Master of Orion 1 + 2 on GOG

There are a bunch of ways that you can get DOSBox to scale up the image of the game. "normal" simply multiplies the image and makes each pixel bigger on your screen. So 2x normal would make every single pixel 2x2 pixels instead.

The other option is "high quality" which uses a bunch of algorithms and stuff to smooth out the image. Its not perfect but it stops things from being very jagged. Especially on the diagonals. It looks like this:

IMAGE(http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/6500/mooscreenshothq.png)

I got tired of the retro look so I went with this instead. Its a bit quirky as you can see. Some of the small text actually becomes less readable. But its an improvement overall.

Is the manual useful enough I should print it out and read while playing or do I want to find an online tutorial instead?

More fun with MOO2 AI:

Alkari: You've spied on us for the last time! We declare war!
Psilons: We're allies, so we declare war on the Alkari.

-time passes, the Alkari never actually attack-

Alkari: Peace treaty please? We'll give you Autolab in exchange.
Me: Ok.
Psilons: You must honor our alliance! Declare war on the Alkari!
Me: Fine, we're at war with the Alkari again.

-more time passes, still no actual combat-

Alkari: Pretty please could we have a peace treaty? We'll give you a system.
Me: Ok.
Psilons: Hey! Declare war on the Alkari!

Eventually the Psilons attacked the Alkari and completely wiped them out, all because one of my spies stole some random crappy technology.

Another weird thing that happened that game is that the entire Human empire just winked out of existence in a single turn. Nobody was at war with them, and no other empire took control of their worlds. Maybe the Reapers got them.

Nevin73 wrote:
muttonchop wrote:

Suddenly I have an empire spanning 22 systems, am at war with a race I hadn't even made contact with yet, and still only have a fleet of 5 outdated cruisers.
What the heck, lizard dudes?

Same thing happened to me. I wasn't complaining, though it does make things a bit unbalanced.

Strange, I've never had that happen. However, I don't think I've ever played a repulsive race.

muttonchop wrote:

More fun with MOO2 AI:

Alkari: You've spied on us for the last time! We declare war!
Psilons: We're allies, so we declare war on the Alkari.

-time passes, the Alkari never actually attack-

Alkari: Peace treaty please? We'll give you Autolab in exchange.
Me: Ok.
Psilons: You must honor our alliance! Declare war on the Alkari!
Me: Fine, we're at war with the Alkari again.

-more time passes, still no actual combat-

Alkari: Pretty please could we have a peace treaty? We'll give you a system.
Me: Ok.
Psilons: Hey! Declare war on the Alkari!

Eventually the Psilons attacked the Alkari and completely wiped them out, all because one of my spies stole some random crappy technology.

Another weird thing that happened that game is that the entire Human empire just winked out of existence in a single turn. Nobody was at war with them, and no other empire took control of their worlds. Maybe the Reapers got them.

Sounds like you've got a case of Cylon rebellion there..

Quintin_Stone wrote:
Nevin73 wrote:
muttonchop wrote:

Suddenly I have an empire spanning 22 systems, am at war with a race I hadn't even made contact with yet, and still only have a fleet of 5 outdated cruisers.
What the heck, lizard dudes?

Same thing happened to me. I wasn't complaining, though it does make things a bit unbalanced.

Strange, I've never had that happen. However, I don't think I've ever played a repulsive race.

I was playing the Mrrshans and the Elarians just gave up and surrendered to me. I think they were being pressed in a war with another race and surrendered to me to flip the bird.

Nevin73 wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:
Nevin73 wrote:
muttonchop wrote:

Suddenly I have an empire spanning 22 systems, am at war with a race I hadn't even made contact with yet, and still only have a fleet of 5 outdated cruisers.
What the heck, lizard dudes?

Same thing happened to me. I wasn't complaining, though it does make things a bit unbalanced.

Strange, I've never had that happen. However, I don't think I've ever played a repulsive race.

I was playing the Mrrshans and the Elarians just gave up and surrendered to me. I think they were being pressed in a war with another race and surrendered to me to flip the bird.

That happens sometimes. It makes some empires (including yours when it happens) an major power overnight.

Just got wiped out by the Mrrrshans. This is one of the few games where I actually don't mind losing and hitting restart.

Tamren wrote:

There are a bunch of ways that you can get DOSBox to scale up the image of the game. "normal" simply multiplies the image and makes each pixel bigger on your screen. So 2x normal would make every single pixel 2x2 pixels instead.

The other option is "high quality" which uses a bunch of algorithms and stuff to smooth out the image. Its not perfect but it stops things from being very jagged. Especially on the diagonals. It looks like this:

I got tired of the retro look so I went with this instead. Its a bit quirky as you can see. Some of the small text actually becomes less readable. But its an improvement overall.

This is good to know. I set the scaler to "Supereagle" for Master of Magic and its actually not half bad to look at. Sort of like stained glass.

Supereagle? That wasn't in the manual... Can we see a screenshot?

IMAGE(http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/9452/masterofmagic.jpg)

IMAGE(http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/4194/mom2x.jpg)
This scaler option is pretty cool, I've been trying it out with lots of old games.

You prefer that? It looks really... gritty on my screen. Like it was printed on sandpaper.

Two quick questions I'm gonna throw out there for the DOSBox gurus

I have discovered that whenever I run the game in a window (almost all the time at work) if the computer goes to screen saver, DOSBox crashes. Every time, without fail. I even set a test and forced a screen saver after only 2 minutes to verify, and sure enough, crashed DOSBox.

In other news, I'd love to play MoO2 in full screen on my tablet PC and use the pen input. So far, this is non-functional as the pen input just sends the cursor careening maddeningly all over the place with no accuracy.

Any ideas?

I can't stop playing MOO2. My current race is both subterranean and aquatic, so I guess we live in underwater caves? All I know is that my population caps are huge.

I've rediscovered my love of the Klackons.

Work my drones. Yes... work...

I'm trying to change the scale to supereagle but it won't let me save the dosboxmom file.

Markly wrote:

I'm trying to change the scale to supereagle but it won't let me save the dosboxmom file.

I changed the actual dosbox config from the start menu since I don't have the gog version. Not sure if that matters.

I like to play the Psions due to the research bonus but I played 2 games tonight on medium and the computer just kicked my ass!

One thing I'm really bad at is juggling multiple colonies. I'm going to have to stop making games on huge galaxies just because I can't manage 20 colonies at the same time. The computer has no problem at all. My biggest problem is I tend to get my main colony to do everything. it does all the research, grows all of the food AND builds all of the ships. I need to delegate to lesser colonies, but whenever I design a new ship they all take 50 turns to make one because they don't have a huge economy. Bah.

Tamren wrote:

I need to delegate to lesser colonies, but whenever I design a new ship they all take 50 turns to make one because they don't have a huge economy. Bah.

Population transfer is the key in both moo1 and moo2. You should also invest a whole lot in rich/ultra rich planets because they have higher and quicker ROI. You should still consider hostility and gravity factors. Poor planets usually turn into agriculture/research oriented planets. In Moo2 it's wise to keep investing in defense .

And here is a big ship tip for moo2 ( haven't played 1 enough) :

Spoiler:

Take a smaller (2nd or 3rd size ) ship load it with a lot of 2 shot missile while investing in missile related tech to miniaturize them.

This is a simple hit and run tactic shoot missile, turn around and run then shoot the last salvo and make most of the ships retreat.

Yeah, thats one thing that irritates me about MOO2. Macro management was a lot easier in the first game because you could do everything by flipping a few sliders. Transporting colonists around is a pain because you have to remember the name of the planet they are going to and it doesn't tell you how many will fit.

Plus the AI autobuilder doesn't bother making cloning centers even though it picks everything else.

I'm trying to change the scale to supereagle but it won't let me save the dosboxmom file.

Run the editor as an administrator, or install the game somewhere different. By default, user accounts don't get edit privs under Program Files on Vista. This is a good security feature, it's best not to disable it.... just run the editor as an admin instead.

Macromanagement is one of the things I am digging in Distant Worlds right now. It is definitely Moo3 done right. Moo2 is still my all time favorite, but if a MOO mod came out for DW I would call it the one true sequel.

Psilons just toasted my ass. It's hard to argue with 44 Doom Stars showing up at your colonies.

Nevin73 wrote:

Psilons just toasted my ass. It's hard to argue with 44 Doom Stars showing up at your colonies.

I hate when that happens... Psilons can be an absolute menace in most games.

The Creative trait is a bit overpowered. If you don't take it, you must do a lot of tech trading or you'll get screwed. And if you don't have neighbors to trade with or they're all ahead of you, well... get your industry producing white flags.

I usually found the Psilons to be pretty passive and good allies while the Sakkra and Mrrshan were usually aggressive and backstabbing. This of course doesn't take into account any Darlock dickery...

Hmm, what option do you need to hit to design ships? It is usually greyed out PLUS all combat is done automatically for me. Maybe this is why I keep getting beat in ship battles...

karmajay wrote:

Hmm, what option do you need to hit to design ships? It is usually greyed out PLUS all combat is done automatically for me. Maybe this is why I keep getting beat in ship battles...

You must enable tactical combat when starting a new game. Otherwise battles are auto-resolved and you cannot design ships.

Budo wrote:

I usually found the Psilons to be pretty passive and good allies .

They are good allies with the proper stranglehold. If you let them expand too much they'll out-tech you and backstab you. I can play passive too and take over 80% of the universe in the process. After that happens they usually all declare war on me and attack my massively defended planets and eventually meet my overpowered fleet.

One way to get weapon/shield tech is to capture Anteran ships and dismantle them(near your planet) . It doesn't work that well because they usually self destruct and are good at defending their ships; It's still well worth the efforts. There are some moo2 race builds that rely on this type of build for tech.

I always found that a subterranian (massive populations), creative (perfect research), telepathic (mind controling enemy planets/ships) race just ruled the galaxi without any problems, assuming you chose the elarian race as your start point because you can't telepathically control another telepathic race, and would therefore need to build transport ships again, which I hate doing.

As far as ship design is concerned, I've always used one of three design types (a) 2-shot MIRV's, (b) plasma cannons, or (c) gyro destabilizers. Neutron blasters can be fun as well if you use attack shuttles or transports with them to just take over the enemy ships.