Having only briefly played Star Control back when it was new, I'm not sure how much I can contribute to this...

But I would find it quite amusing if the Snathi managed to make their way into the game.

I want the basic combat game to stay as simple and pure as it was originally...games have had the urge to add complexity...and it often turns into micro management and math and extra screens.  It would ruin the feel.  Improve the graphics, improve the controls. leave the combat simple.

I second the voices that say that Star Control already has piles of delightful alien races! Fans of the series are going to be far more preoccupied with seeing their favorites return. (Personally, I'm very fond of the Spathi and Thraddash).

That said, most of the star control races are stereotypes kicked up a few notches, so for new races one doesn't have to go much farther than that. You've already got redneck pranksters, Scots, Japanese,  I suspect that there's room for a race of british stereotypes, who set great store in being pompous and polite simultaneously. Hmm. The VUX already kinda have a politeness thing going though.

We also have yet to see a russian stereotype race- Everyone likes Russians. Deep voices, impressive beards, stoicism, very poor engineering- Lots of potential there, I'd say.

I can't suggest anything specific, but obviously the races function best when they are a cohesive group character and have a specific agenda going on distinct from other races. Then there are the individual characters, like Fwiffo, Tanaka, etc. that add a focalized interest and perhaps a slightly different agenda than the whole of their race. Throw some caricatured stereotypes in there with some humor (for some, not all races. ie Mycon/Slylandro being fairly serious) and you have part of Star Control 2's recipe for success.

That said I hope new races will be a minority, as most of them from SC2 would be great to carry over. There are some that are less prominent like the Supox, Slylandro, Androsynth and maybe VUX. And depending on where the new game fits in the Star Control timeline, some of SC2's races will naturally be there or absent.

I'll be writing more on this as things get more formalized but the new Star Control game is going to be set before Star Control 1/2 when the humans first start interacting with the galaxy after a visit from the Chmrr.

The reason for this is that Star Control 2 came out in 1992. That's over 20 years ago.  We will want to introduce a new generation to Star Control.  So the events of the Ur-Quan war would take place in a sequel or expansion.

I know this will be a "re-imagining" of the SC universe, but before the Chenjesu 1st contact the humans basically were still stuck in the solar system, and their first starships were built with the help of the Chenjesu.

The only other canon races around at that time were the Mmrnmhrm, and the Androsynth. Basically the rest of the races were contacted during the events of SC1. Unless you plan on doing something like a prelude to those events. Like the Vux first contact.

If any new aliens are introduced i would be happy if first, and foremost they are NOT Humanoid! and they are not typical Sci Fi cliche. AKA anything not from earth is a "space thug" type thing.

It's either a simple typo, an indicator that they haven't done their star control reading yet, or, (and this is my favorite)

TIME TRAVEL

Timeline on the wiki - http://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/Timeline

So the time period is 2112 (Chenjesu contact) to 2130 (several years before Earth is slave-shielded) or only to 2116 (formation of the Alliance)

Because it is set BEFORE SC2, there can be no new information on the Milieu or Precursors, otherwise this information would have been known to Humans of SC2.

To have more and new aliens will probably work better if time selected is the shorter one (till 2116) and the new aliens have small populations. This way it could tie into  the SC universe canon by implying these smaller and less influential beings got absorbed by or are under protectorate of the major races (Like Yehat and Shofixti some time before that).

The represented major races could be all of the SC1 alliance and probably all of SC1 hierarchy, except Ur-Quan.

[wrong topic, deleted]

The danger in using only known races, is that a portion of the RPG joy that comes from the original games (which mind you, are good in a variety of ways), involves discovery and learning just how weird everyone out there is.  Each time you encounter a new race, you're slowly learning what they will be like, how they will respond, and just what their particular flavor of insanity involves.

Star Control 3 already stumbled over that some, in that revisiting many of the existing races didn't have the same thrill the second time around.  Sure, you cared what had happened to them since you saw them last, and yes they could progress a bit storywise (wait, the Yehat are beating us up now?), but you still largely understood their nature and character, which meant you weren't getting that same thrill of discovery when interacting with them.

If you want to reuse a lot of races (and I suspect you do, otherwise why pay for the license), then you need to really shake things up so that each race has a motivation to go out and redefine itself.  Prequels tend to be terrible for this, because they lock the story down and force the endpoint to be a known spot.  Why not just ditch that, blow up the universe, strand some portions of the various races in strange new places, and let everyone adjust in their own wonderful wacky ways.

Speaking as a fan and as an executive producer, the elephant in the room is Star Control 3. I don't want to treat it as canon.  But at the same time, we can't just make a product called Star Control 3 anymore than someone could make a new Master of Orion 3.

If we had gotten the Master of Orion IP, which we did bid on, a new one would have just been called Master of Orion to reboot things because MOO 3 had, imo, damaged the continuity beyond repair.  

It reminds me a little of the X-Men 3 movie. I have no idea how they're going to make the new X-men movie that doesn't require a lot of story line torture to undo Xmen 3.

That's why I'd prefer to think of things in terms of two time-lines.  The Star Control classic timeline which ends with Star Control 2 and can be extended by Paul Reiche and Fred Ford if they want and then a new, Star Control prime timeline that begins with the Chenjesu in 2112.  Because I really don't like the idea of retconning the existing Star Control universe. I'd rather just ignore Star Control 3 and have the classic universe integrity untouched.

Therefore, in a new continuity, we can let fans come up with new aliens that add to our story line as needed. I would prefer to use new aliens when the story calls for it than to twist an existing race to fit the plot needs.

Add long as we can blame the 2 timelines on Spock.

We're talking to Paul and Fred presently.  They're talking to Activision (who owns Toys for Bob) about getting permission to work with us.

I think most people, myself included, want to see the Mycons and the Ur-Quan and Utwigs.  But that doesn't preclude introducing new aliens too.  Star Control 2 introduced nearly a dozen new aliens including the Orz and Pkunk and the aforementioned Utwigs.  I think a lot of fans would be disappointed if they had waited 20 years and the alien roster hadn't increased.

In every new Galactic Civilizations game, we have added new alien races.  That's because new and cool ideas come up.  The aliens SERVE the game. Not vice versa.