Gannoc

[quote who="Kavik_Kang" reply="120" id="3740230"] They should reach an agreement where Stardock owns the Star Control name they bought and P&F are free to continue and complete their own story through as many games as they want to do that... [/quote] Except that's not an agreement - that's what reality is. Stardock DOES own the name. P&F ARE free to continue their story. That was the solution everyone wanted a year ago. <p

I know - I grew up reading Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, watching Star Trek, etc...I was being sarcastic about the copyright claims.

Well, it is totally understandable that they think Babylon 5 stole from them. 1) There are many different alien races, a concept that was created in Star Control. 2) The races each have different ships with different weaponry. A concept never seen before Star Control. 3) The show features a soundtrack with themes for different races, yet again stolen from Star Control. 4) Perhaps the most damning of all, hyperspace is red. Clearly, a copyright infri

[quote who="admiralWillyWilber" reply="56" id="3737719"] Babylon 5 they use hyperspace. [/quote] In Babylon 5 the hyperspace is red! Expect lawsuit 2 any day now.

This isn't just a game thing. In a previous job, a client licensed our software, copied the design and functionality over the next year, (including asking us how things operated at a low level in the program ans using it to make design/coding decisions). Then dropped us and announced their product after scraping their data in the middle of the night. Anyway, we had NO copyright claim.

[quote]You be the judge. [/quote] If only you had multiplied your coordinate system by 10, all of this could have been avoided. But you used A DECIMAL POINT. How do you even sleep at night??? [e digicons]:|[/e]

IMO, based on what I'm seeing, they just TORPEDOED themselves. They torpedoed themselves so badly people initially believed that Brad made it up, because the claims are impossibly stupid. People previously defending them are backing off. (Though there are a few die hards complaining). Good news for Stardock. When you try to say "We own red hyperspace" law will laugh at you.

Also my personal suspicion at this point: On reddit, I try to explain that there isn't any content from SC1-3 in STO, and the responses continue to be obtuse and pointing to identical-but-different-URL screenshots from steam of old races used for the soundtrack items or something similar, each time reiterating how Stardock has no rights to use this in their game. At this point, I think we have a PR astroturfing campaign going on, repeating talking points that Stardock out of the blue

[quote who="harley9699" reply="15" id="3737041"] Those guys can burn in Hell. (not that I'm livid or anything...) [/quote] My personal guess, with no inside info or anything, is simply that making a creative game like Star Control is hard. Either R&F didn't want to do it, or they were contractually unable to do it, or whatever. Maybe they didn't think they could make a worthy sequel without the other people they had back 25-30 years ago.&

[quote who="ShadeMeadows" reply="13" id="3737022"] It could really tip the balance of the Public in favor of Stardock... or not. [/quote] There is so much FUD going around that I've been trying to explain to people on reddit and elsewhere that the Origins game contains NO material from Star Control 1-3, but they're under the impression it does because that's the PR campaign R&F paid for. Let's assume Brad/Stardock is COMPLETELY WRONG about everything they've said

[quote who="athelasloraiel" reply="9" id="3737015"] PR becomes good PR in this case boosting sales and making it game of the year 2019. [/quote] Sad to say, no way gaming "journalists" would give this game of the year. If patch 1.6 for Star Control Origins cured all cancer Kotaku and Polygon would write articles about how Brad put female oncologists and oncology nurses out of work because he is THAT much of a misogynist.

[quote who="lord999" reply="8" id="3736998"] Stardock is no stranger to adversity. It survived the OS2 exodus, it'll survive this. [/quote] I pretty much hate every gaming company. Nowadays it is perfectly acceptable to be rude to your customers, rip them off, etc. Few companies haven't fallen into that trap. Nintendo isn't perfect, but when you buy Mario, Zelda, etc you are getting an extraordinarily polished piece of software offering up hun

[quote who="Prof_Hari_Seldon" reply="7" id="3736992"] I wish this was a case where the claim is so ridiculous that the judge could throw it out immediately, like when Jim Sterling was sued for millions of dollars for a negative review of Slaughtering Grounds. [/quote] My completely non-lawyer reading of the judges decision seemed like more of a technicality that a DMCA isn't the same as a legal injunction so she couldn't legally stop it. One thing I read in the d

[quote who="DivineWrath" reply="2" id="3736969"] I was thinking the same thing. Terrible timing. [/quote] It was intended to cause pain. These skylander hacks have used opportunistic timing from the beginning, waiting to raise objections, timing their game announcement, timing public statements thick with bullshit to stomp on any stardock publicity. I really enjoyed Star Control 2 in 1992, but Toys for Bob aren't the fucking Beatles.&nbsp

I could write a diatribe about this situation and the timing, but it has already been said by others during this fiasco. Although I'll add that the influx of amateur copyright lawyers on steam defending this is stunning. I've been a Stardock customer since Gal Civ 1 on OS/2. This company has ALWAYS treated its customers with respect. You guys don't deserve this and I'm truly sorry this is happening.

You could take some inspiration from The Expanse opening credits. A montage-based opening sequence wouldn't be original, but could "show instead of tell" the history between the 1950s to now and onto 2086. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krqqqgixNq8 It would be challenging to make something if it has to be reused for every Star Control adventure. If history, ships, aliens, story, and

These may be dumb questions, but I haven't seen clear answers to them. For context, I think Stardock operated in good faith throughout, and I'm extremely surprised at how some outlets are treating P&F like two befuddled indie devs who had their life's work stolen before they had the chance to make a sequel. The fact that P&F used "insider" knowledge freely given by Stardock to time their sequel "announcement" to sabotage SC:O is very scummy. The emails