Art Style

I think a lot of people will take to the "cartoon look" very shortly into playing it.  I think that if they were making Team Fortress right now, and it was a new thing, everyone would be saying the same thing about the cartoon look.  If they succeed with the cartoon look it will be a timeless game.  Like I was telling the modern game industry 20 years ago "Team Fortress will live on for 20 years, no matter how much graphics improve Team Fortress will always retain its unique, and good look".  Getting this type of "artsy" look right can result in a game that is timeless, and still "looks good" 20 years after it was made.

"Realistic sci-fi" is practically the opposite of this, and becomes dated very quickly.  All of the other sci-games try to look realistic, and a cartoon look is what I think many envision when they think of Star Control.  I think, like Team Fortress, once people spend an hour or so immersed in SCO's cartoon universe they will acclimate too it, and anyone who likes the game enough to finish it wouldn't want it to look any other way by the time they have finished the game. 

I played WoW?!

Others have voiced this early on in the project and their pleas have fallen on deaf ears.

Complaints about the burnt orange UI have also been raised and ignored.

They are fixed on their particular art style and coloring. Sad, but true.

I personally don't mind the cartoon style, and we have many members who played WoW or WildStar.

That burnt orange, though...

Kavik_Kang you do have some very valid points.

If only you had used Amber monitors in the early days the "Burnt Orange" would be nostalgic too you like it is too me, and then you would't hate it so much!  Haha.  I bet you'd like it if they changed it to "Apple II+ Green"...

If you only lived in Austin, TX and didn't attend UT, you would quickly change your tune...

I had a commodore 64 & Apple IIe. I remember my first VGA card, after my EGA one got fried because of a lightning strike. Ahhh, the good old days. Then came Starcon & MOO, and it became even better. No more Oregon Trail... 

Looks horrid TBH.

Where'd you get that SC:O GUI shot, anyway? Are you a member of an even more exclusive founders group?

looking at the screen above, we should probably think about changing platforms it has an old style that makes me feel a little more secure with, times when information was mine and not for the entire world to see. 

Anyways, you know, DOSBOX is great for loading old games such as Starcon 1-3... but don't think there is any Amiga emulators out there, perhaps he took a picture on his phone & then scanned it in (I know he does the same thing with his current desktop apps).

I liked it a lot better than green... and whoever that is needs to turn the brightness down so the background is black.

Bingo! There's no need for orange filler in those UI elements.

OK, First of all I'm a software developer myself so here's my take.

1. I agree about the "Orange UI", I would let the players decide the color from several colors, just display a 16 colors selection or something.

2. regarding the cartoon look, I'll just echo what already have been said. I think the characters can be like a cartoon but the rest should be more "serious design", some things more like the Galactic Civ 3 design.

3. I'm really looking forward to see how the star map will look like, it was really big component in SC2.

us does not refer to uz, but the group the "group, does not play WoW because its cartoonish"... there are some like myself, that just don't like cartoon like games. However, my love for SC runs deep, and like i said in the prior posts that states "Kavik_Kang you do have some very valid points." if you where to read his post above, you would see what i'm referring to.

1. Yes. Totally. Fallout had it for a decade (ok, maybe not that long)

2. I like the current art style personally. I'm "tired" of "serious" planet art style. It ages worse than unrealistic one and I wanna see what Stardock artists had been up to for all this time. Exploring this unrealistic/cartoony galaxy would be much more interesting, since you won't know what to expect whereas if you go with realistic planets, you'll know exactly what to expect and it'll get boring real fast. I'm pretty sure you'll be able to reskin the original campaign with the mod tools provided.

3. Starmap prelim. design was revealed in one of the last 3-4 updates. It looks badass.

I like the burnt orange but for everyone else, a selectable UI color would be better.