How does it compare?
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I’m just wondering how everyone thinks Ascendancy stacks up next to the elephant in the room, Master of Orion (or pick your own favourite space 4X I guess!)
My thoughts:
Ascendancy has some nice touches (fully navigable 3D environments and sim-city-esque colony building for example), but ultimately I have to say I prefer MOO. It just has more personality, and even though it can still get tedious, the late game is way less painful. And it gives you a better overview of your empire and fleets, so it’s way easier to keep track of them.
What does everyone else think?
I’m pretty much in line with your point of view although I’d pick MOO2 as the better game. 😉
M O O O O
It’s funny, all the groaning about Ascendancy’s endgame kind of dissuaded me from playing it, but now I’d be interested in giving Orion a try. I’ve heard great things about it.
Looks like v2 was a former game of the month back in 2018, but 1 hasn’t been showcased yet. EDIT: Lol the GOG install has a few Master of MAGIC files in it.
Ascendancy is great, but I feel the first Master of Orion is a masterclass in elegant game design and execution. I much prefer it to its sequel. Still one of the finest space 4X games there is, if you ask me.
Jan0sch: I really just picked MOO over MOO2 because I have played a lot more of it. If you gave me a bit more time with the sequel, I think I would probably like that one better.
One thing I found in ascendancy to make the late game more tolerable is to self-manage your colonies, or simply make their project “scientist takeover”.
Yes, the AI is terrible and makes horrendous choices about how to build your colonies (in my game it kept building growth bombs over and over on some planets, or filling planets with little aside from outposts and transport tubes).
But usually at that stage of the game your empire is pretty overpowered and you don’t need each and every colony tuned to perfection. Taking the micro-management off your hands a little bit allows you to focus on your fleets a bit more and makes the game progress more smoothly.
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