My Feedback [Part 1 of ??]

Published on Monday, February 20, 2017 By awetasticadventure In Founders Starbase

I have a day off, and that of course means putting off being an adult and doing those things people refer to as "responsibilities" (or as I feel a more accurate naming, crappy hate based trade offs for fun stuffs) and was able to finally go through a lot of the design notes that were presented. I did not have time to fully go through all of the forums, so I picked and chose some, so apologies if some of the questions/comments have been addressed.

First off, I was given SCII for the 3DO when it came out. Absolutely loved RPG's (Final Fantasy, Breath of Fire were the golden nectar that doth flow), but Star Control II introduced a gameplay that was the true reason I liked RPG's over other games. Exploration. SCII to me was less about the melee and making sure I got the plot done, for that I'd just power through getting my ship unstoppable, gather resources from murder sprees, and spend my time blindly exploring everything I could. I would stay up playing this game when people went to bed, and was still playing when they woke up. Truly love this game series.

Sparing the public of the more intimate details of my time with SCII (don't judge, its 2017 and you need to let me be me) I wanted to throw in my feedback of what I've seen so far. I'll break things down into categories I personally find important, and in no particular order (as I'm likely (read definitely) working off stream of consciousness as I review the updates provided from THE VAULT.)

TL;DR Legend | [+] Positive Review | [-] Critique | [!?] Expectations/Questions/Comments |

First topic: Thank you!

I've been burned by alphas in the past, games that had no intent of ever coming out, etc (everyone has experienced these I think. So, thank you to the whole team working on this. Thank you for not only throwing us into this founders setup, but for soliciting feedback from people who have invested a lot (I dabbled briefly in the forums of UQM years back) into getting a revival of this series going.

Aliens

[+] I really enjoy that not all aliens are bipedal humanoids. One aspect I really enjoyed was that there were races that came from unsuspected forms of life: Supox, Mycon, Chmmr, etc. Makes the game feel more realistic, and adds complexity to the lore.
[+] Ship design looks great. I like a lot of outside the box thinking with the ships.

[+] Loving the design for the bio critters

[+] Jeff.
[!] I'd love to see this expanded on (regardless if in Phase I or xpac), not just the sentient races, but the critters as well. Bio information gathered for research etc.
[!] I'd also like to see race ships be upgradeable to a degree. For instance, upgrade human hips so they turn faster.

Exploration

[+] I like the fog of war with the map. It adds to the concept that humans haven't been this far really, and everything is new.

[-] Not a fan of the lander's weapon trajectory. I know it moves with the curve of the planet, but that can make aligning things difficult when hunting ... farming ... force adopting ... collecting specimens.

[!] Also, PLEASE do not have the weapon "destroy" the resources you can collect.

[!?] I'd still like to see some additional information. Gravity, rotation, revolution, etc. Is that accomplished through additional scanning, ala the 'scan' button below?

[-] I agree with @Hunam_ with how the lander should return. It's a minor thing ultimately, but it adds that bit of immersion into the game.

@Human_'s reply: https://forums.starcontrol.com/480090/page/1/#replies

Other

[+] I know this is likely concept art, but I really liked it. It gives it a narrative feel, like you're being told a story as opposed to experiencing it firsthand.

[?] Will the game have time sensitivity like SCII and SCIII? As in, will you need to complete the game by a certain 'date' in the game, or else you're murdered brutally?

This is all I have for the moment. Unfortunately I'm hunkered down in my own project work, so my time to fully delve into these forums is limited due to aforementioned "adulting". I intentionally left out ship building at the moment, which was one of my favorite things to do in SCII. I wanted to get a bit more time into looking it over before spewing out my soap box opinion.

Thank you again, for everyone working on this (both the team and the fanbase). A friend of mind recently mentioned SCII and SCIII are on GOG, and I went and grabbed them, went to look something up, and saw that this was being brought back to life (to the dismay of my room mates, as they are now subject to hearing just why the Orz language isn't as difficult to decipher as it seems, among other very opinionated views of the game)