Dear Paul & Fred

[Axemaster]

While TFB is working on something else, we would like to let
Paul and the team know Exactly what we want in the Next Star Control Release so that when they start making it they can use this
to remind them what made Star Control 2 undeniably interesting and truly unique.

Feel free to add your input below if needed:

( I will quote a question by Paul during the IRC chat)

This is what we consider essential for the next release.:

(regarding story mode)

First of all, the Gameplay, Mood (including visuals and sound) should presevere. What made SC2 unique is you were in control of your ship at all times, visual awareness (you know where you are in a given planetary system, and where alien ships is, as well as where the other planets are and where intergalactic space is and you could do with your ship what you want and go where you want at any time.

Of Course Melee is also just perfect as is, keep it that way,
The mood must feel the same, meaning how you would build the next SC world and how everything looked and worked should Not take away the original feel and experience of SC2.

Paul asked what would we like to see more (refering to the IRC chat):

"Story vs Melee" (PR3)

1. There Must be A story element combined with Melee and a Stand alone Melee. Just like in Star Control 2. The 2 combined created the spark which made us return each time for more.

2. Hyperspace is truly essential, the experience of travelling through space to a destination never explored before and arriving at the destined planetary system, surprized by what planets and race you might find is part of what true adventure is. SC2 made the overall experience very intriguing and unique, the reddish overlay (setting the mood for hyperspeed/space travel), the ship travelling, the stars shooting past as you speed ahead in warp drive, the element of being surprized by un-intended visitors added to the excitement. And of Course the Music as you travelled, all made the experience irresistable.

3. Characters, Keep the seriousness, keep the Humor, i guess what i'm saying is keep the diversity (We enjoyed conversing with each and every race! And we went back for more!)

4. Mineral harvesting: now this is another unique and interesting feature, scanning the planet for resources and weather good feature keep it. It sets the mood just right before sending down a pod.

Then harvesting itself was exciting for one must always try to avoid the dangers of a given planet, it felt like you were truly exploring the planet. And the sounds and effects got the adrenelin going!
You don't have anything like this in any of today's titles.

In Fact you don't have anything creating such an exciting experience like the overal brilliance put into Star Control. (RTS is all the same, FPS is all the same, everything today is all the same...)

Star Control will fill the market in a unique way, a market that is starved and reaching out for the Warriors of TFB to release their brilliance upon the gaming community!

Then things like Getting Fuel at your homebase and maybe buy fuel through some deals like SC2 worked.
It really felt like you were actually exploring the universe and that you can run out of fuel if you don't plan right.

Upgrading of ships essential.
We would like to keep the same ships because they look and work so well however we would like to see new ones, this a tough one.

Add: Planets rotating, make the planets slightly bigger with more detail, maybe with weather effects (when seeing it on approach by the mothership) and sounds as you get nearer to them.

The above is Core things that must be retained in the next episode.

A few surprizes would be nice, and changes not effecting the above would be welcomed!

[Draxas]

So... "please re-release SC2 with a new story, some new ships and a few other minor improvements"? YMMV indeed.

If a sequel is ever going to be made, I trust the guys at TFB so implicitly that I don't think sending them suggestions for the game is necessary.

[cymon]

Hmm. Okay, I'll join in. Here's the must list:

• Keep the game in 2D, even if the graphics are in 3D. In fact that's be great. 3D graphics with a 2D playing field, I'm okay with that. Play with different viewing angles.
• Keep the graphics bright and visible. Please resist the urge to make it "dark" and "realistic".
• Give yourself the time to make it proper.
• As long as you guys are doing the writing, I'm okay with about anything.
• Do something new. Surprise me.

Things I'd like to see.

• I'd love the see the game be a series of full-games-like rounds like in Star Control 1. Only when you encounter a ship you go to the conversation screen.
• I want to see below. Discover what the Orz gestalt really is. Love if that was the big badguy in the end.
• Do you need anyone to consult for writing? I've got pages I wrote years ago if you want them. No, bad idea. nevermind.

[Death 999]

If a sequel is ever going to be made, I trust the guys at TFB so implicitly that I don't think sending them suggestions for the game is necessary.

QFT. They know what they doing. For great justice.

[Eth]

[*]Keep the graphics bright and visible. Please resist the urge to make it "dark" and "realistic".

QFT. The colorful graphics went a long way toward establishing the game's mood, I think. Some of the ships (Cmmr, Kohr-Ah, etc.) where relatively colorless, while others were very colorful. The ships were generally very iconic and readable.

Traveling through hyperspace and gathering resources were both rather tedious, and should probably be eliminated in a new Star Control game in favor of something more interesting, IMO.

[Axemaster]

"Traveling through hyperspace and gathering resources were both rather tedious, and should probably be eliminated in a new Star Control game in favor of something more interesting"

I rather liked the effect and atmosphere hyperspace created as is, killing it in SC3 killed most of the game hands down. Having your ship travel through space was very realistic and convincing, and should not be changed whatsoever, just upgraded with todays technology.

Same goes for the resources that was gathered, It is unique and pretty much as close as realistic as can be without making it
un-enjoyable and over complex.

If you can bring on something more intriguing than that concept well, it will have to be extremely well thought out, extremely good and really suck you into the overall experience to make
me buy it. But fact is that's how you travel through space, you have a ship that is moving through time and space, taking time using up fuel.

The random encounters with aliens made it interesting as some you could not escape, the sound, the stars speeding by. It was all awesome. The feeling reaching a distant galaxy far out after all that travel was priceless. Always wondering what type of planets one would find when reaching it, what secrets does it behold, what will i discover on the planets. Will there be an undisovered race, that is
one of the biggest exploration factors of mankind today.

In Life, it is hardwired into us as humans, we want to reach out to see what and who we can find, it is the ultimate quest in mankind. Putting it all into a game and bringing to reality was priceless.

And yet they try to tell me that Star Control won't sell.
So let me tell them yet again, It WILL, beyond expectations!

[Death 999]

I'd say that hyperspace travel was unbearably tedious without full thrusters. So, whatever you start out with in a sequel, it should not crawl. As I'm sure they've learned by now (with, of course, room for carefully crafted exceptions).

[cymon]

Traveling through hyperspace and gathering resources were both rather tedious, and should probably be eliminated in a new Star Control game in favor of something more interesting, IMO.

No more tedious than leveling up in a cRPG, which in a very real way SC2 was. If you don't believe that think about it. Random monster encounters. Customizable main character ship. Focus on exploration and leveling up resource gathering. The big difference from the traditional cRPG formula is that in SC2 combat wasn't turn based, it was awesome based.

Which is why I would shed no tears if the decision was made to make a new sequel cRPG-like. I would like it to be, like I said above, "a series of full-games-like rounds like in Star Control 1." But I would not be sad them making another Space cRPG.

[Eth]

No more tedious than leveling up in a cRPG,

The fact that the two types of game share the same flaw doesn't mean it isn't a flaw. Grinding is tedious. I play games to have fun. Were there any scenes in Star Wars with people sitting around looking out the window while they traveled in hyperspace? Was there an extended code-writing scene at the beginning of Tron? How about dozens of shitting-in-the-woods scenes in LotR? Nope. These scenes are repetitive, with low interactivity, and do not further the plot. I always end up shooting for the Quasispace drive and Rainbow Worlds as soon as possible when I play UQM in order to circumvent as much of that tedium as possible. If NewSC is anything along the same lines as SC2, I could do without those aspects in favor of something new.

[Alvarin]

I don't know... I really disliked the way you "teleported" from star to star in SC3, I would like to see some manual navigating at least in the sequel. In addition, at least SOME resource gathering is nice. Somewhere I have seen and liked the idea of gathering different kinds of resources for ship building and such. Like in Starflight.