The Official, Unofficial November Update Thread

General:

Is Chris going to write a spine trading quest?

Mods:

I hope we will be able to put some of the player created mods in the vanilla campaign. (Remember that I am itching to create a defiller mod.)

Video:

If a ship crashes into a planet and a puff of smoke is visible from orbit, how did the crew survive?

Also, it's sad to see that the hideous Burnt Orange UI is still in there.

Nolifers.

Nolifers. (with tongue-in-cheek) <--- for Matt.

P.S. I'm making my own update thread this time around in protest to abysmal search capability of this forum.   

... says the guy who commented within 5 minutes............

No hug for your best friend being back online after 5 weeks???

Quoting IBNobody, reply 1

Reserved.

DAMN IT!!! You get the first reply now!!!!!!!!??!???!?

......... I must learn from your genius, scandalous ways. Next month.

Update is live.

Oh man! Time to focus my thoughts with meditation.

Well! my opinion is...

OH! and Welcome back cuorebrave! we missed you! how is your son? ;D hope all is going well!

well then, i think the intro can be a little more "vivid" because it's too... calm? but it's only a place holder so... it's actually a pretty good intro, the graphics in the moments reminded me of BeastWars to be fair!

and about the pdf, GET BETTER BRAD! Spine is kinda of important... or so i heard

what i am interested is the Mod Tool, i never modded in my life (maybe that ring that i made more powerful in the codes of skyrim is modding but... yeah) i really want to make my ideas of aliens and machines work somewhere, and to share them, so this will be the perfect way to star modding! SO EXITED!

also... by the end of the year...

CAN WE SEE THE ALIENS??? =(

There's not a lot of meat in this month's update.

The planets look infinitely better already, and more realistic which I am super pleased about. As I've said before, the planets were actually the ONLY realistic looking part of SCII and I was a bit turned off by how insane and weird they looked from orbit. Always wanted them to GET weird at the ground level, but look like a planet from space. And I feel like that's happening, so I'm excited! MUCH less cartoony, and I'm super pleased about that.

Secondly, thank the good Lord that ugly earthling lady captain is leaving. She was boring and so vanilla I cringed when I saw her. Thank God she's out! Make her cool, memorable. I don't care if it's a girl or a guy, just make them awesome looking. Cool future tech, too. We've imagined a ton, human future society will probably mirror that, so it's okay if it's gently "lifted" from other scifi material - like the Cruiser! That's pop culture for what spaceships will look like, and perfectly legitimate. The stylized chick at the end of the cinematic is better (not my favorite thing ever, but better). 

Um, shit, I guess that's it?? Modding is cool, I guess? Not much information to offer there, other than "it is good". So that leaves two subjects -

1) Fonts - someone want to drudge up Hunam's old post about fonts?

2) IS someone going to make a thread about the cinematic? Should we offer thoughts here? I'm up for a vote.

;D hehhe agreed cuorebrave

also...

the intro/animatic captain...

is hot as hell

Quoting ShadeDark, reply 9

hehhe agreed cuorebrave

also...

the intro/animatic captain...

is hot as hell

No fucking WAY is she as hot as the Syreen!! Captain Talana?! She's tops.

Yea, this month I got a bit overwhelmed.

Besides Escalation,  I did this: https://forums.galciv3.com/480826 

So, here's my feedback:

I really DISLIKE the type/style of "humor" in this vid. This is not the game about Tom & Jerry in space. SC2 never had that kind of humor. It absolutely misses the SC2 feel in my estimation. Tongue-in-cheek, sarcasm, irony, satire, please. Non of that "kiddie-lol-bullcrap" humor..

Alien fonts. Ahead of the game like a bawse. 

PLEASE, POST MORE ART OR SOMETHING. We don't even need long winded paragraphs of explanation. JUST POST SOME OLD PICS WE HAVEN'T SEEN. 

Frogboi! ;D

you do have your hands full!

keep up the good work! i can't wrap my head into it

Quoting cuorebrave, reply 10

Quoting ShadeDark,

reply 9

hehhe agreed cuorebrave

also...

the intro/animatic captain...

is hot as hell

No fucking WAY is she as hot as the Syreen!! Captain Talana?! She's tops.

Reduced 89%

Original 640 x 400

I did not went THAT far

hehehe, i wonder if we will get sexy aliens <3

Indeed, get well soon Brad.

Now remember,  Worf may have had his spine replaced but... it failed & he had to rely on his redundant nervous system to kick in for the surgery to be a success.  Sadly last I learned we didn't have that form of redundancy in our body.

Now is it just me or does that lady at the end of the video give off a Peggy Carter type vibe?

One thing that I noticed in the PDF however is the size ratio between the Earth/Moon is a little skewed.  Will this be addressed or shall it fall under plot armor?

I quickly dug up this link for comparing celestial bodies "No there's not a SG-1 Uma Thurman joke here lol"

http://www.universetoday.com/20489/moon-compared-to-earth/

Really enjoy the look and feel of the animatic. The voice used for the Tywom is pretty amusing; even though he's only panicking and not actually saying anything, I can tell just from that little yelp that you guys are nailing the zany attitude already and the character is going to be silly and fun to listen to. The little Looney Tunes style puff of smoke as he crashes on the surface of the planet certainly isn't the tone I was expecting, but I've got to concede that it is funny. I think if there's going to be doses of humor in these cinematics though, they need to have some context; you can't just throw slapstick into Star Control without somehow establishing its presence first.

You say the commander is going away soon and a new one is in the works. Any chance the one in the middle and at the end of the animatic is the one in the works? If so, I definitely approve. What a cutie. I think you've nailed the facial expression with the cocked eyebrow; she looks like she has the sharp personality, confident attitude and sex appeal befitting her position, something that seemed missing from the first commander model. I'm concerned now that I'll be too distracted looking at her to actually listen to what she's saying...

The music is great, although perhaps a bit understated. I feel that music is a particularly pronounced and important part of the Star Control DNA, and while this score is perfectly serviceable, I'm afraid it's also a bit too generic. I'd love to hear more of a hybridization of orchestral with some synthesized instrumentation to give it the kind of punchy, energetic quality that was so special to SC2. Although I love orchestral music and realize it has its place, I always felt that SC2's musical energy gave the game a sense of urgency and excitement that a solely orchestral score can't match. If this bit is going full orchestral, it needs some more meat on its bones to make it more dramatic.

My major concern (and one that's bound to be echoed here a number of times) is that this cinematic is so short and offers almost no substance or plot. Yes, of course it's a work in progress, but in the end my hope is to see a much longer cinematic that puts the player into the shoes of their character while setting up the overall context of the story. It's critical to get players emotionally invested in the events taking place. Don't just shoehorn players into the midst of a situation, because they won't care about it.

Hope the situation with the spine problems improves.

Just a quick thought on the placement of the video in regards to what some have said above.

How about that video happen 15-30 min into the game after going through a short dialog tree during something that looks like a UN summit flip/flopping on using the ship to send it's first deep space mission.

-- Maybe even an instant game over in the choices, IE an instant fight to halt the mission & the ship seen in the video crashes into the building the MC & UN are meeting in.  "Perfect Storm of bad answers to cause this"

The girl in the end of the vid and rejected 3D girl are the same girl only with longer hair. Dafuq y'all are looking at?

This is a great example where 2D coupled with human imagination beats any average 3D by a mile.

That's what everyone asking for 2D aliens are trying to tell you, Brad. Don't waste your time on useless 3D dialog screens. THAT'S A WASTE OF RESOURCES.

EDIT:

https://forums.starcontrol.com/448211/page/1/#3594730

Did that 5 minutes after the update went live.

Allow me to fix it for you...

There we go...

I'd like to see her with much smaller boobs in the drawing. This is legitimate spaceflight, they're bulging out quite a bit. It seems a bit exploitative in their current form and the focus of the drawing. We're past that, guys! The 3d model has a much subtler chest. 

Who past tits? Not me. 

No, just chicks with big old bazongas for the sake of pleasing all the dudes playing! Hello? Have we seen the new Lara Croft? She's just a regular girl now. Not some bimbo with bodacious tatas

Says the person who wrote reply #10.

Honestly I have to say her portions aren't bad, day in and day out I work with co-workers that make her look like a washboard & others that make her look like Mt Everest.  Women come in all shapes and sizes.  Respectfully her portions are fine, she's not over sexualized in the least, the size of her boobs is a moot point.

Now I will say I'm absolutely hoping she has a good balanced personality, or maybe even modeled after Cpt Janeway from Star Trek Voyager.  Now if she's a starbase commander maybe a mesh of Kira Nerys and Ezri Dax.

This thread right now...

Honestly, I don't care. However, her 2D arched back pose makes her look like she's thrusting her chest at you. Is that the look that SD is going for?

She can thrust anything at me. That I can tell ya. /T