Dill_rat

I'm not a game designer, nor am I much more than a novice programmer. In the past, I always assumed the reason games don't get ported to one environment or another was because the architecture of the systems differed so greatly that you'd need to be reasonably assured there was a market on other systems. But just about everything (Playstation, Xbox, Mac, PC) uses x86 architecture now, doesn't it? Or do I really just not know what I'm talking about? But assuming I'm n

I can see why 4x developers would be excited about this, but yeah.. how long before we start being concerned about exactly what data is being sent and what it's used for, or if the dev/publisher decides it's not profitable to keep using their cloud co-processors to support a niche market anymore and hit the "off" switch. I'm sure it will start off innocuously enough. Hopefully it will stay that way, but recent history in the game industry begs to differ. Then again, grumpy old men lik

I just had a look through the StarControlGalaxy.xml and was unable to find some names as well, including mine (Zap Landing 34). Guess I can stop exploring for it... I hope it makes it into a later update.

Hi Brad - I've got a few suggestions that you might consider: Captain's Log I like the captain's log, but it would be deeply improved if it were searchable. If you're porting to consoles I think you could keep it simple as a keyword search. So each captain's log entry would be tied to pre-determined keywords, such as "Tywom", "Drenkend", etc.. Even this level of search would make things much easier than scrolling through the who

Wow, I hadn't really considered that you might be thinking of things along those lines, but sure, a variation on the fleet battles over a planet could be quite cool. The arena would be the orb rather than a plane of space around the planet. I'd consider a separate set of combat vessels than the fleet battles, though. City invasions is something I have trouble picturing, but that doesn't mean it couldn't be fun. As for a third idea, what about rescues? A planet is undergoing so

Workbench? Haven't seen that bandied about since the 90s (though I still have a working Amiga 600 in my den). Nice choice! Glad to see Amigas will make their eventual return ;)

I think you should proceed with caution. I've seen your rationale and I accept it, but my guess is it's a sore spot for one segment of the fanbase. My initial reaction was similar (less anger, more surprise) to those who were opposed to including SC1/2 aliens - I was much more comfortable with taking the high road, launching without original aliens, and then bringing them back in later updates. But if your hands are being forced then what can I say but that it is unfortunate. You're almost ce

[quote who="Frogboy" reply="4" id="3716373"] The current thought is that they should probably be made into a Scryve Scout so that it's more clear to the player that they're dealing with a minor ship. [/quote] Of course this works, but I'd still make it a fight that makes us feel the stakes (Idea 1). If you just rebrand the second enemy as "Scryve Scout" and we win in 5 shots with little damage all that tells us is they were arrogant enough to think a scout could take us, sug

In idea 3 that would indeed be a problem and not worth the amount of story rewriting, I agree. In idea 2 I suppose they might grow curious why the probe they left to finish you off never returned but it’s not an insurmountable problem to explain. Your idea is similar to the one I suggested in another thread, that they nearly kill you and then experience a weapon failure or something. It’s deus ex machina to the max, but otherwise a workable solution. The main point

I’ve made some comments on the Scryve in the beta feedback thread and read Brad’s response. I’d like to make a thread to discuss how to make the players’ first encounters with the Scryve hit just the right stride between meaningful threat and winnable battle. My

Windows 10 64-bit AMD FX8370E 3.3GHz GeForce GTX 1050Ti 16GB RAM Overall a good first swim. I'll just jump right into feedback mode: INTERFACE 1) My controller didn't work at all. I was a bit confused because I saw something that it hasn't been implemented, but seemed that at least one other person was using theirs. In any case, I'm using a Dualshock 4 control pad and it was functional at the time (tested to be su

Yes please!

[quote who="Frogboy" reply="75" id="3712671"] The short version, when it comes to engaging in commerce, you need the trademarks. To take your comic book idea further: Imagine if you had a general idea for a comic book. But you weren’t an artist. You couldn’t do the pencils, the coloring or the lettering. So then you get Accolade to pay for artists to do all

Just to see if I've understood: from your point of view, Brad, if I were to dream up a comic book with my own characters, backgrounds, associated artwork/appearances, etc., and then publish them under some fictional publisher (Accolade Comics?), if it could be shown that Accolade Comics hired me to do this, they would own the trademark, and I would be credited for the work. So if 25 years later Stardock Comics bought the trademark to that same comic book, you would have to acknowledge m

I've been following this whole situation with sadness. It's an age-old problem: what do you do when you try to cooperate but the other party only wants a fight? You've come to the conclusion there's no choice left but to fight back with everything you have at your disposal, which I would probably have done as well. It doesn't make it less sad, and it's refreshing to see that little paragraph where you acknowledge what the "perfect" future would have been. I like what

Okies, thanks :)

I wasn't sure where to post this, but decided it's a 'founders' question so I'll try here. I have a vague recollection that when we signed up for the initial SCO founders program the price included the previous releases of Star Control as part of the package. However, it doesn't seem that I have access to them without paying. This isn't a complaint.. I honestly might just remember this wrong, and I don't really mind either way. I just thought it would be fun to give

I'm curious what Stardock's position on quest markers is. Modern games are very hand-holding with regards to making sure you always know exactly where to go next, with map arrows, shiny glow-y halos around objects, etc. I do think we need good quest journals and search capabilities for the starmap, but if an alien contact says "I lost that thing-a-ma-jig while fleeing pirates in the Nebulon Cluster (or whatever)", some games follow that dialogue up with a direct pointer to the exact l

[quote who="Frogboy" reply="40" id="3699879"] 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. [/quote] I'd volunteer for that. I'm pretty unhelpful with nut

[quote who="Frogboy" reply="20" id="3699774"] You are the hero of the story but the galaxy is a busy place. You can (and probably should) choose not to be evil. But I would not enjoy being forced to play the game in a particular way. I want to explore the galaxy and see that there is a lot of stuff happening out there. [/quote] I was just re-reading your post and this paragraph got me thinking. Are you planning a variable-ending story? If so, can I sa

[quote who="Frogboy" reply="20" id="3699774"] We'll definitely take to heart the feedback you're giving. But I feel like you're giving us way too little credit in understanding the game. [/quote] I'd take it as a sign of how passionate the people discussing here are, and how much we're rooting for a truly great game. There are a lot more puzzle pieces missing for the founders than the designers, and in those vacuums people worry. Something I took away fro

With regards to the reputation/bounty hunter issue, this sounds fine. But my personal request is to avoid a good/evil morality system. These are totally overplayed and beyond cliche, in my opinion. I don't want to have to think of myself as "good" or "evil", I just want to play the way I want to play and treat every situation as it comes. If a given interaction causes me to accrue "evil" points or "good" points then getting "good" or "evil" becomes a game in itself, and stops me from respondi

I think some things in games we do because we need to in order to progress. I'm ok with that. I don't remember hating landings in SC2, but that's not to say it couldn't have been improved. You guys are designers with market experience so I defer to your expertise, but since you did invite us founders for input then please take what I say as a game player and not some in-my-own-mind designer. In a nutshell I would look at it from the point of view of why we need to do planetary la

I'm psyched for it. I loved the strategy game part of SC1!

I'm curious if it's been discussed, but how will difficulty levels be handled? If I recall, games like GalCiv handle difficulties by increasing AI access to the CPU. I don't know how the original Star Control games worked in this sense, though the easier difficulties were pretty silly. I seem to remember that on the easiest setting a CPU-controlled ship couldn't even use it's special power (i.e., no point defense lasers, no cloaking device, or launching f