A wee bit o' feedback

My experiences with Star Control Origins so far

from StarControl Forums

So, I've played around with SC-O a bit, and I'm loving it...well, most of it; it's very addictive, it feels like it was made by people who loved Star Control 2 (the best game of the series!), it feels like the source material was respected, which is awfully rare these days.

But there are a few bits that I feel could use a little refining, almost entirely in the ship-crafting area.

- It'd be nice to have a widget or something which indicates which way is forward

- Descriptions of what each weapon does; I'm still trying to figure out one of two of 'em. For example, the Gravity Wave; I haven't been able to find a use for that yet.

- Let us choose the pilot for our ship, rather than just having a generic image

- The ability to rotate objects by grabbing them and moving the mouse, rather than solely through slider bars

- Being able to adjust colors with R,G,B sliders, rather than just swatches

- Multiple engine/thruster mounts in order to maintain symmetry. Also, the ability to re-size both; sometimes the engine is gigantic relative to the size of the ship

- Rear-firing weapons! Star Control had the Spathi with their classic BUTT Missiles, and SC-O desperately needs weapons which can be fired backward.

 

Most of this is coming from someone who has done her fair share of CGI modeling, so they're a bit technical, but I think they're fair.

Thanks! :)

23,386 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from StarControl Forums Top

All good points I agree with. I'd like to add a few thoughts too.

Descriptions of what each weapon does; I'm still trying to figure out one of two of 'em. For example, the Gravity Wave; I haven't been able to find a use for that yet.
Yes, it is difficult to tell what's what. I have a feeling this is a work in progress though; weapons all have some descriptive detail now and I'd like to think mounts and other items eventually will too.

The ability to rotate objects by grabbing them and moving the mouse, rather than solely through slider bars.
Agreed, but I don't want to lose the slider bars either. They provide precise alignments so that things can be aligned symmetrically.

Being able to adjust colors with R,G,B sliders, rather than just swatches
Or hex codes! The primary/secondary color limitation is also difficult. Can't make a ship like the Spathi Eluder, for example, if you can only choose a two color scheme. I don't know how resource-taxing it would be all parts to have their own color designations, but it would be nice to see. One of my concerns with SCO is that the ships just don't stand out very much, particularly when seen from a distance. SC2 ships were so colorful and distinctive and it was very easy to tell what type they were and which direction they were going in based on their colors alone.

Rear-firing weapons! Star Control had the Spathi with their classic BUTT Missiles, and SC-O desperately needs weapons which can be fired backward.
Or sideways. Or diagonally. Or whatever direction they're mounted in, basically.

Reply #2 from StarControl Forums Top

Great feedback! Thx!

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Reply #3 from StarControl Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 2

Great feedback! Thx!

 

All part of the service. :)

Reply #4 from StarControl Forums Top

I think ship crafting could use some inspiration from other games:

-Improve the 'current selected part' highlighting
-Symmetry controls, both radial and mirror
-Graphical offset tool
-Graphical rotation tool
-Ability to select a new 'root' part
-Modifier keys (e.g. Ctrl+scroll wheel for part size)