Will the main antagonist be purely (boringly) evil? Evil for evil's sake? Or will there be fathomable and unfathomable shades of gray? Because really, only the Dnyarri could be considered evil. The other "evil" races? They could be called self-preservationists, issuing Dark Forest strikes against races that may one day challenge and ultimately enslave them. They could be called religious fanatics, misguided by other races into pursuing extermination of other races to appease the gods. They could be called expansionists, purifying other races in order to spread their tendrils to new worlds. They could be called free economists, trading things for the prices people WILL pay for goods. They could be called usurpers, proving dominance over the clans of their species through strength and skill the previous generation didn't possess. They could even be called pranksters, just having a little fun in the desolate and very serious galaxy.

But NEVER could they be called... just, evil.

(Also! I did NOT give the example of the Spathi EVIL ONES! I object!)

Also, could we get some wings or tentacles added to the Scryve? And are they robots? Partial-robots? And what are those orbs for?

Due to the multiversal nature of Star Control as of SC:O, is there any possibility of seeing traces of races like the Orz, Arilou, Androsynth, Taalo, and the Melnorme even if they aren't explicitly referred to as such?

Quoting cuorebrave, reply 22

Quoting Pyro411,

reply 20

Dude I want to see my Starbase evolve & visually see my ship yard improve

Oh thank God. It vaguely sounded like you were referring to the base/colony building mechanic from Star Control THREE! How you would build bases across the galaxy, and they would "automatically grow" resources and fuel for you. Crisis averted.

I'm on board with your idea - not so much a base-BUILDING mechanic, but your SINGLE base, expanding/improving.

Just play NMS. The homeplanet w/ base mechanic is in.

This:

This is what I see on my work & home PCs.

Hunam,

Clear your browser's cached images. Your panda is now gone for me.

Just did. It fixed it.

It's not a panda. It's russian Vinnie the Pooh.

You angered the question god. Now pay the price.

IBN...  Two words... "Inertial Dampeners".  What impact?  Everything inside the ship only felt a slight jolt.

Pseudo-science is a wonderful thing:-)

Hmmm... There is a very valuable lesson from my particular ancient school of game design in this for those interested in game design.  One of our golden rules of doing things right... "The game writes the story, and the story designs the game."

So Stardock designed a ship, and when they did it had everything it needed based on the "background" (i.e. story) known at that time.  That was the "first draft" of that ship design.  Then they moved on.  Eventually writing a part of the story that says that the ship they had designed back in the beginning of the process needs to crash into a planet, be repairable after it does, and everyone on the ship needs to live.  So the game wrote the story, the ship they had designed wound up being a "character" in that story, and affecting the story.  And now, the story will design the game, because the ship needs more game design to support the story.

So you go back to the ship, and give it "Inertial Dampeners"... now that you know that you need those in your story.

First you design the game, then you write the story.  Then you expand the game based on the story, then you write more story to cover the new aspects of the game.  And on and on endlessly until... "No game is ever finished, at some point somebody wearing a suit rips it from your hands and puts in on the shelf."

Quoting Kavik_Kang, reply 33

IBN...  Two words... "Inertial Dampeners".  What impact?  Everything inside the ship only felt a slight jolt.
Pseudo-science is a wonderful thing

True, but you've forgotten a few other key words "Artificial Gravity" or "Matter Replicators"

Ahh Science Fiction, one of those few cases where writers can get away with the line... How could we ever live our lives today if "X" hadn't been invented.

Stardock would definitely not be doing their job if they didn't have cryptic references to unseen races, and it would be doubly cool if some of some of those could be inside references and easter eggs for the classic fans: some clever hinting at the Ur-Quan Verse that may or may not directly correlate with the new verse's canon. We already know of the Eluder and Dreadnaught toy ships above the Tywom's console and I'm confident that's far from the only nod to the UQM canon that we'll see.

SC2 was technically not a singularly contained verse itself; the prospect of other dimensions and possible verses were openly acknowledged, with all the races you mentioned traveling between them. Not asking or expecting Stardock to insert their version of what that all means, but there ought to at least be some recognition of it to tie things together.

Did you listen to my Androsynth theme yet, btw?

Will we have gratuitous alien sex scenes like was promised to us at the ending of SC2?

Will it have the mark 2? (since that's technically part of SC2 but not so much as a reference, it would be cool to include it so TFB get their feathers ruffled

Good questions. Keep them coming. Even though I know that we are just going to be ignored (again), we can still keep trying. Never give up! Keep... On... Squeaking...

*smells faint scent of NMS spirit*

Again? How much times have you been ignored? Do we need to move around our weight to get them answered?

They're just going to warn you guys about the squeak again

Vaelzad, the project lead, used to come here to answer questions or debate topics. Now he only shows up to tell people to stop being board Nazis or to take pot shots at me. He leaves all the update duties to Frogboy (Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock, executive producer). While Frogboy is generally pretty vocal on the forums, he's divided between multiple projects. (The GalCiv AI is his baby.) This leads to us getting only one-way updates which have become pretty threadbare in the past couple of months.

Needless to say StarConII has a special place in all of our hearts. Back when the Founder's program was announced I was ecstatic to fill out the application. And elated when got accepted. But when the price was revealed my enthusiasm went down a notch. Not only was it almost double for a triple AAA game, but it wasn't even a pre-order. But I thought to myself, it's probably so high 'cause I'll get to see how the sausage is made. I'll witness The Baby in the making. I'll "get on the inside". Maybe even get to influence a color of a pixel on the title screen. So, I went ahead and bought into the program.

Now, I realize that what we're getting aren't even scraps from the master's table. Those are mere crumbs that Stardock swipes off their table on accident with their elbows. And that pretty much serves as a major disappointment to me. Of course, I'm excited to see the new stuff, just like a skin and bones dog is excited for a piece of bread thrown her way. But was the Founder's program worth it?.. I'm starting to lean "maybe not" way.

The last half a year was: Update (if you can call it that) -- everyone (all 12 of us) is hustling with their feedback for 3 days -- then nothing for the rest of 27 days (or us bullshitting about here)... Why can't we see the process? Why can't we know the hurdles the team goes through? Why everything has to be feedback only based? Sometimes, I'm even starting to think that our feedback isn't even needed and all of this is just a sham.....

Burnt Orange GUI ::twitch:: ::twitch::

EDIT:

The cake is a lie!

For reference... This type of posting is what I am used to for a Stardock game.

https://forums.stardock.net/480598

https://forums.stardock.net/480847

Thanks for the explanation. It is clear that this vaelzad guy/girl is someone who we should be wary of. We will not be silenced and we will be heard .

Regarding questions: my first and foremost questions are to what extent modding is supported. The only confirmed modding that I'm aware of is that you can essentially make your own StarControl story/adventure. This covers custom aliens, quests, graphics, that sort of thing.

What isn't clear

• can you make your own ships (abilities); and if so do you get to script your own abilities/behavior or are you limited to adjusting numbers based on preset ability templates?
• can you make custom games within the engine; this covers gaming concepts such as Asteroids, Tower Defense, and DotA-like things

Quoting maanvis26, reply 46

Thanks for the explanation. It is clear that this vaelzad guy/girl is someone who we should be wary of. We will not be silenced and we will be heard .

Haha. I don't think he's a bad guy... He just doesn't give Frogboy-levels of feedback. But he doesn't give post-release-NMS levels of feedback either.

These are important questions. Thank you for asking them.

Quoting Kavik_Kang, reply 33

IBN...  Two words... "Inertial Dampeners".  What impact?  Everything inside the ship only felt a slight jolt.

Pseudo-science is a wonderful thing

Hmmm... There is a very valuable lesson from my particular ancient school of game design in this for those interested in game design.  One of our golden rules of doing things right... "The game writes the story, and the story designs the game."

So Stardock designed a ship, and when they did it had everything it needed based on the "background" (i.e. story) known at that time.  That was the "first draft" of that ship design.  Then they moved on.  Eventually writing a part of the story that says that the ship they had designed back in the beginning of the process needs to crash into a planet, be repairable after it does, and everyone on the ship needs to live.  So the game wrote the story, the ship they had designed wound up being a "character" in that story, and affecting the story.  And now, the story will design the game, because the ship needs more game design to support the story.

So you go back to the ship, and give it "Inertial Dampeners"... now that you know that you need those in your story.

First you design the game, then you write the story.  Then you expand the game based on the story, then you write more story to cover the new aspects of the game.  And on and on endlessly until... "No game is ever finished, at some point somebody wearing a suit rips it from your hands and puts in on the shelf."


 

I'd really like to agree, and from an aesthetic point of view, I do. But don't forget about real-world time constraints.

I'm not.  We've been doing it this way for over 60 years... it works pretty well.