Kavik_Kang Kavik_Kang

Thoughts on Star Control II

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Thoughts on Star Control II

from StarControl Forums

I spent last week playing SC2, since I hadn't played it in almost 25 years.  Here are some of my thoughts after playing the original again...

 

1) I agree with people saying they don't want to see timed quests.  My game ultimately went very badly when for some reason the Khor Ah went on a rampage and moved around the map wiping out a lot of races whose quests I hadn't done yet.  I like to see changes on the star map, races occasionally moving and stuff, but this isn't the kind of game where you should "lose" and have to start over if you want to finish it.  Its too long of a game for that, and too repetitive to have to repeat a text adventure game.  The game should be "hold your hand easy" at the adventure game level in terms of giving you all the time in the world to explore if that is what you want to do.  I think I spent too much time exploring and the game just passed me by and basically ended on me.

2) The point of the Sylandro probes was to create occasional space combat in the early game before you had met enough races to be regularly encountering them.  This was a good idea and you should have something like this in your game.  Monsters could fill this role, or some type or "race" like the Sylandro.

3) SC2 space combat is very, very hard by todays standards.  You are almost forced to use the command ship.  I mostly used the Spathi because they can beat almost any of the other ships, but the matchups are not good for the player in the early game and most players would be forced into using the command ship most of the time.  I think it would be a lot more fun if the ships the player carries are more useful and the player actually wants to use them because they can win with them.  Then there is a whole strategy behind what ships to carry based on what enemies you think you might meet.  I actually think the design of the game should discourage use of the mothership and encourage use of the "satellite ships".

4) The new game should definitely track which systems and individual planets you have visited.

5) Most of your play time is actually spent in the lander, making this part of the game as fun as possible will go a long way towards making a great game.

 

Those are the things that stood out too me the most in re-playing the game.

35,147 views 31 replies
Reply #26 from StarControl Forums Top

On the other end of the spectrum, I'd like to see more "boss ships" in the new SC.  In the original there is only the fight against the Sa-Matra.  It would be nice if there were at least 3 or 4 fights against "boss ships" instead of just one.  These fights would be balanced so that you will probably lose most of your fleet taking it out,  They don't all have to be ships.  There could be a fight with a starbase present where the starbase would serve as the "boss ship" in that fight.  "Boss ships" would generally be things that are large and get destroyed in sections.  Like a starbase might have 6 sections, each of which is destroyed independently so it gets weaker as you destroy parts of it, and then is destroyed with it's last section.

A more complex version of a "boss fight" would be a "defended star system".  With minefields, planets that have defense sattelites, a battlesstation (think half of a starbase) or maybe even up to 3 battlestations, a few defending ships and the player needs to pick apart the defenses of the star system.

It would be nice to have a few "boss fights" like these over the course of the game.

Reply #27 from StarControl Forums Top

1)  I personally am not a fan of timed quests, at least when the quests were tightly timed, it still could be possible to "trigger" the event by doing something, such as using the sun device on the Chmmr home world or something like that.

2) I liked and disliked the probes, once you figured out how to beat them they became a steady source of income, perhaps an option to turn them off, but I did like the discovery of where they come from.

3) I like the harder combat, in as much as it was a driving force to make you explore and upgrade your ship, I do agree with basic ship redesigns to allow for multiple styles of play.  But it is also fun using the command ship to wipe away enemy fleets when it is fully upgraded, I also believe that style of play can be fun for players, there is no reason the game cannot do both.

4) I also agree with a way to have stats on what planets have been visited.

5) Flying the lander from a first person prospective would be cool.

Another thing that has been mentioned is a living universe, random events (similar in style to events that occur in Masters of Orion 2) might be an interesting add, races fighting gaining territory, losing territory, uprisings from slaves all could add an interesting twist to the game.

 

 

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Reply #28 from StarControl Forums Top

I think more boss and unique ships are a cool idea. My ship gets to be customized with personality - why shouldn't I run into other personalized ships out there? Battle fleet leaders? Smuggling ships with unexpected abilities? Pirates with bigger than sustainable cannons strapped on? I think I saw another thread that looked like it talked about this, I'll see what people are saying there. 

Reply #29 from StarControl Forums Top

One of my most favorit factors of SC2 was the flagship. The ability to upgrade it through trading with the Melnorme gaining new capabilities was awesome. It was so much fun when it was fully upgraded to go and fight vux, and just blast them out of the sky. Sure it was OP, but in order to get to that point, you had to gather loads of bio units, and in the end it wasn't until the end that I got my ship up to battle specs.

Another thing, SCR should have a lot of unique decisions that, once made, are irreversible. Like if there are two races locked in deadly combat, you can help one, or the other, and based on what you do the game is changed forever. A multitude of such choices would change the face of the game immensely. It would make me want to play it again and again because, "what if I did that instead of what I did last time?" The capability for (non deadly) mistakes should also be factored in. Like if you end up helping the wrong side of a revolution, they turn on you at first opportunity, while the other side of that coin is they become invaluable allies. (Yhat revolution anyone?) 

All in all, the relationships between alien races was a huge factor of SC2 that made it great. Perhaps two of your allies are each other's enemies? Stuff like that.

Well, that's my two cents, take its worth as you wish, between that of a grain of salt or a sack of gold. 

Reply #30 from StarControl Forums Top

^ Or you can go on a longest journey to make them friends like Salarians and Krogan in ME.

Reply #31 from StarControl Forums Top

Timed quests have their place. I don't think they should be a game ender. Having less forces or less resources making it more difficult to complete is understandable.

The probes frankly sucked and the mission set and part of the story was best served as a side quest.

While I agree a bit with Kavik on not making battles too hard. I'm also of the opinion that, "Hey buddy, Space is a rough place to be." So if there could be a middle ground chosen in there it would work out well. I wouldn't make the enemies ships easier to kill, just harder to kill yours.  As you continue to have more fights with them they become more adept at your fighting style and are more dangerous to you. I hate having the ability to pull out my magic ship and blow away an enemy with ease. The races have to have a learning curve when dealing with you as well.