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Hey everyone, I have been working on a game for two years called 'Remnants of the Precursors', which is intended as a faithful feature clone of the original Master of Orion game from 1993. Not 'inspired by' or a 'sequel', but a true feature clone. If you are a fan of the original MOO1 game, then I may have something you are interested in. By the way, this is a free game -- free as in beer and liberty, not free as in 'try it out and then pay later for cool stuff'. Let me get the link to the dev blog out of the way first. From there you can download and try the current alpha and read more about it. https://www.remnantsoftheprecursors.com First of all, I would like point out that this game is the real deal. I am a professional software developer a few years away from retirement and I've always wanted someone to remake this game. But no one has so I decided to do it myself. I am handling all of the code but paying for professional artwork, graphic designer, writing, etc etc etc, to make sure this game ends up polished. The game used to be called "Java MOO" because it it written in Java, but Wargaming.net asked me to change the name, so I did. "Remnants of the Precursors" is intended to allude to the abandoned world of Orion and the Guardian ship, with perhaps the Antarans trolling around the galaxy at some point. Thus Remnants of the Precursors. It is a mouthful, I'll admit. I get lazy and usually refer to it as Remnants. The game is still in work. You can see a detailed timeline for the project here: https://remnantsoftheprecursors.com/2017/05/31/state-of-the-game-2/ I hope you don't mind if I post a few images related to the game, just to give you an example of the work done so far. The artist is amazing is currently working on the Mrrshan. Here is the Spy:  The graphic designer is revamping all of the UIs to modernized their look while retaining the feel of the original game. Here's a shot of the updated Main screen:  The writer is charged with creating an engaging backstory and motivation for each race (something lacking in the original game), as well as race-specific dialogue throughout the game to make each race feel unique. Here's a recent example of the Alkari introduction screen:  In addition, we are making a concerted attempt for the final game to be translated into as many languages as possible. We currently have a complete Greek translation, near-complete Polish translation, and a Spanish translation in work. As we get closer to release we will greatly expand on this effort. Here's what the Main UI looks like in Greek:  Finally, as the developer I have done a lot of work to ensure this game will play on as many different hardware platforms as possible. Being Java, the game will automatically run on any Windows, Mac or Linux PC. I am hopeful, but not certain, that I'll be able to create a native x86 binary that can run on Android through DosBox. And the performance criteria of the game are tuned so that it will play on systems as small as a Raspberry Pi Zero, as seen here:  This is my project. I know there are hundreds, or maybe thousands, of MOO1 fans like me who would like a game like this. Feel free to try out the Alpha and check it out! Thanks for reading.
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Jun 1, 2017 14:13
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Are there going to be space guillotines?
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Jun 1, 2017 14:58
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Oh, nice, I've been following the progress of your MoO remake for about a year now, good to have you here. Does anyone ever play with those ludicrously huge starmap settings?
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Jun 1, 2017 15:05
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Sixfools posted:Are there going to be space guillotines? /swoosh my dad posted:Oh, nice, I've been following the progress of your MoO remake for about a year now, good to have you here. Does anyone ever play with those ludicrously huge starmap settings? No one plays the Ludicrous maps, but one of the testers for the last Alpha was playing a 1000-star, 20-empire map and would find lots of late-game problems that other testers never got to. Since I don't have a QA team, it's hard to put into words how incredibly helpful and appreciated this effort was. It was also a great opportunity to address Next Turn performance issues, which was probably the only area that had received no performance tuning yet.
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Jun 1, 2017 15:28
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Wow, this looks neat! Does the mention of Antarans mean that you might consider incorporating additional features once you've got a faithful clone of MOO1 established, in the vein of OpenXcom? Edit: Also, if it's free-as-in-speech, is there a public repo somewhere? idonotlikepeas fucked around with this message at 15:53 on Jun 1, 2017 |
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Jun 1, 2017 15:50
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RayFowler posted:Hey everyone, I have been working on a game for two years called 'Remnants of the Precursors', which is intended as a faithful feature clone of the original Master of Orion game from 1993.This is my project. I know there are hundreds, or maybe thousands, of MOO1 fans like me who would like a game like this. Feel free to try out the Alpha and check it out! I will - I've been following this off and on since it was JavaMOO!
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Jun 1, 2017 16:08
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idonotlikepeas posted:Wow, this looks neat! Yes, after the first release is done there are plans to do an extended version of the original game with Antarans, Leaders, additional races and more stuff. edit: Also, the source code will be made public once the feature set is complete and we start Beta. ulmont posted:I will - I've been following this off and on since it was JavaMOO! Thanks! I wasn't doing this for very long before I realized that there were a lot of MOO1 fans like me who just want a modernized version of that classic. Since then, a part of this project has focused on trying to find and get the word out to all of those like-minded souls. RayFowler fucked around with this message at 18:43 on Jun 1, 2017 |
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Jun 1, 2017 16:38
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Just wanted to get this out to some people who have expressed concerns about the roadmap I published yesterday https://remnantsoftheprecursors.com/2017/06/01/the-roadmap-pick-two/
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Jun 1, 2017 22:27
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Never gonna get tired of mastering Orion.
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Jun 1, 2017 22:31
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MOO1's tech tree has, for the first time, been given a graphical treatment! I really think that bringing a graphic designer onto the team to modernize and redesign all of the UIs has been a great decision. Check out the new UI and comments here: https://remnantsoftheprecursors.com/2017/06/06/new-tech-ui-completed/ Also, I am definitely looking for additional translators. We've already gotten Spanish, Russian, Polish and Greek, but that only leaves about a zillion languages left to go. Ideally, we would like to add Chinese, French, Portuguese, Malay, Hindi, Japanese and German to that list before we go "Gold" in 2019.
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Jun 6, 2017 04:29
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That looks great.
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Jun 6, 2017 07:55
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Thanks! There are a lot of UIs from the original game that are really showing their age so it's nice to be able to give them a makeover.
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Jun 6, 2017 13:16
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Neat dude! I only recently went back and played MOO1 for the first time (grew up with 2) and I really liked it, and hoped something like this would come along.
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Jun 6, 2017 13:23
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Never played the first, but a friend of mine insisted that it was better than later iterations. Art looks fantastic. I wonder how much you invested into this game, OP, but asking might be a little indiscreet. 
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Jun 6, 2017 13:34
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I'll be down for this if they get rid of that loving ship designer.
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Jun 6, 2017 13:44
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lllllllllllllllllll posted:Never played the first, but a friend of mine insisted that it was better than later iterations. Art looks fantastic. I wonder how much you invested into this game, OP, but asking might be a little indiscreet. It's an obvious question to ask and I've been asked this before. Not counting translations, I expect to be at least $20K out of pocket when it is finished and that's with the software work being done part-time and for free (me). Software development is expensive so I can't imagine how non-developers fund their indie game projects. Anyway, that's going to be spread across maybe a 3-4 year period... it's an expensive hobby, but there are more expensive ones out there.
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Jun 6, 2017 15:16
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Cythereal posted:I'll be down for this if they get rid of that loving ship designer. Honestly, an "auto-design" button would be good enough; obviously there's already logic for how the AI will design a ship based on its size that could be used. But for MOO, I always ended up doing the following: 1. Medium ship. 2. Best engines and maneuverability I could get. 3. Best armor (Level 1, not the massive level 2) I could get. 4. Best computer available. 5. Best beam weapon with range 2 (to avoid the repulsor beam) if possible; otherwise best beam weapon. 6. Best bomb. 7. Best ECM Jammer and Shields available. 8. Add more of 5-6 until space is gone. Redesign when you get a better engine, beam weapon, or bomb.
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Jun 6, 2017 16:41
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Cythereal posted:I'll be down for this if they get rid of that loving ship designer. What are your objections to the ship designer in MOO1? I ask because the revamp for that UI will be coming in Alpha 5, when we add tactical ship combat.
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Jun 6, 2017 18:26
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RayFowler posted:What are your objections to the ship designer in MOO1? I ask because the revamp for that UI will be coming in Alpha 5, when we add tactical ship combat. I really hate ship designers and MOO is where the cancer started as far as I know. Now it's nigh impossible to find a space 4X without one. Just give me a preset list of ships with a clear explanation of what each ship is good for, thank you. I do not want to be given a million fiddly options and be told to have fun and figure out what's effective on my own.
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Jun 6, 2017 18:29
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Cythereal posted:I really hate ship designers and MOO is where the cancer started as far as I know. Now it's nigh impossible to find a space 4X without one. Because of the ship design limit (6), you don't really design ships all that often in MOO. In other games without those limits, it's not uncommon to redesign ships constantly every time you receive a new technology. It's so bad that developers have to provide auto-design and auto-upgrade options to reduce the effort involved. In MOO1, ship design options are simpler and fewer than in MOO2, where you also had to worry about ship positioning and weapon arcs. Ship design is an integral part of the gameplay loop in MOO1 because it is the connective tissue, of sorts, between research and ship combat.
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Jun 6, 2017 19:03
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MoO2 at least has a toggle so that you don't have to deal with tactical combat at all if you don't want to.
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Jun 6, 2017 19:05
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RayFowler posted:Because of the ship design limit (6), you don't really design ships all that often in MOO. In other games without those limits, it's not uncommon to redesign ships constantly every time you receive a new technology. It's so bad that developers have to provide auto-design and auto-upgrade options to reduce the effort involved. In MOO1, ship design options are simpler and fewer than in MOO2, where you also had to worry about ship positioning and weapon arcs. So that would be a no and I'll be skipping on this game, thanks.
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Jun 6, 2017 19:05
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Cythereal posted:So that would be a no and I'll be skipping on this game, thanks. I agree with you that ship design is a lovely, antiquated crutch of 4x games that should have been dropped sometime in the 2000's. But I mean I think this game is just supposed to be a straight recreation of MOO1 and nothing else so I see why it's in. They aren't making a new game here, they are making a game, again. lol
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Jun 6, 2017 19:16
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Cythereal posted:So that would be a no and I'll be skipping on this game, thanks. Since it's a straight feature clone, you already skipped it don't worry.
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Jun 6, 2017 19:17
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Ship design in MOO1 & 2 is awesome, because tactical turn based combat is one of the core game systems. In modern 4x games it sucks because your ships all fight in uncontrolled real time bullshit and who the gently caress cares. Like I don't give two shits about it in Stellaris or whatever, but I do enjoy it in the MOO games because it actually matters and presents interesting, meaningful choices. EDIT: I'd also be really psyched if this makes it to android tablets somehow. I can play MOO through dosbox, but it's a little... clunky and the ships are hard to touch consistently.
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Jun 6, 2017 20:06
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Aerdan posted:MoO2 at least has a toggle so that you don't have to deal with tactical combat at all if you don't want to. You can auto-resolve combat in MOO1 as well
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Jun 6, 2017 20:33
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Cythereal posted:So that would be a no and I'll be skipping on this game, thanks. ok! No game is fun for everyone.
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Jun 6, 2017 20:34
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Fintilgin posted:Ship design in MOO1 & 2 is awesome, because tactical turn based combat is one of the core game systems. Agreed. I can see people who've played MOO2 wanting to skip ship combat because it became tedious in that game, but ship design is vital for the reasons you mentioned. Fintilgin posted:EDIT: I'd also be really psyched if this makes it to android tablets somehow. I can play MOO through dosbox, but it's a little... clunky and the ships are hard to touch consistently. Well, the problem with Android is that it requires a non-standard version of the Java runtime engine. To make a Java app that runs on Android means that it won't run on Windows, Mac and Linux. However, you can run Windows apps through an Android application through DosBox and another called FreeDOS, I think. The hope is that I will be able to use an AOT compiler like Excelsior Jet to create a Windows binary of the game (rather than a Java app) and then THAT will run on Android through DosBox. I would love for there to be a way to play the game on Android simply because of how many more gamers will get an opportunity to play the game. There's really no other way to get onto Android other than rewriting all of the user interfaces from scratch, which is very impractical. RayFowler fucked around with this message at 20:44 on Jun 6, 2017 |
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Jun 6, 2017 20:39
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The only 4X in recent memory I can think of where the ship designer was entirely pointless busywork was Endless Space. It's alright pretty much everywhere else, and kind of a key feature in poo poo like Sword of the Stars. Even in Stellaris, ship design is actually a reasonably deep system with tangible effects - the actual issue is that Stellaris' combat is incredibly poorly explained (the game itself does nothing to teach you how anything works) and despite being an entirely hands off affair you can actually influence it in pretty significant ways between how your ships are built and how you stagger engagements. But most people just build doomstacks of every ship type because that's what the AI does and there is zero clue in the game itself that there are other, better options. Ship Designers are cool and good and despite how vehemently some people rant about them, they're popular because they provide an element of personalization to game genre that is already entirely about watching numbers get bigger. That is a good thing. It is a good way to keep people engaged. Never mind the obvious "build to counter higher-tech opponent's design philosophy so that bigger numbers and luckier starts don't always win 100% of the time."
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Jun 6, 2017 23:04
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Psycho Landlord posted:The only 4X in recent memory I can think of where the ship designer was entirely pointless busywork was Endless Space. It's alright pretty much everywhere else, and kind of a key feature in poo poo like Sword of the Stars. And some people genuinely don't like ship designers or what they add to a game, and I find it extremely frustrating that it's nigh impossible to find a space 4X without one. They don't keep me engaged and there's nothing personal about them to me.
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Jun 6, 2017 23:12
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Cythereal posted:And some people genuinely don't like ship designers or what they add to a game, and I find it extremely frustrating that it's nigh impossible to find a space 4X without one. They don't keep me engaged and there's nothing personal about them to me. Yeah, you've established that. Why you decided to establish that in a thread for a game that is one for one remake of the original space 4x with a ship designer that directly influences it's turn-based combat system, I don't know, but hey, you do you. Hope you eventually find your game that you want.
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Jun 6, 2017 23:17
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Yeah, I'm still kinda confused about this. Good luck finding the game you want, now can we go back to talking about the cool remake?
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Jun 6, 2017 23:19
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Psycho Landlord posted:Yeah, you've established that. Why you decided to establish that in a thread for a game that is one for one remake of the original space 4x with a ship designer that directly influences it's turn-based combat system, I don't know, but hey, you do you. Hope you eventually find your game that you want. I asked if this game was including a ship designer as I don't like them, people asked why, I answered, developer (presumably) clarified that it does have one so I said okay I won't buy the game. Then someone said no actually ship designers are cool and good, and I demurred. Clearly this is not the game for me, another promising idea down the tubes.
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Jun 6, 2017 23:21
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Cythereal posted:I asked if this game was including a ship designer as I don't like them, people asked why, I answered, developer (presumably) clarified that it does have one so I said okay I won't buy the game. Then someone said no actually ship designers are cool and good, and I demurred. If you're a space game dude then you probably already know of it, but Sins of Solar Empire: Rebellion is a good space strategy game with no ship design at all. It's not quite 4x though, more like a middle ground between a 4x and a traditional RTS. On sale now on Steam right now too.
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Jun 6, 2017 23:33
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Cythereal posted:I asked if this game was including a ship designer as I don't like them, people asked why, I answered, developer (presumably) clarified that it does have one so I said okay I won't buy the game. Then someone said no actually ship designers are cool and good, and I demurred. It will be open-sourced upon release. I have no doubt that someone will eventually add a button or a feature to allow the AI to auto-design your ships. Never give up hope! :P --- the developer
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Jun 7, 2017 01:21
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With regards to ship design, count me as someone who wouldn't have given this game a second look without a ship designer. Retooling old designs to make them better or to adapt them to changing circumstances is something I love about 4X games, and it helps keep things unpredictable and enjoyable, assuming that there's some way for me to get detailed feedback on how the components perform, or if there is some way to find out what the enemy ships are packing. I find fixed designs, especially if there aren't a lot of them, to make games rather samey and boring after awhile basically. Speaking of which, will there be racial customization? Maybe customize a starting hero? I love little touches like that which can help personalize a race, and ensure that I'm not playing the same ol' Alkari and Mrrshan all the time. Endless Space 2 does very well with this, especially since it allows one to customize the racial bonus and the look (which also comes with unique ship designs) of a race- it's really great if I like the aesthetic of a race but want to play around with the traits of another.
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Jun 8, 2017 13:50
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Cythereal posted:Clearly this is not the game for me, another promising idea down the tubes. I'm sorry that this game that's explicitly a remake of MOO1 is not in fact a totally different game designed just for you. Anyway this looks cool. I was always a MOO2 guy and never got into the first one. But none of the recent space 4Xs have been scratching the itch for me lately so maybe a classic will do the trick. It's too bad there aren't more projects like this, there are a lot of cool old games with solid gameplay but dated UIs that make playing a pain.
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Jun 8, 2017 14:03
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CommissarMega posted:Speaking of which, will there be racial customization? Maybe customize a starting hero? I love little touches like that which can help personalize a race, and ensure that I'm not playing the same ol' Alkari and Mrrshan all the time. Endless Space 2 does very well with this, especially since it allows one to customize the racial bonus and the look (which also comes with unique ship designs) of a race- it's really great if I like the aesthetic of a race but want to play around with the traits of another. Were there custom races in MoO1? I know they were in MoO2 (and custom wizards in Master of Magic), but it's been so long since I played the first game I legit can't remember if they were always in. If there were I'd assume they'd be in this remake. If not, that's like the only feature add I'd want to see
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Jun 8, 2017 14:09
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Dial-a-Dog posted:Were there custom races in MoO1? No.
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Jun 8, 2017 14:17
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Hey Ray the Klackons were always my favorite in MOO so if you have any Klackon art completed please post some tia.
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Jun 8, 2017 15:43
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