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

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Author Topic: General questions  (Read 5395 times)
shyguy
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General questions
« on: April 27, 2003, 01:16:45 pm »

Hello,

I just finished the game, which brought back many fond memories of when I first finished it all those years ago.  But I'm left with a couple of questions.  Maybe some of this is explained in the ending, but since there is no ending (yet?), I'll just ask away:

1) The significance of the Rainbow Worlds is...? I guess it's just a big arrow pointing to where the Precursors went off to? I don't remember Star Control 3 at all (played it, finished it, didn't like it, and promptly forgot everything that happened in it), so was this answered in that game?

2) What's the Burvix Caster for? I don't think I ever used it.

3) What happens if you let the Thraddash go off and attack your enemies?  Unfortunately, I don't have a savegame near that point, so I can't try again w/o a lot of replay.

4) Explain to me how a seemingly feeble race such as the Zoq Fot Pik manage to survive within Ur-Quan space?  If the Ilwrath and the Thraddash can mutually destroy each other in a matter of weeks, how can a race with a sphere of influence of a handful of stars keep ticking?

5) Can you actually get yourself into a no-win situation and not really realize it until much later? Like say, you attack every single race, making an enemy of everyone, but you still need stuff from them?

6) I suppose I could look in the source code for this, but I'm sure someone knows... how many systems, planets, and moons are there in the game? Smiley
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AnonomouSpathi
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Re: General questions
« Reply #1 on: April 27, 2003, 06:16:55 pm »

1) According to Starcon 3, the rainbow worlds were a giant space time pollution stabilizer used to protect the fabric of reality from the numerous holes the eternal ones punch in it when they feed.  The arrow formation was a coincidence, going along the stress lines.  They keep hyperspace and the universe intact.  

2) Can be sold to the druuge or used at procyon instead of the Umgah caster.

3) They get their asses kicked, and eventually limp home.  I beleive you can raid the aqua helix while they're away, though haven't check this since I prefer to have the thraddash on my side.

4) The Ur-quan are engaged in activities more important then enslaving/destroying one measly race, so the zoq-fot-pic just need to keep a low profile.  Something neither the thraddash or the ilwrath do especially well.  You lose a lot more ships fighting a war then you do hiding from one.

5) You can't make it impossible to complete the game, per se.  It's not possible to truly screw up so bad that you can't get back on track, given enough time.  You can however, take so much time doing it that you don't have enough time to fix things.

6) Not a clue.
« Last Edit: April 27, 2003, 06:18:19 pm by AnonomouSpathi » Logged
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Re: General questions
« Reply #2 on: April 27, 2003, 10:54:10 pm »

Another use of the Burvix Caster is to call Melnorme ships in Hyperspace.  This can be helpful if you're low on fuel or too lazy to go visit a supergiant star.

And to answer your last question... you'd better start counting if you want to know.   Tongue
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Re: General questions
« Reply #3 on: April 28, 2003, 01:31:53 am »

The Burvix Caster is also usable for consulting with the Ilwrath on Channel 44.

From all reports, the Thraddash did absolutely no damage worth noting to the Kohr-Ah fleets, and nothing changes at all except that their sphere of influence gets smaller.

The Z-F-P also mention that at the cost of keeping their home world secret, all of their forward colonies have been destroyed by the Kohr-Ah ships. I imagine their colonies were spread out in a side direction that sidetracked the Kohr-Ah from their homeworld, and eventually they ran into other sentient (yet unspace-faring) races in their sphere of influence, and haven't yet gone back to find the Z-F-P homeworld.

You can alienate even the Melnorme and still win the game. Since you can pretty much tick off any race in the game and still get what you need from them (including the Taalo shield from the Orz). As AnonSpathi said, you can put yourself in a situation where you don't have enough time to win. A good way to do that would be to sell the Portal Spawner to the Druuge.

From the look of the starmap, there are thousands of planetary bodies in this region of space, if you take into account the hundreds of stars, as well as all the planets and moons therein. If you really want to count I imagine that you're welcome to.
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Re: General questions
« Reply #4 on: April 28, 2003, 02:27:02 am »

I seem to recall that the ZFP colonies were destroyed by "accidental" bombardment from Quan on Quan fights. I don't think they were ever found, before you make the alliance...

Regarding the moons and planets, gazillions. Gazillions and more Gazillions. But you can't visit them all, since you can only travel a 2d plane in HS. With full 3D movement in there, there are a lot more races to find as well. All you need to do is to find the "Turning Device", get it off the Orz Wink
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Re: General questions
« Reply #5 on: April 29, 2003, 07:39:19 pm »

Quote
Regarding the moons and planets, gazillions. Gazillions and more Gazillions. But you can't visit them all, since you can only travel a 2d plane in HS. With full 3D movement in there, there are a lot more races to find as well. All you need to do is to find the "Turning Device", get it off the Orz Wink


Oh come on, stop making up stuff. It's widely known that the only way to visit a gazillion new stars and races is on the 2D plane itself.... how, you ask?
It can be observed that when you try to fly your ship in a direction outside of the starmap (beyond the square area of 0:0 / 1000:1000) your ship just stops and can't proceed any further.  You've probably asked yourself, "Why is that?? Do the Yehat really only have HALF a sphere of influence?  Did the evil Ur-Quan build a HUGE slave shield around this entire region of space when no one noticed??  Is it a practical joke by the precursors, who are actually sitting outside and amusing themselves by watching countless unsuspecting starships bouncing off the boundary like flies in a glass jar???"
Of course, it's easy to see that such an impassable border cannot be explained by any physical property of the known universe, and therefore cannot exist!  The answer presents itself - it is a mentally induced illusion!  Yes - it's the result of the limits of the mortal mind, which would recoil in horror if it permitted itself to realize the true vastness of the universe.  It's merely a psychological mechanism for retaining one's sanity:  the Captain's mind limits itself to this area of space and he cannot travel beyond, for the implications for his psyche would be grave - truly GRAVE indeed!
All you need to do is convince the Arilou that you are "ready" - they will then take you on the trip down to the surface of their planet.  They will open your mind, new channels of consciousness will be unveiled and you will be able to journey wherever you wish.  Then you should go to the galactic core, meet the precursors, and THEY will give you the "Turning Device," which their most prized achievement, their most recent and biggest technological breakthrough, the result of millennia upon millennia of intellectual development.  From there, the possibilities are endless. Wink
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Re: General questions
« Reply #6 on: April 29, 2003, 08:02:21 pm »

Actually, to go beyond the edge of the map you have to leave the precursor ship behind. You see, the tugboat's drive is hooked into an artificial grid system (just take a look at the map some time!), on which it pulls, much like a funicular rail car.
Therefore, only the precursor tugboat is constrained to the map. Get into a Pkunk and you can head off the edge of the map! Of course, since you don't have a starmap, navigation becomes very difficult -- you will need to use your local scan. Still, most of the best stuff in the game are all out in this uncharted wasteland.

Second Mother Ark/unconverted Mmrnmhrm: West of Ilwrath space. A long way; you'll definitely want to take an Arilou so you can portal spawn back to the mother ship quickly.
Orz entity with its captured Androsynth: Follow the Rainbow World path.
Gg survivors camp: East, duh. But where exactly? Lacking coordinates, and being subject to the ebb and pull of hyperspace outside the tugboat, well, this is tricky to find.
Arilou research station: south of Gorno constellation. VERY hard to find.
secret Taalo burial grounds: south of the Druuge. Follow their convoy or you'll never find it.

Now, remember, no one else but Zelnick knows how to pilot the mother ship, so you had better leave it in a safe place. That means either an empty solar system, or, after the Slylandro send out the destruct code, anywhere in hyperspace outside a sphere of influence (and not near the Druuge sphere of influence).
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Re: General questions
« Reply #7 on: April 29, 2003, 10:46:45 pm »

You can seriously do this? I'm a little gullible about this question because I'm a born explorer, and this would kick royal butt if I could go out of the grid system. Cheesy Otherwise, you guys are mean taunting a wanderluster like myself Tongue
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Re: General questions
« Reply #8 on: April 29, 2003, 11:32:02 pm »

100% fabrication, I assure you.
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Re: General questions
« Reply #9 on: April 29, 2003, 11:50:05 pm »

 >:(You jerks. Tongue
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Re: General questions
« Reply #10 on: April 30, 2003, 05:01:23 am »

Yeah, well, it's only wishful thinking (at least on my part) since I'm a born explorer/wanderluster myself. Smiley
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Re: General questions
« Reply #11 on: April 30, 2003, 09:26:23 am »

Quote
It can be observed that when you try to fly your ship in a direction outside of the starmap (beyond the square area of 0:0 / 1000:1000) your ship just stops and can't proceed any further.

Ah, yes, but there is a secret way you can teleport off the map. You may think I'm joking but I'm actually not. How, you ask? Well, I'll show you how far the rabbit hole goes...

1.) Enter quasi-space
2.) Move your ship near the naturally occuring portal. When it becomes the 19th, get ready, and move really close. RIGHT as the 20th is hit and the portal starts to close, go through it (you can make it).
3.) Fly, unobstructed, to another star system (I usually like to fly to Alpha Pavonis)
4.) You will teleport somewhere, often a place that's far, far off the map. (Or conversely UQM will crash).

If you don't believe me, check out the undoctored screenshot listed under bug 108 (this is from the original PC version):

http://uqm.stack.nl/cgi-bin/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=108

Unfortunately, as soon as my patch gets committed, you'll no longer be able to teleport Wink.
« Last Edit: April 30, 2003, 09:26:45 am by chmmravatar » Logged
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Re: General questions
« Reply #12 on: April 30, 2003, 04:44:25 pm »

Hahahaha.... Grin reality is always more twisted than our imagination it seems.  When you ended up off the starmap, could you actually travel back (w/o autopilot)?
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"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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Re: General questions
« Reply #13 on: April 30, 2003, 06:06:23 pm »

about 5'
i dont know much but it can be very frustarating if u kill some arilou and then u got no portal spawner. no quasi space requires too much time and patience(and melee skills).
i'm not so sure for example if u tell the thradash to go kill kzerza's enemy and they return beforre u take the helix dunno if u still can have it.. so as the mycon going to the orion(or whatever that starsys name)
also if u let the pkunk get killed =p
you gotta be VERY good in melee to win the end
cuz i mean cmon.. whoever didn;t use pkunk at least once vs the samatra and won just say so

the Utwig appears to be the only ship who can effectivly with good skills win the Sa-matra that actually come near the fury

u can also get 12 shofixty and just detonate them-- that might be useful  Tongue
« Last Edit: April 30, 2003, 06:09:05 pm by Slylendro » Logged

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Re: General questions
« Reply #14 on: April 30, 2003, 08:00:39 pm »

If you didn't grab the helix by the time the Thraddash get back, it seems likely you can pick up the Helix after they've been exterminated by the Ilwrath.
I have never played this way of doing it. Maybe after they get  back, if you haven't taken the helix, you can take them over as usual.
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