The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

Is there any rhyme or reason to how the Orz first greet you? I've first bumped into them at Eta Vulpecula and gotten the standard "hello extremely...." greeting which leads to a "I'm captain 'x' of the 'y' we seem to be having translation problems response," a "who are you" response, etc

I restarted the game after realizing I wasn't going to win (I'm trying to avoid literal walkthroughs), and then bumped into them again on Alpha Mira. This time, they seemed pissed at me initially. "You have come to our *house* but we cannot *play* the fun *games* with you.
Nnnnngggaaahhh!!"
I was able to ask if I'd offended them and then offer to work things out peacefully at which point they instantly allied with me.

I wasn't sure if they'd indeed allied with me based on the conversation (I saved in a new slot and only later confirmed) so I reloaded from *immediately* before I bumped into their ship. This time and all subsequent times, I've gotten the more friendly conversation.

Anyone have any idea what governs which of these I get?

Well, that star cluster used to be the prime hang-out for the Androsynth. And when you ask the Orz about the Androsynth, well they don't seem to take it too well. Perhaps you did that? (Can happen accidently, cause its like the first selectable line, haha, but I think you need to say a few things before it comes to that, not sure though)

I'm pretty sure it's not that. For one thing, when you meet an alien *they* get off the first line. For another, I'm reasonably sure I hadn't selected any dialog at all. Finally, I don't think you even *can* get to that quote by mentioning the androsynth, or indeed mentioning anything else from the initial opening (I've pissed them off to the point where they *attacked* me and still never saw that quote).

You could try to find the exact quote on http://www.sa-matra.net/quotes/orz/ (http://www.sa-matra.net/quotes/orz/) or try to find it in the dialogue files that come with UQM

I actually got the verbatum quote above from that page (or another one like it). Knowing the script doesn't tell you *why* a particular line is used, though.

The dialogue files in UQM are more useful in this context; the source code even more so.

This following is Orz dialogue ANGRY_HOMEWORLD_HELLO_1:

As far as I can tell, this dialogue is only used if ORZ_MANNER is 1, which only occurs if you've attacked an Orz vessel.

That's even stranger, then. I hadn't encountered them before, and certainly hadn't attacked them. Ah well, maybe the game hiccuped or something and set that counter to 1, which would explain why on reloading I never saw it again.
~shrug. Thanks for the info.