Master of Orion II
Battle at Antares XXXX

FAN PATCH 1.50.24

Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares (Master of Orion 2, MOO2) is a turn-based strategy game set in space. The game was developed by Simtex, who also developed its predecessors Master of Orion and Master of Magic. Master of Orion 2 was published by MicroProse on November 22, 1996.

The game received several official patches. The last one was patch 1.31 from April 1997.

The fan patch 1.50.x is a series of extensive patches with numerous fixes and improvements. It is the most current and feature-rich version of the game. Development of the 1.50 patch started in 2015. The first version (1.50.0) was published on February 6, 2016 and it still receives updates. The latest version is 1.50.24.


Highlights of the 1.50.24 update:

  • With new hotkey 'h' in combat, you can let ALL your ships wait at the same time. This saves a lot of click-work, especially in the larger battles with many ships involved. In classic ship initiative, if both parties use 'h', the defender moves last!
  • The Galactic Lore skill no longer reveals planetary defenses.
  • The population graph now includes freighted population.
  • Updated mods.
a m b d p h e m k s t

Bug Fixes

-- 12 critical crash bugs --
-- 9 networked multiplayer bugs --
-- About 30 interface bugs --
-- Over 100 game-rule bugs --

New Features

-- Customizable build lists --
-- Unbuy function --
-- 6th ship design slot --
-- Ships ALL WAIT hotkey --

Modding system

-- Modding with plain text files --
-- Integrated mapgen functionality --
-- Lua scripting support --
-- No special tools required --

Included Mods

1.50 improved -- 1.50 multiplayer -- Version 1.2 mod -- ICE -- VDC -- Melee -- Randomized tech tree -- Lots of mapmods -- Mirror maps option.

MOO2 Launcher

Included with the download is MOO2 Launcher, a GUI program for easy installing, configuring and running the patch. Auto-detects GoG and Steam installations.

Documentation

The changelog describes changes for each version of the 1.50 patch -- The patch manual has detailed descriptions of fixes, new features, modding options and game mechanics.

Compatibility

The 1.50 patch is an ADD-ON. All original files are preserved -- Supports English, German, French, Spanish and Italian DOS editions of MOO2

Requirements

A working copy of MOO2 DOS version 1.31 or higher -- The MOO2 game directory should contain ALL game files (full installation).

Installation

While installation with MOO2 Launcher should be easy, we do advise to carefully read the installation instructions before starting your adventure.

Download 1.50

Grab the latest version of the 1.50 fan patch here:


Patch 1.50.24
Dec 24, 2024   |   11903 kB zip file   |   install instructions   |   changelog

Download 1.31

If you are running a version older than 1.31, please update to 1.31 first!


1.31 English   1.31 Deutsch
Apr 11, 1997   |   3205 kB zip file (EN)   |   2342 kB zip file (DE)

MOO2 Game Manual

The original game manual in essence is a description of a 'version 1.0' of the game. In the initial release version 1.1, a couple things were changed or added to the game after the manual had already gone to print. That same manual (albeit with a different cover) was shipped with the version 1.2 EU release. Game version 1.3 made a couple of notable changes to the user interface and version 1.31 introduced ship initiative. The manual was obviously missing all these things. So. We have now updated and error corrected the original manual for Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares, bringing it up to the level of patch version 1.50.24.

  • Corrected errors.
  • New segments about added/changed user interface functionality of patch 1.30.
  • New segment about ship initiative (patch 1.31).
  • Added descriptions of new user interface functionality of patch 1.50.
  • Added weapons and special systems of Antarans and monsters to ‘The Big List’.
  • Added an overview of all mercenary leaders.
  • Added an overview of all random events.
  • Replaced original (but crappy) images with fresh colored ones.

Get the game manual (pdf) here:


Game Manual
Dec 8, 2024   |   5086 kB pdf file

1.50 Patch Manual

The 1.50 patch manual describes in detail all fixes, improvements, new features, modding options and game mechanics of the 1.50 patch.

This manual is included with the 1.50 download as a nice pdf, but can also be found as a web page here:

1.50 patch manual

MOO2 Mods

Included with the 1.50 patch

1.50 improved
Proposes gently tweaked race pick valuation. Introduces new combat mechanics like Ship Initiative 2.0, Interactive Combat Stats (ICS) and Simplified Beam Formula. Makes various tweaks to weapons and special systems. Special care was given to improve AI ship designs. The Excel manual included with the download explains it all.

1.50 multiplayer
Based on 1.50 improved but with race picks that are better tuned for multiplayer, no Orion system & no unguarded splinter systems on the map, and various other multiplayer options enabled.

ICE
Designed for single player games / multiplayer with AI. ICE makes the AI much more challenging, changes race picks extensively and also brings a modded Tech Tree. The sole difference between ICE and ICE-X is AI strength: ICE-X Impossible has the strongest AI, you'd better know what you are doing!

VDC
This mod is designed for 1v1 multiplayer. Included is VDCGM3-NR60 version X12_V69_B4. 'GM3' means always 3 planets per system. 'NR' means that tech breakthroughs only happen at 100% each time! Latest version of this mod can be found on the MOO2 Discord server.

Version 1.2 mod
Little mod that approximates MOO2 version 1.2 as close as possible with current 1.50 config: Creative costs 6 picks again, Psilon race design restored, original Guardian and Antaran ship designs, Plasma Cannon, Ion Cannon and Gyro Destabilizer weapon stats set back to original values.

Melee mod
Experimental mod that does away with all economy, and is designed for pure 2-player tactical combat. The map has only 4 systems: Orion, 2 home systems, and a neutral system. Each player builds 30 command points worth of ships. Both players send their fleet to the neutral system and duke it out!


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MOO2 Downloads   ↓

More Mods

Spiral galaxy mod 1.0 for 1.50.18+
Mod by Epirasque that creates a spiral galaxy, one arm per player with their home world at the tip.

Techtree mods 1.0 for 1.50.19+
Bundle of Lua mods by Epirasque. Contains several mods that alter the research tech tree or otherwise interact with how players acquire tech through research. Follow the installation instructions from the included readme.

Miniaturization report 5.1 for 1.50.22
Lua script that explains miniaturization and summarizes the current and future state of space-reduction of technologies in a comprehensive in-game report. Runs when you press '4' in the Main screen. Place the file in 150\scripts\main\ (no need to restart). A readme is contained within the file.

Artificial Advisor 1.1 for 1.50.23
Lua script that pops up a wide variety of information for overview and optimization for individual colonies and the empire as a whole. Has many toggles. Runs when you press '7' in the Main screen. Place the file in 150\scripts\main\ (no need to restart). A readme is contained within the file.

Tools

Zodiac 1.2 for 1.50.23
A new tool to manually 'draw' galaxies for Master of Orion 2 games. 8028 kB zip file.

Corion2 1.1.1
Savegame Editor. Corion version 1.1.1 has been optimized for the 1.50 patch. 153 kB zip file.

MoO2 Workshop
LBX editor suite by Grig de Griz. Handles text, picture and font files. Includes a leader editor. Note: If the included HMTL Help comes up blank, then go into file Properties and unblock. 2713 kB zip file.

fmoo2-tool
LBX graphics viewer by Marco. Easy scanning of contents of LBX files. Other work by the same author can be found on Github. 20377 kB zip file.

History of Patches

Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares version 1.1 was released on cd-rom in North American retail on November 22, 1996. Three days later the first patch, version 1.2, was released to the web. This patch for the NA release was distributed as a patcher program that would patch six version 1.1 files.

Version 1.2 was the basis for the EU cd-rom release mid December 1996. With patch version 1.3 in March 1997 came the cd-rom release of the German translation of the game. English and German 1.31 patches quickly followed on April 11, 1997.

With patch version 1.31 came cd-rom releases of the French and Spanish translations of the game. A Spanish+Italian cd-rom was released in May, with an integrated executable (2-in-1) that featured in-game language changing thru the Game Settings window and also contained a few undocumented bug fixes, but still carried the same version number 1.31. A Polish language version was prepared for, but did not materialize.

At the end of 1997, the game was reissued under Microprose's PowerPlus brand. This cd-rom contained a 5-in-1 multilingual exe, again as a version 1.31, bringing the undocumented bug fixes to the other three languages, but this last official version was never released as a patch.

Fan patch 1.40b23 from 2006 fixed a number of bugs and introduced some multiplayer features. For the longest time this version has been used by the online multiplayer community and has even been included into Steam and GoG distributions. Initially based on 1.40, the 1.50 fan patch incorporates all of its fixes.




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