Happy days and jubilation! 

Renaming the file with an .ogg extension worked perfectly. Thanks!

Not quite sure this counts as a technical issue, but never mind...

I've read that UQM 0.7.0 reinstates some of the missing text from the PC version, such as the Mycon homeworld dialogue (without voices, obviously).

I've been playing through it specifically to check on this (while gleefully selling crew to the Druuge for fuel  ). However, I can't get the Mycon info to appear.

Everything works up until Talana organises the ambush. When I go to Beta Brahe, I do get a dialogue option to tell them about Organon. However, the Mycon simply responds with 'This is a special place. You must go now.'

I think this is when it's supposed to give the voiceless 'this is not the source' line and coordinates instead, but I'm not 100% sure.

Am I supposed to disable voice acting in order for it to appear?

If so... er... how do I do this? I can't seem to find any 'disable voice acting' option in Setup - just a volume control for speech. At zero, the Mycon text doesn't change.

(BTW, let me cast another vote in favour of having this important text appear even if voices are enabled.)

Well, I tried the first way and it nearly worked... 

I extracted the 3do music, removed 'hyper', replaced it with the re-enter remix, renamed it 'hyper' and zipped everything up again. Then I made sure the name of the ZIP file was the same as the original .uqm file (although without the .uqm extension).

Unfortunately, no music plays in HyperSpace. All the other 3do tracks play as normal, though.

Could it be because it's an .ogv rather than .ogg?

Hi everyone,

I'm sure this is an amazingly stupid question, but I'm not the most tech-savvy type 

I'm playing UQM 0.7.0 on Win XP and usually use the 3DO music. However, I've grown very fond of the original HyperSpace music, so I'd like to change that to Mark Vera's 'Re-enter' purist remastering.

Is there a simple way to do this? (And by extension, change the version of any single track?)

(I have the Re-enter mix as an .ogv file.)

I did have a look at the technical FAQ on the wiki, but it lost me as soon as it started talking about command lines. 

I first played SCII in 2008 using version 6-point-something of the UQ remake.

I got into the spirit of things and used a notepad and paper to record info.

I broke down and used the Ultranomicon wiki for the ZEX star beast location, but apart from that I only knew what was on the spoiler-free pages.

I beat the game on my first try. Just.

Spoilers about my endgame experiences:


One of the most exhilarating experiences I've ever had in a video game. Still gives me chills to this day.

Hi,

A quick question about the new Syreen and Mycon dialogue: Does it appear if you're playing with voices on?

For instance, if you're talking to the Mycons on Beta Brahe and you have the 3DO voices on, and you get to the line from the PC version about 'this is not the source,' does the text appear on screen, silently, without voice acting accompanying it? Like the Slylandro Probe coordinates in UQM 0.6.2?

Or does the new text just never show up at all?

(I've tried checking myself by going to Beta Brahe with voices both on and off, but they just rant about Juffo-Wup below, the way they always used to. Possibly I need to trigger something first before they'll mention 'this is not the source'.)

Hi,

I'm having a small but maddening problem with changing the keys in UQM 0.7.0.

I usually play using the arrow keys (not the number pad arrows), LeftCtrl for shooting / selecting and LeftShift for special weapon / menu cancelling.

However, I can't get LeftShift to open/cancel the menu--it stays RightShift.

It's been a while since I played UQM 0.6.2, but as far as I can remember, whatever key is assigned to 'Menu Cancel' should also open the menu if it's not already opened (e.g. when you're flying around in space and want to bring up the 'starmap/game/navigate' etc box).

I've done the following:
-Changed the keys in the UQM key config menu
-Changed the keys in the Notepad file 'Key Configuration', which appears in the Start menu under Program Files > Games > The Ur-Quan Masters. The last four lines now read as follows:

Menu-Cancel: key LeftShift
Template-1-Special: key LeftShift
Menu-Select: key LeftControl
Template-1-Weapon: key LeftControl

-Looked at the cfg files in the Application Data uqm folder but don't know what to do with them ('keys' looks identical to the Notepad file above, and 'flight' doesn't seem to include the menu commands).

I had similar troubles with 0.6.2. Actually, it was worse in that case, as Fire and Special stubbornly stayed RightCtrl and RightShift no matter what I did until I tracked down the cfg files. In 0.7.0 I've had no trouble changing the weapon controls from the in-game setup menu. It's just using LeftShift to open the menu that doesn't work.

I've read the advice above, but I'm having trouble understanding it (and I'm not sure if it's appropriate to my situation). I'm not very tech-savvy, so please talk me through in baby language! 

My favorite remix is the 're-enter' mix, which makes no changes except to improve the sound quality of the samples.

Hmm, where I can find that one? I'd love to hear it. EDIT: Never mind, I found it on Lukipela's link. Thanks 

At least the 3DO Hyperspace music sounds a lot like the original. As far as I can tell, the 3DO and PC Quasispace tunes are entirely unrelated. The first time I heard the 3DO version I thought someone had mislabelled a track.

Same thing happened to me, except the other way around, unfortunately. I'm too used to 3DO QuasiSpace now, so the PC theme sounds bizarrely wrong to me. Oh well.

You know, it'd be great if UQM included an option to pick the version for individual tracks rather than the whole soundtrack. You could set up your game so it plays PC Hyperspace but 3DO Battle, for instance. (I know you could do it by moving the actual files in and out of the folders, but it'd be nice to have the option in-game.)

Hi folks. Wanted to share a little story with you. You may wish to point and laugh at certain intervals.

I first played UQM a couple of years ago, and always had the 3DO music on by default. I'd heard a couple of the original DOS tunes by chance (the battle theme and one of the orbiting tracks I think) and thought they were okay given their age, but I preferred the 3DO tunes and couldn't be bothered comparing them all to the originals. People who said "PC music is best!" were probably speaking out of pure nostalgia, I thought.

Anyway, I adored the 3DO HyperSpace tune in particular. Hitting the edge of the solar system by accident, spiralling up into that crazy red dimension for the first time and hearing that exuberant 3DO "let's go explore the galaxy!" tune remains a memorable moment for me.

Last week I downloaded the Project6014 demo. I experienced a timeout while trying to download the music, and my little USB stick connection threw a tantrum so I couldn't retry. Oh well, I thought, I might have got part of the file and it seemed to be installing OK, so let's give the game a go anyway.

I loaded it up, entered HyperSpace and was confronted with a lovely soothing tune. Phew, I thought, seems I got some of the music at least. Must be one of those Precursor remixes I've been hearing about. It was a real chill-out earworm and I kept finding myself humming it at work (whereas in the old days it'd be the 3DO version stuck in my head).

Fast forward to tonight. I was idly looking up reviews of UQM on YouTube (there's a good short one by 'Jam Enslaver' by the way, although he doesn't like the combat for some inexplicable reason... possibly he was traumatised by the evil zigzaggery of Slylandro Probes?)

As I browsed, I kept stumbling onto 'classic video game music' uploads that sounded like the HyperSpace remix used in Project6014. Except they kept saying it was the 'original' music. What was going on?

Suspecting that some Umgah out there somewhere was having a good chortle at my expense, I loaded up UQM, switched to PC music for the first time ever, restarted, and entered HyperSpace...

Good God.

It wasn't a remix after all.

Project6014 must have been unable to find the proper demo music and defaulted to the PC file. 

I'd been listening to the original DOS tune all along.

And it's gorgeous.

I mean, I still love the 3DO version too, but... good God. No wonder everyone raves about it. It's still playing in my head as I type this. In fact I think I'll go grab the headphones again before I hit 'post'.

Er. That's all, really. Just wanted to share the love. 

[Warning, long-winded rant ahead!]

Edit: Aaaaand Novus just said what I say at great length below... but better. Ahem. 

So add a choice, where you pick gender first. Then have he/his or she/hers as appropriate. For Brownie points, also allow for picking the gender of love interest. For straight women or gay men, replace Talana with Talan.

Alternatively, one could make use of the fact that there already is a male counterpart to Talana in the game: Hayes. A few extra dialogue options (possibly with Hayes taking the initiative with a female Zelnick), and there he is. Since no characters need to be replaced, only the initial "Is Zelnick male or female?" question is necessary. This also means you can have both if you're so inclined.  

Novus and Lukipela: Although it would be great to have lots of new options and choices, like having the aliens refer to you as 'she' instead of 'he', it would involve not only new art but also new voice acting, new coding, etc. As Quinarbre says, I'm trying to make the smallest possible changes (so I actually have half a chance of getting them done myself).

For instance, I did think about adding a "choose your sex" option at the start, but it's not really necessary. You'd then have to "choose your sexual orientation", and so on... I think it's easier just to let you accept or decline any NPC's advances as you see fit.

I do like the idea of being able to proposition Hayes though. Again, I think the simplest change would simply be an extra dialogue option, something as simple as "When all this is over, could you and me... you know... do an activity together?" Hayes could then respond with some existing line that means (approximately) "Sure thing, Captain!"   I'd prefer to allow an actual 'spend the night together' scene, probably just before you depart for the Sa-Matra and almost certain doom, but that would be more complicated to do.

Although I enjoy the technical brainstorming and the story adjustment ideas around this gender idea, I can't help thinking : why ? Does a book author writes his story with unspecified gender narrator so that both male and female readers can identify to him/her ? Isn't one of the greatest perks of video games the fact that you can incarnate somebody radically different from you ?

I'm surprised it's taken this long for someone to ask that.  

Warning, long-winded rant ahead!

 I don't mind games that put you in the role of a specific character, like Link or Lara Croft or whoever. Meanwhile, other games let you create your own character, which means you can imagine yourself in the role, or invent somebody else - it's your choice.

But some insist on specifying a character when they'd probably be better off leaving it to the player's imagination. Take Half-Life. It's first-person and extremely immersive, there's no cutscenes, Gordon never speaks - I'm not sure if he even grunts in pain when he's hit - and you never even see him apart from box art as far as I know. So why did Valve insist that you play a male? They could just say "you're a physicist", adjust the NPC dialogue a little, and leave the rest to the player's imagination. Same goes for Portal, where you glimpse yourself briefly at the beginning and realise you're female, which has no relevance to the rest of that excellent game. Why?

On the other hand, in a FPS like Duke Nukem 3D, the whole point is that you're playing an over-the-top parody of a male 80s action hero. You see yourself in mirrors, you crack cheesy lines, you hang out with strippers and rescue 'babes'. That game wouldn't work too well if it allowed you to choose your sex. (Though I would very much like to see a genderflipped version in which the Duke's equally rough-and-tough sister rescues helpless kidnapped beefcake   )

My point is that Star Control 2 thought it was Duke Nukem but has ended up as Half-Life. (Okay, that sounded weird.)

What I mean is, back when it was released, I'd say it was pretty common to assume computer gamers into science fiction were a) male b) kids c) nerdy. Hence the "boy genius who alone can operate the Precursor computer" referred to in the SC2 manual. I'm pretty sure the player was intended to identify with Zelnick and think "hey, yeah, I'm a smart guy, I could fly that thing and save the universe too". And a male character fits well with the Known Space stories that SC2 draws on for inspiration. It probably never occurred to Fred and Paul that new players wouldn't know what the Captain's sex was - and if they didn't, they'd just assume he was a guy.

The trouble is, the boy-genius backstory isn't referred to in the game itself (except for a brief mention of the Tobermoon, I think). Modern players probably won't have a PDF of the manual lying around the first time they play. I sure didn't. And here's the thing - I think the game is better off without all that stuff about Captain Burton's crinkly eyes and Farnsworth's bumbling. (I keep picturing the professor from Futurama...) By comparison, the slideshow intro is succinct and straightforward. Ur-Quan! Factory! Ship! You go Earth now! GAME START!

So for the modern player who's not a heterosexual male, UQM pulls a bait-and-switch. It begins by saying "YOU are the hero!" You think "Oh, so I can imagine myself as whoever I want". It's only when Spathi and Zoq-Fot-Pik occasionally start referring to you as "he", and Talana glomps you, and the ending slideshow plays, that you realise "Oh fishsticks, I'm really a man."   That sort of thing can break the sense of immersion.

...(In Utwig voice) Are you still listening???  

Honestly, it's not a big deal (despite the above rant). I love the game to bits. It's just one of those little nagging things that actually might be fixable by someone as unskilled as me.

Of course, in the next Star Control game, I hope Fred and Paul will either let you choose your sex, or make it clear from the start that you're playing an established character.

Anyway, thanks for all the thoughts so far. I appreciate it, I really do.  

Hey, I've discovered the insert quote button! I feel intellectual.

(By the way, I don't need to put spoilers on any of this, do I? It'd be a bit tricky to talk about modding if so... Anyway, first-time players BEWARE!)

I think it would be a matter of changing the dialogue tree so that you can refuse sex with her without affecting the story.

I think you can. If I'm right, that isn't so much a problem as the set of dialog options upon meeting her. Only one of them makes sense for a heterosexual woman, and it'd be nice to have more applicable options.

Oh, the list that includes the Touch-O-Vision line? You're right, I'd probably need to go through every Talana interaction to be sure. (Good grief, they cut or changed an awful lot of her dialogue in the 3DO version. Forget Organon -  I never even found a Deep Child on my first playthrough because I didn't know where Syra was. Did we ever get a reasonable explanation for all the cuts?) 

You could swap Talana's scenes from the game with the falsified  bits from Zarla's "Secret theater"

Actually I thought it would be only fair to let the player romance a) Talana b) Hayes c) ZEX or d) all of the above. And then one of them would show up in the 'angel' scene at the end. That would be a lot more complicated though, so I'm not worrying about it for now. Just a wistful dream

Though I would definitely change Talana's ending pic so she's properly blue. That's always bothered me.

But you still have to work around the games ending that the Captain was telling this story to his grandkids. Otherwise it is not a bad work around.

See my previous post - I'm fairly sure you'd only need to remove the word "grandpa" in the ending, and crop out Zelnick. They're still your grandkids, but you could be their grandmother instead. I don't think the game says they're descended from you + Talana. (Actually, if you snip out "grandpa" they could just as well be random colony kids.) Need to check the ending again though... and obviously the player can't use the 3DO movie.

Anyway (still thinking aloud) what worries me is the less obvious 'implied male player' stuff that Ctrl+F is no good at finding. Like the Umgah's frankly filthy joke about your 'mate'.  I would have spat out my coffee if I ever actually drank coffee. Still can't quite believe that line actually made it into the game.

Warning, wall of text ahoy!

Thanks for the responses everyone. I've done some checking and apparently the only alien races that directly refer to the Captain as male (based on searches of the dialogue comparison page) are the Melnorme, Pkunk, Spathi/Fwiffo/Safe Ones, Umgah and Zoq-Fot-Pik. They all throw in the occasional 'he/his/him', which I might be able to snip out of the voice acting if I'm lucky... though if I did a version with no voices it'd be much easier.

There are a few other phrases that will be trickier, like the Pkunk's fortune telling about you and Talana. If anyone spots some more I've missed, let me know! 

onpon4: Thanks, I've noticed that dialogue editor before but will have a closer look.

JudgeYohance: Good question about the sex scene with Talana. I think it would be a matter of changing the dialogue tree so that you can refuse sex with her without affecting the story. I would probably try to use the existing response: "Hey, hands off, I'm not THAT kind of Captain!" (I was actually expecting this to let you refuse in the existing game, but she carried on regardless... hasn't anybody told Talana that 'no' doesn't mean 'yes'?  )

Grand Master, Wolframm et al: I do agree Syreen are at least currently bisexual (see the end of this post for reasons*). However, I'm not worried about whether Talana wants the player - I'm more concerned about whether the player is attracted to her or not. You might be a female player who would happily jump Talana given the chance, or you might find the whole idea squicky. Or you might be a gay male player. It's just a matter of allowing the player to choose.

Also, regarding the grandchildren aspect: I actually don't think this would be too hard to change. It's only revealed as a story for the grandchildren at the end. At the start, it's all direct address: "YOU must command the Precursor ship!" and so forth.

Currently there's no voice acting on the UQM ending slideshow, so all I'd have to do is a) delete the word "Grandpa" and b) edit the images so you can't clearly see Zelnick in the frame, possibly by zooming in. (You could maybe see a hand or a shoulder, but preferably you'd never see him/her at all.)

Even having Talana appear at the end might not be a problem, since as far as I can recall, the game never actually says you get married to her. You might just be good friends  The 'angel' scene might be tricky though...

*Re Syreen bisexuality: I expect they are, judging by the "we make out all right [with just us females]" line. And even if they aren't under normal circumstances, many Syreen probably formed lesbian relationships due to the sheer lack of males at the current time, as Wolframm says (similar to the homosexual behaviour that often occurs among segregated populations, e.g. in prisons).

Hi everyone! First post (I think) but I've been a lurker here on and off for a couple of years, ever since stumbling on UQM and loving it like ZEX loves xenoteratomorphs. (Well, maybe not quite like that.)

I've been thinking about whether it would be possible to mod UQM so that the Captain isn't necessarily male. It would involve removing any references to the Captain as 'he' in alien dialogue, altering or replacing artwork that shows a male Zelnick, etc.

The game doesn't mention that you're playing a male character until you're already a fair way into it, and I found it a bit jarring - I thought I could picture my character as whoever I wanted (like my name and ship). I've read a few posts that suggest some other players felt the same way.

(I"m ignoring the SC2 manual - I know it goes into some detail about the 'boy genius', but I doubt many people playing UQM for the first time will find and read that.)

I know slightly less than zero about programming, so I haven't tried doing this myself (yet). I've gotten as far as making a rough list of things that would need changing, but I'll wait to see what people think of the general idea before posting them...

This of course assumes that nobody else has looked into the idea and a) produced a mod already somewhere or b) found the whole thing impossible for technical reasons.

Thoughts?