Star Control: Origins - Star Control reboot from Stardock

[rusty_shackleford]

the combat is shit

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Best get editing then, because they fucked up big time on the UQM wiki.

Hmm. My source is also official (Star Control II Role Playing Resource Guide), but I think I see the problem: The numbers from the wiki are probably from the 3DO version, while mine are probably from the MS-DOS version.

Interesting if there's such a huge difference between the two versions.

 

[MRY]

It turns out loot inflation is the actual Path of Now and Forever.

 

[Elestan]

Best get editing then, because they fucked up big time on the UQM wiki.

Hmm. My source is also official (Star Control II Role Playing Resource Guide), but I think I see the problem: The numbers from the wiki are probably from the 3DO version, while mine are probably from the MS-DOS version.

The difference is that you are citing numbers for entire star systems, not individual planets.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I knew it was something. Thanks for that.

 

[TheDiceMustRoll]

Edit: I just want to add a few more things:

The endgame of SCII involves a final conflict against a bunch of super enemies, basically you have to fight 6 UQ ships, I believe 3 of both kinds than then onto the Sa-Matra.

In SC:O, you have to fight:

- A Scryve Warship
- Four other Warships
- A final larger warship

These "warship" fights are, for the most part fine, but they are very long, not very fun battles that can either be hilariously cheesed or be an extremely frustrating fight.

Cheesing is good because my first time doing this I had a dozen or so of the infinite range ships(like the syndicate battlecruiser or the Ure Devastator) and could stay literally on the other side of the map and nuke them to nothingness while they slooooooowly began to advance towards me.

Using the pay-for ships you get from alliances takes more skill, but it's generally very tough. They launch endless seeker attacks at close range, or bombard you with black holes at medium. The Scryve Warship has insane turning and it's strategy is "point death ray at you, sweep back and forth until dead."

The final "encounter" is more of the same - you can cheese it from a distance, or you can play "holy fuck this is annoying" at medium or close range. Using Singularity nukes and the phasors mean the Vindicator is up to the task, but I don't think that Boss Battles were ever the strong suit of this game series.

 

[LESS T_T]

https://www.stardock.com/games/article/493736/preview-star-control-origins---return-of-the-lexites

PREVIEW: Star Control: Origins - Return of the Lexites

The first expansion pack to Star Control: Origins, Earth Rising, is broken into 4 parts that is being delivered as a season pass (that is, a new part every season). The first part, Aftermath, was released in December and added a whole new region of space to explore, as well as new quests for your crew and the beginning of Earth's journey into being an interstellar power.

Part 2 is arriving soon and it concerns itself mostly on the mysterious Lexites. The Lexites first appeared in Dawn of the Singularity and started out as a small group of humans that developed strong AI, resulting in a controlled technological singularity. The Lexites contributed greatly to humanity in the mid part of the 21st century, but then suddenly, they left, with very little reason given. Their departure was the original impetus for the formation of Star Control.

Now, the player will learn more about why the Lexites left and what this means for the future for not just humanity, but for all the worlds that exist in Orion's Spur (the part of the galaxy that we live in).

As we put the finishing touches on it, we thought we'd share some of the first gameplay screenshots. Note: these aren't final shots, but you can get an idea of what the Lexites, or at least the beings you encounter, look like.



The Lexites have their own set of ships that you'll get to see first hand.



Of course the Tywom dress up like humans. Because: OF COURSE THEY DO.





New weapons and other goodies come with part 2 that you can experience in battle.



Encounter with a group of Lexites.

If you don't already have Star Control: Origins, you can grab it at www.starcontrol.com. Earth Rising is also available there as well. The nice thing about Star Control being a non-linear "sandboxy" RPG is that you don't have to have finished the game to enjoy the expansion. In fact, you don't even have to have started the game to start experience the new content. It simply builds out the universe. What you do in that universe is up to you.

 

[TheDiceMustRoll]

Lol, it's literally the aliens from the end of A.I.

 

[MRY]

Doesn't matter, Spielberg didn't trademark them. If anything, A.I. is infringing Star Control: Origins. :D

 

[TheDiceMustRoll]

Doesn't matter, Spielberg didn't trademark them. If anything, A.I. is infringing Star Control: Origins. :D

Oh no, don't worry, I'm not gettin' all political or anything. My days of caring about internet/legal/political drama are done.

 

[The Game Analists]

Brad Wardell has been discussing his plans/hopes for Star Control: Infinite and Eternal, on the discord. That's not a guaranteed name, just something he's a fan off apparently.

- The most popular feature in SC:O is the empire-building(turning in powerful hyperdrives to Star Control HQ will cause humanity to spring up 3 colonies, which gives you an influence blob like the other races have and you also get special units I think)
- The least popular feature is resource gathering. On resource gathering:
"Yea, well, you know how I feela bout the whole planet lander mini game.
I inherited that.
And I feel it's the weakest part of the game. Collecting minerals wans't fun in SC2 either.
Resource gathering is not fun imo."

Brad Wardell has also said that he thinks that things will be "more established" and "resource gathering won't be the focus." Which also sounds interesting. I can speculate that "more established" means humanity has more than a single ship and kind of...uh, an empire, I guess?

On top of that, he's mentioned that he thinks that planetary exploration would be more like "Divinity Original Sin II" and you would be sending people down in "away teams". X-Com was also cited.

- He has not played, but has heard of, Stellar Tactics.

Is Stardock gearing up to produce the best Star Trek Video Game possible? Will the challenge of Dukat be answered?

 

[Grampy_Bone]

At this point who gives a shit anymore.

In a few years one side is going to have a piece of paper saying "You were right" but both will have lawyer bills with many, many zeros on the end.

The game came out and sold okay but didn't fire up the charts. C'est la vie.

It's like watching a dollar auction in excruciating slow motion.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

PREVIEW: Star Control: Origins - Return of the Lexites

Part 2 is arriving soon and it concerns itself mostly on the mysterious Lexites. The Lexites first appeared in Dawn of the Singularity <snip>

One of the darkest points of Star Control as a franchise is the book Interbellum, written by the guy behind The Daily Pundit. Seriously, don't read it, you'll dearly miss the braincells that abandon you for doing so.

It's so bad that I seriously question the sanity of anyone who'd think of writing another book tied to Star Control. Except... Dawn of the Singularity isn't a Star Control book. It's a book tied to the game Ashes of the Singularity, another Stardock product.

A game about how the Lexites came into being, became self-aware and then promptly fucked the right off away from humanity.

I'll have to say, it's a clever move from Stardock to use the lore from one game in another, especially considering the current lawsuits and all. We see right through it, of course, but still...

Brad Wardell has been discussing his plans/hopes for Star Control: Infinite and Eternal, on the discord.

- The most popular feature in SC:O is the empire-building(turning in powerful hyperdrives to Star Control HQ will cause humanity to spring up 3 colonies, which gives you an influence blob like the other races have and you also get special units I think)
- The least popular feature is resource gathering. On resource gathering: "Yea, well, you know how I feel about the whole planet lander mini game. I inherited that. And I feel it's the weakest part of the game. Collecting minerals wans't fun in SC2 either. Resource gathering is not fun imo."

To me this sounds like damage control, to cover up the fact that Stardock took an entertaining and integral aspect of Star Control 2... and screwed it up. Resource gathering in SC2 is more than just the mini-game, even though it's small and simple in scope and scale. It's an essential element of the exploration part of the game. If there's no resource gathering done by the player, then why have all those celestial bodies? Why bother letting the player fly to them? Star Control 3 answered that question by automating the resource gathering process (the player only needs to set it up and then come collect the resources later on) but any sense of exploration is lost as the game tells you where everything is. You're told about every system of importance, you're told what planets in each system hold something of interest. I can't recall a single point in SC3 where the player actually has to go out and look for something, it's all spoon-fed to them via quest markers.

SC2 is about the player being The One Who Gets Things Done. SC3 is about the player being The One Who Makes The Decisions And Lets Others Get Things Done For Him. The difference between the two goes a long way towards explaining why one game is universally acclaimed while the other is universally panned. For extra credit, compare Master of Orion 1 and 2 with Master of Orion 3.

I'll admit though, that SC2 would probably have been a better game if it had the option later on in the game to somewhat automate the resource gathering process. By the third act of the game you don't want to have to be constantly scanning planets to find valuable resources to fuel your spending habits.

 

[Cael]

Lots to unpack here:

- I've never met anyone who actually liked resource gathering besides myself and a friend, the most common complaint of SCII is the resource gathering.
- Its super weird to put the singularity shit into SC, but Brad Wardell seems to have hit this point(sometime before ashes was put into production, after the launch of GalCivII) where he doesn't think "Star Trek" is going to happen and hopped onto the Singularity train.
- SC3 is universally panned because they changed basically everything and added hideous puppets and answered a bunch of lore questions in boring and shitty ways. the writers also had no idea how to write many of the races, like the ORZ, which come off as a lolsorandom 2000's era nexopia creation than an actual race
- if SC:E&I is about flying to planets, landing on them, and then doing quests to get precursor tech it could be alright.

I dunno about Damage Control, either. Nobody seems to really like that style of gameplay. They hated it in ME1 and Andromeda

You are mistaken. Damage Control is what stardick is doing to save his dud game.

 

[Incendax]

- I've never met anyone who actually liked resource gathering besides myself and a friend, the most common complaint of SCII is the resource gathering.

I liked it, but mostly because it was fast. You either land and slurp shit up in under 10 seconds, or you nope the fuck out because it was satan’s butthole.

Origins is sloooow. Slow because you get stuck on the landscape, slow because the environmental hazards are predictable and thus you wait and watch them, or just slow because there’s way more surface to cover.

But I’m not saying keep it because I liked it in SC2. I think SC2 would have been better if you could trade information to other alien races besides the creamsicles... which would cause consequences.

 

[MRY]

As I wrote earlier in the thread:

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).

And:

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.

And:

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.

It looks like SC:O missed on both points. By making the landing sequence more elaborate, they made it slower and thus less fun and emphasized its artificiality because when you drive a buggy around a 3D rendered Super Mario Galaxy planet it feels absurd in a way that the resource gathering in SC2 didn't. With a lot of these classic games, the genius of their design was how they built gameplay that pushed the technical limits of the era and comported with the era's understanding of what was and wasn't fun. When you translate that design from 1992 to 2018, the intervening quarter century creates problems. The lander minigame simply doesn't work with modern graphics -- the more you try to make it like a "modern" game, the more it emphasizes that these worlds are empty, barren, static, etc. The best case scenario is No Man's Sky. But No Man's Sky turns a quick arcade experience into an endless slog -- it totally shifts the emphasis of the game away from space.

Now they realize that they can't make resource gathering work so they're going to go with empire building instead. Then they will realize that empire build depersonalizes the game and destroys the entire fantasy of being one man commanding one ship against an insurmountable foe. It becomes a different story. At the end of the day, you realize that SC2's themes, narrative, and feel are all intertwined with its gameplay, and its gameplay is intertwined with 90s tech.

 

[Norfleet]

The endgame of SCII involves a final conflict against a bunch of super enemies, basically you have to fight 6 UQ ships, I believe 3 of both kinds than then onto the Sa-Matra.

You mean ONE super enemy. The other enemies you fight are just the same enemies you've already fought. Ur-Quan Dreadnoughts and Marauders aren't super-enemies, they're the same enemies you've been fighting for most of the game to farm their wrecks for their money, and you were ready to thrash their asses the moment you picked up your first ally, cuz that Spathi ship completely beats the tar out of both flavors of Ur-Quans. Also, the Sa-Matra isn't tough at all and the Pkunk ship makes a complete mockery of its defenses.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Ah yes. Good old B.U.T.T missiles.

Actually the Spathi ships were lethal against everything EXCEPT the Ur-Quan because of their fighters.

For those you need the Orz ships with the GO! GO! boarding marines.

 

[Cael]

The endgame of SCII involves a final conflict against a bunch of super enemies, basically you have to fight 6 UQ ships, I believe 3 of both kinds than then onto the Sa-Matra.

You mean ONE super enemy. The other enemies you fight are just the same enemies you've already fought. Ur-Quan Dreadnoughts and Marauders aren't super-enemies, they're the same enemies you've been fighting for most of the game to farm their wrecks for their money, and you were ready to thrash their asses the moment you picked up your first ally, cuz that Spathi ship completely beats the tar out of both flavors of Ur-Quans. Also, the Sa-Matra isn't tough at all and the Pkunk ship makes a complete mockery of its defenses.

I have seen people insist on fighting that Sa-Matra battle with a full set of Chmmr Avatars, and wonder why they got their arses whooped.

 

[Cael]

Ah yes. Good old B.U.T.T missiles.

Actually the Spathi ships were lethal against everything EXCEPT the Ur-Quan because of their fighters.

For those you need the Orz ships with the GO! GO! boarding marines.

Ur-Quan can be sniped with the Mauler if you are good at long-range aiming. The Torch is also a good anti-Dreadnaught ship.

 

[Startropy]

Lots to unpack here:

- I've never met anyone who actually liked resource gathering besides myself and a friend, the most common complaint of SCII is the resource gathering.

Nah, I guess I'm also one of the few other people that liked the resource gathering too. It definitely added to the game's atmosphere, giving you a hands-on feeling of how hellscapish some planets can be. It can start to drag out in the latter part of the game but I still consider it an essential part of what made SC2 feel special.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Ur-Quan can be sniped with the Mauler if you are good at long-range aiming. The Torch is also a good anti-Dreadnaught ship.

ANYTHING can be sniped with the Mauler if you're good enough at sniping, that's the whole point of the ship.

The Torch is so OP it was actually banned in many SC tournaments back in the day, and probably still is if there are any serious SC tournies going on.

One of the best 'skill-shots' I know of in SC2 is one-shotting a Chmmr Avatar with the Androsynth. The trick is to go into Comet form and aim for either 'armpit' of the Avatar so that the comet can't slip out. As long as the Androsynth has enough crew to survive the Zapsats for a second or two, this is a guaranteed Avatar kill. Very hard to pull off as both ships need to be aligned just right.

 

[Cael]

Ur-Quan can be sniped with the Mauler if you are good at long-range aiming. The Torch is also a good anti-Dreadnaught ship.

ANYTHING can be sniped with the Mauler if you're good enough at sniping, that's the whole point of the ship.

The Torch is so OP it was actually banned in many SC tournaments back in the day, and probably still is if there are any serious SC tournies going on.

One of the best 'skill-shots' I know of in SC2 is one-shotting a Chmmr Avatar with the Androsynth. The trick is to go into Comet form and aim for either 'armpit' of the Avatar so that the comet can't slip out. As long as the Androsynth has enough crew to survive the Zapsats for a second or two, this is a guaranteed Avatar kill. Very hard to pull off as both ships need to be aligned just right.

Zip at the Avatar and turn into the ship as you approach it. The turn helps hold the Comet in the wingroot. By the time the turn is complete (i.e., you did a 180), the Avatar is dead. I used to do it all the time with the Comet, but I usually preface it with a mass of bubble as I zoom away. When the energy refills, that is when you turn into a comet and turn into the Avatar.

Another good anti Ur-Quan ship is actually the Supox Blade. It is a nasty piece of work if you know how to use the strafing function well.

 

[LESS T_T]

https://www.stardock.com/games/arti...---part-2-return-of-the-lexites-for-star-cont

Stardock Releases Earth Rising - Part 2: Return of the Lexites for Star Control: Origins

Stardock Releases Earth Rising - Part 2: Return of the Lexites
for Star Control: Origins

Get the Earth Rising Expansion Now
Play Part 1: Aftermath & Part 2: Return of the Lexites today!

Stardock released Part 2 of its expansion to the new Star Control game today. In it, players will finally come face to face with the very beings who inspired the formation of Star Control in the first place -- the Lexites. Earth Rising - Part 2: Return of the Lexites introduces players to the post-singularity species called the Lexites whose mysterious motives to stop Earth’s expansion into the galaxy will require all the player's efforts.

Set in the late 21st century, the player is the Captain of Earth's first interstellar starship with the mission to explore the galaxy, find allies to help protect Earth from hostile aliens and find the resources necessary to help Earth begin to expand to the stars.

The expansion pack, Earth Rising, is being released in 4 parts. It adds a host of new aliens, ships, adventures and destinations to the already rich universe introduced in Star Control: Origins. Because Star Control is a non-linear action/RPG game, the new content does not require the player to have already completed the main story arc from the base game.


Highlights in Return of the Lexites include:

• Lexites - The Post-Humans who left Earth decades ago are back!
• New Missions - A series of missions dealing with Earth's expansion into the galaxy as well as missions involving your command crew.
• New Ships - Battle against new, fully-armed Lexite ships. Earn rewards from quests in order to unlock and purchase ships.
  
• New Weapons - Take on new challenges as you face enemies with weapons you’ve never seen before.

Get the Earth Rising Expansion Now
Check out the features and quests in Part 1: Aftermath here!







More is on the way!
Following Return of the Lexites, two more parts will release. Purchasing the Earth Rising expansion will
give access to each part as they become available.

Part 1: Aftermath (Now Available) | Part 2: Return of the Lexites (Now Available)

Part 3: The Syndicate (Summer 2019) | Part 4: Earth Rises (Fall 2019)


Star Control: Origins is available for $29.99 on Steam, GOG, or www.starcontrol.com

 

[T. Reich]

LEXites:
lavish
exhilarating
xenial