The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

So after the IRC chat I thought it odd that TFB was so behind on their gaming. I didn't mean to say that they need to be playing more Halo, or any other of a million FPSs out there.  More, I was thinking of the myriad of games that inspired me and I thought contained features I would love to see in more games, potenally even a Stgar Control sequel.

So I thought I'd suggest a few games that I'd like to recommend to Fred Ford and Paul Reich III and I thought I'd open it up to you all what you'd recommend to, since I'd surely miss a few. My thoughts are:

StarScape (http://www.moonpod.com/English/about_ss.php) - A fantasic homage to Star Control. Not so much for inspiration, but to see that others love the gameplay.
[urlhttp://timewarp.sourceforge.net/]Timewarp[/url] - I'm sure they've heard of this one. There's some good ships in there, if you're willing to wade through a ton of less than exemplry ones.
Wierd Worlds (http://www.shrapnelgames.com/digital_eel/Weird_worlds/) - The creators of this one stated it's inspired by StarControl.
Wing Commander Arena (http://gamevideos.com/video/id/11405) - Realizing the bad blood between SC and WC, at least Wing Commander is still getting games added to the series. This one almost goes back to StarControl type melee, 2d gameplay, but with 3d graphics and angles. Worth checking out.
Advance Wars (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_Wars) - Speaking only about AW1&2, as I haven't played Dual Strike. This is for Paul Reiche III, who like me holds a special place in his heart for Archon tyle gameplay. AW does a good job with their CO abilities on the field of battle, something I'd love to see in a StarControl sequel. Imagine Fwiffo giving all BSS ships in battle a bonus, or Talina causing all colonies to automaticly recrew any ships in orbit. If you don't have a gameboy and are morally opposed to emulation (as well you should be) there is an online version (http://awbw.amarriner.com/) of the game, but it missed the "punch" of the original.

So what do you think? Is there any that I've missed?

I'd recommend the Space Empires (http://www.malfador.com/) series for it's strategy aspects. I'm not so keen on #5 due to the UI, but I love #4 and it's probably one of my oldest games that I still play.

WARNING! POTENTIALLY VALAGGARY POST AHEAD!
Actual games I'd recommend: Critical Mass (for its in part turn-based in part real-time dogfighting system), the upcoming Sins of a Solar Empire (or Imperium Galactica 1/2 till then) as a sort of model for a grander SC1, Space Rangers 1&2 (while we're on the SC2 style)... and, of course, when it comes out, Spore, for its procedural generation technology (it's proprietary, but at least its effects are awesome).

About TimeWarp, I've got only one thing to say: More than 16 facings is bad. OK, maybe more than one thing - some of the ships aren't bad, indeed (for example the Sefy Nautilus and that ship with two bending lasers), but the colorless graphics and the "advanced" melee system are horrible.

Space Empires - well, Star Control II and SCTrue3 are not 4X games, and not even SC1 is, though it has some elements.

WC Arena - the 2.5D gameplay would work really well for Star Control, and it would make multiship battles to look much better.

And if we're on suggestions for UltraSuperExtraHyperMegaMelee, I'd have a seemingly insignificant, though rather relevant, thing - which is, use the actual race voices for sounds like "Moron Jerk Dummy etc.", "GO!" and "Launch - Fighters!" (i.e. like I did in my Enhanced Melee Sounds), and, I'd say, add some taunts and stuff like that in Melee: when an Utwig energy spear near misses, the Utwig captain whines "AH! This shows how meaningless our existence really is!" or something like that; when an Orz ship is cornered, the captain goes "*FRUMPLE*!!!". The Kohr-Ah don't taunt, of course (but the Kzer-Za do: "Renegade creature, your punishment will be death!"). Just not too many taunts, it gets like in those RTSs when you continually get, "Yes?", "Adun Toridas!", "En Taro Adun!", "Adun Toridas!", "I do this for Aiur!" (i.e. I make two steps for Aiur) etc., you get the idea.

I wouldn't add background eye candy, though, as seems to be the current fashion; keep the background (semi-)realistic (dubiously close stars, yes, keep them, but no nebulae, or very thin ones and only in certain places).

Maybe (if it doesn't make the gameplay too unStarControlly), asteroids should come in different sizes and types (i.e. "standard" wanderer asteroids, "realistic" big and heavy asteroids packed together, "space dust" - small meteorite clouds which damage ships passing through). The planet should differ in gravity and size (in fact, it should behave exactly as the scan data of the planet you're orbiting would tell you) and have satellites (with their own gravity wells).

I'd really like a sort of RTT Melee version, that is, it's a multiship battle where you can command the ships kinda like in Weird Worlds (eventually in 3D, in which case it has to be with formations of ships, but I'm not sure if a good 3D Melee RTT would be easy to do).

Now, planetside suggestions: StarFlight planetside always gets me. Cultures in different stages of development would be nice. Other things to consider are PvPing with alien lifeforms (by using different abilities to attack them, for example, you assume a "cautious" stance and target the creature's left arm with a flamethrower; or maybe like Interceptor vs UFO fights in X-COM) and choosing the best path to the minerals you're mining (in a vertical puzzle-like minigame).
Here I'd really like some eye-candy, good 3D graphics, since those planets really fire up my space explorer alter-ego. I'd also love to see some minor interesting stuff on planets - Precursor Knowledge Tablets and even unique natural wonders such as the firefalls of Nalnar and the servants of Mali (by the way, I've pinpointed the servants of Mali to Gamma Leporis VII and the firefalls of Nalnar to Theta Hyades I).

Valaggar, there's a forum (http://starcontrol.classicgaming.gamespy.com/forum/index.php?board=2.0) you'd feel right at home about. I summerized your suggestions in a thread on that forum (http://starcontrol.classicgaming.gamespy.com/forum/index.php?topic=1409.0), but I had to find the links for the games myself. I hope the links I found were good enough, let me know if an edit is necessary.

The rest of your comments, like I said, would be perfect for the other forum. There seems to be a slight revival on those forums, so why don't you register a nic and stir things up?

I like the fact there's multiple facings myself, but I have to agree that some of the ships could be a lot better, and some are just purely unbalanced. The "Tau Missile Cruiser", for example, is practically invincible to light craft - very few vessels stand a chance of taking down this behemoth - namely the Alary Battlecruiser (it's MIRV warhead can overload and penetrate the MC's shielding and it's own shielding, armour and crew count can withstand multiple hits from the MC's nuke missile if the turrets can't manage to shoot the missiles down) and another Missile Cruiser. Also, the missiles are far too dark and it's very hard to aim the rocket turret properly. Finally, the missile is ridiculously overpowered to the point where it can destroy most ships in two shots, some of the smaller ships in one.

Without a doubt: Frontier Elite (series) is at the top of the list. Unfortunately almost all the games had graphics to poor to attract any new generation players. However, a new and better PC port is available “First Encounters” Http://www.frontier.co.uk/games/firstencounters/ (http://Http://www.frontier.co.uk/games/firstencounters/)  about the game: This is still one of the most robust space simulation games ever created. The player has total environmental freedom to seamlessly fly around, land on almost anything and explore the galaxy. You can upgrade equipment on your ship, or buy a different one.
I have a special copy of this game, (not available online) that I will share with anyone really REALLY interested.
(Amiga_Nut’s TOP games)
First Encounters
UQM
Zelda / All
Carrier Command
Lords Of Chaos
Dungeon Master
M.A.M.E.

"inspired" ? Not sure what that means. Thouroughly enjoyed? Most played?

4 years Sub Space aka Continuum
Silent Death
Starships Unlimited
Space Empires 1 thru 5
Strange Adventures in Infinite Space / Weird Worlds
StarControl 1, 2 and 3

Admitted space game fetish here..

Civilization
Star Control 2
Grandest Fleet
Fighter Wing
Seawolf
Chess Master 2000
Legends of Valour
Super Mario Bro. 3

I'm grateful for any traffic in this topic. But I'm not exactly looking for "What is your favorate games." I mean, I thought Crash Bandicoot 3 was good, but not quite fitting to the prompt. What I was looking for is:
See, so many games I play I think it'd be great to see features of used in the sequel to Star Control. Maybe I'm the only one. Well, me and Valgaar. Maybe Amiga_Nut. But there have been a few that had thing that inspired my idea of what SC3 should be.

I'm currently on a pretty big Heroes 3, Prey and Oblivion kick.

I'm loving these games

Games which I've played a lot of times and did not lose their appeal after all those years (inspiration is fuzzy, but this definitely sas something):

The original UFO/X-Com - was to squad-based games what Doom was to FPSs. Perfect atmosphere and balance of gameplay. Runs under DOSBox.
Transport Tycoon and its derivatives (notably OpenTTD) - for those of you who once played/wanted to play with model trains. One of the greatest economic games of the bygone age and a great system-builder (google for junction screenshots, you'll see what I mean)
Age of Wonders, particularly the first one - Warlords meets Master of Magic, similar genre but refreshingly different from HoM&M. Add ridiculous amounts of eye- and ear-candy (in a positive way)
Beyond Good & Evil - short, well made, and extremely emotionally moving.

My friend gave me a UFO game that was apparantly pretty much an exact copy, more or less, of the older game. Soooooooooo much fun, but just like SC2 I gotta save often hahaha

There is NO exact copy of X-Com - maybe apart from the sequel (Terror From The Deep, Apocalypse is controversial and IMHO weaker)

I guess I can name a few highlights.

---PC---

Star Control 2
X-Com
Darklands
TIE Fighter
Freespace 2
Master of Orion
Master of Magic
Dungeon Keeper
Myth II

---Console---

Ninja Gaiden (The new one)
Super Metroid
Metroid Prime
Okami
Silent Hill 2
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

X-Com Enemy Unknown, X-Com Terror From the Deep, X-Com Apocalypse
Star Control 1&2
Master of Orion 1&2 (I prefer the first more though)
Civilization 1&2
Master of Magic
Imperium Galactica 1&2 (I prefer the original more)
Warlords Battlecry 1&2 also were fun games, I've also heard Warlords is a classic.
Homeworld & Homeworld Cataclysm
Baldur's Gate 1, 2 & Throne of Bhaal
X-Beyond the Frontier
Command and Conquer, Tiberian Sun and Firestorm
Red Alert 1,2 and Yuri's Revenge
Heroes of Might and Magic 3
Disciples 1&2 were also fun games.
Unreal Tournament, UT 2004, Quake 2
Freespace 2
Dungeon Keeper 1&2
Ascendancy
Perimeter (you might also want to check out Maelstrom)
Galactic Civlizations 2
Earth 2140 & 2150: Escape from the Blue Planet
Colonization

Snes-
Secret of Mana (and the unofficial fansubbed Seiken Densetsu 3 which is supposed to be its sequel only available for PC due to download).
Super Bomberman
Super Strike Gunners

Might have missed some out but I'll update it when I can.

Maybe he's referring to the Win95 port (X-COM Collector's Edition/Gold); that version is almost identical to the (last) DOS version and even shares most of the bugs.

It was called UFO or something like thatt...it was Russian lol

"X-COM: UFO Defense" (America) or "UFO: Enemy Unknown" (elsewhere) is the original; "X-COM: Terror from the Deep" is the sequel. There are dozens of clones under development for various platforms, several of which are Russian.

xD Kaelos is going to go really nerdy here, and say that the games that inspired him were the first two Final Fantasys.

The first one is about just four anonymous people, out to save the world, because hey, somebody's gotta do it. Kaelos gets told off a lot for ascribing emotions to the characters, but that game's always had a feeling of resigned acceptance to him. They don't really wanna do it, and they know damn well they're probably going to get the crud beaten out of them repeatedly, but they go off to do it anyway, because it needs doing. That's gutsy. Even if you're just a handful of pixels on a TV being controlled by a little grey box with some rectangles plugged in xD

The second one is much more human, and on a smaller scale as well. Well, at least it starts on a smaller scale. Even now that Kaelos has got the Dawn of Souls remake, he's never managed to actually finish it. But three lost kids, joining a group of rebels to fight off the evile empire, and track down their lost friend, despite unimaginable odds? Again, gutsy xD

:P For the record, Kaelos' first memory is being bounced on his dad's knee as he ventured through Kary's volcano xD So he does have an affinity for these games.

I believe the 'UFO-like' game referred to in this thread is the recent 'UFO: Extraterrestrials.'

It's Czech, by the way, not Russian.

It's a 'spiritual successor' (read: rip off) of the original XCOM, with updated graphics.

Check it out here:

ufo-extraterrestrials.com

I loved Weird Worlds.  ;D I am dreaming about a Star Control type game, with Weird Worlds type graphics.

SIGH.

A game that inspired me was not actually the game itself, but the fact that the developpers tossed in the toolset which spawned an entire set of persistent worlds: Neverwinter Nights. Once you got the hang of scripting, it was great fun piecing together a module. There's a ton of games that release a "make your own adventure" toolset, but this one was quite easy to use and your adventures actually looked pretty decent too.

Action

Sands of Time, Warrior Within, The Two Thrones. (PoP series) Doom, Worms, Mario Forever and many others that actually are not that many.

Strategy

Heroes of Might and Magic III Complete, Battle for Wesnoth, Steel Panthers World at War.

"Strategy"

Dawn of War, Red Alert, Command & Conquer, Battle for Middle-Earth.

CRPG

Nethack, Lands of Lore, (that's what is LoL's true meaning if you have wondered) Baldur's Gate series, Icewind Dale 2, Planescape: Torment.

Anything else? No.

Oh, on the subject of X-COM, I reccommend UFO2000 (http://ufo2000.sourceforge.net/) as worth checking out. Ever wanted to go head-to-head with another player? Now you can! Note that there's no "campaign" mode - battles are strictly skirmishes unless you want to keep track of it another way.

Plasma Pong! Someone already mentioned this game in another thread, but I thought I would re-post it because it kicks ass.

http://www.plasmapong.com/ (http://www.plasmapong.com/)

I love when something super old-school gets new life.
I hope someone does this for Ballblazer.

I think inspired would be the wrong word as I never went on to make games or drive a snow plow, but a really got a buzz from Midwinter many years back. Graphics are laughable by today's standards but I downloaed it again recently and there's still a real atmosphere about it:
Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwinter_%28video_game%29 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwinter_%28video_game%29)
Gamespot review http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/features/pc/unsung_heroes/sec2_10.html (http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/features/pc/unsung_heroes/sec2_10.html)

Some functions were just unworkable, like the sniping, and some vehicle weapons didnt seem to work, but making interesting friends was fun. Very strategic game and Star Controlish in that you can go ANYwhere on the island and do things in any order you like. Not much of a plot, but somewhat of al backstory which is revealed by the characters you meet.

As with Star  Control, what makes this game neat is the freedom to roam.

You can download it here: REMOVED BY MODERATOR
It runs well under dosbox - you will need to use Moslo or similar app.


Moderator edit: link to dubious site removed

boo. It said free, but it's not..

Oopsie - well i managed to download it from somewhere! cant rememeber where

Looks like XTCabandonware, C:DOS, and underdogs all have it. It's not on Abandonia yet, maybe you could write a review for it. I don't want the links deleted, so I'll just reference the site names and let you google them.

Star Control 1 & 2, definately.
The 4-game Pool of Radiance cycle
M.U.L.E.
Mechwarrior 2
X-Wing
Risk (the board game)
Warcraft 2 and Starcraft
Nox (Think Diablo, but a hell of alot funnier)