Woah! 
I can't wait for this! Keep up the good work!

Hmmm.... I'm looking for any music, anything like the music from this game. I have the sound files and I have the Precursors stuff, but it's not enough! 

Yep, a binary would be nice. But more detailed instructions would work too.   
Would greatly appreciate it if someone would give me such instructions or a binary. 

I managed to put together a Map generator Windows binary (including the required libraries; ridiculously large 3 MB ZIP). The whole thing is a bit of a mess, I'm afraid; those libraries are definitely not optimally compiled in any way, but it works. I'm not going to write instructions because there has got to be an easier and more elegant way to do this than what I did (basically, added FreeType and SDL_ttf to what I'd used a while back to compile UQM).

Thanks! 
But I'm still lost...
I tried "mapgen -n -i" (and some other combinations) at a command prompt, the computer processed something for a few seconds.... I checked starmap.png... and it was still a blank grid. 

There's a starmap generator in SVN, created by fOSSiL, which creates very pretty starmaps from description files containing the star and constellation data.
One of the maps generated by this program will probably be included with the next release of UQM.

So there's a way to use that generator right now?

Ah yes, I forgot about the map generator. It's in directory trunk/tools/map of the UQM SVN repository and requires SDL, SDL_image, SDL_ttf and libpng, but I expect you'd prefer a binary.

Yep, a binary would be nice. But more detailed instructions would work too.   
Would greatly appreciate it if someone would give me such instructions or a binary. 

There's a starmap generator in SVN, created by fOSSiL, which creates very pretty starmaps from description files containing the star and constellation data.
One of the maps generated by this program will probably be included with the next release of UQM.

So there's a way to use that generator right now?

1. Who says they haven't visited us? If someone has the technology to cross the vast expanse of void between the stars, they probably can cloak themselves as well... maybe they have a law that prohibits interfering with the affairs of lesser races, or maybe they're not interested in communicating with us...

I agree with that. There's no hard proof that aliens visit us, but that doesn't mean it isn't happening. Maybe they're just not ready to reveal themselves yet.

2. Maybe FTL travel is very expensive, so one race only has the chance to cover a limited number of stars (out of the many Sun-like stars with planets of the Milky Way*). And our star hasn't been chosen, unfortunately (or fortunately?).

Yeah, I guess that's possible. I kinda doubt it for some reason though. I just think that it would be considered worth the money. Or, maybe the whole [alien] world is cooperating on the project and money is barely an object at all. (haha... would be nice if Earth were like that)

*Though who said that carbon-based life is so common? What if everybody just assumes that all life has the kind of biochemistry that they themselves have, and searches only in the wrong systems? And even if they realize that organisms can be very different from a biochemical standpoint, they still have to search much, much more stars than just Sun-like stars.

That's true. I'm sure there's lots of carbon-based life out there, but that doesn't mean it's the only kind in existence.

As for sub-lightspeed, it seems a bit insane to me to send a robot for a 100,000-year journey to another earth-like planet, just to check if there's anything there...

Well, for a closer planet, it could be done in a few hundred years or even less (depending on the closeness of this  alien planet. Some stars are less than 10 years away at a fast sub-light speed) Also, they'd have probably done many studies beforehand to determine the best candidate for closer study. Also still, maybe things insane to us are very reasonable to them (due to social, economical, cultural differences... etc.)

Dancing Fungus has a good point. I really hope we don't end up destroying ourselves like a bunch of damned idiots! 

Oh ok, we're talking about things from different perspectives. I was thinking more of them being able to come here. So yes, I agree. I doubt humanity will be the first ones around to break the light speed barrier...

...

Woah....

http://news.zdnet.com/2424-9595_22-160112.html
http://arxiv.org/abs/0708.0681

This could be the first step toward it in some way. I really didn't know about this until now, which is  surprising. I'm usually keeping up with this kinda stuff.

Sub-light travel could be very possible for  others.... maybe for us after more scientific breakthroughs.

- Visiting other planets in person (problem is that it would take years just to get to the nearest star) Maybe the Methuselah Foundation will manage to stop/reverse human aging? They're trying, anyway....
- If another race has found a way to reverse their own aging process, or they naturally have very long lifespans, then journeys of many years would be easier for them (and they'd likely have much more technology than us in other fields than genetic engineering too)
- Cryogenics (to slow the aging process of the  travelers)
- Sending robots
- Sending sentient or nearly sentient robots
- Sending humanoid sentient androids

There may be other ways to get places quicker other than breaking the speed of light...
- Teleportation (if we discover some sort of way to do it)
- Wormholes

By what we currently know, yeah, it's not possible with our technology. But...  it's always possible that we could learn something new. We don't know everything. After all, we were once confident that the Earth was flat and that it was the center of the universe. We were very wrong about that. I just have this feeling that someday we will find a way.

Even without FTL travel, there are many ways that aliens could still visit Earth.

As for time travel, that very well could be impossible, but who knows for sure...

This is very interesting news!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080217/ts_alt_afp/usastronomyspace
http://www.sciam.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=2AA69390-B4C6-816D-75980C12FA2DB9C1

There are probably tons of Earth-like planets out there. Scientists say it is extremely more likely than previously thought! 20 to 60 percent of sun-like stars could contain planets similar to Earth. Many could harbor life.... maybe even intelligent life! 

Yeah, I tried Vega Strike. Unfortunately, my computer has a pile of trash video card.
How much exploration is involved? The screenshots make Vega Strike look like just a space shooter.
Freelancer looks interesting. I might try it sometime. How much exploration is there?
I also need to play Space Rangers 2 someday.

I just wish there was something for a console though.
I'll be needing a new computer eventually. 

Sounds good to me! DO YOU HEAR THAT, ACTIVISION?! 

are you one of them interneters? 

[but no modern game from any of those three series!]

Why aren't there more? Tons of people seem to be amazed by the idea of space travel and exploration. There are so many possibilities for games that could include space exploration. So why aren't game companies pushing for the next Star Control or Elite?

We have Space Empires, Master of Orion, and Galactic Civilizations... but they're more like empire-building games. And what about console releases?

Star Fox, Star Wars, and Star Trek... some great games... but not much exploration.

We have the Elite, Starflight, and Star Control series'.... but no modern game from any of those three series! A New Starflight game is being developed, but in an awfully slow pace. Toys For Bob wants to make another Star Control, but  ****ing Activision won't let them!

Aftermath... a spinoff of Star Control made by someone from here.... could have been a great game. I can't find anything about it anymore though. It seems to be a dead project.
Black Sky.... can't wait for that game to be finished!
Infinity: Quest for Earth.... I'm not a big MMO fan, but give World of Warcraft some fierce competition! And give me the single-player game that's being planned!
Noctis.... amazing.... but just up the graphics a little bit.... just a little.... maybe to Star Control quality. I just discovered that something amazing is currently being created though... Noctis V. It would be great if it supports some type of plugins!
Spore.... that game is going to be a hit! But I don't know if there's really that much exploration involved.
Celestia... While not a game per se, it supports plugins. I saw a great attempt to turn it into a game via plugins... but unfortunately, it seems that the project was abandoned.

Okay, that's more space games than I thought, but not many like Star Control! Not many with a huge exploration/mysterious factor!
Where are all the space fans in the gaming industry and indie gaming developer community!? Speak up and get us the next Star Control, Elite, or maybe even a new series! Tell those corporations what we want!
And to indie developers... I know it might be tough to compete with huge corporations... but give it your best! You can do it! 

Sorry for bumping this back up, but it seems like the aftermath forum is gone now too.

madgap, have you abandoned the project?   

I know he has a lot to do, since it's his job to make games and this was just a project he was creating in his own time. But if he's abandoned it, that really sucks. 

Thanks, but it seems scarily quiet there.