I was one of those burned on the initial unplayable release and am extremely wary of trying it out again. I think that if the patches and mods make that big of a difference, it would be helpful to mention exactly which ones are good and maybe give a brief (one line?) description of each or where to get them.
Just my 2 cents.

I'd like to say/ask pretty much the same. Can you tell us what sort of difference the mods do? I've really tried to give MoO3 a chance, several times, but I always gave up after a couple dozens turns, because there was just nothing to hook me up.
I don't care about bugs so much, if there were any, they didn't stick in memory. But what sort of new content the mods delivered?

Even with mods, the point remains GOGers are buying a broken game and as such should not have to pay $10.00 out of the gate.
Yes there are mods, but you need to know which ones: ones that fix the fuzzy text, ones that help the AI do well almost anything, ones that give information with the little leaves, ones that change the color of the UI, etc..
I remember the guy that did a ton of modifications and created an install program for various mods, but are they still viable, where does it all stand years later?
MOO 3 may be worth getting but not at the current price.

Agree. I bought moo3 on its initial release date. There is something just terrible about space games and their third editions, moo3, starcon3, hope to god there is never a galciv 3 :)
I look at mods years ago and basically decided they made the game playable but nothing special.
Very surprised gog chose to take such a game.

Here is a link to the thread about the most popular mod for MoO3. I can't describe everything is changes/fixes in one line, but just take a look at the patch log in the thread. Everything you need to know, including download links, are in the first post in the thread.
I never used this one, but I used the predecessor, Strawberry. I found it made the game tons better. I think there is a diplo patch i also used to make the diplomatic dialogue not... obtuse. I am not sure if that is included in Tropical, though.

The question is will the mods work with the GOG version? Removing the CD protection has caused problems with mods and pathces working, since removing the CD alters the Game Execute file.
FRankly, if the mods will not work with the GOG version, it ain't worth ten bucks.

The game was a complete mess on release. Nevermind the design changes that were dropped in late in development (for better, for worse), and how they created a game that was at odds with itself. Many mechanics were completely broken.
I'm not sure what "not entirely true" means in this case. People were right to pan the game. and it certainly was true that many mechanics were broken and the game often felt at odds with itself.
That patches and mods fixed things does not obviate the launch criticism.

Problem is, that MoO3 threw overbaord anything that was good on the MoO-Series.
If it was an expansion of MoO2 called Empire-Manager-Expansion then maybe it would have a right to exist as part of the MoO-Series.
But it is so far away of the roots that in my opinion it is a sin to speak of it in one sentence with the true MoO games.
Sadly since MoO2 not a single Space 4x game captured the driving gameplay again in that way.
Space Empires V could be good if it was more "alife" and not such a number orientated game and the real time space combat is a shit of its own...

Jarhead, I did have time to try out a player modded version quite some time back. But it used the retail disk version, not a download version. So perhaps you could help out a bit here?
1. Is the gog version the latest official patch?
2. Is it possible to apply player mods to this version. When I did it player mods worked only with the retail disks, not the download versions available at the time.
3. Could you provide a list of the mods needed and a "how to install" for Tropical. And the resolution patch if that is still up to date. I'll try to get a list together and try it out if I can find my old retail disks. I will not bother trying with the gog version until we know more.
If it works for me, I will at least post a list of the mods and the links where they are available and a "how to" that worked for me (or didn't as the case may be) and then perhaps someone can try with the gog version.

Here is a little guide I wrote with a link to download and a "how to" for the Tropical mod.

What I always hate is that MOO3 was never meant to be MOO2+1, but it gets billed that way. Taken for what its supposed to be, a macro-management game, it actually plays out pretty well. Even at release, although bugged, it was a decent game.
The other problem comes from the fact that too many people couldn't handle the idea of not doing something. I come from (and still enjoy) military history boardgames which can (with the highly complex/involved ones) often have you sitting for 30 minutes to an hour doing absolutely nothing but watching your opponent complete his/her move, so watching a game play itself outside of your direct control is a natural/normal experience. MOO3 is like that.
Now it stumbled over a LOT of hurdles to get to that point and because its a PC game and they tried to make it as interactive as possible for a game designed for non-interactivity, but its not a medium designed for that purpose now, and it sure as hell wasn't then. So its got a lot of kinks you have to forgive in order to get the experience and enjoy playing the game, but so do many other games in all sorts of genres. I've never understood why people can forgive those elsewhere but not with MOO3. Best answer I can ever come up with is people go into MOO3 expecting something it isn't and try to force an experience they want out if rather than enjoying the experience it offers.
Edit:
Think of it this way, if someone gives a 1 star review of MOO3, that instantly proves they're incapable of reviewing the game because they never gave it the shot it deserves. I'll grant anyone could give the game two stars because they felt it was a poor game, but to be a 1 star game you have to assume its either unplayable, completely devoid of fun by any definition, or has no production quality to the game. Completely outside of personal opinion all three of those factors are debunked simply by the fact that this game has maintained active community for longer than most games.

Exactly. It requires a shift of perspective for most players: The results of player's actions are not always visible immediatly, but influence everything in the long run. The player is NOT the omnipotent God-like actor as in most other games, but simply one (but important) wheel in a complex system.
I think most people here give it 1 star, because they want to criticize the price policy of GOG.com. For them, MMO3 is a bad to mediocre game that does not fit the claim "GOOD OLD GAMES" -- games which one remembers with positive feelings. Thus, they feel that GOG breaks its promise. Or sort of.

One of my favorite aspects of MoO3 is the cohesive political history that pervades the game. Once a person understand that EVERY game is going to erupt in a Saurian vs. Ichthytosian war, with minor side wars between Geodics vs Insectoid, Cybernetik vs Etherean, and Humanoid vs Cybernetik/Geodic, political strategy becomes pretty interesting. I had lots of fun playing an all out diplomatic race in MoO3, just pulling the strings of the superpowers.
A basic run down of starting relations by race, with a fair bit of discussion, can be found here