Planet design real or comical ? Harvesting ?

from Stardock Forums

When i was looking at the SCO trailer a while back, it seems that 2 different type of planets was used in the solar systems.

Real like planets and Comical type planets, now this was discussed very early in the forum and i recall most agreed that we'd like to keep it realistic, as comical planets don't mend well with a star control game, my question, will real like planets be used or comical planets ?

The problem i have with comical planets is that first it gives a feeling of not being realistic, it might work with other games but it won't feel right in star control, it is also a spolier as to what the planet might look like, part of the wonder of planets is to not knowing exactly what you would find until you are at it to scan it and land and discover the mysteries below, if you want to give a hint as to what it might look like just please keep the planet looking realistic, i want to see the clouds move on the planet, i want to see it's sky if not obscured in full by clouds, i want to see faint signs of lightning, i want to see surface texture as one does when looking at earth from space or mars, i want to see weather systems, as one does when looking at jupiter from space or saturn from it's north pole with it's mysterious looking hexagon storm. That's what makes it exciting, as one can play with this to create exotic but realistic worlds, types we aren't even aware of as the universe is so big.

Then harvesting, i don't know if i could grow on the way that harvesting was expressed in the trailer, it's more of a fpv feel and immediately reminded me of mario kart or something to that effect, i was not immersed into it at all, it felt comical like, i'd like it to more 3rd person view so the planets can be seen like on an rts game, ie a dune desert, or rocky planet feel as in cnc titles.

The rest of the game looked good so far well done, hope we can have a few mother ships to choose from.

Well done with the Aliens too, i liked what i've seen so far.

65,399 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from StarControl Forums Top

Will post my thoughts on planet after I take look at them again.

Regarding harvesting, I liked in SC2 discovering materials, what I did not enjoy was playing space cargo hauler. I would prefer that instead of harvesting materials when we discover them we mark the location for future expansion of humanity and are rewarded an amount of ingame currency(credits, spacebucks, whatever it will be called) which we can use to upgrade our ship. After all as humanity's first space ship that goes outside the solar system our primary objective will be exploration and diplomacy.

I would also prefer if resources were not floating glowing orbs or cubes but more realistically represented.

Reply #2 from StarControl Forums Top

I think exactly the opposite.  Cartoony planets might not work well with almost any game, but are perfect for Star Control.

Did we play the same game?  Where was the serious realism in Star Control?  It was the sci-fi adventure cartoon, that was what made it so unique.  Only the planets had a "realistic" look in Star Control, and only because in the graphics they were working with at the time it made sense to have to realistic planets to "anchor" the cartoon to reality. 

Today they can just make the planets match the rest of the cartoon in space.

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Reply #3 from StarControl Forums Top

The planets are now tennis ball sized, so they could be a lot bigger but I'm a fan of the general style.

Not sure if it works well when you start discovering strange alien energy signatures on the planet. I think whatever is on the planet is visible too early if they keep the tennis ball size.

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

I'm not sure if I've seen the most recent trailer. Can someone link?

Star Control was able to blend serious and silly in the most perfect way. I'm not sure if it could be recaptured. A lot of it depends on how open we are to it.

The fact is that we won't be the same kind of people when we revisit Star Control. When we first saw it, we were probably like, "What's this? Do I even like this? This is kinda cool. That's interesting..." And it grew on us. If we go into the new game with the attitude of, "Is this perfect or not?" We won't appreciate it. Let's just have fun with the new game and enjoy it.

 

 

Reply #5 from StarControl Forums Top

Is this the latest one?

I'd like only to cover the planet's features with the atmospere until you enter scanning screen.

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

Star control 2 had a lot in common with realism, that's part of what gave it depth, wonder and excitement, yes of course there was comical aspects ,most notably the aliens, but the rest was very much inline with realism, i don't want to play in a comic world with comic planets.

i don't mind the aliens being what they are, it's perfect, and what they have done so far with the aliens is also perfect ! I Love the ships.

HOWEVER, one thing that set star control apart from any other game ever, was the ability to relate to what it might feel like to leave our solar system in real life and see a planet that might very much be real, feel real.

And explore planets based on scientific data of what is out there ! That realism cannot be beaten in any other form ! You could add a lot of comical factors wrt aliens in it but NOT the planets, NOT the universe,hyperspace,the fundamental laws of physics and gravity in the game, the vastness of space.

If you turn it all upside down into a full blown comical reality, that will not capture the wonder of star control and it would indeed alienate the game by far from SC2 and it's winning formula.

I'm not saying SC2 was absolute realism, but let met tell you in terms of everything else excluding the aliens (even the aliens felt so real dealing and talking with them) it felt as real as it can be, and to THIS day, there still has not been any game to match the surreal experience of being in Real space, exploring Real planets. I'm not talking rts space games i'm talking Star Control's very unique Genre, being in space exploring the universe, the amount of freedom, the dangers and rewards that comes with decisions, that no one ever recreated, bettered or matched.

Think magnetars,super earths, hot jupiters,moons such as Titan, Io, that's just a drop to mention in our own little solar system, look at this: There are literally millions of variants out there.

Black Holes, Quasars ! ! Massive Stars. Binary Star Systems, Binary planet systems,

Fire worlds, Ice worlds, Tidally locked planets, Stormy planets with winds over a 1000mph and even planets with winds much greater than that, Rocky planets, water planets, If you look at only mars alone, it has a mountain more than twice the size of everest and a canyon that makes earth's grand canyon look like a walk on the beach, below some good inspiration, the finer details when entering a system seeing planets like these below would be beyond inspiring ! These are a drop in the ocean of what's out there ! ! ! So they could play with physics and create all sorts of exotic worlds in SC2 the developers have so much they can work with ! !

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/wMVD6IKrDqs/maxresdefault.jpg

And these:

https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/images/718518main_loresworm.jpg

https://cdn.spacetelescope.org/archives/images/screen/heic0612c.jpg

 

Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top

And look at this awesome planet based on real scientific data.

I mean... Just WOW:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/90/40/3d/90403db19ca4559a637169c6b91703f7.jpg

Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top

More Awesome Planets !

https://best-wallpaper.net/Cold-and-hot-planet_1440x900.html

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eOCWwyvbsfk/VqA3yLZsHsI/AAAAAAAAkT0/2NGy4rpVhUA/s1600/UFO%252C%2BUFOs%252C%2Bsighting%252C%2Bsightings%252C%2BW56%252C%2Barea%2B51%252C%2Barea%2Bs4%252C%2Blazar%252C%2Bbob%252C%2Bhackers%252C%2BCIA%252C%2Bagent%252C%2Borb%252C%2Bplanet%2Bx%252C%2Blake%252C%2Bmap%252C%2BUFO%252C%2BUFOs%252C%2B%2BPM.jpg

https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width_feature/public/exomoons.png?itok=b2lhmkJN

http://nimg.sulekha.com/business/original700/earth-like-planets-2010-1-7-15-45-52.jpg

 http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JgPbUWcRkbs/VjjAWeAf98I/AAAAAAAAGOQ/RidM6Zn6qfo/s1600/earlier-this-year-a-team-of-scientists-estimated-that-about-45-billion-years-ago-at-least-one-fifth-of-mars-was-covered-in-an-ocean-more-than-450-feet-deep-any-signs-of-life-that-swam-in-these-waters-could-therefor.jpg

Do the planets right, and i'm hooked for life on this game !

Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top

I just revisited the video don't get me wrong it all looks good except the planets need to be all real, not just a few, then the planet on the surface does not look to bad, its good but it is not immersive, too little detail,
i felt somewhat disconnected, it should be more vast and have a feel of more realism and danger, i want to feel the weather see the lakes, i liked the valley to the left however more detail, one must think about, what would it feel like if we go to Titan at Saturn and actually stand on the surface, exploring it with a surface or air vehicle, the vast canyons the Lakes.

Then add some danger elements, landslip, quakes,  storms ! I want to see lander damage ! the gopro vision makes it feel small and everything went by so quick as if the planet was scouted entirely in just a few seconds. but the concept is very workable, just tweak it to perfection, keeping the planets real with added detail and danger and room to explore in more detail, a planet entry scene would look awesome.

Finally the physics, traveling to the planet seemed too easy, it should be like real space as in sc2, it seemed to be no challenge to get to the planet, the alien part was all perfect ! and the fright i got when a shipped suddenly came up to me well done.
It would be nice to have bars in the fuel meter and crew dots like in sc2.

Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top

Count me in for real type planets as well.  I am not a fan of bubbly cartoonish style.  I like most of the ships to leek realish as well.  I think non-realistic style lends itself to a younger demographic, and it is likely that most of the founders are not all that young.