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Author Topic: IRC chat with Toys for Bob on 2007-06-13  (Read 48477 times)
Shiver
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Re: IRC chat with Toys for Bob on 2007-06-13
« Reply #15 on: May 17, 2007, 08:30:58 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)

That would reflect very badly on the community and it's almost guaranteed to happen. Consider not bringing anyone along except other core team members and Death999. I don't mind disqualifying myself from this event, I'd pretty much just perch myself in front of the screen and not blink until the chat ends anyhow. Which, of course, isn't healthy.
« Last Edit: May 17, 2007, 08:32:55 pm by Shiver » Logged
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Re: IRC chat with Toys for Bob on 2007-06-13
« Reply #16 on: May 17, 2007, 08:39:49 pm »

Could you ask them if they've heard of the Fjorn, and whether they like that fan-race or not? Smiley thanks.
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Re: IRC chat with Toys for Bob on 2007-06-13
« Reply #17 on: May 17, 2007, 08:58:07 pm »

When you say, set the channel to moderated, does this mean only moderators can talk? or only moderators can be in the channel?

Id like to be there, so I can read the chat first hand, but I don't plan on saying much except hello, and of course star control 2 is the greatest game ever.
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Re: IRC chat with Toys for Bob on 2007-06-13
« Reply #18 on: May 17, 2007, 09:25:40 pm »

You can be present in a moderated channel, but when you say something, the message only ends up with the moderators.
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Re: IRC chat with Toys for Bob on 2007-06-13
« Reply #19 on: May 17, 2007, 10:13:52 pm »

Suits me - I'll also just be sitting there listening.

As far as questions go, I still cant think of any good ones, but I'm keen on the ship point value. However I would hope that we dont get too carried away with irrelevent facts and speculation from SC2. A lot of the mystique of the game has already been hammered out by endless discussion - every possibility about every plot twist has been considered. I put my trust in SC3 providing some of the anwsers. However if they say "sorry, we changed our minds - no sequel" then go nuts.

Valaggar, I can answer your Mycon question for you. The rate a sphere of influence expands is determined not by how fast you want to expand, but by how fast you can expand. You need to have the military and technological means.

One other thing, what is the appropriateness/suitablility of running a melee tournament before/during/after/inconjunction with this IRC event?
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Re: IRC chat with Toys for Bob on 2007-06-13
« Reply #20 on: May 17, 2007, 10:16:58 pm »

A couple of things to bear in mind:

  • They made this game over a decade and a half ago, and they've made a lot of games since then.  Time makes the details fade, and they've admittedly forgotten most everything they knew about this universe.  Asking them pedantic questions about inane details of a universe they haven't visited in fifteen years or so will not score you any points; they'll most likely make up a snarky non-answer on the spot and blow you off.
  • Do NOT, under any circumstances, send them ideas for a sequel!  I can't stress this enough.  Due to the litigious nature of American society, any ideas they come across from third parties, solicited or not, must be rejected, lest they risk being sued.  So if you come up with a completely awesome idea for the sequel and tell them, and they already had the exact same idea six months ago on their own, and wrote 50,000 lines of code and several hundred megabytes of art assets to make it happen, they'll now have to junk the whole thing and start over out of fear that you'll drag them to court for "stealing" it, even though they came up with it first.  And if it was a really good, fun idea, no one will ever know because it'll have to be buried.  So seriously, shut the fuck up with the sequel ideas.

And now, my questions:

  • Tell us your favourite story involving Star Control fandom.  (yeah, I know, technically not a question...)
  • Tell us your favourite story involving fandom from one of your non-Star Control related titles.
  • This one is actually a simple question, but I'll take the long way around asking it so that my full meaning is understood: Star Control II was technically quite impressive in its time (you made my puny 286 play ProTracker .MOD music through the PC speaker! How cool was that?!), but it remains eminently playable even today, due to the quality of the story within the game.  One of the aspects of this that I find striking is how relatively straightforward the "contemporary" story is (i.e., finding the bits and pieces to power-up your super-ship so that it can destroy the other, bigger super-ship) and how amazingly detailed and immersive the "backstory" is, (i.e., multiple, variously intertwined sagas spanning tens of thousands of years)  I have seen this, erm, "literary device" used in other areas, sometimes well (Retro Studios' "Metroid Prime", Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings") and more often than not used not-so-well (Legend's "Star Control 3" comes immediately to mind) so I'm inclined to believe that there's a bit of a trick involved in pulling it off correctly.  Is there?  And would you care to share what it is?
« Last Edit: May 17, 2007, 10:34:11 pm by 0xDEC0DE » Logged

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Re: IRC chat with Toys for Bob on 2007-06-13
« Reply #21 on: May 17, 2007, 10:59:15 pm »

AngusThermopyle: Fred has already answered the question about his favorite ships:
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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.

Thanks Meep-Eep. I missed that part while I scanned the chat logs. I'd still like to know their thoughts on my other question, if there is time.
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Re: IRC chat with Toys for Bob on 2007-06-13
« Reply #22 on: May 17, 2007, 11:47:28 pm »

Off topic, but: I had forgotten about that little story attached to the Pkunk. Hahah so hilarious.
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Re: IRC chat with Toys for Bob on 2007-06-13
« Reply #23 on: May 18, 2007, 12:35:02 am »

There's a bit of Ilwrath dialog in the content files that isn't referenced in ilwrathc.c:

Quote
DECEIVERS!
We Know That You Are Not Truly Dogar And Kazon!
Your Foolish And Childlike Attempts To Fool Us Shall Be Your Death!

So my question is, how were they going to find out?

How come the Syreen race is still mostly female, when it seems like gender balance should have returned to normal after a few generations?  Are they just very long-lived, or did the actual birth rate change after their world was shattered?  Did they do something to... keep it that way?



And, chiming in with the already-suggested ones I'm interested in:
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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?

What are you working on now?

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.

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 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.

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.

Did the Arilou give Zelnick his Precursor-tech talents?

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

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?

Who are the most traumatized, the Kzer-Za or the Kohr-Ah? Both passed through the same experiences, but with different psychologies.

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?

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?

I don't know how you can say the Kzer-Za and Kohr-Ah passed through the "same" experiences, though.  They were modified for very different things and made to do different things.
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Re: IRC chat with Toys for Bob on 2007-06-13
« Reply #24 on: May 18, 2007, 03:13:26 am »

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Do NOT, under any circumstances, send them ideas for a sequel!
I completely agree 0xDECODE's statement about not sending them ideas about the sequel; they're a professional, incredible, and innovative video game makers, and they've been making games before I was even born!  They know what to do; they just waiting for Activision to give them the green light.  Whatever they make, I know that they have placed their heart and soul into it, and it will be great.

I've noticed some people asking questions about the aliens in the game, that may cross the line of criticism; please be careful when asking these questions; the voices and aliens were made not only by TFB, but also people who are friends of PR3 and FF, such as Greg Johnson.

As for questions, I may have a few:
- How does Activision feel towards the Star Control sequel?
- What's it like making video games now that there are more employees at TFB?
- In the new Star Control game, are there plans for unique fonts for each alien race?  I know font-making is tedious, and after all that work, it creates a nice effect when listening to them talk, and reading along with the subtitles.  It was awesome in Star Control II.
- When Activision gives the green light to make Star Control, can we expect a trailer on GameTrailers.com or a similar place?  That's an awesome video game site.
- Does Activision realize that Star Control rules, and that it cannot be ignored?
- I was reading Wikipedia about Toys for Bob, and it read:
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The name Toys for Bob comes from a joke by the founders. Their initial funding came from a company with a CEO named Bob, and so whenever they showed up on the budget, it was listed as "Toys for Bob"
Is this true?
- What are the things that you love most about Star Control, from a developer's point-of-view?
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Re: IRC chat with Toys for Bob on 2007-06-13
« Reply #25 on: May 18, 2007, 04:54:28 am »

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The name Toys for Bob comes from a joke by the founders. Their initial funding came from a company with a CEO named Bob, and so whenever they showed up on the budget, it was listed as "Toys for Bob"
Is this true?
Nope. From Fred:
Quote
Quote
Also, what is the significance of "Toys for Bob". Is it just a name for fun, or does it have special meaning that you would want to share?
There is no particular meaning. We just liked the name and it sure generates curiosity.
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Re: IRC chat with Toys for Bob on 2007-06-13
« Reply #26 on: May 18, 2007, 03:25:44 pm »

When you hypnotize Pkunks onboard your Penetrator, kill the Fury and it reincarnates, where exactly do these new clones come from? are they clones? If so, really dodgy occurrences happen in that you'll end up with the same looking Pkunk 10 or so times onboard your Penetrator.
« Last Edit: May 18, 2007, 03:27:48 pm by Elerium » Logged
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Re: IRC chat with Toys for Bob on 2007-06-13
« Reply #27 on: May 18, 2007, 04:02:49 pm »

Why was dialogue removed from the 3DO version?

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?

What are your favorite games ever, besides ones you've made?
« Last Edit: May 18, 2007, 04:49:34 pm by Mormont » Logged
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Re: IRC chat with Toys for Bob on 2007-06-13
« Reply #28 on: May 18, 2007, 06:49:07 pm »

Wow!  I can see that Paul and I are going to need some preparation.  I don't want to diminish the IRC event and I don't want people to feel left out, if moderation is necessary.  So if there are some points of discussion that make sense to get out of the way before the chat, I will do my best.  Otherwise Paul, and I and probably Chris Nelson will see you in June!
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Re: IRC chat with Toys for Bob on 2007-06-13
« Reply #29 on: May 18, 2007, 07:14:37 pm »

A God has posted in the forum!!!  Grin
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