Wargaming.net has released the first of a series of developer diaries dealing with the Early Access build and launch of Master of Orion. The developer diary goes into some of the core gameplay decisions made by the developer, NGD Studios.
The first thing that gets discussed in the developer diary is the care that went into the AI for the alien race factions in the game. According to NGD Studios, they wanted to make them feel unique while still having the sense that a human player was behind the faction. They wanted them to have enough uniqueness that every playthrough felt different, through their interactions with the player and other AI.
The other major topic is the semi-controversial decision to make the tactical battles real-time rather than turn-based. The studio states in the diary that they struggled with making the battles fit the rest of the gameplay better, and that having 15 minute battles interspersed with game turns that only took a few seconds was jarring. In addition, they noted that all that was important was that the same results would occur as if they had done turn-based. (In addition, the real-time tactical battles have a real Homeworld feel to them.)
The studio also posted a lengthy discussion on their decision making with tactical battles on the game’s Steam page board here.
Master of Orion was launched on Early Access on both Steam and Good Old Games earlier this week, and comes with all three previous Master of Orion games. The early access build does not feature all of the game’s planned races and win conditions, but has enough features to play the game from start to finish. The final build is expected to be launched sometime this year.
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