MoO3
Newcomer's FAQ
by tleng
Q: How can I ALT-TAB?
A: You need to have something opened in the backgound like
Internet explorer or a document. However, this is not a supported
feature and you might get a Direct X error. CTRL-ALT-ESC should
fix that.
Q: Can I refit ships? Choose a different
color for my empire? Rename Systems? Capture enemy ships?
A: As of now you can't but that feature might be added in
a patch. No. No. No
Q: I meet an alien ship but he won't
show up on my diplomacy screen.
A: You need to have a colony within 2 jumps of one of this
colonies.
Q: I built a system/colony ship now
how do I colonize a planet?
A: Go to the system view, then click on the forces tab, now
select the system/colony ship and select "create colony".
Q: Why won't my colony show up on this
yellow/red planet after I colonized it?
A: Yellow planets need 2 colony ships (or 2 modules on one
ship). Red need 4 colony ships. However, you can still use
1 colony ship - just set up migration to that planet or wait
for it to grow to a full colony.
Q: Why won't a colony ship in the system
colonize?
A: There might be an AI ship there blocking you (Non-agression
pact makes no difference). Or you might have 2 colony ships
both trying to colonize the planet because you marked it for
colonization. In that case, cancel the ships' orders and manually
colonize the planet in the system/forces menu.
Q: How do I set migration?
A: In the planets view screen, there are 3 buttons on the
bottom. The one on the right is for migration.
Q: How do I design ships, build task
forces and build ground forces?
A: See RobNelson's
How-To Guide.
Q: How come the money on top of my
screen is all messed up? It gives a negative number in the
bracket but next turn my cash goes up.
A: Those numbers are NOT your cash reserves. The number on
the left is how much you made last turn and the number in
the bracket is the projected earnings. Your real cash reserves
are in the Finances screen.
Q: In the build sliders and queues
I get an exclamation mark and a "do not enter" sign.
What do those mean?
A: The exclamation sign means you are putting too much money
into it, and some of that money is "wasted" (goes
back to the bank). If it's in the military queue then just
add something else into the queue. The "do not enter"
sign means you don't have the tech and can't do anything there.
Q: What do the planetary specials do?
A: It's in the readme.txt file on the CD.
Q: How do I get the benefits of a system
with the random tech or leader special?
A: You get the leader and random tech once your scout ship
or colony ship explores the system. If you don't get anything
it means the AI beat you to the system.
Q: What's the planet's ratings for
fertility?
A: From worst to best: Toxic Hostile Barren Subsistence Hardscrabble
Arable Fertile Alluvia Lush
Q: What's the difference between Biodiversity
and Fertility?
A: Biodiversity affects population max/growth, pollution and
rare materials harvested, but does not seem to affect farming.
It is represented by the leaf in each region. Industry DEAs
which are labour intensive should benefit from being able
to pack more people into the region. Fertility affects farming.
Q: What are the exact different government
effects?
A: See Shuma's
Government Series.
Q: What are the magnate race stats?
A: See Lore
Weaver's Strategy Guide.
Q: How do I stop the AI building troop
ships?
A: Go to shipyards and make the troopship obsolete. When you
do want to build them just un-obsolete them.
Q: How do I find out about unrest,
especially piracy and how do I stop it?
A: Go to planet screen Demographics. It tells you what races
are on the planets and the unrest. Build system ships or station
a fleet there. Planetary shields help too.
Q: How do I find out enemy AI's tech
level?
A: In the tech screen there's a pull-down menu for the other
races. You can use it to tell where they are relative to you.
Q: Why can't I bombard or invade planets?
A: You have to manually control the preceding space battle
before it lets you control bombardment or invasion.
Q: Why can't I invade planets sometimes
and how do I choose which planet in a system to invade?
A: You can't invade outposts with less than 1000 people. In
the choose battle screen there's a button on the bottom to
view the system and choose your planet. Also sometimes there
might be another empire's ships or planet defense in that
system. The only way to invade now is to kill that second
empire's ships too (it's a bug).
Q: How do I send out Antaran expeditions?
A: In the victory screen you can send expeditions and those
ships come out of your reserve. Better engines gets those
expeditions out and back faster.
Q: Why won't my point defense fire
on missiles?
A: You might have to include 1x20 missiles (fire 1 missile
20 times)on each and every ship.... as long as you have missile
remaining, your PDs will fire.
Q: When I try to design a frigate system
colony ship, it says it's too large for the ship class.. how
come I start with frigate system colony ships?
A: The original system colony ship has its engine speed reduced
to gain space. You can do the same to your own ships to save
space if system speed is not important.
Q: Why does clicking on the stealth
option do nothing?
A: You need to research the stealth techs.
Q: Why are outposts popping up when
I didn't send any out?
A: The magnate race you colonized or enemy race you conquered
sends them out. Darloks especially like to expand. Even your
own race will do it when your planets get overcrowded.
Q: Why did my AI ally declare war on
me for no reason?
A: There are many reasons why that could have happened.
1) They just hate your race
2) Enemy diplomatic spies framed you
3) You are allied to that AI's enemies
4) That AI is in a war and you are not sending ships to help
him
5) You have a large fleet next to his border
6) You are getting too powerful
Q: Why does the AI declare war and
then peace and then war?
A: If after a couple of turns no battle happens, there will
be a "white peace". However, if the AI hates you,
it will simply declare war on you again.
Q: What is Heavy Foot Of Government
(HFOG)?
A: It's basically a multiplier, so with HFOG of 2.0, your
ships are costing twice as much to build. It is increased
when the oppressometer is set too high and if you rush production
too much. It is decreased by tech or by switching governments
every now and then.
Q: When I load a game it gives me a
Direct X surface error.
A: You can't have more than 92 + 5 games saved.
Q: Is there a turn timer?
A: On the top of the screen you can click on the turn number
and change it to the timer.
Q: How do I stop my CD's music from
being accessed all the time?
A: Copy the music folder from CD2 to the following folder
Master of Orion 3\GameDataSets\Classic_01\GameAssets\Common
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