Using no more than 5 descriptors, what do you think is the most appealing thing about Star Control?
I'll start:
1. Non-Linear story
2. Great writing
3. Exploration
4. Great music
5. Memorable characters
What about you guys?
1) Interlocking subgames (space, planets, melee, dialog)
2) Characters with a coherent identity spanning the subgames and additional touch points (lore, music, font)
3) Motivated exploration combining both points of interest and the vastness of space
4) Epic story line that unfolds thru extended play and encourages replay
5) Mix of pulpy and hard sci-fi theme and motif
1. Explore a rich galaxy full of mysteries and fun surprises
2. Communicate with colorful alien characters to make friends and foes
3. Develop a fleet by gathering resources and choosing how to use them
4. Fight a diverse array of enemies in dynamic starship combat
I agree with Frogboy. xP1. Have a personal story to tell.
2. Variety of aliens.3. Explore the planets and the galaxy.
4. Electronic/ambient/synth music
5. Hence the story, write some characters that fulfill the story project.
1. Story
2. Exploration
3. Unique Characters
4. Aesthetics
6. Music.
I've never played any of the Star Control Games... I was 12 when SCII came out... and by the time I was into computer games MOOII, Diablo, MechWarrior II were the games I found... and then in college SMAC and Gal Civ 1 and 2 etc...So it was before my time.However from reading these forums and the UQM forums...1. Replayability (to have people this ridiculously passionate about a game nearly 30 years later.. it has to have been replayable)
2. Memorable
3. Offer a sense of accomplishement
4. Inspiring
5. Nostalgic I'm looking forward to the release of Origins. Stardock does not always get everything right (Elemental)... but they have always done right by their players and customers (Free copy of Fallen Enchantress for those who bought Elemental) (not giving up and ending with a really great game in the end). Also, it is obvious that Brad WANTS to get this right... so for a game series to inspire so much passion in so many people... I can't wait.
1. True Open-World - The ability to go anywhere and do anything, right from the start, with no roadblocks and no COAXING in the "right" direction. Sure, it's harder depending on where you go, but still possible, and aside from the beginning scripted sequences, they didn't even tell you what your objective is besides, "Uh... I guess just fly places and see what happens?" This was incredibly freeing.
2. Mysteries with no answer - What happened to the Precursors, where'd the Androsynth go, who are "THEM", did the Taalo survive somewhere, what exactly are the Orz? There are no answers to be found, and I've turned those concepts over in my head for eons.
3. The ability to "get ahead" - so many games block you from ever being truly better than your opponents, with forced leveling or hard gates. If you really took risks, and gunned it for the bio rich planets that are incredibly dangerous as well as for mineral-rich planets at great personal risk, you could score the Hellbore and tracking modules relatively early, and use them to take down most ships in the game. This sense of accomplishment and "getting ahead" is incredibly rare. Fallout 2 vs Fallout 3 Power Armour is a great example - F2, if you were good, and lucky and thorough, you could score Power Armour early. In F3, you were locked out until the game specifically allowed you through progression. F4 was even worse, with its level-capping of its perks. You couldn't even GET a jetpack till lvl 42. It makes exploration worthless, unless you have that possible Holy Grail, a treasure trove that will help you become a force to be reckoned with sooner than the bad guys planned.
4. Truly "alien" aliens - We can't possibly fathom their ways-of-life and motives and values (and aggression), because they are so different from us. Also, the plethora of visible, invisible, extinct and unfathomable "other" aliens you never got to talk to, made the galaxy very rich.
5. Irreverent humor - The aliens didn't tell jokes - they, themselves, WERE the jokes. The overly-vicious and bloodthirsty Ilwrath made you chuckle at just HOW thirsty they were for your blood. The Pkunk were so whimsical, you couldn't help but laugh at how happy and naive they were. The Thraddash and their micro-penis syndrome were hilarious because of how hard they pounded their chests. And the human commander was dry and witty and sarcastic. Good fun.
I'm only going to list one:
1. Compelling Story. The narrative hook was the best I think I've ever seen in any game: You finally get back to Earth, after having been incommunicado for 20 years, and discover that it has already fallen, with the morale of its people near the breaking point. And you have the technology to give them a chance to fight. Less than five minutes in, and you're hooked. I've introduced the game to a bunch of people, and as soon as they hear the arrogance of the initial Ur-Quan warning message, followed by the introduction "I am Starbase Commander Hayes of the slave planet Earth", they get visibly angry, and just can't put it down.
1. Space Jesus roleplay.
2. Alien genocide, murder and mayhem.
3. Mysteries of space.
4. Extortion, highway robbery and political intrigues on a galactic scale + more accompanying killing.
5. General destruction of planets, space stations and planetary installations in between casual coitus with banging blue babes.
1. The wonder of exploring an unknown universe
2. Interesting and captivating initial contacts. Some clearly friends, some clearly enemies, but others?
3. The joy of hauling resources back home and upgrading your ship/fleet
4. The music!
5. Solving quests that have a meaningful impact on the rest of the universe (like gaining friends)
1] the story and way it was laid out in star control 2
2] the aliens and how they look and act in star control 2
3] exploration
4] choose your own dialog path
5] planet resource and alien gatheringany deviation from this and it become less star control and more a cash in on the name.
so...320x200 resolution with 256 colors?
What makes Star Control...Star Control?
This is quite difficult to answer in terms of generalities. Most of the things mentioned so far are what make Star Control a great game, and I agree with them, but they aren't what make it Star Control and not say Mass Effect. The one thing I have thought of so far is:
Gathering resources - to create spaceships - to fight one-on-one top down action battles.
The other things that make it great are either not unique, or extremely unique.
For me it's the specific gameplay that SCII/UQM/Starflight introduced1) Space exploration2) Planet scanning3) Planet landing4) Conversation trees5) Ship to ship combat
Without any of that you just don't have basic elements for Star Control.
Addendum:6) Ripping off Starfleet Battles
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If it can be done that would indeed be awesome. A "classic graphics" mode.
Would probably be easier to backport Origins into the UQM engine.
Never really played the other games, so I can't answer the question at hand well, but I can say nothing would drive me more mad then this, it would really make the game one to avoid at all cost. Everything Must have an answer at some point, doesn't have to be a good one, and hell, the best answers lead to more questions, but everything MUST be answered in some way.
1. An enormous, well-crafted world that makes you want to see more of it.
2. No in-game journal constantly pointing you towards the next objective, which requires you to pay attention to the dialogue.
3. Witty and deep conversations with lots of choices.
4. Non-linearity. Any direction you take must be meaningful.
5. A grand plot that is slowly assembled like a jigsaw puzzle, rather than lots of meaningless self-contained side quests.
And that's just the story and the dialogue. There are many more points I could list, including the graphics and the music (which contributed enormously to the immersion in SC2), or the aliens that are weird but logical in their own way.
a little underhanded given that you only gave us limit of 5 examples...and yes if there was a continuation of star control and it continued the story and looked and played just like star control 2, i would buy it hands down.
1) Meaningful stories
2) Galaxy exploration and exploitation
3) Heavily developed NPC's. Alien races' in this case.
4) Voice acting!
5) Player's personal investment.
1- Great Aliens2- Great Ship
3- Great Soundtrack
4- Fun Ship Battle
5- Dark Comedy
I'm late to the party, and since most of what i consider Star Control to be Star Control have been mentioned storywise/gameplaywise/alien wise above already, i'll put down a few points not highlighted enough:
1. Good mother ships and Good combat ships to choose from, the type that wants you to get in and Fly everytime you jump into your ship !
1.1: True to it's unique genre. Gameplay mechanics essential for making it feel like Star Control !
2. Space... the vastness of it, i recall the first time i opened up the starmap and was blasted away actually realizing every single dot is a Solar system filled with mysterious planets ! And that you can actually fly to it via free will through hyperspace and fully control your ship in realtime while doing so ! Which also gave you absolute freedom to cancel out autopilot and fly wherever you wanted to should you feel like doing so or to outrun an enemy in hyperspace. The sense of vastness was surreal. I hope SCO's starmap will provide that same experience.
3. HYPERSPACE and the MUSIC You cannot have the one without the other and you HAVE to HAVE both or it's not Star Control !
4. The planets and minerals on them and possible mysteries to be found on them.
5. Back to the ships.(some finer details) I hope we will possibly see damage effects and system failures on ships that have been damaged coming back from distant explorations. Some lights on ships will look nice such as nav lights)
6. The joy of hauling resources back home and upgrading your ship/fleet (which was said already but needs repeating)
Hi everybody!is this game already out there? or still in testing period?
Beta on Steam!Release likely on September!
thanks!
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