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News: Celebrating 30 years of Star Control 2 - The Ur-Quan Masters

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Author Topic: Star Control II fact #4 - Crew cost  (Read 15850 times)
meep-eep
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Star Control II fact #4 - Crew cost
« on: December 30, 2003, 07:50:31 am »

Directly from the source code, here are all the little facts related to crew cost:
  • Crew costs 3 resources at the start of the game.
  • When you've recruited 1000 crew or more (minus the amount you've returned), the crew cost is raised by 2. If the total later comes below 1000 (by returning crew), the crew cost goes back down by 2.
    There is no actual limit to the amount of crew you can buy; the commander mentions that there are "almost 2000 highly-motivated, skilled professionals aboard this starbase" available to you, but appearantly there are also an infinite number of the unmotivated, unskilled and amateur kind at your service.
  • When you've made an alliance with the shofixti, the crew cost goes down by 2. Also, the number of crew recruited is set to 0 and will never be raised (or lowered) again.
  • When you've sold crew to the Druuge, but no more than 100, there's no change in the crew cost. The commander talks about "rumors".
  • When you've sold more than 100 crew in total to the Druuge, but no more than 250, the crew cost goes up by 7. The commander talks about "evidence".
  • When you've sold more than 250 crew in total to the Druuge, the crew cost goes up by 15. This is in addition to the cost increase when you crossed the 100 crew boundary. The commander talks about you being a "heinous slave-trader".

If you do your shopping at the Druuge with crew as semi-hard currency, here's the price list:
  • Mauler ships: 100 crew a piece
    The ship is worth 1700 resources and comes with 14 crew.
  • Artifacts (Wimbli's trident, Glowing Rod or Rosy Sphere): 100 crew a piece
  • Fuel: 10 per 10 units of fuel
    The normal fuel cost is 20 resources per unit, or 10 Credits at a Melnorme trader.

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Re: Star Control II fact #4 - Crew cost
« Reply #1 on: January 03, 2004, 12:04:35 am »

That is a interesting piece of information as of all your Star control facts. However I have a wuestion that might make "Star Control II fact #5" Here it is: When battle a any Kohr-ah or Ur-Quan ship it shows as "Death 911 or Lord 999". Is there something in the code that randomizes the numbers because it seems to me that 999 and 911 are the most common ones - appearing about 1/20 of the time on my computer. So - Were does the numbers truly come from? (If it is randomized then it will come form my CPU's clock - but I don't think it is randomized)
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Re: Star Control II fact #4 - Crew cost
« Reply #2 on: January 03, 2004, 01:38:05 am »

Captains' names are stored in text files in the content/racename directory (e.g., content/blackurq/blatext.txt, content/urquan/urqtext.txt), 16 names per race, and one of he names is simply picked at random when the ship is added to your fleet.  So the pool of candidates is significantly smaller than 1 to 999.
« Last Edit: January 03, 2004, 01:49:35 am by Nic. » Logged
Chrispy
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Re: Star Control II fact #4 - Crew cost
« Reply #3 on: January 03, 2004, 01:45:06 am »

they are not ever number up to 999, they are only some random ones in random order. u can find these listes here
http://www.classicgaming.com/starcontrol/sc2/captains.shtml

this greatly increases the chances for any of the numbers on this list
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Deep-Jiffa
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Re: Star Control II fact #4 - Crew cost
« Reply #4 on: January 04, 2004, 02:21:47 pm »

It is just to make "an illusion". I remember a story about our Navy when we had our first ship we called it " (something) 22" so the enemy will think we have another 21 ships...
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Re: Star Control II fact #4 - Crew cost
« Reply #5 on: January 04, 2004, 10:36:55 pm »

Sun Microsystems did something similar with their first computer (making its first machine have a serial number with a bunch of zeroes, then "16").

The real reason for it, I think, is just that all alien captain names are from a lookup table.  By just having 20 or so random numbers in a list, UQM treats the Ur-Quan just like it treats the 20 or so random science fiction references for the Earthling Captains.
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Re: Star Control II fact #4 - Crew cost
« Reply #6 on: January 05, 2004, 12:26:11 am »

Boy - Did I ever forget to check the code before I posted that question! - oops! Anyway, it would be cool to have a randomizer that picks a number between 1 and 999 and uses it for only the game - not melee. Then when you fight another Lord or Death the randomizer will do the same thing exept it won't pick the numbers that it has already picked. Once all the numbers have been picked the cycle will start over again. Then when you play Lord 999 - The ship will be REALLY easy - If you pick Lord 1 it will be really hard - maybe it can have a special weapon.   :-/  As neat as it is it will be really hard to turn from a idea to a working aspect in the game. o-well - I still think it is a neat idea though.....
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Re: Star Control II fact #4 - Crew cost
« Reply #7 on: January 05, 2004, 12:27:35 am »

it would be cool to have 999 names for each race.
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Re: Star Control II fact #4 - Crew cost
« Reply #8 on: January 05, 2004, 12:49:05 am »

It sure would - but I don't want to come up with all of those names!!!! Unless it was like - human 128 human 382 etc. - but that would be no fun Wink
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Re: Star Control II fact #4 - Crew cost
« Reply #9 on: January 05, 2004, 12:54:02 am »

i dont know, i think lots of people would gladly send in name suggestions for lots of races. some are easy, like melnorme, and kohr-ah, and androsynths....
we prolly wouldnt get up to 999 but it would add a certain something to the game.
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Re: Star Control II fact #4 - Crew cost
« Reply #10 on: January 05, 2004, 03:28:07 am »

I know for a fact (since I've downloaded and used several of these for RPG purposes) that there is a plethora of programs out there that randomize names using set formulas for many different kinds of races, languages, even fantasy settings. I've recently downloaded one called "NameMage", part of a pack of RPG-assistant programs, that can randomize names in about 20 or more different forms, including Dwarven, Orc, Greek, Norse, ETC. Maybe such a program could be included into the code for UQM? Race names in SC2 have some sort of logic for each race, don't they?
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Re: Star Control II fact #4 - Crew cost
« Reply #11 on: January 05, 2004, 04:11:02 am »

that would only really work for a couple races. id like to c it randomise chensesu names
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Ishai Bar
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Re: Star Control II fact #4 - Crew cost
« Reply #12 on: January 05, 2004, 04:28:31 am »

Actually, it's not that hard. Even Chenjesu names have some sort of logic behind them (mainly - use Z's wherever possible!  Wink ) In fact, none of us can actually SPEAK chenjeseze, so would ANYONE know the difference between a human-invented and program-invented Chejesu name? Put enough Z's in, and who could POSSIBLY tell you that it isn't a correct name? Think about it.
Anyhow, check the program out, and you'll see what I mean.
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Re: Star Control II fact #4 - Crew cost
« Reply #13 on: January 05, 2004, 04:57:17 am »

the moorcock make good druuge names. The minoan make good utwig names. I have 999 different ones too. A problem is they arnt unique to the game.
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Re: Star Control II fact #4 - Crew cost
« Reply #14 on: January 08, 2004, 12:29:20 am »

I didn't say you'd have to use THAT program. Obviously, it would be a better idea to program something similar that goes into UQM and uses new formulas that match SC races, not the ones in NameMage. I agree with you - SC is unique and has to stay unique. Otherwise what's the freaking point?  Grin
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