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MoOving In: A Detailed Preview of Master of Orion III
PART 4: SOMETHING TO BE SAID FOR TALK (Page 1)
By Daniel Quick | Apolyton CS Co-Owner/Administrator

You are reading the first sentence of the fourth installment of my ongoing preview of Master of Orion III. You are reading the second sentence… That's enough of this game play – let's turn our focus to more of MoO3's gameplay now that this trite preface out of the way. The same goes for the rhyming…

We now enter the latter half of this series. As has been the pattern established in the articles that have preceded this one ( Part 1/Part 2/Part 3 ), I am aiming to explore game particulars in more detail than has been done previously or, in some cases, have been mentioned in passing or not at all before now. Call this article, those before and those after it “unconventional” as compared to previews written by others to date. In fact, I hope that you will. I do not believe that this makes what I have written any more or less 'valid' but rather simply an alternative.

Let's go. TAB TO THE `FOREIGN OFFICE` SCREEN: DIPLOMACY
This leads us to the nucleus of conducting your race's foreign affairs. On the first pass, though, it lets you know if you have any incoming messages from those whom you have made contact with ('View Incoming Messages'). If you are a member of the Orion Senate you need not have to cross paths in order to be able to talk to other civilizations: you have their communications frequency as supplied by Senate officials. There is a similar function to this in Civilization III, but you generally have to either trade for or successfully demand for it. This is definite timesaver but it is also an advantage of being apart of a greater community with the technological capabilities required to transverse outer space.

The Silent and The Not-So-Silent
For the most part, my galactic neighbours were interested in talking to me only if I initiated contact first. At the time I suspected that they did not want to go out on a limb and risk my ignoring them. In hindsight, however, they were obviously devoting more attention and effort on building and strengthening their internal affairs than establishing outside communication. This is a pattern that I should have paid more credence to, but such are the paths – good and bad – that one can take in MoO3. As the game progressed, I made an effort to contact all of my neighbours individually every few turns with the exception of the New Orions. What a crew.

They are immensely powerful. They had more than sixty ships to their name, defending their interstellar homeland of Orion from the outset. As such, I was but an insignificant speck on the map with what averaged out to about one tenth of that fleet size. The New Orions never returned the more than dozen communiqués I sent them, although I know that they never turned down any praise or gifts I extended in their direction. Fortunately, the Eoladi and the Trilarians were not so distant or inconsiderate. I talked to both of them in Turn 8 utilizing the 'Initiate New Diplomatic Exchange' button.

With the Eoladi, I was able to sign both a non-aggression pact as well as a Research Trade Agreement (see page _ for an extended dialogue on all possible diplomatic exchanges). As you can see from the related screenshot, the text of their response to my offer is most curious. They “snivel regretfully” at having agreed with my proposal and “meekly offer [their] warmest congratulations” in the process. Whether this seemingly disjointed response is intentional or a minor bug not yet resolved in my build, it caused me to perform a most humourous double-take. On the Trilarian front, they must have anticipated my intentions as they laid out a mutual research exchange proposal before I had the opportunity to do so. How could I resist their “peacefully whining” tone of voice on top of it all?

The Tachidi were a little more suspicious of my overtures. In the thirtieth turn they finally opened diplomatic channels with me; by this point, they had notably surpassed me in military might and probably felt they could end my constant yapping and take advantage of their relative position at the same time.