Master of Orion
Encyclopedia
Master of Orion is a turn-based, 4X
science fiction
computer strategy game released in 1993
by MicroProse
on the MS-DOS
and Mac OS
operating systems. The purpose of the game is to lead one of ten races to dominate the galaxy through a combination of diplomacy
and conquest
while developing technology, exploring and colonizing
star systems. The game uses a point-and-click
interface as well as keyboard shortcut
s to control the management of colonies, technology, ship construction, diplomacy and combat. The name is a reference to the Orion system, the game universe's conquerable homeworld of a mythical race that once controlled the galaxy.
Two sequels were created, Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares in 1996 and Master of Orion III
in 2003 - as well as the free
, open source
FreeOrion which is loosely based on the series. A prototype was developed under the name Star Lords though it was only released as freeware
in 2001 as part of the promotion for MoO III.
Master of Orion was well received, and is a member of GameSpy
's Hall of Fame and GameSpot
Greatest Games of All Time.
/predecessor program Star Lords. Steve Barcia
's game development company Simtex
demonstrated Star Lords to MicroProse
and gaming journalist Alan Emrich
who, along with Tom Hughes, assisted Barcia in refining the design to produce Master of Orion; and the game's manual thanks them for their contributions. Emrich and Hughes later wrote the strategy guide for the finished product. MicroProse published the final version of the game in 1994
.
", meaning "eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate". Emrich and later commentators noted earlier examples of this genre, including Civilization
in 1991, and Reach for the Stars in the early 1980s.
The game was reviewed in 1994 in Dragon
#202 by Sandy Petersen
in the "Eye of the Monitor" column. Petersen gave the game 3 out of 5 stars.
Master of Orion is a member of both GameSpy
's Hall of Fame and GameSpot
's list of the Greatest Games of All Time. In retrospective reviews, Jason Osborne, Tom Chick
and Bruce Geryk regarded MoO as the standard by which turn based strategy games set in space are judged, although Osborne regretted the lack of a multiplayer option.
opponents on the user's computer.
The game was developed to run under MS-DOS
or Mac OS
. Running the MS-DOS version on Windows XP
can be difficult, but DOSBox
emulator
supports the game. Linux
users can also use DOSBox to run MS-DOS programs.
Master of Orion is a turn-based game in which players alternate actions and decisions with computer-controlled opponents. A mouse
is needed, but hot keys can access many functions.
The main screen is a scrollable map of the galaxy; clicking on a star system makes the rightmost part of the main screen display information about the planet there. If the player has not explored the system, only the word "unexplored" appears; otherwise the panel shows the planet's current and maximum population; if the player has a colony there, it also offers controls to allocate the colony's output.
There is a separate space combat map, and additional screens for managing research, diplomacy and espionage. The diplomacy and espionage screen acts partly as a menu that provides access to screens about specific aspects. There is also a Planets List screen that can be used in managing an empire's economy.
Lockable sliders are used to allocate a colony's output between ship construction, planetary defenses, factory construction, ecology or research. Within each of these industry sectors, there is a fixed sequence of activities to which resources are allocated; for example defense effort will be used to upgrade existing missile bases if improved missile types have been discovered, then to build or upgrade planetary shields, and finally to build additional missile bases. The technology screen uses a similar set of lockable sliders to allocate research spending between the 6 technology areas.
s counting as a vote against both candidates. Some combination of conquest and diplomacy is usually necessary in order to gain such a large majority. Once a High Master is elected the player can accept the result or challenge it; the latter results in a "Final War" that is fought to the death between the High Master's supporters and the dissident. Even if it is the player themselves who has been elected by the High Council, the player may still choose to challenge the results, thus placing them in a "Final War" against all the other empires. This allows the player to choose whether to win the game immediately by diplomatic victory, or to continue until complete conquest is achieved.
Despite the game's name, conquering the Orion star system is neither necessary nor sufficient on its own to win the game. The planet in the Orion system is unusually large and extremely valuable, since artifacts
left by its former inhabitants give its conqueror some very advanced military technologies, one of which players cannot research for themselves, and a colony there will be four times more productive in research than on most other planets. Other races are also more likely to support the empire that holds Orion during High Council elections. In order to colonize Orion or capture its technology one must destroy the robotic Guardian warship, a feat that requires a large, advanced fleet.
, including research. All citizens are capable of industrial production, but are significantly more productive when assisted by factories. There is a limit on the number of factories a unit of population (notionally 1M individuals) can operate, but players can increase this by researching and building upgrades. The cost of upgrades rises rapidly unless the player first researches technologies that reduce factory costs.
Players can allocate a planet's industrial output to various combinations of: building or upgrading factories; building or upgrading a planet's shields and missile bases; research; spaceship construction; and ecology
(pollution control, terraforming, increasing population growth). A planet's output can also be transferred to the planetary reserve (treasury
), but with a 50% penalty.
The treasury can also be increased by scrapping ships or missile bases, by gifts from other empires and by random donations from non-playable rich merchants. Its funds can be used to boost the output of other planets, subject to strict limitations, and to provide gifts to other empires.
The need to clean up pollution is a serious constraint on economic growth in the early game. Various technologies reduce the cost of cleanup to the point that pollution may not be a significant factor in later stages. Players must also pay maintenance costs for ships, missile bases and spies, which is financed by a percentage tax that is calculated by the software and applied to production at all colonies; players cannot control how this burden is allocated between colonies.
as the most important contribution to a player's success. Advances can be acquired through research, trading, spying or conquest. Six technology areas can be researched to produce new advances:
If a ship uses a component from a particular technology area, further advances in that area reduce the cost and size of the component; this effect is called "miniaturization". When one has researched all of the technologies in an area of the tech tree, further research can discover "advanced technologies" in that area, which do not provide specific new capabilities but increase the miniaturization of ship components.
Players can research several technologies at the same time, controlling the allocation of research resources by means of lockable sliders on the Technology screen. Each research project returns "interest" on resources invested in it, using a formula that produces the greatest return if the project accounts for 15% of the total research budget. There is a small random element in the number of turns required to achieve an advance – it may take a few more or less than one would predict on the basis of simple arithmetic.
In each game each player is allowed to see a different random subset of the technologies at each level. On the other hand there are often alternative technologies that provide similar benefits. These features force players to adapt rather than follow the same favorite research strategy in each game. One can also make up for any important gaps by spying, technology trading or conquest.
of money or technology; one-time technology trades; trade pacts that boost industrial output; non-aggression
and alliance
treaties. Players can also threaten each other, declare war and arrange cease-fires Each AI player remembers others' actions, both positive and negative, and will be unwilling to form alliances with a player who has broken previous treaties with it.
Hostile actions do not automatically cause war. Clashes are even expected at the opening of the game, when all sides are sending probes out into the unknown. On the other extreme, a ground assault must be knowingly targeted at an inhabited planet, and is a massive provocation.
Ships can be used to colonize planets, scout for planets worth colonizing, attack other races and defend against attacks. Only six ship designs can be used at a time; beyond that, a previous slot must be emptied and all ships of that class scrapped before a new class can be designed. Ships cannot be upgraded or refitted with new technology, except that increases in travel range automatically benefit all ships.
There are four hull sizes; smaller sizes are harder to hit while larger ships can survive more damage and hold more components. There are eight types of components, each with different effects:
Ships can travel to any star system within their range and combat always occurs in orbit
over a planet - it is impossible to intercept enemy ships in deep space. All ships of the same class form a single stack, moving and firing as a unit. Players can control space combat manually or ask the software to resolve combat automatically. Battles are almost always decided by numbers and technology rather than by clever tactics. An attacker can bomb a planet during combat and, if it wins the space combat, can bomb more intensively immediately afterwards.
Invading an enemy colony without destroying all defending ships and missile bases will result in the loss of some or all of the invading ground forces before they land, and hostile planets can not be invaded unless attackers have technology that allows them to colonize an at least equally hostile type of planet. There are no specialist invasion ships; invading forces are drawn from the population of one or more colonies, which reduces the population of the planet(s) from which they are sent.
Invasions are depicted in real-time
but players cannot control combat. Results depend on numbers, technology and (if one of the races involved is Bulrathi) racial ground combat bonus. Invasion is expensive, but usually provides worthwhile advantages if successful: the production capacity of any remaining factories, plundering
of technologies if enough factories survived the attack, and control over a new system that extends the range of the invader's ships. A successful invasion exterminates the previous inhabitants and the surviving troops form the planet's new population.
The typical race is very good in one research subject and below average in another. However, the Psilons are very good in all areas, while the Silicoids are above average in computers, which is useful for spying and sabotage, but are weak in all other research areas. The Humans excel in one area, and are good in two others. They and the Sakkra have no weak subjects.
Each race has a pre-defined initial relationship with each other race, and they gradually return to these relationships unless these are improved or damaged by events. Most races start with neutral relationships to most other races, except that each has an uneasy or in some cases belligerent relationship to one other race. The exceptions are the Humans, which initially have amicable relationships with all others, and the Darloks, whose espionage skills make them objects of suspicion to all except the Humans.
The races also have "personalities" which vary from one game to another when played by the AI. Their attitudes to other races can vary from honorable (reliable friend and unforgiving enemy) or pacifist to aggressive or xenophobic
. Each has a major policy objective which guides their research and economic management; for example militarists build combat ships as fast as possible and prioritize technologies which have military benefits, while ecologists put a lot of effort into pollution control and terraforming. Each race's behavior varies from one game to another, because in both attitude and policy objective each race has a most probable trait and less probable ones.
and attacks by space monsters that can destroy colonies. Random events can be disabled by means of a cheat code.
in 2001, stripped of all documentation and copy protection
, in anticipation of the launch of Master of Orion 3. Major differences between Star Lords and Master of Orion I include inferior graphics and interface, simpler trade and diplomacy, undirected research, a lack of safeguards to prevent players from building more factories than are usable and the use of transports rather than colony ships to colonize new planets. One feature of Star Lords that Master of Orion lacks is a table of relations between the computer-controlled races. The game is available for download on FilePlanet
and the home page for Master of Orion III.
. The sequels are significantly more advanced in graphics and sound and feature large differences in gameplay, with some players claiming the original game remains the best version of the three.
In 2008 Stardock
, the creators of the popular Galactic Civilizations
series, expressed interest in acquiring the rights to the "Master of Orion" series from Atari, Inc. and developing a fourth game in the series.
In 2011, a clone of MoO II, "Starbase Orion," was published by Chimera Software, LLC on the iPhone.
's trilogy, the Line of Delirium
.
4X
4X games are a genre of strategy video game in which players control an empire and "explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate." The term was first coined by Alan Emrich in his September 1993 preview of Master of Orion for Computer Gaming World...
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
computer strategy game released in 1993
1993 in video gaming
-Events:*March — In Sweden, the Swedish video game magazine Super PLAY starts. The original name is Super Power.*Midway Games embroiled in controversy for its game Mortal Kombat from 1992 when the game is launched for video game consoles in 1993....
by MicroProse
MicroProse
MicroProse was a video game publisher and developer, founded by Wild Bill Stealey and Sid Meier in 1982 as Microprose Software. In 1993, the company became a subsidiary of Spectrum HoloByte and has remained a subsidiary or brand name under several other corporations since...
on the MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
and Mac OS
Mac OS
Mac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface...
operating systems. The purpose of the game is to lead one of ten races to dominate the galaxy through a combination of diplomacy
Diplomacy
Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states...
and conquest
Right of conquest
The right of conquest is the right of a conqueror to territory taken by force of arms. It was traditionally a principle of international law which has in modern times gradually given way until its proscription after the Second World War when the crime of war of aggression was first codified in the...
while developing technology, exploring and colonizing
Space colonization
Space colonization is the concept of permanent human habitation outside of Earth. Although hypothetical at the present time, there are many proposals and speculations about the first space colony...
star systems. The game uses a point-and-click
Point-and-click
Point-and-click is the action of a computer user moving a cursor to a certain location on a screen and then pressing a mouse button, usually the left button , or other pointing device...
interface as well as keyboard shortcut
Keyboard shortcut
In computing, a keyboard shortcut is a finite set of one or more keys that invoke a software or operating system operation when triggered by the user. A meaning of term "keyboard shortcut" can vary depending on software manufacturer...
s to control the management of colonies, technology, ship construction, diplomacy and combat. The name is a reference to the Orion system, the game universe's conquerable homeworld of a mythical race that once controlled the galaxy.
Two sequels were created, Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares in 1996 and Master of Orion III
Master of Orion III
Master of Orion III is a 4X turn-based strategy game and the third in the Master of Orion series. MoO3 was developed by Quicksilver Software and published by Infogrames on February 25, 2003.-Backstory:...
in 2003 - as well as the free
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
, open source
Open-source software
Open-source software is computer software that is available in source code form: the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, improve and at times also to distribute the software.Open...
FreeOrion which is loosely based on the series. A prototype was developed under the name Star Lords though it was only released as freeware
Freeware
Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
in 2001 as part of the promotion for MoO III.
Master of Orion was well received, and is a member of GameSpy
GameSpy
GameSpy Industries, Inc., known simply as GameSpy, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game websites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current...
's Hall of Fame and GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
Greatest Games of All Time.
Development
Master of Orion is a significantly expanded and refined version of the prototypePrototype
A prototype is an early sample or model built to test a concept or process or to act as a thing to be replicated or learned from.The word prototype derives from the Greek πρωτότυπον , "primitive form", neutral of πρωτότυπος , "original, primitive", from πρῶτος , "first" and τύπος ,...
/predecessor program Star Lords. Steve Barcia
Steve Barcia
Steve Barcia is a game programmer, game producer and entrepreneur, having founded the computer game developer Simtex Studios Inc. in 1988. The company released computer games such as Master of Magic, Master of Orion and Master of Orion II....
's game development company Simtex
Simtex
Simtex was a video game developer established by Steve Barcia in 1988. It created a number of well-known turn-based strategy games for the PC, most notably the first two Master of Orion games...
demonstrated Star Lords to MicroProse
MicroProse
MicroProse was a video game publisher and developer, founded by Wild Bill Stealey and Sid Meier in 1982 as Microprose Software. In 1993, the company became a subsidiary of Spectrum HoloByte and has remained a subsidiary or brand name under several other corporations since...
and gaming journalist Alan Emrich
Alan Emrich
Alan Emrich is best known as a writer about and designer of computer games, who coined the term "4X", contributed to the design of Master of Orion and Master of Orion 3, and wrote strategy guides for video games. Before the rise of computer games Emrich wrote about and designed board games and...
who, along with Tom Hughes, assisted Barcia in refining the design to produce Master of Orion; and the game's manual thanks them for their contributions. Emrich and Hughes later wrote the strategy guide for the finished product. MicroProse published the final version of the game in 1994
1994 in video gaming
-Events:*Nintendo calls this year "1994: The Year of the Cartridge".*Nintendo Australia Pty. Ltd, the Australian subsidiary of Nintendo Co., Ltd is established and opened by Hiroshi Yamauchi and effectively ends Mattel Australia's distribution of Nintendo's products throughout Australia.*"Project...
.
Reception
A preview by Emrich described the game as "the best that galactic conquest can offer", and summarized its type of gameplay as "4X4X
4X games are a genre of strategy video game in which players control an empire and "explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate." The term was first coined by Alan Emrich in his September 1993 preview of Master of Orion for Computer Gaming World...
", meaning "eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate". Emrich and later commentators noted earlier examples of this genre, including Civilization
Civilization (computer game)
Sid Meier's Civilization is a turn-based strategy "4X"-type strategy video game created by Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley for MicroProse in 1991. The game's objective is to "Build an empire to stand the test of time": it begins in 4000 BC and the players attempt to expand and develop their empires...
in 1991, and Reach for the Stars in the early 1980s.
The game was reviewed in 1994 in Dragon
Dragon (magazine)
Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...
#202 by Sandy Petersen
Sandy Petersen
Carl Sanford Joslyn Petersen is a game designer.Petersen was born in St. Louis, Missouri and attended University of California, Berkeley, majoring in zoology....
in the "Eye of the Monitor" column. Petersen gave the game 3 out of 5 stars.
Master of Orion is a member of both GameSpy
GameSpy
GameSpy Industries, Inc., known simply as GameSpy, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game websites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current...
's Hall of Fame and GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
's list of the Greatest Games of All Time. In retrospective reviews, Jason Osborne, Tom Chick
Tom Chick
Tom W. Chick is an American television and movie actor, and independent journalist. His most prominent TV roles were as Oscar's lover Gil in the US version of The Office, and the hard-hitting reporter Gordon in The West Wing. As a writer, Tom has contributed to many current and past video game...
and Bruce Geryk regarded MoO as the standard by which turn based strategy games set in space are judged, although Osborne regretted the lack of a multiplayer option.
System environment
Master of Orion does not offer a multi-player mode, only contests against AIAi
AI, A.I., Ai, or ai may refer to:- Computers :* Artificial intelligence, a branch of computer science* Ad impression, in online advertising* .ai, the ISO Internet 2-letter country code for Anguilla...
opponents on the user's computer.
The game was developed to run under MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
or Mac OS
Mac OS
Mac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface...
. Running the MS-DOS version on Windows XP
Windows XP
Windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base...
can be difficult, but DOSBox
DOSBox
DOSBox is emulator software that emulates an IBM PC compatible computer running MS-DOS. It is intended especially for use with old PC games. DOSBox is free software....
emulator
Emulator
In computing, an emulator is hardware or software or both that duplicates the functions of a first computer system in a different second computer system, so that the behavior of the second system closely resembles the behavior of the first system...
supports the game. Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
users can also use DOSBox to run MS-DOS programs.
Gameplay
Mouse (computing)
In computing, a mouse is a pointing device that functions by detecting two-dimensional motion relative to its supporting surface. Physically, a mouse consists of an object held under one of the user's hands, with one or more buttons...
is needed, but hot keys can access many functions.
The main screen is a scrollable map of the galaxy; clicking on a star system makes the rightmost part of the main screen display information about the planet there. If the player has not explored the system, only the word "unexplored" appears; otherwise the panel shows the planet's current and maximum population; if the player has a colony there, it also offers controls to allocate the colony's output.
There is a separate space combat map, and additional screens for managing research, diplomacy and espionage. The diplomacy and espionage screen acts partly as a menu that provides access to screens about specific aspects. There is also a Planets List screen that can be used in managing an empire's economy.
Lockable sliders are used to allocate a colony's output between ship construction, planetary defenses, factory construction, ecology or research. Within each of these industry sectors, there is a fixed sequence of activities to which resources are allocated; for example defense effort will be used to upgrade existing missile bases if improved missile types have been discovered, then to build or upgrade planetary shields, and finally to build additional missile bases. The technology screen uses a similar set of lockable sliders to allocate research spending between the 6 technology areas.
Overview
The game begins with a single colonized homeworld, one colony ship and two scout ships that can be used to explore nearby stars. As the game progresses, gamers discover new worlds, encounter other races, colonize worlds, and fight wars. Despite their different backgrounds and homeworlds, all races possess legends of the Orions, a master race that once controlled the galaxy. Their homeworld contains powerful secrets and technology but is defended by a powerful robotic starship, the Guardian.Victory conditions
Victory is gained either by eliminating all opponents or by being elected supreme leader of the galaxy at a meeting of the High Council. Elections are held every 25 turns after two-thirds of the planets in the galaxy have been colonized, and each empire's voting strength depends on its population. To be elected High Master, an empire's leader must gain at least two-thirds of all available votes, with abstentionAbstention
Abstention is a term in election procedure for when a participant in a vote either does not go to vote or, in parliamentary procedure, is present during the vote, but does not cast a ballot. Abstention must be contrasted with "blank vote", in which a voter casts a ballot willfully made invalid by...
s counting as a vote against both candidates. Some combination of conquest and diplomacy is usually necessary in order to gain such a large majority. Once a High Master is elected the player can accept the result or challenge it; the latter results in a "Final War" that is fought to the death between the High Master's supporters and the dissident. Even if it is the player themselves who has been elected by the High Council, the player may still choose to challenge the results, thus placing them in a "Final War" against all the other empires. This allows the player to choose whether to win the game immediately by diplomatic victory, or to continue until complete conquest is achieved.
Despite the game's name, conquering the Orion star system is neither necessary nor sufficient on its own to win the game. The planet in the Orion system is unusually large and extremely valuable, since artifacts
Cultural artifact
A cultural artifact is a term used in the social sciences, particularly anthropology, ethnology, and sociology for anything created by humans which gives information about the culture of its creator and users...
left by its former inhabitants give its conqueror some very advanced military technologies, one of which players cannot research for themselves, and a colony there will be four times more productive in research than on most other planets. Other races are also more likely to support the empire that holds Orion during High Council elections. In order to colonize Orion or capture its technology one must destroy the robotic Guardian warship, a feat that requires a large, advanced fleet.
Economics
All of a colony's outputs are based on its industrial productionProduction, costs, and pricing
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to industrial organization:Industrial organization – describes the behavior of firms in the marketplace with regard to production, pricing, employment and other decisions...
, including research. All citizens are capable of industrial production, but are significantly more productive when assisted by factories. There is a limit on the number of factories a unit of population (notionally 1M individuals) can operate, but players can increase this by researching and building upgrades. The cost of upgrades rises rapidly unless the player first researches technologies that reduce factory costs.
Players can allocate a planet's industrial output to various combinations of: building or upgrading factories; building or upgrading a planet's shields and missile bases; research; spaceship construction; and ecology
Ecology
Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
(pollution control, terraforming, increasing population growth). A planet's output can also be transferred to the planetary reserve (treasury
Treasury
A treasury is either*A government department related to finance and taxation.*A place where currency or precious items is/are kept....
), but with a 50% penalty.
The treasury can also be increased by scrapping ships or missile bases, by gifts from other empires and by random donations from non-playable rich merchants. Its funds can be used to boost the output of other planets, subject to strict limitations, and to provide gifts to other empires.
The need to clean up pollution is a serious constraint on economic growth in the early game. Various technologies reduce the cost of cleanup to the point that pollution may not be a significant factor in later stages. Players must also pay maintenance costs for ships, missile bases and spies, which is financed by a percentage tax that is calculated by the software and applied to production at all colonies; players cannot control how this burden is allocated between colonies.
Planets
The software generates a map randomly at the start of each game; the player's only influence over the map generator is the ability to choose the size of the galaxy and the number and difficulty of AI opponents. Star systems have at most one colonizable planet and a few have none. Planets vary in the following ways:| Mineral wealth | Productivity in factory, defense and ship construction |
|---|---|
| Ultra-poor | 33% |
| Poor | 50% |
| Normal | 100% |
| Rich | 200% |
| Ultra-rich | 300% |
- Mineral wealth dramatically influences a colony's industrial productivity when building or upgrading factories, building or upgrading defenses and building ships; it has no impact on the productivity of research nor of ecological improvements such as pollutionPollutionPollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...
control or terraformingTerraformingTerraforming of a planet, moon, or other body is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying its atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology to be similar to those of Earth, in order to make it habitable by terrestrial organisms.The term is sometimes used more generally as a...
. - Habitability influences population growth rates: fertile planets increase growth rates by 50% and Gaia planets by 100%, while hostile planets halve them. There are seven normal and six hostile planet types; the various hostile types require increasingly advanced technology to colonize, which extends the exploration and colonization phases of MoO for much longer than in most 4X4X4X games are a genre of strategy video game in which players control an empire and "explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate." The term was first coined by Alan Emrich in his September 1993 preview of Master of Orion for Computer Gaming World...
games. Hostile planets are the most likely to be rich or ultra-rich in minerals. All planets can be upgraded to Gaia class with the appropriate technologies. - Size, which determines the planet's initial population capacity. This can be more than doubled by various kinds of terraforming.
- Artifact worlds contain relics of a now-vanished advanced civilization. These usually provide a free technology advance to the first empire that discovers the planet, and always double the research productivity of a colony there, except that on Orion the research productivity of a colony is quadrupled.
Technology
The designers regard technologyTechnology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
as the most important contribution to a player's success. Advances can be acquired through research, trading, spying or conquest. Six technology areas can be researched to produce new advances:
- ComputerComputerA computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
s: spaceship systems that improve combat effectiveness; factory controls that increase the number of factories each colonist can operate; scanners that monitor the movements of other empires' ships and eventually can even "explore" planets remotely; and a weapon that can destroy other ships' computer systems. Computer technology advances also improve the effectiveness of spies in both offensive and defensive operations. - ConstructionConstructionIn the fields of architecture and civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the building or assembling of infrastructure. Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of human multitasking...
: reductions in the cost of building and upgrading factories; reductions in pollution; improved armor; and self-repair systems for ships. - Force fields: protective shields for ships, planets and ground troops; devices that make it harder to hit the players' ships; and some special weapons.
- PlanetologyPlanetary sciencePlanetary science is the scientific study of planets , moons, and planetary systems, in particular those of the Solar System and the processes that form them. It studies objects ranging in size from micrometeoroids to gas giants, aiming to determine their composition, dynamics, formation,...
: reductions in the cost of pollution control; colonization of hostile planets; terraformingTerraformingTerraforming of a planet, moon, or other body is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying its atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology to be similar to those of Earth, in order to make it habitable by terrestrial organisms.The term is sometimes used more generally as a...
, which increases the maximum population of a planet; the ability to increase populations more efficiently; biological weaponBiological warfareBiological warfare is the use of biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi with intent to kill or incapacitate humans, animals or plants as an act of war...
s and defenses against such weapons. - PropulsionVehicle propulsionVehicle propulsion refers to the act of moving an artificial carrier of people or goods over any distance. The power plant used to drive the vehicles can vary widely. Originally, humans or animals would have provided the propulsion system, later being supplemented by wind power...
: increases in the range and speed of starships; some special weapons and combat systems. Range increases are particularly important in early colonization. - WeaponWeaponA weapon, arm, or armament is a tool or instrument used with the aim of causing damage or harm to living beings or artificial structures or systems...
s for use by ships, missile bases and ground troops.
If a ship uses a component from a particular technology area, further advances in that area reduce the cost and size of the component; this effect is called "miniaturization". When one has researched all of the technologies in an area of the tech tree, further research can discover "advanced technologies" in that area, which do not provide specific new capabilities but increase the miniaturization of ship components.
Players can research several technologies at the same time, controlling the allocation of research resources by means of lockable sliders on the Technology screen. Each research project returns "interest" on resources invested in it, using a formula that produces the greatest return if the project accounts for 15% of the total research budget. There is a small random element in the number of turns required to achieve an advance – it may take a few more or less than one would predict on the basis of simple arithmetic.
In each game each player is allowed to see a different random subset of the technologies at each level. On the other hand there are often alternative technologies that provide similar benefits. These features force players to adapt rather than follow the same favorite research strategy in each game. One can also make up for any important gaps by spying, technology trading or conquest.
Diplomacy
Master of Orion provides a wide range of diplomatic negotiations: giftsTribute
A tribute is wealth, often in kind, that one party gives to another as a sign of respect or, as was often the case in historical contexts, of submission or allegiance. Various ancient states, which could be called suzerains, exacted tribute from areas they had conquered or threatened to conquer...
of money or technology; one-time technology trades; trade pacts that boost industrial output; non-aggression
Non-aggression pact
A non-aggression pact is an international treaty between two or more states/countries agreeing to avoid war or armed conflict between them and resolve their disputes through peaceful negotiations...
and alliance
Alliance
An alliance is an agreement or friendship between two or more parties, made in order to advance common goals and to secure common interests.See also military alliance and business alliance.-International relations:...
treaties. Players can also threaten each other, declare war and arrange cease-fires Each AI player remembers others' actions, both positive and negative, and will be unwilling to form alliances with a player who has broken previous treaties with it.
Hostile actions do not automatically cause war. Clashes are even expected at the opening of the game, when all sides are sending probes out into the unknown. On the other extreme, a ground assault must be knowingly targeted at an inhabited planet, and is a massive provocation.
Spaceship design
There are four hull sizes; smaller sizes are harder to hit while larger ships can survive more damage and hold more components. There are eight types of components, each with different effects:
- Battle computers increase the chance of a beam weapon hitting and damaging a target
- Shields reduce the damage done by opponents' weapons
- Electronic countermeasuresElectronic countermeasuresAn electronic countermeasure is an electrical or electronic device designed to trick or deceive radar, sonar or other detection systems, like infrared or lasers. It may be used both offensively and defensively to deny targeting information to an enemy...
reduce the risk of being hit by missileMissileThough a missile may be any thrown or launched object, it colloquially almost always refers to a self-propelled guided weapon system.-Etymology:The word missile comes from the Latin verb mittere, meaning "to send"...
s - Armor determines the amount of damage a ship of a given hull size can withstand before being destroyed
- Engines supply power to systems, and determine the speed of interstellar travel and a ship's maximum maneuverability during combat
- Combat maneuverability determines how fast a ship can move during battle and how hard it is to hit; maximum maneuverability is determined by the engine type used
- Weapons: missiles, beams, bombs and biological weapons (the last reduce a colony's population without damaging buildings)
- Special systems which have varying effects: improve a ship's range or maneuverability; improve weapon accuracy or range; provide defensive, offensive, repair or sensing advantages; a few "special" weapons, some of which affect whole stacks of enemy ships; colony bases are also considered special systems
Space combat and invasions
Orbit
In physics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved path of an object around a point in space, for example the orbit of a planet around the center of a star system, such as the Solar System...
over a planet - it is impossible to intercept enemy ships in deep space. All ships of the same class form a single stack, moving and firing as a unit. Players can control space combat manually or ask the software to resolve combat automatically. Battles are almost always decided by numbers and technology rather than by clever tactics. An attacker can bomb a planet during combat and, if it wins the space combat, can bomb more intensively immediately afterwards.
Invading an enemy colony without destroying all defending ships and missile bases will result in the loss of some or all of the invading ground forces before they land, and hostile planets can not be invaded unless attackers have technology that allows them to colonize an at least equally hostile type of planet. There are no specialist invasion ships; invading forces are drawn from the population of one or more colonies, which reduces the population of the planet(s) from which they are sent.
Invasions are depicted in real-time
Real-time computing
In computer science, real-time computing , or reactive computing, is the study of hardware and software systems that are subject to a "real-time constraint"— e.g. operational deadlines from event to system response. Real-time programs must guarantee response within strict time constraints...
but players cannot control combat. Results depend on numbers, technology and (if one of the races involved is Bulrathi) racial ground combat bonus. Invasion is expensive, but usually provides worthwhile advantages if successful: the production capacity of any remaining factories, plundering
Looting
Looting —also referred to as sacking, plundering, despoiling, despoliation, and pillaging—is the indiscriminate taking of goods by force as part of a military or political victory, or during a catastrophe, such as during war, natural disaster, or rioting...
of technologies if enough factories survived the attack, and control over a new system that extends the range of the invader's ships. A successful invasion exterminates the previous inhabitants and the surviving troops form the planet's new population.
Races
Players choose to be one of 10 pre-defined races - one cannot create customized races. The Klackons and Meklar have different types of advantage in industrial production; the Sakkra have very fast population growth; the Psilons are the best at research; the Mrrshans and Alkari have different types of advantage in space combat; the Bulrathi are the best at ground combat; the Humans have advantages in trade and diplomacy; the Darloks excel at spying and sabotage; and the Silicoids can colonize even the most hostile planets without any research and are not constrained by pollution, but have slow population growth.The typical race is very good in one research subject and below average in another. However, the Psilons are very good in all areas, while the Silicoids are above average in computers, which is useful for spying and sabotage, but are weak in all other research areas. The Humans excel in one area, and are good in two others. They and the Sakkra have no weak subjects.
Each race has a pre-defined initial relationship with each other race, and they gradually return to these relationships unless these are improved or damaged by events. Most races start with neutral relationships to most other races, except that each has an uneasy or in some cases belligerent relationship to one other race. The exceptions are the Humans, which initially have amicable relationships with all others, and the Darloks, whose espionage skills make them objects of suspicion to all except the Humans.
The races also have "personalities" which vary from one game to another when played by the AI. Their attitudes to other races can vary from honorable (reliable friend and unforgiving enemy) or pacifist to aggressive or xenophobic
Xenophobia
Xenophobia is defined as "an unreasonable fear of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange". It comes from the Greek words ξένος , meaning "stranger," "foreigner" and φόβος , meaning "fear."...
. Each has a major policy objective which guides their research and economic management; for example militarists build combat ships as fast as possible and prioritize technologies which have military benefits, while ecologists put a lot of effort into pollution control and terraforming. Each race's behavior varies from one game to another, because in both attitude and policy objective each race has a most probable trait and less probable ones.
Random events
Master of Orion will sometimes produce random events which can be harmful or advantageous. These include discovery of ancient ships and technology, changes to planetary conditions that alter the planet's population or mineral richness, diplomatic blunders/assassination attempts, changes to research, industry or treasury production, planetary rebellion, space piracyPiracy
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence at sea. The term can include acts committed on land, in the air, or in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against persons traveling on the same vessel as the perpetrator...
and attacks by space monsters that can destroy colonies. Random events can be disabled by means of a cheat code.
Predecessor
Master of Orion is based on its predecessor game Star Lords, often called Master of Orion 0 by fans. Star Lords was a prototype and never commercially released (its intro opens with "SimTex Software and Your Company present"). The crude but fully playable prototype was made available as freewareFreeware
Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
in 2001, stripped of all documentation and copy protection
Copy protection
Copy protection, also known as content protection, copy obstruction, copy prevention and copy restriction, refer to techniques used for preventing the reproduction of software, films, music, and other media, usually for copyright reasons.- Terminology :Media corporations have always used the term...
, in anticipation of the launch of Master of Orion 3. Major differences between Star Lords and Master of Orion I include inferior graphics and interface, simpler trade and diplomacy, undirected research, a lack of safeguards to prevent players from building more factories than are usable and the use of transports rather than colony ships to colonize new planets. One feature of Star Lords that Master of Orion lacks is a table of relations between the computer-controlled races. The game is available for download on FilePlanet
FilePlanet
FilePlanet is a video game download service that provides demos, patches, mods and other gaming media and other gaming media downloads to its users. FilePlanet was launched, and is run by, GameSpy, which is now a subsidiary of IGN, and is one of the most used video game download sites on the...
and the home page for Master of Orion III.
Sequels
Two commercial sequels to Master of Orion have been released, Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares and Master of Orion IIIMaster of Orion III
Master of Orion III is a 4X turn-based strategy game and the third in the Master of Orion series. MoO3 was developed by Quicksilver Software and published by Infogrames on February 25, 2003.-Backstory:...
. The sequels are significantly more advanced in graphics and sound and feature large differences in gameplay, with some players claiming the original game remains the best version of the three.
In 2008 Stardock
Stardock
Stardock Corporation is a software development company founded in 1991 and incorporated in 1993 as Stardock Systems. Stardock initially developed for the OS/2 platform, but was forced to switch to Windows due to the collapse of the OS/2 software market between 1997 and 1998...
, the creators of the popular Galactic Civilizations
Galactic Civilizations
Galactic Civilizations is a turn-based strategy computer game developed by Stardock and released in March 2003. The game is a remake of a vintage OS/2 series of the same name. An expansion pack entitled Altarian Prophecy was released in July 2004...
series, expressed interest in acquiring the rights to the "Master of Orion" series from Atari, Inc. and developing a fourth game in the series.
In 2011, a clone of MoO II, "Starbase Orion," was published by Chimera Software, LLC on the iPhone.
In popular culture
The game setting has been the influence of Russian writer Sergey LukyanenkoSergey Lukyanenko
Sergei Vasilievich Lukyanenko is a science fiction and fantasy author, writing in Russian, and is arguably the most popular contemporary Russian sci-fi writer...
's trilogy, the Line of Delirium
Line of Delirium
Line of Delirium and Emperors of Illusions are two 1995 books of a space opera trilogy by Russian science fiction writer Sergey Lukyanenko...
.
External links
- Sirian's Master of Orion Page includes resources and full game narrations for the first Master of Orion.
- Master of Orion 1 unofficial 1.40 patch (as of March 2011, latest version is 1.40m from September 2010)
- FreeOrion is an open sourceOpen sourceThe term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
, freewareFreewareFreeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
game that has numerous similarities to games in the Master of Orion series.