^ Haha, yup. I remember playing hot seat with friends. On a large map, we'd have a 5 minute time limit to do our moves, and then have to wait another 2 or 3 minutes for the computer to process all the stuff that happens with the AI. You should see it on a quad core processor. You hit the turn button and it computes so fast you wonder if the computer made any moves at all!
I have literally just finished a game ten minutes ago, winning the council vote as Silicoids no less. Some games just never get old.
What's sad is how much of a flop MOOIII was. I think this had to be the biggest disappointment I've had to deal with in terms of video games.
I actually never played this though I remember Apolyton having an active subforum for MoO2 for years.
A hidden gem is Sword of the Stars - best tech tree I've seen in a game, and each race has its own distinctive FTL drive which greatly impacts how the play. Get the original though - the 2nd one was buggy as hell. MOOII is still the Gold Standard after all these years, which is saying something. SotS is a hell of a game though.
The only thing I didn't care about in MoOII was the late game planetary build queue micromanagement. And the hotseat-style LAN multiplayer. Still, very enjoyable game.
