtex, who developed its predecessor Master of Orion. The PC version of the game was published by Microprose in 1996, while the Apple Macintosh version was published a year later by MacSoft in partnership with Microprose. The PC version was on sale as a download until late 2010 when Atari silently removed the game from their on-line store. While the game is no longer on sale directly from Atari copies can be found on Amazon, Good Old Games online distributor and other stores. Despite its age the game still has a large fan-base and is still played online.

Master of Orion II won the Origins Award for Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Computer Game of 1996, and was well received, although reviewers differed about which aspects they liked and disliked. It is still used as a yardstick in reviews of more recent space-based 4X games.

Victory can be gained by military or diplomatic means. Major elements of the game's strategy include the design of custom races and the need to balance the requirements for food, production, cash and research. The user interface, which is mainly mouse-based but includes keyboard shortcuts, provides a central screen for most economic management and other screens that control research, diplomacy, ship movement, combat and warship design.

Backstory

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Long before the time in which the game starts, two extremely powerful races, known as the Orions and the Antarans, fought a war that devastated most of the galaxy. The Orions won and, rather than exterminate the Antarans, imprisoned them in a "pocket dimension". The Orions then departed from the galaxy, but left behind a very powerful robotic warship, the Guardian, to protect their homeworld.[1]

Some time after the start of a game, the Antarans, breaking out of the prison dimension to which the Orions banished them, begin sending increasingly powerful fleets against players' colonies, simply to destroy rather than to invade.[2] The only way to stop the Antarans' campaign of terror is to carry the battle to their home universe through a Dimensional Portal.[3]

Gameplay

[edit]

Victory conditions

[edit]

Despite the game's name, conquering the Orion star system does not automatically win the game. There are three routes to victory: conquer all opponents; be elected as the supreme leader of the galaxy; or make a successful assault against the Antaran homeworld. To be elected, a player needs two-thirds of the total votes, and each empire's votes are based on the population under its control1.[4]

Stars and planets

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Star systems have at most five colonizable planets, and a few have none. Players can colonize all types of planets although gas giants and asteroids require the planet construction technology. Colonizable planets vary in several ways, making some more desirable than others:[5]

  • Population capacity, which on most planets can be improved by terraforming. "Toxic" planets cannot be terraformed.[6]
  • Ease of growing food, which is important for the reasons described below. At the start of the game most planets are incapable of supporting agriculture, but terraforming can remedy this, except on "toxic" planets.
  • Very rare "splinter colonies", which automatically join the empire that discovers them and acquire its racial advantages and disadvantages.
  • Sometimes other features that increase or decrease productivity in one or more of farming, industry, research and cashflow.

The most desirable systems are usually guarded by space monsters, much less powerful than Orion's Guardian but still a severe challenge in the early game, when fleets are small and low-tech.[7][8]

How planets' economies work

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Without food, a colony will starve to death. If an empire as a whole has a food surplus, it can prevent starvation by sending food in freighters,[9] which are produced (in groups of five) like any other ship and require a small amount of upkeep when in use.[10] However, just one hostile warship of any size can blockade an entire system, preventing the delivery of food.[11]

Each player can change each of its colony's output by moving colonists between farming, industry and research,[12] except that natives can only farm. All normal colonists pay a standard tax to the imperial treasury and in emergencies one can set a higher tax rate, but this reduces industrial output.[13] A player can use surplus money to accelerate industrial production at specified colonies, but not to increase agricultural or research output.[14]

Maintaining buildings costs money and so does running an excessively large fleet.[15] Ships of different sizes require different numbers of "command points". These are provided by orbital bases, which are major construction projects for small colonies. This severely limits the size of empires' fleets in the early game, where one can have only one frigate (smallest type of ship) per starbase or one battleship (largest type of ship in the early game) per 4 starbases without having to "buy" command points, which is very expensive.[13]

Research, usually followed by construction of appropriate buildings, can improve all types of productivity including cashflow and command points, and can also reduce or eliminate pollution,[16] which otherwise is a serious constraint on industrial output in the early game.[16]

The technology tree

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thumb|right | 250px | Research Menu, showing the eight divisions of the tech tree, and highlighting the subject currently chosen Falling behind in technology is likely to be fatal. There are eight research areas,[17] each divided into several levels, each of which contains one to four technologies. To research a higher-level technology, one must first have researched the previous level.[17] "Creative" races get all the technologies at a particular level by completing one research project at that level; most races must choose only one technology from each level; "uncreative" races get no choice and the game software randomly selects a technology for them at each level.[17] Players can also acquire technologies by exchange or diplomatic threats, spying,[18] hiring colonial leaders or ship commanders with knowledge of certain tech,[19] planetary conquest, or capturing and dismantling enemy ships, random events and just by stumbling upon it in a derelict craft orbiting a newly discovered planet.[19]

All weapons and some other combat-related components benefit from miniaturization, in which further advances in the technology area that provides them will reduce the size and production cost of these components.[20] Miniaturization also makes available modifications for most weapons, which usually entail a significant increase in their cost and size but can greatly improve their effectiveness in the right situations.[21]

Diplomacy

[edit]

Master of Orion II provides a wide range of diplomatic negotiations: gifts of money or technology or even all the colonies in a star system; opportunities to demand such concessions from other players; technology trades; trade, non-aggression and alliance treaties.[22] The diplomacy menu, called "Races" in the game, also enables the player to allocate spies between defensive duties and spying or sabotage against other empires, and to check opponents' technological progress and diplomatic relationships.[23]

Spaceship design

[edit]

The designs of colony ships, outpost ships and troop transports are fixed.[24] These three ship types will be destroyed instantly if they travel without an escort and are attacked by anything, even the weakest combat ship.[25]

Colony ships, outpost ships, troop transports and warships benefit from technology advances which increase the travel range and speed of all of an empire's ships free of charge.[26]

Players can design warships, provided they choose the "tactical combat" option in game set-up.[27] One can design a maximum of 5 classes at a time, but can have an indefinite number of classes in operation. Players can also refit ships to take advantage of technology improvements which do not provide free upgrades.[28]

Combat and invasion

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Ships can travel to any star system within their range,[29] unlike games such as Space Empires or Master of Orion III, where interstellar travel is possible only or mainly via "wormholes" and it is possible to set up easily-defended choke points.[30][31]

In Master of Orion II, space combat occurs only within star systems, either over a planet one side is attacking or on the outskirts of a system, if one side is driving away the other's blockaders or trying to prevent an enemy buildup. If the defending side has warships and several colonies in a system, they automatically scramble to defend whichever colony is attacked.[32] Limitations on the size of empires' fleets mean that most battles involve only a handful of ships on each side.[33][32] Ships do not form stacks as in Master of Orion,[33] but move and fire individually.[34]

In general, enemy colonies can be taken over only after all orbital and planet-based defenses have been destroyed and all defending ships have been destroyed or forced to retreat.[35] However, a fleet including telepaths will mind-control the colony, unless the defenders also include telepaths.[36] In other cases the only way to seize control of an enemy colony is by invading. In order to do this, the attacking fleet must include some troop transports, which will be lost if the invasion fails, and at least transports will be permanently deployed on the planet if the invasion succeeds. [10] A player cannot control ground combat: the result depends on numbers, ground combat technologies, racial ground combat bonuses, and some Leaders if present. However the game displays the progress of the combat and the ground combat technologies and bonuses used by each side.[37]

Mind-controlled colonies are instantly loyal to their new owners.[38] Other recently-occupied colonies on the other hand are disaffected, have poor productivity, and may rebel and rejoin the empire which founded them. Productivity slowly improves and the risk of rebellion slowly recedes, and there is a way to speed up these improvements.[39]

Instead of invading, a victorious attacker may destroy an enemy colony by various means.[40]

Leaders

[edit]

From time to time players get opportunities to hire leaders, for an annual salary and usually a hiring fee. Colony leaders improve the farming and/or industrial and/or research and/or financial productivity of all colonies in the system to which they are assigned, and some improve the efficiency of defensive or offensive spies. Ship leaders improve the combat effectiveness of their ships and some improve their travel speed. A few leaders of both types also improve the performance of warships and/or ground troops under their command, or contribute directly to a player's finances, or attract other leaders, usually for a reduced hiring fee.[41]

Random events

[edit]

From time to time there are lucky breaks, disasters or emergencies which are not caused by any player's actions. These can be disabled in the game start-up menu.[40]

Playable races

[edit]

thumb|right | 250px | The Race Design screen. It highlights options already chosen, and grays out those that are no longer available. The bottom shows the number of picks still available. Master of Orion II provides 13 pre-defined playable races,[42] three of which are additions to those available in Master of Orion.[43] The game also allows players to create custom races,[40] and a group of enthusiasts regard race design as a crucial element of strategy.[44] Each player starts with 10 "picks" (race design points). Choosing advantageous traits reduces the number of picks available, while choosing disadvantages increases them, but players cannot choose more than 10 picks' worth of disadvantages. Most of the options are major or minor advantages and minor disadvantages in farming, industry, research, population growth, money, space combat, espionage and ground combat.[45]

The race design system also offers "special abilities" that have various effects on various aspects of their effectiveness. The most expensive of these are:[46]

  • "Tolerant" races have a higher population limit on colonized planets than most other races, and their industrial productivity is not reduced by pollution.
  • "Lithovores" feed on the natural minerals of a planet, and do not need to farm.
  • "Creative" races research all the technologies at each level by completing one research project; all other races must choose one technological application to develop out of a given research project; "uncreative" races get no choice and the software randomly selects an application to be developed out of each research project undertaken.[38] "Creative" is the third most expensive option, costingling eight picks.[47]

The player chooses the empire's form of government,[48] which has almost as much influence on how it performs as the choices described above, but the "best" governments cost a lot of picks.[47] Dictatorships are the most common governments for the pre-defined races,[49] and cost no picks.[50] Democracy provides major advantages in research and money, but is the most vulnerable to spying and sabotage. Unification government provides advantages in farming, industrial production and defense against espionage, but does not benefit from morale. Feudalism provides a large reduction in spaceship construction costs, but suffers from very slow research; the race design menu treats Feudalism as a significant disadvantage.[51] Each government can be upgraded once by research, but the upgrades generally increase the advantages of each without decreasing its disadvantages.[52]

User interface

[edit]

This is mainly mouse-driven,[53] but some screens also have hotkeys for important functions.[54]

The main screen consists mainly of a map of the galaxy, which can be zoomed but not scrolled. Stars have names which are color-coded to show which empires have colonies round them, and dotted lines show friendly and enemy ship movements. Clicking on a star that the player has already visited produces a pop-up window which shows the planets round that star. Clicking a fleet allows the player to give orders and displays a pop-up which shows each ship in the fleet.[55] The buttons along the bottom give access to various menus,[54] and the icons on the right provide information about the status of the empire and access to additional menus.[56]

Players can manage their economies almost entirely from the Colony List, which can be sorted by any of one of: Name, Population, Food production, Industrial production, Research production, the item currently being built, or Cash (BC) generated. The Colony List allows the player to access any colony's Build Menu, and to change a colony's output by moving colonists between Farmers, Workers and Scientists.[57]

The Build Menu allows the player to queue up to 7 items (buildings, ships or spies) for construction at a colony, to refit ships in that colony's system and to design ships which may then be built at any colony.[58]

At the end of each turn Master of Orion II shows a report in which items link to the appropriate display, usually to a colony's Build menu when a construction project has been completed.[59]

The Information menu gives access to: a History Graph which shows how the player's empire compares with rival empires; the racial characteristics of all empires with which the player is in contact; the technologies the player has researched; and descriptions of all technologies, including the exotic ones which the player cannot research but may gain by beating Orion's Guardian or by capturing an Antaran ship and scrapping it afterwards.[60]

Development

[edit]

The game was designed by Steve Barcia and Ken Burd,[61] and developed by Barcia's company Simtex, which had previously developed Master of Orion, published in 1993 by Microprose.[62] For Master of Orion II Simtex provided: additional pre-defined races and the option to create custom races; and multiplayer options.[8][43] The first "Orion" game's graphics had also been heavily criticized, and the second included higher-quality artwork displayed at a higher resolution.[62]

The main contributions were: Design by Steve Barcia (Lead Designer), Ken Burd; Programming by Ken Burd (Lead programmer) and 5 others; Art by Dave Lawell (Lead Artists) and 8 others; Music by Laura Barret; Sound by John Henke.

In June 1995 Microprose agreed to buy Simtex,[63] and turned it into an internal development division.[8] The acquisition continued to be known as "Simtex Software", and the Simtex logo appears briefly before Microprose's while MOO II is loading. Microprose released Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares for IBM-compatible PCs in 1996,[8] and an Apple Macintosh version was published a year later by Microprose in partnership with MacSoft.[64]

Reception

[edit]
Summary
Aggregator Score
GameRankings 8.7
Metacritic 84%
From 1990s Score
Meinfelder 3/5
Ward 8.7[65]
Retrospectives Score
Chick "looming large"[8]
Current (in 2011) Score 7/10
Ocamp 6.0[66] From 1990s

Reviews shortly after publication were generally very favourable,[67] and the game won the Origins Award for Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Computer Game of 1996.[68] However, reviewers' detailed comments on aspects of the game differed, especially in comparisons with its predecessor Master of Orion. Some liked the additional gameplay features in Master of Orion II, while others preferred the simpler approach of Master of Orion.[69] Some reviewers criticized the level of micromanagement needed in Master of Orion II, [70] but Tom Chick found it fairly easy to control.[8] Opinions also varied about: the single-player AI,[71][8] tactical combat,[43][71][70] warship design facility,[71][71][70] and custom races.[43][70] However, reviewers appreciated the replay value provided by the wide range of galaxy, race and other options.[43][62]

There were complaints that the loading of copious artwork from the CD made the game run slowly,[62] and both a reviewer and enthusiasts now advise players to avoid this by loading all of the files on to their hard disks.[8][72] A review specifically for the Mac version complained that the user interface was "clunky", as this PC port lacked features common in programs originally developed for the Mac.[73]

Chick's retrospective review described Master of Orion II and its predecessor Master of Orion as "looming large" in any discussion of space-based strategy games.[8] Master of Orion IIhas been used as the standard for comparison in reviews of more recent space-based 4X games such as Space Empires IV (2000), Galactic Civilizations II (2006–2009) and Lost Empire: Immortals (2008).[74]

Geryk, reviewing Space Empires: IV, thought this and Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares share depth, tactical combat, and the micromanagement is typically of space-empire games. In Geryk's opinion, the only thing that Space Empires: IV lacks is attractive graphics and special effects.[75]

Lombardi, says Galactic Civilizations II hits the same standard as Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares, although Galactic Civilizations II does not lets the player control combat.[76]

Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords Hands-On - The Spiritual Heir to Master of Orion II? the technology is similar to that of Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares.[77]

Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar introduces types of planetary environments, and initiatily more difficult environments cannot be colonised. In order to colonize planets, the player must have appropriate technology. The AI will colonise some planets, and the gamer will be in much closer contact with opposition.[78]

Ocampo found that Lost Empire: Immortals is larger and more complex than Master of Orion II, but thought this was a failing, and gave the Lost Empire: Immortals a score of 6.[79]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ MOOIIManual (PC), p. iv.
  2. ^ MOOIIManualPC.
  3. ^ MOOIIManualPC 1996, p. 144.
  4. ^ MOOIIManualPC 1996, p. 145.
  5. ^ MOOIIManualPC 1996, p. 47-52.
  6. ^ MOOIIManualPC 1996, p. 88.
  7. ^ MayerReview 1997. sfn error: multiple targets (3×): CITEREFMayerReview1997 (help)
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i ChickMoo2Retroview 2001. Cite error: The named reference "FOOTNOTEChickMoo2Retroview2001" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  9. ^ MOOIIManualPC, p. 57.
  10. ^ a b MOOIIManualPC 1996, pp. 75. Cite error: The named reference "FOOTNOTEMOOIIManualPC199675" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  11. ^ MOOIIManualPC 1996, pp. 139–140.
  12. ^ MOOIIManualPC & (1996), pp. 57–58.
  13. ^ a b MOOIIManualPC 1996, p. 137.
  14. ^ MOOIIManualPC 1996, pp. 35–38.
  15. ^ MOOIIManualPC & 1996), p. 34.
  16. ^ a b MOOIIManualPC 1996, pp. 65–99.
  17. ^ a b c MOOIIManualPC 1996, pp. 64–65.
  18. ^ MOOIIManualPC 1996, p. 142.
  19. ^ a b MOOIIManualPC 1996, pp. 112–116.
  20. ^ MOOIIManualPC 1996, pp. 100–102.
  21. ^ MOOIIManualPC 1996, p. 100.
  22. ^ MOOIIManualPC 1996, pp. 138–142.
  23. ^ MOOIIManualPC 1996, pp. 42–43.
  24. ^ MOOIIManualPC, pp. 105–111.
  25. ^ MOOIIManualPC 1996, p. 104.
  26. ^ MOOIIManualPC 1996, p. 74.
  27. ^ MOOIIManualPC 1996, p. 11.
  28. ^ MOOIIManualPC 1996, p. 111.
  29. ^ MOOIIManualPC, pp. 30–31.
  30. ^ Geryk & HistSpaceEmp 2000.
  31. ^ WoodMOO3Review 2004.
  32. ^ a b MOOIIManualPC 1996, pp. 118–119.
  33. ^ a b MayerMOO2Review 1997.
  34. ^ MOOIIManualPC 1996, pp. 119–130.
  35. ^ MOOIIManualPC 1996, pp. 119–120, 130–132.
  36. ^ MOOIIManualPC 1996, pp. 114–116.
  37. ^ MOOIIManualPC 1996, p. 131.
  38. ^ a b MOOIIManualPC 1996, p. 23.
  39. ^ MOOIIManualPC 1996, p. 81.
  40. ^ a b c MOOIIManualPC 1996, p. 132.
  41. ^ MOOIIManualPC 1996, pp. 113–116.
  42. ^ MOOIIManualPC, pp. 16–21.
  43. ^ a b c d e Ward1996GameSpotReview.
  44. ^ CybersaberStrategyGuide) 2001.
  45. ^ MOOIIManualPC 1996, pp. 16–24.
  46. ^ MOOIIManualPC 1966, pp. 16–24.
  47. ^ a b MOOIIManualPC 1996, p. 16.
  48. ^ MOOIIManualPC, p. 22-24.
  49. ^ MOOIIManualPC 1996, p. 13-15.
  50. ^ MOOIIManualPC, p. 16.
  51. ^ MOOIIManualPC 1966, p. 18-21.
  52. ^ MOOIIManualPC 1966, pp. 134–135.
  53. ^ MOOIIManualPC 1996, pp. 119–126.
  54. ^ a b MOOIIManualPC 1996, pp. 35–44.
  55. ^ MOOIIManualPC 1996, pp. 27–30.
  56. ^ MOOIIManualPC 1996, pp. 26, 34.
  57. ^ MOOIIManualPC 1996, pp. 35–36, 56–59.
  58. ^ MOOIIManualPC 1996, pp. 60–62.
  59. ^ MOOIIManualPC 1996, p. 29.
  60. ^ MOOIIManualPC 1996, p. 44.
  61. ^ MOOIIManualPC, p. 153.
  62. ^ a b c d MeinfelderRuleForUSD50.
  63. ^ SEC Info - Microprose Inc/DE - 10-Q.
  64. ^ GameSpyCoBioMicroprose.
  65. ^ GameSpyCoBioMicroprose 1996.
  66. ^ Ocampo2008LostEmpImm 1996.
  67. ^ MetacriticMOO2.
  68. ^ SFCompGame1996.
  69. ^ Geryk.
  70. ^ a b c d GerykHistSpaceEmpireMOO2.
  71. ^ a b c d Mayer1997Review.
  72. ^ LordBInstallV1dot4OnXP.
  73. ^ dimensionzMOO2Mac.
  74. ^ MOO2ComparedWithRecentSpace4X.
  75. ^ Space Empires: IV.
  76. ^ Galactic Civilizations II.
  77. ^ Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords Hands-On - The Spiritual Heir to Master of Orion II?.
  78. ^ Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar.
  79. ^ Lost Empire: Immortals.

References

[edit]
  • Chick, T. (2001). "PC Retroview: Master of Orion II". IGN. Retrieved 2009-05-09.
  • "Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares". Chipping Sodbury, South Gloucestershire, England: MicroProse. 1996. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help); Text "MOOIIManualPC" ignored (help)
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