The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

Im extremely mind numbingly new to the whole Star Control thing, and after getting the space station near earth to help me out I am extremely knocked back by the difficulty of combat and exploration it seems 98% theplanets i visit are uninhabited, then i run out of fuel, then i get attacked by one of those space probes which promptly whoops my butt. So I was  wondering wether there was some sort of MANUAL or some such thing that i skipped by in my newbish rush for help (yes ive looked over the wiki) or maybe just a little bit of starter advice from salty space-dogs.

I would start out by mining first, then building up your flagship. You don't want to be heading out into the far unknown until you have at least 100 units of fuel. Head to the Giclas constellation and you will meet some very friendly aliens. I would also recommend visiting the Androsynth stars.

First of all, allow me to congratulate you for choosing The Ur-Quan Masters. This really shows that you are an intelligent person.

First point fively, I will direct you to Abandonia's copy of the Star Control 2 manual: http://www.abandonia.com/extras/Star%20Control%202_Manual.zip (http://www.abandonia.com/extras/Star%20Control%202_Manual.zip) and its copy of the Star Control 2 starmap: http://www.abandonia.com/extras/Star%20Control%202_Starmap.jpg (http://www.abandonia.com/extras/Star%20Control%202_Starmap.jpg) (which also contains the Spheres of Influence of some races, if you zoom in closer).

Secondly, I will ask you a question: Have you looked at the Non-Spoiler Hints (http://uqm.stack.nl/wiki/Non-Spoiler_Hints) on the wiki (the Ultronomicon)? They should answer your question:

1) Practice the game in Super Melee
2*) Ask Commander Hayes for some info on alien races, it's funny, though not required.
3) Probes can be killed with your Earthling Cruiser by shooting it with the nukes first, then using the point defense to get rid of its last hitpoints.
4) Your Ion-Bolt Gun can be sold, it's usually best to do so. Aim to buy some thrusters, first of all, then an extra Storage Bay.
5) Scavenge the Solar System for resources
6) Visit the surrounding star systems for resources
7) Don't pick up unvaluable minerals - common and corrosives can be left out.
8) It may be worth the effort to mine hostile worlds, but you must pick something and take off quickly, before your lander is destroyed - you can use multiple landings, but remember that fuel is expensive.
9) Alien races are not meant to be discovered by blind exploring, but by clue exploitation.
10) Don't forget to pick up whatever gives you an energy reading when scanned (i.e. the last part of the Autoscan, i.e. the Energy scan).
11) Be friendly to aliens and try to learn as much as you can from them even if they're hostiles.

Alright thanks alot, hopefully star control 2 will tide me over till mass effect comes out.

Star Control 2 has a good chance of being way better - more humor, more imagination, simpleness, deep universe leaving place for a lot of speculation...
<add other pluses here>

Er, dont mean to offend but shouldnt that be "Has a good chance of" rather than "is"?

My adivice: Save. Alot.

Talk to everyone, all the time, even if you know they're just going to attack you at the end of the conversation.  Even if you think you've seen all the dialog options, you might not have.

If combat continues to kick your butt even after practicing in Super Melee, you might want to turn on cyborg mode, where the computer fights for you (I'm pretty sure you can still use Esc to warp out, though).  Game-->Settings-->Cyborg.  I think Cyborg+ is the same thing sped up and Cyborg++ is just way sped up.  If you practice, though, you'll probably be able to do better than Cyborg and lose fewer ships.

(You can also practice by saving at the beginning of each encounter and doing it over and over until you get it right/satisfactory.)

Yeah, you'll probably want to save.  There are some places where you can kind of screw yourself over or at least make things harder later on, if you do them wrong.  Also, there's a time limit.

When you're doing your mining, when you come across planets with lifeforms, shoot and collect them.  You'll want them later on.  Speaking of mining, read this. (http://uqm.stack.nl/wiki/Lander_Hints)

Go back to talk to Hayes whenever you're in the neighborhood; he delivers some of the clues.  Usually "There's a transmission coming from [star system], maybe you should check it out".

You've explored the entire local solar system, right?  You didn't say.

[edited to fix link]

Alright, yea some transmission from the Rigel System just came in from Hayes, and I just recruited an exceedingly annoying Spathi into my fleet from pluto, thanks. Oh and BTW isnt hayes kind of a jerk? I mean i lost five crew members trying to get some minerals and all he can say is "Hm not alot of minerals this time captain" Things are going along jusssssssssssssssssssst fine now.

:O Fwiffo???? ANNOYING?? Thats cold man, thats cold

I concur.  How could anyone not love Fwiffo?  Unless they have no soul?

I wouldn't use the Cyborg unless you're really desperate. The AI isn't going to do you any special favors when you come across a Probe or group of alien thugs. Save, and practice, practice, practice...

Yeah, it's more, ah, RU-intensive.  :P  But if you really want to avoid fighting...

Fwiffo may be annoying if you don't have time to listen to him - you can't save in the middle of a conversation (hee-lloooo?! Core team? When will this be implemented?) and his conversation is LONG.

Hayes - a jerk? Well, he's just a soldier - win above everything. Though he CARES about crew - you'll see this later on.

Well, you can skip conversations....

I'd suggest you buy all the turning rates and speed boosters that you can RUN FAST.
As said, sell atleast the Ionbolt cannon. Don't go very far first that you don't run away of fuel..

Spacebarspacebar.  I mean really.  You can just skip right to the end of the bit of dialog and see it all at once.  And that conversation's a pretty forgiving one; I think there's only one very specific path that leads to attacking.

Hating Fwiffo is like... hating a puppy!  A scared puppy!  :(


Hahahaha, oh, does he ever. :D  Not that I did that one thing to see what would happen, or anything, or played with the numbers to see when different dialog came up.

It's not spacebar-spacebar, it's shift-shift. In fact, special-special.
Of course you can do this, but it's funnier to listen to David Bryce, er, Fwiffo, telling his story. Though if you played the game before, you can skip though that of course, just don't choose the aggressive option. But I'm speaking about newbies - sometimes you have to leave in the middle of a conversation.

Try http://sa-matra.net/quotes (http://sa-matra.net/quotes), choose Earthling and search for the section beginning with "unpleasant topic" and ending with "bring charges against you". He really cares about those people.

I just mentioned that you can skip since you said


Whats the point of saving in the middle of a convo, if you can just skip to the end, and then save?

*shrug*  I've (I think) got it set to spacebar.


I can answer that!  The point is that it's fun to check out allllll the options for a conversation (especially when you're just starting) and being able to save a specific point would make that easier, especially when you've done several of them and you're not completely sure how you got to a particular point (of course, the prepared adventurer keeps track by transcribing dialog options and responses and labeling them ;) ).  So, when you want to know what happens when you say X instead of Y, you can just save at that spot, go ahead and say X, then go back.  Otherwise, you're saving at the beginning of the conversation, keeping track of every path, and going through the whole thing every time.

Of course, I also used to read Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books with bookmarks at every juncture that still had unexplored options, so make of that what you will.

If Hayes says it's not a lot of minerals, then it is. You do realize that your ship's cargo bays are many times larger than your lander's, yes?