The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

Ok, so the Kohr-Ar start rampaging around the star map, killing all. Im frantic trying to work out how to stop them, but soon find ive failed when they trash the Sol starbase.

Which leads me to the question, is it conceivable that this game can be completed ('won') the first time around? Ive come to the conclusion, that the many sub plots within the game (such as getting the syreen to believe that the mycon caused the fall of Syra) may actually just be that - SUB PLOTS. They are not really an ideal item to tackle if one wants to stop the Kohr-Ar.

From starting the game, i was just going around collecting minerals etc, and getting info off the Melnorme. I had only just visited about 75% of the known races (i hadnt even gotten to th Utwig and Umgah yet, plus some more I probably dont even know of) and had started following down some of the info gotten from the melnorme (such as the crashed Ur-Quan dreadnought, a couple of the rainbow worlds, and the stray shofixti in Delta Gormo). Before I know it the end is near.

Damn. I was having fun too.

I guess ill have another go, but i dont want to read the spoiler pages yet. Can you guys give some brief advice in the general direction I should head in order to have a good start to the game? (i dont mean physical locations as such, more like goals i should aim for - eg is there any point in getting spathi, pkunk, zoq-fot-pik etc to ally?). Because if i went though a second time, i doubt I would get much further than i have already gotten. Goals such as finding all the rainbow worlds would take me so long, that by the time it was done, the game would be over again - therefore I assume (possibly incorrectly) that this cant be that important.

Start the Spathi plot as soon as possible. You'll get some damn powerful ship(s) (notice that damned powerful means something else then "kill everything in ten seconds flat"), some humor and the knowledge that the most cowardly race in the known galaxy (you never know what's in the unknown :D) are at your disposal.
Next, getting the Utwig plot going is handy, once again for the ships.

About the Rainbow planets, they aren't that important. But the credits the Melnorme pay for them will help a lot towards upgrading your ship and lander, or you can buy a ton of fuel with it.

But the Syreen plot looked pretty important (and hard to trigger), for the game, so make sure you do that. (And no, the fact that a certain blueskinned woman may get interested in you should be considered as a bonus, not the main reason. Or not, depends on whether or not you like blue. ;))

And get the Arilou plot. It really saves on traveling time and fuel if you pull this one off.

Finally, dealing with the lone Shofixti can really help you if you play your cards right.

That's about it.

Notice that you don't have to do things just because I say it (Hey, I don't know everything) and you really don't have to do it for the ships if you're a kick-ass fighter. But if you're not. The Utwig and Spathi (in my case, especially the Spathi) can really save RU spend on maintaining crew levels if you put a little practice into flying with them.

When you follow the following "rules", you'll be able to complete the game... Unless you did something really weird.. :)

Mine while you're exploring.
Mine while you're questing.
Don't mine for the mining, apart from your first run..
Mine only the richest stars.
Don't mine common or base materials.
Exotics might be dangerous (apart from around a certain star, where you can get AND the most, AND the easiest ones in the game), but just get 'em anyways. Who cares if you lose a few crew at the start of the game, if it skyrockets you up the tree of Interstellar "Ownagism"?
If you're fast enough, you don't need offense. Kill the Earthling Cruiser you get at the start, as well as the Ion Bolt cannon.... You'll have a spathi ship which is more than enough.... Trade those for turning and thrusting jets..

I finished the game the first time I played it, and I wasn't even aware of the time limit.

I finished the game the first time I played it, and didn't have any problem with the time limit. (I didn't even give time to the Kohr-Ah to finish with any race).

My suggestions would be:
1) Do the Spathi plot the first.

2) Advice for the Syreen plot. If you don't want to use spoilers, it will be VERY difficult, because of a bug in the game, that can make you search 20-30 star systems before finding the one that you need. Actually, that's what I did, and it was the best thing that happened to me in the game. While I searched, I got a lot of RU destroying Mycon ships.
So, try to get involved in the Syreen plot as soon as you can. You will receive so much RU that you won't have to mine in all the game (so you won't lose time).

3) You should also do the Supox-Utwig plot early, because it gives you an extra year of time.

4) The Arilou plot will save a lot of fuel and time, but it's difficult to start. I will write below a spoiler, although, if you are patient, you won't need it. But, of course, being patient may make you lose the game.

***SPOILER START***
Arilou plot: Look for the star that only appears from the 18th to the 20th of each month.
Mycon plot: 629,1;220,8
***END OF SPOILER***

Bye!

BTW: it still is not to late to win.

You simply need to collect what the Kohr-Ah cannot destroy and you need to be faster than the Kohr-Ah when it comes to reaching the Starbase (plus the cocoon needs to be opened).

That's the fun. You still win. Next time you will win "better"/faster.

Enjoy!
 Krulle

Ok, thanks for the replies guys - they seem really helpful without giving too much away. I think this time ill just concentrate on exploring and following the plot rather than building up a powerful flagship. So you guys consider the spathi eluder a good general combat ship? That would be useful, seeing as you get fwiffo to help right at the beginning - saves time.

And then i guess ill make sure to go see the arilou first up. Last game (the game where i lost) i never really made it there - anytime i was in the area it was no where near the 18th. Ill also go visit the utwig early up. Last game, i never made it there as well. They are all they way over the other side of space, and you have to pass through Ur-quan space to get there. By the time I visited them their world was blasted from the kohr-ar. From playing in super melee, the jugger seems like a really useful ship. That one was never in SC1 or SC3, so i never used before.

Huh? AFAIK the Utwig and the Jugger were in SC3.

It's the one that 0wns the most (even more than the Chmmr) for what you have to do to win.

Jugger definatly is in SC3. (The Vux stole the Ultron......)

Anyway: remember to put some crew in Fwiffos Eluder before visiting the Starbase....

And normally I do not cross Ur-Quan Space when i visit the Supox and Utwig. Maybe you should think about what else you can do when you're making such a long flight anyway. There are enough things to do in a lot of Systems you could pass whilst flying around the Ur-Quan.

Enjoy!
 Krulle

oops. why is that?

Because he was the unlucky eyeball who always lost their games and didn't get to go back to Spathiwa. Sure, Eluders can take quite a lot of punishment, but that's only if they're up to full strenght. Fwiffo is the only Spathi onboard, so one hit from an Earthling laser, for example, and it's boom time. (which would be a big shame.)

And you never know which evil spider in some dark corner makes this spathi jump and run blindly against a gas oven and burn himself to death....

Although, roasted Spathi might be very tasty.

Maybe I should start a new game.....

[a while later...]

Dammit. He must have heard me. He just left... :(
No crunchy spathi for me now...

Enjoy!
 Krulle

Hi all,
Captain Smith said:
>It's the one that 0wns the most (even more than the Chmmr) for what you have to do to win.

Really? The Utwig?
For me it was the Pkunk. By a large margin.

Cheers
Martin  :)

Oh yeah, i was aware of that fact. I thought you meant that something special happens if you fill up fwiffos ship before going back to starbase (ie some secret i didnt know about).

Anyway, i had an epiphany. It smartly links my two threads "damn, i lost" and "combat to easy". I realized that one of the reasons I lost was that I spent too much time getting the flagship made into a killing machine. In my second game, it has no weapons at all - i got straight into the game and just use the other ships for combat. And im doing a lot better. A single eluder can kill an infintate amount of dreadnoughts - why invest RUs into the flagship weapons when you can spend it on fuel etc.

The Utwig Juggernaut can go head-to-head against any other ship and come out on top.  It has great top speed for a big ship, excellent turn speed, a main gun that requires no energy and has great range and accuracy.  The ruby shield ability makes it beat ships with big guns with ease, and handles pea-shooters pretty well too.  If it has any weakness at all, would be the relatively low acceleration, but it handily wins battles against:

Ilwrath, Ur-Quan Kzer-Za, Ur-Quan Kohr-Ah, Thraddash, Mycon, Druuge,  Yehat

...and does reasonably well against all the other main storyline enemies in SC2 (Slylandro Probe, Umgah, VUX)

By comparison, the Pkunk Fury has a weak., though rapid-fire main weapon with little accuracy and short range, no activated secondary ability at all (energy regeneration doesn't really count in my book).  It does have excellent turn speed and acceleration, but the size of the ship is a liability, making it hard to dodge close-range shots, or spreads of things like Kohr-Ah razor blades.  The resurrection ability is a nice equalizer, but it's not very reliable (50%),.

Pkunk easily beats Mycon
Reasonably good against UQ Kzer-Za and Kohr-Ah, Druuge, Umgah
Difficult time with Thraddash, VUX, Ilwrath
Extremely difficult time with Slylandro Probe, Yehat

Both ships can take down the Sa-Matra pretty easily, though the Utwig Juggernaut can do it more quickly, and in a safer manner.

Even so, the Utwig ship is a better utility ship all-around, as well as being more reliable.  Granted, the Pkunk Fury is a lot of fun, but that doesn't make it a more useful ship IMHO.


Icemage

I do think he was talking about the Sa-Matra specifically...and for the record, I agree with him...by a large margin

I found the Jugger too slow against the Sa-matra defenses.  If I released my shields long enough to fire, the fireballs got me.  Since the fireballs are faster than the Jugger, I ended up running around for 5 minutes trying to avoid all the bad stuff, but never did get a shot off.  Is there a trick here I'm missing?

Me too, on 3DO, when i was 12...

SC2 is actually pretty easy for me compared to the other games i play...

Try to get the green ones push you hard and fast in any direction, and wait to sail past the Sa-Matra. Hope to get a hit (or two) against the Generators.

Takes a damn lot time to kill all generators, because at a certain time you need the right angle to pass by to be able to make überhaupt one hit.

Enjoy!,
 Krulle