January 2016 Update - Holy Mukay!

Mukay 3D. I understand that this could be not a final version.

Eye animation is near perfect. I'm even fine with unrealistic "iris" blinking. Tentacle animation maybe needs to be a little more subtle, but not critical.

The overall 3D image is about 3.5/10. Here are the reasons:

(every comment is about 3D image)

http://postimg.org/image/egu4zvp3n/full/

If this is what the final version of Mukay will be than I'd rather have my lightly animated 2D image.

I have to admit, seeing the Mukay move made me squee. I'm fairly certain the sounds I made were not human.

Beautiful rendering, nice job SD! 

The Mukay seem like an amiable race, wouldn't we be shocked if they turned out to be evil despots?

The concepts of the planet exploration all show environments that could be argued as earth-like though on a planetary scale, since each planet seems to be so tiny as to have a curved horizon.  I'm more curious in seeing the more exotic worlds, ie the so called treasure or rainbow worlds (or even gas/liquid worlds).  The stranger the planet, the greater the creep factor, which I love.  And like Awkbird, the possibility of going fully submersible would make exploration so much more rich as things of interest could be hidden at depth.

After staring at the art and daydreaming about gameplay, I can imagine some pretty epic surface battles in your lander and a King Kong creature. 

Mukay look good, but I have a concern...

The video was recorded at 30fps. Please tell me you aren't locking the game at 30fps and that the Aliens move smoothly in 60+fps glory.

Side question... The Mukay's background is similar to the concept drawing. Is the background still the concept art? Will it become more realistic / less artistic in the final game?

I liked the lander pictures, as well. They help explain the planet art approach that Stardock chose.

I'm liking the exploration concept art. The 3D Mukay itself is quite awesome already, but the surrounding screens, plants, and other details look like static placeholders, so I'm guessing they are yet to be done.

Nice work. I look forward to more. Thanks for sharing.

I'd be okay with the environments around the creatures not being 100% 3D as long as it looks believable, like the leader scenes in Civ 5 (which, iirc, were very rarely completely 3D).

Basically static  background with a couple of lights blinking, and occasional something in the background passing by. Though I would really want something to that shows their mood, maybe a certain body twitch or discoloration, that indicates it's mood. Since these are new races the player is left to discover what this body language means for each race. Going into an encounter after you have met a alien race a few times you can start to tell if they are going to be helpful, deceitful, or outright hostile to your requests and encounters. I think that would be a great aspect for the game. It would make it more immersive and requires the player to be more observant. 

Something to keep in mind for everyone. Everything you guys are seeing as founder's in the vault is still considered work in progress. We will definitely say when something is final, so please remember you are seeing things as they are getting developed along the way. 

^ Very glad to hear it. Just hand over my sketch to your 3D modeler, please. XD   

Sure, sure... But can you please address the 30fps concern that I had?

I like the new Vault content.

That said, I'd also like the tri-count on the Mukay to atleast quadruple - there's definitely no pushing the gfx boundaries with what we've seen (this isn't DoomCry of Duty IX after all) so there's definitely room to make straight lines disappear.

Love the little Mukay thing though I'll admit the blinking kinda threw me and not a massive fan of the moustache, both seemed a little too human to me, which contrasted with the rest of their design if you're in the mood to take requests maybe we could see one using a console? I'm kind of curious how their technology works and they interact with their enviroment.

On the whole though I'm excited to see them, I hope my comments betray more excitement and less "IT'S ALL WRONG!" they look great and I'm keen to know more about them! Maybe we can see some race summaries/descriptions, cultural or historical overviews?

Mukay looks great.  It feels like it belongs in a SC game.

Love the new Mukay and the animation. I understand this is super pre-alpha. But I want to acknowledge one of Stardock's shortcomings that I need to see improved now - including with the Mukay. 

Conversation screens are, proverbially, where most of the meat of the game lies. And these need to look GOOD. These need to be LUSH. Intricate. Detailed to the max. Completely immersive. All the bells and whistles you could possibly come up with. If the majority of the game's story is conveyed through these screens, I want them to be mind-blowing and full of awe and life!!  

Right now, they look basic as hell, Mukay animation included. Granted, it's super super super early! I won't fault Stardock for that! You've got years to add a millions levels of technology and detail! But I want them to blow me away. 

Play a little Destiny. Say what you want about the game, but you need only visit Venus or the Cosmodrome ONE TIME, to know the awe of being at the bleeding edge of technology, detail-wise. 

I know Stardock doesn't have $500 million to spend on StarControl. But you guys don't need to build an entire world where every aspect is rendered in stunning detail and load up one of the slickest shooter mechanics ever seen in a game. You JUST need the conversation screens - ultimately the ONLY screens that are UP-CLOSE and need that level of detail! And these screens NEED to blow your players' minds. 

That being said, he's endearing, goofy, insanely creative, new and innovative, as well as brimming with charm. I love him. Definitely a StarControl alien to remember. Can't wait to find out his history and personality! 

The conversation screens on SC2 did the job, and were super simple, graphics wise.  The characters themselves made the story.  The graphics helped. 

Think of the original X-Com for that...the graphics are trash by today's standards, but if I reload that game (and I have recently!!) then on the first nighttime mission, I am scared outta my chair!  The story makes those graphics irrelevant on X-Com.

SC2 is the same way for me.  The ships and aliens are timeless, not because they were rendered in 3-D for a 4k monitor, but because they were full of life and great story.  Don't get me wrong, if they want to make them beautiful 3-D rendered for a 4k monitor, go for it.  I only care insofar as it meshes with the rest of the games graphics, and that the aliens themselves are full of life!!!

(Need I point out the Syreen?  NOT HOT at all by any objective standard.  What, a few hundred pixels and 30 or less colors?  But oh man, what guy didn't dream of them because of the story, the black screens, and the dialogue?  I'd even say the Syreen were at their best *ahem* when we got the black screen and couldn't even see them at all!  Writing trumps graphics, if you have to chose (which we probably don't.))

Very pretty alien though!  Reminds me of ORZ!

Quoting Maogan, reply 16

The conversation screens on SC2 did the job, and were super simple, graphics wise.  The characters themselves made the story.  The graphics helped. 

Think of the original X-Com for that...the graphics are trash by today's standards, but if I reload that game (and I have recently!!) then on the first nighttime mission, I am scared outta my chair!  The story makes those graphics irrelevant on X-Com.

SC2 is the same way for me.  The ships and aliens are timeless, not because they were rendered in 3-D for a 4k monitor, but because they were full of life and great story.  Don't get me wrong, if they want to make them beautiful 3-D rendered for a 4k monitor, go for it.  I only care insofar as it meshes with the rest of the games graphics, and that the aliens themselves are full of life!!!

 

(Need I point out the Syreen?  NOT HOT at all by any objective standard.  What, a few hundred pixels and 30 or less colors?  But oh man, what guy didn't dream of them because of the story, the black screens, and the dialogue?  I'd even say the Syreen were at their best *ahem* when we got the black screen and couldn't even see them at all!  Writing trumps graphics, if you have to chose (which we probably don't.))

 



 

Very pretty alien though!  Reminds me of ORZ!

True, but keep in mind - Star Control II graphics were absolute bleeding-edge technology-wise at the time. The planets, the 3d rotating starbase, detailed aliens, the ship combat. So I'd like to be immersed as much as humanly possible, and have a LOT of detail on the ONE screen where you see things up close.

 More Stardrive weird, intricate, colorful details - the computer chips and the mechanical tendrils inserted directly into the owl-creatures' brains:

'

Less GalCiv - alien guy standing in front of vague spaceship bridge:

It's in the DETAILS. Multiple working-parts. Creative additions (like the owls doing the robot thingy's bidding). Charming animation. All of this SUPPORTED BY a technology that, these days, lets you do things like the shimmering rainbow pools of Venus in Destiny, and a sky that's constantly showering meteors:

It's truly impressive what CAN be done. And since Stardock doesn't need to model an entire world's 3d landscape (just a fraction in a conversation screen), the details can be expanded and iterated upon and crammed into each screen. It doesn't have to be that expensive. You know what game totally nailed the idea I'm talking about?

It was an Indie with a micro-budget, but they crammed so much detail into every screen and every area - TRINE 2 is the game I think illustrates what I'm trying to say PERFECTLY:

Look at that! It's amazing! It's gorgeous! It's incredibly advanced-looking! And it's a low budget indie game! That's what I mean. Not spend $500,000,000 to make it look like Destiny. Just spend the budget of an indie game to craft that much loving, tech-enhanced detail into each conversation screen. You'll win 10 million admirers.

Remember that Conversation screens will take up maybe 35% of your time in this. After all, this is in the spirit of Star Control 2, not SCNot3 . Trine 2, with a $5.4 million budget really only had to deal with 1 series of game systems, and could therefore splurge on environment assets because...that was almost the entire game. Star Control, on the other hand, is a series of complex systems that each need as much love and care allotted to each of them.

^ Trine 2 with $1.8M budget.

See?? 1.8m. StarControl has $5m. $1m of that could go to making those conversation screens as immersive as possible. 

My mistake, I was looking at Trine 3's budget.

I didn't realize that.  :)  I was too busy looking at the Syreen...

Unfortunately I believe that over half of the budget will go to waste in alien designs that are scrapped because lawyers will deem those aliens to be humanoid (or too similar to SC2 aliens) and therefore in breach of contract.

Then another half will be wasted in "fixing" the game because the story line is seen as affecting SC2 continuity.

Quoting Xenove, reply 23

Unfortunately I believe that over half of the budget will go to waste in alien designs that are scrapped because lawyers will deem those aliens to be humanoid (or too similar to SC2 aliens) and therefore in breach of contract.

 

Then another half will be wasted in "fixing" the game because the story line is seen as affecting SC2 continuity.

 

 

Nah, I think that is unlikely.

Prototypes/rough-sketches is where things get sorted out with respect to the humanoidity quite well.

And presumably the story draft has already been screened with Fred Ford or/and Paul Reiche III.

Paul and Fred are not involved in the development of Star Control game we are making.