I just went to the page and the source they used for that version is from the 3DO version.
The project started in August 2002, when Toys For Bob released the partially ported sources of Star Control 2 3DO version to the fan community. Our goal is to port this wonderful game to current personal computers and operating systems. It is and will remain 100% free of charge, and anyone can contribute to the project and thus help make it even better. For more information, look at our info page.
True, but a lot of the other stuff aside from the music and voice acting was pretty much identical. So you can make Ur-Quan Masters look and sound identical to the original PC version if you want, thanks to the options you get when installing.
One of the problems with SC3’s strategic level is it was all smoke and mirrors – nothing actually worked as intended, and there was no actual strategic game because the computer AI was incapable of responding (or taking any action at all). And I don’t mean incapable as in “ineffective” – I mean incapable as in it would not actually do anything ever because that part of the game either was never actually written or included with the released version. All the nonsense in the manual/in-game instructions about the AI attacking or responding was never included in the released game.
Shhhh. True, but the player doesn’t know that until later in the game. Until I realized that my colonies would never get attacked, I had a great time building them up to be excellent little colonies that could defend themselves and sustain themselves.
You have to remember SC3 came out before most people used internet for gaming hobbies. So the only way to know that it was all smoke and mirrors was to play far enough into the game to find that out. Until that point, you can be a happy little camper.
Honestly I kinda think an improved (read: functional) variant of the strategic metagame would be an awesome inclusion in any future StarCon-inspired work, esp. in terms of keeping it fairly light and abstracted. I kinda felt like Stardock’s Sorcerer King (which they’ve described as fantasy Star Control) erred a little too far on the side of 4X strategy and not enough on the side of humorous-questing-for-adventure-shenanigans, probably due to its roots in the Elemental franchise, but it could have been absolutely perfect.
I almost wanna become a game designer just because I’m so positive this combination could be made to work perfectly. Except, you know, game design is really fucking hard and I’m sort of an idiot.
I’m never a happy camper about finding out I’ve wasted my time because the developer fraudulently claimed features existed which never did. And these weren’t small features, such as “hey, you promised the turrets on the ships would rotate” - the core strategic game never existed - it was an empty shell with a UI.
It shows how poor game reviews were generally back then (despite our nostalgia for such things) that the fact that the entire strategic game was missing was not noted (or even likely noticed) by reviewers. There is no way that would happen today, at least not to such a consensus extent.
I did like some things in SC3 though - I thought the new ship designs were pretty good and consistent with the style of SC2. A lot of the best writing was recycled from SC2 (reiterating the same background, etc.) but the story/aliens and the combat (at least the flat, 2D version) was o.k. It might not have been such a disaster with more time in the development oven.
Agree with that. It’s obviously one of the strengths Stardock brings to the franchise so I’m sure they’ll do it well, but I do hope that it’s not over-emphasized since I do think the humorous-questing-for-adventure-shenanigans are essential.
One of the reasons SC2 is such an all-time classic is it is such a great mix of storytelling, arcade action, and open RPG exploration like Starflight. While it might have been even better with some additional 4x4 strategic elements, I don’t want them over-emphasized either.
I’ve never liked the ship designs in the Star Control series, it’s probably shallow of me but that might be my main turnoff. Nothing looks iconic, distinct enough to me. There no, “Oh man, I gotta fly one of those!”
I’m more or less indifferent to (most of) the visual designs, but I think some of the weapons/powers are just fantastic, and basically porting fire/alternate fire to a space shooter 1v1 battle was just fantastic. Maybe StarCon did it first, I dunno. Sound effects were often super cute, too. Which maybe isn’t your thing, but it certainly fit the tone of the game.
But c’mon, the Syreen siren song ability, and seeing all the little floating crew members drifting through space afterward? Gold! Pure gold!
I loved the Ur-Quan’s “Launching FightersLaunching FightLaunching Fighters”.
The little Arilou ship that was the only ship not affected by gravity, so you could fly perilously close to the planets and then teleport away.
Yeah, the ships had a lot of personality. I already loved the original 14 or so ships from StarCon 1, before I even played Star Control 2.
I guess the abilities are cute, in a kind of fanciful way. And probably fun for the 1x1 battles that I never engaged in. But not really my cup of tea, which is probably why I leaned more toward Starflight.
Since I played Star Control 1 first, and spent countless hours getting good at it versus other people in the dorm computer lab, to me the core gameplay is that 1v1 combat. It’s just a bonus that Star Control 2 added all that wonderful story and adventuring. But the core goodness of the series to me is still at its core the 1v1 combat.
Yeah, the ship to ship combat is definitely a core part of the series. It’s all the original Star Control really is, and it remains both fun and challenging as a single player and multiplayer game. For old-timer Space War/Asteroids fans like me, it was amazing to get an expanded version of that gameplay.
Oh wow. Every ship for me was iconic, that was in perhaps most ways the whole point.
One of the closest thing i shared with my father was going to his office late at night and firing up Star Control 2 and playing some super-melee with him since the only computer he had to share with us was the one he had at work.
Star Control and SC2 understood intrinsically that ships’ behaviors need to reflect their personalities and sort of effortlessly and intuitively did so. Maybe the only ship in 1 or 2 that actually wasn’t any good was the Supox “fly backwards” ship. I liked in SC1 Genesis version how it had a “unit description” screen for the ships, really added to the personality of the game.
3, otoh, was a step down. I still remember some of the race names, but criminally the ships were mediocre, with little personality, and not particularly well balanced.
Star Control without interesting ship and alien design is like Tomb Raider without tombs or Civilization without nations.
But you guys keep lumping the ship abilities and how they function in with their looks, and I don’t really have much comment about their abilities. I just don’t like the way they look.
I mean, i was a kid. 13? They looked like they should look in the setting, which was sort of Sierra-esque cartoonish. They were of course simple but they had a clear headed art design, imo.
OK, let me try to explain. Just a few at random:
That’s just kind of, I don’t know, nondescript. Kind of a blue horseshoe.
That’s I guess a little like the Enterprise or something, just more angular.
That’s a pretty bargain basement rocket ship just rubbed for her pleasure or something.
Maybe there are cooler designs in there somewhere but so far it all just looks uninspired to me. I didn’t even throw in the weird stilted human ship.
That seems fair. You didn’t even show the basic flying saucer model one.
Was there something from that era that you thought looked better and had that much variety? Back when I was playing Super Melee in college I thought it looked fine compared to whatever else I was playing back then (largely Speedball 2 and Master of Orion).
Oh man. That brings back memories. Of dying in super melee. :)
