Star Control: Difference between revisions

''[[Star Control]]'' is a series of [[Shoot 'Em Ups|shoot-'em-upUp]]/ActionAdventure[[Action Adventure]] games built around space battles modelled on but expanded from ''[[Space War]]''.

''Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters'' added a story mode, an [[RPG]]/ActionAdventure[[Action Adventure]] game akin to ''[[Starflight]]'', set twenty years after the Alliance of Free Stars lost the war featured in the first game. The player character travels the galaxy searching for a way to overthrow the Ur-Quan, meeting (and, if conversations went badly, battling) most of the alien races mentioned in the first game, discovering several new ones and sooner or later learning that there are worse things than the enslaving Ur-Quan, and they're about to take an interest in mankind. Gameplay follows many [[RPG]] tropes, albeit at a different scale: for “character”"character", read “ship”"ship"; for “party”"party", read “fleet”"fleet"; for “town”"town" or “dungeon”"dungeon", read “planet”"planet". The game is highly regarded for its engaging story and for the inventiveness and humor of the world-building. It also included a Super Melee mode, which allowed you to choose a fleet of up to 14 ships from either game and battle (still one-on-one) against a human or computer-controlled opponent.

''Star Control 3'' was meant to create a game dynamic that mixed the strategy of the first with the [[Action Adventure]] of the second. Unfortunately, it was made without the involvement of the series’series' creators, and it was not very well received by the fanbase.

An excellent — and ''free'' — port of ''Star Control II'' to modern systems, called ''The Ur-Quan Masters'', is available [http://sc2.sourceforge.net from this page]. In addition, all three ''Star Control'' games are available from [http://www.gog.com/ Good Old Games]. [[But Wait! There's More!]] A [[Fan Sequel]] to ''Star Control 2II'', called ''Project 6014'', is being developed [https://code.google.com/p/project6014/ here].

== ''Star Control'' ==

* [[Asteroid Thicket]]: In tandem with every starship battle being centered on a planet, they also all feature asteroids spawning from the edges of the "arena". They don't damage you, though, only throw off your momentum.

* [[Black and Grey Morality]]: Consider the behavior of the [[The Alliance|Alliance of Free Stars]], the ostensible good guys: whenever the Alliance captures a [[The Empire|Hierarchy]] colony or mine, they annihilate it from orbit, killing untold numbers of civilians. Except for the Syreen: when they capture a Hierarchy colony, they first use [[Mind Rape|mind control]] to recruit crew from the colony, ''then'' destroy the remainder from orbit. And they're not the only slavers in the Alliance: the humans of earth enslaved the Androsynth, who are, after all, just genetically engineered humans; that's why the Androsynth joined the Hierarchy after they escaped from slavery on earth. The Ariloulaleelay also have a track record of carrying out abductions of members of other species, and possibly of sexually molesting those they abducted. And then you have the Shofixti, a [[Planet of Hats|race of]] suicide bombers. So, kidnappers, slavers, rapists, and suicide bombers, and these are the good guys.

== ''Star Control 2II'' ==

* [[Action Bomb]]: Theoretically, you can shoot ships down with the Shofixti Scout's [[Cherry Tapping|"main" weapon]]. But usually, it's not the most efficient of the Scout's tactics.

** Same with the Syreen, although they start their repopulation with a larger gene pool: 500 males and 10.000 females. Happily, the Syreen look very human, Syreen women tend to look like ''extremely'' attractive<ref>ifIf [[Green-Skinned Space Babe|blue]].</ref> human women, and Syreen can breed successfully with humans. And they will, whenever given any type of chance, with gusto.

* [[All There in the Manual]]: The game manual provides 220 years' worth of history in the introduction, starting from how radio waves sent in the 1930s1930's attracted the attention of the Ur-Quan and other benign races, proceeding through the 2000s2000's and various technological advances humanity made, passing into the 2100s2100's when Earth was made part of the Alliance of Free Stars, describing how the player's ancestors got stranded around Vela, and finally ending in 2155, literally 48 hours away from the start of the game. However, the manual only gives information that your people, in Vela, would know and so omits some rather vital information. The game itself provides a greatly abbreviated version.

* [[And I Must Scream]]: {{spoiler|The Ur-Quan}} go through this as part of their backstory. {{spoiler|They've been made slaves for millennia by the psychic [[Complete Monster|Dnyarri]], and forced to kill their only allies.}}.

* [[Anti-Villain]]: {{spoiler|The Ur-Quan Kzer-Za}}.

* [[Asshole Victim]]: {{spoiler|The Druuge are the first victims of the Death March. It can be somewhat hard to mourn them.}}.

* [[Asskicking Equals Authority]]: Pushed to the limits and beyond with the Thraddash: they have so many civil wars it almost looks like a pastime to them. Their rather antiquated ships systems are the logical conclusion to this: each "change of culture" knocked them back by about 500 years in the technology race. {{spoiler|By kicking their ass repeatedly yourself, which would be rather easy, you may become their uncontested leader.}}.

{{quote|We know your soul, young Captain. It is no brighter than ours! We acknowledge our greed. We revel in it. You are the dishonest one! Hiding your shame in shadows, you fabricate justifications, rationales! In the end, [[Not So Different|we are just the same]]. }}

* [[Berserk Button]]: Save game, then {{spoiler|ask Orz about Androsynth, again and again.}}. [[Hilarity Ensues|*Dancing* ensues]]. Or tell the Syreen what really happened to their homeworld {{spoiler|and bring some proof}}, then see whether they still can remain content and fatalistic.

* [[BFG]]: Several ships have one, notably the Druuge Mauler's massive axial cannon<ref>actuallyActually, the Druuge Mauler ''is'' a massive axial cannon.</ref>, the [[The Battlestar|Ur-Quan Dreadnought's]] fusion blaster, and the Chmrr Avatar's heavy x-ray laser.

* [[Brown Note]]: Poor [[Red Shirt | Bukowski]]… “He"He said that [[These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know | no one could ever know what he had learned]]. That just knowing was enough to alert ‘'[[Eldritch Abomination |them]]’…”'…"

* [[Lawful Stupid Chaotic Stupid|Chaotic Stupid]]: Umgah aren't malevolent, but continuously modified themselves and [[Gone Horribly Wrong|became]] very... mentally unstable. So they have a taste for slapstick comedy up to "Drop asteroid into their ocean! Boom! Splash! Big waves! Lulz!" level and worse. {{spoiler|They don't make the most reliable ally for the same reason.}}.

* [[Character Customization]]: The Precursor vessel can be outfitted however you like, letting it be a warship, a mining rig, a crew transport, or a tanker with enough fuel to circle the map three times over.

* [[Chekhov's Gunman]]: {{spoiler|The little guy that sits in the corner and translates the Ur-Quan's speech.}}.

* [[Civil War]]: You can start one among the Yehat. Also, the Ur-Quan sub-species, the Kzer-Za and the [[Omnicidal Maniac|Kohr-Ah]], are fighting against each other to determine the fate of other species in the universe. {{spoiler|The Kohr-Ah win in the end, which marks the beginning of their Death March.}}.

* [[Complete Monster]]: The Dnyarri are seen this way.

'''[[Even Evil Has Standards|Ur-Quan]]:''' ... {{spoiler|you were in contact with}} a creature so horrible, so evil that it makes ANYTHING else you have ever known TRIVIAL by comparison. There is no equal to the Dnyarri's cruelty, to its love for torment. Dying a THOUSAND TIMES would be preferable to what is in store for you if we do not stop that creature.}}

** The Ur-Quan's flagship, the Sa-Matra, {{spoiler|a Precursor ''Battleship''}}, destined to be the trophy in the Ur-Quan's {{spoiler|[[Enemy Civil War|Doctrinal War]].}}.

* [[Covers Always Lie]]: The octopus-[[StarCraft|zerg]]-esque monster in the boxart never appears ingame. Some people argue it is the VUX Monster (who just gets text and a distinct monster sprite in the game, but nowhere near as detailed as the box picture); others suggest that it's a very off-model Ur-Quan. In the fan sequel ''Project6014'', {{spoiler|a new [[Big Bad]] race is introduced that uses this portrait, the Lurg}}.

* [[Creator Cameo]]: Co-creator Paul Reiche III provides the voices of the Mycon and the Talking Pet. The victory sequence includes cameos from [[Band of Relatives|him, his father Paul II, his daughter Arianna, and his son Devin.]].

** The Spathi don't seem particularly smart when you talk to them. They are ridiculous, ramble on pointlessly, live in perpetual paranoia bordering on full-out insanity, and insist on mispronouncing "Human" as "Hunam.". ...They also advanced from their [[Technology Levels|Bronze Age to Nuclear Power]] in ''less than a century'' while threatened by the [[Killer Rabbit|Evil Ones]], and are one of only ''two'' species to figure out a particularly important piece of [[Imported Alien Phlebotinum]] (and the other was probably the most intelligent in the game). If asked, the Starbase Commander describes a Spathi as a "cowardly mobile clam, armed with a howitzer." He's pretty spot-on.

* [[Cycle of Hurting]]: There is no [[Mercy Invincibility]] in Hyperspace, and this will show when you enter a star system while pursued by many fleets: Oneone fleet will catch up during the jump-into-hyperspace animation, then another will catch up during the before and after battle animation, then another, then another, then [[Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress|you get accidentally back into the star system]], then another, until you load a previous save.

* [[Dirty Coward]] / [[Lovable Coward]]: The Spathi's [[Planet of Hats|hat]]. As their prayer goes: ''"Oh, God, please don't let me die today! Tomorrow would be so much better!"''

{{quote|'''Fwiffo:''' As yet, '''The Ultimate Evil''' remains largely unmanifest, and its powers and exact intentions are still a bit obscure ... since it lurks just outside the range of even the most sensitive, long-range detectors ... which we feel gives conclusive evidence as to '''The Ultimate Evil's''' nefarious intent.}}

* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]: Just say one unkind word about the Ultron to the Utwig, or even show them a broken Ultron -... and the Utwig will never forgive you for that. You will become their enemy number one, forever. Most races will be willing to give you a chance to make up for your past mistakes, but not the Utwig.

** [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] by the Zoq-Fot-Pik: ''"You must meet with our leaders. They are wiser... more powerful beings!" "They look just like us, though."''

* [[The Dreaded]]: {{spoiler|The [[Complete Monster|Dnyarri]] are this to the Ur-Quan.}}.

{{quote |'''Kohr-Ah:''' {{spoiler|[[Uncanny Atmosphere|We sense… something…]] something ancient… [[Evil Smells Bad|a sickly smell…]] [[Evil Is Deathly Cold|a chilling wind]]. [[Hearing Voices|My ancestors scream from within their chambers in my mind]] but I cannot understand their words. This feeling… [[Genetic Memory|a memory?]] It sickens us, and for the first time in our lives… for the first time in generations… [[Primal Fear|We fear.]]}} .}}

* [[Dueling Games]]: With [[Electronic Arts]]' ''[[Starflight]]'' series. Note that Paul Reiche III is credited in the Special Thanks for ''Starflight'' while being one of the co-creators of ''Star Control'', and ''Starflight'''s lead designer, Greg Johnson, also took part in the development of ''Star Control II'', so the developers probably don't feel any need for animosity between fans of both games. (Forfor that matter, fans usually like both games.).

* [[Everything's Better with Spinning]]: The Pkunk's "Death Blossom" attack —: release the thruster and fire while constantly turning.

** ''TimeWarp'', which was supposed to replace ''SC3Star Control 3'' and contains a fairly hefty selection of fan-created starships to use in Melee, including the planet landers. Unfortunately, the project eventually collapsed and split into several forks, which also did not fare too well.

** ''XR'', or ''Expanding Realities'', was another attempt at making a [[Fan Sequel]], which did not go beyond a small and buggy melee demo. Then the project switched to making a movie, but even then, nothing was released.

** Now there is another [[Fan Sequel]] in development, called ''Project 6014'', which uses UQM's'The Ur-Quan Masters'' engine.

* [[Faster-Than-Light Travel]]: Takes different forms in each game, with ''Star Control II'' using it as an extremely central gameplay mechanism.

* [[Frickin' Laser Beams]]: The Arilou, VUX, Mmrnmhrm and Chmmr all pilot starships which use instantly-generated lasers as primary weapons, and the Earthling Cruiser and Precursor flagship use [[Point Defenseless|point defense]] lasers as secondaries. There's a few small craft, such as the Dreadnought's fighters and the Avatar's ZapSats, which use them, too.

* [[Fun with Acronyms]]:

* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: When you ask the leader of the [[Lady Land|all female]] Syreen race if she and her colleagues ever get "lonely", she says "Don't worry about us, Captain. We make out alright (the original DOS version also added "with just us females")." Then there are the Androsynth, the Syreen's similarly inclined male counterparts (it's [[Word of God]]). And ''all'' of ZEX's dialogue. In fact, this game had more sexual references than you would expect for something with an E rating....

* [[Ghost Planet]]: The Androsynth, Burvixese, and Taalo homeworlds. ''Every'' homeworld, everywhere, if you don't stop the Kohr-Ah in time.

* [[Green-Skinned Space Babe|Green Skinned Space Babes]]: The Syreen (except they're blue). ''Heavily'' [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]], from their outfits to their Penetrator ships.

* [[The Greys]]: The Arilou are [[Little Green Men|green]], but they otherwise fit the slightly more benign (maybe) version of the trope. They still probe people, though.

** What to do if you run into Tanaka is extremely counter-intuitive. You have a hostile response or a calm response... the hostile response will. of course, cause him to attack you. The calm response will cause him to laugh at you, and then [[But Thou Must!|attack you]]. What's the correct response? {{spoiler|To get him to attack you. You then have to run, do this ''three times'' and then he'll talk to you.}}. How'd anyone figure ''this'' out without a forum topic? At the same time, something tells you how to do this... but it's ''highly'' possible to have completed this before you even get this information offered to you. The designers foresaw the unintuitiveness of it all and coded in Katana, his brother, as a replacement in case the player screwed up once.

* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: Parodied, near the end of the game. Also, the Shofixti did it with their entire species. {{spoiler|Almost.}}.

** The Melnorme, who will sell you fuel, technology and plot points in exchange for [[Knowledge Broker|information they find interesting]], are a benevolent version. Their culture considers giving away free information immoral, but their prices are fairly reasonable, and they are generally very helpful. Lampshaded if you get the Melnorme to tell you about the Druuge —: when Greenish complains about how their only concern is profit, he notes that your character is smirking at him.

** The Druuge are a race of [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Corrupt Corporate Executives]], looking only to make a profit off of you, no matter what, and the resources they are most interested in are [[Human Resources]]. Some of the stuff they sell is useless, making them [[Snake Oil Salesman|Snake Oil Salesmen]] as well. (Byby contrast, everything the Melnorme offer has ''some'' potential use.).

* [[Humans Are Psychic in the Future]]: It's mentioned randomly that some humans have 'esper' capabilities and are sensitive to various items or happenings in the galaxy. {{spoiler|Such as if the Pkunk are killed off for real.}}.

* [[Humans Are Ugly]]: The VUX think so, and if you annoy them enough, they'll reveal {{spoiler|it's the reason they went to war with them}}.

* [[Informed Ability]]: Ironically, the one ship specifically advertised in-game as being able to "defeat any ship in space,", the Chmmr Avatar, is ''not'' as effective against the heavy Ur-Quan ships as a number of other ships in the game. They're not ''too'' bad against Dreadnoughts with some damage, but there are better ships to use. Marauders eat them for breakfast.<ref>Though to be fair, the Chmmr designed them before they knew of the existence of Marauders.</ref>.

* [[Interrupting Meme]]: The Slylandro Probes lend themselves to much chagri'''[[We Come in Peace, Shoot to Kill|PRIORITY OVERRIDE.]]'''.

* [[It's a Wonderful Failure]]: The {{spoiler|[[Kill'Em All|Kohr-Ah Death March]]}}, unless you are ''very'' quick. On the other hand, {{spoiler|if you ARE quick, you can use their genocide to bypass most of the required quests in the game.}}.

* [[Karmic Death]]: {{spoiler|Admiral ZEX is killed by the beast that you gave him when is about to backstab you.}}.

* [[Killer Rabbit]]: The Evil Ones look like teddy bears that don't move, but if you touch one, you get a taste of their true powers. Don't do that. (Theirtheir damage rating against a lander that runs into them is set to the maximum possible, meaning they're as deadly as the VUX Beast.).

* [[Late to the Party|Late to the Tragedy]]

* [[Law of Chromatic Superiority]]: [https://web.archive.org/web/20140603021615/http://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/Black_Spathi_Squadron The Black Spathi Squadron].

* [[Mercy Invincibility]]: Applied to ship encounters on the map screen. Unfortunately, though, not in hyperspace, showing why this trope exists in the first place.

* [[The Missing Faction]]: "There are no Androsynth now. Only Orz." {{spoiler|Androsynth ships are still in the game for the Super Melee mode, but they don't show up in the campaign at all.}}.

* [[No Canon for the Wicked]]: [[Averted Trope|Averted.]]. The Alliance of Free Stars lost the war depicted in the first ''Star Control''.

* [[No Name Given]]: Officially, the player-character is merely called "the Captain", so as to work within the confines of [[Hello, Insert Name Here|being able to name him/her whatever the player wishes.]]. The 3DO version gives the Captain and his flagship default names, Zelnick and the Vindicator respectively.

* [[Omnicidal Maniac|Omnicidal Maniacs]]: The Kohr-Ah.

* [[Organic Technology]]: The Umgah, Supox, and Mycon all use organic technology. {{spoiler|The Mycon ''are'' organic technology.}}.

* [[Raygun Gothic]]: The Syreen have this aesthetic. Their ships are old-fashioned rockets; their ship controls look ripped from the covers of 1920s1920's sci-fi pulp; the Syreen themselves might have walked straight off the pages of "''Amazon Princesses of Space''" or some such. All this helps [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshade]] the fact that the Syreen are a race of good old-fashioned [[Green-Skinned Space Babe|Blue Skinned Space Babes]] in a game otherwise populated by [[Starfish Aliens]] and [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]].

* [[Red Shirt]]: Your crew members are occasionally mentioned by name when you explore planets. Many of them die. [[Go Mad from the Revelation|Or worse.]].

** The first game placed the battles between the Hierarchy and the Alliance during the 2600s2600's; several documents within the manual are dated 2612. The conflict was pushed back to the 2100s2100's for ''SC2Star Control II'', as noted in [[All There in the Manual|the manual]].

** Some other minor lore from the ''SC1Star Control I'' manual was retconned as well, like the Arilou previously being "tormentors of the human race"."

* [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens]]: Several different types, including the Ilwrath, the Kohr-Ah, and the Kzer-Za.

* [[Screw This, I'm Outta Here]]: The Melmorne will leave the galaxy {{spoiler|the moment the Death March begins}}, and thus you won't be able to trade with them past that point.

* [[Sealed Evil in a Can]]: The Dnyarri. {{spoiler|The Umgah unknowingly remove one from this can.}}.

* [[Sequel Hook]]:

'''The Captain:''' "That, my children, is an entirely different story." }}

** During the credits, the neo-Dnyarri, the Syreen, and the Druuge all claim that the sequel will be about them.

** It's possible to skip much of the game by {{spoiler|waiting for the Kohr-Ah Death March to begin.}}. Why do quests for alien species when you can simply wait for {{spoiler|them to be exterminated, then loot their worlds for [[Plot Coupon|plot coupons]]?}}? {{spoiler|You'd be a [[Jerkass]] if you did; that's why.}}.

** Additionally, you can finish the story mode without allying with the Earth Starbase. This feature went undiscovered ''to the programmers themselves'' for ''more than ten years''. It also [[Game Breaking Bug|crashed the game]] prior to a special handler being added in ''The Ur-Quan Masters''. Doing this is both difficult and ''extremely'' tedious, which helps to explain why it took so long. See [http://forum.uqm.stack.nl/index.php?topic=1399.0 here] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20161118135711/http://onpon4.github.io/other/no-starbase-challenge-guide/index.html here for more information].

* [[Shout-Out]]: There's a ''long'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20130127204611/http://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/Influences_and_referencesInfluences_and_References "Influences and references" page] on ''The Ur-Quan Masters'' wiki, and it starts with the "This page is currently incomplete..." template, including many references to ''[[Starflight]]''; not only its setting inspired many ''[[Star Control]]'' features, but some of the developers worked on both.

* [[Single Biome Planet]]: [[Averted Trope|Averted.]]. Earth-like planets are called "water worlds", and there is no in-game indication that they are geographically any less diverse than Earth. The only case when this is "played straight" is when the "biome" in question is some variation on "irradiated space rock", which is perfectly realistic.

* [[Sins of Our Fathers]]: After humans created the Androsynth in the early 2000s2000's, they were used as slaves and treated as second-class citizens. They escaped, and 100 years down the line, the humans' grandkids would have to fight them.

* [[Slap Yourself Awake]]: A species-wide example. {{spoiler|The Ur-Quan were mind-controlled slaves of the Dnyarri, until they discovered that extreme pain would force the Dnyarri to disconnect from their minds temporarily. They then invented an Excruciator device to cause themselves constant agony, and rebelled and slaughtered their former masters. They wanted to [[Never Be Hurt Again]] after that, resulting in the enslavement or genocide of every other species they met.}}.

* [[Sliding Scale of Silliness Versus Seriousness]]: There is silliness all over the game, but it has quite a lot of serious moments as well, such as {{spoiler|the Ur-Quan's [[The Woobie|Woobie-ish]] past.}}. Also, considering other games Toys For Bob has created, this is probably the most serious game they have ever released. Yes, things can be like that in context.

* [[Something They Would Never Say]]: It can help a lot when your partner in conversation {{spoiler|has broken sensors and can only judge your ship by gravimetry data.}}. Or has been brainwashed.

* [[Suddenly Voiced]]: The original PC version of the game in 1992 was text-only, but the 3DO version in 1994 added voice acting (by members of the development team, and their family and friends), a remixed soundtrack and 3D-rendered cutscenes. The developers had to use the 3DO source code for ''The Ur-Quan Masters'' because the original PC one was lost. Which version is preferable has been known to cause quite the [[Broken Base]].

* [[Timed Mission]]: See [[Time Limit]] below.

* [[Time Limit]]: At a certain point in the game, {{spoiler|the Kohr-Ah will begin a campaign of genocide against all other races.}}. When they reach Earth, you lose. It's possible to ''delay'' it, as well; : {{spoiler|once you assemble the Ultron, the Utwig and Supox fleets can assault the Kohr-Ah, delaying their victory and the Death March somewhat.}}.

* [[Video Game Cruelty Punishment]]: See [[What the Hell, Hero?]], below.

* [[Video Game Geography]]: Explorable planets behave like cylinders —... going off one side of the map brings you back on the other side; the top and bottom edge of the map are impassable barriers.

* [[Will Not Tell a Lie]]: The Ur-Quan will willingly put their busy schedule of slaughter and enslavement on hold to truthfully tell you their [[Start of Darkness|full backstory]] -... if you just ask nicely enough... {{spoiler|They're probably telling the truth, too, and the story puts a significantly different cast on their actions. The only account of these events that directly contradicts the Ur-Quan version comes from the most unreliable source of all and is clearly [[Blatant Lies]].}}.

* [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]]: {{spoiler|The Ur-Quan Kohr-Ah}}.

* [[Wrap Around]]: East-west on planet surfaces;: in all directions during space battles.

'''Pik:''' They look just like us, though!}}

== ''Star Control 3'' ==

* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: Again, the {{spoiler|Orz}}. It's heavily implied that they're essentially {{spoiler|extensions of the Eternal Ones, an unbelievably ancient race of Energy Beings that feed on sentience.}}. The final mission of the game has you scrambling to keep them from depopulating the entire galaxy while {{spoiler|the Orz, who've been subtly undermining your efforts until now, stab you in the back.}}.

* [[Feet of Clay]]: theThe K'Tang.

* [[Find the Cure]]: theThe {{spoiler|Xchagger}} Plague subplot.

* [[Your Approval Fills Me with Shame]]: See Plexor's [[Hannibal Lecture]] above.