Brainsucker

Join Date 03/2006

Write your envisioned new Star Control Idea here

Because there is no one make a thread like this in here, so I create it. Basically you can write your idea or wishlist or what kind of new Star Control that you want to see etc in here.

Ok, I'll start it

I don't know if we can call this a Star Control, but here We go

- You are the leader of Earth Exploration Agency (it's like X-Com agency). Your job is basically to explore strange new world, seek out new life and civilization, boldly gone where no man has gone before. Beside your agency, there are other agencies, like freighters agency, Earth Military, Colonization Directorate, etc. In here, like in X-Com, you are responsible to the Earth Government / Earth Council. Your agency will get pay-check when you work as intended.

- Because you're an agency, there are a lot things you can do. Like design your star ship, research new technologies, recruit Star Sailors or pilots, Build and upgrade starbase, and even build outpost out of solar system. But you can't colonize a planet or do the other agency do (like forming a military fleet).

- Your job is to explore strange new world, seeking minerals or locate good planet for colonization, make contact with alien. When you find a good planet to colonize, you can report to the Earth Government so their colonization directorate can handle the rest, and you get bonus / pay-check for your agency.

- Basically, you gather your team (pilot, medic, Weapon off, Science off, etc like in Star Flight), build your ship and explore. You can upgrade your ship, or make a new design with the help of new technology.

- But like X-Com, there is no technology tree. You can only research when you find something interesting in your exploration missions. If you are nasty, you can shoot any alien you find, bring the carcass to your lab to research it. Or, shooting any Alien Starship, bring surviving module, bring it to earth for research department. But there are also better and honest way to find interesting technologies out there.

- At the beginning of the game, your agency is considered as least important, compared to the colonization directorate, or military. So you got an old ship with old technology, and get low pay-check. But then Earth was struck by global monetary crisis so it is up to you to save Earth Economy by exploring, find Alien, conduct diplomacy, and maybe can deal some trade treaty with them to save Earth. But space is nasty, and Alien are nastier of not cheater or tricky, so you must deal everything to save your boss from massive economy collapse.

- You can basically have several starships, and you can form a fleet later on. You can create more than 1 fleet, but you can only control 1 fleet at a time. The others will stay in Earth or do your bidding by taking mineral from some planets or other meager annoying jobs. You can change the team / fleet while your current team want some shore leave or your ship need upgrade or things that need to stay on Earth orbit for some period of time.

- You can design your starship from scratch just like in Galactic Civilization 2

Ok, that's my idea. You can write your own idea or comment on the existing idea.

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The aspect of SC that I liked the most was how you could land on a planet and explore. The mechanistic weren't as good as I would like though. My idea would be to ditch the rover and move more to a star track away team style. It would start in space, you would scan the planet mass effect style. (ME took from SC so I think SC should take from ME.) Each time you find something of interest, it gives you a landing spot you can explore. Some landing zones would need upgrades before you would be able to land there. (Something like you can't land on a toxic planet till you buy rust proof ship plating.) You would get to pick 3 or more crew members to form your away team. Different crew members could have different abilities and powers based on their spices and training. (A human tactical officer would have bigger and more powerful weapons. Well a syreen diplomat might have the ability to hypnotize humanoid creatures.) When you get down to the landing zone, you would control your team RTS style ordering them to diffrent parts of the map to explore and interact with the different points of interest you find. (You might order one member to scan a new giant space worm for future study, then order your tactical officer to shoot it so you can collect it's corpse to bring it back to sell on the black market.)

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admiralWillyWilber

Join Date 05/2009

+99

Is this a new game that's coming out. Can U also tell me what's it's like

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Quoting michaelwhittaker,

reply 2

Is this a new game that's coming out. Can U also tell me what's it's like

It's an old game that stardock is giving the reboot. Honestly we know very little about their plans. As a whole we can expect something like star control 2, but it's an old game so I expect changes and improvements.

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May be add dialogs with on-board computer, like ma3a in tron 2.0 game, about plans, events, artifacts e.t.c

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Awkbird

Join Date 07/2012

+88

I apologize in advance for this being so long.

Many years ago after SC3, I had developed an idea that was actually somewhat similar in concept to what Stardock is doing, in terms of "altering" the timeline. I envisioned a game that would essentially explore the ancient history of the Sentient Milieu and in the process, intervene to help prevent their enslavement by the Dnyarri which lasted thousands of years and in turn prevent the Hierarchy Wars and the subsequent Doctrinal Conflict. The Milieu was an alliance that was said to have "spanned five hundred light years and included nearly a hundred member worlds" and this was 25,000 years prior to the events of Star Control and the reign of the Ur-Quan Empire. It stands to reason there was potential to explore a lot of that background material there.

The prehistoric lore and references to forgotten races were one of the things I loved most about SC2. We only got to hear about these races in passing, never getting the opportunity to meet them. The starmap was a big place and there was no telling who you might run into, so when I first played the game, I was excited by the prospect of somehow stumbling upon these old races. This turned out not to be the case, of course.

The time after the Dnyarri Enslavement (when the Ur-Quan rose to power) could be likened to the decline of classical civilizations here on Earth, where mankind saw the disappearance of empires only to be replaced by centuries of delayed cultural and scientific progress. Carl Sagan talked about it a lot in Cosmos and suggested that if the Dark Ages hadn't occurred, all our scientific progress would never have been squandered and we might very well have been colonizing the planets and moons of our solar system by now.

So anyway, my plot device was time travel; resetting the timeline of events or doing something in the past to alter the future. My idea brought together several different mysteries and outside inspirations into an apocalyptic series of events leading to the downfall of the Alliance of Free Stars. You may recall in Star Control 3 (not canon, I know) that your character has a vision of an apocalypse that ends all life in the galaxy, and that this was supposedly why the Precursors disappeared without a trace; they "devolved" themselves to not fall victim to the Eternal Ones consuming their sentient energy. My idea was a more practical take on this without any invisible gods consuming the galaxy's sentience. In my idea, the Precursors fled to avoid an unexplained interstellar apocalypse which threatens their neighborhood of stars. The only race who had first hand contact with the Precursors were the Slylandro, quoting:

"Joyous Lifting, who has a better memory than I, recalls that the Shaggy Ones were described as being... worried. They were always hurrying from place to place, seeking knowledge as though they were in a desperate search for some important secret. Some answer to a question that they never shared with us. Sullen Plummet remembers that the last time the Shaggy Ones visited our world they came aboard a great circular starship, one even larger than your own. They had discovered their Answer and were leaving to go somewhere and they didn't tell us exactly where somewhere was."

A great circular starship. I don't suppose that could possibly be the Mark 2!

Anyway, in my story, the introductory cinematic would provide exposition on that apocalypse coming to pass. It is discovered that a cyclical stellar event which occurs about every million years or so is now threatening our region of the galaxy: numerous stars are violently and prematurely going supernova, and no one can explain why. If something isn't done, it will eventually result in the extinction of most spacefaring races throughout our quadrant of the galaxy. Even the vast technological wealth of the Precursors wasn't enough to stop this phenomena from decimating their own region of space, and it is ultimately theorized that this was the reason they left our region of space.

The Alliance begins to panic and erupt into conflict over what to do and whether or not they should follow the same example as the Precursors. Several races begin desperately searching for clues about where they may have gone because they do not know what areas of space will be affected or where a safe haven would be. Their efforts echo those of the Precursors who desperately sought answers before they fled. Ultimately, the goal of the Alliance would be to not just save themselves but also to discover the ultimate fate of the Precursors by finding where they went once and for all.

Some of the more unscrupulous races like the Ilwrath and Mycon see this as a religious sign of the end of creation. They see this as "punishment from the gods" and seek retribution against other Alliance races, using the opportunity to prey upon the other species as sacrificial offerings to their deities (Dogar, Kazon, Juffo Wup, etc.) to satisfy them in a deluded effort to end the apocalypse. Massive conflicts erupt and entire homeworlds are attacked and destroyed. The Mycon terraforming ships attack and destroy the homeworlds of the Syreen and Shofixti. The Ilwrath firebomb the Yehat and Pkunk endlessly. The Thraddash murder each other. For the twentieth time. The Umgah don't take any of this seriously at all and instead just sit around and laugh.

Massive civil conflict brought on by this ancient prophecy tears all alliances apart and the Alliance crumbles, with some races even being eliminated entirely. Fortunately, the intrepid nature of Earthlings brings to light a discovery about the phenomena left by the Precursors. They try to pick up where the Precursors left off, but the information is incomplete and requires ancient knowledge of stellar information during a time that only the Sentient Milieu would have possessed knowledge about. Of course, the Milieu and most of the records kept by their races were all but destroyed during the Dnyarri Enslavement and the ensuing Ur-Quan Civil War, so there is no way to determine a solution because the races of the Sentient Milieu likely held the key to decrypting the remaining parts of this cosmic Precursor puzzle that was lost in the sands of time.

It seems like the Alliance is doomed, but key figures (Chmmr, Arilou, Human, Pkunk) have a confidential project up their sleeve that becomes their last ditch effort, a moon shot attempt in the eleventh hour to save themselves: a "time rift drive" capable of pulling one starship through a temporal bubble back into the distant past. But it is only a prototype and it is unknown whether it will even work without destroying the ship completely. In a last shot at salvation as our own sun is on the verge of collapse, an expedition team is hastily assembled to crew a newly engineered Precursor-derived flagship which is retrofitted with self-sustaining production capabilities to be able to support itself with raw materials. Sort of like a mobile version of the orbital starbase, and basically my vision of what the Mark 2 ultimately was.

It is commissioned in orbit and then sent back through time in a dramatic introductory cinematic where you are separated from your friends and loved ones because our sun's collapse is accelerating at an exponential rate and there is no time left. The expedition must go now or never, despite not being fully prepared. As one of the members elected to join the expedition as a lieutenant, you are on board as our sun begins the final stages of its collapse, and are sent back through time just as you watch it explode.

As the explosion erupts and the shockwave hurtles towards the ship, time freezes when the time rift drive activates. And then suddenly time starts slowly reversing, the solar explosion going backwards, accelerating faster as it goes until time is flying so quickly in reverse that the solar system is spinning around you backwards at blinding speed. I imagine the time traveling sequence to be similar in tone to the first time travel scene from the remake of The Time Machine [link here].

Unfortunately, this time rift drive was not extensively tested and the ship cannot deal with the stresses of going back in time, and begins suffering serious damage as its hull starts to decompress. Systems are going haywire and exploding and many crew members are killed, including several of the command crew on the bridge. It seems like the time rift drive can't (or won't) shut down, and the mission will end in disaster before it even starts. With red alerts and sirens and steam and sparks shooting across the bridge, all seems lost when suddenly the time rift begins to slow back down to normal speed, and eventually stops. The time rift drive shuts down completely and won't turn back on.

An engineer on the bridge explains that according to the stellar configuration, you are approximately 25,000 years in the past. Your view of Earth shows a very different landscape than when you departed, having gone from a thriving spacefaring civilization with starbases and orbiting ships to a planet still crawling out of the late Paleolithic era when mankind was just barely learning to build mud huts and light fires. The lights of all the cities of the world have blinked out of existence and only pre-Mesolithic civilization now occupies Earth. Many of your crew, including your captain, died in the damage suffered to the ship during the time jump. You assume command and the game begins.

You must begin to piece together what must be done to establish a course of events to bring stability to the galaxy by acquiring knowledge and technology of the Precursors that may have been lost to time and to the Ur-Quan Hierarchy. By establishing contact with the Sentient Milieu and preventing their eventual demise, you will secure a more prosperous future for all races in the galaxy. Since you are the sole surviving ship from the distant future and your time rift drive is no longer operational, you have no way back. Not yet, at least.

In the course of your adventure, you have the opportunity to ally with the Milieu races. The Milieu knows of other species throughout the galaxy (e.g. most of the ones you already know of from the first games) who are too primitive to be initiated as spacefaring members of the Sentient Milieu. One of your ultimate goals is to prevent the Dnyarri Enslavement of the Ur-Quan and Mael-Num and alter the course of historical events, preventing the splitting of the Ur-Quan into two races and preventing the establishment of their doctrinal conflict which endangers all life in the galaxy.

I envisioned that a huge part of the communication dynamic during the game is the element of not knowing who you can trust because you don't know whether certain races have fallen to the influence of the Dnyarri. Depending on your course of action, they can turn on you at a moment's notice and you have to fight them and/or eliminate the source of their psychic compulsions. You remain in the past and ultimately guide humanity's own course of evolution to bring all of the pre-spacefaring races into a new age much earlier than originally anticipated in the natural course of events. You bring them insights and knowledge from the future and help guide the development of all these primitive races and perhaps even learn some things that were never known in the established history. The game ends with the establishment of a new era of stellar republic, including virtually all races we know of in a "Sentient Empire" much like what we see in Star Wars or Star Trek: a galaxy-wide federation of beings the likes of which has never been seen in Star Control.

You would encounter and learn about the Faz, Yuli, Yuptar, Burvixese, Gg, and the Taalo (who actually lived nearby in our region of space and who were the only ones who that couldn't be controlled by the Dnyarri). Perhaps you can visit the Slylandro (they haven't changed in hundreds of thousands of years) and even stumble across the Arilou and Orz. Perhaps there are races nobody's yet aware of that you can discover all on your own. There's a lot of storytelling potential as a fish out of water story, being stuck in a different time with a bunch of aliens who had just assumed Earthlings were swinging around in trees throwing stones at one another, but who inevitably turn out to be the saviors of the galaxy!

And then you finally find out where the Precursors went and begin to mount an expedition to find them. But that's another story...

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OK I know stardock is already set on a prequel because they want to introduce Star Control to a new audience, but the idea I have would introduce Star Control to a new audience AND give the old fans something they can reminisce about.... I mentioned this idea in an earlier thread, so sorry for the re-post but it makes more sense here.

Instead of a prequel I would make a sequel only it would be FAR into the future. The main character is a Human, who was in a form of Cryostasis for several hundred years and wakes up to a universe in complete disarray. Most of the Star Control 2 alliance of free stars races are long sense forgotten, and the ones that still survive are oppressed by an evil empire. Just like Star Control 2 the human who awakens can pilot an advanced ship and try to seek out the old alliance of free stars piecing together a puzzle of what happened....Just like the old Fantasy Star games on Sega, new players to the game can enjoy learning about the ancient past while exploring while old fans can enjoy landing on planets and learning about what happened to their favorite races. Add new races and new mysteries and I think you have a game for old fans and new ones.... I think it would be fun to add little nuisances, like landing on unzervalt and seeing an old crumbling statue with a memorial to Captain Zelnick... Things like that would not be important to the game, just little pieces for the older fans.

The bottom line is we did not have to actually play a video game to find the historical data that told us what happened to the sentient milieu and precursors interesting. Meaning in this game as the hero learns about the fate of the races we knew in Star Control 2, new fans would be just as interested in it as old fans would be, whether they players SC2 or not...This game would create an entire new universe for new fans without forgetting the events of SC2.

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What I'm hoping for is a game just like Star Control 2 but with updated graphics and mechanics.

I love the top down 2D style combat from the original games. The way that certain races' ships were perfectly designed and balanced against other races' ships and needing to know which ships to use for which circumstance. Flawless. And not just the ship Vs ship combat but the Pkunk ship Vs the Sa-Matra. The real fans know what I'm talking about. That was brilliant. Just update the graphics.

The hyper/quasi space navigation and exploration is fine too. One thing that needs an overhaul is the planetary exploration. The original Mass Effect did a good job with that using the Mako, so there's a good reference point. Just rename the Mako, Planet Lander and there you go. And yes I know Mass Effect is a HUGE Star Control 2 ripoff and owes a lot to it. But that's a topic for a different thread.

As far as the story goes, that's simple. Since the game Stardock is planning is a prequel, then I would like it to happen during the days of the sentient milieu from the lore of Star Control 2. A lot of the story beats for the game would already be given in the dialogue in Star Control 2 and it would be a good way to expand on the Star Control universe and real fans of the series would appreciate the nostalgia.

So yeah, that's pretty much it. Updated SC2 in the times of the sentient milieu. That's my dream.

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I want Star Control 2 with more varied resources, planets and aliens, alongside more customization and less grind.

I would also DEFINITELY want an open-ended game without a timer.

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EvilMaxWar

Join Date 10/2007

+49

Quoting ParagonRenegade,

reply 8

... without a timer.

You are sooooo not old school. I like the timer!

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Quoting EvilMaxWar,

reply 9

You are sooooo not old school. I like the timer!

You're so cute when you're wrong!

Timers are bad, and they should feel bad.

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Since about space we now know a little bit more, I think it is also in the game need more variation. Pulsars, magnetars, black holes devouring stars, over huge stars - giants, etc.

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So what we know so far about the basic game idea is that it's an alternative timeline and the core of the game is to fly around in space to meet funky aliens and upgrade your flagship as you go, like in SC2. With this basic setting in mind, here's some thoughts. Scrap, ridicule, alter or pick the cherries as you see fit.

1. Good cool story

Well I went through this pretty much in the story thread already so I won't delve deep here. Basically it'd be super ultra cool to have a good plot with some excitement and emotional attachments to plot characters and races. Which preferably then get horribly broken as people die gruesomely to flaming plasma and supernovas. Ahh the drama.

2. Memorable music

Goes along the story and atmosphere in general. Get good music. I don't know if I can emphasize this enough. It's probably the best way to create a good atmosphere. Being a proud owner of Sins, I believe you have this department well in control. Man, I really mess up my games sometimes because I don't want to leave a grav-well because I enjoy the combat music too much and won't upgrade around properly. And vice versa. Music, it's paramount in making a game feel good.

3. Large game world

Well, we're flying in a friggin' galaxy right? Modern tech should allow to create a preeetty big place if need be. Of course, it's up to the people working the game together how well it'll be fleshed out but the potential is out there. Ideally I'd like to see a big starmap in 3D that you can rotate and zoom in and out as you see fit. Again I'll use Sins as an example. The basic controls there are pretty good. Just pick that and put it into a bigger scale and we're game. Of course, being able to zoom inside a star system in a galaxy level map is probably not necessary.

4. Dimensions!

Part of the game world, really. I'd really love if in addition to the already-large-quadrant there'd be dimensional travel included and in these dimensions you could also travel between stars. Or whatever you find inside these weird, outlandish.. places.

Quick thoughts; dimensions with themes! How about a place where the SPACE SINGS! The void vibrates a melody that reacts to your ship/fleet. You could even travel by creating certain kinds of themes that'd affect your location. Or you could meet aliens who you'd have to fight using rhythm in your attacks in order to win (their favor).

Or how about a place that's lorded BY EMOTIONS! Anything is possible really, like the emotions affecting your ships armor/shields/engines (feeling angry? armor melting or engines on overdrive! feeling happy? ships start to float or shields get a regen boost! etc.) or more on the adventure side, emotions could direct you to proper places in this odd world. You'd have to focus your crew to get anything done. Meeting aliens in this place could get really interesting. Poke them the wrong way.. Fun ensues!

Dimension with THINGS IN REVERSE! Ok, clearly it'd have to be bordered somehow as to what's reversed or else you'd simply cease to exist the moment you enter this funland. I'm a bit dry on ideas with this one actually but I think more creative people could come up with some crazy ideas.

Dimensions with REFERENCES TO REAL WORLD OR OTHER GAMES! I don't know what would be more exciting than accidentally jumping right into the middle of Doctrinal War.. Ideas are practically limitless here. Just pick anything fun and cool and work with it.

Etc. Dimensional travel allows for some really crazy and fun ideas in my opinion, as they're not restricted by any rules we know. Great for adding variety to the game.

5. 3D space combat

Hopefully a meaningful part of the game. Maybe I'll take an in-depth look later on in the actual space-combat thread but as for now I'll just state that I'd be happy with a combat system that's something like we saw in Homeworld. Although I love the old 2D combat of SC2 I don't quite feel it'd work out as primary combat system in a modern day space game. So, your flagship would work like a mothership that you can move and use like the rest of the to-be fleet. It'd be powerful in its own right but by no means invincible so you'd have to work with the whole of your armada to overcome the more difficult battles. You'd be able to make groups and issue different kind of commands to them like fleet formations and aggressivity levels.

Would be cool to take control of a single ship and fly it personally, too. Of course you could lock a squad of ships to your personally commandeered vessel. Epicness takes on a whole new level. Just imagine the combat where you first give generic orders to everybody and then jump into a vessel and personally direct a squadron of Ilwddash Thovengers to take down the dreaded dreadnought command vessel of the enemy while dodging hot plasma. Oooooh yess.

6. Resources, exploration, scanning

The mineral farming was a cool part in SC2 but IMO it degenerated into a grind in the end. Or maybe that's just me after playing it through too many times. I've this feeling that it was there mostly to keep the player busy with a some kind of task through early game. All in all, the idea is still cool and worth preserving. I'd go with a quick-scan/harvest option as you explore different worlds and an optional mini-game attached to it. Maybe send a squad on the surface that'd scout any hot-spots your scanners reveal. Strike team, X-Com style. Rewards could be extra minerals, lore data disks, vague clues about things of importance, pieces of easter egg bonus artifact thingie or something like that. Little bonuses that won't neither force you to collect them but still feel rewarding.

7. Racial encounters

Well this one is given. You kind of can't have a Star Control game without some good amount of alien interaction and the various thrilling discussions old SC2 fans are used to. The system SC2 used is fine and I'd prefer to see it return pretty much as it is. This whole point is a bit useless as I feel fun alien chats are self-evident.

8. Diplomacy & racial actions

Ok ok I know that we can't cram just about every nutty idea into the game. There was a fun pic in some thread about this remote control with gazillion buttons. Just tossing ideas! Aaanyway, depending on how the actual game will turn out, I'm feeling pretty good about an idea with the races having a sort of diplomacy theme of their own that keeps on developing. I'd be cool if the races keep doing their thing - like expanding rapidly, which in turn would affect the neighboring races probably negatively. Or you might have the local merchant race selling stuff that some honor-code race deems unethical. You could affect these relations to an extent by giving advice, forming alliances etc. This kind of thing would add some nice feeling of life to the game instead of it being a static, still world where things just hang waiting for you to pop by and do your magic.

9. Research

Definitely a healthy amount of wacky alien things to keep the brains on the ship (or starbase, or earth, w/e) busy. If there's mineral harvesting like in the original, harvester upgrades. If a strike team like I suggested, gear upgrades. If we find alien stuff on alien worlds, info on those. With discoveries and time, upgrades to flagship (duh). New mineral type data? Space anomalies? Bio-scans? Maybe even language research? It's a big world out there and we know we know little.

10. Misc little things I'd love

-Journal. A must-have for today's gamers. Helps tremendously in tracking what was said in key discussions, homeworld coordinates, alien artifacts etc etc.

-"Hangout" at flagship. Really neat way to add a bit of chillout and depth. You could pop inside your flagship at bridge (or even several locations if devs like it and have time to fleshen it out) and chat with some crew members. Little discussions that might give advice or just add some humor value.

-Difficulty choice. Simple way to keep those space fights interesting. Adds replayability too if difficulty would affect puzzles etc.

-Optional gameplay elements. Little things like X-Com reboot Second Wave did. Male/female voice for flagship computer. You know, a sexy lady telling you about warp engine status or giving shied/hull reports. Possibility to beat the game with/without timer, a must have for old-school vets. Anything that's randomizable, give the option to do so. Random starting location? Random racial diplomacy? Random events? Random encounters? Random tech-tree? Random dimensions?

-Possibility for retro 2D space combat. At least as a mini-game.

11. Just a few ideas for DLC

Well, I'm not a huge fan of the whole DLC concept but I guess it's part of gaming today. Nothing special here I guess but if (as) there will be DLC content, I'd love to see extra races and side quests/events that'll fleshen out the game world. It's ok to have some loose ends with the basic story IMO, just as long as the original story is rewarding in itself. DLC is a great way to tell more about the background of that enigmatic Ultraloid race or to finally give player access to the fabled Moon Device which you only heard about in legends.

And of course, all the basic stuff. Extra skins, voice packs, upgrades, tech, pocket dimensions, planet types etc. I'd just like to see additional content that makes the game bigger, not only shinier.

TL;DR: So my idea of a new SC is a game which works pretty much like the original. Just add some neat things like research, planet exploration, 3D fleet battles, dimensional travel etc. Roll in some quality graphics, slap it with good music and drop a well written story on top and we're looking at a triple A quality game. Yessir.

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