Whoops! I knew I should've thought twice before excluding the Casters! Though once the Kohr-Ah begin their genocidal orgy if the Ilwrath were still around they wouldn't be for much longer. So technically you could bypass that quest as well.

Like is it possible for the Thraddash to beat the Ilwrath, especially after they are culture 20 based on the human model?

Not exactly. It is possible to trick the Ilwrath into launching an Evil Jihad against the Thraddash. This has the result of wiping out both races.

Can you speed up the Chmrrr transformation to get them involved?

Yes. See Sun Device in the Ultronomicon.

Can the Pkunk bring peace to the Yehat civil war?

Yes. Simply allow the Pkunk to be "absorbed" by the Yehat during the Civil War (I think). The result of this will not be seen until the game's final battle, however.

Can you find the Melnorme homeworld?

No. Nor can you find information about their psychology, mental powers, unique physiology, or their potentially ominous, long-range plans. However some bits about their history are sprinkled in very lightly.

Can you find the Black Spathi Squadron?

See Hoaxes and Rumors on the Ultronomicon.

Any artifacts or devices to be found that aren't necessary to win the game?

The only two absolutely useless items are Wimbili's Trident and the Glowing Rod, which can be bought from the Druuge at 100 crew each.

Aside from that, anything which does not contribute to the Ultron, Sun Device, or Talking Pet quests are absolutely unnecessary to win (i.e. Shofixti Maidens, VUX Beast, either Caster Device, or the Portal Spawner). Even then, you can bypass the Ultron quest entirely by simply waiting for the Kohr-Ah to kill off the Utwig.

Any Easter Eggs?

None that I'm aware of. At one point in development the Rainbow Worlds were intended to be incorporated into an Easter Egg at Groombridge in which you could speak to deific incarnations of PR3 and FF. Alas, this did not make it into the final game, and the Rainbow Worlds were rewritten to be of Precursor construct.

My database project includes a checkbox on the Hyperspace map labelled "Use Quasispace". Selecting a star with this active and moving to another star (preferably one far away) will activate the Quasispace map within. It will show you the shortest path through Quasispace to get where you're going (including which portal to take and what path to take when emerging from said portal).

If you require such information, you may find it at http://uqm.chumbucket.org. It will require Adobe's SVG plugin to work (which it should try to install by default).

Warning: This map contains major spoilers!

[VUX monster]

Someone particularly interested in ferocity may be able to tell you more, if you treat them right. Also, Admiral ZEX gives you a hint that makes a lot more sense if you have the original starmap (which I strongly feel should be included in the game distribution!).

I'm assuming the first race is the Thraddash, but Captain Smith makes it sound as though we've missed it. How d'you get them to tell you? And what's on the original star map that makes Sextantis look like a serpent? I always thought that was absurd...

The system in question is not Sextantis. In fact it's on the opposite side of the starmap from there. I would suggest you take a good hard look at the Original Paper Hyperspace Map that shipped with SC2. The clue from ZEX follows:

My source for this information is an ancient wildlife handbook
written millenia ago by some unknown alien author. The pertinent passage goes as follows
`... demise, It(!) basks in yellow light within the constellation Linch-Nas-Ploh.'
We have translated `Linch-Nas-Ploh' to mean approximately
`the long, thin creature who has swallowed the huge beast.'
I am afraid this is all that I know.
I hope it is sufficient.

[Sun Device]

a) You need to find a race that has scouts exploring Mycon space or their close friends.
b) Well, the Chmmr are pretty explicit about their needs, aren't they?

I'll take your word for b) - it's been a while since I played the game myself. I'm assuming a) means the Slylandro - but I was there when my friend went through all the conversation threads with them, and I don't remember them mentioning that. What's the exhange? Do you need to have done anything previously to trigger it?

The race in question is not the Slylandro. Have another look at the Hyperspace map linked above. Note the difference between the "then" represented in that map and the "now" you are currently experiencing. Try looking for a race that existed "then" but not "now".

Actually certain races will tell you exactly where you want to go.  It's just that they are very cryptic about it.

The Zot-Fot-Pik I'm guessing? What's the conversation prerequisites?

I think the cryptic message that was hinted at was this one:

Before we proceed Captain, I must speak.
Many of my people have not been sleeping well these past few nights.
In fact, I myself did not sleep well last night.
Well, actually I slept okay in the first part of the night, and then had a little trouble a little later on
maybe halfway through, until I got up and had something to eat.
Anyway, the reason we're not sleeping is because of a dream. Yes, a dream.
We have seen that in the center of this region of space, near stars that form the shape of a cup
and are in a constellation that begins with the letter C and ends with the letter S
and whose letters rearranged spell `Asteric', two great armadas fight.
One of black ships, the other of green.
Our dream tells us that if the black ships should win this fight, they will destroy all life in this region.
Captain, they are winning now. If there is anything you can do to stop them you must do it... please!
Okay, that's all I wanted to say.

[Mindshield]

The Melnorme seem to know everything, but those who actually knew the Taalo can also give you hints.

The Melnorme tell you their homeworld? *Sighs*... we musta glossed over that one... Which of their info subjects is it? I'm guessing history? And roughly which buy is it?

And I assume you mean the Ur-Quan? I thought I remembered them saying something about useful, but according to my friend he didn't get anything from chatting to them.

The topic is indeed History. If the datafile I'm reading is correct, it's the fourth topic.

Oddly enough the race who "knows" the Taalo isn't one you'd expect. The current residents of that area (Orz) call it the "playground". It more fun than several.

[Syreen fleet]

Ask someone with an insider's view on Ur-Quan space.

ZFP? D'you just have to visit them after the Syreen say they'll help you if you can get their fleet?

I can't say for sure how it's triggered (short of being allied to them), but the ZFP do indeed mention it.

[Egg case]

This is a bit of a problem. Talana gave you the location of one shattered planet (Syra) in the PC version, but this was removed in the 3DO version, so it's missing in UQM. You'll just have to explore.

So it's just a case of looking it up, really?

Almost every Shattered World has an Egg Case. The ones that don't are the Mycon homeworld and the planet with the Sun Device.

[2nd egg case]

Arrange a distraction. Give the Mycon something interesting and important to do elsewhere. An old enemy can arrange this given sufficient proof of Mycon hostility.

So it's impossible to use this egg case on the Syreen in the first place? Is it what you're supposed to use to buy the Rosy Sphere?

Show the egg case to the Syreen. Then after you're done with that, you can trade it to the Druuge for the Rosy Sphere. It should also be noted that there are a total of three egg cases in the game, so you have some leeway with this.

[Ilwrath homeworld]

They actually tell you that themselves. Just annoy them enough.

Keep fighting their ships in other words? D'you have to fight them a few times first? If we've missed it, will they tell us again?

If they follow the pattern that other races do, they probably won't tell you again. But they DO give you the coordinates at some point. Their position on the map linked above should give you a better idea of where to look for their homeworld.

[Diverting enemies]

Yes, yes and no, respectively. Anything that messes up the Thraddash fleet helps you grab their stuff. Getting rid of the Ilwrath also helps if they get in your way. Other races attacking the Kohr-Ah slows them down quite a bit, postponing the cleansing of the sector.

So you only move the Ilwrath to get to the Chenjesu relatively easily?

Come to think of it, I noticed when I sent them off that the Ilwrath seemed to shrink a lot faster than the Thraddash, so that even though the Thraddash had been decimated by the Ur-Quan, the Ilwrath only barely beat them. If you send the Ilwrath over without getting the Thraddash to attack the Ur-Quan, what happens?

The only (in game) reason to send the Ilwrath off is to remove the guards that protect the Chenjesu world.

Regardless of what you do prior to causing the Ilwrath/Thraddash war, they will kill each other every time.

I just remembered another question of my own, btw - when I played, and sold my crew to the Druuge, the starbase captain bitched my ear out. For some reason in my friend's game, he just said 'I've heard some disturbing rumours about you, but I don't believe them.' Why the difference?

The difference is in the amount of crew you sell. See Star Control II fact #4 - Crew cost

[this]

For this one, perhaps...

While it would be true that some of the answers could be Googled for, there are trials where even the "question" is hidden from view. And of course there are others that simply don't have a Google-able answer.

During my most recent long absense of internet access, I was working on a system for my machine to enable me to issue commands to it remotely. However, because of the possible danger this would put me in, I created a password system that was specifically made so that only I would stand a chance at bypassing it. In it you (or rather, I) would have to pass a series of "trials". One particular trial was a recreation of the Guide to Alien Etiquette found at the beginning of SC1.

Yesterday, I was very bored at work. Using the aforementioned remote command system, I was able to wrangle the Guide's code out of the password system. This is the result of my efforts. Since it was originally a part of something greater, there is no consequence for getting the questions wrong, nor is there any reward for getting them right. In any case, it might provide an amusing diversion.

The data I have on planets was generated for me, and as such I have no real idea of how to go about generating them myself. The information I have is formatted like so:

Code:

I,Planets,CONSTELLATIONINDEX,PREFIXNAMEINDEX,XPOSITION,YPOSITION,BODYCOLOR,PLANETNUMBER,MOONNUMBER,WORLDTYPE,DISTANCEFROMSUN,
DISTANCEFROMPARENT,SURFACETEMPERATURE,DENSITY,PLANETRADIUS,ROTATIONPERIOD,SURFACEGRAVITY,AXIALTILT,TECTONICS,WEATHER,
ATMOSPHERICDENSITY,LIFECHANCE,SATELLITEBIO,SATELLITEMINERAL,MINERALCOMMON,MINERALCORROSIVE,MINERALBASEMETAL,MINERALNOBLE,
MINERALRAREEARTH,MINERALPRECIOUS,MINERALRADIOACTIVE,MINERALEXOTIC

Note: The first two values ("I" and "Planets") serve no function to my code.

Here are the values I have for Beta Lyrae:

Code:

D,Planets,93,2,-675,-675,Green,1,0,Iodine World,954,954,-212,63,93,257,58,-26,5,2,12,-40,0,126,0,63,0,0,0,0,0,0
D,Planets,93,2,-813,-1520,Blue,2,0,Gas Giant,1723,1723,-228,21,910,103,191,8,2,7,65535,-1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
D,Planets,93,2,-2316,-703,Green,3,0,Gas Giant,2420,2420,-235,21,1029,151,216,37,1,7,65535,-1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
D,Planets,93,2,2494,1666,Purple,4,0,Super Dense World,3000,3000,-239,197,34,173,66,-19,6,2,75,60,0,78,0,0,26,0,0,0,0,0
D,Planets,93,2,-5576,1691,Red,5,0,Ruby World,5827,5827,-249,58,96,221,55,23,0,0,0,-1040,0,850,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,34
D,Planets,93,2,-7,34,Purple,2,1,Purple World,1723,35,-228,59,33,272,19,25,1,0,0,-1100,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
D,Planets,93,2,54,-6,Red,2,2,Dust World,1723,55,-228,61,33,209,20,-10,1,1,10,-10,0,120,0,0,40,0,0,0,0,0
D,Planets,93,2,-8,-75,Purple,2,3,Chrondite World,1723,75,-228,103,28,224,28,-9,4,0,0,-1145,0,74,74,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
D,Planets,93,2,-53,-79,Purple,2,4,Super Dense World,1723,95,-228,206,32,213,65,-4,7,2,97,60,0,144,0,0,48,0,0,0,0,0
D,Planets,93,2,-55,5,Purple,3,1,Purple World,2420,55,-235,61,27,255,16,5,1,0,0,-1100,0,204,0,0,68,0,0,0,0,0
D,Planets,93,2,47,57,White,3,2,Selenic World,2420,75,-235,60,26,266,15,-2,1,0,0,-1100,0,159,0,0,53,0,0,0,0,0
D,Planets,93,2,93,-19,Orange,3,3,Metal World,2420,95,-235,143,36,265,51,11,3,2,109,60,0,676,0,31,152,0,0,9,13,0

While it would certainly be nice to have the exact locations of the minerals on a given planet, I really think that doing such a thing might be more work than I could handle. The perfectionist in me would also want to try replicating the planet spinning view, despite the fact that I don't have an inkling of how I could accomplish it.

Edited on 08-12-05 for readability.

Since I was here updating my other major thread, I thought I would bump this one too and let everyone know that the mp3s linked on this thread are availible again. In fact, they have been for some time now (as some already know). I just haven't gotten around to pointing it out until now...

[Recent Changes:]

It's been a long time since I've done anything with this project. Sometime recently I was (somehow) inspired to work on this after so long. I've managed to make a few significant improvements to it.

Recent Changes:
 - Migrating several of the statistics and controls from the SVG map to the HTML frames (which are much easier to program and modify than SVG)
 - The Sphere of Influence controls now include a mouseover feature. Hovering over a checkbox for a race will highlight that race's sphere on the starmap, to increase visiblity of certain insignificant spheres.
 - A frame on the bottom which shows relevant math data for a given selection. (Star location, distance, fuel use, etc.)

Planned Features:
 - Completely removing the need for the blue bar to the right of the SVG starmap. This will become feasible once I can fix the Quasispace Display function to work with the new HTML interface.
 - A way to input star name/coordinates to highlight that location (or a course) on a map.
 - Updating the searching feature with something similar to the above.
 - Somehow figuring out a way to generate the proper data for the special worlds so that I can have a complete database!

Note: I know this is techinically double posting, but it has been over a year since the last addition to this thread!

The poster of this thread is referring to this Hot Coffee Scandal that erupted only just recently. Incidentally enough, I would know nothing about this except I was searching around for some information related to the Nintendo v. Game Genie lawsuit and Hot Coffee seems to cross reference with it for some reason I can't quite fathom.

[Deus_Siddis]

Deus_Siddis: To beat the dead horse, I have majored in Starcraftology. Some of the things you have stated regarding this topic seem grossly inaccurate.

Just what exactly is this "evolutionary retro virus" thing you keep babbling about? You say that both Samir Duran and Kerrigan have both gone through this. Are you referring to Zerg infestation?

SPOILERS BELOW





At the beginning of the Brood War Terran campaign, Duran introduced himself as an agent of the former Terran Confederacy. However, by the end of the same campaign, he reveals that he is actually working for Kerrigan, and is thus an infested Terran.

There is a secret level (between the last two BW Zerg missions) in which Zeratul happens upon a strange outpost where various "Hybrid" creatures are being held in stasis. Samir Duran reveals that he came here as an agent of some greater unnamed force to unleash these Hybrids. While he in the guise of an Infested Terran, he is in fact completely alien as far as the known Starcraft universe is concerned.

The level is called Dark Origins. Look it up.






SPOILERS ABOVE

So, can you explain yourself?

Every time my IP address changes (which has only happened three times since I've had this cable service) I have to log back in as well. I run a YaBB myself, and have noticed this behavior on that board as well.

Are you on dialup, or does your ISP regularly change your IP address on you? If you don't know how to check this, go to http://www.whatismyip.com. If the number it reports is different at different times (e.g. between logins), this might be the source of your problem.

It has been mentioned. Perhaps you should (completely) read the posts that came before in this same thread?

Though it is technically possible to download the files linked from PNF (star-control.com, for those who aren't paying attention), it is a major pain to accomplish due to Fileplanet. For some reason (at least for me) I had to spend 20 minutes scouring every GameSpy site I could think of before I managed to log in. Other people seem to have different problems in their attempts to deal with Fileplanet.

Because of all this, it just made sense to provide an alternate mirror. And it seems to have worked. Since I put these files up almost a month ago, there have been 271 downloads. That's not a staggering number by any means, but I think it proves my point.

*bump*

I'm going to be moving, and thus will be without internet access (for an unknown period of time). My machine will be going offline sometime on the 13th. So, if you absolutely NEED these files in the near future, please get them before that date.

That is all.