Since the initial announcement of the new Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars by Wargaming.net, developed by NGD Studios, the trickle of information out of the developers has been slow. Recently, a first look video was released containing some gameplay footage. The video doesn’t show any details about the space combat (the hands-on part at least), but it does show the combat auto-resolve system, the basics of colony management and the high production value the studio has placed on the game.

Overall, the video doesn’t show much but it gives an idea of how the game looks and plays in the strategic layer. Personally, I do think the voices of the GNN robots are a little overdone and though I understand they wanted a robotic voice, the excessive ‘Shatner pauses’ and making them sound like Johnny 5 from Short Circuit might be a little too much.

Fortunately, for those who want to know more about the game some screenshots were released on social media revealing some minor clues of the game’s development. Though there’s still no word on what manual tactical space combat will be like, as this aspect of the game is still in heavy development. Here are my personal observations from the trickle of information we have:

• The game seems to use Star-Lanes.
• There will still be “wormholes” that connect distant regions of the map, but they are tied to black holes now.
• It seems like ships can leave the area of a star system without using Star-Lanes; however, there is no word if one can travel between stars like this.
• Starbases and the like can be built at the mouth of the Star-Lanes to regulate traffic.
• It seems the player will need to build civil transports to ferry colonists from planet to planet. These ships seem to exist on the strategic layer and thus being vulnerable to warship attacks.
• Planets will generate food, production, and science. There is no word if food is global or local only.
• The game will use MOO 2’s planet management, however it seems there is a diminishing return for stacking more colonists to a given field.
• Mining bases can be built on Asteroids.
• The game will have minor races and they will play a significant role in achieving a diplomatic victory.
• The tech tree seems to be a standard tree that is similar to the one found in the classical Civilization franchise.
• The game will have random events, anomalies you can explore, space monsters, and the GNN making periodic reports.
• The game will have several victory conditions: Excellence (score), Diplomatic, Science, Economic, and Conquest.

As mentioned, details about the tactical ship combat, and if there is any form of ship designer, remains a tightly guarded secret. It does seem the game is receiving a huge budget but so far the more pressing questions many of the fans have are still unanswered. The game will have a pre-order (“Fall 2015”) and an Early Access period prior to release, though no date is given for the latter.

Hopefully, with the recent release of gameplay footage we might start seeing more information coming out more steadily. It is possible that the delay we are getting with the reveal of tactical combat is because the company is taking its implementation seriously. As always, Space Sector will keep you informed when more information becomes available.

It should be noted that all of this is Alpha footage and is still subject to change. Images are courtesy of Wargaming.net.