It's a big galaxy out there! Share your ideas for new alien species you'd like to see in a new Star Control game!
Having only briefly played Star Control back when it was new, I'm not sure how much I can contribute to this...
But I would find it quite amusing if the Snathi managed to make their way into the game.
Maybe the Spemin could battle the Spathi in a cowardice-off.
I always enjoyed how there was at least one alien that subverted the normal comm format.
I think it would be cool if you had to communicate like bumblebees, using your ship to "dance".
Wait that looked like an Orz wrote it *happy campers*
I want the basic combat game to stay as simple and pure as it was originally...games have had the urge to add complexity...and it often turns into micro management and math and extra screens. It would ruin the feel. Improve the graphics, improve the controls. leave the combat simple.
The important thing for me is that the races be fully integrated into the universe's existing continuity. Where were they during the events of SC2? Why weren't they enslaved or wiped out by the Ur-Quan?
Rather than introducing many new races, I might give each existing spacefaring race 2-3 classes of ship. Depending on when the game is set, the ships' tech level could also be higher or lower than those in SC2.
You could also look at http://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/List_of_races; there are some minor races there that were mentioned only in passing, like the Keel-Verezy.
I second the voices that say that Star Control already has piles of delightful alien races! Fans of the series are going to be far more preoccupied with seeing their favorites return. (Personally, I'm very fond of the Spathi and Thraddash).
That said, most of the star control races are stereotypes kicked up a few notches, so for new races one doesn't have to go much farther than that. You've already got redneck pranksters, Scots, Japanese, I suspect that there's room for a race of british stereotypes, who set great store in being pompous and polite simultaneously. Hmm. The VUX already kinda have a politeness thing going though.
We also have yet to see a russian stereotype race- Everyone likes Russians. Deep voices, impressive beards, stoicism, very poor engineering- Lots of potential there, I'd say.
Even the briefest encounter with a lone Taalo drifting around in space, or some ancient hidden outpost inhabited by these legendary beings, would be cool, but I don't know if that would fit into the story I'm just insanely happy that there will be a new Star Control game.
I can't suggest anything specific, but obviously the races function best when they are a cohesive group character and have a specific agenda going on distinct from other races. Then there are the individual characters, like Fwiffo, Tanaka, etc. that add a focalized interest and perhaps a slightly different agenda than the whole of their race. Throw some caricatured stereotypes in there with some humor (for some, not all races. ie Mycon/Slylandro being fairly serious) and you have part of Star Control 2's recipe for success.
That said I hope new races will be a minority, as most of them from SC2 would be great to carry over. There are some that are less prominent like the Supox, Slylandro, Androsynth and maybe VUX. And depending on where the new game fits in the Star Control timeline, some of SC2's races will naturally be there or absent.
I already alluded to this in a post on Frogboy's August Status Update, but as Elestan mentioned above, I would also love to see races previously mentioned only in passing. Involve the races of the Sentient Milieu by weaving them into the thread of the narrative. The Faz are supposedly still out there somewhere in the galaxy after having been enslaved by the Ur-Quan. Do you suppose they were left forgotten under the slave shield of their homeworld even after the Hierarchy was dissolved? We gotta find those guys!
I'll be writing more on this as things get more formalized but the new Star Control game is going to be set before Star Control 1/2 when the humans first start interacting with the galaxy after a visit from the Chmrr.
The reason for this is that Star Control 2 came out in 1992. That's over 20 years ago. We will want to introduce a new generation to Star Control. So the events of the Ur-Quan war would take place in a sequel or expansion.
A little correction... the Chmmr didn't yet exist by that point. They were still two races - the Chenjesu and the Mmrnmhrm. It was the Chenjesu who made first contact with humanity
/nitpick
I know this will be a "re-imagining" of the SC universe, but before the Chenjesu 1st contact the humans basically were still stuck in the solar system, and their first starships were built with the help of the Chenjesu.
The only other canon races around at that time were the Mmrnmhrm, and the Androsynth. Basically the rest of the races were contacted during the events of SC1. Unless you plan on doing something like a prelude to those events. Like the Vux first contact.
If any new aliens are introduced i would be happy if first, and foremost they are NOT Humanoid! and they are not typical Sci Fi cliche. AKA anything not from earth is a "space thug" type thing.
As others have voiced, any of the races that were mentioned casually in SCII would be cool. Some of the Sentient Milieu. Maybe some races that have survived or ran away from the Kohr Ah or Kher Zha (spelling aside).
Maybe a race that's invisible to the human eye, or a race that's all platypus's. Platypie?
It's either a simple typo, an indicator that they haven't done their star control reading yet, or, (and this is my favorite)
TIME TRAVEL
Honestly, I've got no ideas for this race personality wise, but I would love to see a race that used gravity manipulation in order to fight.
... And, in true Star Control form, I think we've got enough Hipsters in the real world to see an alien take on 'em. I'd talk about forum trolls / 4chan, but, well, Umgah.
Timeline on the wiki - http://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/Timeline
So the time period is 2112 (Chenjesu contact) to 2130 (several years before Earth is slave-shielded) or only to 2116 (formation of the Alliance)
Because it is set BEFORE SC2, there can be no new information on the Milieu or Precursors, otherwise this information would have been known to Humans of SC2.
To have more and new aliens will probably work better if time selected is the shorter one (till 2116) and the new aliens have small populations. This way it could tie into the SC universe canon by implying these smaller and less influential beings got absorbed by or are under protectorate of the major races (Like Yehat and Shofixti some time before that).
The represented major races could be all of the SC1 alliance and probably all of SC1 hierarchy, except Ur-Quan.
That timeline isn't entirely accurate...the Alliance existed already when Chenjesu contacted Earth (between the Chenjesu, Mmrnmhrm, Shofixti, and Yehat). In fact, asking Earth to join and fight the Ur-quan was the main reason the Chenjesu contacted us! So the Ur-quan should definitely be in.
I imagine you'd see and sometimes participate in early parts of the Slave War as you're exploring and meeting races with one of the first human ships with hyperspace. Perhaps the game could end with the Alliance and Hierarchy being fully solidified at 7 races each and the Indi-Mira Line (the main battlefront of the war) being established. Earth officially joining the Alliance is a possible way to end the game, but then you leave out some of the races if you're true to the timeline. Actually, figuring out a truly satisfying ending that both gives some closure and doesn't mess with canon is going to be a challenge.
I agree that including new races would need to be done very carefully. I'm not necessarily against it, but you'd have to have a solid reason why they're both not in the Slave War and not in SC2. Including SC2-only races is probably best avoided except maybe in minor cameo roles. Perhaps you could have a conversation or two with the Pkunk, and the Chenjesu decide that they're since they're a peaceful people not at suited for war it's best that their existence remain as much a secret as possible (Hayes implies that the Chenjesu knew there was a race there). Or maybe the Yehat really don't want the Pkunk in the Alliance.
[wrong topic, deleted]
Thrilled at the news of a reborn Star Control but I'd put my vote towards having no new aliens in the reboot. The existing lot will be new enough to the vast majority of the audience. I would like to see the familiar ones fleshed out with more characters, cultural divisions and ships. It made sense to have one ship per race when there were limited ways of graphically depicting their flavour but I can't imagine that being a problem for Stardock today.
The danger in using only known races, is that a portion of the RPG joy that comes from the original games (which mind you, are good in a variety of ways), involves discovery and learning just how weird everyone out there is. Each time you encounter a new race, you're slowly learning what they will be like, how they will respond, and just what their particular flavor of insanity involves.
Star Control 3 already stumbled over that some, in that revisiting many of the existing races didn't have the same thrill the second time around. Sure, you cared what had happened to them since you saw them last, and yes they could progress a bit storywise (wait, the Yehat are beating us up now?), but you still largely understood their nature and character, which meant you weren't getting that same thrill of discovery when interacting with them.
If you want to reuse a lot of races (and I suspect you do, otherwise why pay for the license), then you need to really shake things up so that each race has a motivation to go out and redefine itself. Prequels tend to be terrible for this, because they lock the story down and force the endpoint to be a known spot. Why not just ditch that, blow up the universe, strand some portions of the various races in strange new places, and let everyone adjust in their own wonderful wacky ways.
I think the whole point of starting in the SC1 era is to reintroduce Star Control to a lot of people who haven't played it. There is some sense in this - it may be hard for people unfamiliar with the franchise to get into a post-SC2 game (so much backstory, and so many races!), and if the game is targeted specifically toward diehard fans it can't hope for more than a minor success at best. SC2 is highly regarded, but still not all that popular. To most players, the Yehat, Spathi, etc. would be new. Also, there is room to come up with ideas for the Chenjesu, Mmrnmhrm, and Androsynth, who are not in SC2.
Though this does raise the question: supposing Stardock gets Fred Ford/Paul Reiche on board, how would they bridge from an SC1-era game to an SC2 sequel? I don't think remaking SC2 is a good idea. Especially since a free fan-made Ur-quan Masters HD (with completely redrawn high-res graphics, interface tweaks, and a few other upgrades) is already in alpha.
Speaking as a fan and as an executive producer, the elephant in the room is Star Control 3. I don't want to treat it as canon. But at the same time, we can't just make a product called Star Control 3 anymore than someone could make a new Master of Orion 3.
If we had gotten the Master of Orion IP, which we did bid on, a new one would have just been called Master of Orion to reboot things because MOO 3 had, imo, damaged the continuity beyond repair.
It reminds me a little of the X-Men 3 movie. I have no idea how they're going to make the new X-men movie that doesn't require a lot of story line torture to undo Xmen 3.
That's why I'd prefer to think of things in terms of two time-lines. The Star Control classic timeline which ends with Star Control 2 and can be extended by Paul Reiche and Fred Ford if they want and then a new, Star Control prime timeline that begins with the Chenjesu in 2112. Because I really don't like the idea of retconning the existing Star Control universe. I'd rather just ignore Star Control 3 and have the classic universe integrity untouched.
Therefore, in a new continuity, we can let fans come up with new aliens that add to our story line as needed. I would prefer to use new aliens when the story calls for it than to twist an existing race to fit the plot needs.
Just found this forum and LOVE that you're doing Star Control. Equally bummed about you're not doing MOO. If you didn't win the IP on MOO, who did? Do you know?
Add long as we can blame the 2 timelines on Spock.
Whoa, Brad, whoa, rebooting SC with brand new aliens would be playing with fire. Those of us who've been playing PC games for 30+ years have grown very fond of our early IPs. Mucking around with these too much will certainly bring flames of wrath scorching the forums to ash (sneering at you, Simcity).
Bringing Paul and Fred on board or, at the very least, getting them to publicly endorse and praise any new game elements will gain you ENORMOUS credibility with us irascible old-timers. The overwhelmingly successful Kickstarter campaign for Wasteland 2 is testament to this. Without Brian at the helm, we could have easily dismissed it as some sort of Fallout knockoff.
Sure, we get it - adding a new species is much easier than further developing an existing one, but, c'mon, don't be lazy. If I don't see Shofixtis breeding like rabbits or Mycons preaching Juffo Wup and exploding planets with their Deep Ones I'm gonna be one un-happy camper. Toys for Bob created such a massively diverse universe already, with much of it yet to explore. Just develop further what already exists, like the relationship of the Utwig and Supox, or the limitations of the Slylandro. Of course, the Precursors need some attention, too. This is all brilliant stuff that would make for hundreds of hours of gameplay, especially in an adventure type game.
Veering off-topic a moment - please keep core SC gameplay elements. It would be a terrible tragedy to lose real-time navigation through hyperspace or physics-friendly momentum when "Battle Ensues". No movement of any kind should be turn-based here. It would simply not be Star Control.
We're talking to Paul and Fred presently. They're talking to Activision (who owns Toys for Bob) about getting permission to work with us.
I think most people, myself included, want to see the Mycons and the Ur-Quan and Utwigs. But that doesn't preclude introducing new aliens too. Star Control 2 introduced nearly a dozen new aliens including the Orz and Pkunk and the aforementioned Utwigs. I think a lot of fans would be disappointed if they had waited 20 years and the alien roster hadn't increased.
In every new Galactic Civilizations game, we have added new alien races. That's because new and cool ideas come up. The aliens SERVE the game. Not vice versa.
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