KickStarter Free Stars: Children of Infinity - upcoming Star Control 2 sequel from original creator Fred Ford

[LESS T_T]

At least some good things come out of this: https://www.dogarandkazon.com/blog/2018/3/8/all-aboard-the-starship-discovery

Don't let anyone tell you that lawsuits can't be fun -- when else would you get the opportunity to fight off angry bats to pull dusty boxes out of the attic and paw through old drawings, sketches and fairly insane-looking ramblings from over a quarter century past? Well, after repeated shots from our rescue inhalers, we eventually stopped coughing and thought it might be fun to share an unvarnished look inside the development of Star Control I and Star Control II. As we scan our old material for Stardock's lawsuit against us we will be posting stuff -- perhaps LOTS of stuff.

The images in the gallery below come from a sketchbook of Paul's which he cleverly titled, "Sketchbook 1", used during the latter phases of developing Star Control I and through the early parts of Star Control II.

Some samples:

Many many more at the gallery: https://www.dogarandkazon.com/sketchbook_1/

 

[Irata]

If people got along we'd still be living in caves, dying at 20 and dragging women by the hair after clubbing them on the head for some sexy time.

I used to say that if these guys got together and made a new StarControl I'd buy it sight unseen so I hope its good. I'd still like a new Starflight game too. Silly me thought Mass Effect might be it.

Too bad Tim Cain and the others can't sue Bethesda for the rights back to Fallout or the Homeworld team getting the rights back from Gearbox.

 

[JBro]

dragging women by the hair after clubbing them on the head for some sexy time.

 

[agris]

dragging women by the hair after clubbing them on the head for some sexy time.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.dogarandkazon.com/blog/2018/3/18/strange-settlement-on-an-alien-planet

Strange Settlement on an Alien Planet

After reading about the conflict between us and Stardock, several people have asked the reasonable question, "Why can't you guys just work this out?" In early October 2017 we tried to do just that, exchanging email with Brad Wardell. In these communications, Fred and I defined our idea of a 'win-win' solution...

(Oct. 6, 2017 email from Paul to Brad Wardell) “… It is important that our players are not confused about which game they are getting, so we need to clearly distinguish our respective projects. That separation should fall along our respective rights, Stardock having purchased the Star Control trademarks and Fred and I owning all the IP rights to the works we created.

As we've said to you several times over the past years, we do not want Stardock to use any of our IP, and that remains our position today. To avoid consumer confusion, we must also pass on the DLC option you proposed. Despite your suggestion below, you do not have a license to use our IP. All rights to our work reverted to us long ago. You (and Atari) previously acknowledged same. Further, time and again you have asked for a new license, notwithstanding our consistent rejections. Kindly do not use our IP in your game. If already added, please remove it before release.

We too wish to see both projects succeed and are confident that with reasonable efforts on our respective parts, we can avoid any perceived conflict or confusion between them. …”

Initially both sides made moves toward compromise. Our blog now includes the attribution “Star Control is a registered trademark of Stardock Systems, Inc”. We describe Ghosts of the Precursors™ as “a sequel to the Ur-Quan Masters”. We no longer use the #starcontrol hashtag. Stardock removed images of our alien races from their website banner and they changed "SUPER-MELEE" to "Fleet Battles" in Origins.

But earlier this month we received an unfathomable settlement offer from Stardock. Paraphrasing from legalese, it requires…

1. Fred and Paul must surrender all their IP rights to the classic Star Control games to Stardock.
2. Fred and Paul never again use the words “STAR CONTROL” or “GHOSTS OF THE PRECURSORS” or “THE UR-QUAN MASTERS”.
3. For the next 5 years, Fred and Paul do not work on any game similar to the classic Star Control games.
4. Fred and Paul issue a public apology to Stardock.
5. Fred and Paul never again challenge Stardock’s rights to STAR CONTROL trademark or STAR CONTROL 3 copyright.
6. Fred and Paul pay Stardock $225,000.
7. Fred and Paul never again call themselves the “creators” of the classic Star Control games.

And if their intent wasn’t clear enough, Stardock has now also filed for the trademarks:“The Ur-Quan Masters”, “Melnorme”, “VUX”, Pkunk”, “Ilwrath”, “Chenjesu”, “Androsynth”, “Spathi”, “SUPER-MELEE”, “Syreen”, “Ur-Quan”, “Orz” and “Yehat”.

Fred and I still believe in the ‘win-win’ scenario for both studios and both games, but given Stardock's recent actions, we seem headed into a world in which many hundreds of hours and many MILLIONS of dollars are spent on legal actions. Those hours and that money will be lost – not spent on making both games cooler, more beautiful, more fun -- and ultimately that hurts players like you.

WTF happened in October? I feel like we're not getting the whole story.

 

[Grotesque]

"and ultimately that hurts players like you."

I lived to this day without a proper sequel, I don't give a fuck.
I want blood in the court room.

 

[LESS T_T]

Another batch of sketches!: https://www.dogarandkazon.com/blog/2018/3/13/starship-discovery-ii

Starship Discovery - Mark II

Here are a few more of Paul's sketches for Star Control 1, including the very first 3 concept images he created to pitch Star Control to Electronics Arts, a few months before approaching Accolade. While we are certain that everyone loved our last Discovery posting's pages and pages of numbers for palette definitions and image positioning offsets, we've edited those a bit this time around.

Samples:

Full gallery: https://www.dogarandkazon.com/starship-discovery-ii/

 

[Frogboy]

"and ultimately that hurts players like you."

I lived to this day without a proper sequel, I don't give a fuck.
I want blood in the court room.

Hopefully it won't come to that.

 

[Infinitron]

This is funny. In Stardock's thread, a Star Fleet Battles (Star Trek tabletop game from 1979) creator has hijacked this controversy to complain that Paul & Fred (and pretty much everyone else) have plagiarized him. He's been going on and on for multiple pages.

https://forums.starcontrol.com/487690/page/5/

Legally it was Activision's, but creatively it was ours. And to this day Paul & Fred are acting like they came up with this amazing game. They didn't, we did. Star Control is an arcade version of the fully integrated Star Fleet Universe. Federation & Empire (their galactic map). Combat zooms into tactical level ("Super Melee"), Star Fleet Battles. The RPG/Adventure aspects... Prime Directive. The mothershp with it's Hyrdan "Hellbore Cannons" and "Hawk Series" Romulan modular ship design. It's the integrated Star Fleet Universe as an arcade game and they are still pretending like it is their genius. It was not their genius, it was ours.

Their whole industry has been plagiarizing us, very badly I might add, for over 30 years now while never giving us any of the credit for it, or allowing any of us into their business. Which makes a lot of sense, considering how bad us... "The Real Deal"... would make their pathetic "fan productions" of our work look.

The gaming world has no idea how games like this COULD be, their "fan production" imitations are like they were made by five year olds playing in a sandbox! Their military knowledge is the equivalent of an anti-war protester, they actually manage to know less than nothing. Ships that are completely helpless and defenseless against a single missile pretty much says it all.

It's not their game, they stole it from us. The same can be said for Master of Orion. Master of Orion was not their game, they stole it from us... and it was TERRIBLE. Like five year olds playing in a sandbox!!!

I read everything you said, you don't seem to have read what I said.

SFB is the Dungeons & Dragons of space ship games. Just as all RPGs can trace their heritage back to D&D, all space ship games can trace their heritage back to the SFU. You really aren't getting what SFB is, or the place it holds in the history of gaming.

You say "by my own admission"... I don't have a wiki page. That is ADB's wiki page. Steve Cole's wiki page. While SFB was certainly influenced but Star Trek than it influenced Star Trek, it also influenced Star Trek more (by far) than any game has ever influenced any TV show or movie that it was based on. There are two whole tribute episodes to SFB in TNG. Both "Peak Performance" and "The Wounded" are based on SFB scenarios are are tributes to SFB.

But when it comes to games, you just aren't comprehending the situation at all. The computer game industry has been shamelessly ripping off the SFU since the day they came into existence. There is no such thing as a computer game with space ships in it that doesn't owe its heritage to SFB. Particularly many of the early games like Master of Orion, Star Control, and Rules of Engagement. Star Control doesn't "slightly resemble SFB" or "contain vague similarities". Star Control IS the integrated Star Fleet Universe IN EVERY WAY. It is just a pure, straight theft of the Star Fleet Universe. Just like Master of Orion was. And, in the case of Master of Orion, I am one of the only people in the world that actually knows the details of how and why Master of Orion came into being. I can assure, Master of Orion was an intentional effort to make an unliscenced SFU game. I know this to be the case, I know the details of that story. But you don't need to know the inside story, any SFB player can play SCII and immediately tell you that it is a shameless ripoff of the SFU. There is nothing "vague" or "ambiguous" about it. It's blatantly obvious, just as it is with almost all of the early sci-fi games. Almost all of them were people ripping off the SFU and then taking the credit for it.

SFB's influence permeates the game industry to this day. The very first "clone" of another successful game... Battletech. Go play Mech Warrior Online and you'll have SFB to thank for much more than half of what you are experiencing. Or Faster Than Light. Read my blog about FTL, but that is pure SFB all the way as well. But, in that case, I honestly believe that those guys had never heard of SFB. You can tell that in many ways just by playing it, even though FTL is the most SFB-like computer game ever made. FTL is SFB coming half way to re-inventing itself through its own staggering influence!

The reason you've never heard of SFB is because people like Paul & Fred, games like Master of Orion, Star Control, and Rules of Engagement, STOLE THE REPUTATION of the Star Fleet Universe. THAT is the ONLY reason that it is not every bit as legendary as D&D. The shameless hacks in the computer game industry stole its reputation. They are the most arrogant group of people to ever exist in the history of the world. They rip us off for over 30 years, then look us in the face and tell us that we aren't even qualified to design games compared too them. They are INCOMPETENT, and they have PROVE THAT beyond all doubt!

You sound like one of them. Stop trying to defend yourself. The people in your industry are pretty much the scum of the earth!

 

[kris]

Impressive level of butthurt there

 

[agris]

we need THAT GUY

 

[LESS T_T]

Stardock's response to Paul and Fred's recent posting, escalation ensues: https://www.polygon.com/2018/3/21/1...settlement-offer-stardock-reiche-ford-wardell

Battle over Star Control franchise escalates, settlement offer leaked online
Series creators claim Stardock has made “unfathomable” demands


Paul Reiche III and Frederick Ford, who maintain that they are the creators of the classic Star Control franchise, are being sued by Stardock for trademark infringement. These two groups are at odds over a pair of competing games currently in development, both of which claim to be sequels of the original series.

The situation has escalated this week with Reiche and Ford posting what they claim to be the details of a proposed settlement offer delivered by Stardock’s legal team. The two men say it would require them to surrender their rights to the franchise to Stardock, would prohibit them from making a similar game for the next five years, and would force them to pay Stardock $225,000 along with a public apology and other accommodations.

Reiche and Ford called the offer “unfathomable.”

After first refusing to confirm that a settlement offer was sent, Stardock told Polygon the following: “Paul and Fred’s representations are not accurate. However, the settlement discussion was protected by confidentiality, which Paul and Fred violated and then misrepresented and we are not at liberty to discuss it. We have made every effort to be respectful to and adhere to the preferences of Paul and Fred.”

According to court documents, the conflict began when Stardock purchased rights to the Star Control franchise from an Atari bankruptcy auction in 2013. CEO Brad Wardell indicated that his team was considering a reboot of the franchise, inspired by the classic title Star Control 2: The Ur-Quan Masters. Stardock announced that reboot, Star Control: Origins, in October 2016.

But one year later, in October 2017, Reiche and Ford announced their own game. It is called Ghosts of the Precursors, and the pair describes it as a direct sequel to Star Control 2.

Several months after that announcement, Stardock filed suit. In a legal response, Reiche and Ford maintain that they alone hold the relevant rights to produce such a game, and that Stardock’s claims are invalid.

The settlement offer, which Ford and Reiche say was transmitted on or around March 6, would put an end to any costly legal proceedings.

“Fred and I stand 100 percent behind what we said in our post,” Reiche told Polygon by phone. “We did receive a settlement offer. [...] We haven’t yet decided if we want to print it, but we have a suggestion. How about you call [Wardell], who’s saying it’s dishonest, and ask him to prove it? It’s his settlement offer. He has absolute rights to share it, and if he’s the one saying it’s dishonest, let him produce it because we’re totally, completely fine with people seeing it verbatim.”

Stardock declined to share the settlement offer with Polygon.

Court documents reveal that just last week, on March 15, Stardock amended its complaint against Reiche and Ford. It now claims ownership of the rights to the name “The Ur-Quan Masters,” which is the official subtitle for Star Control 2. In the past few months, Stardock has also applied for 20 new trademarks with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, including one for The Ur-Quan Masters. They include a second, new trademark for Star Control in addition to the one purchased from Atari. The most recent was filed on March 8for the Yehat, a pterodactyl-like race found only in the Star Control games. Stardock likewise declined to comment on those filings.

 

[mastroego]

I had the same impression.

 

[Drakron]

Kinda looks they are trying to wrestle out a settlement by being outrageous in demands so they accept a less unfathomable one on negotiation since they got nothing outside a trademark and having the rights to use the name Star Control is worthless without the rest of the universe, this is very apparent with their trademark application rush (thats pointless since you cannot trademark someone else IP).

 

[LESS T_T]

Updated Stardock's Q&A including response to Paul and Fred's recent post about settlement offer: https://forums.starcontrol.com/487690/page/1

Q: Why did Stardock trademark Ur-Quan Masters?

A: Our actions continue to be in the interest of protecting Star Control and our ability to create and share more Star Control assets to the community in the future (including releasing the source code of Star Control III, which we own, as well as future Star Control Origins and content) without fear that Paul and Fred would claim that we are creating "confusion" by doing so. As background: Stardock always had the common law trademark to Ur-Quan Masters. It's the sub-title to Star Control II after all and was, by Paul and Fred's admission, available in commerce on GOG even before Stardock was involved.

Q: Paul and Fred have released an email chain between themselves, Atari, and GOG in which Atari admits they do not have the rights to distribute the classic DOS games. How does this affect things? [UPDATE]

A: It doesn't affect our case at all. Our complaint isn't about the distribution of the classic DOS games. It is about their trademark infringements. The questions to ask: Have Paul and Fred tried to associate their new game with Star Control? Have they represented it as being associated with Star Control II? The answers are yes, and this creates confusion in the marketplace and unfair competition.

Paul and Fred had the opportunity to acquire the Star Control IP. They declined. Now, after many years, they are attempting to exploit the renewed interest in the Star Control brand with the announcement of their own game and claiming it is a sequel to Star Control.

And reading the exchange they published, we're glad that they have provided documentation confirming they were aware of Atari's (and now Stardock's) trademark rights, which we hope will lead to a speedy resolution.

Q: Paul and Fred have recently posted what they claim was a settlement proposal that seemed very harsh including demanding an apology and that Paul and Fred not even be able to use certain words. What is the truth on this?

Their representation was inaccurate and the settlement discussions were covered under federal rule 408 which expects both parties to treat any sort of court related settlement talks strictly confidential. We are not at liberty to discuss.

Stardock's original proposal to Paul and Fred back before the lawyers were involved was, in essence:

1. Allow Stardock to review their new game's announcement to ensure it didn't violate our trademark rights.
2. Stardock would codify that it would forever never have any claim to use in any fashion the aliens from the classic games.
3. Coordinate the releases so that they don't happen within 90 days.
4. They would not interfere in the sales or marketing of our products
5. We should not interfere with the sales or marketing of their product.
6. Allow us to announce our Super-Melee beta first.

Their final response, before sending in their lawyers, was to reject this and insist that we take out the word "Super-Melee" at the 11th hour (which we complied, at some expense as a token of good will).

They have since made it very clear that their game shall be marketed at the direct sequel to Star Control II in violation of our trademark.

 

[Infinitron]

I think that:

1) Frogboy is on legally shaky ground here. What he's saying is essentially that Paul & Fred can't create a sequel to intellectual property they own because it was once called Star Control, therefore "trademark infringement". But how could it not cause confusion? Trademark and IP split ownership = inherently confused situation.

2) By that same logic, Paul and Fred were fools for thinking they could maintain the kind of total control over their brand that they clearly want without owning their trademark. What did they think would happen? It's all so stupid.

 

[mastroego]

I'm not a lawyer so it may sound confusing to me, BUT one has to assume that the Law clearly defines what an IP is and what a Trademark is, and what can be done within the boundaries of each.

What I think is that one of the involved lawyers may be "conning" his clients into thinking it's going to be an easy win, not caring too much about the final outcome since he figures he'll get his fees anyway somehow.
God knows it's common practice for shady ambulance-chasers in Italy. What matter is the litigation to them.
If that's the case, my bet is on those two, since Frogboy seems to know what he's talking about.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

But guys. They invented star control. Surely that means you own it forever right

Who cares?
Gib me a good gaem!

 

[Werdna's Revenge]

Finally catching up on all the drama between these games. I just want lots of Star Control like games, but this legal case looks pretty messed up.

What I think is happening:
#1 Stardock bought the rights to Star Control, the series
#2 Stardock did not acquire the rights to the classic games
#3 Stardock decides to make a new Star Control game
#4 R&F realize they seemingly have the rights to the old games content, but not the rights to make a new "Star Control" so they decide to make a new Star Control in everything but name.

So what it comes down to is for the court to decide what owning the rights to the series, and what owning the rights to the content of the old games means. It could be pretty interesting if this has to go to court since I know of other series where the rights get split between different parties and it's pretty fuzzy about what some of these mean. It looks like Stardock has the right to make a game named "Star Control", but it gets fuzzy on how much content they can use from the classic games if R&F indeed own the old content.

 

[Grotesque]

This is funny. In Stardock's thread, a Star Fleet Battles (Star Trek tabletop game from 1979) creator has hijacked this controversy to complain that Paul & Fred (and pretty much everyone else) have plagiarized him. He's been going on and on for multiple pages.

https://forums.starcontrol.com/487690/page/5/

Legally it was Activision's, but creatively it was ours. And to this day Paul & Fred are acting like they came up with this amazing game. They didn't, we did. Star Control is an arcade version of the fully integrated Star Fleet Universe. Federation & Empire (their galactic map). Combat zooms into tactical level ("Super Melee"), Star Fleet Battles. The RPG/Adventure aspects... Prime Directive. The mothershp with it's Hyrdan "Hellbore Cannons" and "Hawk Series" Romulan modular ship design. It's the integrated Star Fleet Universe as an arcade game and they are still pretending like it is their genius. It was not their genius, it was ours.

Their whole industry has been plagiarizing us, very badly I might add, for over 30 years now while never giving us any of the credit for it, or allowing any of us into their business. Which makes a lot of sense, considering how bad us... "The Real Deal"... would make their pathetic "fan productions" of our work look.

The gaming world has no idea how games like this COULD be, their "fan production" imitations are like they were made by five year olds playing in a sandbox! Their military knowledge is the equivalent of an anti-war protester, they actually manage to know less than nothing. Ships that are completely helpless and defenseless against a single missile pretty much says it all.

It's not their game, they stole it from us. The same can be said for Master of Orion. Master of Orion was not their game, they stole it from us... and it was TERRIBLE. Like five year olds playing in a sandbox!!!

I read everything you said, you don't seem to have read what I said.

SFB is the Dungeons & Dragons of space ship games. Just as all RPGs can trace their heritage back to D&D, all space ship games can trace their heritage back to the SFU. You really aren't getting what SFB is, or the place it holds in the history of gaming.

You say "by my own admission"... I don't have a wiki page. That is ADB's wiki page. Steve Cole's wiki page. While SFB was certainly influenced but Star Trek than it influenced Star Trek, it also influenced Star Trek more (by far) than any game has ever influenced any TV show or movie that it was based on. There are two whole tribute episodes to SFB in TNG. Both "Peak Performance" and "The Wounded" are based on SFB scenarios are are tributes to SFB.

But when it comes to games, you just aren't comprehending the situation at all. The computer game industry has been shamelessly ripping off the SFU since the day they came into existence. There is no such thing as a computer game with space ships in it that doesn't owe its heritage to SFB. Particularly many of the early games like Master of Orion, Star Control, and Rules of Engagement. Star Control doesn't "slightly resemble SFB" or "contain vague similarities". Star Control IS the integrated Star Fleet Universe IN EVERY WAY. It is just a pure, straight theft of the Star Fleet Universe. Just like Master of Orion was. And, in the case of Master of Orion, I am one of the only people in the world that actually knows the details of how and why Master of Orion came into being. I can assure, Master of Orion was an intentional effort to make an unliscenced SFU game. I know this to be the case, I know the details of that story. But you don't need to know the inside story, any SFB player can play SCII and immediately tell you that it is a shameless ripoff of the SFU. There is nothing "vague" or "ambiguous" about it. It's blatantly obvious, just as it is with almost all of the early sci-fi games. Almost all of them were people ripping off the SFU and then taking the credit for it.

SFB's influence permeates the game industry to this day. The very first "clone" of another successful game... Battletech. Go play Mech Warrior Online and you'll have SFB to thank for much more than half of what you are experiencing. Or Faster Than Light. Read my blog about FTL, but that is pure SFB all the way as well. But, in that case, I honestly believe that those guys had never heard of SFB. You can tell that in many ways just by playing it, even though FTL is the most SFB-like computer game ever made. FTL is SFB coming half way to re-inventing itself through its own staggering influence!

The reason you've never heard of SFB is because people like Paul & Fred, games like Master of Orion, Star Control, and Rules of Engagement, STOLE THE REPUTATION of the Star Fleet Universe. THAT is the ONLY reason that it is not every bit as legendary as D&D. The shameless hacks in the computer game industry stole its reputation. They are the most arrogant group of people to ever exist in the history of the world. They rip us off for over 30 years, then look us in the face and tell us that we aren't even qualified to design games compared too them. They are INCOMPETENT, and they have PROVE THAT beyond all doubt!

You sound like one of them. Stop trying to defend yourself. The people in your industry are pretty much the scum of the earth!

for those in need for a TL;DR, it all sums to this:

"You play a SFB clone ! You got a SFB clone! And you play a SFB clone!!"

SFU = Shut the Fuck Up

The End.

 

[Deathsquid]

Maybe they should just rename their game to Space Fleet Attack to spite them some.

 

[Zombra]

Yeah, that guy is a piece of work. Real Codex material if you know what I mean.

 

[Karellen]

for those in need for a TL;DR, it all sums to this:

"You play a SFB clone ! You got a SFB clone! And you play a SFB clone!!"

SFU = Shut the Fuck Up

The End.

Okay, wow. So I had a look at one of the guy's blogs, and let me tell you, that's not even the start of the beginning. In actual fact, he's the sole developer of a 14-game epic cycle of space wargames, one of which is apparently a chess variant and one of which is an MMO, most running in a system that is the "E=MC2 of simulation design and is the fundamental basis of something that looks a lot like “The Matrix”, a holodeck, cyberspace, and a self programming computer with omniscient communication" that he's been working on for the last twenty years. He just needs a crackerjack programmer to code it for him, but that's fine, really, since he's got it all thought out and documented in hundreds of pages.

Now, it seems that in writing this, I'm basically pointing fingers at a person with a very advanced case of something, which is something that mothers generally tell their children not to do. But the finger must be lifted, partly because this material truly beggars belief, but also because I'm convinced that a great movie could one day be made about this guy and his 70s wargame buddies who, in the course of just trying to make a good space sim, just happened to both invent the modern game industry and create a functioning simulation of God without ever being recognised for it. There must be some value in letting the world (or the Codex, in any case) know about a guy who, plainly, is out-Cleveing the Cleve without apparently even trying.

 

[LESS T_T]

https://www.dogarandkazon.com/blog/2018/3/24/nope-and-nope

Nope and Nope

After declining Stardock’s recent settlement, we offered our own settlement agreement last week. Paraphrasing from legalese our settlement states…

• Both sides agree not to interfere with each other’s new game development moving forward.
• Both sides agree to contribute SCI, SCII and SC3 to the Ur-Quan Masters open source project for non-commercial use and to stop selling the games through any channels.
• Both side agree not to “pass off” or “free ride” on the other’s good will or reputation.
• Fred and Paul won’t infringe on the Star Dock’s trademark and Stardock won’t infringe on Fred and Paul’s copyrights.
• Fred and Paul won’t challenge Stardock’s trademark registrations for “Star Control” and Stardock will withdraw their recent trademark applications for the “Ur-Quan Masters”, “Super Melee” and other various alien races from the classic games.
• Both sides do their best to avoid confusion as to the origins of their respective new games.
• Both sides will publish an agreeable statement explaining the settlement.
• Neither side will disparage the other.
• Each side will pay their own expenses and attorney’s fees.
• Either side may disclose the final settlement agreement to anyone.

…and it was rejected. [Is there an emoji for a cute alien that, being rational knew what was going to happen, but being optimistic is still a wee bit disappointed? If not, there should be.]

On the happier side of life, we sure do appreciate your kind, thoughtful support on Twitter and in an astonishing variety of forums across the internet. It is fun and informative to read your comments… even the ones that don’t see things exactly the same way we do.

We know some folks question our paraphrasing, so here are the actual proposed settlement agreements in all their gruesome legality.

Fred and Paul's Proposed Settlement Agreement, March 22, 2018
https://issuu.com/dogarandkazon/docs/reiche_stardock_settlement_offer

Stardock's Proposed Settlement Agreement, March 12, 2018
https://issuu.com/dogarandkazon/docs/settlement_agreement__stardock_vs_r

Stardock's Proposed Schedule D, initially described to us as an 'apology' that we would need to publish under our own names.
https://issuu.com/dogarandkazon/docs/schedule_d_text_from_stardock

 

[Irata]

If Stardock felt they owned everything about Star Control then why weren't they using the original games' aliens in their game? Why the need to require Paul and Fred to hand over their notes, art, etc. related to Star Control and to assign all their rights to Star Control over to Stardock?

I'm pretty sure I read long before this that Stardock even said they didn't have the rights to the original games' aliens or story and they were hoping to work something out with Fred and Paul.

Heck, even one of the developers basically admits they couldn't use anything but the name:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/271260/discussions/1/1698293068434217746/
Draginol [developer] Mar 16 @ 9:23pm
The Ur-Quan, Spathi, etc. are all in the Origins universe.

However, as Origins takes place in 2088, we humans don't quite reach that far out.

The map in Star Control: Origins is 100 x 100 light years (technically a bit over 120 light years as it's 40 parsecs x 40 parsecs).

(spoilers)

In the Origins universe, the Ilwrath are outside the initial map area and they are the closest of the major species not featured in Origins.

Over time, more and more species will be encountered. But history will unfold somewhat differently. In the Ur-Quan universe, for instance, there were Peace Vaults, Androsynth, and a Small War. None of this is in Origins.

In Origins, humans have the Post-Singularity AI species known as the Lexites, no nuclear war, and Pluto isn't a planet.

---
Regardless, that statement Stardock wanted Paul and Fred to release was pure dickery.