The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

Ok so I figure these features will never be added as the goal seems to be to bring SC2 to the current age of players and not improve upon it but here I go :)

1) Some sort of ingame log or notes.  Real PITA writing down or trying to remeber all the different star systems and outstanding missions / quests involving them.

2) A 'find' function that will somehow show you where the hell a certain star system is on the map (if all you know is the name)

3) Some sort of graphic map flags / icons / $some_other_visual_que that shows if you have visited a star  system or not and if (once visited) it still has at least 1 harvestable item (mineral or biological) or if its a dead system (already fully exploited)

Other than that, great game.  Was just added to the FreeBSD port tree and been playing the hell out of it.

the part about  the map  and star systems is really cool idea
 

If you mean some sort of automatic log that keeps track of all the star systems and clues and such, that sort of defeats the idea of aliens rambling on about all kinds of stuff and you having to work out what's important. If you just want a notepad to type stuff into by hand, nobody's stopping you from running an external text editor. Pencil and paper seems to be the accepted solution among the traditionalists.

Already done. Starmap search patch here (http://www.misfitcode.com/urquanmisfits/). Not in official UQM yet, but works for me.

Unless you're doing some insane mining operations, keeping track of this by hand should be no problem at all. Still, I agree with you that getting information on systems you've already visited should be easier; what sort of advanced starship doesn't have at least a simple database to put solar system data in? Or at least some poor crew member who can write things down for you? "Did I already clean out that unstable metal world at Beta Foobar? I don't know, nobody's keeping track.". A list of explored planets you could sort by e.g. available minerals and such and starmap annotations showing unexplored/explored systems would be cool, but overkill IMHO.

While a 'been here' flag is a good idea, I'm against the exploitation statistics.. I can't give a good reason except that it seems like cheating to me ;)

Mine a cluster of stars and remember not to go there again. The game doesn't require you to spend that much on mining - and if you do, the Kohr-Ah would win the war and wipe the galaxy's behind! There's enough to do within the timelimit except for mining.

Also, you might want to check the colors of the stars and their proximity from the sun - that usually hints on minerals or lifeforms.

Agreed; I am currently playing NWN (sorry for playing an Atari  game...) and as a barbarian am not paying attention to dialogue;  I just click through any conversations until I hear the "something got put into your logbook" tone, and then attempt to kill the person I was talking to.  If they're invulnerable, I know they're important to the plot, so I read my logbook.  ;)
Nothing like the thinking I had to do to determine the clues in SC2.

I think much could be solved with a large printable map (white background, no spoilers/spheres). Maybe several A4's big, so you have to unfold it over your entire desk, like a real captain. You could make notes on it as you go.

...or one one A4: http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~starcontrol/forum/index.php?topic=933.0
:)

Also, if you want a search star thing: I've got a .exe with some text on how to use it here: http://home.deds.nl/~megagun/temp/UQMsearchstar.rar