>If the developers design MOO3 well, they may be able to publish
>early and provide extensions - and/or, better, allow players to
>write deep customizations - later.

Well, obviously this isn't stuff you put on the back of the box, but we're trying to do everything you could possibly want to tweak in easy-to-edit file formats (text and Excel spreadsheets and the like) so any "first level hacker" can open them up and fiddle the numbers. Our goal is to have it be so easy for you guys that making an "editor" would be unnecessary.

Again, we can't make a hard promise on that, but that's sure the road we're on and it remains our clear intention to establish every data-type format as something you guys will have no problem futzing with after publication. We love (heck, we ARE) MOO fans and want to make things easy on you guys.

>I don't want a fixed plot, I want
>random events and fluid multiplayer.

The "plot" is in the historical background (and, to an important degree, in the victory conditions; you must fulfill one of the overarching goals win the game of course). Random events and fluid multi-player is everything that happens in-between. You know, you really CAN have everything in this instance -- plot and random/fluid; they're not mutually exclusive.

"What is the time limit range for turns? Can it be turned off in multi-player? Can you have unlimited turn time at single player games?"

We plan on making the whole turn Time Limit thing extremely user-definable. You should be able to, in effect, "turn it off" in single and multiplayer games. However, like everything else, there is more to the turn timer than you think, and there are compelling play balance and game play reasons to leave it in place.

>And why can't intelligent
>organisms such as ourselves not live in and mine an asteroid belt?

Who said you couldn't do that in MOO3?

>Please don't mainstream our game.

That should happen regardless. We're making the game way deeper than MOO2. But we're also making the look and interface much easier to use and more accessible to the "mainstream." Again, you guys, stop thinking that everything is mutually exclusive. A clever design and the time and talent to implement it can satisfy both ends of the player spectrum.