Maybe the Orz *danced* with them,but I don't think so.

Plain *dancing* doesn't do what happened. Especially not to the guy who looked through the computer systems:

HE DID A LOT OF DAMAGE TO THE ANDROSYNTH'S COMPUTER BEFORE WE STOPPED HIM, AND I GUESS HE MUST HAVE HURT HIMSELF IN THE PROCESS. HE'S CUT UP PRETTY BADLY. YOU KNOW, IT'S STRANGE, HE MUST HAVE HURT HIMSELF WORSE THAN I THOUGHT. NOW, WHEN I LOOK AT HIM, IT SEEMS LIKE HE HAS EVEN MORE CUTS THAN JUST A FEW MINUTES AGO, AND BOY, IS HE SCREAMING!

On a somewhat related note, I remember when I first read those particular reports, so many years ago. I had played the game quite a bit and had never landed on the planets, but I knew about the whole Orz/Androsynth thing. I was actually looking through the data files when I first read those. Even out of the game, it really scared me.

Come to think of it, it still does. SC2 is so great!

(You can read the quotes [link=http://www.classicgaming.com/starcontrol/sc2/quotes/lander.txt]here[/link])

Drake's equation.
Probability of intelligent life being anywhere = (1 - probability of life being at any particular star) ^ number of stars

Wait... aren't you missing a 1- at the beginning? If there are two stars, and the probability is 0.9 for each one, the probability of life anywhere is not 0.01, but 0.99. You've given the probability of life being nowhere

Another neat thing (assuming I'm interpreting the source correctly; I may not be, as I only took a quick glance at it a while back): Whether or not it ressurects is determined when it is created, not when it dies. So, the Pkunk have a destiny, to some extent. Seems somewhat approprate

The file extension is .DUK; I'm not sure the name of the codec itself. Also, someone mentioned that TFB probably does not own the copyright to the 3do intro/ending. Apparently the sound was extracted, though.

I prefer the PC ending, actually. Even if it can't have voices!

First of all, great remix!

Second, something amusing: I thought the name "Mark Vera" sounded familiar. I checked my playlist, and it turns out that I downloaded your Wizardry remix a while back from r.k.o (and I really like that as well!) Funny how I came across your music from two very different places!

Also, note that it's not always a good idea to stop them, even when you find out how to. It won't be long before your ship will be able to vaporize them in the blink of an eye, and they give you 550 RU each!

Honestly, I think that the technology is there, but most of it is hard to discover. My guess is that a lot of it is buried underground, out of range of the energy scans (rock can block a whole lot of radiation), like the factory at Vela was. My guess is that most of the easy-to-find artifacts have been found and taken elsewhere by various alien races, but that there is still quite a bit of undiscovered, buried technology. The factory is one example; the Mark II is another (Okay, we don't know for sure that the Mark II was a Precursor ship, and we don't know that it was underground, but we do know that nobody discovered it before the captain, and I think it's safe to assume that it was made by the Precursors). So, I think that there's stuff that's still out there; you just need to look carefully.

Not only that, but the Orz talk of the Taalo as being in some other dimension (whether they are reliable or not is another issue...). The Arilou also come from another dimension (Quasispace).

Perhaps every species has some extra-dimensional race looking after them? Or even one that created them ("You might even say that we knew the first human".) The Arilou do imply that there are other races in other dimensions that look after other species... let me see if I can find the quote... Ah, here it is.

To call our interaction with your kind an experiment would be much too simple and impersonal.
Let us just say that we have a vested interest in your... development.
You are one of our... extended family, just as other sentients in other dimensions
have their extended families.
We are proud of you as you would be of your children, and some day...

I found [link=http://www.astronexus.com/data/hyg.htm]this[/link]. I'm not sure how complete or reliable it is, though. It does list Groombridge, but not any of the stars in the list or Organon. My guess is that TFB made them up.

Theory H: They have a sample of Precursor DNA, and want to find animals which have similar patterns so that they can find the world where the Precursors developed. (Although they don't ask you _where_ you got your data from).

They don't really ask about the rainbow world locations either; they seem to just look at our log (they say something about that). They may be able to look at our log to find out where we got our critters as well.

... if that was the reason, they'd be better off calling themselves the ZoqFotPik.

Hey... now there's a good theory!

- Melnorme Theme - "Potato Juice" (Hehe...)

Ah, you haven't downloaded potatojuice.mp3 from here, have you? It's... strange, though mostly unintelligible. This was posted in the PNF a while (a year or so?) ago, if I recall correctly.

[how]

Um, doesn't this only answer how it turns purple, not why?  (Yeah yeah, call me a party-pooper if you must.)

I think the correct answer to the why question is "because TFB decided it should".  

Nope. The correct answer is because R == 0 (in an if statement a few lines above that XFormPLUT in melnorm.c).

Now you know both how and why!

[shame]

Could be any number of reasons.  Remember how alien the Orz are.

One possibility is simply shame.  Perhaps the Orz were supposed to be protecting folks like the Androsynth and failed.  Or it could be that the Orz don't want you to find out so that humanity will not be *seen*.

I posted a similar theory in the big Orz discussion here (scroll down a little bit).

XFormPLUT (GetColorMapAddress (SetAbsColorMapIndex (CommData.AlienColorMap, 1)), ONE_SECOND / 2);

Well, obviously. Come on... tell us something we don't know, meep-eep!