The new Star Control thread

[Frogboy]

Greetings!

Brad "Frogboy" from Stardock here. I wanted to give you guys a status report on what's happening with the new Star Control game and Star Control in general that I think you guys are going to like.

First, Stardock plans to actively support the classic Star Control games (1/2 and yes even 3). However, only the continuity created by Paul Reiche and Fred Ford (SC 1/2) will be treated as canon.

What that means is that on StarControl.com next year we're going to be actively promoting and trying to help projects in the classic continuity (which we're tentatively calling the Ur-Quan continuity). Specifically the Ur-Quan Masters and Project 6014. What we hope to do (and it'll happen gradually as there's a lot for our teams to take in) is provide logistical support for these teams.

Secondly, production of the new Star Control game will start this Winter. It's going to use the new Nitrous engine that can do amazing visuals and is being led by a team of industry veterans (mostly from Firaxis and Big Huge Games). The team is very familiar with the Ur-Quan universe to the point where we were debating the dangers of "looking up" as related to the Androsynth.

However, that said, the new Star Control game is going to have a different continuity. We've been talking at length with Paul and Fred and Toys for Bob is now owned by Activision so they wouldn't be able to officially work on a new Star Control game. Since we believe that Paul and Fred determine what is canon in the Ur-Quan continuity, it would be pretty hypocritical for us to create a new Star Control without their official involvement and try to claim what we do is canon.

I know there are people out there that do like Star Control 3. However, at the end of the day, we have to ultimately decide what IS the officially recognized game universe (as far as the publisher is concerned) and we've decided that only the events of Star Control 1/2 count and that distinction is based on Paul and Fred's official involvement in those. I hope people understand we didn't come to that conclusion lightly.

The good news is that this allow the Star Control Ur-Quan continuity to continue to be enjoyed in its classic state without worrying about a latter day developer coming in and changing things.

Now, that said, we also have a tremendous opportunity here because we're all Star Control fanatics and we have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to work with the community to create a new continuity.

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.

And finally, early next year we're going to set up a private forum for active members (those who have been part of keeping Star Control alive all these years) so that they'll have direct access to us. This will also include a Skype channel.

Anyway, I know this is a lot to take in. And to be honest, I'm still in the process of learning the ins and outs of the Star Control community so please be patient with any unintentional incompetence.

[Dyandod]

This is incredible news! Thank you so much Frogboy, for putting so much thought and work into this.

[oldlaptop]

I know there are people out there that do like Star Control 3. However, at the end of the day, we have to ultimately decide what IS the officially recognized game universe (as far as the publisher is concerned) and we've decided that only the events of Star Control 1/2 count and that distinction is based on Paul and Fred's official involvement in those. I hope people understand we didn't come to that conclusion lightly.

Excellent news!

[Alvarin]

What a shame Fred and Paul are out... Why shouldn't there be aliens from "canon" continuity? Things could be different with something else happening in the ancient era, but if Earthlings are in, so might be other guys. They could (should?) be different, no black/green 'Quans, but brown, Arilou can be in, as concerned with other outers like Orz as in SC1/2. Utwig can be a great race, not hindered by the Ultron and so on.

[Frogboy]

What a shame Fred and Paul are out... Why shouldn't there be aliens from "canon" continuity? Things could be different with something else happening in the ancient era, but if Earthlings are in, so might be other guys. They could (should?) be different, no black/green 'Quans, but brown, Arilou can be in, as concerned with other outers like Orz as in SC1/2. Utwig can be a great race, not hindered by the Ultron and so on.

We've had much the same discussion and I wish I could give you an answer that is objective but this is something that is subjective. I know how I'd feel if someone was altering the history of the Galactic Civilizations universe.

We just wouldn't feel right defining what is canon in a universe that Paul and Fred have put a lot of their life into. It's kind of like the idea of someone making a new Lord of the Rings book.

I think it also gives us an opportunity to create a new history that we make together.

If you have people who are entrenched in Star Control lore, there's a lot of interesting directions we can go to without feeling guilty about retconning why the Ur-Quan are the way they are or how the Spathi got to where they are.

I've seen some of the races for the new Star Control and they are really awesome. And once you guys start to play it, you'll see why it's such a tough thing because the abilities we can give to the ships (thanks to modern tech) mean much expanded game mechanics.

[Shiver]

So... new cast, same formula? I think that's for the best. Will be interesting to see how this game starts to shape up.

[Maloo Oture]

Greetings!

Brad "Frogboy" from Stardock here. I wanted to give you guys a status report on what's happening with the new Star Control game and Star Control in general that I think you guys are going to like.

First, Stardock plans to actively support the classic Star Control games (1/2 and yes even 3). However, only the continuity created by Paul Reiche and Fred Ford (SC 1/2) will be treated as canon.

What that means is that on StarControl.com next year we're going to be actively promoting and trying to help projects in the classic continuity (which we're tentatively calling the Ur-Quan continuity). Specifically the Ur-Quan Masters and Project 6014. What we hope to do (and it'll happen gradually as there's a lot for our teams to take in) is provide logistical support for these teams.

Secondly, production of the new Star Control game will start this Winter. It's going to use the new Nitrous engine that can do amazing visuals and is being led by a team of industry veterans (mostly from Firaxis and Big Huge Games). The team is very familiar with the Ur-Quan universe to the point where we were debating the dangers of "looking up" as related to the Androsynth.

However, that said, the new Star Control game is going to have a different continuity. We've been talking at length with Paul and Fred and Toys for Bob is now owned by Activision so they wouldn't be able to officially work on a new Star Control game. Since we believe that Paul and Fred determine what is canon in the Ur-Quan continuity, it would be pretty hypocritical for us to create a new Star Control without their official involvement and try to claim what we do is canon.

I know there are people out there that do like Star Control 3. However, at the end of the day, we have to ultimately decide what IS the officially recognized game universe (as far as the publisher is concerned) and we've decided that only the events of Star Control 1/2 count and that distinction is based on Paul and Fred's official involvement in those. I hope people understand we didn't come to that conclusion lightly.

The good news is that this allow the Star Control Ur-Quan continuity to continue to be enjoyed in its classic state without worrying about a latter day developer coming in and changing things.

Now, that said, we also have a tremendous opportunity here because we're all Star Control fanatics and we have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to work with the community to create a new continuity.

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.

And finally, early next year we're going to set up a private forum for active members (those who have been part of keeping Star Control alive all these years) so that they'll have direct access to us. This will also include a Skype channel.

Anyway, I know this is a lot to take in. And to be honest, I'm still in the process of learning the ins and outs of the Star Control community so please be patient with any unintentional incompetence.

Wow, I'm so glad to hear all of this! I think I speak for everyone when I say that we appreciate the updates! So many game developers these days seem to keep the community out of the loop! Great news!

[Tiberian]

What about the Sentient Milieu races? How long ago did they exist?

And I'd say that the Slylandro could have been around 250 000 years ago already. They even mention that the Precursors had visited them.

[Angelfish]

250000 years ago, that means no humans. You have to create a strong universe around those ortog-cows to make it interesting .

[Frogboy]

The current plan is that the game would start in 2112. It's just that the split between the Ur-Quan continuity and the new one would be the result of something that happened 250,000 years ago.

As for the Sentient Milieu, that was 25,000 years ago (Drall, Faz, Ur-Quan, etc.). So it's safe to safe that everything that happened after the "Shaggy Ones" vanished.

Where the fun will really get going is that because we have a clean slate on the alien side, we (as in us and you guys) can brain storm with the benefit of 30 years of Star Control knowledge on what kinds of ships, aliens and abilities we want.

For instance, one idea we're playing with is each race having its own NPCs that join them in Super-Melee. So beyond a ship's primary, secondary and tertiary abilities, you would also want to choose your battles based on the types of NPCs that come into the battle as well (these are ships you don't control but behave in a specific way). So if a race had kamikaze NPCs, you'd want to have NPCs to counter that (as just an off the top of my head example).

Similarly, how different species deal with different planets can make for very interesting gameplay. If you've played FTL (recent example) you have seen how having difference species on your ship affects the choices you get.