I suppose it all depends on how you interpret their comment

"This is our homeworld, Falayalaralfali, nestled safe in this TrueSpace eddy."

I mean it does seem to point to that the are from Truespace. On the other hand, if that is the case, why bother going through Quasispace at all? Maybe their homeworld is very far away from where we are, OR if it is a strange dyy os some sort, maybe the only way to get to Falayalaralfali is through Quasispace, their whole system might be a sort of bubble of Truespace inside Quasispace....

Another possibility is that they evolved in the "same" truespace as us, but they somehow moved their world, or entire system through quasispace into wherever it is now. How or why they would move it, I haven't the faintest clue...

I do like the idea about the Orz and the Arilou though. If we assume that the Arilou come from Quasispace, or maybe just that they've been there so long their perceptions have changed, they'd have pretty much the same starting point as the Orz. but the Arilou have been visiting Truespace so much longer that they understand it better than the Orz. It's even possible, like you said, that the Arilou somehow made the Orz. They might be disappointed i them, or just parenting them until they feel they are ready. That fits in quite well with Matticus Steinbeck idea: The Orz mean well but just don't quite understand yet, and the Arilou keep them in check

Maybe the simple reason that the Arilou view us as adopted children is that their nostalgic? If they started out here, maybe they sometimes long for "the good old times before we started mucking about in quasispace and catching Nggn", so they see us as a younger version of themselves?

I only had this come up once during my conversations with the Melnorme, but I found it hilarious :

"This very morning, I was just saying to subordinate Ochre
`Fe-Fi-Fo-Fum! I smell the feet of a Hu-Hu-Man!'
We laughed and laughed. What a synchronicity!"

Wchich once again raises the question : Why are the Humans important at all?

You'd think that in an infinite universe, especially the kind of multidimensional one that both Orz and Arilou seem to inhabit, the're'd be more than one race that could fulfill whatever it is that they need us for... I mean, if the Arilou really desperatly need us for some sort of future use, wouldn't it have made sense for them to have a few backups? Races far from here that they've done the same "thing" to as to us. So if we actually manage to get ourselves extinct, they'd have a few others to fall back on.. (Although I don't suppose this applies to the orz, they only just got here and wouldn't have any backups. But if they only just got here, and didn't know about the human race, how can they be annoyed with the Arilou for getting to us first?)

You're probably right about that... Wer may never know.

Here's a crazy speculation : What if the ultimate goal of the Chmmr was actually to become a Sa-Matra? We've all assumed that their idea was to evlove into a new race like the Chmmr, whose SHIPS were capable of taking on the enemy. But what if they were simply going to bypass that by morphing into a battle station ready for action? I mean, with their Chenjesu components capable of hearing hyperwawe transmissions, absorbing energy from the sun and whatnot, and the mechanical abilities of the Mrnhrm, maybe their ultimate goal was to merge into one large sentient being? One living battle station capable of wiping out the Sa-Matra with a single shot? Do you thin kthey'd have been willing to give up both races futures just to protect their allies and their way of life?

Oh well, the main thing is that something  IS actually happening over there, after all this time I suppose a little more waiting wont hurt : )

That's not what I mean... the Utwig say

"It all began when the Chimt rose from the Murky Bog and the Utwig emerged as well.
In these primitive times we cavorted about our world oblivious to any sort of higher purpose
we took everything at face value.
Meanwhile, the tendrils of the Chimt infiltrated the vast sky canopies of Fahz and then the veils fell!
Suddenly, the Utwig were stunned by a collective realization!"

Indicating that their home planet is named Fahz (or did I get this wrong?). It doesn't matter what their star system is named according to the standard  Alliance protocol, because thats the entire system. I mean,  we didnt change any of the names in side our system either. nor did the spathi, or anyone else as far as we know. So their world was named Fahz long before their system got named Beta Aquarii.

So, what I meant is,  their  planet is named Fahz by themselves, whereas the sentient milieu race was named Faz. Why would the Faz suddenly change their name to Utwig? the Faz of Fazh does make sense, but the namechange + the fact that they say they don't know the Kzer-Za and have just encountered the Kohr-Ah really makes it look like they aren't the same...

well it is the arilou's skiff special secondary after all.. and the orz wanna *smell* this technologie

That could be quite deadly.. Orz Marines *jumping in front* of everyone, teleporting right into your ship!

That is one interesting point... what was the deal with QS in SC3?

It worked a totally different way; one portal went to one specific point.

Dunno, I was a bit confused by it to tell the truth. It's been a while since i played SC#, but didn't it work more like a wormhole? Maybe the arilou got tired of you romping through their space in SC2, and decided to make sure noone could get in anymore

Err.. good point,. I never really thought about it that way while playing, I always assumed you just accelerated the process, not changed it. But according to the logs on PONAF that's exactly what I did. Darn, never meant to screw the Chmmr up...

Also Krulle, I do think they meant to hunt the Kzer-Za down, they srike me as very moral creatures, and as long as the Kzer-Za were only pushed away from this part of space one could never be sure they wouldn't return in even greater numbers, and with even more powerful weapons...

I had these problems too, until mz second try. In that try i planted at least one new colony in every starsystem, most of them only to synthesize fuel. Therefor i had fuel in nearly every corner of space.

I always got frustrated with how all my colonies abandonded me at one stage or another.. Half the quans, the Spathi, the VUX, the MYCON, all disappeared, and the rest always just became horribly ineffective like the Pkunk.. but it's a good idea, if I ever play the game again, I'll try that.. Doesn't it take a lot of time to get enough population to do this though?

And I agree, a 3d spacemap is much more realistic, at least in truespace, but it's not very user friendly. I wonder how a 3d-map of Hyperspace would look? Or better yet, a roating green Quasispacemap!. that'd really make for trouble judging distances...

Another thing about the Sa-Matra. It seems that everyone is in agreement that when you attack it, it's either only in defensive mode, or the Quans inside are knocked out by the Talking Pet, whichever.

Seeing as the active Sa-Matra can apparently wipe Broodhomes off the map before they get into range, I'm inclined to agree.

But in that case, what's the deal with the Chmmr? I mean, their ships aren't even close to the Chenjesu range-wise, and they aren't as fast as the Mrnhrm ships. True, they have ZapSats protecting them, but even regualr ships can wipe those out. Well, some of them anyway. So waht good would they be against the Sa-Matra? I mean, that's the reason the C&M got their butts kicked, no? they were doing alright against the regular Quan forces, and then they got blasted into bits. the Chmmr, while undoubtedly great ships against the rest of the Hierarchy couldn't really defeat the Sa-Matra anyway, so what's the point of merging at all?

i always found it very hard to judge any realistic distances with that starmap. I mean, sure your handy little line will tell you if you have enough fuel to go somewhere and return, but if you need to jump between three or four different systems, before refueling, it's quite hard to judge the distance, and how much fuel you need...

Speaking of star Control 4, does anyone have any clue as to what is happening with Timewarp? I saw some mention on this forum a couple os days back that they were back on track, but their own pages don't seem all that active...

Also, if memory serves me right, it's only the home planet of the Utwig that's called Faz, why would they rename thieir race?