Is the Original Poster going to keep us waiting much longer? I can't help but suspect this may just have been a troll hoping to capitalize on our wishful thinking regarding new, SC-related developments.

I doubt he was a troll.  Possibly an over-excited fan of the game who aspired to make a tribute game in MMO form and then backed down when he realized how much work that would be.  Really, who among us hasn't been there once or twice (or thirty times?)

Also, it's worth pointing out that the OP made his post roughly a month ago, and it doesn't sound like he had a finished product ready to test.  In fact, it didn't sound like he had even properly started yet.  No MMO is going to be taken from idea to playable beta in one month, especially not one being programmed by a single person, no matter how dedicated.

It would be nice to get a status update if the OP is still cranking away at this, but I wouldn't expect anything significant to show for it probably until next year at the earliest.

How do the Ur-Quan Kohr-Ah keep the bones in their trophy bone pits from rotting away? A congratulatory 1000 RU will be given for the best answer.

I'm going to have to go with "stasis field," Alex.

I'm confused.  If I understand correctly, UQM Extended has new content, including new dialogue and plot points that weren't in the original game (on any official port/release.)  Does this sound package have new voice work for such material, or is all of the new material presented in a way that doesn't involve talking to people?

Just random things found lying around the universe?

Regarding the Syreen remix, I don't know what to do there. I'm pretty deflated by the fact that Mark Vera's remix was so good yet he didn't want to release it, nor did he finish his supposedly improved version. I just don't feel like I could do a better job with it.

Well I suppose the artist has a right to control his own creations.  I personally would love to hear the version he had completed already.  Then again, I'm standing in a position of "anything is better than nothing" right now.

[it will never happen]

I think StarCon certainly could be done as an MMO, if someone with the money and time available to develop and support it were inclined to do so.  If such a beast existed I would at least be interested enough to try it out for a few days and see if it was any good.

This is, of course, entirely hypothetical.  The thing about MMOs is that they're living, breathing environments.  New content needs to be added on a regular basis or interest and player base will drop off.  I look around here and see half a dozen half-finished single-player SC fan games.  I have yet to see a single one completed to the point that I can download and play it (aside from Super Melee clones, that is.)  The idea that anyone might actually go ahead and make an MMO of SC is laughable, since the required investment of time and money is exponentially higher than that required of a single player game, and even those don't seem to get all the way off the ground anymore.  As such, I don't really see what everyone is getting worked up about.

The people who support the idea seem to be imagining some super-cool WoW-killer with tons of innovative ideas no other MMO has, which is great and all, but the odds of it actually happening are roughly 1 in a million, even if there were a game studio ready and willing to develop it.  Those who think the idea would suck continually compare the idea to any of a hundred other crappy MMOs they weren't impressed with anyway.  There is one common thread I see here: it's all theoretical.  Whether an SC MMO would rock or suck is really a pointless question because at the end of the day, it will never happen.  Those who like the idea can fantasize about it to kill time if they like, those who don't can promptly forget it.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love SC2.  It was a mind-blowing game back in the day and it's one which I still pull out and play every 5 years or so.  It has a fantastic fan community (that would be you guys) and the fact that anybody still remembers this game, let alone promotes a freeware version that can run on modern day computers, is incredibly awesome in my opinion.  That said, the game is finished.  It is done.  And there's nothing wrong with that.  All good stories have an ending, and Star Control has it's.  It's a cult classic, a favourite, a legend, and it's finished.  It is complete, and I cherish it as such.

No new game will likely ever be made, MMO or otherwise, and if such a game did materialize, it would certainly be a remake as opposed to a sequel.  It would have to be in order to stand a chance in hell of selling well enough to make the project worthwhile.  Even if every single person on this forum ran out and bought a copy on day one, I doubt it would recoup the costs of developing the game we all want to see.  In order to make the project viable it would have to be a do-over because it would need the general population of gamers to support it, financially.  I'm not so sure that's necessary.  It would be cool, but it probably wouldn't live up to every expectation I'd have after nearly 20 years.  I'd rather play the old game that already exists and remember the awesome story it told than worry about whether or not the game could be made anew.  Not everything needs to rise from the ashes in some shiny new commercialist incarnation to justify it's continued popularity decades after it's over and done.

I'm just saying is all.

IMO, Accolade/Infrogames/Atari deserves a kick in the pants just as much as Legend. Accolade rushing things to get SC3 out the door is most likely the cause of the infamous beta-quality.

Too true.  Also, if there's any truth to the rumours about TFB working an extra 6 months unpaid to finish up SC2, then I think more than just a little of blame should be laid on Accolade for being impatient asswipes with the brand name.

My favourite races are the Supox and the Slylandro, mainly for being the two of the most unique evolutions of intelligent life in the game (IMHO.)  Breaking out of the "plastic forehead" mentality is something I really respect.  I know, I know, a lot of the races in this game are more than just plastic foreheads - that's one of the things I love so much about the game, 20 years later - but these two stand out to me for whatever reason.  I'm also fond of the Spathi for the same reason, though I hate their ships and that prevents me from getting too much use out of them.

I don't particularly hate any races, like others have said, but my least favourites are probably the Druuge and Ilwrath.  Never liked spiders, although I must admit they have some good lines.

1) Some can't understand what's "Arilou are from above, Orz are from below".
Itis fairly simple in religious "planes/layers" of the world (7 skies, 9 "levels" of hell, etc). Sounds like Arilou pretend to be angels.

I don't think the Arilou are trying to draw parallels between themselves and angels when they say they are from "above."  I think they're just trying to explain the metaphysical geometry of alternate dimensions in a very (very VERY) simplified manner that us poor humans might understand.  In other words, "above" and "below" are two different parallel dimensions from which the Arilou and Orz respectively originate.  It's not about religion at all, although I admit there are religious connotations to the comparison, that's outside the game world.

3) What did "fish-folk" Orz do to "clones" (Androsynth)?
They punished Androsynth in time, mutating them (hence the Syreen, with human-compatible genome).

That's a bit of a stretch, to say the least.  The Orz clearly did something unspeakably horrible to the Androsynth, sending them back in time and transforming them into blue females (from a race of mostly cloned men) seems to fall a bit shy of unspeakably horrible to me.  Although it would make the whole "syreen are sexy space girls" thing take a disturbing new twist. =P

It's pretty clear that SC plays fast and loose with the idea of genetic compatability and hybrid offspring. Why try to introduce convulted explanations for it?

I think most sci-fi these days plays fast and loose with genetic compatability.  Frankly, most sci-fi these days have entirely too many near-humanoid races.  It's something you hand wave to maintain suspension of disbelief.  What I'm saying here is that I agree with your suggestion that introducing explanations is mostly pointless.  As far as the Syreen go, I personally fall into the "it's all a huge coincidence" camp myself.  The game is otherwise tongue-in-cheek enough that I can accept a race entirely composed of blue girls with overpowered libidos somehow beat the bajillion-to-one odds to be genetically compatible with an entirely alien race.

It sounds like Orz were at their stone age when someone gave them space technologies without uplifting their language to something possible to translate properly.

+1 for Alvarin.

The Vindicator apparently has some sort of onboard computer program capable of interpreting and translating entirely alien languages it has never heard before this minute into understandable English in a fraction of a second.  A "universal trnaslator" if you will.  An under-evolved stone age language would be primarily composed of instinctive feelings and basic ideas, which should be simplicity itself for a program like this to translate.  The Orz language cannot be properly translated because it's just too weird.  Their ideas are too alien for the program to understand, being as they come from a different dimension and all.  It's less about how complex their language is and more about the necessary cues the program needs not being present - whatever those might be.

Yeah, definitely no mouse support in the original SC2.

I remember one of the most amazing things about the game to me, back in the day, was the amazing music they managed to eke out of my machine in an era when sound cards of any kind were by no means standard equipment on computers.  somehow they made such lovely tunes with just my little PC squeaker.  Awesome.

Of course UQM offers us more modern music, which blows my mind a second time, to hear all those fanatic old tunes in a more complex (and stereophonic!) arrangement.

[play]

But in fairness, you completed it, I did not. I considered it a major spoiler when I found out that even though you only took one kind of Ur-quan, there's supposed to be no others, and no other working hyperdrive, yet somehow the other ur-quan not only are there but take over all your nice ur-quan.

Not meaning to defend SC3 or anything, but if the two Ur-Quan races had circumnavigated the galaxy before meeting to complete their Eternal Doctrine in SC2, then it's perfectly plausible they may have left outposts behind along the way (especially the Kzer-Za to monitor slave shields, but the Kohr-Ah may have as well, to make sure nothing escaped their xenocide or something.)  Perhaps the sector of space you bubble-jumped into at the beginning of SC3 was one where the Kohr-Ah had an outpost from before.  If that were the case, then the Kohr-Ah were obviously pretty sloppy in that sector since there was this whole Crux thingy that somehow escaped their attention, but I was never trying to say SC3 was well written. =P

Oh my! Can this be? Another living breathing individual who can actually play let alone even TOLERATE StarControl 3? And I thought I was alone in the universe  

You're certainly not alone.  I played SC3 start to finish myself back in the twilight years of the last millennium.  I actually managed to enjoy it well enough as I recall, although it sure wasn't impressing me as a sequel to SC2.  After having some time to let it sink in I began noticing more and more annoying, generally sloppy things about it.  I also dearly missed the ability to modify the flagship.  Nonetheless, I did play it through, once. =)

I like it, personally.  I'm also of the opinion that not all Kohr-Ah vessels are required to be "black as space" just because the Marauders were.  (That said the new Marauder model you made also has a fair bit of red on it, but it looks cool so I can get over that.)

I don't know about dead...maybe...but I'm pretty sure games (especially good, well executed games that don't "build" upon other games. Completely new graphics since its not like an expansion) take a few to many years to complete.  I guess its a little long for an update, but I think maybe not.

Also, if they're making an "inspired" game that doesn't actually use any direct SC/UQM material then they might have decided to go for-profit after all.  In that case, the project may have been slowed down a bit with whatever copyright applications or other legal mumbo jumbo needs to be dealt with.  They also may not be willing to be as open about their progress as the fan-made projects around here are, since leaking info about their game could cause legal issues in a for-profit venture - not to mention the risk of someone stealing their ideas, making another game faster and then claiming they "did it first" when this game finally comes out.

Point being, quiet doesn't necessarily mean dead, especially considering jad's last comment in the thread.  I agree it would be nice to hear some kind of update, though, even if it's just "yeah we're still working on it."

I didn't read most of the "short history" (most of which I didn't get because though I like history but I don't even really know what StarCraft, World of Warcraft....whatever... is) but as I read 65 percent of each post I noticed the one in February 28, 2010.  I then went to the link and saw the developer's message.  It made me feel really angry at Activision...Activision should've said "I don't care, it has nothing to do with us and as long as you're not selling it..." so why did Activision tell them to "cease and desist"?  I still feel relatively safe in the Star Control fan made projects...I think...

When you're a big coporate entity, it's generally considered more important to protect your copyrights than to make people happy.  This is the same reason White Wolf sued Underworld, GW goes after any kind of unauthorized use of their games and images, etc.  Even if Activision has no intention of ever using the Star Control name again, they will take whatever measures necessary to protect their right to the name.  It may seem harsh, and really, it is, but it's the way businesses work.  It's territorial.

As long as fan projects don't use the name "Star Control" they should be bulletproof, though.  I didn't see the SC reference in the link above, was the fan project in question calling itself "Star Control?"

The link isn't working for me, however considering it's been what -- 15 years? -- since the last official StarCon game was made I don't think there's much danger of an officially produced sequel being made at this point.  The absolute best I would hope for is a remake of the franchise that ignores or subdues its ties to the older games.  And no, I doubt such a game would have the charm and enthralling gameplay of SC2.

If you want sequels, you'd be better served watching the fan projects being made around here and at SCDB.  Those will most certainly be more faithful to the game we love, and even with the risk of of not being finished due to author delinquincy (an ever-present threat in the fan-made community) I still think there's an infinitely greater chance of seeing these sequels come to pass than anything "official" out of Activision.

In short, I wouldn't worry about this. =P

Captain Kztkrmz: "Damage report!"
Tech Chmmr: "Our outer hull has been slightly scratched by a Torch Long Ranged Abuse Cannon. According to our calculations we won't survive longer than three years under this barrage."
Captain Kztkrmz: "I'm sure it'll run out of bullets before that. Or they'll accidentally hit that star seven light years away."

Gold! =D