I'm not sure, but I think I saw someone on the site mention their theory that the Orz are actually ONE organism as opposed to many, in a sort of Borg Collective sense.

I seem to remember one of the conversations with the Orz in which the Orz used the pronoun "I" but not "we".

Are they individual ... thingys, or do they exist as a sort of larger interdimensional consciousness?

WOW.

That's impressive!  I wonder what they would have done for the Melnorme mod, though... that's a good one and I sort of regret not hearing it.  

personally, the HSpace music has always been my favorite... but the Kzer-Za,Yehat and Arilou are sort of tied for second.

I like the newer Q-space music better than the old one (pan flutes just don't do it for me).

As far as getting these guys to do a remix for one of the UQM versions... if they were willing to sit down and write out the tunes they've already redone, they might be fans enough to contribute the rest for free!

Look... I understand that all that may be difficult to read for people whose first language isn't English, but check this out.

I'm willing to bet that a few of us are new to the game, as surprising as that may seem, and we don't all know where the rainbow worlds are, or where each of the Q-space portals go, or who lives in which constellations.  It's important for the new folks to know as much as they can before taking a wrong turn and ending up surrounded by Ur-Quan battle groups.

If you think YOU can hang out around Delta Crateris with one ion bolt gun, a Spathi and a human cruiser, good luck... I'll keep the posts shorter for you then.

Quite simply, details keep new folks safe.  If you don't like reading that much, just don't read it.

The Orz are just creepy, weird little guys.  Not necessarily evil, just REALLY different.  Cute in a terrifying sort of way.

I think that it was the Orz, in fact, who were responsible for the destruction of Eta Vulpeculae (my idea is that they can only be *smelled* in Truespace or Hyperspace, which would explain Bukowski getting ripped apart by things no one could see... kind of a disturbing image).  The Orz mention that they're not really visible to you; you only see what you THINK the Orz are.

As long as you don't bother the Orz about the Androsynth, you're just fine... they don't mind you knowing that the Synth are gone.  They just don't want you to know how or why the Synth left... and if you sniff around about the Synth too much, they do their best to make you regret it.

Some more thoughts.

They keep mentioning things about never wanting to go back to the other side, and they seem to love to kill things.  I think they might be kind of a toned-down version  of the Eternal Ones (a little higher on the food chain than the people in *heavy space* but not quite as high as the Eternal Ones are) - and then there's the idea of the Arilou changing your *smell*... which might be what the Orz call *jumping in front*.  Since you *smell* different thanks to the Arilou, the Orz don't want to kill you when you encounter them.  You're not classed as "food" then.

But when you prove you *smell* enough like the Synth to be interested in what happened to them, you allow yourself to be seen, and then it's chow time.

"There are no more Androsynth.  Only Orz."  The Orz ate them.  

I heard once that whoever wrote the dialogue for the Orz invented their untranslatable language by giving a sort of Mad-lib sheet to his five-year-old nephew... a mostly complete script, add a verb here, noun there, adjective someplace else and bang, there was *frumple*.

Now then, are the *nnngn* the little jumpy shooting-star things you see when you're in HSpace/Qspace maybe?

I've found that once Hayes tells you there's a huge fleet of ships on the move (this usually won't happen until much later in the game) you'll notice the Pkunk circle moving on your starmap.

They don't move very quickly, so simply flying to their space, wherever it is at the time, and intercepting one of them seems to work.   Just tell them to go home... they always seem to listen.

The Yehat are more important than they look.  That's all I'll say about them.  

If you have your portal spawner, one of the dots on the QSpace starmap will drop you into hyperspace VERY close to the probes' origin point.

It's not in the midst of any other race's territory... and keep in mind it's a world with no surface, as the Arilou tell you.

first time in ten years or so I've been going through the game... some things come back, and some things don't.

Wish I'd remembered that you can get the Rosy Sphere by selling the Druuge the egg case... which you get to KEEP after showing it to Talana (I did the Ultron way before the Mycon/Syreen thing).

I wonder if anyone else gets the same rush of guilt I do when they trade 100 crew for the sphere... it's terrible.  and then, when you get back to the starbase!  *sob*

Thanks for the egg-case tip... next time I go through the game I'll try that instead of doing something that makes me feel like joining an Utwig colony.

Okay, I keep coming up on the same MINOR difficulty now...

the Yehat and I can't seem to get along.  Might be because of the whole civil war thing, I don't know.

I guess what I'm looking for is strategy on facing them in melee.  Which ships are the best to use and what's the right way to use them?  I like to fight head-on with whoever's attacking me, but you just can't do it with the Yehat if you expect to live long.

My typical Orz-marine thing doesn't work either, thanks to the Yehat shields (they bounce off, the Yehat turns around and carves them to bits with those cannons).  

I've had a lot of success with the Chmmr, but I still lose a lot of crew when I use them.

I'm running out of ideas AND running out of ships.  please offer suggestions before my *many bubbles* get popped!

*silly cows* *dancing* is *frumple!*  *Happy campers* cannot have *parties* when Yehat always *jumping in front*. Not even *picnics* I am sure!  *nnnnnghhhh!*

Glad to help.

I was playing again earlier today, and realized I'd forgotten a couple things.  

First of all, the Ilwrath are SLOW.  they're pretty easy to outrun within a system provided you've got good turning jets.  Second, Alpha/Beta Tauri were crawling with them.

Yehat space is good for minerals, but bad for your life expectancy.

Admiral ZEX does indeed have a limitless fleet of Intruders.  it sucks when you have 75 limpet nodes stuck to your ship.

The Utwig don't much like it when you tell them to stop whining.  Making the Melnorme mad is also pretty unpleasant.

The Mycon are great fried in butter.

These are *fat* words.  I am tired.

Tauri is good... but it gives me hives.   Got a severe case of arachnophobia.    am about to go try Tauri early on, just to see if I'm unnecessarily nervous!

I seem to have this knack for popping in RIGHT NEXT to the Ilwrath in melee (poor tactical positioning!)  By the time I get turned around enough to fire, assuming I have standard weapons, I'm toast.

This is why I always thought it was so much better to wait a bit until I could afford two Hellbores, my Shivas and a couple tracking systems.  kapow.

Yeah, I know the strategy is kind of long winded and most long-time fans don't need all the info... but if you're new at the game, it helps to have all the detail you can.  This is the best way I know of that gets you ahead a good ways without dropping you into the middle of hostile territory

(there was the time I decided, just for fun, to visit the ZoqFot homeworld with NO support ships and NO weaponry... I was "cleansed" about two minutes after I started back for home, which made me realize how important it is to get the portal spawner set up ASAP!)

Chandrasekhar and Mersenne are also pretty good systems if you happen to be in that area of the map.

Okay...  this is the way I used to do it on PC a LONG time ago, and it's funny how the memories came back to me when I downloaded UQM... it's pretty quick.  It DOES however involve spoilers of a sort, so if you don't want some of the game given away, don't read further

This is kind of long, and not as detailed as I'd like since I don't have my QSpace map... but it goes into enough detail that it shouldn't get you killed.

Takes some time to get started, and you probably won't be blowing anything up but the random probe for a while, but it's worth it in the long run when you're using a full rack of Hellbores to tear into Marauders by the early spring of 2158.    

First... grab Fwiffo from Pluto and get all the minerals you can from Sol's outer planets.  Your hold should be full by the time you get to Mars.  Visit the moon and do the starbase thing. When upgrading, and this sounds weird... sell your ion bolt gun so you can afford to buy all the fusion thrusters your ship will hold.  This is key, so that you can outrun any probes chasing you in the next phase of the plan.  Don't worry about turning jets yet... your turning speed will suck, but you can navigate with patience.  Now, buy as much fuel as you can.

So, now you've got all this fuel.  Head to Beta Pegasi I ( 039.5 745.8 ) and scan the rainbow world there.  Leave, don't use up your lander.  Next stop is Alpha Pavonis VII ( 056.2 800.0 ).  Energy scan, and drop your lander next to the warp pod you'll find there. Next, head toward Gamma Columbae ( 072.9 620.8 ).  You should run out of fuel on the way there... and soon the Melnorme will show up and want to "help" you.  Sell them the rainbow world location and buy maximum fuel, plus your first couple hits of technology.  Don't worry about information yet.  Now you can head for Gamma Columbae... and this is where you get to wait for a while.

On the 17th of the month, and lasting till the 20th, is the QuasiSpace portal nearby... hang out until it opens, talking to the Arilou passing by, and then once you're in QSpace open up the map and head for the top right dot.  This is where the Arilou live, and they'll hook you up with a portal spawner once you give them your warp pod.

Okay, you've got the portal spawner.  Now it's time to go visit rainbow worlds... don't bother landing, just scan as many as you can find.

Short list, in the safest order...

Groombridge (near top right of HSpace map)
Gamma Aquarii (Utwig space)
Beta Leporis (pretty close Gamma Aquarii)

Five of the QSpace portals on the upper right of the map form kind of an arrowhead shape pointing to the Arilou homeworld... you'll want to take the portal that is just behind the portal that makes the very tip of this "arrow" point, and the rainbow worlds are just a short HSpace trip away.

Once you've collected those three worlds, then hop back into QSpace and take the portal to the very right of the lower cluster of portals... this will drop you off near Zeta Sextantis I (( 468.1:091.6 ), which is the next rainbow world you want (relatively safe).  Scan it, and then head for Alpha Centauri until you run out of fuel or get there.   Either way, you will eventually run into the Melnorme again, and you can sell them the locations.

Now you're able to purchase everything up to Hellbore cannons, and your landers are super-tough.

Begin collecting minerals.  Start with Alpha Centauri III and VIII, and when your hold is full, go home and grab those turning jets... one more run (I prefer Vulpeculae, since it gets the Orz out of the way and is pretty rich) for minerals and you're able to arm yourself again.  Buy storage pods as you can afford them, work your way up towards those Hellbores, and use what several credits you have left over to buy fuel from the Melnorme when needed.  It's best to cut and run as much as you can until you can pay for the firepower you need.

The spawner is a handy tool for escaping from those no-win situations, too... if you need to run home quickly, the Sol portal is just above and left of the one you used to get to Zeta Sextantis.

Enjoy exploring the galaxy, and try not to get gruesomely killed, Captain.