Q: Why?
A: Many years ago, when I got my hands on a copy of Master of Orion II I played it rather obsessively, to the point of knowing more about it than any sensible person ever should. Since I am interested in game design and programming, I quickly started thinking about how to improve the game further. I greatly like the game, but it is weak in several areas, notably AI and game balance. Several years onwards, Master of Orion 3 was released. I had a try at it, and found it to be tremendously disappointing, and quite broken on a number of levels. My frustration with this lacklustre successor to one of my favourite games finally galvanised me into starting the development of Ophiuchus.

Q: Is Ophiuchus open-source?
A: No, Ophiuchus is closed source. The reasons for this are that I have rather specific ideas of what I want to implement, which wouldn't be much fun for co-developers. Also, if the game turns out well, I do eventually intend to sell it.

Q: Is Ophiuchus freeware?
A: The development versions currently being released are freeware. You may distribute them freely in unaltered form. The plan is to develop Ophiuchus at low intensity until the point where it becomes evident that it's worth investing a serious quantity of effort in. At which point I will stop releasing development versions - until the point where the final result is ready, which will likely be released under a shareware licence.

Q: Why the name "Ophiuchus"?
A: Not telling. Find out for yourself! Nothing to do with astrology, though.

Q: How do you pronounce "Ophiuchus"?
A: Now here's a tricky one. I personally pronounce it like this:
O like "oven"
fee like "fee"
u like "oo"
c like "Mac"
u like "oo" again
s, the normal hissing sound.
I have no idea if that is right, or if there is even a right way to pronounce it!

If you have any other questions, mail me or post in the forum.