Hm, this is true.  The Chmmr and even Hayes were accepting of the fact that Zelnick might not escape at the end of SC2.

Unless Zelnick is equivalent to a superweapon of sorts.  The Alliance wouldn't be the size it is if it weren't for his actions as a diplomatic leader (for the most part).  He is also a Precursor expert, with a natural talent for using their vessels.  I believe it was implied that these traits are rare (especially the natural precursor vessel talent), and would classify him as slightly higher than a revered individual.

Of course, with at least one major threat (ignoring the rogue Kohr-Ah) looming over the Alliance, it'd be understandable if they could not spare the resources for a major search party.

We don't really have much precedence for this kind of an event taking place in the SC universe.  Fwiffo is the closest thing we have (if I recall) and while the Spathi hate him, they are still angry with the player if Fwiffo dies.
Fwiffo was a coward among cowards, and disliked by his race.
Zelnick brought the Pkunk and Yehat together and brought peace between the two species, was responsible for the survival of the Shofixti species which was on the brink of destruction, saved the galaxy from the threat of the Kohr-Ah (and the Slylandro Probes), started a new alliance and (probably) made the Chmmr its leaders, saved the humans from Ur-Quan subjugation...
I don't believe there has been one individual of any species who has done so much for so many races.  Should that individual go missing, I'm sure there'd be a more frantic search than the search for the Shofixti scouting parties.

Anyway, that's just my own fantasy scenario. It would allow for the recreation of the fish out of water aspect of Star Control II as the captain catches up with everything that has happened during his imprisonment and it would allow you, as the player to skip the early stages of the war and instead jump right into the action.

That's actually a great idea!  I could see it happening.
The great part about SC2 as a sequel was that it showed you the aftermath of the first game while being far enough into the future to show a number of unobvious changes.

Ah!  I never knew that.  Those are great touches to add.
It would be interesting if the captain screen was blank in combat, and the player could question the Kohr-Ah about some of their ships fleeing combat....perhaps continued questioning could lead to the demise of the Slylandro. 

There's always more secrets hidden in this mod. 

These are some interesting ideas!
An information log would definitely be helpful...instead of things being marked on the star map, I think I'd rather have a list of coordinates that have been given to the player, so that the starmap still has to be utilized (eg., locating the coordinates on the map).

A better Melnorme information system would certainly be useful...maybe the "scan your ship's databanks" and check flags like "Slylandro Met" and "Portal Spawner Acquired" and don't tell you about 2418-B or anything you already know.

I could honestly see and updated SC2 being released as a downloadable game for the PS3 or 360, which could increase interest in the series.

I thought the Umgah joke was hilarious.  I first encountered it by the time I had exhausted all the dialogue options for the Kohr-Ah, so there was really no point in conversing...I do it out of habit, in case destroying a dozen of their ships gets them to speak differently to me.  Most players would jump straight into combat, I'd assume.

I do like the idea of changing the combat styles of those Marauders however, but I think it should be subtle...I think a decent solution would be to have those encounters be piloted by Weak Cyborgs...if that isn't done already. 

I do like the idea of a returning Mmrnmhrm (I hope I remember how to spell that)...remember that they were created by the Mother Ark, which was never officially destroyed if I recall.  The Mmrnmhrm could definitely be reborn in canon.

I really like the discussion going on in here, and I hope the great team that brought us this mod likes it too!

I was imagining it as a supplement to the Avatar.  Or yes, perhaps it could be recycled in another (new) race's ship.

Chmmr battleships.

Yes, that's certainly a good reason to keep him alive.  The only argument that I could see for having another PC would be to allow for a female/gender-neutral character (not that it'll prevent girls from enjoying the game).

I can't wait to find out how Zelnick gets out alive!  Arilou jumping in and saving them?  Orz pulling them *below* (caring for the humans more than the Shofixti)?  Or maybe...
 

(PS.  In the final game, the Lurg Prawn is probably going to be more powerful...I think the AI just needs work, as it doesn't use its primary weapon very often.  It's powerful when it actually attacks!  )

But the prologue is not the real game, and in case of P6014 it's not even necessary, since we have an intro sequence where all can be summarized until reaching Beta Naos incident.

Okay, this is really clever.

This is true...the intro, when combined with the outro leaves virtually no gaps in the story that could be left until after the incident.  Perhaps the player character won't be Zelnick/the same person, even!

The ideas about the Lurg are pretty good. I also would like to see them regenerate faster, and on top of that I'd like to add to the concept that only one specimen of Lurg resides on one Prawn, and the rest of the "crew" is merely the representation of the Prawn's own health. That would mean that the Prawn is literally regenerating instead of replenishing it's own crew like the Mycon Podship does, however that also infers that the Prawn is resistant to the Syreen song.

I would also make the Lurg a tougher nut in combat, though the minefield idea would make the Prawn into an Androsynth Blazer variant. Right now I'd say keep the Prawn using a fortress tactic, but change the primary weapon to something insidious when combined with the bubbles.

I like these ideas!  Having the Prawn resistant to the Syreen's song seems feasible..I found it difficult to approach them with the Penetrator (again, this was when I thought they were damaging), and if those bubbles destroy crew, then it'd mean it won't be an easy kill with another early game ship.

I always imagined what the Blazer would be like if it had a more offensive projectile in place of the Blazer form, so maybe I'm biased. 
Another one of the Project 6014 races had an interesting pair of weapons where it could essentially plant mines, and then detonate them if its projectile hit one.  (Which could cause a chain reaction).  I know it's on another ship, but that's another way it could be made more dangerous...hmm.

What made the Dreadnaught and the Marauder (and even the Avatar...I was surprised to see these were good guys after facing them in Super Melee!) menacing was the fact that they could destroy you from far away, but could still rip you apart from up close most of the time.
Perhaps if the ship were faster, or its primary weapon had subtle homing capabilities...

Ahaha, though maybe these guys aren't the big bad of the game, and are closer to say, the Mycon.  Obviously evil, hostile, and incredibly dangerous/powerful as a species, but not the ship you're running away from in combat.

We had escape from oppression and struggle-of-the-underdog the last time, and this isn't the only type of story there is. So this time you're in an established, resourceful society that faces a new challenge, and that's always a good thing. This time refuelling and resource gathering aren't your main concern - and that's great.

I'll agree that it makes sense plotwise, and initially I was thrilled to start off with a ship like that.  From a gameplay sense, I feel that it might be a little bit too overpowered to have at the start of the game.  In the demo, it makes sense to have a ship that can easily explore everything, talk to all the races, see all the new star systems...but if the ship is identical in the full release, it might be too easy to beat the game.

I understand that mining probably won't be a big part of the game (which again, makes sense plotwise, but I really liked that aspect of SC2), but exploration will certainly be a big part of the game.  If it'll be this easy to fly from one race's area to tthe next, I'm worried that it'll be too easy to zip through the game.
If we're to fear the Kohr-Ah, it's reasonable to expect that they should have some chance to catch us at some point in the game.

Possible ideas...
-The Chmmr don't want to allocate too many resources on one ship, they want to focus on building their own fleet.
-Less fuel storage and speed early on, making it more important to stop at starbases on long journeys (and preventing galaxywide travels at the start of the game)
-Chmmr scouts appear  (spawning in front of the player) if you go too far away from the mission area and force you to go back.


And on the Lurg point, I tried Super Melee against their ships...I took out about 8 of them with a single Chmmr avatar. 
Possible ideas for making them more menacing...
-Causing the bubbles to do 1 damage each in addition to their current effect.  I initially treated them this way and still destroyed them with a Cruiser and a Terminator.  It shouldn't be too overpowered, but if it is, maybe they could be more easily destroyed by weapons?  (If it's possible to allow nukes for eg, to plow through them...)
-Making their crew regenerate faster.  It was noticable, but it didn't feel like a threat.  At its current speed, it was more annoying than threatening.
-Making their AI more aggressive.  I know it's in its early stages, but I do think it'd fit [what little I know about] their personality better.
-Having the bubbles seek their own ship (and not damage it).  This might aid in making the ship more offensive than defensive.

I hope you guys like these kinds of ideas.  I'm obviously not going to 'boycott' this if you guys make this mod and it doesn't match up with what I have in mind- You're doing excellently! 

Sorry!  I added it in.  I had a feeling that I would forget to add it in the later section...

It's the Syreen commander at the Starbase, which I'm guessing is a joke and probably a placeholder.  The rest of the Syreen artwork is incredible!

I registered just to post this!  Though I was sure I had an account from ages ago...nope!  Every Star Control site except this one.

I've been a huge fan of the Star Control series since the mid-90's, and I've been waiting for a sequel for the longest time.  I don't care if this one isn't canon, it looks promising enough to be canon!  I really love and admire all the hard work that has been put into this project.
I spend a good few hours playing the mod and exploring, and I thought I'd share my thoughts.

The Excellent:
-The HD graphics are incredible.  Everything fits in perfectly (with one exception) and looks like Star Control 2, but significantly more visually appealing.
-The beginning of the plot.  It's really got me hooked and hoping for more.  It seems to fit in-universe perfectly so far.
-The implications behind -The voices.  The Orz voice is awesome, and I'm really glad that they weren't tossed out as an option.
-The Vux's speech about what it's like under the slave shield.  Very powerful, and fits right in with the plights of other races in SC2

The Great:
-The orbiting and rotating planets.  There do appear to be some minor issues with those (I believe I've been brought into the planet's "screen" after leaving it, but I can't reproduce it) but it's a really nice detail, and I know it'll be improved.
-The new starmap!  It looks like a lot of work and detail was put into it.  It feels a bit small in the demo, but that's sure to change.  It definitely feels a lot of key areas are close to "home", and with the Explorer, everything feels too easily accessible.  Of course, this is a demo.  I can't wait to see how all the space gets used and what other mysteries lie in these new stars!

Things I'm Not Sure About:
-The Explorer.  Starting off with it might be a little bit too powerful.  It feels more like a "devtool" of sorts since it's very easy to scour the whole star map, refuel with the Melnorme, and evade all the enemys.  For savvy players, I'm sure they'll immediately begin the game by picking up everything they possibly can at this point in the game and completely ignore the missing Shofixti scout fleet.
It's very different from SC2.  In SC2, I was always afraid of running into probes.  In this demo, I was hardly afraid of the Kohr-Ah because they couldn't catch my ship unless they spawned right next to a star I was heading into.
That being said, the design of the ship itself is great, and it's incredible fun to use in Melee!  I'm especially pleased that it's in Super Melee.  It also makes a lot of sense plot-wise, and Commander Hayes' description of it really pumped me up to put it into action.  It just feels a little overpowered in terms of exploration if it can be used without bounds from the beginning of the game.
  
-Commander Hayes hating the Vux so much.  Maybe I'd have to go back to SC2 and hear what he has to say about them, but he seems to endorse the slave shielding a little bit too much.  Though he is a war veteran, so he has an excuse.  
-The lander starting off fully upgraded.  This fits in with the ship.  (Makes accumulating resources too easy...but it's probably just for the demo so we don't spend too much time mining )
--The previously mentioned exception of the new Syreen Starbase commander.  A good joke, but it doesn't fit in (pun intended) visually with the SC2 style artwork imo

Don't take my criticisms too harshly, please!  I'm trying to be constructive, and if I've offended anybody who worked on the project, I apologise.  Especially as this is still in the early development stage, I feel that you guys would appreciate all the input from fans that's out there...if we didn't think that this could be the next SC game (in spirit) we wouldn't care so much about it!
I'm really looking forward to the finished version (and hearing about progress on the way there), however many years it takes!  Keep up the excellent work; everyone involved with this project deserves a round of applause.