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News: Celebrating 30 years of Star Control 2 - The Ur-Quan Masters

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Author Topic: New player perspective  (Read 2269 times)
certainliquids
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New player perspective
« on: July 13, 2020, 02:25:09 am »

So I have projected this game onto my gf, as I have to my brother and sister before her.

She has gotten real far in the game without figuring out the Shofixti- more specifically, the whereabouts of the beast. As I understand it its one of the first quests.
Apparently the thradash tell you where the beast is but she has sent them to the war and after that she became their master and still nothing about a beast (or the aqua helix).
As a new player not using the wiki, how would one find the beast and for the matter the helix?

There is a rather massive list of interactions and stuff that I have found that could be addressed when it comes for making better newcomer experience but this one is a particularly perplexing one.

Thanks for the replies in advance! Smiley
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Re: New player perspective
« Reply #1 on: July 13, 2020, 09:28:32 am »

Buy it from the Melnorme...

The Shofixti are optional anyway, and th eHelix can be done nearly anytime, just like all other quests.

Also say welcome to her!

But the Thraddash don't tell you about the Helix, the Pkunk likely told her in which region to search...

I  believe we may have mentioned that the clear spindle thing-a-ma-jig
has three other pieces that fit together with it.
Just the other day one of our psychics, while in the Trance of Plam Prikky
cried out the location of one of these curious alien widgy whatsits.
Perhaps you are interested. Just before she fainted she said
`A Sphere of Rosy Color, a Ball of Red
grasped by the greedy hands of a Foul Race deep in Persei. The sphere waits.
In a tiny voice it calls for its two mates.
`Where are you, where are you, Clear Spindle Thing-a-ma-jig and other thing?.'

Back to the Clear Spindle business, we have had another telepathic revelation regarding this.
This time, an old and venerable Pkunk named Awkky Birdy has had a dream sent to him by his spirit guide, Bosco.
In the dream, Awkky Birdy is surrounded by a sea of young Pkunk Females
who all want nothing more than to mate with him, in a passionate ceremony of Blissful Yompin.
Awkky Birdy is overcome. He hesitates, and the females rush forward and swarm over him.
Uh... the Clear Spindle, yes I am coming to that.
Just as he is about to pass out, Awkky Birdy sees a Clear Spindle, a red orb, and a blue twisty thing
all spinning around a pointy gold thing above his head.
In a fit of ecstasy he screams out the word, `DRACONIS!!!!'
and then the lights dim, and with a smile on his face Awkky Birdy sleeps.
Quite a dream, eh?
« Last Edit: July 13, 2020, 09:43:35 am by Krulle » Logged
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Re: New player perspective
« Reply #2 on: July 13, 2020, 08:25:42 pm »

She says thanks! Smiley
I dont think she got that diologe from the pkunk yet (at this point they are moving to the yehat).

As for the beast, I saw this on the wiki
Quote
The Captain agreed, and finally heard of a Beast that might fit this description in his dealings with the Thraddash, finally learning that the yellow star of "Linch-Nas-Ploh" was the Delta star of the constellation humans had named Lyncis.
(https://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/VUX_Beast)
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Re: New player perspective
« Reply #3 on: July 14, 2020, 04:05:05 pm »

I did not want to give away direct hints.
And for then Pkunk hints you do need to visit them several times, which is otherwise a time-waster.


Does she know about Katana/Tanaka, and how to handle them when she visits them?
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Re: New player perspective
« Reply #4 on: July 14, 2020, 07:44:53 pm »

For the beast, ZEX gives you the hint that the constellation is something like "a snake that has swallowed the beast." And that the name is close to "Linch-nas-ploh." This is easier to follow if you have a starmap which shows the constellation shapes and connections, which was included on paper the original game.
http://www.star-control.com/files/Starmaps/03.png
« Last Edit: July 14, 2020, 07:48:58 pm by Mormont » Logged
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Re: New player perspective
« Reply #5 on: July 15, 2020, 02:46:53 am »

I did not want to give away direct hints.
And for then Pkunk hints you do need to visit them several times, which is otherwise a time-waster.


Does she know about Katana/Tanaka, and how to handle them when she visits them?

She just let her ship die at first. I sort of nudged her at the ESC key. On that note, she didnt even know that she could escape battles.

For the beast, ZEX gives you the hint that the constellation is something like "a snake that has swallowed the beast." And that the name is close to "Linch-nas-ploh." This is easier to follow if you have a starmap which shows the constellation shapes and connections, which was included on paper the original game.
http://www.star-control.com/files/Starmaps/03.png

The riddle was all but impossible for her I am afraid.  She simply had no way of knowing or finding out about the beast.
I didnt want to give that map since it has spoilers. Tho it would not of have helped much. She went to constellations like "hyades" and the ones near the Yehat since IRL those are snakes.


And she died to the death march- Really enjoyed the game and will try again so fingers crossed she can beat it this time! ^^
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Re: New player perspective
« Reply #6 on: July 15, 2020, 06:46:40 pm »

For the beast, ZEX gives you the hint that the constellation is something like "a snake that has swallowed the beast." And that the name is close to "Linch-nas-ploh." This is easier to follow if you have a starmap which shows the constellation shapes and connections, which was included on paper the original game.
http://www.star-control.com/files/Starmaps/03.png

you can also toggle the starmap between 3 modes, one of which shows constellations. F7, I think it is?
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Re: New player perspective
« Reply #7 on: July 15, 2020, 11:30:38 pm »

For the beast, ZEX gives you the hint that the constellation is something like "a snake that has swallowed the beast." And that the name is close to "Linch-nas-ploh." This is easier to follow if you have a starmap which shows the constellation shapes and connections, which was included on paper the original game.
http://www.star-control.com/files/Starmaps/03.png

you can also toggle the starmap between 3 modes, one of which shows constellations. F7, I think it is?

Only in HD-mod and mods based off HD I believe.
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Re: New player perspective
« Reply #8 on: July 17, 2020, 01:27:29 am »

The riddle was all but impossible for her I am afraid.  She simply had no way of knowing or finding out about the beast.
I didnt want to give that map since it has spoilers. Tho it would not of have helped much. She went to constellations like "hyades" and the ones near the Yehat since IRL those are snakes.

It's the worst puzzle in the game IMHO. Hard to figure out.
Actually no the Mycon's one might be the worst.



And she died to the death march- Really enjoyed the game and will try again so fingers crossed she can beat it this time! ^^


SC2 is one of those games where it's pretty much inevitable that you'll fail the first playthrough. Kind of gives it some urgency.
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Re: New player perspective
« Reply #9 on: July 19, 2020, 03:19:24 pm »

The riddle was all but impossible for her I am afraid.  She simply had no way of knowing or finding out about the beast.
I didnt want to give that map since it has spoilers. Tho it would not of have helped much. She went to constellations like "hyades" and the ones near the Yehat since IRL those are snakes.

It's the worst puzzle in the game IMHO. Hard to figure out.
Actually no the Mycon's one might be the worst.

Which part of it? It was pretty much fine in the original because you were told where Syra and their homeworld were..

For some reason, they didn't consider that worth including in the 3DO versions.
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Re: New player perspective
« Reply #10 on: July 22, 2020, 11:30:48 am »

The riddle was all but impossible for her I am afraid.  She simply had no way of knowing or finding out about the beast.
I didnt want to give that map since it has spoilers. Tho it would not of have helped much. She went to constellations like "hyades" and the ones near the Yehat since IRL those are snakes.

It's the worst puzzle in the game IMHO. Hard to figure out.
Actually no the Mycon's one might be the worst.

Which part of it? It was pretty much fine in the original because you were told where Syra and their homeworld were..

I'm talking about where to find the various egg shells - if you don't get it out of the melnorme. And the sun device.
Maybe I'm misremembering and thinking about the difficulty of the mycon puzzles in sc3.

« Last Edit: July 24, 2020, 03:16:26 am by metamorphosis » Logged
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Re: New player perspective
« Reply #11 on: July 27, 2020, 08:52:18 pm »

Hello! I am said girlfriend; I've just completed my second playthrough and managed to beat the game! ... with a couple of gentle hints along the way. It's definitely one of my favourite games. Smiley

I was never told where exactly the star with the beast was, all I had was Zex's riddle. I did try to type Lynch-Nas-Ploh into the starmap and lyncis came up, but I just chalked that up to being the most similar word, and couldn't see the constellation drawn out so I brushed it aside. My thinking was that it had to be something to do with a snake so I tried sepentis, draconis and hyades instead. Eventually I was shown a map of the constellations and heavily prompted into finding it. The Shofixti definitely wasn't optional for me, I managed to lose over 1000 crew in my first run and at the time thought there would be a hard cap of 2000.

From a Pkunk's very fun dream I was told that the aqua helix was in Draconis, so I just explored all those stars until I found it.

As for the Mycon, I almost missed the sun device. I hadn't been told of any Mycon homeworld, so when the Syreen asked me to tell the Mycon to go to Organon, I went to Beta Brahe and because I got a dialogue option about Organon I assumed that I'd done what I needed to. My bf heavily hinted at the fact that they weren't moving and that I should try to find their homeworld. He urged me to go to Scorpii because it's a cool word and thankfully I decided to, I'm pretty sure I was close to the death march again.

Overall, I really enjoyed Ur-Quan and am desperate to find out more about the Mark II and the precursors. Smiley
« Last Edit: July 27, 2020, 08:56:24 pm by Phineix » Logged
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Re: New player perspective
« Reply #12 on: July 28, 2020, 10:10:23 pm »

Congrats, and welcome to the fanbase!

Also, nobody here understands why the dialogue option with the Source of Juffo-Wup has been taken out of the game for the 3DO version (on which UQM is based, as the source-code for the DOS version got lost). Best guess is they forgot to record the voce for that, and simply cut it out instead of rehiring the voce actor and recording studio,...


I remember having been tlold where to find the beast, and yes, there are two exact hints in the game, and I was allied with the Thraddash whi told me exactly.
ZEX's clue accurately describes the Lyncis constellation, and also limits the location to the three yellow stars in the constellation (Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon). The Thraddash, if they have joined the New Alliance and have been told to emulate The Captain, reveal the exact location, telling about a vicious creature they encountered on Delta Lyncis I. Also, if The Captain threatens captain Fwiffo on Pluto in order to obtain the Spathi homeworld location, Fwiffo lies and instead gives the coordinates of Delta Lyncis and specifies the first planet in the star system.

edit: I was wrong then, as this information cannot be bought from the Melnorme.
« Last Edit: July 28, 2020, 10:12:11 pm by Krulle » Logged
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Re: New player perspective
« Reply #13 on: July 29, 2020, 02:33:09 am »

Thanks! and I'm not surprised I missed those clues. I couldn't resist making my Thraddash rhyme and study Monty Python, and I instantly loved Fwiffo so I would never threaten him.
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Re: New player perspective
« Reply #14 on: July 29, 2020, 12:24:16 pm »

I fully agree.
Fwiffo is a gift by the makers of the game.* The first time it took me ages to read everything, so Iwouldn't miss a single clue for later.

I love his best memory of his childhood, that his mother was ableto call him by his name.

And I immedialely understood I could get a "free" ship by listening to him.
And it set my tone for the rest of the game: diplomacy gets you further than aggression...

Regarding the Mycon homeworld: I remember I went everywhere in Mycon space anyway, to search for further Egg shell fragments.
Sooner or later you'd find their homeworld this way.
And their ships make easy RU once you got a good counter to their ship (the Human Cruiser is pretty apt at getting at them).


But searching plenty of stars for the Vux beast is annoying.
And I also never got the "accurate description" from ZEX.


Regarding the crew limit of the station: I also found it weird that a space station which has limited crew was able to transfer so many of its crew to my ships, the station must've been at a point close to being unable to continuously work correctly. Yet they still supplied me with crew.
I love the way the Ultronomicon explains this phenomenon:
When you've recruited 1,000 crew or more (minus the amount you've returned), the crew cost is raised by 2 RUs. If the total later comes below 1000 (by returning crew), the crew cost goes back down by 2.
There is no actual limit to the amount of crew you can buy. Commander Hayes mentions that there are "almost 2000 highly-motivated, skilled professionals aboard this starbase" available to you, but apparently there are also an infinite number of unmotivated, unskilled amateurs at your service.
So, our mission works with unmotivated, unskilled amateurs.
Well, they're mostly Redshirts anyway.


So any replay plans to find out about the rest of the game?


*: I dread what would happen if this was a Disney game, merchandise-wise....
« Last Edit: July 29, 2020, 12:26:15 pm by Krulle » Logged
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