FreeOrion

Hello, everyone. My name is George Edward Purdy, and I was the primary character artist on the original Master of Orion. You can see some of my graphics at http://purdydesign.com (including graphics from Master of Orion and Master of Magic).

I like what you guys are doing so far with this project. Although I'm very busy with some important things right now, if my time frees up within the next couple of months I'd like to contribute to this project.

The original alien designs were done by Bill Willingham as comic book style line drawings of the diplomats, which we scanned and used as prototypes for the various races, and I made all the other versions (scientists, spies, and soldiers).

The original game was very low resolution, and had very little animation overall, but many people remember the character of the game based on that comic book style. I would love to do a new version using higher resolution and 3D character graphics. If it weren't for the fact that I'd be afraid of violating the copyrights in the game I'd make new graphics of the same characters, but I would think new designs would be in order for a project like this.

Welcome

I always like the characters in MoO1. They had more life than the higher-res ones used for MoO2.


At this point in development, aliens are pretty much up in the air. We are more-or-less sticking with this roadmap of development. We're currently focusing on v.04 (ships, space combat and related issues), and aliens aren't scheduled until v.08. That doesn't mean a lot of people (including me) haven't done some brainstorming about aliens, and it's great if you want to do so when you have some free time, but just realize that anything and everything assumed about how aliens will be in the game will be subject to re-evaluation later on.

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Hi George and welcome to freeOrion. I'm glad you like what we are doing.
I'm ashamed to say, I've never played the original MoO, but I had a look at your portfolio and I agree - the alien graphics do have more life that those in MoOII
My favorite pieces are the original paintings by the way.

Have a look at our guidelines, if you haven't already. I've mentioned at the bottom that it would be good to have some alien designs for 0.4, even though they are scheduled for 0.8, so we can base some ship designs on them and develop consistent design languages.

Personally, I'd prefer a less comical and more realistic style for freeOrion - I hope this is fine for you.

Eleazar has done an evaluation of existent alien races one could use as a starting point. One shouldn't feel to limited by the provided visual description though and I encourage every artist to do the necessary changes, if he/she feels they are needed. You are also welcome to come up with unique aliens for yourself of course.

I think you can download the original MOO for free, and it should run on modern machines with a little tinkering.
Actually I have to admit I've never played MOO2 or 3, although MoO2 was being developed by my friends while I was hard at work on finishing up Master of Magic. If I had the resources I'd open a new game development studio, but unfortunately I don't have those kind of resources.

A lot of people don't know this, but I actually did a lot more graphics and animations that didn't make it into the original MOO because of space limitations on those floppy disks. CD-ROMs took over just a little bit later. Oh, well.

The original can be found on these abandonware sites:

http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/101/M ... Orion.html
http://free-game-downloads.mosw.com/aba ... orion.html

I've always wanted to do a remake or a sequel to MOO and MOM, preferably with 3D graphics for characters, creatures, and ships. I agree with the desire for greater realism. One of my favorite television shows right now is the new Battlestar Galactica, which seems to take a lot of inspiration from 80s mecha anime space operas like Macross and Zeta Gundam in my opinion. I like that they tried to inject a lot more realism into the show in a lot of ways. Their use of clever virtual camera motion in the space sequences does a lot for me.

One thing I'd like to see in this type of game is 3DCG space battle animations instead of little sprite ships zapping each other like we used to have. Although it's important to have a graphic representation of fleet strength, I think a more cinematic game would be more enjoyable overall.

I'd also like to see some mecha vehicles in the game in addition to jets and flying saucers and cylinders and things.

What do you guys think?

Yep, I agree. I'm all for a cinematic feel of the space battle. The 3D combat system is currently in very early steps of development by the way. Check out the Ogre Tech Demo thread in the general forum if you like. The combat UI is yet to be created. A lot about how combat is supposed to work is written in the 0.4 Design Pad.

Regarding what kind of ships we'll have: Anything is possible, really. Personally I'm looking forward to creating plant or tree ships.

Can't wait for the BSG episode tonight, btw

Hey a celebrity, welcome to the forums.

Yeah. Well this is nice. One of the MoO artists (great job on it btw)

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MoO: Darloks Rule!
MoO2: Custom Darloks Rule!
MoO3: Dunno cuz I'm a cheapskate

Excellent.

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Photo-dump.

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