Anyone? Its come out of early access today.
I can't even estimate how many hours I sank into Star Control 2.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/271260/Star_Control_Origins/ (https://store.steampowered.com/app/271260/Star_Control_Origins/)
I'm downloading it right now, but I doubt I'll have much time to play it.
this will be a must for me ... but not yet
Forking out for RTX2080 based PC next week :)
Quote from: FlickJax on September 21, 2018, 05:44:31 AM
this will be a must for me ... but not yet
Forking out for RTX2080 based PC next week :)
Wow! Let me know how you like that card! I have a 1080ti, so I'm not sure if it makes sense to upgrade.
Its comparable to your card but the 2080 ti is a step on again though :)
The 2080ti is godlike... and has a price tag to match.
I wonder if NVidia will start accepting kidneys as payment.
Quote from: FlickJax on September 21, 2018, 05:44:31 AM
Forking out for RTX2080 based PC next week :)
I don't think you need that system to be able to play Star Control >:D.
Quote from: Tpek on September 20, 2018, 03:42:29 PM
I'm downloading it right now, but I doubt I'll have much time to play it.
I bought it too but doubt I'll be able to give it a good playthrough until into October.
Quote from: Pete Dero on September 21, 2018, 07:38:52 AM
Quote from: FlickJax on September 21, 2018, 05:44:31 AM
Forking out for RTX2080 based PC next week :)
I don't think you need that system to be able to play Star Control >:D.
True but dont tell the wife she is having my old system :) I5 2.8GHz and Radeon RX480 8GB
This guy sort of likes it.
https://wccftech.com/review/star-control-origins/
Also seems to be part of another Stardock controversy...
So has anyone played yet?
Nope - I've got it on my 'watch' list though. On the face of it, it looks great, but I don't want to drop that much on it without waiting to see some more impressions and reviews.
There were too many negative reviews for me to jump on this, and even some of the positive reviews raised points that are of concern. I will get this, but it will be when it is on a modest sale.
i know some may not like cdkey, but available for $23
https://www.cdkeys.com/pc/games/star-control-origins-pc-steam-cd-key
Quote from: FlickJax on September 25, 2018, 04:44:23 AM
Quote from: FlickJax on September 24, 2018, 07:08:49 AM
So has anyone played yet?
Anyone?
There are currently 365 reviews on Steam and it has a Mostly Positive rating. You could read some of them, both good and bad, and get a feel for the game. There are also probably reviews up on Youtube by now.
Quote from: Geezer on September 25, 2018, 07:02:14 AM
Quote from: FlickJax on September 25, 2018, 04:44:23 AM
Quote from: FlickJax on September 24, 2018, 07:08:49 AM
So has anyone played yet?
Anyone?
There are currently 365 reviews on Steam and it has a Mostly Positive rating. You could read some of them, both good and bad, and get a feel for the game. There are also probably reviews up on Youtube by now.
A lot of people come here for trusted opinions. I like to think we give more reliable impressions than steam reviews on average. I'm sure Flick is aware there are external sources of review.
^Ditto. A good (or bad) word from the folks on here I trust is worth a hundred Steam reviews to me.
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on September 25, 2018, 07:12:03 AM
Quote from: Geezer on September 25, 2018, 07:02:14 AM
Quote from: FlickJax on September 25, 2018, 04:44:23 AM
Quote from: FlickJax on September 24, 2018, 07:08:49 AM
So has anyone played yet?
Anyone?
There are currently 365 reviews on Steam and it has a Mostly Positive rating. You could read some of them, both good and bad, and get a feel for the game. There are also probably reviews up on Youtube by now.
A lot of people come here for trusted opinions. I like to think we give more reliable impressions than steam reviews on average. I'm sure Flick is aware there are external sources of review.
Thanks Jar, I come on here because I trust these guys :)
Quote from: Steelgrave on September 25, 2018, 08:20:05 AM
^Ditto. A good (or bad) word from the folks on here I trust is worth a hundred Steam reviews to me.
+1 O0
Steam reviews are a difficult commodity, and not really all that reliable.
A review is trustworthy or not depending on what state the reviewer was in when writing it, and whether their taste is similar to your own.
Steam reviews have to be taken with one or more grains of salt, and since you don't usually know anything about the person writing it, the relevance of that review is often anybody's guess.
I bought it.
I'm not saying this is an issue for everyone but you should be aware that space combat / flight/ maneuvering is very old school arcade style.
Your ship gains acceleration and momentum from its rocket drive. To decelerate, you have to turn the ship's rear to the front and fire engines to slow down. Maneuvering is slow and you can hit planets and bounce off them. Not what I wanted or expected. Your ship's icon is bigger than the planet. If you like old-school space games and the arcade style, you might find this aspect fun. I didn't.
I'm not saying it's a bad thing, just...I was expecting something more realistic and I got cartoony sprites and cute celestial obstacles.
Its an expectation mismatch.
Also, before purchase on the STEAM page I saw it has a planet and universe creator / editor feature. I'd read a few STEAM reviews and was on the fence, but as a modder and creative content creator this was the feature that sold it for me.
After install it was the first thing I checked out. but these two features are not in the game yet, even though these features are listed.
I didn't have the game installed long enough to form any kind of opinion other than I hated the space combat and I felt cheated about the editing features. I got a refund after 11 minutes of play.
I might look at it again in future, but after the features are fully enabled and I can get over the arcade 80's combat.
Here's a STEAM review which appears well-constructed and objective. Most of this review's gripes can be fixed by the devs in future updates. I guess if they address them, they will have something that will please everyone.
ShaneRR
36.2 hrs on record
POSTED: 23 SEPTEMBER
tl;dr; A beautiful and very funny adventure which is drowning in grindy, under- or mis-developed mechanics. [Verdict: 2/5]
=========================================
I have bought the game myself and completed it.
Let's list all the positives first:
- Very good art direction overall. Graphics, animations, aliens: all are very well done and a joy to look at.
- Good story. Nothing super-original, but good enough with some minor twists and turns.
- Interesting lore: using the main and also side quests there is a lot background information which enriches the world of this game.
- Very funny!: Yes, the humor is a bit juvenile at times, but I really liked it. The single-mindedness of the alien races is very well done and is grounded within the story. Which means it's not only for show but has a reason to be there and puts a dark twist on the humor.
- Technically polished. I had no crashes, hardly any bugs (mainly some graphical glitches during interactions with aliens) and the performance is good enough. Though the loading times should be much shorter.
=========================================
Unfortunately there is also some very bad stuff, which lowers the overall game experience greatly.
- Ship controls:
A large portion of in-game time you will spend flying through the galaxy. Your ship is a piece of junk however (something most aliens point out to you, repeatedly) and handles like an Oil Tanker. Yes, I'm not kidding.
There are upgrade parts which should improve this, but they didn't work for me (bug??) and it will take several hours before you find your first upgrade (unless you are really lucky).
In Star Control 2 (released in 1992!) you could buy those upgrades immediately at your home base if you had the resources. Why does a game from 1992 have a better design for this than a game from 2018?
The ship handling is something you feel ALL the time and in the beginning it's♥♥♥♥♥♥ And it stays♥♥♥♥♥♥for a long time and is really, really frustrating.
- Ship upgrades:
From time to time you get the message that there are new items available to buy for your ship. The equipment menu however is a disaster. There are several slot types. Some of them are multi-purpose, other can contain only a specific item type (like a sensor array or sublight drive).
Those slots are presented in a drop-down menu with a list. In this list is your currently equipped item, all items equipped on the ship of the same slot type, then all items for that slot in your inventory and then all items available to buy. By the and I had up to maybe 20 entries in some slots. And you can only fit about 3 or so before you have to scroll. Do you see the problem here?
Not only is each list highly confusing, but you have to manually check each slot type if there might be something new for you. This is a major design flaw and should have been reworked before release!
- Another design flaw: the Quest/Map system.
In this game you have a map where you can set your own markers. This is good. However, you HAVE to set your own markers because the game doesn't do this for you even for main quests. This is bad.
You have a quest log and a "captain's log". The first is a nice reminder what you have to do. But most of the time it does not tell you exactly where you have to go. It says "Deliver ITEM_X to the RACE_Y homeworld". Ok... where is the homeworld of that race? For that you have to look in the Captain's log. Which is a chronological log of everything important that happened to you. So you start scrolling around and looking for a hint about the aforementioned homeworld.
Now here you will often find links to your destination which engages the autopilot.
A good thing? Nope, pretty stupid thing.
Unless you have memorized the whole galaxy, you don't know where your destination is. Flying around costs fuel. Which means that you will almost NEVER use this feature because you have to check where it is first and plan your journey accordingly. What you do then is try to remember the star's name, go to the map and manually (!!!) type it in to set a marker. This is madness!
In most games such links take you to the map and highlight the respective destination. It is inexcusable that it was implemented in this way.
- Resource gathering
A huge part of the game is earning money. Which means: go to a planet, scan it, land on it and mine resurces (repeat last two several times since your cargo capacity is low in the beginning) and then go to a star base and sell it. Rinse and repeat. A LOT!
That alone is not the biggest issue, but sometimes you will need specific, rare resources for side quests. And guess what, you will have no idea where to get them from! The game does not remember what you found on each planet (something that could easily be done). It's a pain in the♥♥♥♥♥to track down some of the rare resources.
- Resource gathering (2nd):
When you have landed on a planet you can drive around, Mako-style (see Mass Effect 1). Yes, the worst part of Mass Effect is a major part of Star Control Origins. And it still sucks. The controls and graphics are overly simplistic, but still pretty. Your lander however puts even the Mako to shame, flipping and turning on the terrain. Some planets are fine, fun even to hover around. But others are a chore. And the combat mechanics seem rushed and half-baked.
There is also a problem, or possible bug, with the planet screen. Before you land, it shows you if the planet is toxic or too hot. Before you get upgrades for your lander craft, some planetes will kill you in seconds.
For this there are bars which display how hot/toxic the planet is (in red). Your protection level is also displayed (the bars turn light grey).
Now for me, the last bar was always red. I skipped many good planetes, thinking that I didn't have enough protection. At some point I hovered the mouse pointer over it and it said: "protection 15, heat 10". o_O
Yeah... I had more than enough protection all along, but the display is broken. :(
- Space combat automation:
So there is a module you can buy early on which automates the space battles. Sometimes it does a good job, sometimes it's really awful. And you can't turn it off!
I would expect that you should be able to turn off the autopilot at any time during the battle if you get the feeling that the AI is doing badly. But you can't! You have to go to a star base and unequip the module which then leaves you without autopilot.
So if you want to delegate the easier battles to the AI but pilot yourself on harder ones... that is simply not possible.
Again, huge design flaw!
- Weaponry:
Put bluntly: the game does not tell you what damage a weapon does. There is absolutely no way to see if a new type of missile is better that your old one as there is no numerical value given. Just a vague description.
Since combat is a big and important part of the game this is again: huge design flaw.
- Recognizing your neighbours:
Some aliens have pretty unique ship designs and you will recognize them easily. Others you won't, especially since every race has several different designs. There are mouse-overs for them, but you have to be so close for this to function that a potential foe would see you and attack. Something you might want to avoid. The same is true for the planetes in the star systems. Why ???
- Inconsistent dialogues:
Ok, this is a bit nitpicky... So a race is hostile to you, intercepts your ship and then asks you what you want from them. ???
Or: A race has turned neutral after being hostile, but still tries to intercept you and asks you why you hailed them. But you didn't... After a while this gets frustrating because you then have to go through the dialog system to disengange again.
And yes, you can disengange or attack without the dialog. But then you could miss a side quests or something new from that race. It happens sometimes.
- Another minor thing: due to a color perception problem for some of the races I cannot see which part of the galaxy belongs to which race
To be fair, I wasn't expecting anything different from that report about the combat style (or planet harvest style), since that was very typical from the original game (or I should say Star Control 2, since SC1 just had the combat really.) So some other things would bug me, but that wouldn't. On the other hand, I can get that already from the modern fan-update mod "The Ur-Quan Masters", already installed on my home computer -- which is one reason I haven't picked up this game yet. (The other reason is initial bug hunts, which I'll wait to get solved.)
I am provisionally assuming that the clunky-ass starting ship represents the fact that this game is more-or-less remaking Star Control 1 with the gameplay of SC2, and therefore there are in-game reasons why your ship is trash. That was sort of true in the original SC2, too, which is why it was important to pick up allies as soon as possible, since your mothership would be naff at combat for a long time (although it sounds like this may be worse -- which again sort of makes sense to the story, since in SC2 your marooned settlers rediscovered the more advanced ship plans for getting off their planet at the start of the game, so while the ship was very bare bones it would be potentially more advanced already than Earth ships in this story.)
Quote from: FlickJax on September 25, 2018, 09:16:00 AM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on September 25, 2018, 07:12:03 AM
Quote from: Geezer on September 25, 2018, 07:02:14 AM
Quote from: FlickJax on September 25, 2018, 04:44:23 AM
Quote from: FlickJax on September 24, 2018, 07:08:49 AM
So has anyone played yet?
Anyone?
There are currently 365 reviews on Steam and it has a Mostly Positive rating. You could read some of them, both good and bad, and get a feel for the game. There are also probably reviews up on Youtube by now.
A lot of people come here for trusted opinions. I like to think we give more reliable impressions than steam reviews on average. I'm sure Flick is aware there are external sources of review.
Thanks Jar, I come on here because I trust these guys :)
Mug! :P
Wow, look at that, a well written cogent STEAM review. Who knew there could be such a thing! ::)
Quote from: JudgeDredd on September 28, 2018, 08:47:51 AM
Quote from: FlickJax on September 25, 2018, 09:16:00 AM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on September 25, 2018, 07:12:03 AM
Quote from: Geezer on September 25, 2018, 07:02:14 AM
Quote from: FlickJax on September 25, 2018, 04:44:23 AM
Quote from: FlickJax on September 24, 2018, 07:08:49 AM
So has anyone played yet?
Anyone?
There are currently 365 reviews on Steam and it has a Mostly Positive rating. You could read some of them, both good and bad, and get a feel for the game. There are also probably reviews up on Youtube by now.
A lot of people come here for trusted opinions. I like to think we give more reliable impressions than steam reviews on average. I'm sure Flick is aware there are external sources of review.
Thanks Jar, I come on here because I trust these guys :)
Mug! :P
LOL
'An expectation mismatch' - The Wife has used that on me :/
Use code 'STARCONTROL' to get 55% off : https://www.voidu.com/en/star-control-origins
(might be region based)
Quote from: Pete Dero on September 29, 2018, 07:43:33 AM
Use code 'STARCONTROL' to get 55% off : https://www.voidu.com/en/star-control-origins
(might be region based)
It is. God damn it! Americans are always getting screwed!
...although, only $19.40 on Kinguin.
I still don't know what to think of Kinguin. Gray market...or worse?
^You can pay an extra $3 for them to guaranty the key. lol :2funny:
Never have had an issue with Kinguin....totally a person's choice, but everything has been fine....I have never bought the protection and I did have one situation where something happened and they corrected it immediately. Between Kinguin, cdkeys, and Fanatical, hardly buy anything direct from steam....
I admit I have bought from Kinguin a couple of times, before they offered their '3.00' protection. I've bought from cdkeys too, a few more times than Kinguin. Fanatical I buy from often and feel they are more legit than the other two. I always feel dirty with Kinguin and cdkeys.
Quote from: Gusington on September 29, 2018, 06:03:19 PM
I admit I have bought from Kinguin a couple of times, before they offered their '3.00' protection. I've bought from cdkeys too, a few more times than Kinguin. Fanatical I buy from often and feel they are more legit than the other two. I always feel dirty with Kinguin and cdkeys.
Not me, I get over that pretty quickly:)
Gus is a dirty boy. I respect that 8)
Is it XYZ or just XY?
sorry Jar didnt get the 2080 machine in the end my finances didnt hold up so I bought an XBOX one X instead!!!
Quote from: FlickJax on October 01, 2018, 09:46:44 AM
sorry Jar didnt get the 2080 machine in the end my finances didnt hold up so I bought an XBOX one X instead!!!
Awww, man! I was really excited to have a 2080 in the family.
But, happy you got something anyway!
Gamesdeal is a legit seller. When I was once on the EA games support line they confirmed it.
That's a great review, Ian!
Software development over the last 10 years has really moved towards "Agile" approaches to software development. Get the minimal amount of functionality out the door quickly, and then improve it as you go.
I'm not sure that this philosophy has served gamers or game developers that well. Most games get most of their publicity in the first couple months, and if the sales are weak and the reviews are negative at that point in time, they're usually toast.
Developers like Paradox have a track record of beefing titles up, which can work for demanding yet patient players in a niche market. Otherwise, games with sloppy design decisions up front might make it to market faster, but they do so as an inferior product. I guess we'll see where this game evolves from here!
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on September 25, 2018, 07:12:03 AMA lot of people come here for trusted opinions. I like to think we give more reliable impressions than steam reviews on average. I'm sure Flick is aware there are external sources of review.
+1. When waffling, I always check here. Our forums are 10000% more trustworthy than any other source.
Aw shucks
The Stardock Forums reproduce a DMCA takedown notice submitted by Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford against Star Control: Origins, which results in the space strategy game no longer being sold on Steam or GOG.com
https://www.stardock.com/games/article/492834/paul-reiche-and-fred-ford-issue-dmca-take-down
Paul Reiche and Fred Ford issue DMCA take down
Published on Monday, December 31, 2018 By Frogboy In Star Control Journals
We have received news today that Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford, contractors on the classic DOS game, Star Control 2 for Accolade and widely credited as being the "creators" of Star Control II have issued a DMCA take down notices to Valve and GOG to take down Star Control: Origins.
As some of you may know, there is a legal dispute between Stardock and Reiche and Ford regarding the trademarks and copyrights pertaining to Star Control. Stardock owns the copyright to Star Control 3 and the trademark to Star Control overall. Reiche and Ford claim to own the copyright to Star Control 2 (though it's not clear what within it they own outside source code).
You can read the history here:
https://www.stardock.com/games/starcontrol/article/487690/qa-regarding-star-control-and-paul-and-fred
Unfortunately, rather than relying on the legal system to resolve this, they have chosen to bypass it by issuing vague DMCA take-down notices to Steam and GOG (who, btw, Reiche and Ford are suing using GoFundMe money).
Steam and GOG both have a policy of taking down content that receive DMCA notices regardless of the merits of the claims.
To my knowledge, never in the history of our industry has anyone attempted to use the DMCA system to take down a shipping game before. For example, when PubG sued Fortnite for copyright infringement, they didn't try to take Fortnite down with a DMCA notice.
For those not familiar with copyright law, you CANNOT copyright ideas, individual or short phrases, concepts, mechanics, game designs, etc.
Star Control: Origins does not contain any copyrighted work of Reiche or Ford. We spent 5 years working on it making it our own game. It very much plays like you would expect a Star Control game. But that has nothing to do with copyright.
We have assurances from GOG and Valve that already purchased games will continue to work.
Unfortunately, without the income from Star Control: Origins, Stardock will have to lay off some of the men and women who are assigned to the game.
We will do our very best to continue to support the game and hopefully Star Control: Origins will return as soon as possible.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Faarcentral.com%2Femoti%2Fshakehead.gif&hash=a5c67f2c86464b5c177073e7a76ee422c13f81b2)
looks like its still being sold everywhere else. i purchased when it was released but havent even put in a couple of hours yet.
Wrong thread
https://www.bluesnews.com/s/196350/star-control-origins-available-again
Star Control: Origins is now once again available for purchase, as Stardock is now selling the strategy game through their own online store, offering a limited time 50% discount off the strategy game's normal $39.99 price
https://www.stardock.com/games/starcontrol/store#purchase
Quote from: Pete Dero on January 03, 2019, 03:56:07 AM
https://www.bluesnews.com/s/196350/star-control-origins-available-again
Star Control: Origins is now once again available for purchase, as Stardock is now selling the strategy game through their own online store, offering a limited time 50% discount off the strategy game's normal $39.99 price
https://www.stardock.com/games/starcontrol/store#purchase
not that i had any recent thoughts of buying it prior to the legal cincerns, seems a little risky buying it if there is any chance of it disappearing again and/or having a shorter supported life because of the concerns, even at 50 percent off.
I've changed my tune on this. Got it in the sale and it's quite good fun. Not a hardcore 4x game but I find it interesting enough with the quest.