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Topic: What does Star Control II lack? (Read 5437 times)
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onpon4
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Sharing is good.
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I've never played SC3, but from what I heard, it sounds they took way too much from the Spathi's mention of the "Ultimate Evil" and way too little from everything else. The "Eternal Ones" sound a whole lot like the "Ultimate Evil" that Fwiffo describes to me.
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Vee-R
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- Other ways of gathering resources (in the beginning stages), rather than just mineral-hunting. From what I've seen, this is the only part of the game that new players tend to find somewhat tedious.
For example, different "mini-games" other than planet landing; aliens sending you on potentially dangerous side-quests for minerals/money; or even multiple variations on the "Druuge fuel trick" theme.
- An even more varied game world could have worked - more astronomical bodies than just stars and planets, different unexpected phenomenae, "lesser" Precursor artifacts with minor effects (a la SC1), and so on.
But only if those things actually made the game more interesting, of course. I believe TFB did experiment with ideas like "dataplates" and a flagship cloaking device, but dropped them for that reason.
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« Last Edit: June 10, 2010, 11:55:38 pm by Vee-R »
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"Space cannot be measured. It cannot be angered, it cannot be placated. It cannot be summed up. Space is there.
"Space is not large and it is not small. It does not live and it does not die. It does not offer truth and neither does it lie.
"Space is a remorseless, senseless, impersonal fact."
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Draxas
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SC1 style artifacts are a lousy idea, as SC3 so (un)brilliantly illustrates. Their addition to your ships breaks the combat engine entirely, so why bother with any useful strategies?
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storyyeller
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- Other ways of gathering resources (in the beginning stages), rather than just mineral-hunting. From what I've seen, this is the only part of the game that new players tend to find somewhat tedious.
For example, different "mini-games" other than planet landing; aliens sending you on potentially dangerous side-quests for minerals/money; or even multiple variations on the "Druuge fuel trick" theme.
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Steve-O
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I'm glad they kept it vague to give some material for a sequel. With the Kzer-za and Kohr-ah defeated and the Sa-Matra turned into flaming wreckage, there needs to be more powerful, more mysterious enemy. Extra dimensional threat is not such a bad idea, although the blasphemous SC3 botched it horribly (along with almost everything else).
Fair point. I was definitely left hoping for a sequel that would explain more about the Orz when I first finished SC2. I also agree that they had just enough hooks to make great potential for a new and bigger threat than the Ur-Quan. I was also greatly disappointed by how SC3 handled them. I don't even remember what happened anymore, but I remember it sucked. =P
I've never played SC3, but from what I heard, it sounds they took way too much from the Spathi's mention of the "Ultimate Evil" and way too little from everything else. The "Eternal Ones" sound a whole lot like the "Ultimate Evil" that Fwiffo describes to me.
Yeah, that tracks with what little I remember of SC3. It was like the programmers played SC2 for all of an hour or two and said "hey, these crazy aliens are hilarious!" Then they went on to make a sequel that exemplified that aspect of the game without any of the subtler details SC2 had lurking below the surface. In SC2 there were some wacky aliens for comic relief and some not-so-wacky aliens who did outlandish things for what would've been logical reasons to their alien minds. In SC3 it was just one-liners and crazy shenanigans.
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« Last Edit: June 11, 2010, 03:01:53 pm by Steve-O »
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Alvarin
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The bigger enemy was supposed to be something the Sa-Matra type ships were built against, I think. The ORZ or the Eternal Ones is not it.
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Kzzrn
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Come little one, join us in the night.......
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Yeah, that tracks with what little I remember of SC3. It was like the programmers played SC2 for all of an hour or two and said "hey, these crazy aliens are hilarious!" Then they went on to make a sequel that exemplified that aspect of the game without any of the subtler details SC2 had lurking below the surface. In SC2 there were some wacky aliens for comic relief and some not-so-wacky aliens who did outlandish things for what would've been logical reasons to their alien minds. In SC3 it was just one-liners and crazy shenanigans.
Not to mention for the SC2 races the vast majority of the dialogue was copied and pasted directly from SC2, word for word.
The bigger enemy was supposed to be something the Sa-Matra type ships were built against, I think. The ORZ or the Eternal Ones is not it.
Wasn't the Sa Matra a one of a kind ship? Either way the Precursors all went coreward for a mysterious, though important reason, but the Kzer-za found the derelict Sa Matra in a completely different part of the galaxy, so I'm guessing something went wrong? It's a big mystery that I hope the real sequel to UQM will delve into. SC3's approach (the cosmic undevolver) was cosmically underwhelming (totally sucked).
* Other ways of gathering resources (in the beginning stages), rather than just mineral-hunting. From what I've seen, this is the only part of the game that new players tend to find somewhat tedious.
In SC2 mineral hunting was absolutly essential because the starbase was completely isolated and on its own. Now there's the New Alliance of Free Stars so mining isn't necessary.
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« Last Edit: June 13, 2010, 05:24:23 pm by Kzzrn »
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Into the heart of darkness......
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Death 999
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We did. You did. Yes we can. No.
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IIRC, someone identifies the Sa-Matra as a precursor cruiser. Not a battleship, but getting there.
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jeanph01
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One thing i miss very much is instant save (ex: F5) /instant reload (ex: F9)
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Arne
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Yak!
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It's easy to come up with ideas or what I think should have been different, or what would be neat to add if they had lots of resources... but it's interesting to think about features that I miss, features which could have been made at the time with somewhat limited resources.
So, a few things at the top of my head:
- Something to help marking stars that you've visited would be neat. Maybe an 'a:visted' and a comment system for the map. A fog of war-ish thing that you erase as you travel could also help to engrave a little sense of history onto the star map. Yeah, I know there was a printed map you could make notes on, but it's less immediate. Overall, I'd like to see more persistent marks of history. This way when you reload an old game, you'd see the history and go, aah, that's where I left off.
- A little captains log could help here too. It could be as simple as some lines of text and a date when things happened. Bonus points for being able to write your own entries. Maybe some obvious clues could be put in here after conversations (stuff that the player might have noted anyways). However, there's a danger that this will make the player lazy, hurry past dialog and trust the log too much.
- I would've liked to see more art which establishes the various settings and aliens, kind of like how the moon Spathi get their own image.
- I liked the artifact system in Starflight. Even if there were a lot of red herrings, it was nice to be able to find more stuff. SC feels a bit empty.
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« Last Edit: August 22, 2010, 07:20:42 am by Arne »
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