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[Knightpt]

Hello all!

Nice to see independant developers making good stuff out there! I've come here after seeing a www.RPGwatch.com news and after checking a few videos and screenshots this game seems close to a fantabulastic old game called starcontrol2, at least in the combat portions.

Thing is, starcontrol2 was basicaly the BEST game i've played in my youth and i'm overly excited about your new game now in development seems to close to it.


I wanted to know though, do you plan on making the story engaging and important in the game or mainly focussing in combat/action oriented fun ?

One of the things that was amazing in starcontrol2 was the epicly diferent races and the relations between them, i was wondering if i could expect anything like that in your game or you are focussing only on action/strategy-oriented game with little story.


THanks all and good luck on your projects, i firmly respect people like you.

[Ivaylo]

Greets.


I humbly submit this for your reading pleasure: http://fractalsoftworks.com/2011/02/21/the-state-of-affairs/


Also, my title right now is "Loremaster."  Just sayin'

[Alex]

Thing is, starcontrol2 was basicaly the BEST game i've played in my youth and i'm overly excited about your new game now in development seems to close to it.

Hi there!

Just wanted to say that I'm a huge fan of Star Control 1 & 2 (not 3, though!) and they're both a big influence and inspiration.

As far as the story, I think we're creating an interesting world with a backstory that's important to the gameplay - but the game itself won't be story-driven, and will instead focus on open-world exploration and building up your character/fleet/holdings/etc. It's definitely not all action & combat oriented, though that's easy to miss now because that's all you see in the alpha.

[theShadow]

Escape Velocity NOVA was an open world sandbox game, that was also story driven. (through text dialogues)

would there be any kind of story line implemented in a similar manner?

[Alex]

Escape Velocity NOVA was an open world sandbox game, that was also story driven. (through text dialogues)

Those are really two separate elements of the same game. You can't say that the sandbox was story driven (what does that even mean?), but rather you had the sandbox, and then you had some quest lines you could do inside said sandbox.

Our focus is on creating a world you can change in meaningful ways (and create your own story in the process), and that goes against having predetermined story arcs.

[Darkreaver1980]

Im glad that there will be no story. I realy dont like story games cos its hella boring once you know the story. If i want a good story, i watch a movie

i rather have a randomly generated world/galaxy where im able to do anything i want, to make my own story

[Avan]

Sandboxing really works well for this game >:3
Especially given the potential to make your own empire & whatnot.

[Knightpt]

Heya.

I probably didnt express myself well since english is not my primary language Sorry.

I wasnt asking so much about a story that has a beggining, progression and ending but more about having multiple races/factions, each one with its own agenda, problems, reputation, politics, etc.


In Starcontrol2 we had diferent races with its own ships, religion, politics, social structure, alliances and enemies, etc. Its what makes the "universe" rich and unpredictable.


I read the prologue/background story to this game and i found it very interesting!

My primary concern about this game is that being it a "sandbox" universe, it gets dull after a time because there is not a storyline that drives it forward in therms of a definite objective. This happened in a lot of strategy games that the only goal is "beat everyone".

A good example of a strategy game with a very good final objective is civilization series where you can win the game by "building a shapeship first of everyone, thousands of years later". In starcontrol2 would be "beat the big guys who are terrifying the universe". (this are just 2 examples)

Sandbox games are fun if well made but sooner or later it gets dull if the only purpose is just "get another city/planet".


Dunno if i'm delivering the idea clearly? lol. Sandbox gamming is awesome in the beggining, but needs a slight "motivation" factor that we are working towards a final goal even if that goal is very very very time-consuming to reach and we can even continue the sandbox experience afterwards.

[Avan]

So you're asking if there is gameplay-relevant backstory?
I'm presuming so.

[Alex]

Hmm. I think what you're saying is that a bare-bones sandbox that relies purely on gameplay mechanics without much content or goals to strive towards can lose its luster quickly. If that's the case, then I agree

Just as an example, one long-term goal is to keep the sector from completely decivilizing. A different take on that goal might be to hasten the process (to your benefit, of course), while keeping a part of it untouched.

[Avan]

bringing it down... so you can be there to pick up the pieces.
rich (and relevant!) backstory is always a plus (which is sort of why I made TSB (originally Transcendence Extended) for Transcendence in the first place, and then proceeded to go completely overboard & basically make a giant expanded universe)

[Blips]

Allowing the player to forge their own story as they play through the sandbox experience is all that is needed. As long as there are a variety of options available to the player (building fleets, research, alliances / war, politics, etc) then the game will not only be very enjoyable but superior to a story driven experience due to the replay value inherited from a sandbox, sim styled game.

[Trylobot]

That clenches it. I'm going to contact the current franchise owner of Star Control and ask for permission to use their ships in a user created mod for Starfarer. Something tells me not everyone's as awesome as Cliff about it, though. But hey can't hurt to try!

[Alex]

That clenches it. I'm going to contact the current franchise owner of Star Control and ask for permission to use their ships in a user created mod for Starfarer. Something tells me not everyone's as awesome as Cliff about it, though. But hey can't hurt to try!

Oh. my. god. This needs to happen.

Btw, I think the licensing issues ought to be much easier here - since Ur-Quan Masters is using the art (or at least the same ship designs). And SC2 was open-sourced, at least partially, at some point. I don't know the details, though.

[Trylobot]

That's good news. I remember Ur-Quan Masters open sourced now that you mention it; I even played it and had it installed on my computer at some point in the recent past, I just forgot. So yay there!

An aside: I'm seriously the biggest Star Control nerd around. My uncle played Star Control for Sega Genesis with me, showed me the tricks of ship vs ship combat, and strategy of taking and holding territory in its primitive campaign-ish mode. For instance, how to engage a Dreadnought using an Earthling Cruiser without taking a single hit, or how to dominate a Chenjesu Broodhome with nothing but a single Shofixti Scout, without using the Glory device. Some of my fondest memories of when I was younger is playing that game. That and Starflight. And Road Rash 3. Haha.

Some ships in Star Control will be easier to implement in Starfarer than others, so a potential mod would start with a subset of ships.

Normally I would put the following under Suggestions, or even Modding, but I think this thread is actually most appropriate. However feel free to move it if you like. Here is a list of features not currently in Starfarer, required for a faithful "Star Control: The Ur-Quan Masters" mod (a mod that I will totally, absolutely make).

• Tractor Beam (Chmmr Avatar)
  
• Cloaking Device (Ilwrath Avenger) [already suggested]
• Remote Detonation Bomb (Chenjesu Broodhome) - this may require further explanation; you would hold the fire button down to launch a dumb-fire projectile, and then release to detonate. Custom graphics for projectile explosions would also be ideal.
• Docked Fighters (Ur-Quan Dreadnought) - would allow you deploy a ship that has flight decks with an already-docked wing of fighters by somehow combining them on the deployment dialog. Then, there would have to be a list for each carrier of what fighter wings are docked, so that they can be launched on command. Preferably with a hotkey like "L" or maybe "T".
• Teleportation (Umgah Drone, Arilou Skiff) [already suggested] - the Drone would teleport a predefined distance backwards and brought to a full-stop, the Skiff would teleport in a random direction away within a certain (large) radius.
• Resurrection (Pkunk Fury) - possible with plugin - required event: OnShipDisabled
• Insults (Pkunk Fury) - this one may be tough - dissipates flux when key is pressed, plays random sound from a subset, ship has no flux dissipation by default.
• Transformation (Androsynth Guardian, Mmrnmhrm X-Form) - would allow ship to use a different *.variant and *.ship on the fly, with an optional forced duration or un-transform hotkey. The Guardian would transform to a very low mass, high speed comet with a melee weapon. The X-form would of course transform to its high-speed mode. This would be an exceptially complicated engine addition as it would require foreknowledge of possible transformations to be defined in the ship-variant data and pre-loading of all transformable ships
• Missiles that stick to target ship and slow it down (Vux Intruder)
• Negative Flux Impact Multiplier (Utwig Jugger) - would allow for shield impacts to dissipate flux instead of generate it.
• Mines (Ur-Quan Kohr-Ah Marauder)
• Hull-Strength Sapping Weapons (Druuge Mauler)
• Hull-Strength Auto-Repair (Druuge Mauler)
• Missiles that stick to target ship and drain health (Orz Nemesis)
• Area of effect weapon type (Syreen Penetrator)
• Weapon impact causes aggressor to gain health (Syreen Penetrator)
• Asteroid Impact causes ship to dissipate flux, and no impact force (Slylandro Probe)
• Self Destruct (Shofixti Scout)
• Afterburner (Thraddash Torch) - would also have to lay a mine for the fire trail effect, not sure how that would work, but possibly with plugin

The mod would add a couple of missions, to simulate the Melee types of the older games:
- Alliance of Free Stars (player) vs. Hegemonic Crux (AI)
- Hegemonic Crux (player) vs. Alliance of Free Stars (AI)
- Totality vs. Totality
- Single ship (Random, all) vs. Single ship (Random, all)
all of which are already supported via your Java Mission Plugin API, which is fantastic. Even the old planetary gravity system is supported by your game, and Asteroids! This could seriously be a massive win.

Almost all of these mod changes could be done through plugins, if there were an event system I could hook into. I am a coder and would totally write the necessary mod code if you expose the API. A couple would definitely need engine enhancements. Not sure how much time you would want to spend on this as it would distract quite a bit from the main Starfarer development.

But, there you go.

I'll most definitely start on this and see what I can create in the vein of "similar to Star Control, but not totally faithful, yet still totally cool and fun" vein using art and sound from the sourceforge project.