Star Control/Headscratchers
- Colonies. Only race to appear to have more than single colony in Star Control II is humanity, and even they have it because original people couldn't get back to Earth. In first game(no, there is no third no matter what you say) you would constantly try to build new colonies to keep up with the war. In II, Any battle thralls seems to be happy with their home planet alone. Zot-Fot-Pik atleast Hand Wave this by saying all their colonies have been wiped out. Nobody else colonies anymore? I know this mroe of a technological reasons but it still bugs me...
- The commander of the human starbase tells you that after capitulation the Ur-Quan gave a set period of time for everybody to get the hell back to Earth before any stragglers were hunted down and destroyed. It isn't that unlikely that similar conditions were given out to the other League members as the surrendered, thus necessitating the evacuation of any colonies they DID possess. Why the battle thralls don't have any is a more interesting and pressing question, but judging from the environments of the planets you tend to run into, it appears likely that they wouldn't be that comfortable for habitation (we have no reason to believe the BT races would have any better luck than an un-upgraded lander does on a Venus-like world: namely none), to say nothing of the possibility that the Ur-Quan might be keeping an eye on and limiting the expansion of the BT races to prevent a revolt in their rear during the Doctrinal Conflict. Most likely, everybody quickly stripmines the local barren rocks in their neighborhood and ships them back home without the need for colonies. Proportionally, the galactic stage was more-or-less reduced to near-antiquity levels of insulation and isolation between the races, with nobody having any contact with anybody else and the Ur-Quan acting as the only go-between for everybody still capable of operating off their worlds. The first game, on the other hand, showcased a level of integration not unlike the world wars of Earth, whereupon each race may not exactly be bestest buddies or the most knowledgeable about each other, their command systems are at least fairly integrated and communication is more or less open, thus creating the right climate for colonies. third game]], it is likely the recovery from the damage of the Hierarchy War and the Ur-Quan yoke would have healed enough for colonization to once again be feasible.
- Who crews the Kohr-Ah Marauders? In the manuals for both Star Control 1 and 2, the description for the Ur-Quan explains that each Ur-Quan Dreadnought is captained by a single Ur-Quan who commands a heterogeneous crew assembled from the various Hierarchy slave races. The manual for Star Control 2 explains that this is because Ur-Quan are naturally so territorial that two Ur-Quan can't get near each other without fighting for dominance. The same problem must also apply to the other branch of the Ur-Quan race, the Kohr-Ah. Except the Kohr-Ah don't enslave other races, they exterminate them. Yet Kohr-Ah Marauders have just as many crew members as Ur-Quan Kzer-Za Dreadnoughts. So who's crewing the Marauders?
- My guess is that Kohr-Ah work far enough from each other not to start up their instincts OR Kohr-Ah are capable working together without fighting OR they deal with the fights for dominance before they get on their post. One who wins the dominance? Captain. Second one? XO. Third: Navigator etc. etc.
- Ur-Quan dominance fights are described as being to the death, so that last explanation doesn't seem to work. Also, if the Kohr-Ah can do any of those things, why don't the Kzer-Za do the same thing? After all, letting large numbers of non-Ur-Quan onto their Dreadnoughts exposes them to espionage or sabotage. You've got to figure that plenty of the Ur-Quan's slaves are secretly rooting for the Alliance, after all.
- ...Unless the crews of the Dreadnoughts are from the countless galaxies the Kzer-Za conquered on their way here down the Galactic spiral, and who weren't involved in the original alliance at all. For all we know, there is not a single alien from our galaxy aboard any dreadnought, but the Kzer-Za utilize slaves from outside their area of operations due to the risk of sympathy between those on the dreadnoughts and the locals. And if they defect anyway, the chances of the Alliance races understanding them are slim at best. And as for the reason why the Kzer-Za don't have a similar system, the Dnyarri might also be responsible, given how while it was necessary to keep their soldiers from killing each other, it wasn't so for their scientists, who anyway might conspire for their overthrow is allowed to congregate without killing each other (and that's percisely what happened anyway, it's just that they didn't count on the ability of an Ur-Quan to send a message without being physically present and thus triggering the territorial issues).
- Crewing the Dreadnoughts with slaves isn't much more inadvisable than assigning scary Ilwrath and cowardly Spathi to do anything together, never mind the Earthguard. The Kzer-Za are not the best people managers, which is understandable given their original solitary nature.
- True, but for their defense, they didn't exactly have all the time in the world to organize anything before heading off for the Doctrinal Conflict, they likely figured out that at least SOMEBODY would stay on (and the readings they got from the Moon might have fooled them), and perhaps most importantly, Earthguard is NOT a major force. Hell, judging from descriptions, it's a hastily assembled force tossed together without a great deal of preparation. The only reason Earth is a threat at all is because a One Man Navy comes in from an unknown world armed with unbelievably advanced technology looking for Earth.
- Ur-Quan dominance fights are described as being to the death, so that last explanation doesn't seem to work. Also, if the Kohr-Ah can do any of those things, why don't the Kzer-Za do the same thing? After all, letting large numbers of non-Ur-Quan onto their Dreadnoughts exposes them to espionage or sabotage. You've got to figure that plenty of the Ur-Quan's slaves are secretly rooting for the Alliance, after all.
- Maybe A Dnyarri Did It? Before they were Kohr-Ah, after all, the Black Ur-Quan were genetically manipulated to be soldiers. It would have been helpful to that end, if their intraspecies hostility were dialed down a little so they could collaborate against whoever they were set on.
- Could be. Except if each Marauder is full of Kohr-Ah, but each Dreadnaught has only one Kzer-Za, doesn't that suggest that there are either a lot more Dreadnaughts than Marauders or a lot more Kohr-Ah than Kzer-Za? Because if the fleets are roughly the same size (allowing for the fact that the Ur-Quan took significant losses to the Shofixti) and the populations are roughly the same, then it would seem that the Kzer-Za must have a lot of spare personnel. I guess they might not have enough of an industrial base to make enough ships for all their potential captains. Either way, though, it seems like there must be some large inequality between the two groups somewhere.
- Well, considering that they would probably have time to breed, and likely have been garrisoning their sides of the galactic spiral with their own species, and the Kohr-Ah more or less have anihilated every living thing on their end, it is quite likely they have vast colonies in their conquered areas, whereas the Kzer-Za have been more or less acting as various large Communist countries with vast rural bases (Soviet Union, China, Vietnam) have: letting the populace largely to what it will while posting occasional strongpoints and officers to keep eyes on things.
- Could be. Except if each Marauder is full of Kohr-Ah, but each Dreadnaught has only one Kzer-Za, doesn't that suggest that there are either a lot more Dreadnaughts than Marauders or a lot more Kohr-Ah than Kzer-Za? Because if the fleets are roughly the same size (allowing for the fact that the Ur-Quan took significant losses to the Shofixti) and the populations are roughly the same, then it would seem that the Kzer-Za must have a lot of spare personnel. I guess they might not have enough of an industrial base to make enough ships for all their potential captains. Either way, though, it seems like there must be some large inequality between the two groups somewhere.
- Is it possible the 'crew' indicator only shows relative strength? That is, there might be one Kohr-Ah on the ship, but he/she/it pilots with the ferocity and ability of many crew members.
- My guess is that Kohr-Ah work far enough from each other not to start up their instincts OR Kohr-Ah are capable working together without fighting OR they deal with the fights for dominance before they get on their post. One who wins the dominance? Captain. Second one? XO. Third: Navigator etc. etc.
- How big is the Ultron? The Utwig mention it was broken when it was being passed to someone and it slipped out his hand. The Aqua Helix is said to be one meter tall, so how could the Helix be a component of the Ultron and have it still be a handheld device? It's never said how big the Utwig are, so I suppose it's possible they're a race of giants, but damn, if they were that big they'd be able to fight the Ur-Quan in hand-to-hand combat.
- A meter's not all that big, considering the things poking out the top of the Ultron. I think it's about the size of a medium-sized potted plant or an umbrella stand.
- But looking at the Ultron it seems to be about as wide as it is tall.
- Even then it doesn't have to be handheld -- a big bathtub-like object that requires two hands to carry could still slip out of someone's hand. Besides, I'm 5'7" and I could carry a light object that's a meter in diameter. Clumsily, and I might well drop it, but ... I assume someone a foot taller than me (the Utwig look about 7 feet tall to me) could probably do a much better job. The bigger question is at the end, when the Proctor is carrying the Utwig and DANCING LIKE A LOON. How much does the Ultron WEIGH?
- A meter's not all that big, considering the things poking out the top of the Ultron. I think it's about the size of a medium-sized potted plant or an umbrella stand.
- So was it ever confirmed who "They" were? I assume it could have been the Orz.
- Yup. Word of God says, "The Orz is part of Them, the projection of Them into TrueSpace."
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Orz: "My *fingers* reach through into *heavy space* and you *see* *Orz bubbles*, but it is really *fingers*." |
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- Wait...how do you pick up Francium?
- How are the Umgah "not malevolent" (main work page) aliens that "we would have gotten along well with" (quote from Hayes)? They're Omnicidal Maniacs with the same sense of humor as the Joker. Let's review their jokes, shall we?
- Deliberately triggering at least a Class 1 apocalypse against a race by dropping a planetoid into the ocean of an inhabited planet.
- Dumping horrific monsters on the surface of Spathiwa, forcing the harmless and pacifistic Spathi to abandon their homeworld for generations.
- As if that weren't enough, setting up the surviving Spathi to be used as cannon fodder by alien overlords.
- Manipulating the peaceful, enlightened Ilwrath into becoming ravening vicious monsters, utterly destroying their culture.
- Even when you free the Umgah from being enslaved by the Dnyarri, they're only capable of showing gratitude to you for a matter of days before they issue a freaking fatwa against you for no visible reason.
- The Umgah aren't malevolent: they don't see their "jokes" as wrong or harmful. They are, probably, insane, but they don't really mean anyone ill will. As for Hayes... I don't think he knew about most of those pranks. Even the Captain doesn't seem to know anything about the Umgah other than their reputation for having a unrivalled sense of humor, so perhaps none of humanity knew of their true nature until the game takes place.
- Well, a fatwa is only an Islamic judicial opinion... I wonder if we'll ever see Ayatollah Flubbo?
- The Kzer-Za, who were genetically engineered to be master scientists, had the insanely advanced Sa-Matra in their sole possession for thousands of years. How/why didn't they back-engineer it and use the technology for their own ships? Or even improve it, like the Chmmr were able to do with the precursor bomb in a few days?
- Religious taboo? They see it as a sacred artefact after all. Or maybe it was a part of their treaty with Kohr-Ar.
- If the control runs are a Black Box, they would (entirely justifiably) probably be unwilling to try cracking it open, because they wouldn't be assured of being able to put it back together again. And finally... why would they need to? The thing is outright unstoppable in a straight fight; even a WMD from the same tech base that created the battle station needed to be massively overclocked and shoved right up to it to put a dent in the defenses. If I had an indestructible mega-battleship that could wipe armies off the map without breaking a sweat and take a nuke head-on without a dent, I'd probably be satisfied too.
- Religious taboo? They see it as a sacred artefact after all. Or maybe it was a part of their treaty with Kohr-Ar.
- Aren't the Shofixti still doomed? Even if one male and sixteen females can produce thousands of them, that provides the Captain with plenty of soldiers for this generation, sure, but in a few more generations, wouldn't it ultimately all end up in inbreeding and thus genetic decay eventually?