We are debating Star Control 4 in the below thread, please join in the discussion. From now on, i will post
my topics on this site (i am Axemaster over there)

The following link i intended to post on this site for this site has biggest exposure, unfortunately
for who knows what reason i stumbled upon the below site first and started posting there.
Please join in the discussion if you'd like, it is all about SC4 and UQM.  I also hope a member of TFB would read it to see what we as gamers enjoyed regarding SC2

http://www.star-control.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=222&sid=4aa7c5a60c6642ced3eed3735781bdea

Thank you for participating!

Star Control 3, for all intents and purposes, doesn't exist. Any sequel should take that into account.

Reminds me of a time a while ago when I saw someone on EBay actually sell an empty windows folder for, IIRC, $20.

We've come to a point in the development of games where it's not necessary to release a complete product as long as you get something out the door on time. Since "everyone" has high-speed internet and infinite patience, they'll be more than happy to download patch after patch after patch just to get the latest release to a playable, slightly less glitchy state. It greatly cuts down on the costs associated with quality control and testing that characterized the dark ages when people had slow connections, or worse, no internet access or ROM based games.

It's also worth mentioning that software today is many times more complicated than before, which makes it much harder to completely debug.

From all those comments I think I've missed a big chink of filming progress...

Have you been living in a box the last 10 years?    Smartass remarks aside, I'll give another example: Avatar. Regardless of what you may think of the story, the visuals without a doubt are the most incredible of any movie produced yet. That being said, the script was actually written 15 years ago, but was shelved until recently because there was no way to create the world he wanted to until recently. Animatronics wouldn't cut it, and the CGI at the time was still much too immature to pull it off.

The Druuge will do anything for a profit.

Let's also not forget that animatronics doesn't grant nearly the same flexibility as CGI. Take for example that scene in the 2012 movie where they are trying to escape the destruction of a california city in that small plane. Now, to do that same scene with models would not have been anywhere near as detailed and rich as it was in the movie. You can do things, create details much easier with CGI, the computer lets you literally do anything since it is a simulation in a virtual environment. That without a doubt is the biggest reason why animatronics is dying, IMO.

Though animatronics got significantly better over the years, I still think full CGI for aliens is in order.

After the awful way SC3 handled it? I don't think so. Besides, animatronics is largely dying out, everything is CGI now thanks to major advances in computing speed over the last 10 years.

Hello:

I am a fan of Star Control II.  I played it as a kid in high school on a 38SX-T.  Some ten or so years later, I was thrilled to find it again on a Macintosh (downloaded from the UQM web site).  I didn't know the game had voices for the aliens and was also thrilled to find them and install them.

Though I have not mastered Star Control II completely, I am interested in Star Control I and Star Control III and am willing to pay for them.  Do UQM's exist on any video game platforms, like Nintendo?

I'd appreciate any help you can give.  Maybe it's just a matter of knowing where on the web you can download (?)

Tnx,

BYE.

Star Control 3 was an abomination, inferior to its predecessor in major ways. Here is a good comparison that shows what went wrong with it. If you still have any questions about its inferiority, don't hesitate to ask.

When I look at it, it does not say "Kohr-Ah", mostly due to two things: First - spikes and protrusions. I always perceived Kohr-Ah as "elegant and efficient" killers. All those things added on the hull appear intimidating, but without function. Not Kohr-Ah style. Second thing is the color scheme - too much red. Yes, Kohr-ah are black and red, but descriptions say "Dark as space itself" and "black over darkness of space". This version is way too red to fit the description.

With all the spikyness it really does have a very Shivan look.

True, and it does add something of an adventure. Personally I also think we should have the chance to explore the coreward quadrant, since that is where the Precursors supposedly went. That being said it should not be cutoff from the home quadrant, though transiting between the two should require a fair amount of resource.


One of SC3's cardinal sins was to make the plotline advance only with the passage of time while giving the player nothing to do during much of that time. From what I remember most of the time you were sitting around waiting for stuff to happen. No real planetary exploration. adventure or anything (and most of the quests were copied directly from SC2). SC is really about adventure, hopefully a sequel will reflect that. I can't wait to be able to see a moonrise on an alien world.

Daktaklakpak Vivisector

It never existed. Purge all thoughts of the abomination that was SC3 from your mind.

I've been thinking recently, what exactly can we expect from a real sequel to sc2? The gameplay of SC2, while excellent of course, was in many ways a product of the limitations of your average home computer at the time. The 486 DX was released the same year SC2 was released, and it was the first desktop CPU to have an integrated FPU, meaning everything before that needed a math coprocessor to handle 3D stuff. So that restricted what could be done with it to 2D, and basic representations of a planets surface.

So what about gameplay in a sequel? I really don't know, except that the mineral hunting aspect would probably not appear again. With Earth and the other alliance races freed, it wouldn't be needed. Fortunately, modern systems give a lot more flexibility for the imagination to be represented. Personally I would look forward to seeing beutifully rendered alien worlds. But I really dont know how gameplay (or combat) can be modernized. Any thoughts?

As for the story, I think most of the races will be around plus some new ones. The Ilwrath and Thraddash were pretty thorouly devestated by their war, whether or not they show up is questionable. The Kohr-Ah may show up from time to time, but they would likely be under the control of the Kzer-Za. I can also see the Kzer-Za being allied with the new alliance or whatever organization supercedes it. Their ships are powerful and they have highly advanced technology. In facing whatever new threat comes about this would be very useful. As for what's left of the old heirarchy, I do think the overtly hostile ones (VUX and Mycon) will have severly restricted fleet sizes and may be quartentined all together. The Spathi will probably be neutral. I'd love to see the plot delve more deeply into what exatly happened to the Androsynth, as well as Orz's story (what it is and what it wants). I also think we can expect the Taalo to show up. Orz said they were still alive, somewhere *below*. I would also expect some of the mystery of the Precursors, but perhaps not all of it to save some material for future use. Either way I'd still love to see plenty of new, unsolved mysteries to be introduced.


Sorry for the rant, just something I've been thinking about for a bit now.

Still though, the wait is frustrating. Almost like waiting to send people to Mars, everyone has been talking about it for years but it never seems to get done.

1. The Kohr-Ah blades stay in the arena, while the Chenjesu shards simply explode. This gives Kohr-Ah a MAJOR tactical advantage over the Chenjesu, especially in long range combat. The Chenjesu would actually have more of an advantage if it was closer, because it would be able to more easily land its shots.
2. The Kohr-Ah Marauder is significantly faster and less tubby than the Chenjesu Broodhome

Good points again. But what about the DOGI's? Can the Marauder outrun them?

- The AI is quite stupid with the Marauder. Rather than taking a long-range defensive strategy (which the Marauder is well-suited for), kind of like the Earthling Cruiser, it instead behaves like a dreadnought, chasing down its opponent and shooting. This is very exploitable.

While that is true the Broodhome is also well suited for long range engagements. Even if somehow victorious the Marauder would still be seriously hurt.

A human player can use the recoil on the cannon on the Druuge Mauler to stay away from the shards while shooting at the Chenjesu. The game ultimately belongs to the Chenjesu, but with significant casualties.

While it might be able to get away from the shard frag it still has to contend with fast moving DOGI's. It can use recoil to get away from them, but that sucks up valuable juice hitting nothing. One possible strategy is sit out of range and force it to deal with DOGI's, then while it is turned towards them (or shoots to get away from them) bomb it from long range with shards. It will bleed to death fairly quickly if done successfully. Once it is moving backward from recoil it becomes fairly easy to predict where it will end up going.

Granted I haven't played PvP, but I've found the Broodhome to be surprisingly powerful against an array of ships. Against little stuff the frag effect of the crystal shard is a pretty effective deterrant, and when it fires and turns it is very tough to get close without getting smacked a few times with frag. Against a Marauder I've found it to be more than capable of defeating one, while taking only moderate damage. The full shard not only does 50% more damage than the spinning blades, but it can actually absorb one or two and still slam home for a full 6 points of damage, or if the Marauder isn't totally lined up you can still score 4 points releaseing frag right next to it (that long body is susceptible to more than one frag hit). Up close it will simply over power a Marauder.

Against a Mauler this is one of the best ships to choose. DOGI's will bug the heck out of it while you come in from the opposite direction, because its turn rate sucks when it starts to turn toward you the DOGI's come in and sap its energy, or force it to go on a random shooting spree to hurl itself backward to escape them. Either way it still looses a lot of energy. Against the Jugger it's a similair situation.