Remnants of the Precursors [Master of Orion 1 clone]

WIP games, tools & toy projects
#1

Hello, all. I’ve been developing this game in Java for the past year in my spare time. It’s a Java-based remake of the original “Master of Orion” game published by Microprose in 1993. Wargaming.net currently owns the copyright to this franchise and are agreeable to this project as long as it remains free and doesn’t use the “Master of Orion” title.

Although I’ve been a Java developer professionally for about 10 years, this is my first attempt at a game so I’m learning a lot of game development skills that I’ve never needed professionally. I decided to learn for some Java Game dev forums, found this, and figured I’d throw this out for feedback.

It’s playable, but not finished. There is still a lot of artwork to do and a couple of more features. I expect to have an alpha out at some point soon.

My development blog is at http://www.remnantsoftheprecursors.com along with a general informational site at http://www.pretendstudios.com

Also a twitter feed at @PretendStudios

The game is written completely in Java and will eventually be open-sourced. Here is a screenshots of the opening menu.

More informative might be a youtube video I uploaded recently, although it’s kind of targeted toward players who have been following the project.

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I’m not really sure how much more information to put in this post. I mainly came over to read some of the Java 2D posts, but figured it might be a good idea to plant a stake in the ground here for reference if any asks.

#2

Wow this looks great. I can tell you have spent a lot of time on it.

#3

It’s a little over 50K lines of code so far. I’ve been working part-time on it for about 13 months. The artist has been working full-time since last May. I’m guessing that the code is about 85% done and the artwork is about 50% done.

#4

Wow, I just stumbled on this. Wow! I absolutely love Master of Orion 2, and in some distant past I did play MOO1 a lot. Both are among the best games ever and IMHO no 4X game has managed to reach that level since. So very worthy of a remake ;D

It looks really good so far and stays quite close to the original, which is good. One thing you might consider, however, is to be really, really careful in adding new interface elements of features. The first two MOO games are very delicately balanced and manage to keep the cognitive load really low for such complex games. E.g. I’m not sure whether the grid options for the star map really help make things more clear. Anyways that is hard to say without playing the game of course, and other additions such as sortable colony lists are always very good.

Good luck with this!

#5

I am making the dev build available through December for anyone interested in seeing the current state of this project.

https://remnantsoftheprecursors.com/2016/12/02/its-development-build-december/

#6

Sweet! I am a big fan of the MOO games. I very much appreciate that you are self-funding this effort yet making it open source. I look forward to diddling around in your code once things are completed.

#7

HI! I think your game is awesome and I’ve enjoyed in reading through the blog, to see how much work and progression do you have right now.
I’m not sure create a MOO clone is right direction and I feel you are moving from that goal, every change you made fro a better UI is a change on the core experience. Be aware it’s not a critic, but I hope a starting point for a discussion.

Anyway, some points I’d like to highlight

  • lack of full screen options. I’m a guy that like to play the game full screen, enjoy tue music, atmosphere and put my focus on what I’m doing, so… why force players in use only windowed game ?
  • rally point. It’s irritating that I’ve declared war to Bulrathi and move all my fleet to their system… but I cannot move all my rally points, and so my starship to the target
  • arts are really nice, but I don’t like how new colony screen is rendered, in particular after a species reach the planet. For example for Meklar, after my first colonist exit the ship, I don’t really understante the shape of the Meklar, too little I suppose
  • there is a way to see race stats and unique traits ? It’s already in your beta or only planned ? For example for Silicoid, they don’t need “normal” food, right ?
  • I really hate Alkari “whistle”, can I mute or control sounds somewhere ?
  • On first contact with a new race, I can see that other races exist and their names, even if never met them

Overall, impressive job!

#8

I need to update the UI simply because the original UI is so outdated and hard to use. Even though the look at is different, all of the elements from the original game are still present and in the same location. It’s analogous to updating the artwork. No one would expect me to use pixelated artwork from the 90s.

I need to maintain a consistent aspect ratio to avoid stretching or cropping the artwork.

That will be in the finished game.

Currently I am using a non-animated version of the race’s ground combat icons to show the colonist. There will be specific colonist animations when the game is done. However, the Meklar soldier does not have legs, but tank treads.

That’s MOO2. There is no food in MOO1. The Silicoids can colonize any hostile planet without learning colonization techs, but they grow slowly. This information will be provided in the updated Setup UIs when they are redesigned.

You can mute all sounds on the initial screen, bottom right. Eventually there will be a preferences UI for this as more options become available.

Once you establish diplomatic relations with another race, you will see races they’ve established relations with. Of course, you cannot contact those races yourself until they are in range.

Thanks! This is still in an alpha state so there are definitely unfinished features.
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#9

Thanks for answer!

Sure! My point it’s: how to you plan to keep the balance between the “old feel” of the game and the new feel ? From the blog I can see you are not planning to add new mechanics and keep the game balance, right ?

I agree, but you can change screen resolution according, I’m not sure what library you are using behind to do it, libgdx, slick2d ?

cool, thanks!

My bad! So it’s nice also, I think setupUI with unique traits is important for every player, at start but also during the play

thanks, I think a quick option menu is the best during the play

It’s strange for me, but I now understand, thanks!

New question: how the AI works? I’m curious about this! It’s a crucial point for this kind of games

#10

It’s intended as a feature clone. Any feature in the original game (or not in it) is in ROTP (or not in it). Graphics will be updated, the UI will be enhanced, and known exploits will be closed.

I’m writing all of this in straight Java. Changing the user’s screen resolution when the game starts seems really intrusive.

I’m not sure I understand the question. The AI is part of the Java code and simulates another player. It is broken into multiple classes with each responsible for managing different functions of the game. For example, the AIGovernor class has all of the code for developing colonies. The AIFleetCommander class figures out which systems need which kind of ships, their priority, and the most efficient way to get them there. The AIShipDesigner class is responsible for deciding when to build new designs and how to build them. The AIScientist class decides which techs should be researched. The AIDiplomat class decides when to offer or accept treaties with other races. The AIShipCaptain class has all of the logic for managing stacks in ship combat. The AISpyMaster class handles all espionage and sabotage. The AITreasurer class (non-existent currently) will properly manage reserve between all of the colonies.

When you hit “Next Turn”, each empire takes its turn deciding what to do, just like you did before hitting “Next Turn”. The AI classes then all do their thing. Generally as a player you would only notice this if the AIDiplomat offers you a treaty or makes a threat. Then, once all of the AIs are done deciding, ship movement is resolved which triggers scouting, colonization, transports, bombing, ship combat and ground combat. Then colony productions are completed which can trigger various notifications to the player.

#11

The latest Alpha of Remnants of the Precursors is now available. It includes two new races (Sakkra & Darlok), revamped UIs and new artwork for the GNN & Galactic Council screens.

Download instructions and an informational video can be found here: https://remnantsoftheprecursors.com/2017/04/09/alpha-3-is-now-available/

Sample of the Sakkra artwork:

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