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Author Topic: IRC chat with Toys for Bob on 2007-06-13  (Read 47351 times)
meep-eep
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IRC chat with Toys for Bob on 2007-06-13
« on: May 17, 2007, 12:20:13 am »

Yup. See the news page.

Considering that there will probably be more questions then they'll be able to answer, let's make this thread about what you'd like to ask Fred and Paul, and what makes a good question.

I'll start by stating that a good question is one to which the answer is interesting to all of us. So no "What do you think of my new SC remake.".

« Last Edit: May 17, 2007, 12:23:03 am by meep-eep » Logged

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when the Creators return
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Re: IRC chat with Toys for Bob on 2007-06-13
« Reply #1 on: May 17, 2007, 12:42:08 am »

I have the following questions:

  • Was the Ilwrath Avenger ever meant to be visible to the player controlling it while cloaked?
  • How did you guys go about deciding the melee point values for each of the ships?
  • Did either of you (Paul Reiche III, Fred Ford) ever meet the people that worked on Star Control 3?
  • What's Activision's problem, seriously?

Also, you said they'd be willing to play UQM against a few of us. Exactly HOW good are these guys at their game?
« Last Edit: May 17, 2007, 12:43:57 am by Shiver » Logged
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Re: IRC chat with Toys for Bob on 2007-06-13
« Reply #2 on: May 17, 2007, 02:51:43 am »

I don't think they'll answer this one, but:

Are the mainstream gamers (or the publisher's perception of them) today different in regards to how much complexity they're willing to put up with, and if so, how will that affect a SC sequel?

Is there really a conflict between "pickupandplay"-ability and complexity (especially in regards to a SC sequel)? My personal experience is that (some) publishers today are very afraid of complexity, even if it's only emerging to advanced players (emerging complexity with an additional depth axis).

What do you guys think of Spore and the whole procedural thing it's doing?

If you could travel back in time and make StarControl but for a modern computer, what kind of gameplay features would we see that weren't possible at that time?

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Re: IRC chat with Toys for Bob on 2007-06-13
« Reply #3 on: May 17, 2007, 08:31:40 am »

Wow, crazy! - I'm so excited I cant think of an intelligent question right now.

Exactly HOW good are these guys at their game?

You know, I would think that they wouldn't be as good as some of the better players in the Kohr-ah Cup. I don't think they have the time to play it all the time and get real good. Being on the cutting edge of computer games , if they do play games, i'm sure its cutting edge computer games. If you see what i mean.

Someone will have to ask them the billion dollar question about a sequel

Meep-Eep, I am slow and stupid. Can you tell me, is PT Pacific Time?

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Re: IRC chat with Toys for Bob on 2007-06-13
« Reply #4 on: May 17, 2007, 12:04:10 pm »

I'd also like to know how they came up with the ship point values.
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Re: IRC chat with Toys for Bob on 2007-06-13
« Reply #5 on: May 17, 2007, 01:37:22 pm »

Being on the cutting edge of computer games , if they do play games, i'm sure its cutting edge computer games. If you see what i mean.
We know for a fact that's not true. Just read the log of the previous chat.
In fact, I think everyone attending should read all the questions they answered before, so that the opportunity isn't wasted on asking things we already know (note that the "Fred Ford" page has several "next page" links).

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Meep-Eep, I am slow and stupid.
You shouldn't say that around here, lest someone puts it in his/her signature. Tongue

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Can you tell me, is PT Pacific Time?
Yes. It's the time zone TFB is in.
« Last Edit: May 17, 2007, 02:14:51 pm by meep-eep » Logged

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Re: IRC chat with Toys for Bob on 2007-06-13
« Reply #6 on: May 17, 2007, 02:10:25 pm »

A couple of questions, are the Androsynth Orz? and is Orz a hive entity? That's at least the impression I'm getting with the Androsynth *displaced* and *replaced* by the Orz.

Would you have plans in a sequel on doing something on the sorts of like an evil 'mirror universe'  i.e. Mirror Mirror Star Trek but in Star Control? I.e. Earthlings into Terrans with big ships and reverse engineered alien weapons as opposed to dinky Cruisers, evil Zelnick (I'm guessing the canon universe is a 'nice' one but rather in an evil parallel reality, Zelnick who declares himself emperor, mortal enemies with Talana and alien races) and during the story you'll accidentally be forced to meet each other, with the evil one wanting to kill you, so to speak.

Did you know Jody Schaeffer, one of the makers of Megas XLR (a funny cartoon which is now cancelled sadly) plays Star Control 2 on his 3DO in his spare time? It parodies many animes, computer games, memes and such, if it had only gone on further and we might have saw Ur-Quan in there.. Tongue

In a sequel would we see a huge free for all in between the rest of the Hierarchy, Kohr-Ah and the New Alliance, with perhaps some strategical elements to it so a blend of Star Control RTS, RPG and so forth?

Knowing that the Earthlings made holos of the crashed Dreadnought at Alpha Pavonis, do you think they have the knowledge to fill in the rest of the pieces and develop their own Battleships?

Would the New Alliance fall apart from internal troubles, and fracture? e.g. the Orz plonks off and leaves the NA, the Chmmr and the Earthlings fall out with the Yehat and Shofixti, etc.

Will the Druuge put a few bounties on Zelnick and then all of a sudden you have several thousand bounty hunters killing Zelnick, and killing each other for trying to kill Zelnick?

Speaking of which, does the guy in the back of the ZFP have any future plans? We all know he doesn't say anything, but I like to think of him as some super genius who sadly doesn't have the ability to speak.
« Last Edit: May 17, 2007, 02:21:27 pm by Elerium » Logged
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Re: IRC chat with Toys for Bob on 2007-06-13
« Reply #7 on: May 17, 2007, 03:57:59 pm »

Thankfully April 1st is far gone, so I can't say anything but...
WOW! COOL!
Too bad the IRC meeting is at 24:00 for me, but I'll surely be there.
If I won't, you're free to ban me from this forum. Seriously. (I bet you pray that I won't come, do you?!)
I confirm that the above line has no actual value. So you can't ban me either. :P

PLEASE take the following as my questions: (sorry for engrish, im too excited to write correctly)
NOTE: Questions marked with "*" are thought as less important.

Questions I like amongst those that have already been requested:
-I'd also like to know how they came up with the ship point values.
-Is the Ilwrath Avenger meant to be somewhat visible to the enemy or this is just a technical limitation?
-How did you chose the Orz words? Is there a logic behind them? Did you just pick a word that means almost the same as what you wanted to say, but not quite? And analogies?
-The first question should be "What are you working on now?", though the answer can't be SC3. But, anyway, it's a polite way of beginning.
-Do you still play melee sometimes?
-How much of SC2's story did you have in mind when you made SC1?
-Is there anything you wish you could have could have changed or added with SC2?
Maybe it will be implemented in UQM!!!

32) Do the Arilou originate from QuasiSpace, TrueSpace, HyperSpace or another dimension? How did Falayalaralfali end up in a TrueSpace nick in QuasiSpace? Also, it seems to have been somewhat "QuasiSpace"-ified - there are those strange phenomena, "the Tangible Wish", "the Mountain Clouds of Thought". Is that so?

4) Was the Ur-Quan homeworld relatively close to our region of space? Because the Sentient Milieu is described as being "near" our region of space and spanning only 500 light-years and 100 worlds, plus the Taalo lived here. So the Ur-Quan HW should be near too.
Also, about light-years: Fwiffo says that Spathiwa is 143 light-years from Sol, so he's either telling the truth (in which case a HyperSpace distance unit is 0.61 light years) or he's lying, making the distance shorter than it is really to convince Zelnick to take him there - in which case a HyperSpace distance unit is less than 0.61 light years.

10) The Tobermoon was attacked in the Vela Oort Cloud. The manual hints at the Ur-Quan who took them prisoner and that's why there are no bodies, but their weapons wouldn't have caused "deep burns" and minor damage to the vital systems, but much more. Plus, they would have probably discovered the Unzervalt colony also.

11) Later, the Tobermoon was attacked by a Slylandro Probe while en-route to Sol. Why did the Probe disengage? Its highest priority was replication, and a source of replication materials (i.e. the Tobermoon) was right nearby; even if its sensors were damaged, it still could detect the Vindicator and attack it, probably.

13) Did the Arilou give Zelnick his Precursor-tech "innate" talent?

32) Did the Ultron orchestrate Its own destruction?

14) Does Zelnick trade only with Greenish or with different Trade Masters every time (except the first two meetings)?

16) In the SC1 manual, the Arilou colonel Faffywaffy wishes the new recruits "Tishtushi's Blessing". Do the Arilou really have a deity named Tishtushi? How would that fit into their wise, IDF nature?

17) Do Star Control beings have souls, or at least some of them? Do they reincarnate? And why do non-Pkunk reincarnate too when Furies reincarnate?

18) How would you envision an ideal real life government?

19) Why does the furnace need living things as fuel? Or are they just an extra? If so, why do they yield so much energy? Psionic energy?

20) Who are the most traumatized, the Kzer-Za or the Kohr-Ah? Both passed through the same experiences (i.e. slavery in whatever form suited them more - the Black manual labor, the Green intellectual labor), but with different psychologies.

24) The Sa-Matra is always referred to as a Precursor "battleship". Against whom did they need battleships? Or did they fight amongst themselves?
24b) Were the Precursors the stereotype wise and ancient powerful beings, or rather a race of curious, eventually somewhat  naive, scientists, like the voice of certain Mycon lines - the ones attributed to The Creators - suggest?

28) Who were the Chimt?

30) I am led to believe that the Dramya are just made up by the Melnorme as a sort of self-defense via intimidation, since the Melnorme don't act like a militarily powerful civilization while fighting against Zelnick. Is that so?

LOW PRIORITY QUESTIONS (i.e. questions that will never be put, but I can't bring myself to remove them; or maybe they'll put them, who knows?):

25) Was Captain Rand's ship named "Miwok" (as the manual says) or "Far Voyager" (as Hayes says)?

22) Are the Piks (the rightmost springy aliens) the only ones interested in Frungy or are some Zoqs (or eventually Fots) interested too?

23) How come there is only one VUX Beast, apparently the same as the one referred to by ZEX's ancient handbook?

15) How can Fwiffo have a family of 18,487? He's not a Shofixti. Did he actually live at an orphanage?

29) Was the Final Defense at Raynet the final defense of the Syreen (since they're the only ones mentioning the incident) or of a larger part of the Alliance (in which case it was certainly before the Chenjesu&Mmrnmhrm's subjugation at Rigel)?
Or a combination? (i.e. before the Chenjesu&Mmrnmhrm's subjugation, but only the Syreen participated)

31) What FRIED variant do you prefer? The blue 3DO one or the yellow DOS one?

PS: Meep-eep, be sure to tell us what questions will be put and what won't be, we don't want to be waiting in vain.
« Last Edit: May 28, 2007, 08:06:39 pm by Valaggar » Logged
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Re: IRC chat with Toys for Bob on 2007-06-13
« Reply #8 on: May 17, 2007, 04:39:43 pm »

I personally think the first question should be "What are you working on now?". If the answer is "SC3", I think no further questions about their future plans for elements of the SC universe should be asked, as it would be better to spend the limited time on questions that we wouldn't get an answer to eventually anyhow.

And not all questions have to be about SC. Last time there was a question "What games do you play yourselves nowadays", which produced an interesting answer as well.

I distinguish three categories for the questions I'd personally like to ask:
  • Questions about the SC universe
  • Technical/development questions
  • Questions about TFB

In "Questions about the SC universe" I have:
  • Does "The process is incomplete" mean that there is a next stage in the merger of the two species? Or does it mean that not all individuals have been merged? Or something else?
  • What does the Kohr-Ah crew consist of?
  • Is the Syreen psyonic amplifier comparable to the Dnyari's innate ability?
  • A two-part question: 1) Would the Druuge throw Mycon in the furnace, and 2) would they burn?

Technical/development questions:
  • Judging by defines like NUM_PLAYERS, NUM_SIDES, and MAX_PLAYERS, it looks like you at some point had kept in mind the possibility of having melee with more than 2 players at a time. Any insights on that?
  • How did the threading system use to work? Was it part of the 3DO API? (I'm personally very interested in this one, but I don't think it qualifies as a good question, as the answer wouldn't be interesting to many people)
  • How did you chose the Orz words? Is there a logic behind them? Did you just pick a word that means almost the same as what you wanted to say, but not quite? And analogies?
  • The pieces of dialog missing from the 3DO version of SC2 consistently contained important gameplay hints. I know that you would never sabotage your own game to boost the Crystal Dynamics hints line, but did they get their hands on the source code before the game went gold?

TFB questions:
  • THE question: what are you working on now / what are the plans for a SC sequel. Possible followup question (depending on the answer): Is it still useful to sign the petition?
  • To Fred: what does Paul's polar bear theory entail? (Pretty much an obligatory question, after Paul said "Sometime ask Fred about my polar bear theory.")
  • Do you still play melee sometimes?

Note that with all the people that will attend, Fred and Paul wouldn't be able to answer all of the questions that everyone has, and I expect that the channel will even be so flooded with questions that we'd have to set the channel to moderated (which means that the questions are relayed through a few people).
Which brings me to another purpose of this thread: to see what questions are the most popular. So don't just post your questions here, tell us what you think of the ones other people suggest.
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Re: IRC chat with Toys for Bob on 2007-06-13
« Reply #9 on: May 17, 2007, 04:58:16 pm »

Quote
I personally think the first question should be "What are you working on now?"

Im inclined to agree with you
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Re: IRC chat with Toys for Bob on 2007-06-13
« Reply #10 on: May 17, 2007, 05:14:04 pm »

PS: Meep-eep, be sure to tell us what questions will be put and what won't be, we don't want to be waiting in vain.

You can be there yourself. If people don't all talk simultaneously, you can have a chat with them directly. But I give it at most 10 seconds before it becomes a shouting match, and we'll set the channel to moderated, so all questions go through the channel moderators, who pick the best/most popular ones to relay to TFB. You'll see what the moderators say and what the TFB people say in reply. (And afterwards, a log will be posted)

Some types of questions which I think should not be asked:
  • Questions about the details that TFB probably never thought about. They would just make up an answer on the spot. There are much more interesting things to ask. Your questions 2, 5 and 6 fall into that category.
  • Questions that only a few people will be interested in. (questions 1, 2, 5, 6)
  • Rhetorical questions, unless they are really, really funny. (question 1)
  • Suggestions for the sequel. Just send them directly if you insist. Or post them on the board if you're really only interested in letting the rest of the world know about your cool idea. (question 8, but a slightly different question would work ("SC1 tactics were rather popular; any chance of bringing something like that back?"))
  • As long as a SC sequel is still a possibility for the near future, questions about details of that sequel. (question 9)

The ship point question and the tobermoon questions (they could be one question) are good ones imho. 3 and 4 slightly less (people haven't really been wondering about this), but still good if there is time to ask them.
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Re: IRC chat with Toys for Bob on 2007-06-13
« Reply #11 on: May 17, 2007, 05:48:16 pm »

I think my most important question is: How soon before we'll have a chat log posted? Because I, sadly, will probably not be able to attend.

Other stuff:

Exactly how does lander mineral extraction work? Most planets probably wouldn't have spherical blobs of iron just sitting around waiting to be collected on the surface.

Just what were we originally supposed to find at Groombridge? If it really was going to be a chat with the floating heads of Fred and Paul, what would they have talked about?

Was the intent to have the Ilwrath and Thraddash truly exterminate each other entirely, or are there just few enough survivors that they become irrelevant, but leave some hope for the races to recover?
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Re: IRC chat with Toys for Bob on 2007-06-13
« Reply #12 on: May 17, 2007, 06:20:03 pm »

How does the Chmmr/Chenjesu reproduce/replicate? The Mother Ark stopped churning out Mrns, so what is your thoughts on how the new hybrid replicates, or do they simply follow at how the Chenjesu replicates themselves? Could you enlighten us a bit how they do this?

What weapons do Orz Marines use, and how would most of the races combat these marines onboard? e.g. would a slave crew really be given guns? does a Spathi hold up in the roof and throw rocks on the Marines?

Was it intended for the Androsynth Guardian to trump the Orz Nemesis in combat (or at the very least very difficult)?

What is the new attitude of the Chmmr? Are they as caring as much like the Chenjesu?

(also Meep, would the battleship question be good to suggest?)
« Last Edit: May 17, 2007, 06:26:16 pm by Elerium » Logged
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Re: IRC chat with Toys for Bob on 2007-06-13
« Reply #13 on: May 17, 2007, 06:36:45 pm »

I like the super melee related questions mentioned above.
  • On that same note, what are Paul and Fred’s favorite ships?
  • A more general question: what do they think about the trend of contemporary games sacrificing good, solid gameplay for pretty graphics? Do they themselves feel pressure from the suits above to focus only on aesthetics and leave everything else until the end?
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Re: IRC chat with Toys for Bob on 2007-06-13
« Reply #14 on: May 17, 2007, 06:53:51 pm »

(also Meep, would the battleship question be good to suggest?)
I find it a bit weak really, because the answer doesn't matter very much. If they want the humans to have that capability, they can write that in anyhow, crashed Dreadnought or not.

AngusThermopyle: Fred has already answered the question about his favorite ships:
Quote
I have sentimental favourites. The Pkunk, for example, because that is my voice (modified of course) for the insults. I was sooooo mad at Paul that day (and I don't even remember why) that we only needed one take. The Druuge again, because it was my design and its melee character suggested its adventure game character. The Yehat (again my design) and the VUX, because they are the first two ships we ever made.
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“When Juffo-Wup is complete
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