cuorebrave, you are jumping to conclusions based on things that have not even been stated.

YOU lobbied for them to be dots, and in SC2 they were rectangles.

Where is trading even mentioned in the PDF? 

And on a more general note it's called choice, a player could harvest resources from planets, pillage them from freighters, destroy enemy ships or quest rewards.

Also regarding planet exploring there still are artifacts and other stuff to discover on planets.

Again you are jumping to conclusions. 

Where has a mission board been mentioned? From what I understood pirates, freighters, etc. are something you run across while exploring.

Exploration wouldn't be very fun if there is nothing to discover.

I'm quoiting Brad's post so people can read it again.

Just a few things worth thinking about:

1. open world generic mechanics are boring. Random events are boring. all those games that let you keep playing after the story ended - boring.

2. replay value is more important than "i can keep on playing forever". Story and world building is the most important thing about Star Control and when that's over, the game is over.

3. in order to have generic mechanics become Star Control they have to have strong ties to the story and races.
you just can't have "bounty hunters" you could have "rogue Tywom ships" that broke off. They might get their own circle of influence. They might have a different status of allegiance with the player (let you build their ships or not, fight you / talk to you).

4. planet exploration - so yeah that stuff is mostly about the survival bits of the game, and are very important. But SC2 had it way too simple. It definitely needs to be enhanced and made slightly more complex. However before we do that, it should already have:
A. resource gathering
B. alien beast fighting
C. dodging/fighting the elements

i actually feel that A+B+C might be enough to make it fun... dodge that lightning!!! you're being chased by space cows!!! the lander controls should be super responsive for that to work.

Rhonin - what don't you get? Yesterday, Schism was going on and on about how there are going to be tons of things to do AFTER the game ends. To keep people playing after the story ends. Freighters, bounty hunters, pirates, quests... Think about how that's going to work for a second.

Are the designers going to handcraft infinite well-done, story-motivated quests for people to play for hundreds of hours after the main game is already over? No, Because that would be impossible. So what's the only thing left? Random quests.about going to system X, fighting Y, and rescuing Z. The point is, it's a deduction based on the info presented, not just an assumption. So I'll give you a challenge: Prove me wrong. Explain to me how my derivation is false, and how they're going to make quests that can be completed long after the game is over, and also be story-driven forever. Whew! You guys come up with a solution to THAT and I'll never question you again!

EmperorZA - I agree. Just because a game mechanic has been ruined in the past doesn't mean it can't be made fresh again. But will it? Do you see something in the current discussion about blowing up freighters and auto-spawning bounty hunters that's balls-to-the-wall exciting? Does the idea of pirates attacking freighters and being able to defend said freighters from enemy attack just... Completely blow you away?!

Now, if they come out with a bounty hunting mechanic pike the nemesis system in Shadow of Mordor??? Okay, we're onto something here!!! I still think it should be story-driven, like a CERTAIN story related choice sets the bounty hunters after you. But whatever, do something cool like that and I'll eat my words.

I always imagined Admiral ZEX's brother should have become a bounty Hunter in SC2 - and spent the rest of the game hunting you down. That'd be a fun spin on the mechanic. You do some terrible act and get hunted for it.

Anyway, point is - are they going to do something tantalizing to MAKE the tired mechanic fresh again? Well? Are they???

The problem with the idea of bounty hunters is it undermines a fundamental Star Control gene where it's all about the relations between the races. If you blow up a ship you basically risk losing an ally. That is the Star Control way. Bounty Hunters don't make sense in this context.

But perhaps these idea can transform into a more "Star Control like" gameplay.

For example bounty hunters could be made "Star Control like" by having a race in the game that is over obsessed with justice and fairness, so maybe they decide to "punish" you if you don't behave, by becoming aggressive towards you and trying to arrest you.

p.s

sorry Cuore i think you've already written similar thoughts..

p.s 2

actually, the most Star Control way of doing the justice race, is to have them come after you if you do good things only, they become an ally if you're mean.

bounty hunters would probably exist as a separate entity, apart from all the races in the game. (my common sense is tingling)

Star Control has a of potential that can include multiple factions of each race, why not have factions that are separate from races? seems like a good fit too me. 

Also, it is a good way to include races that exist outside of the current star map.  Pirates and Bounty Hunters also opens up new avenues for community modding as well.  

edit :

Also, it has a lot of potential when creating content for quests and adventure. All in all I don't see how they can be so terrible that it will ruin the game. If you think about it, it is more likely that it will make the game far greater.

You have to remember the "living galaxy" part of SCO.  I had only been cautioning against adding game elements that would create the perception of a space trading game.  A visible "bounty" alone would do that.  Players see a bounty on them and expect a lot of things that would not be in the game to be associated with that.  Stardock seems to have already known that and was never planning on having a visible bounty, it is more of an invisible reputation like many adventure games have had in the past.  Even that reputation rating is not necessary to do what they want to do.  It could actually be as simple as if you attack an "innocent civilian" then a "bounty hunter" (a hostile ship) is spawned somewhere in the galaxy and now there is one more hostile ship out there flying around the galaxy.  Or, that spawning could be "attached" to the player or a specific location, and the ship spawns when you visit that location or just near you when some condition is satisfied.  There are several ways this could be done without any bounty/reputation at all and the player wouldn't notice the difference.

In their "living galaxy" there will be a lot of "innocent civilian ships" out there that have nothing to do with you or the story.  They are just there populating the galaxy and making it seem more real.  What they are saying is that these "civilian ships" are not just background graphics.  You can fight them and destroy them if you want.  They would never attack you unprovoked, because they are really just a part of the scenery, but you can attack them because they are "real" and there and in reality they are more than just a part of the scenery.  If you do, that is going to create a new ship within the living galaxy that wants to get revenge on you for having attacked that "innocent civilian" ship that was just a part of the "Passive Map" of the living galaxy.  It's like if you were able to attack and destroy a tree in an RPG, in reality these ships are just part of the scenery.

They are using terms like "pirate" and "bounty hunter" to classify some of the activities these ships that are really just a part of the scenery might undertake.  But this is all taking place within the "Passive Map", which everyone else would just call "the map".  The "Active Map" is where the game takes place, where the NPCs are, etc.  These "bounty hunters" are a unit that is spawned within the Active Map to punish you for having killed an "innocent civilian" of the Passive Map.

Hopefully this helps everyone to understand what they are actually saying here.  All this pirate and bounty hunter stuff is just a part of the scenery (Passive Map), not a part of the game (Active Map).

Here are my suggestions to add other types of gameplay to the planetary exploration:

1) Some optional racing competition: your lander has to fly from a point A to a point B as quickly as possible (he can compare/share his time with other SCO players).
2) There is a monster/uricane that threat your lander and your have X seconds/minutes to fly to a shelter (there are several on the planet) in order to avoid damage.
3) Some terrible monsters can't see you if your lander is covered by a substance available when shooting a plant/rock. If you don't have this substance on your lander, the monsters will hunt you.
4) Some electromagnetic storm appears and you cannot contact your spaceship to quit the planet. You have to wait or to find another way to restore the communication.
5) Same idea, but instead of loosing contact, the map is no more available for a time.

So, with all that said, it's a perfect lead-in to this...

I had mentioned this earlier in the thread but it has been forgotten by now. You can just “spawn” a “bounty hunter” in response to the player destroying a ship of the Passive Map. It could spawn anywhere in the galaxy, just to potentially increase the encounter ratio, you could “attach” that spawning to the player and some future condition being satisfied, too a location, etc. The point is that you don't want that bounty hunter to immediately appear and attack the player right then and there, because that feels like a game and not a “living galaxy”. This is the simple way of doing this, and SCO will have a simple living galaxy.

Here's a more “Rube-like” way of handling this, but one that would be more work to implement. As I briefly mentioned earlier, there could be different types of “Passive Map ship”. Traders, pirates, bounty hunters, commercial freighters, tankers, passenger liners, etc. Each might have its own “Needs, Wants, & Desires” based AI. Part of that NWD AI, for the “bounty hunter” ships of the Passive Map would be a bounty threshold. If the player exceeds the bounty threshold of a “bounty hunter” that is within its range then that bounty hunter will “emerge from the Passive Map into the Active Map” and attack the player. No new ships are spawned when you destroy an “innocent civilian”, you are simply “activating” more and more “bounty hunters” (who are already out there) to attack you when they encounter you. This is a much more sophisticated, versatile, and convincing way of doing this that makes the galaxy seem even more “alive”, but is a lot more work to create than simply spawning a new hostile ship into the galaxy in response to an attack on “civilians”.

EDIT: I should also mention that with an NWD AI for the residents of the Passive Map, they are in a constant state of doing things based on their NWD.  That bounty hunter might not attack you even if you meet its bounty threshold because it is currently satisfying a higher need, want, or desire.  The residents of the Passive Map with NWD are in a constant state of satisfying their "instincts" and interacting with each other and the map.  So this goes both ways.  You might enter a system to find a Passive Map pirate attacking a freighter, and you could decide to rescue that freighter.  It is probably too late in the process for Stardock to implement an NWD-based Passive Map, I just thought I would point out that there is a lot more too this than there might appear too be on the surface.

I didn't get strong impression that Items Trading system is getting added to SCO from the update like cuore did, but allusion to it was pretty significant. And since Brad cleared it up, we can all relax about it.

I don't like the idea of sending a robot to the planet surface (even though it's more realistic). I'd also prefer there were a dozen of different Lander variants (maybe even stat-wise different for different gameplay styles or situations).

How to make planet exploration fun for me:

1. Shooting and killing living organisms is fun (and it's happening AFAIK)

2. Fighting bigger monsters/planet bosses (when this was never fun?) It doesn't have to be God of War or Witcher level of sophistication either.

3. "Pod" racing around the planet similar to Micro Machines, Rock'n'Roll racing, Mario Cart etc. Make Lander or local "Pod" jump over obstacles or mushroom heads.

4. Puzzles (whatever form you can come up with - the more variety, the better). It'll also promote community aspect of SCO which is seemed to be important for Stardock (I'm talking about Myst level of difficulty puzzles).

5. Ruins, derelict crash sites, unexplained artifacts, weird readings with a good amount of SCO lore text/crew dialogue to encourage planet landings/exploration.

Brad, what do you have in mind for planet exploration at the moment?

I don't disagree with most of what you said, but this is just a pathetic point-grabbing nitpick, and you know it. Be they rectangles, dots, or little pictures of Adolf Hitler, the point he was making was distinct *things* that were representative of people as opposed to a bar graph. And you knew that but decided to correct him anyway. Pretty weak, dude.

I would love having alternate mode, when original story campaign is played in radomized universe (same quests, but locations of races and events are randomized).

Have it unlocking after finishing normal campaign once.

Or at least have a mechanism to create mod of original campaign in this way.

I was more poking fun that he fought for a change that was different than SC2 and I didn't really mean anything by it. Though I do admit it was nitpicky. I did somewhat like the rectangle implementation that was in Origins, I imagined that the partially depleted ones were crew members that were injured and not dead, yet.

If you don't want to play after the end, that is your choice and you are free to do so.

However, just because the big bad has been defeated doesn't mean that everything is sunshine and rainbows. There could be enemy stragglers left behind, a power vacuum is created and something should fill it, grudges could reignite, rebuilding to be done, humanity to expand and maybe its allies and other issues that I might not even thing of.

When is the game over? Or what would constitute for the game to be finished? As was stated we are playing in a small part of the galaxy and there are plans to bring other universes to explore later.

Also it doesn't have to be infinite, just enough to keep players interested until more content is released.

And for examples of game series that have post ending content look here.

Challenge accepted. I will have to be a little vague since I don't want to spoil too much. 

With the big bad gone there is now a power vacuum. The other species, humanity included, are trying to build something to fill it, league, federation, whatever. I imagine the Scryve didn't allow their ward species to interact amongst themselves. So now they started trading between each other, however, the Scryve fleets were a deterrent to pirates and now they are gone and because of the wars, disasters and other things a lot of individuals are left with their lives in ruins and in their desperation they turn to a life of piracy and go after the trade freighters of this new alliance.

Another thing, the Scryve navy might have left. But what about their colonies that are filled with civilians? There might be those that would seek revenge for what the Scryve did even if the these members of their species weren't directly involved or aware of what was happening. 

Other things could be finding planets for humanity and their allies to expand to, playing diplomat between the aliens, searching for precursor artifacts, Scryve scouting fleets being sent in to look for weaknesses to exploit in a potential future invasion.

And there could be other threats that could hint at future content. Did you know that the Ancient One, the moon sized creature, is running away from something? What could frighten such a being? And we want to find out?

An example for SC2, imagine if after finishing the story you got to decide the fate of the remaining members of the Hierarchy. Would you have said no to that?

And a challenge of my own, can you prove that they can't do it?

Also an idea for a bounty hunter species could be something like the Trandoshan from Star Wars, check the society section for what I'm talking about. A species for which hunting is like a religion. Their morality would be very different than ours.

Like say landers specialized for different environments? Lander resistant to heat for very hot planets, landers for cold planets and stuff like that.

I think Ishaan encapsulated my pages-long argument into two sentences. Sorry for droning on. I should have just said this.

Please keep in mind: 

• Open world generic mechanics are boring.
• Random events are boring.
• All those games that let you keep playing, doing generic random missions, after the story ended are boring.

EmperorZA still hasn't answered my question - I'm curious. It's true what you said, that tired mechanics can be rejuvenated. So - is there something about the current proposed implementation (Kill a Tywom, Spawn a bounty hunter) that literally, just blows you away? Something that makes you foam at the mouth with excitement at how original and innovative THIS implementation of bounty hunters looks to become? Because, if not, my fear is justified.

And it cannot be understated that this all is ONLY A FEAR. FEAR of generic pirates and bounty hunting, etc. with the same uninspired implementation of gameplay as every other game that includes pirates and bounty hunting. Who knows? Maybe Stardock will send physical, threatening letters to your real-life home if a bounty is out on your head? And then one day, when you're watching TV with your girlfriend, a badass dude with a mullet and sunglasses will slam your face onto the hood of his truck and cuff you. Then, he'll let you smoke a cigarette while you wait for the police. That's innovation.

Hunam_, I got the strong impression of item trading because of page 19 of the Vault Update. On the left you have the BUY section. You can buy fuel and crew, most likely for a variable price, but not necessarily. Then, they have certain modules you can buy from certain Starbases. Logic would lead to those probably being of a different price in each Starbase you visit. Same goes for the "parts" on the sell tab. Logic dictates that this is showing us you MIGHT want to sell your "part" here, or you might want to wait for a different base, that gives you a better price. But none of those are definitively Space Trading Game.

Even more of an impression, though, from the SELL tab on the left, is that you have the choice to SELL your minerals at the price that Starbase offers you - maybe it's 100RU at one base, and 175RU at a different base. The reason I'm "assuming" that, is because of Chekhov's Gun. If a gun is introduced into a story, it must be fired at some point. Same deal here: Why wouldn't there just be one button to offload all minerals, if the prices are constant throughout the galaxy, right? The chance for you to sell certain minerals here, or not, wouldn't exist if the price was constant. You'd just auto-dump them all, like we've talked about before. It's Chekhov's Optional Sell Button. Put all that together, and you have a recipe for a Space Trading Game, with a fluctuating market - so that instead of exploring fun planets, with varied objectives and many things to do... you can instead fly around until you find a Market that buys Cadmium for 387RU instead of 349RU, to make a profit. 

Hunam, your #5 is by far, the most important. But, to add to Hunam and Mystral's list of fun things to do on the planet surface, and what we really should be focusing on:

6. Hidden areas - a giant tree you can blow a hole in and find more resources or bio units hiding inside.

7. Blasting through a sheet of ice, that was covering the entrance to a shallow cave

8. A planet where literally every single creature on the surface, otherwise docile, somehow feels your presence - their eyes turn red and they rush you immediately in a bloodthirsty rage (maybe because you're carrying a certain artifact, or picked up a certain artifact from the planet surface)

9. Variable gravity

10. Very thin bridges to try and slowly navigate to get to the top of some mountains

Rhonin, you're alluding to an incredibly complex, story-driven, plot-filled, impactful end game, where you can even decide whether to execute or save the remaining Scryve civilians across the galactic sector.

The only thing mentioned to US was that if you kill a Tywom, bounty hunters spawn... and that there are random pirates attacking random freighters you can save. Bland, random bullshit, like every other game. That shit is boring. The stuff you bring up is not.

If there's an incredibly structured and complex, human-written endgame, I'd never be against that?!

Stardock needs to figure out how to understand that we're reacting to WHAT HAS BEEN TOLD TO US. Not these grand schemes happening behind the scenes. Reconcile those two things, and you'll see why people react the way they do.

It's all within reason and of course time.  What we are looking to do is have lots of different ways to accomplish the goal.

This is why so much effort has gone into the "Crafting" part of the game because we want to make it as easy as possible to play the game and then think "Hey, what if I decided to do X instead? How might that change things?"

IF all goes well, a handful of *volunteers* who don't mind looking at the sausage factory that is story creation, will be playing the adventure game with enough time for us to not just adjust the story but also have as many reasonable alternative paths as possible.

The player isn't going to get stats because who is measuring them? For instance, there is no such thing as a reputation meter that the player would see because how would you the player even know?  At best, you might talk to some alien and they might mention that you're notorious for doing something, but we will NEVER have a screen of stats because that would totally ruin immersion.

Cuorebrave, those things aren't the game.  They are the map.  Like trees and rocks in an RPG landscape.  You aren't being a pirate, you aren't being a bounty hunter, you aren't being a trader or pilot of a passenger liner.  Those are all just things "in the background" that make the galaxy seem more alive, and not as though you are the only thing in the galaxy that matters and if it is not directly related too you then it does not exist.  That's all they are saying here.  SCO will have a "living map".  Those things aren't the game (or "Active Map"), those things are just the map ("Passive Map").

I absolutely want to be in there. You don't want just the people who agree with you hashing this stuff out. You need people who will call out issues as they see them, in a non-insulting, inoffensive way, that stems from a deep love of Star Control ONLY. *Volunteers*

I think the key thing here is that there is what is being told to you and what is being interpreted.  

Broadly speaking, your actions will have consequences.   

More specifically, the underlying dialog system (the quest editor you guys have from the Vault which has been updated continuously -- which you'll get a new version soon of) let's every single choice you create/modify in-game variables as well as have triggers that result from them.

So for example, there could be a minor royal person from some species that resides outside the Origins main area that is traveling through our little area of the universe.  You intercept his ship and he's really snobby.  You decide to kill him.  That choice might spawn royal executioners to be hunting for you.

In a "generic" game, the game itself would have a fixed variable called say "Reputation". or an array of reputations.

By contrast, the Quest Editor here is what defines and modifies variables.

This matters because when you guys get it, you'll be able to create your own additions to the Origins universe and share them.  So for example, let's say you really don't want to have to create your own universe.  You just want to add your own aliens to the Origins universe.  So you would just create your own quest and dump it into the \assets\dialog folder (later this will have a version that's in the my games folder as well so you dont' have to dump anything into the game's system directory).

I'm not sure if that directory is in your game but if it is, there's a file called TywomScout.xml where you can see variables being created and modified and ships spawned.

What we do in our quests is simply have a trigger that is based on time (like at 5 minutes in, we start to spawn in quest objects -- ships for example) that travel between point A and B in the map.

The pieces put together

So you can kind of start to see the pieces:

The app, Adventure Studio, lets you create missions (quests) are triggered via a variety of means (time, actions, galactic conditions, etc.).  You can either spawn an object on a planet OR you can assign an existing object on a planet to become an interactive object.

So for example, in the \assets\planettemplate directory there's a file called STartingPlanetTriton.  In there you will see:

That stamp was placed there via the World Crafter in-game tool.  On its own, it is purely cosmetic.

However, in the Adventure Studio, you have a trigger that says that if you come into contact with CharacterSpawner_CrashedTywom it will initiate a dialog (the one you have seen). 

From Adventure Studio, you can then delete that stamp.

Alternatively, we could have simply spawned the stamp directly from Adventure Studio on StartingPlanetTriton.   We didn't do that in this case because at the time, our placement code was resulting in some clipping issues (we don't currently have a way to spawn from Adventure Studio a stamp at a specific location).

If any of you worked on UQM, this would be a good time to chime in on how this flexibility compares to what you had to work with in UQM.

The point is, before the game even ships, not only is it likely that other full on adventures will be made (other universes) but I suspect that the exist universe will be extremely rich with new stuff in Origins itself.

Yeah, I second that. I think I'm capable of being objective and seeing past fanboyism while appreciating the love that's gone into SCO and understanding that it can't and wont just be SC2 with a new coat of paint. I also volunteer.

Assuming that the curse that hangs over me anytime I make a serious attempt at making my games hasn't left me homeless and without access to a computer and internet by the time you get to that point, I'd also be interested in letting you know what I think of the adventure game while you still have time to make changes based on our comments.  So far my coming back to game design has been systematically destroying my life for about 18 months now, and my current situation trapped in the middle of nowhere isn't working at all, but if I'm still online then I'd love to do it, haha!

Also, "...OR you can assign an existing object on a planet to become an interactive object".  So, in my terminology "it can be brought from the Passive Map into the Active Map".  In Rube's terminology "it can be given a Soul Rube".  Or, in the terminology of The Matrix "you can plug Neo into it".  As I've said before "Rube is a part of nature", and he keeps showing up all over the place once you know him;-)

I disagree with you. I would love more then one ending based on actions or (in) actions of the player. It lends to more replay-ability and makes me curious of I 'went another' path what would happen. 

Yes, I like any idea that opens up more possibilities for game content. That's personal preference. I don't care about your fears. (maybe that's the sociopath in me)

I'm speculating a bit, however I believe SC:O is going to be heavily focused on the adventure genre.  The content added to the quests and missions which should include piracy and bounty hunting would be enormously fun and interesting.  It can definitely be fun and innovative. 

Maybe you hate pirates and bounty hunters, or even just the thought of a small game element added where x spawns because of y, makes you wet your bed at night - doesn't mean it won't be fun for others. 

It could even be fun for you.

Edit:

Just want to add something. Star Control II had plenty of these kinds of features whether or not you remember them.

Your reputation affected the price of crew (when you sold crew to druuge, crew price would sky rocket)

Whenever you entered a sphere of influence, lingered in Arilou space or called out with a broadcaster artifact, a ship would spawn and follow you in hyperspace. Also at the start of the game, the slylandro ships spawns are more and more frequent the longer you play until you end it at the slylandro homeworld.

Some races had multiple factions, Ur-quan: Kohr-Ah, Kzer-Za and Yehat: Rebel, Loyalist. 

Adding bounty hunters and pirates too these existing Star Control II mechanics aren't such a stretch like a faction of pirates or bounty hunters which consist of multiple races.

Also, SCII was one of the first games where the way you played determined the fate of the universe.  Whether or not the Kohr-Ah kill some or all the alien races.  If the Yehat and Syreen rejoined the Alliance and whether or not the Shofixti came back from extinction. 

Also keep in mind, the game being created as we speak isn't Star Control II 2.0.  It is Star Control : Origins.  It has completely different and new lore.  There's no reason why it shouldn't have more meat on its bones.

 Edit:

just to add, if you're looking for examples of games that made trading and bounty hunting fun, here's a few : Space Rangers, Space Pirates and Zombies, Darkstar One, Privateer.  Pretty sure there's plenty more, those are just off the top of my head.

EmperorZA - false. Star Control 2 had story-triggered events that you described above. The crew price went up if you sold crew to the Druuge, a choice you made. The crew price dropped if you found the Shofixti maidens and delivered them to Tanaka. 

The Slylandro spawned more and more, because of story reasons - you let a self-replicating probe fly around unchecked and it's going to self-replicate. But find its origin, take a leap of faith and enter the orbit of a gas giant (which you've been taught to avoid the whole game), and converse with the sentients somehow existing in the gas giant atmosphere - you discover a story-related fix.

They did NOT have random events based on arbitrary, story-less decisions like blowing up a ship for money.

THIS is exactly the difference I'm drawing a line in the sand about. Did you read my original post on the proposed ways to INCLUDE bounty hunting, piracy and freighters The Star Control way? It deserves a read, Emperor. Honest. Substitute whatever story you want for them, if you give them a cause and a solution, I would LOVE bounty hunters having a PLACE and PURPOSE in the Star Control Galaxy! Love it! I think it's a wonderful thing to include them, as a story-related faction, and treat them the same way as the rest of the "problems" that occur in the game, while keeping the SPIRIT of Star Control. Does that make sense?

But, you played SPAZ. You fought a million pointless, faceless and boring pirates. It's a different mechanic than the carefully created cause/effect, story-related triggers SC2 had. It's generic. But the zombies? Their appearance at the mid-point of the game? Unleashed on the universe as part of the story? That's the Star Control way.

Yep I already mentioned that SC:O is probably going to be heavily focused on adventure.

The "Star Control way" is very vague.  Star Control was originally a strategic action game. Then an action adventure exploration game. This is Star Control Origins not Star Control II 2.0.

What I loved about game developers 20-30 years ago is that they were always trying new things.  Memorable franchises had sequels that were often radically different from their original games and they were still great games.  Today there aren't much new things left to uncover or discover.  That doesn't mean game devs shouldn't experiment with things that have been done before. 

To be honest I don't enjoy reading posts that are incredibly long so I do a lot of skimming. Also I enjoyed playing all the games I mentioned.  So I guess that falls under personal preference.

I would rather see a new star control title that is fun for the vast majority of players, new and old than a star control title that is only fun for myself based on my personal tastes.  The more mainstream Star Control becomes, the bigger the chances are that there will be more Star Control games.  Added to that, from my point of view, Stardock is already committed to original spirit of Star Control II and I doubt very much that they will implement game mechanics that will be too far out there.