Octopus Overlords

Oddly, I only remember the combat from the first one. We played it multiplayer on my Amiga during University. I vaguely recall that SC2's combat was the SC game straight up, so I think what I remember still applies to SC2.

In any case, we had tourneys, random ship selection, stuff like that, so we became very familiar with all the ships. Of course we'd all cheese it by slingshotting the sun which made even the slowest ship move at the fastest rate. You couldn't maneuver much but then you didn't need to. Most of the combat at that point was trying to mine the path the enemy was slingshotting through. The Spathi Butt fighter was a good little ship in straight 1v1, but it was pretty weak for the slingshot duels.

The human cruiser's only weakness was it's slow speed and maneuverability. So it did pretty well in the slingshot wars.

Heh, only problem with the slingshot maneuver was when you accidentally dinged one of the asteroids. Or the planet.

I like that they mixed it up a little and gave some of the ships inertialess drive (the flying saucer, and those annoying lightning probes).

Oh yeah, that's the other ship I liked, the X-Form. Alt-fire changed you from super slow but rapid turning to superfast but almost no turning speed. And each had different weapons, the slow form with the lasers and the fast form with the homing missiles. Same tactic as the Eluder - get up to speed since nothing else can keep up with you, then turn around and fire long range homing missiles.

One last unrelated memory: As I recall, the combat portion could be played two-player on the same keyboard. But, some of the keys would cancel each other out, resulting in a loud beep and nothing happening. So, the devs helpfully included a "key jammer", where you could test simultaneous key presses ahead of time. It came in handy when I installed a copy of the game on a bunch of the animation lab's computers.

Screenshot Friday!

https://forums.starcontrol.com/490770/

New trailer!

Looks really fun. Thanks for posting it. Love the unknown stuff like the object on the planet and the ruins. Thats the kind of stuff I love from Star Control 2 and Starflight. Lost civilizations, ruins, derelicts, stuff

I’m starting to feel like I could play this game after work every night and feel like I’m making progress as I explore the galaxy. Can’t wait.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Tue Sep 04, 2018 3:47 pm Looks really fun. Thanks for posting it. Love the unknown stuff like the object on the planet and the ruins. Thats the kind of stuff I love from Star Control 2 and Starflight. Lost civilizations, ruins, derelicts, stuff

I'm assuming there will be planets with water. Does it include a fishing minigame?

Paingod wrote: ↑Wed Sep 05, 2018 7:10 am

Daehawk wrote: ↑Tue Sep 04, 2018 3:47 pm Looks really fun. Thanks for posting it. Love the unknown stuff like the object on the planet and the ruins. Thats the kind of stuff I love from Star Control 2 and Starflight. Lost civilizations, ruins, derelicts, stuff

I'm assuming there will be planets with water. Does it include a fishing minigame?

Roll up and the cargo door open and a line lowers out.

This week's dev journal is about the art of Star Control and how it has undergone quite a lot of change over the last 5 years of development.

https://www.stardock.com/games/article/490749/

Check out all of the concept art for our environmental designs in this week's dev journal!:)

https://www.stardock.com/games/article/490830/

Pretty.

The official soundtrack for Star Control: Origins will be on all major music platforms on September 20th! Check out a few tracks here:

"A Higher Power": https://youtu.be/Yl4Dl3ZKDV8
"Cold as Ice": https://youtu.be/2fJHe8zXT3w

https://www.starcontrol.com/article/490686

Island Dog wrote: ↑Tue Sep 11, 2018 2:43 pm The official soundtrack for Star Control: Origins will be on all major music platforms on September 20th! Check out a few tracks here:

"A Higher Power": https://youtu.be/Yl4Dl3ZKDV8
"Cold as Ice": https://youtu.be/2fJHe8zXT3w

https://www.starcontrol.com/article/490686

Very reminiscent of SC2, which I'm sure was the goal

The last screenshot Friday before release is up today!

https://forums.starcontrol.com/490974/

In today's dev journal, Brad talks about the game's critters and how they've evolved over time.

https://www.stardock.com/games/article/490950/

I have to give stardock some credit on the rollout of this game. The dev updates have been pretty good.

Scoop20906 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 18, 2018 11:44 am I have to give stardock some credit on the rollout of this game. The dev updates have been pretty good.

Agreed, and thank you Island Dog for taking the time to post updates in our little corner of the internet for us.

I agree. I had no interest in this. I thought Stardock was ruining the legacy of the series by making those horrible little planets.

But after all the info ID has provided Ive switched my stance 180 degrees and now have this wish listed. I wont be able to buy it for a few years when it goes super duper stupid cheap but I will get it. And Ive also passed along good word of mouth to my friends and other places.

Thanks for your time spent keeping us informed ID. Appreciate your time and enthusiasm for the game.

Thanks for the comments. We appreciate all of you too!

Brad wrote a pre-mortem dev diary for Star Control: Origins.

https://www.stardock.com/games/article/490985/

It's the first game we've ever made that might qualify as a AAA game in our 25 year history.

Pish posh. I consider GalCiv as a triple AAA easy. In fact I bought them in collectors edition version.

It's out today. Anyone play it?

IceBear wrote: ↑Thu Sep 20, 2018 2:39 pm It's out today. Anyone play it?

Unless there are dire reports I'll probably pick it up sooner than later. I'm fairly sure I'll like it, but there's a bit of me that's so fond of SC2 that I want to see the new one in action before I commit.

No money for a game. Ask me in a couple years.

This is just like Bards Tale, in my wish list, but not eager for a day one purchase. I want to see what all the reviews say, and see some videos of it in action.

It's in my Steam library. I must have preordered last year when I had money but don't remember doing it. Will try it sometime soon - most likely tomorrow at the earliest

I'll check it out as soon as I get home.

One negative review on Steam so far - for lack of subtitles. Everything else,

Paingod wrote: ↑Thu Sep 20, 2018 3:23 pm One negative review on Steam so far - for lack of subtitles. Everything else,

And of course, after a short play session my biggest complaint so far is that there doesn't seem to be any way to disable subtitles.

Paingod wrote: ↑Thu Sep 20, 2018 3:23 pm One negative review on Steam so far - for lack of subtitles. Everything else,

And that's going to be hotfixed probably tonight.

We're also livestreaming on the Steam store page for SCO.

I'm going off on a trip so it would be a couple of weeks before I would even be thinking about buying. But I would like to hear some impressions about the space combat and how nimble fingered you have to be. I have the reaction time of a glacier so it's important to me that I understand if I'll be able to deal with it. It's the reason I had to give up on Sleeping Dogs, I just couldn't handle doing the combos quick enough.

Unfortunately, reviews at IGN and Gamespot were decidedly mediocre. Both said the storyline is interesting and the writing is great, but the action parts of the game are weak. The resource collecting in particular sounds tedious. I might pick it up at some point, but unless people here have a much different opinion, I’ll hold off until it’s deeply discounted.

Ralph-Wiggum wrote: ↑Thu Sep 20, 2018 4:53 pm Both said the storyline is interesting and the writing is great, but the action parts of the game are weak. The resource collecting in particular sounds tedious.

I think a modern reviewer could reasonably claim the same about SC2, so probably not an issue for me. Probably won't take very many Youtube videos to erode any willpower I have to resist at any rate.

Was watching a streamer in a planet. Just driving around running over resources. I got tired of waiting no them to go back to space. I wish it was more involved like the old genesis Starflight mining was. Scanners and digging. But it is what it is.

Since I cant afford it right now Im wondering if I should play SC2 or Ur Quan Masters version of SC2? Is there a difference worth bothering with?

Daehawk wrote: ↑Thu Sep 20, 2018 5:02 pm Since I cant afford it right now Im wondering if I should play SC2 or Ur Quan Masters version of SC2? Is there a difference worth bothering with?

Ur-quan Masters for sure.

The original surface mini-game wasn't very involved either - just driving around and gathering resources (and randomly getting nailed by lightning bolts/earthquakes and hoping you could mash the space bar fast enough to get out before the lander blew up). Sometimes, you'd shoot bio critters and haul them back up to the ship. Very rarely you'd encounter energy signatures for a special conversation, but it was pretty rare.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Thu Sep 20, 2018 5:02 pm Since I cant afford it right now Im wondering if I should play SC2 or Ur Quan Masters version of SC2? Is there a difference worth bothering with?

Both are perfectly fine, but here's all the differences between the 2 versions (UQM is based on the old 3DO version of SC2):
http://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/Version_Comparison

TL;DR: UQM is probably the superior version, but there are a few tradeoffs.

Thank you. That will give me a good read on them and get me ready for SCO when I can get it

Daehawk wrote: ↑Thu Sep 20, 2018 5:02 pm Was watching a streamer in a planet. Just driving around running over resources. I got tired of waiting no them to go back to space. I wish it was more involved like the old genesis Starflight mining was. Scanners and digging. But it is what it is.

Since I cant afford it right now Im wondering if I should play SC2 or Ur Quan Masters version of SC2? Is there a difference worth bothering with?

So I dug up this web page that discusses Starflight mining. It seems to me like the things that are missing in SC are:
the sensor reading task - which I guess is a mouseclick, and the fact that you have to go out of your lander, go to the resource, dig to get the resource, and bring it back to the lander. Am I reading this right?

Just asking, since I never got to experience Starflight mining.

In the genesis version you could upgrade the scanner at base along with cargo space. Then on planets you scaned and it showed groupings of minerals underground. better scanners meant better and bigger deposits. you could dump what you didn't want and dig what you wanted or needed by running your lander around. There were also quakes and storms and animals. you found lost colonies and such too.

SC seems to have some of that. Maybe its just the cartoony little planets still bothering me. Maybe if I played it myself instead of watching ti played it would be different. SC2 didn't have a good planet mining minigame either.

Start at 8:15. You can also scan them from orbit and see what they are made of so you get an idea whats down there. I dont know. It just made me feel like buck Rogers or Kirk exploring a real planet . Big planets.

Paingod wrote: ↑Thu Sep 20, 2018 3:23 pm One negative review on Steam so far - for lack of subtitles. Everything else,

Who decides thumbs down based on subtitles? No wonder people get pissed about the steam's review system. Sure, no subs is a con. I personally turn subtitles on for every game I play. But I don't decide whether a game is good or not based on them.

That's asinine.