Pardus is a free Massive Multiplayer Online Browser Game (MMOBG) playing in a future where traders, pirates and other pilots of various races and factions strive to gain wealth and fame in space. "Looks just plain awesome. A **** sight better than foundationgame, the last one I was playing." - user comment
ashnews
June, 2003
Mod updates
Posted by Bladefist on June 30, 2003 at 02:35:13 AM (186 views)
Jebus27 has updated the MegaMod to version 1.4_1.2 and Bard of Prey has sent me the new version 1.2 of his Galaxy Mod. Here's a brief description:
This is a slightly altered version of my original galaxy mod (version 1.0), updated for the code patch. It provides a full set of 7 new galaxies to replace the defaults included with the game. There are 5 Spiral galaxies, ranging from a Small, 2 Arm Spiral with 50 stars, all the way up to a Massive, 12 Arm Spiral with 250 stars. There are also 2 unique galaxies, The Imperial Eye and Constellations of Chaos. Details, including the changes from version 1.0, can be found in the readme file.
Posted by Bladefist on June 28, 2003 at 08:49:31 PM (309 views)
Quicksilver is continuing the work on an update to the code patch (v1.2.4). Click here to see the list of bug fixes.
They got a final candidate to beta testers and QA (Quality Assurance) today.
Race Balance Mod
Posted by Bladefist on June 25, 2003 at 12:06:01 PM (312 views)
Bard of Prey has released version 1.0 of his Race Balance Mod. Thanks for notifying us!
This mod rebalances the various races in the game. Starting picks and racial hardwiring have been balanced separately, but each race now has roughly the same number of 'points' worth of starting picks. In addition, changes have been made to the racial hardwiring bonuses, especially for magnate races (who have been made much more diverse, and more useful for domestic purposes, while less over-powering militarily). Details are provided in the readme, and the in-game descriptions of race picks have been changed to reflect the new values.
The preferred habitats of all races have also been changed, mostly for balance reasons (some races were getting shafted when it came to finding decent planets, or were getting planets that didn't suit their gravity preferences).
Posted by Bladefist on June 20, 2003 at 08:51:37 PM (178 views)
Gofur has released an update to his impressive MoO3 GUI mod. The patch is available in our mod archive. It fixes display issues (color menu, border mode), which were introduced with the moo3 code patch. Furthermore it includes a texture for the planet in ground combat, slightly improved univalue rings, modified victory/draw/loose circles, a few smoother transitions between tabs and menues and other minor changes.
Posted by Bladefist on June 18, 2003 at 12:09:12 PM (181 views)
The MegaMod by Jebus27 has been updated to version 5.3.
Some bugs have been fixed again and it now also includes Mithyk's Spy Mod, Visage's Autobuild Mod, the updated GreyModPack 2 and an encyclopedia combination of various mods.
Posted by Bladefist on June 17, 2003 at 12:55:01 AM (187 views)
Raphael Minazzo submitted two new mods today. The first one is called Ultimate Human Boost which allows you to customize your race to make it as powerful as the Antarans (playing on Impossible is recommended).
The second one is called Huge Starfleet Mod which increases the maximum ship limit of task forces, starting from 10 to 200 for Armada, and decreases the minimum ship limit to 1 in any kind of task force.
Posted by Bladefist on June 16, 2003 at 10:52:41 PM (169 views)
There were some errors with the file downloads in our mod archive. Any link to a mod which had a space in its file name was not working. Thanks to those who reported that error.
Every link should work again.
Invader Mod v2.2b and new screenies
Posted by Bladefist on June 15, 2003 at 01:55:25 PM (273 views)
Invader-Zim has updated the spreadsheets of his Invader-Mod to work with Master of Orion 3 v1.2. The mod is available here now.
I've also posted a few new MoO3 screenshots of my current game including a battle against the Guardian at the Nazin system. --> Gallery
New MoO3 Mods
Posted by Bladefist on June 13, 2003 at 09:36:45 PM (180 views)
Invader-Zim has sent me v2.1 of his Invader-Mod, the graphics pack. The spreadsheets will be re-written to work with MoO3 v1.2 later.
The GreyMod Pack 2 has been updated today.
Changes include:
Bonuses for research have been reduced on all difficulty levels to offset the advantage the AI gets with slow research and huge bonuses from the difficulty levels.
Shipratios and Taskforceratios changed to GMP1 levels.
SystemColonyShipPriority reduced to 10% (Was 20%)
Posted by Bladefist on June 12, 2003 at 09:31:51 PM (173 views)
The GreyMod Pack 2 has been updated by Colin the Grey. The following changes were made:
Marine is now a starting tech for all races.
Soil Enrichment and Deep Extraction mining - reduced tech level and guarranteed in research tree.
There's also a new post code patch modification, the "Human Abilities Increase Mod" by PegasusJF. It makes the following changes to the human base attributes:
Bioharvest (to good)
Manufacturing (to good)
Trade (to good)
Enviromental (to average)
Diplomacy (to good)
Posted by Bladefist on June 12, 2003 at 07:45:06 PM (184 views)
I've uploaded a few screenshots of my current game of MoO3 using the code patch and several graphical modifications. I'm playing as Ithkul on Impossible in a medium-sized cluster.
Posted by Bladefist on June 11, 2003 at 11:42:19 AM (177 views)
The MegaMod v5.1.1.2 has been updated to v5.2.1.2. You'll find the update and the new full version in our mod archive.
New post code patch mods
Posted by Bladefist on June 10, 2003 at 11:37:46 PM (166 views)
I've added the latest version of Jebus27's MegaMod 5 mod pack. Version 5.1.1.2 includes the same mods as the old version but now supports MoO3 v1.2. Instead of GreyModPack 1 it uses the new GreyModPack 2 which has been added to our mod archive as well. Colin the Grey also released a Tech Slowdown Mod for Master of Orion 3 version 1.2.
MacSoft has released the code patch for Mac users. The difference to the one released by Quicksilver a few days ago is that an installer is included. The file is available in our files section now.
Next mod submission
Posted by Bladefist on June 08, 2003 at 10:39:30 PM (168 views)
The next modification for MoO3 v1.2 has been submitted by Colonel.
It's called the "Population Mod v1.2".
This mod increases the populations on planets by factors of 8. Minimum pop seen 2.000, maximum seen 60.000.000. Bioharvest and Mine Eff's increased to keep the peeps fed and busy.
Also included are a few changes to the spybuilding.txt (48 max training at once).
Posted by Bladefist on June 08, 2003 at 12:14:28 PM (171 views)
I've created a new category for post code patch (v1.2) modifications. I will move every mod that still works properly with MoO3 version 1.2 to that category.
Bhruic has already released a new version of his savegame editor for use with MoO3 v1.2. It allows you to edit player colors, flags and ships. New in this version is the support of galaxy and starlane editing. Get it in our mod archive.
MoO3 code patch - Mac version
Posted by Bladefist on June 07, 2003 at 04:26:34 AM (265 views)
The Mac installer did not get completed by MacSoft, due to problems handling the data patch. Quicksilver has posted an installerless download for Mac users which has been mirrored and is available in our files section now.
Code Patch Mirror at The MoO3 Guardian
Posted by Bladefist on June 06, 2003 at 10:58:03 PM (165 views)
I've uploaded the MoO3 Code Patch file (5,16 MB, Windows version) - go to our Files section to download it.
About the Mac version: "There are some problems with the Mac installer that MacSoft is in charge of. It now appears that the Mac version may not be out until Monday."
MoO3 Code Patch available!
Posted by Bladefist on June 06, 2003 at 09:54:54 PM (167 views)
The official "beta" code patch has been released. This patch is incompatible with the previous data patch (see the enclosed read me for full installation instructions). The installation validator will be updated, possibly by next week, in order to accomodate the patch.
Unfortunately the download from the QS server and FilePlanet is very slow, but don't worry.. a mirror will be online at moo3.at in a few minutes.
To explain why this is only the "beta" code patch I'll quote the post by chantz ("Constantine Hantzopoulos") on the official boards:
As I mentioned yesterday, the patch is done. However, upon review of the bug database in our code release meeting this morning, we realized that we still needed to continue to regression test, as there are a few late game dependency niggles that still need to be *verified* by our QA staff. This unfortunately set us back by week or so.
Rather than reset the clock and not put the patch out, we have decided to release the patch *today* as a *beta patch*. Everything in the fixed list is fixed and most, if not all of you, should have no troubles with it.
Both Quicksilver Senior Software Engineer Stephen Roney and Atari Senior Producer Constantine Hantzopoulos say that there are no further changes expected to the patch, but they're still awaiting final Atari QA signoff.
MoO3 Code Patch release date
Posted by Bladefist on June 05, 2003 at 11:29:14 PM (168 views)
The long awaited Master of Orion 3 code patch will be released Friday, June 6th. This has been announced by Constantine Hantzopoulos, Atari Senior Producer. Here's his original post:
Folks,
Just want to give you an update on the MOO3 code patch.
It's done
We'll be making it available sometime tomorrow afternoon (June 6th) PACIFIC TIME. You'll initially be able to download it from moo3.com and from Fileplanet; other sites will pick it up and host as it makes it way around the universe. Patch is roughly 6MB (zipped). We'll post an announcement here the minute it comes online.
I want to assure all of you that Atari and QSI are committed to improving and enhancing MOO3 beyond this patch; although we have not fixed *everything* with this patch, we have fixed many things (see the Patch thread for details) and will continue to do so as we move beyond code patch.
On a more personal note, I want to unequivocally state that I have read these boards every day since the game shipped (contrary to what some people up here think). There's been a lot of flaming, some justified, some not. But remember, just because I have not posted does not mean that we have not been *listening* and taking your feedback into account. It IS important to us.
I will certainly try to make myself more visible on these boards (again) and be available to answer any questions that you may have. I make no promises that I?ll be able to respond to each and every one of you, but I DO read these boards daily; your feedback means a lot to both QSI and Atari and we hope that this patch demonstrates that.
I will also be at GenCon, so if you want to stop by, say hi, ask questions, shake a fist or even challenge me to a game of Blood Bowl, feel free to (I?ll have my Tazer with me, so if any of you get out of hand, don?t say I didn?t warn ya!). Look for me in the D&D Heroes booth.
OK, that's it for now!
Conspiracy theorists, go nuts!
Best and thanks for your patience,
Constantine Hantzopoulos
Sr. Producer
Atari
So be sure to check back tomorrow, you'll find the download here at our site.
What to expect from the MoO3 code patch
Posted by Bladefist on June 04, 2003 at 11:50:45 PM (170 views)
Stephen Roney, Senior Software Engineer at Quicksilver, is posting his thoughts on the code patch in a new thread at the official boards.
I think I can safely say that the game (at least on the harder difficulty levels) is harder to win. I don't really know if it is easier to lose, though. If you start a game as Ithkul in a small cluster with 16 computer players on impossible and auto-play it for 50-100 turns, you will certainly be in a challenging (if not impossible) position. I started a game over the weekend playing as Trilarian in a large 3-arm galaxy with 16 computer players on impossible and while I have been able to maintain a powergraph ranking of 8-10, I felt I was struggling throughout turns 50-150 before finally feeling that I am in a defensible position (more on that later).
We think we have fixed most of the UI glitches (resetting scroll bars, etc) and have added information and help text to make learning and navigating the game somewhat easier.
Posted by Bladefist on June 03, 2003 at 10:14:53 AM (174 views)
Here's last update on the official patch information by QSI Programming:
Updated tech descriptions to match current state of the spreadsheets, along with some further updates to help text and descriptions of specials. (These do not affect game play or balance and we expect their inclusion to be approved)
We are expecting the encrypted executable any day now for us to wrap in the final installer shell (but that is out of our hands)
EOF BIR utility online again
Posted by Bladefist on June 02, 2003 at 09:59:53 PM (169 views)
The End-Of-Turn Background Image Rotation utility by smellymummy is online again. Try it in combination with my collection of MoO3 processing turn screens. You'll find everything in our mod projects section.
New MoO3 AAR
Posted by Bladefist on June 01, 2003 at 11:39:49 PM (176 views)
There's a new after-action-report by PirateRob in our fan fiction section. It's called "The Peoples Republic of Gomaki", though unfinished I really enjoyed reading it.
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