Star Control: Origins - Star Control reboot from Stardock

[Incendax]

This is just my own bullshit headcanon, but I like to imagine the Scryve have already looted most planets so that only scaps remain. But then they dump lots of valuable materials onto extremely hot and toxic planets, because they know “savages” don’t have the tech to steal them.

Until you get the tech to steal them. =D

 

[Zombra]

I've been dreaming about making a Starflight/Star Control-like for at least 24 years, and every time I've seriously rolled up my sleeves for designing, the resource gathering has stumped me.

I'm not a designer, but this seems like an ass-backwards approach to me. I have a great idea for a fun game, but because of some other game, I have to make sure I add in a part that is a tiresome chore, how do I make it the minimum of tiresome? You do that by not including it.

Instead: list out all the positive, fun things you do want the player to be doing, then hook them together. If you want them periodically spending points on things, then attach points to the fun things they are already doing. Have we all forgotten that you also get RUs in SC2 by destroying enemy ships? Rewards should be there to encourage them to do the fun things, not to punish them for not doing the boring parts.

As an offhand example, look at Lamplight City. It took the fun parts of adventures [the parts of adventures the developer wanted to emphasize] - exploring and gathering info - and didn't bother with inventory puzzles or pixel hunts, just didn't include 'em. The guy didn't say "But since this is an adventure game I have to add in garbage [gameplay that some people find fun but I am not interested in developing] like 'pour apple juice on impassable bushes' to gate progress, how do I make that fun?"

 

[MRY]

I wouldn't say that I had a great idea for a fun game, more like, "I had a lot of fun playing this game and want to copy it."

Being more generous to myself, though, I always thought the loop of exploration/resource increase/power increase felt natural for a space opera setting, much better than other ways of setting up power progression. In fact, I always enjoyed those aspects in Starflight and Star Control 2, probably more than I enjoyed the kill-to-power-up model of Solar Winds and Space Rangers. They may have been fairly mindless, but they weren't pure grinding -- as in early jRPG combat, the "grinding" included a risk-benefit calculation of "can I push on a bit longer before going back and paying the cost of [resting/launching the probe again]?" So, something like "(Estimated Gain Pressing On - Gain Going Back Now) > (Cost of Lander * Likelihood of Losing Lander)" -- doing that calculation in your head in realtime as you explored, plotting the most efficient path for gathering resources, etc.

So I don't really think the original concept was bad gameplay. The problem is more that it doesn't make much sense from the standpoint of plot coherence -- why isn't anyone else doing this? Solving that plot bind was part of what bothered me. It required making the interaction between player and resources something more than a vacuum, which turned out to be much more intensive from a design standpoint and less fun from a player standpoint (so I surmised).

Also, I have a very strong Burkean instinct that you don't tear down fences that have stood for decades simply because you think it would be better to cut across a field. You figure out why they were there, etc. I'm thus skeptical of the adventure games without puzzles movement. Sometimes things are there for reasons you don't understand, and you might not even be sure what went wrong when you took them out, only that the end product is off in some way.

"Rewards should be there to encourage them to do the fun things, not to punish them for not doing the boring parts."

I generally agree with this proposition (it's one reason I disapprove of grinding-based games, achievements, collection mechanics, etc.). But IMO it's more complicated than that. I don't have time/energy/will to write a manifesto, but in a game that is not entirely abstracted, usable rewards need to have some thematic/narrative/logical coherence. Sometimes, there may actually be upside to having the player work for a reward. I can think of plenty of times in gaming (as in life) where what seemed unfun at the time took on meaning in retrospect based on some reward at the end.

 

[Zombra]

Delayed gratification is certainly a good thing - I like tits and explosions but not every second. There was a payoff in fun for SC2 gathering, partly because it wasn't thrill-a-minute. Ooh! Purple dot! Been a while since I've seen one of those. Dopamine! And I certainly wouldn't advocate taking the planet sections out of SC2 (as SC3 did for example), because it does add nice pacing to the gameplay loop. I will admit that once I got strong enough to get RUs from fighting though, I stopped gathering minerals. Whatever that "downtime" from combat and conversation is in a successor, it needs to be good, good enough to stand on its own and not just something to do between the good parts. Maybe we're really saying the same thing.

As for story sense, mimesis (I learned a new word today) can kind of go to hell as far as I'm concerned in a sci-fi game. The protagonist secretly discovers that cigarette butts are a critical ingredient in a new rocket fuel, now they can go gather cigarette butts for 60 hours and there's an explanation for why no one else is doing it. For me, that is good enough. The important thing about sci-fi isn't proving that the science actually works, because that's not sci-fi, that's science. ("A science game" doesn't sound nearly as fun as "a science fiction game", does it?) In my opinion, good sci-fi takes one or two ideas that aren't based on real science and says "What if?", then extrapolates interesting stories and analyses of the human condition with the benefit of an unrealistic but still illuminating perspective. <-- this is the kind of sentence I write on 3 hours of sleep.

Lastly, as for fences and why they are there, I absolutely agree with you! Don't knock them down before understanding who put them there in the first place. Sometimes, though, there's a huge rock in the middle of the road, and people have been climbing around it for years because they either didn't have the resources to move it or they never noticed it was there to begin with. Haul that fucker to the dump.

 

[MRY]

The problem with resource gathering is not primarily the scientific realism but the dramatic plausibility. Star Control 2 developed very specific plot constraints to make it somewhat plausible that you would be the only one gathering resources in the whole galaxy. Without those constraints, designers need to take other approaches (e.g., Space Rangers) that are often less fun. A big challenge in this genre is that you want it to be about exploration of mysterious blank spots on the map, but you also want the space you're exploring to be populated by highly advanced interstellar civilizations who readily share information with you. Again, Star Control 2 did a very good job of solving that dilemma.

 

[baud]

So I don't really think the original concept was bad gameplay. The problem is more that it doesn't make much sense from the standpoint of plot coherence -- why isn't anyone else doing this? Solving that plot bind was part of what bothered me. It required making the interaction between player and resources something more than a vacuum, which turned out to be much more intensive from a design standpoint and less fun from a player standpoint (so I surmised).

Didn't the Long Journey Home solved this by making the ship on a journey back home, forcing (from a plot standpoint) the ressource gathering? Of course it might not work in every game.

Also, I have a very strong Burkean instinct that you don't tear down fences that have stood for decades simply because you think it would be better to cut across a field.

Isn't that rather something from Chesterton: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton#Chesterton's_fence ?

 

[MRY]

Yes. I always forget which to attribute it to. :/

I haven't play TLJH, so I don't know whether there is some explanation for why all those resources haven't been collected by aliens with superior technology. Maybe they, too, dislike Lunar Lander.

 

[Zombra]

The problem with resource gathering is not primarily the scientific realism but the dramatic plausibility.

Yeah. Although I'm a frequent cheerleader for "gameplay first", I do appreciate dramatic plausibility. My favorite example is skipping 90% of the side content in Mass Effect because basically Darth Vader was flying his ship straight to where he was going to wake up the Planet Eaters and shouldn't I be stopping him? Plot urgency vs. letting the player relax is always a huge dichotomy to knock down in any decent story. (Empty, scary universe vs. cool alien civilizations is another one, nicely observed.) Does it make sense and is it good for the story to watch the hero spend 20 hours digging coal?

 

[Incendax]

The problem with resource gathering is not primarily the scientific realism but the dramatic plausibility. Star Control 2 developed very specific plot constraints to make it somewhat plausible that you would be the only one gathering resources in the whole galaxy. Without those constraints, designers need to take other approaches (e.g., Space Rangers) that are often less fun.

Working backwards is often the most successful approach when designing plots. Start with ideas you know to be fun, then figure out the dramatically plausible reason for why it is done that way. Sometimes you hit a dead end and realize it could never work, but far more often you come up with an answer that is also fun, and you keep working backwards until you have a complex world with a huge web of dominos.

Basically, humans are incredible at rationalizing. It’s like our super power.

 

[MRY]

Agreed. But I still think people underestimate the genius of SC2's scenario. There's a lot I love about the game, a lot that's amazing not just for the time but for all time, but I really do think that the basic setup (and the way they dealt with SC1) is probably the single cleverest aspect.

 

[Cael]

Agreed. But I still think people underestimate the genius of SC2's scenario. There's a lot I love about the game, a lot that's amazing not just for the time but for all time, but I really do think that the basic setup (and the way they dealt with SC1) is probably the single cleverest aspect.

When you create a setting, you have a vision and a plan for it. If it is what the audience is looking for, you have a hit on your hands.

The problem arises when someone else gets his grubby mitts on your setting. That is when the brown stuff hits the ventilation device. Think about what EA did to the Ultima setting (for those who don't know, the fuckers literally blew it up), for example. Well, we are seeing a repeat here with this game, except stardick didn't even give the poor SC setting the courtesy of a fuck up and just plain declared it never existed. Alternate universe, indeed.

 

[Dexter]

So I understand why you made the change to a starker binary choice, because even if I don't agree with it, it doesn't really affect me since I wouldn't have landed on those planets anyway. Though something is lost in having that freedom of making a bad choice taken away from me, because I want to make that assessment about whether it is a bad decision myself.

Bbbbut Star Control: SPORE-igins takes all that grindy "exploration", "risk" and "choices with consequences" crap out of the game, letting you focus on what the series has always been about but was limited by the technology of the time: the 3 whole hours of FUN, AKSHUN and REALLY WILD THINGS!

What exactly is this important "freedom" and "choice" you are talking about which is being taken away here? I see the change described as a pure positive, since it ain't about "choice", but eliminating/cutting down on the specific part of the game that just introduced tedium/grind and the game might have possibly been even better without (think MAKO "exploration" in Ass Defect 1) or with a better mechanic. It's not challenging, there's almost no risk or fun to that specific part of the game (with the only redeeming bits being the choice dialogue or quests when you find special ruins or settlements on specific planets), otherwise it's just a tedious amount of doing this in a loop to up your RUs system after system:


I'd regard something like which weapons to use, which fleet composition to have in battle, which ship upgrades to use, which systems to visit/explore or how to solve quests as "choices". I don't really see much "choice" in the landing planet minigame where you have to drive around a round ball to pick up resources that gets boring after the first 3-5 times you do it, instead of concentrating on the good parts of the game like story/exposition/dialogue/exploration and partly combat (although that could also do with improvement).

But I generally abhor to despise procedurally generated bits of games, since 90% of the time it feels like the developer is purposefully wasting my time. If a certain thing like terrain/dungeon or loot or questing is so generic that an algorithm can randomly create it, it's probably not worth exploring for a human being. It's also one of the things I hate most about Bethesda games and you can see me grumbling about it 5+ years back:

I don’t know, I just can say that for myself I usually have a very low tolerance for that kind of stuff. It seems like I’m just wasting my time (well, even more than usual) since I rarely find content created after specific algorithms without personal input very engaging. Give me fresh content that someone put their brainpower behind because I don’t think a computer can create a lot of content I will find fun for long (there are no procedurally created books, TV series or movies after all). Someone could for instance play Torchlight on procedurally created unlimited Level dungeons for years, but I usually couldn’t take more than a few hours maximum.

There's games where every element of the game makes sense and it's a case of balance of gameplay and story-elements instead of tedium (Space Pirates and Zombies, Faster Than Light, Banner Saga come to mind), but this one clearly has particularly "weak" and "strong" elements, and the landing on planets to grind for resources is on the very "weak" end.

The grinding doesn't really get much better even later on until very late-game. There's these Trading Ships in specific systems that have special wares, one is hiding in the Tau Ceti system for instance, but look at the fucking price of a new fuel tank. You might get like 5-7k from some quests or wrecks, but a lot of items then tend to cost anywhere from 60-120k so it doesn't add up until late in the game when you end up having more than enough RU.

They listened to some of the other complaints already also and patched in a (non-retroactive) way to see which systems one has already visited (they’re greyed out on the galaxy map now) and the RU worth of minerals can be seen from the planet screen so you can better assess if it's worth landing on.

 

[Urthor]

There's absolutely no post game isn't there? Finished the story and there's like one little side quest in the quest log, time to put the game down?

 

[Unkillable Cat]

There's absolutely no post game isn't there? Finished the story and there's like one little side quest in the quest log, time to put the game down?

There are upcoming expansions due which will add content... so putting the game aside (rather than down) sounds like a better idea.

Dexter that fuel tank is purposefully overpriced, it's not worth grinding for it unless to claim some kind of autism award. Put the money to better use elsewhere.

 

[LESS T_T]

Modding tools are available now with 1.1 update: https://steamcommunity.com/games/starcontrolorigins/announcements/detail/1708447095932833442

FREE Multiverse DLC for Star Control: Origins lets you create your own characters, worlds, quests, and more!

With the FREE Multiverse DLC, your only limit is your imagination!

The Star Control universe is yours to shape and control with the free Multiverse DLC! Adventure Studio and the World Editor are now open to you so that you can add your own star systems, quests, characters, and much more in Star Control: Origins. You can upload and use other mods as well. Engage with infinite new stories and experiences created by you and other players!

The v1.1 update that accompanies the free DLC adds a new quest, some new character voices, and improves graphics and gameplay. For a full list of v1.1 details, view the changelog at the bottom of the post.



Included with the Multiverse DLC:

Multiverse
Play mods you've created, view downloaded mods, and browse the Steam Workshop to download or upload more

The Multiverse DLC not only allows you to create new content, but also lets you share it with other people. After you've crafted your new quest, worlds, adventure, etc., upload it to Steam Workshop to share with the rest of the world.

You can also browse Steam Workshop to see what other cool and interesting content other people have created. As the library of Star Control Multiverse content continues to grow, you'll be able to download and experience infinite new stories and experiences.

In addition to the DLC, we're releasing two Stardock-crafted mods. The Bounty Hunter mod adds a new Criminal Archive starbase where the Measured track down the galaxy's most dangerous criminals. You can accept bounties for these criminals, but beware: other bounty hunters may try to collect bounties on you! The Galactic Zoo mod tasks you with capturing various critters around the galaxy for you Tywom clients. You can find both mods in the Steam Workshop!

Adventure Studio & World Editor
Create your own quests, stories, and adventures with custom characters, dialogue, and more

Want to change the universal gravitational constant to increase the lander's jump? Create an epic quest that spans the galaxy? How about modeling your own planets and star systems? You can make it happen!

Use the Ship and Building Crafting screens to add new visuals to your experience. Create crazy and powerful new weapons and aliens for players to encounter. Adventure studio will let you write entirely new stories and quests, while World Editor will provide you with the tools to craft your own planets that you can fit right into your custom adventures.

From game balance all the way to writing new stories, there is very little you can't do with the crafting system.

Ready to wow the Star Control community with your own adventures?
Check out our modding guide here[wiki.starcontrol.com] to get started!

Haven't gotten into Star Control: Origins yet? Click here to go on an epic adventure and start crafting incredible worlds, ships, and stories today!
Or, add us to your Steam wishlist.

Official v1.1 changelog

changelog

Star Control: Origins V1.1 [Released 10/25]

Hello,

We are working on a large patch for you. Here are some of the highlights:

• Updated ship components As a rule, early game components are cheaper, whereas late game components are more expensive. Late game components are generally more effective.
  
• Planet mineral balance We want to reward you for exploring dangerous worlds and less compelled to visit low-value worlds.
  
• Visual improvements We've improved the appearance of the leaders, planet props, and the planets.
  
• Updated Fleet Battles Balance We've made a fairly substantial improve ship balance in fleet battles.

There's been a lot of changes under the hood as we've been prepping major changes to allow for robust modding support. We'll be talking more about that soon! And of course, we have lots of bug fixes

Important: Due to the scope of these changes, this build may break any local mods that you have.

Gameplay

• Added new Flee mechanic. After winning your first round, you can flee the battle. However, note that the enemy fleet will be fully healed when you fight them again.
  
• Added a new System Scanner component that highlights planets with "interesting" things.
  
• Added mouseover info for planets
  
• Added mouseover to the "fleet picker" in Fleet battles for ships in your fleet
  
• Adjusted lander physics to feel more weighty
  
• Planet mineral balance pass.
  
• Ship AI changes:
  • AI makes better use of wormholes
    
  • Smarter about hunting for wrecks (e.g. powerups)
    
  • Better at evading
    
  • Improvements to how the AI interacts with incoming projectiles
    
  • Improved AI behavior for Tywom turret placement
• Added new unique weapons: Flank Blasters, Rapid Laser Dual & Gauss Cannon
  
• Distributed new weapons among existing alien ships for better combat variety
  
• Added new race of minor aliens in the Fang Cluster
  
• Added new pheromones aliens encounter
  
• Added tough new alien interactions in 4 systems
  
• Changed the type of hyperdrive you get from Kzanti in Sirius A so that Star Control accepts it for Colony ships.
  
• After meeting Wymdoo on Triton, a beacon now points the player towards the training base
  
• Adding some Captain's Logs to the scared Tywom quest giver NPC.
  
• Fix for a hitch with the Mukay Ice World prank the Menkmack play on them. All Ice Worlds are despawned when the prank is caught.
  
• AI now taunts you in Fleet Battles
  
• Moving the planet Vrooms in Alpha Mensae much further into the system to stop some weird behavior when the player tried to land on it and went into hyperspace instead.
  
• Moving some planets in Arcturus a little closer to the star, so that players can actually land on them.
  
• Reduced cost and increased efficiency of lander components
  
• Increased the cost of powerful nuclear missile variants
  
• Reduced the selling price of some weapons that can be looted
  
• Increased the cost of late-game ship components
  
• Earthship energy regen rate increased from 7 to 9.
  
• Changed some ships to the human faction to allow healing.
  
• Default Lander Crew increased from 5 to 6.
  
• Deflector Mark II reduced from 20% to 15%.
  
• Reduced cost of overpriced lander components.
  
• Reduced the selling price of some of the "random" pick-up weapons.
  
• Fixed some ships having too small RU value.
  
• Increased cost powerful Nuke variants.
  
• Overmind Deflector reduced from 25% to 20%.
  
• Slight nerf to stacking deflectors.
  
• Planet mineral balance pass. In general, the higher the risk, the higher the reward!
  
• Minor balance changes to Norast ship and Battlecruiser since you can now heal them.
  
• The game now despawns mercenaries when you hire the Mercenary Captain.
  
• Measured/Phamysht/Boscan Transport won't bother the player after winning
  
• All ships can now be recrewed from Star Control base
  
• Urlon convoys now use the proper ship in combat.

Audio

• Added new voice for the Freed Trandals
  
• Fixed streaming settings for new Scryve music
  
• Adding Earthling Cruiser weapon variations
  
• Added canister bomb weapon fire variations
  
• Added Scryve space exploration 1 song.
  
• Added audio event for planetary investigation

Interface

• Improved remapping of keys and controller inputs
  
• MP Lobby no longer shows the wrong Fleet after ending a match
  
• Right-clicking on AI button in fleet battles setup now moves backward through the opponent types.
  
• Starbase Buy/Sell Panel no longer loses focus sometimes
  
• Fix the possibility of users being able to select options whilst "are you sure you want to surrender" prompt is up
  
• Resolved issue with pressing B button on controller causing popup dialogs to cancel but not call any button functions!

Graphics

• Improved some planet buildings and props that weren't set in the ground properly
  
• Improved appearance for many planet props
  
• Updated visuals for the bug and worm critters
  
• Optimized shaders to increase perf. on planets
  
• Added a configurable frame limiter in the settings file
  
• Fixed some very pixelated Red Stars in hyperspace
  
• Updated the Xraki, Greegrox, Trandal and Jeff leader screens visuals
  
• General animation polish/fixes for the Menkmack and Mercenary Captain
  
• Added animation to the Trandal leader background
  
• Added a bigger explosion when you defeat the final boss
  
• Compressed planet models textures to save space on disk (and small perf. bonus to boot!)
  
• Slight performance improvements to stamps

Foreign Languages

• Added Commander voice over for German and Chinese languages.
  
• Updated galaxy object names for non-English to improve translation and better match quests.
  
• Added translations for Portuguese-Brazil and Spanish (Spain).
  
• Updated translations for German, Russian and Simplified Chinese with lots of fixes/corrections.

Bugs

• In fleet battles, the enemy purple engine trail now matches the player trail's in length and size
  
• Fleet battles now have space backgrounds in hyperspace
  
• Pulsar weapon now has a description
  
• Fixed some transports not giving the right RU bounty when destroyed
  
• All misc salvageable ships now use the human pilot animation in combat
  
• Using the Observer cloak ability in MP will no longer cause the ship parts of the affected ship to sometimes have very bad transforms
  
• Ship acceleration indicator on inventory and starbase screens now use correct value rather
  
• Fixing some incorrect popup descriptions for Engine rewards
  
• Autonav to a starbase will not drain your fuel while you're there
  
• The Tywom will now properly deduct any superfluids from the player.
  
• Tywom Fuel Rescue guy will no constantly respawn further away when you enter combat (coward!)
  
• If your Vindicator is full, collecting an item no longer deletes it permanently
  
• The "sell conventionals" button is no longer disabled if you didn't have a common resource in your cargo.
  
• Fix for the alien who can't be ignored in Alpha Mus.
  
• Fixing an incongruous movie for a building on Iota Aspis B II.
  
• Fix escape when using surrender from escape menu in Fleet battle (campaign) causing the game to unpause.
  
• Fix for various bugs with strange Measured obelisks quests
  
• Modified marketplace to deal with an issue where you could lose fuel by selecting the same component in the list.
  
• If your main ship mysteriously disappears, we'll give you a new one
  
• Urlon ships no longer look huge in hyperspace
  
• Deleting a ship design will now correctly select the first design in the list afterward.
  
• Ships are no longer stuck on the edge of the Arcturus system.
  
• Maelnir trader in Arcturus is no longer stuck inside the star.
  
• You can longer get stuck running out of fuel during the final fight
  
• Fix for incorrect Game Over a few days later if you stop the Xraki from destroying Earth after they arrive.
  
• Removed collision from trees and small rocks because hitting trees wasn't fun
  
• Fixed a controller hang issue when dismissing auto nav dialogs quickly.
  
• Adjusted Controller UI dead zone value as it was overly sensitive.
  
• Fixed difficulty checking boxes in gameplay tab of options
  
• Fixes issue with acceleration and recharge being identical in Melee config screen
  
• Fixes various problems with interacting with a planet after interacting with a ship
  
• Fixed floating rocks on Beta Wendigo I
  
• Fixed bad placement of village on Wastear in the Lacaille 8760 system.

[h] Fleet Battles Balance Changes [/h]
Tywom
Despite being the first ship players get access to in the Adventure Mode, it’s incredibly powerful and one of the best. The incredibly rapid fire rate of the main gun made it too good at bursting enemy ships down. In particular, the Spawn Turret mechanic could be quite exploitative and anti-fun by encouraging the player to avoid the enemy spawning turrets and never engaging directly. These changes will make the Tywom play more actively and make it feel like more of a starter ship.

• Tywom Bolt cooldown increased from 1.5 to 2.25
  
• Turret duration reduced from 30 to 15
  
• Max turrets reduced from 5 to 3
  
• Points reduced from 12 to 10

Greegrox Swarm
The Greegrox was far too difficult to hit with projectiles due to the tiny Collision box combined with instant direction changing. These changes will make the Greegrox easier to hit.

• Collision box increased from 0.25 to 0.30
  
• Acceleration reduced from 18 to 12
  
• Points reduced from 12 to 10

Measured Response
The Measured Response could be very frustrating to play against due to the permanent slows and difficulty to hit due to high acceleration, small hitbox and instant direction changes. It will be easier to hit and its weapons are getting toned down to justify its 7 points cost.
Red Tape now only temporarily slows instead of permanent slows

• Acceleration reduced from 20 to 14
  
• Invitation damage reduced from 10 to 8

Terran Cruiser
The Earthling Cruiser was too fragile and too clunky too control. These changes will make the Terran Cruiser stronger and more fun to play

• 
  Health increased from 19 to 24Turn rate increased from 75 to 85

Lexite Interceptor
The Lexite Interceptor was far too strong to justify its low 9 point cost.

Points increased from 9 to 11


Trandals Frigate
The raw power of the Trandal Weapon was too much, especially when combined with its massive mobility allowing it to flank enemy ships or pickup all the salvage easily.

Laser Ribbon Bola damage per second reduced from 150 to 110

Scryve Probe
Like the Tywom Bolt, the Scout Shot was able to burst targets down far too quickly despite also having the dangerous self-destruct.

• Scout Shot damage reduced from 6 to 5
  
• Scout shot cooldown increased from 1.5 to 2.25

This is intended to also affect other ships using Scout Shot.

Drenkend Carrier
The Drenkend Carrier was too strong to justify 12 points. The De-energizer Bolt could be quite exploitative due to it’s rapid-fire and low energy cost, which could permanent chain stun targets.

• Points increased from 12 to 16
  
• De-energizer Bolt energy cost increased from 5 to 10
  
• De-energizer bolt cooldown increased from 0.4 to 0.8

Xraki Devourer
The Xraki Devourer was too strong at 12 points. The long range and massive energy pool encouraged the ship to avoid the enemy and fly away poking long range black holes, which also were deadly at close range. Lowering the range of the Black Hole projectile will force the Xraki ship to approach the enemy more.

• Points increased from 12 to 14
  
• Energy cost reduced from 100 to 85
  
• Black hole duration reduced from 5 to 2.5

Menkmack Negotiator
The Menkmack Negotiator was too weak for 12 points.

Points cost reduced from 12 to 10

Phamyst Consumer
Invitation was far too spammable at only 10 energy as it practically had no drain on the Phamyst, given the huge range and lack of required aiming it was too powerful.

Invitation Energy cost increased from 10 to 20

Kzanti Intimidator
The Kzanti ship was frustrating to verse as it was overly nimble and able to knock the enemy away with Repulsor. It will now be slightly less agile and not be able to spam Repulsor on top of planting mines. Especially important as this was one of the first ships the player would encounter in the Adventure Mode.

• Points cost reduced from 13 to 11
  
• Repulsor energy cost increased from 5 to 10
  
• Max speed reduced from 6.5 to 6
  
• Acceleration reduced from 6.75 to 6

 

[Startropy]

I've been dreaming about making a Starflight/Star Control-like for at least 24 years, and every time I've seriously rolled up my sleeves for designing, the resource gathering has stumped me. The early games benefited tremendously from the fact that the tech and game style of the era meant that you could abstract resource collection to a simple arcade game without obliterating mimesis. In other words, resource gathering in those games could be a dumb, simple arcade game, but it felt at least somewhat simulationist and serious (or at least consistent with the game's overall mood).

As Mass Effect showed, however, you can't really do that today. Letting you drive around planets will inevitably make those planets feel tiny, empty, and boring. If you somehow achieved No Man's Sky level simulation, then driving around planets would still feel boring. And once you've poured that much into planet exploration from a development standpoint, you want it to take on heightened importance, etc., etc. Mass Effect 2's probe system was dumb, but IMO was much better than ME1's soulless-Starflight-on-steroids.

But when you go the Star Control III approach and move to more of a colony-building model, which is arguably more logical from a resource extraction standpoint, you break the theme of exploration, which may inflict an even greater wound.

For Star Captain, I had planned to basically follow the Weird Worlds model (later used by FTL): each system has a single text-adventure event. The problem with this is that it demands a lot of hand-crafted content to do right, and ultimately I'm not sure text adventures are as much fun as dumb arcade sequences.

Tis a cruel bind.

We thought (wrongly) that people would quickly realize that planets filled with silicon, hydrogen, etc. were useless. That was a big mistake on our part because what players saw instead were planets filled with little sparkly dots to collect (even if every dot was only worth 1 RU).

This is true in every genre. I remember hauling bags of flour back to towns in Exile just to make a few gold, even though I wasted hours of my time doing that. Players have a strong min-max impulse, so if you give them any reward for degenerate play, a huge portion will play degenerately and then get angry with you. IMO, the best solution would be simply not to let the players land there at all. If there is no worthwhile gameplay and no worthwhile resource to be had, just cinch the knots tighter on Odysseus.

Hopefully player ratings turn around. It seems like the trolls are out in force on Steam, where the rating is now "Mixed" despite game improvements since launch (at which point it had a 90% positive rating).

It's an interesting problem: Resource gathering is an iconic aspect of SC2 (ironically I've noticed this faithfulness got SCO some negative steam reviews, from people who thought they were buying a 4X game and found all these weird SC2 mechanics instead) but you also have to balance that out with the possible gameplay tedium and packrat tendencies of players. I think SC2 handled it well though, I remember back when I first played it I realised I couldn't pick up everything as my storage was finite and you were on the clock to make every trip count.

FWIW I handled the whole resource gathering aspect in my game by making making it an away team mission presented in a blobber RPG style (complete with different classes + skills), and abstracted it where the player can fully strip a planet in a handful of turns, but each turn translates to a day or so to get around the whole "too much dead space to travel/too much stuff to do", then sprinkled in some scenarios in a text adventure format to break up the possible monotony when stripping planet to planet.

 

[LESS T_T]

Announcement of the first expansion is coming soon: https://steamcommunity.com/games/starcontrolorigins/announcements/detail/2461674853048741721

Star Control: November 2018 Update

We're releasing a couple of quiet updates this week that continue to improve modding support along with some tweaks to quests that communicate what players need to do to solve them more clear.

The modding support update mostly focuses on making more mods that allow players to upload mods that can change the balance. We'll be uploading a series of sample mods to help get the ball rolling.

We're also working on some mods that will add additional aliens to the game so that players can see how new characters can be easily added to help flesh out the game universe as you see fit.

As always, the mods will be directly available via the Multiverse feature.

We have also been continuing to update the Russian and Chinese and other languages as we get feedback from players and as more translation files get in. Every culture has their own star names which means you can't really do a traditional translation.

We are also pretty close to announcing the first expansion to Star Control: Origins. Rather than releasing a series of individual DLCs, the expansion will be released as a season pass and broken up into 4 parts. You won't need to have finished the main adventure to benefit from it.

If you've already finished the origins mission, you'll simply have a bunch of new things available to continue on the larger mission of helping protect and build up Earth.

On the other hand, if you are new to the game or go and replay, you'll find much of the new content intertwined into the existing story which generally fleshes out the universe.

The important thing about the expansions is that they will allow us to expand on the story and also add new game features requested by players without forcing game-play changes on those who enjoy the current game play.

For example, many of the new features we've been introducing are provided as ship module upgrades that you can find. So if you don't want a gameplay change, you don't have to equip that ship module.

We are also focusing on finding ways to get more of the extensive lore that we have constructed for Star Control into the game itself but in ways that aren't just "lore dumps" which you'll begin to see as you play the expansion.

The Tywom, Scryve, Mu'Kay and the rest of the gang have their own fascinating histories filled with deeds that will better explain how they came to be the way they are.

If you have any questions, please feel free to post below.

 

[MRY]

We are also focusing on finding ways to get more of the extensive lore that we have constructed for Star Control into the game itself

Darth Roxor

 

[Zombra]

Did anybody here play through the main story?

 

[Cael]

We are also focusing on finding ways to get more of the extensive lore that we have constructed for Star Control into the game itself

Bwaaahahahahahaha! Yep. It is still SC, guys. Really! I swear it is SC. Just buy it and let me count my loot, eh? Nothing to see here!

Ahahahahahahaha!

Fucking fraud.

 

[LESS T_T]

1.2 update: https://steamcommunity.com/games/starcontrolorigins/announcements/detail/3408557956587380456

Star Control: Origins v1.2 arrives with Adventure Studio accessibility updates and more!

The v1.2 update addresses player feedback about the collecting and selling of resources, adds upgrades and special rewards to the Terran Colonization quests, and more. For a full list of v1.2 details, view the changelog at the bottom of the post.

Using Adventure Studio, create your own star systems, quests, characters, and much more in Star Control: Origins. You can upload and use other mods as well with the Multiverse option to engage with infinite new stories and experiences created by you and other players!

Check out our 1.2 overview trailer:




v1.2 Update Highlights:
Adventure Studio
Use this standalone editor to create your own characters, quests, and dialogues

Try out all the easy-to-use tools of Adventure Studio in v1.2! Easy and straightforward, players will be able to access the editor from the main menu and begin using it right away. Modding is important to us here at Stardock, so these tools are simple to use for everyone.

Browse (and upload your own!) the player-created mods on the Steam Workshop through the Multiverse option on the Star Control: Origins main menu. If you're looking to get started with crafting your own quests, dialogues, and characters, check out the modding guide here[wiki.starcontrol.com]!

Interface Improvements
Never accidentally sell your important resources again

Accidentally selling entire chunks of important resources is a thing of the past! Now, if you get a quest to collect a resource, the quest automatically locks that resource to prevent it from being sold. You can manually unlock it, just don't blame us! By default, non-conventional resources (in other words, the good stuff) are locked as well. We have been listening to your feedback, and now you can sell resources one at a time and get detailed information on planets by mousing over them.

Terran Colony Upgrades
Refuel your ships, recruit additional crew, and add new ships to your fleet

Completing the Terran Colonization quests now comes with some handsome rewards! Not only can you refuel and re-crew your vessels, but as the colonies develop, they also provide individual rewards, such as specialized weapons, ships, and lander components. See the changelog below for additional details on colony rewards!

Ready to check out v1.2 and wow the Star Control community with your own adventures? Check out our modding guide here to get started![wiki.starcontrol.com]

For the official v1.2 changelog, go here.

 

[MRY]

Pretty awesome. Hope the game survives long enough for them to keep patching it and building in mod support. Seems like it'll be a great toolset at the end of the day.

 

[MRY]

Game is at the point where a single negative/positive review can flip it from "Mostly Positive" to "Mixed." Hard spot to be in just before Thanksgiving.

 

[LESS T_T]

https://steamcommunity.com/games/starcontrolorigins/announcements/detail/3408557956625735436

Expand the universe of Star Control: Origins with over 900 community mods!

Unique mission mods, powerful ship mods, game-altering mods, and more are available on the Steam Workshop

Check out our mod feature trailer:




Adventure Studio, the ship builder, and building editor are allowing fans to experiment and create some pretty imaginative things! We’ve seen some pretty fantastic mods since Star Control: Origins released in September, and we wanted to share our favorites with you.

Story Mods
Mods that alter the story can contain unique characters, plots, objectives, and more, giving you even more reasons to explore the furthest corners of the galaxy. Some questlines can also be a great source of extra RU if you’d like to do less gathering on planets. Check out some of our top story mods:

Bounty Hunter
by Kael
A Criminal Archive has been added to the Epsilon Garanulus system. The Measured use it to track the universe’s most dangerous criminals. Go there to accept bounties, but beware that bounty hunters might be searching for you as well.

Galactic Zoo
by Kael
The Tywom are building a Galactic Zoo space station in the Eta Repeculae solar system. They need you to help gather creatures from around the galaxy to fill it.

Gameplay Mods
Mods that alter the gameplay can take away elements you don't like bothering with, such as fuel consumption or resource gathering, leaving you time to focus on the mechanics you do enjoy. Below are some of our top choices for gameplay modding:

Enhanced Fleet Battles
by Thima
Time to start revising your strategies - this mod unlocks all ships from the main game and makes them playable in Fleet Battles! In addition, it enables additional ship components for building custom ships, giving you even more possibilities with your designs.

Free Landers
by SetecX
Crash onto planets with reckless abandon! With this mod, landers cost nothing at starbases, and your flagship can carry 14 at a time, making trips back for replenishing far less frequent.

No Fuel Consumption
by SetecX
Tired of having to wait for the Tywom to send a rescue vessel when you run out of gas? Apply this mod to get rid of the need to consume fuel while you fly around the galaxy, making pit stops a thing of the past! You’ll never have to listen to the Tywom’s fan-fiction again, which they think is an awfully big shame…

Ship Mods
Mods that add brand new ships built using the Star Control: Origins ship designing tools add exciting new opportunities for new challenges in Fleet Battles. You can use these ships in a single or multiplayer battle and trounce a few enemies with them. Below are some of our favorites:

Dark Shadow
by Talonbrush
This sleek ship is fast-moving and strong, with a viciously long-range carver beam as its primary weapon. It can also shoot black holes and features a tight turn rate, giving it the flexibility necessary for out-maneuvering its enemies.

Probe Bot*
by Lazy Elf
This little and quick-moving ship might be watching you*, but it’s hard to say. It uses the de-energizer bolt to stop its enemies dead in their tracks, gets in nice and close, and then… KA-BOOM! We don’t recommend using the ‘self-destruct’ feature when the Probe Bot is your last remaining ship...

Escaped Pinthi Experiment
by Mobius
Frrrrriiieeennnddd… No one really knows what happened to this thing, but it was probably pretty awful. The Escaped Pinthi Experiment fires ink blobs at an astonishingly quick rate while it summons its Pinthi brethren in droves to finish off its opponents. This is a good ‘gun and run’ type of ship for players who enjoy that strategy and don’t mind looking at this poor, twisted organic vessel...

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]