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Author Topic: Are Star Control 1 and 3 any good?  (Read 13774 times)
Cyamarin
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Re: Are Star Control 1 and 3 any good?
« Reply #15 on: January 23, 2003, 01:56:30 am »

Actually, in SC1 for the Commodore 64, there were actually fewer ships on each side, so they kept the sides equal just by cutting ships out.  I can't remember which ones were in the final version.
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Re: Are Star Control 1 and 3 any good?
« Reply #16 on: January 25, 2003, 03:22:22 am »

1 Yes.  3 No.
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Star Control 1 ships on 8-bit
« Reply #17 on: January 25, 2003, 08:27:01 pm »

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Actually, in SC1 for the Commodore 64, there were actually fewer ships on each side, so they kept the sides equal just by cutting ships out.  I can't remember which ones were in the final version.

The 8-bit versions of Star Control had some really odd fleets.

Star Control on the Amstrad CPC has the following:

Hierarchy: Ur-Quan, Ilwrath, Androsynth, Umgah.
Alliance: Chenjesu, Earthling, Mycon (!), Yehat.

I think the Spectrum and C64 versions had the same ships, but I can't seem to get my C64 emulator to run right now.
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Re: Are Star Control 1 and 3 any good?
« Reply #18 on: January 25, 2003, 11:50:54 pm »

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....also, 50% of the time it will load up some "Guide to Alien Ettiquette" which appears to be some sort of copy protection, but even the original retail manual doesn't mention how to get past it.

SC3 wasn't as good as 2, but it's a good game.


The guide to alien ettiquette was annoying. The original disk version of Star Control came with a code wheel. To answer prof zorg's question you had to line up all the words he said on the wheel.

I like SC3. I don't think it was anywhere near as good as SC2, but it was an interesting game nonetheless.
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Death 999
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Re: Are Star Control 1 and 3 any good?
« Reply #19 on: January 26, 2003, 08:43:53 pm »

Except that it's so easy to accidentally bypass the plot and screw yourself up forever that it's not funny. Also, the computer AI is godawful.

in melee, my friend and I gaped in astonishment as (on Awesome difficulty!) watched a Kohr-Ah and a Dreadnought (low on crew so it wouldn't launch fighters) bounce off of each other at a little angle, turn AWAY from the other ship, fire, re-ram each other, bounce away, fire again, re-ram the other ship.... Either one could have wrecked the other if it had simply stayed FACING the other when it fired.

This ended when the magnetic nature of the kohr-ah blades finally caught up with the dreadnought and did the poor fool in. Then the Kohr-ah hit the planet and died.

Oh, and the ship designs were very erratic. Some are quite good. Half are absolutely terrible.
« Last Edit: January 26, 2003, 08:49:00 pm by Death_999 » Logged
Death 999
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Re: Are Star Control 1 and 3 any good?
« Reply #20 on: January 27, 2003, 07:29:27 pm »

Most of the ships are designed well?

Well, let's see...
Owa: good
Clairconctlar: good. Someone around here says it's ineffective. I disagree.
Herald: good aside from the problem of the pilot having no more information than the enemy... when do you fire?
Harika/Yorn: maybe a little too fast at turning? Still, not insane. Good.
K'Tang: not bad in principle, but the AI was incompetent at using it. Those mines are insane. Used properly, the Crippler can become essentially invincible to any ship with less than, say, 18 crew. I'd call this a serious issue.
Doog: Absolutely terrible (regeneration is too rapid, auto-aim gun NAILS short-ranged ships)
Ploxis: worse (way too powerful all around)
Vyro-Ingo: Others have reported ever dealing damage with this ship. Based on that testimony, I decline to give it an absolutely terrible rating. Still, it has this major problem doing damage. Its defenses are surprisingly solid due to the indestructible warp wakes.
Exquivan: There are several ships that will never be able to defeat this. This is annoying (I don't like it about the chmmr either). However, it is neither too powerful nor underpowered, if you discount the many ships which do not pump out enough damage to ever break through the blockade... Serious issues.
Daktaklakpak: lame. If its attack is about as restrictive as the zoq-fot-pik attack, it should at least do comparable damage. The mines are not AS bad as the K'tang mines in terms of balance, just because an enemy can wade through them a little... This ship sucks too much to exist, and the only tactics which make it at all powerful are too boring to be conscionable.
Xchagger: pretty generic. SLOW turning, lame secondary... powerful punch... not an unbalanced ship, but low value. Good enough.
Lk: the phasing shield is amusing, but the ship is too slow to transit through the enemy and make a break for it with any reliability... the firehose stream makes at least light damage to the enemy very likely. Good enough. Could use a little extra speed.
Total:
good or better: 5 (Owa, Clairconctlar, Harika, Xchagger, Lk)
serious issues: 4 (Exquivan, K'Tang, Herald, Vyro-Ingo)
bad: 1 (Daktaklakpak)
terrible: 2 (Ploxis, Doog)

So the median here is "has serious issues"

Anyone wish to re-rank these?
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Re: Are Star Control 1 and 3 any good?
« Reply #21 on: January 27, 2003, 11:46:35 pm »

I was introduced to Star Control when my friend rented it for the Sega Genesis.  I followed up by buying it for the Amiga.  The Amiga version is quite good, and emulates just fine on a windows PC.  One more option.
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Re: Are Star Control 1 and 3 any good?
« Reply #22 on: February 01, 2003, 06:32:45 am »

I've seen many people ramble about how bad SC3 was, but I have never seen the game and cannot seem to find what the plot was.  The precursor vessel was annigilated(sorry, I had to) when it blew up the Sa-Matra, so what do they fly in?
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Re: Are Star Control 1 and 3 any good?
« Reply #23 on: February 01, 2003, 05:44:43 pm »

SC3 sucks badly. At least in my opinion. I tried it yesterday, and even melee seems f***ed up somehow. Not to mention the hideous appearance of half the aliens. The Syreen do NOT look like that!

If anyone wants to try it, the game can be found at The Underdogs. www.the-underdogs.org, search for star control.
« Last Edit: February 01, 2003, 05:49:07 pm by unigolyn » Logged
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Re: Are Star Control 1 and 3 any good?
« Reply #24 on: February 02, 2003, 12:57:39 am »

Hmm. Well, I know melee can be switched to 2D, and I did so at once. It still feels weird somehow.

Not a real Starcon fan? SC2 is, along with the Fallouts, my favourite game of all time. However, I do NOT like SC3, although I'll try to keep playing it a bit more (see what the story's like).
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Re: Are Star Control 1 and 3 any good?
« Reply #25 on: February 02, 2003, 07:53:01 am »

Star Control 1 came out on the sega Genesis.

I have a rom of it if you like, just email me
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Re: Are Star Control 1 and 3 any good?
« Reply #26 on: February 02, 2003, 07:54:22 am »

Here's some my analysis on some of the SC3 ships in  Melee
Herald: Just worthless, despite it's cloaking it has hideious turning made it difficult to hit faster ships not to mention too little damage for how much it cost to fire.
Owa: Just intresting variation of Earthing Cruiser just better
Clairconctlar: Good hit and run ship but, it's too darn annoying to fight with
Doog: Very unbalanced with it's regeneation and impossible to kill with ships that lack firepower
Ploxis: This ship is just too cheap with it's tracking missles and reflection ship
Vyro-Inro- Desptie, what many people here say this ship has some potental thought I have to admitted it's attacking shield is nearly-useless, it's gravity wreaks are it's real weapon they are vritial indestructible only the FRIED destroy them making them effective for defense. But, strangly enough the wreaks inflict massive damage if emeny ship runs into them and sometimes repeals them violently away.
Exquian: somewhat weak since it's too defensive
Dak: This ship it's for too limited in capaibles other then running away making them a pain to kill
Xcaggers: A cheap rip off of Yehat Terminator without shields, crappy turning and speed
LK: Most innovate SC3 ship sadly, It's phasing ablilty is quasi-useful and it's rapid firing gun can do damage but, lacks range
Colony ship: inferior to SC2 Precursor ship and it's buggy with it's defensive guns and can crash if two colony ships in melee uses and has fairly rapid missle attack
K'Tang: The strongest SC3 ship, it's primary attack is somewhat short range but, plumbes anything in short order and not to mention having the most effective mines.
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Re: Are Star Control 1 and 3 any good?
« Reply #27 on: February 02, 2003, 08:45:18 pm »

One gripe about SC3 melee - the AI. Playing against a Spathi with a slower ship is pure hell - the damn thing will NOT come into weapon range for minutes on end, not even with a tug by a Chmmr tractor beam. This seems to be both an AI problem as well as something being wrong with the zooming. Maybe it's perfect considering the cowardly nature of Spathis, but it's really annoying to have to basically fly around for 5 minutes unable to do anything other than wait for the Spathi to come at you.
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Re: Are Star Control 1 and 3 any good?
« Reply #28 on: February 02, 2003, 09:55:46 pm »

Quote

Just because you suck at Melee, doesn't mean the game is poorly coded.


But the other ships do it too. I killed loads of K'tangs with an Earthling Cruiser  because they just flew away from me and dropped mines.
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Re: Are Star Control 1 and 3 any good?
« Reply #29 on: February 02, 2003, 11:18:49 pm »

Here's how you use the tractor in 3:

wait until the enemy is coming roughly toward you (albiet on the other side of the screen.)

tractor for JUST a second or two.  If you do this right, the enemy will start going very very fast.

DO NOT tractor again.  What has occurred is that now the ship is going so fast it can't change its velocity at all.  It will turn, but it will keep going the same direction.

Now, set up an intercept course and laser them.

NOTE: this won't work on humans because humans are smart enough to turn around 180 degrees, and the AIs arent.
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