Star Control: Origins - Star Control reboot from Stardock

[Dr Tomo]

I now pronounce this attempt at SC resurrection shit until proven otherwise.

Dr Tomo, please don't use that shade of red when quoting. It hurts my eyes.

Sorry and corrected as I c & P whole sale. Also did Wardell drop the ball on Elemental, right? I know they tried to make it that some chick in marketing was responsible for sabotage to avoid losing face over the titles quality.

 

[Hugstari]

So i guess Stardock bought the rights to the Star Control ip, i must have missed that. Now the head honcho guy says they are doing a reboot and only the human(?) race will be making a comeback, perhaps the Orz as well, because they've got that happy people outside energy thing going on that makes them immune to reboots.

"The current plan is to start 250,000 years ago with the Precursors and go from there. The only alien race that may be in the new Star Control would be the Orz (they're not from our universe) but that isn't guaranteed because there's no Androsynth and we don't want to bring in the Orz unless we can justify it through the lore."

I did and still like Star Control 2, well the Ur Quan masters alot. So i'm kinda optimistic but not really though, these golden oldies all turn out like shit or i don't play them at all. Here's hoping...

Some info:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/...-about-new-star-control-title-in-development/
http://www.star-control.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=972

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

If they'll implement realistic docking with ships and crew, I will surely buy it.
This is StarDOCK after all.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Why don't they start by doing a reboot of Star Control 1? Just... forget entirely about Star Control 2 for a while and take a look at the original. That was undeniably a strategy game first and foremost, its focus was the war between the Alliance of Free Stars and the Hierarchy. Conquer systems, build outposts, move fleets around, work towards a goal. It's a base formula that Stardock is familiar with. They can experiment with writing and alien interaction throughout it, there's even room to introduce a few new races in minor roles as either refugees passing through Alliance space, or as hired mercenaries for either side.

 

[Executr]

Stardock's boss Brad Wardell has posted on his blog a QA about the Star Control reboot.

Here's his answer to the question we all have:

Q: When will the new Star Control be released?

A: Not for awhile. We will probably have a closed beta well before it's released so that we can fully test out the above features as well as test out Super Melee (classic and new) and the multiplayer features. But the 25th anniversary of Star Control 2 is 2017.

Source: http://www.littletinyfrogs.com/article/463278/Star_Control_FAQ

(Sorry, Infinitron, didn't want to create a new thread about the reboot)

 

[Unkillable Cat]

FRUNGY FRUNGY FRUNGY!

(Sorry, not everyday that one gets Star Control-related news.)

 

[Elim]

That dipshit should stop thinking about other games and first finish this piece of shit GalCiv 3.
No sane person will play this when stuff like Distant Worlds is around.

GalCiv 3 will be the next Elemental, I can feel it.

 

[Angthoron]

GalCiv 3 seems to be pretty decent actually.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

got this email just now

 

[LESS T_T]

They also released concept arts and some details: http://forums.stardock.com/473423

The logo

At last, the Founders Program is about to start and the basic website is now live!

First, read this: http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/11...-star-control?abthid=564e0e1df23fa43015000013

Take the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/VCQQG7D

We are desperately trying not to spoil anything about the game but at the same time we want Star Control fans to feel reassured that we’re on the right track. It’s a delicate balance.

So let me just put out information that is now publicly available:

#1 The Team

Stardock built a new studio, from scratch, in Towson Maryland specifically for Star Control. We knew Star Control would require a veteran team to nail and for that reason decided that it was best to build the studio in Towson Maryland.

Why Towson? In one of the quirks of the game industry, Towson Maryland is ground zero of a good chunk of the PC game industry. Firaxis is here. Bethesda is here. Big Huge Games is here. Zynga was here. So much PC game history was made in this little town (Microprose and its successors).

Stardock has a single office complex to house Stardock Towson, Mohawk Games, and Oxide Games. This has had some really positive results that we didn’t consider at first. For example, Soren’s team (Soren designed Civilization IV) working on Offworld Trading Company has had readily available early testers while we’ve ramped up while Andrew’s team (Star Control) has had readily available access to art and game design input from Soren’s team. And of course, Oxide Games, the team making Ashes of the Singularity, is there to help with the engine.

#2 The Engine

So it’s using the Nitrous engine which is being developed for Ashes of the Singularity. Star Control will be 64-bit and require at least DirectX 11. This won’t be a big deal when it ships but it’s something to be aware of.

We’ve made some core design choices (Super Meelee will support up to 6 players in MP mode). While we’ve left other decisions (how many ships should be present in a Super Meelee battle) for the Founders to have input on.

The engine, of course, could support thousands of ships in a battle. That’s not the issue. The issue will be the gameplay and what makes sense.

#3 The Art Style

If you’ve seen Inside Out you have a good idea of what the general art style will be like. Mind you, we picked our art style before that movie came out, so we’re not basing ours on that movie, it just kind of worked out that way.

Here’s a screenshot of one of the new aliens:

#4 Planet exploration

When you explore the galaxy, the planets won’t look like realistic planets. They’ll look like the above. That’s because when you land on a planet, there’s no transition. You are literally landing on THAT planet and exploring (obviously super zoomed in). While it’ll be similar to what was in Star Control 2, it’s heavily expanded upon (first, because it’s 3D and you’re driving around on a sphere-ish thingy, secondly because you’ll find special items in addition to resources).


#5 The Modding

This is the piece we’ve really struggled with in terms of “spoilers”. Other parts are easy to not mention because we don’t want to give away too much. But we think this part is important to get out early on.

If you go back and play Star Control 2 the challenge has always been about replayability. Now, you can always create “sequels” that continue a story but then that means you’re waiting until a sequel which isn’t super satisfying.

How do you solve this?

The answer: A multiverse.

We toyed with this a bit with Stellar Frontier a long time ago with fantastic results. The idea being that OUR story will take place in our dimension (Earth-1, 2085). But the community will be able to create their own stories, aliens, ships, etc. with the tools we’re making. This sort of thing has helped games like Skyrim and now Fallout 4 a great deal. But what if a game was designed from the start with this in mind? Imagine loading up the game and being able to choose to go to “Earth-76” or “Spazik Universe” or whatever dimension someone comes up with?

Obviously, this is a win-win for both us and the players. I’m not going to pretend that making these tools won’t sell a lot of copies of the game. But it is also a no-brainer to do. Players aren’t in the situation where they “finish” the main campaign and wait a year or two for our next edition. Instead, they logon and there’s a bunch of things.

Obviously, for the Super Melee enthusiasts, this won’t mean much. They’ll just be playing in their 1 on 1 up to 3 on 3 (or any combination in between) and competing in a quasi-MOBA style game. Our Super Melee will be action oriented (so we might as well get that out of the way, it’s not going to be a strategy experience). But we have the advantage of being designed where we can say you need broadband to play it online.

That’s all for now!

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

Fucking stardock. Nothing good ever comes of it

 

[Infinitron]

A new studio? They're pretty serious about this.

 

[nil]

"The issue will be the gameplay"
-Stardock

 

[Unkillable Cat]

So far, so good. The modding option alone has me stoked.

 

[ultimanecat]

Of all things, I'm bugged about the look of those planets. I know the premise of SC has always been a bit on the less-serious side but having the planets be bumpy, exaggerated, cartoon messes as seen from space isn't appealing to me at all.

 

[Hamster]

No. Fuck off.

 

[mastroego]

I think I've written off Stardock by now.
You don't hate them and you don't love them... they're just Stardock.
Life is too short for their stuff.

 

[Zed]

The A.I. will be shit for sure so I don't understand why people are getting excited. Brad "Neurosurgeon" Wardell a.k.a. "Sexual Assault Brad" will try to write it himself just like he did that shit fantasy 4x they made. It's going to SUCK!

And they completely ignore all feedback so you must be an uninformed retard if you sign up for their fucking shit.

 

[Spectacle]

The A.I. will be shit for sure so I don't understand why people are getting excited. Brad "Neurosurgeon" Wardell a.k.a. "Sexual Assault Brad" will try to write it himself just like he did that shit fantasy 4x they made. It's going to SUCK!

And they completely ignore all feedback so you must be an uninformed retard if you sign up for their fucking shit.

What kind of AI do you see them needing? Star Control isn't a 4X, the AI doesn't need to know how to do any planning, just how to point its guns at the player ship.

 

[Psquit]

We Spore now

 

[Unkillable Cat]

We Spore now

No, for that Star Control would have to have phallic-looking aliens flying phallic-looking ships.

 

[Visbhume]

We Spore now

No, for that Star Control would have to have phallic-looking aliens flying phallic-looking ships.

Unthinkable!

 

[LESS T_T]

An update form Brad Wardell: http://forums.stardock.com/479381

Star Control: September 2016 update

One year ago I wrote the September 2015 update. You can read that here.

A lot has happened in the past year. So let's get right to it!

Greetings!

With Offworld Trading Company now released as well as Ashes of the Singularity released, the Star Control team has gotten reinforcements. The team is now a who's-who of some of the most experienced game developers in the industry.

Broadly speaking, the Star Control team is made up of the leads of Civilization IV, Civilization V, Galactic Civilizations and numerous other classics. Never before have I worked with a team with this much experience. So many people love Star Control and want to bring it back.


Challenge #1: The technical challenge

Star Control is an immensely difficult technical challenge to do today. You really wouldn't think that given that 24 years ago, Star Control 2 was done as a DOS game. How hard could it be?

The challenge is that Star Control is really five games. Let's walk through that:

Game #1: A planet exploration game. You could make an entire game around Star Control's planet exploration concept.

Game #2: A galaxy exploration game. Space is big. In fact, some say the universe has hundreds, perhaps even thousands of stars. In Star Control's case, the galaxy has over ten-thousand planets out there.

Game #3: An adventure game. This is the meat of the game. Going on quests, getting an interesting story to drive you to new objectives is what, ultimately, ties the game together. Without the alien adventure game, Star Control would just be some game where you explore a big galaxy full of planets to land on to get resources to upgrade your ship to get to the next planet. And who would want that? ...

Game #4: The combat game. Super Melee. This is where you battle with other ships that have unique weapons and defenses. It's an action game.

Game #5: It's an RPG. You are the captain. You have a ship. The ship is, ultimately, your character. Your allies are your party. You level up, get equipment to upgrade your ship so it's better and more interesting.

It's a big project and one we're happy to tackle. But it won't be easy.


Challenge #2: The budget

The new Star Control game is the biggest game we've ever made. Its budget is bigger than the combined budgets of all the games we've released in the past few years. Stardock is the oldest independent game studio left in the industry and this game is a huge challenge for us budget-wise. When people get excited about this game or that game, it's easy to forget that most of those games are from publicly traded companies or are funded by a publicly traded company. The new Star Control is not. It's directly funded by the individual sales of our games by you guys.


Challenge #3: The Setting

Star Control takes place in 2085. The humans are about to discover that the galaxy has been busy for a long long time.


Challenge #4: Hardware requirements

Star Control uses the Nitrous engine. For those of you not familiar with it, it's a next-generation 3D engine that can handle CGI like visuals in real-time. However, that comes at a price: Hardware. We are working hard to make sure Star Control will run on almost any system that supports DirectX 11, DirectX 12, or Vulkan.


Founders and setting up canon

A year ago, we let in a tiny tiny number of people into the Founders program.

We needed the thoughts and feedback of some die hard fans of the classic Star Control series that featured the Ur-Quan story line. It is not commonly known but the full name of Star Control 1 back in 1991 was Star Control: Famous Battles of the Ur-Quan conflict Volume IV.

Star Control 1 and 2 deal with the Ur-Quan conflict.

And there's also...Star Control 3.

We've now had almost a year of listening to their thoughts and their ideas on all this. The biggest challenge we had was determining what is and isn't canon and how to have new adventures without overwriting what came before.

Most people who get into the new Star Control will never have played or even heard of the classic series from the early 1990s. But for those, like me, who have, it has a very special place in our hearts. So the challenge has been, how do you support both groups?

So to that end, we have concluded (this is only of interest to super fans of the original)

There is a single Star Control multiverse. Star Control 1 and 2, the Ur-Quan conflict epic, takes place on the universe we designate as Earth-UrQuan. Star Control 3, however, takes place on Earth-Crux. Earth-Crux is similar to Earth-UrQuan but is not the same universe. Thus, if Paul Reiche and Fred Ford, who today work for Activision working on Skylanders are able to return to their Ur-Quan stories, we presume they'd continue from the events in Earth-UrQuan (or whatever designation they'd prefer).

The new Star Control prequel also takes place in its own universe. That doesn't mean it's a universe without the Spathi and Ur-Quan and so forth. But if you run into them, it won't be until at least 2122 (after this prequel takes place and only if Paul and Fred are involved in that story).

For all players, the new Star Control prequel is a clean slate.

For people who aren't familiar with all this lore, we still sell Star Control 1/2/3 from the 90s so you can get into that lore.


Founders: Phase 2

This Fall we anticipate starting up Founders phase 2. This will be a much larger group that will continue to help provided feedback and ideas and this Winter begin testing out builds of the game with a select few being given the multiplayer Melee build to help us with multiplayer testing.

More to come this Fall.

Also according to this job posting, Stardock have three other unannounced games to be released in next year or so.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Without the alien adventure game, Star Control would just be some game where you explore a big galaxy full of planets to land on to get resources to upgrade your ship to get to the next planet. And who would want that? ...

 

[Unkillable Cat]

All the screenshots posted are from the planetary landing game (those of them that aren't concept art, that is) and it looks good. I can get behind that.

The 2085 setting is interesting: It's the year that the Androsynth rebel against their Human masters and flee into deep space with all of Humanity's orbital space stations. The Androsynth also developed hyperdrives (which the Humans didn't) so I'm guessing they pieced together stole the tech from the Androsynth as they left, and you command the first fleet that explores beyond Sol.

The Chenjesu most probably know of Humans by this point, but First Contact with them isn't until 2112. In fact...here comes the problematic part...First Contact with any alien species isn't until 2112 by official canon.

So how are they going to make a Star Control game if you don't meet any alien species in it?