The Ur-Quan Masters Home Page Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?
March 28, 2024, 10:33:32 am
Home Help Search Login Register
News: Celebrating 30 years of Star Control 2 - The Ur-Quan Masters

+  The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum
|-+  The Ur-Quan Masters Re-Release
| |-+  General UQM Discussion (Moderator: Death 999)
| | |-+  complete newbie needing some general advice
« previous next »
Pages: [1] 2 Print
Author Topic: complete newbie needing some general advice  (Read 5092 times)
firefly28
Zebranky food
*
Offline Offline

Posts: 6



View Profile
complete newbie needing some general advice
« on: March 16, 2009, 04:45:36 pm »

Firstly, hi everyone! I am actually 30 years off age, love my gaming and cant believe I didnt know about UR-QUAN MASTERS, I have only played it for a mere 10 mins but I just know I am going to enjoy it.

However I was just wandering would I have to own star control 2 to play this game?? I am also considering purchasing SC 2, its just without SC 2 does that mean I wont get access to the full in game story?(Im thinking this because of something I read on the FAQ here?)

Also what tips could you give me for starting out? For example I figured out that if I do dispatch I can launch a little ship onto planets but I seem to lose them on venus , its like electrical storms, what do I need to land on these planets?

Another thing is how do I refuel?? I just got access to my first base from the first mission guy and I notice on the upgrade screen I can buy fuel upgrades but this just expands my capacity , not fills it. For example the ship has like 3 parts on the upgrade screen i.e top screen, middle screen and bottom screen but I can only access the bottom and middle screen so I am thinking I maybe need to select the top part to fill up on fuel.........if anyone can advise on this it is really appreciated

Seems like a great game, out of curiosity does anywhere sell SC 2 as a digital download? and does SC 2 even provide anything that urquan doesnt

Finally I am using Vista, will this cause me major problems with SC 2 or urquan

BTW the keys I figured out were that arrow keys move and the U key fires, is there any more useful stuff I should be aware off?

Thanks
Logged
Yetiers
*Many bubbles*
***
Offline Offline

Posts: 175


IN MY OPINION -->


View Profile
Re: complete newbie needing some general advice
« Reply #1 on: March 16, 2009, 04:56:17 pm »

The Ur-Quan Masters is a port of the 3DO version of Star Control 2 (whose code and content have been freely released by the game's creators, Toys for Bob); you do not have to have the original SC2 to play the game, in fact UQM actually has more features than the original (such as scalers, ability to use remixed music, speech); the only fun thing from the original SC2 that is lacking in UQM is the copy protection screen at the beginning. Tongue

There are some spoiler-free hints available here; be careful though, do not click on any links, for the pages they link to may contain spoilers.

Using the "little ship" (the planet lander) to land on dangerous planets such as Venus is not recommended in the beginning; you may get the ability to do this later in the game. Note that lightning is more dangerous than fire (lightning can't be avoided), and fire is more dangerous than earthquakes (earthquakes can be easily avoided).
Use the Special button to return to ship; this is useful if you're on the brink of destruction, as landers are expensive

To refuel, press the Fuel button; you'll notice that the red FUEL text below the name of your starship begins to glow. Use the Up button to add fuel and the Down button to sell fuel.

The keys can be changed under Setup -> Configure Controls combined with Setup -> Configure Controls -> Edit Controls.

Also, personal advice regarding how to start -- focus on buying thrusters above all else, don't stop until all your thruster slots are full. You'll be able to outrun any enemies this way. Sell your Ion Bolt Gun that you get at the beginning for some extra thrusters. Don't land on planets that have only cheap stuff like Commons (you can find out what the different colors of the minerals mean under Manifest -> Cargo).

(Im thinking this because of something I read on the FAQ here?)

Exactly what part made you think that?
« Last Edit: March 16, 2009, 05:01:51 pm by Yetiers » Logged
firefly28
Zebranky food
*
Offline Offline

Posts: 6



View Profile
Re: complete newbie needing some general advice
« Reply #2 on: March 16, 2009, 05:00:50 pm »

Thanks Smiley I am set now, I am just back from Uni so I am going to relax on this game, cant believe something so old has such a good intro, granted that could well be because of the features of the whole open source setup(Great to see how a community can compliment a game)

Cheers for the fast reply, no rush for this but just out of curiosity do you remap you keys or to you just run with the default? Im thinking of remapping, just not sure to what yet; just having a coffee and appreciate the spoiler free links given(Will be careful though)

Noted about the common mats, I was doing exactly what you recommend not to do on my first attempt .
« Last Edit: March 16, 2009, 05:02:48 pm by firefly28 » Logged
Yetiers
*Many bubbles*
***
Offline Offline

Posts: 175


IN MY OPINION -->


View Profile
Re: complete newbie needing some general advice
« Reply #3 on: March 16, 2009, 05:05:40 pm »

Most people use the arrow keys for Up, Down, Left and Right, and map Ctrl as Fire and Right-Shift as Special. You could also try using ESDF instead of the arrow keys, Q for fire and A for special.

Also, about mining -- as I said, "don't land on planets that have only cheap stuff like Commons (you can find out what the different colors of the minerals mean under Manifest -> Cargo).", but also don't spend too much time mining, once you have all thruster slots full and enough fuel to go where to some interesting plot-related location, and to return, (you'll find out about some of them talking with Commander Hayes and during mining), go for it, and eventually mine some minerals along the way.

Careful not to confuse Commons and Energy sources, though; as the latter are extremely important and should always be picked up. Do the Energy scan separately if need be.
« Last Edit: March 16, 2009, 05:09:04 pm by Yetiers » Logged
Draxas
Enlightened
*****
Offline Offline

Gender: Male
Posts: 1044



View Profile
Re: complete newbie needing some general advice
« Reply #4 on: March 16, 2009, 06:03:48 pm »

(Im thinking this because of something I read on the FAQ here?)

Actually, the only "real" content that you are missing are the 3D0 intro and ending movies. These are only available on the 3D0 CD, and since they were created by an outside contacter, Toys for Bob does not have the rights to release them to the community like they did with the rest of the game. In all honesty, it's not much of a loss; you can look up the movies on your favorite video site if you want to watch them, and it's probably not worth spending $100+ on a 3D0 copy of the game just to have the CD to play them in-game.

To expand on some of the hints Yetiers gave you, it's important to check out planetary conditions before sending down a lander, and this is one of the easiest aspects for a new player to miss. When you're viewing the planet from your ship, you can see several data readings alongside the spinning globe image, and these give you a wide variety of information about the planet, some important for landing, and some not. The most important ones to keep an eye on are:

Weather: Ranges from 0 - 8, and determines how frequent lightning strikes are. Class 0 is no atmosphere, and Class 1 and 2 do not have dangerous weather patterns and are safe to land on. Starting from Class 3, you can expect to see lightning periodically, and this escalates all the way up to constant barrages of lightining bolts at Class 8. As mentioned, lightning is unavoidable, so you need to consider the value of what is on the planet's surface versus how many crew you are willing to sacrifice to the storms. For reference, Venus has Class 8 weather, making it one of the earliest deathtraps in the game for your landers.

Tectonics: Ranges from 0 - 8, and determines how frequent earthquakes are. Class 0 is no surface, and you will only see this on gas giants (which you cannot send landers to). Class 1 and 2 are not tectonically active and are safe to land. Starting from Class 3, earthquakes will strike periodically, and this escalates to constant quake activity on Class 8 worlds. Unlike lightning, however, earthquakes are rather easy to avoid; the presence of a small white dot shows the quake's center before it actually strikes, and they always radiate a set distance away from that center, making evasion of isolated events relatively trivial. In fact, once you develop a fair amount of skill piloting the lander, you should probably be able to navigate Class 7 and 8 world with little difficulty.

Temperature: Shows the surface temperature of the planet in degrees Celcius. Starting at ~100 degrees (give or take), you can expect to see surface flare activity; you have probabkly observed this on Mercury already. As the temperature gets hotter, flare activity intensifies. Flares are a bit trickier to avoid than earthquakes as they move unpredictably, but can still be dodged. As with lightning, you need to weight the lives of your crew against the contents of the world before landing.

Fuel: This is the value that's the easiest to miss, as it does not appear in the display with the others. It shows the amount of fuel you will consume each time you land on the planet. Once you give the command to launch a lander, a target shows up on the planet's surface. Before choosing the target, be sure to check this value (it will show up in a green bar below the surface display. This goes hand-in-hand with the Gravity value displayed by the globe picture, but does not correlate as directly as the others as there are other factors besides gravity that can affect fuel consumption (for example, magnetic worlds exert a pull on the lander in addition to normal gravity, increasing fuel consumption even further). It is of vital importance that you weigh the cost of fuel against the benefit of the cargo you will retrieve; if you go after cheap resources on fuel-intensive worlds, you will wind up operating at minimal gain or even a loss, and will have trouble getting the RU you need for other things.

Of course, be sure to run all 3 scans on any world you come across; as already stated, Energy sources are always worth checking out, and hostile biologicals pose their own unique hazards that are beyond the scope of discussion here.

I hope this helps.
Logged
firefly28
Zebranky food
*
Offline Offline

Posts: 6



View Profile
Re: complete newbie needing some general advice
« Reply #5 on: March 16, 2009, 06:23:56 pm »

Helps alot , appreciated! Wink
Logged
SuddenDeath
Frungy champion
**
Offline Offline

Gender: Male
Posts: 96


from Sunstrike's image pack


View Profile
Re: complete newbie needing some general advice
« Reply #6 on: March 16, 2009, 08:10:11 pm »

Regarding ship upgrades - I agree that thrusters are the most important, but don't forget turning jets too Smiley

First steps - buy an extra storage bay and another fuel tank (so you have 2 of each). Besides that, it's thrusters, turning jets, more thrusters until you fill all the slots for them. Once you do that, I would suggest buying more storage bays (4, maybe even 5) and one more crew pod (so you have 110 crew). These modifications will make your flagship ready for large mining operations. After a few months of that, you should have more than enough money to keep you going Cheesy

Regarding planets - some of them are a bit useless... you can generally ignore those which have only common, corrosive and base metal minerals on them. These minerals just take up space without giving much profit. If you find a planet with noble gases or better, and good weather/tectonics/temperature conditions, then by all means land Smiley

(most of these things have already been mentioned by other people here... Lips Sealed)

If you have any questions/trouble, just ask Grin
Logged
firefly28
Zebranky food
*
Offline Offline

Posts: 6



View Profile
Re: complete newbie needing some general advice
« Reply #7 on: March 16, 2009, 08:49:36 pm »

lol Im just about finished with the first solar system, dont want to give anything away since other newbies may read this but the the reason Im laughing is because of one of the characters I just bumped into. (This game must have been something in its day )

Has the voice overs been done by the community or were those in the game by default, its just they are really good thus far

Also just in response to the last post, I have just got my thrusters maxed and 1 storage bay, but I think I may need to leave the solar system to get more minerals soon, I will follow this mission though first, character is green and hilarious Smiley
Logged
Cedric6014
Enlightened
*****
Offline Offline

Gender: Male
Posts: 701



View Profile
Re: complete newbie needing some general advice
« Reply #8 on: March 16, 2009, 08:51:38 pm »

I'll just emphasise that spoilers will deminish your enjoyment of the game. If you play the game through without the aid of spoilers I GUARANTEE that you will have enjoyed yourself as much as you could have possibly imagined. It really is a great game.

Having said that, there is one bug in this port which will trap you. One of the sticky topics in Generaly Discussion of this forum will help you through that.
Logged

Play online melee here! http://irc.uqm.stack.nl/
Lukipela
Enlightened
*****
Offline Offline

Gender: Male
Posts: 3620


The Ancient One


View Profile
Re: complete newbie needing some general advice
« Reply #9 on: March 16, 2009, 09:07:30 pm »

Has the voice overs been done by the community or were those in the game by default, its just they are really good thus far

The voices were produced for the 3DO release, so they're the real deal. The original PC game just had text.
Logged

What's up doc?
firefly28
Zebranky food
*
Offline Offline

Posts: 6



View Profile
Re: complete newbie needing some general advice
« Reply #10 on: March 16, 2009, 11:44:54 pm »

Woe seriously??

In regards to those voices , well the ones I have heard thus far are top notch, I actually figured since the voices fitted the part that they were added by the actual game devlopers or came as stock in one of the versions of SC , thats great to here that is not the case and them still be so good

Noted about the spoilers, I just read one page which didnt give any spoilers and just gave some basic starting advice and as it stands I now have thrusters and rudders(Cant remember then in game name dow!) maxed out + 2 fuel tanks, 4 storage and 2 weapons, managed to make quite a profit on last run but lost a few crew, Im trying to be careful with cew loss after what the starbase captain hints at , during the initial stages of the game(i.e higher ru cost for crew)

Really fun thus far though, have been playing for a few hours now and thats me starting to notice some pretty crazy characters in the game Smiley
Logged
Novus
Enlightened
*****
Offline Offline

Gender: Male
Posts: 1938


Fot or not?


View Profile
Re: complete newbie needing some general advice
« Reply #11 on: March 18, 2009, 11:03:55 pm »

In regards to those voices , well the ones I have heard thus far are top notch, I actually figured since the voices fitted the part that they were added by the actual game devlopers or came as stock in one of the versions of SC , thats great to here that is not the case and them still be so good
To clarify: the voices are from the second commercial release of Star Control II, for a mildly obscure console called the 3DO. The voices were added by Toys for Bob, the original developers; in fact, many of the voices are the developers and their families and friends (and one of the 3DO development Macs!).

See the version comparison page on the Ultronomicon for further details on how PC SC2, 3DO SC2 and UQM differ.
Logged

RTFM = Read the fine manual.
RTTFAQ = Read the Ur-Quan Masters Technical FAQ.
Lukipela
Enlightened
*****
Offline Offline

Gender: Male
Posts: 3620


The Ancient One


View Profile
Re: complete newbie needing some general advice
« Reply #12 on: March 19, 2009, 07:44:11 pm »

You know you've been here too long when you don't realise that most people wont know what a 3DO is.
Logged

What's up doc?
jaychant
*Smell* controller
****
Offline Offline

Gender: Male
Posts: 432


Please visit my homepage


View Profile WWW
Re: complete newbie needing some general advice
« Reply #13 on: March 19, 2009, 08:19:01 pm »

That makes me wonder: Why did they release SC2 on the 3DO (which I still know very little about) and not one of the bigger consoles, like the Nintendo console? (I'm not sure, was 3DO during the NES, SNES, or N64 time?)

Or was the 3DO actually one of the most major consoles of the time?
Logged

Please visit my homepage.
Novus
Enlightened
*****
Offline Offline

Gender: Male
Posts: 1938


Fot or not?


View Profile
Re: complete newbie needing some general advice
« Reply #14 on: March 20, 2009, 05:37:46 pm »

That makes me wonder: Why did they release SC2 on the 3DO (which I still know very little about) and not one of the bigger consoles, like the Nintendo console? (I'm not sure, was 3DO during the NES, SNES, or N64 time?)

Or was the 3DO actually one of the most major consoles of the time?
The 3DO was heavily hyped in 1994 and was expected to become a major console for several years. However, stupid marketing ("It's a high-end audio-visual system, not a video game console!") and high prices killed it off in 1996.

The major consoles of 1994 (considering only ones that were marketed worldwide) were not really a good match for SC2. Established ROM-based systems such as the Mega Drive/Genesis and SNES usually used memory cartridges too small for SC2, as did the recent Atari Jaguar; bear in mind that, at 1.5 MB (one single floppy!), SC1 was the biggest Genesis game at the time of its release. Without cutting lots of data, SC2 would have been the largest (and most expensive) SNES (or Genesis or Jaguar or whatever cartridge-based system of the time other than Neo Geo) game ever. The CD-I was already dying at the time, although it could have been a good match for SC2, as was the Amiga CD-32. The Sony PlayStation, Sega Saturn and Nintendo 64 were not released yet.

I'd have loved a PC CD-ROM release, myself.
Logged

RTFM = Read the fine manual.
RTTFAQ = Read the Ur-Quan Masters Technical FAQ.
Pages: [1] 2 Print 
« previous next »
Jump to:  


Login with username, password and session length

Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.21 | SMF © 2015, Simple Machines Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!