Did you ever play Star Control 2? If not, go check out the Ur-Quan Masters, since it’s open source and free for all. Stardock’s new version is, for all intents and purposes, essentially this, but in 3D and with a different plot/story, penned by the same Cracked.com writer (AFAIK) that Stardock used for their Sorcerer King games.
Wouldn’t questions related to SCO gameplay and comparisons with SC2 be more appropriate on the topic for it? I’d understand if there wasn’t one but this topic was moved out of that one to give it proper separation.
SC1 was all real time combat using ships with asymmetrical abilities. SC2 is also based around that combat, but adds on this massive branching storyline and elements like navigating around a big stellar map and landing on planets for to collect resources and other useful things, and the element that in many opinions makes it really special, the interaction with the various aliens. It’s a game where the whole transcends the sum of the parts.
Even at the time I wasn’t a fan of real time twich based combat. Arcade shoot em ups have never been my thing. But since the ships are all quite different and match up different against each other I really liked the supermelee combat. It was just so polished and alwasys felt that if you used the right tactics you could overcome any lack of twitch skills.
The branching story and interaction with the aliens stands up as top notch even today. If one were to point to a single part as being the most special, this would be most people’s choice. People who played SC2, especially way back when it was new and games like Mass Effect were more than a decade away, often still retain a love for the characters. It’s one of the main reasons it’s considered one of the greatest games of all time by many. It was so rich and detailed and just all around well done. I don’t just mean detailed as in plot and backstory details. Little details how races has custom fonts to further convey their personality. The story is just plain good science fiction regardless of the medium.
There was a big stellar map to explore, and (potential spoiler alert) it wasn’t static. You didn’t just leap from system to system where events awaited your arrival. As you are stumbling around the galaxy things are going on.
The planet side resource gathering part was, well, meh. But having to collect resources to upgrade your ship provided a lot of the reason for travelling around and led to discovering new things. It’s the only part that wasn’t individually awesome, but it still contributes well to the whole.
Paul and Fred were so dedicated to creating a huge sci-fi epic that was really high quality and satisfying that rather than wrap it quickly to meet a deadline they funded the last several months of development out of their own pockets. The game itself created a lot of good will for them, their dedication to doing it right even more so.
As mentioned above, give it a try by downloading the UQM project. It’s old school, so you’ll need a notepad to jot down coordinates when some alien tells you about a mineral rich world or other important location.
This also seems like a good excuse to link the 2015 GDC discussion about the making of the game. It’s relevant to both why the game is so loved, and especailly relevant to the lawsuit since contrary to the assertion that they claimed to be sole creators or somehow never gave credit for the help of others, they mention others constantly. There’s also some interesting technical details if you are into that sort of thing. For example Fred discusses the techniques used to generate a galaxy of unique planets or how he had to write code to overcome the normal maximum number of characters that can be pressed at one time on a keyboard so that two people could play simultaneously on one keyboard.
Other thread relevant highlights from that video are where Paul says they absolutely want to make a return, and when he clearly outlines who owns what rights.
I must say that if SC2 ranks high for me is because of the adventure elements. Resource collection and combat felt to me like obstacles to overcome rather than gameplay elements offering an intrinsic reward.
Thanks all.
Never played or even heard of it.
This would mean you have played the Fleet Battles beta. None of the adventure game is part of the public beta.
This is my feeling as well. I’d be curious as to get Tom’s thoughts on this dichotomy because of his NMS review.
In Star Control, the STORY is the reward. So I’ve never understood the idea behind making quests and such procedurally generated because it’s the quests, writing, lore etc. that are why you’re playing.
I’ve read a lot of descriptions from beta testers on the Discord (http://www.discord.gg/starcontrol) and here are a few samples:
Star Trek the RPG
Space Skyrim
Story-Driven No Man’s Sky
It should be noted though I haven’t played No Man’s Sky and only a little of Skyrim so I am not qualified to say whether this is accurate or not (or whether this is good or not).
I’d say that Star Control is a story driven space adventure game.
Sorcerer King was yet another try at making the Elemental engine do something. The idea was that if it’s scope could be brought down, the engine issues wouldn’t crop up. The problem I think many had with it is that the scope got too narrowed.
I recently did an Ars Technica video interview regarding the whole Elemental game thing and it’s impact.
That pretty much sums up why I don’t care much about NMS - nice visuals though!
Yea, I really need to play it but Tom’s review turned me off.
Now, another game I haven’t played and people say Star Control: Origins looks like is Spore galactic adventures. I watched some videos of that but it seemed like it had tried the “we’ll give you randomly generated missions”.
While I think getting goodies on planets and fighting battles are fun, I don’t think it would be nearly enough to sustain my interest. At the risk of sounding old, my idea of a fun weekend might involve reading a good Sci-Fi book these days. So my perfect Star Control game combines a really good Sci-Fi story with fun interactive adventure and game play.
This is also why professional writers worked on Star Control: Origins. My role on the game has been to recruit people a lot more talented than myself and put them together with other really talented people.
It had a bit of a “dynamic” (not really, but it put on a decent show) galaxy in addition to resource collection, quests, etc… You’re right, in that there were lots of generic quests. User-made quests could be uploaded and integrated into the game (they’d be added into the possible quest list). Honestly, if Spore had released with Galactic Adventures, I don’t think the level of disappointment would have been as high and perhaps it wouldn’t have died on the vine like it did. The game still needed plenty more depth, however, and combat was perhaps the most boring part of the game.
Yea, that seems like the opposite. As in, if I’m reading you right, SporeGA, similarly to NMS seem to focus on exploration for exploration’s sake with the quests being window dressing.
So for better or worse, I can say that Star Control is the other way around. Exploration and combat are there insofar as they server the story.
I put this little video from last night.
Here’s a minor spoiler surrounding why I’m on this planet:
There is no linear path or even a single path in Star Control: Origins. Your objective is to save Earth.
One of the more obvious things the writers came across was – well if Earth is threatened, why can’t we just start building colony ships and evacuate Earth?
Now, you are the Captain of a single ship. You’re not building colonies. There’s no “strategy game” within Star Control. But Star Control might ask that you help them acquire Hyperdrives (and be willing to look the other way in how you obtain them).
Since this is 2088, we don’t have any idea how to build Hyperdrives yet. We’re easily decades from that. So we’re obtaining them. We also require a particular element (Francium) for use in the fuel. Francium on Earth is extremely rare (something like an ounce exists across Earth).
Most planets with a lot of volcanic activity in Star Control end up with some capturable uranium which is…kind of useful but not super useful since we have plenty of that. But Francium is tough because it ends up decaying into Astatine and Radium and eventually Radon.
Anyway, without getting into the details of how unstable Francium is, it turns out that you can find trace amounts on certain types of planets, primarily ones that have had a great deal of volcanic activity that has cooled.
So in the video above, I’ve found one of those planet classes (which you can spot from afar) that is a candidate for Francium (and typically even on this type, the Francium has become Radon already).
So the idea is I get Francium and deliver it with hyperdrives I…ahem…find… and then Earth will attach them to colony ships and you can see Earth’s sphere of influence increase as new colonies start to show up in the underlying Sim.
I want to emphasize: You are the captain of one ship. You don’t manage colonies. You don’t set up colonies. You don’t build ships. You’re the Captain Kirk here and Star Control is akin to early Starfleet.
Spoiler off. And that is why all the puppies exploded.
Pretty much, yep. It’s a game which neatly fits the Chick Parabola; fun until you realize it’s nothing more than a sandbox with no AI to speak of. For instance, there was a villain species out there who was super aggressive the closer you got to the middle of the galaxy. I became enough of a badass I didn’t fear them and decided to take out their homeworld… because apparently I’m a bit of a genocidal megalomaniac, myself. What would come once I wiped out the scourge of the galaxy? Would everyone praise me? Would another challenge take their place? Anyway, I went and took them out and… one refresh cycle later, they were back. After that, I walked away.
This weeks dev journal is out!
Learn about the design, the physics, and the inspiration that has gone into all of the vessels that you’ll see in Star Control: Origins!
HAH! Nice :)
With the Workbench and pointer homage to the AMiGA \o/ I suppose you need the three planets
Agnus (Make it bigger than the others)
Denise
Paula
So many colours on Hocestnovus. :)
@Brad_Wardell: Various planet/place names from some of the RPGs I’ve run over the years. Feel free to use any or none.
Motros - Abandoned high-tech world, possibly decimated by some ancient weapon or attack
Artax - World near any sort of frightful gateway or wormhole, ideally with a spooky mystery about said wormhole centered there
Legendia - Garden world with a black technological artifact or imposing mountain on it, with a silvery moon orbiting
Plodd - Jungle planet, possibly populated with dog-like creatures that absolutely bear no resemblance to the Droogs from Star Control 3 which obviously doesn’t exist
Source Prime - Solid metallic world riven with black crags, ideally with the shrieking sound of a guitar solo audible at all times
Thurgax - Hellish volcanic firestorm on the verge of explosion, studded with minerals
Ch’lrayn - Crystalline void world with no atmosphere, far from its weak sun, shimmering and glassy
Treasured Home - Oceanic garden world with a proximity to or presence of traders of some description
Jestil - Enormous gas giant or stormworld with significant fuel deposits and things living in the mists
The First Forest - Heavily jungled, hot, stormy world undergoing severe greenhouse effects
Multex VII - Oceanic technology/resource-rich world with strange orbital platforms
Zero - Abandoned metallic world, with signs of ancient life, and large floating mechanical hulks in orbit
Tripoli - Garden world ravaged by magnetic/polar anomaly resulting in rapidly fluctuating gravity
I, uh, make up a few too many worlds for my own good. Once the game and the adventure-designer launch, I’ll probably be adding more “true to life” versions of these planets, or mapping quests to them if Brad gets em in, based on some of the stories I’ve told here in RPGs.