Star Control: Difference between revisions

* [[Battle Thralls]]: The [[Trope Namer]], these are the races that fight for the Ur-Quan.

* [[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.

* [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard]]: Computer-controlled ships can always keep track of where the planet is, even when it is not visible on the screen, and as such will ''never'' accidentally fly right into it as it appears from the edge of the display. But you will.

* [[Copy Protection]]: Professor Zorg's Guide to Alien Etiquette.

* [[Mighty Glacier]]: The Ur-Quan Dreadnought and the Mycon Podship. On the Alliance side, the Chenjesu Broodhome.

* [[Planet Looters]]: To replenish their crew reserves, Syreen ships must raid Hierarchy colonies.

* [[Starting Units]]: Depends on the scenario being played.

* [[Suicide Attack]]: Pretty much the Shofixti [[Planet of Hats|hat]].

* [[The Unpronounceable]]: The Mmrnmhrm. (MUR-na-hurm)

* [[Unfortunate Name]]: The Third (Paul) Reiche.

* [[Developer's Room]]: The game was ''going'' to have one of these as the Secret of the Rainbow Worlds, but they ended up not doing it since they couldn't come up with enough gags for it.

* [[Dialogue Tree]]

* [[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.}}

* [[Enemy Civil War]]: The Doctrinal Conflict.

* [[Energy Absorption]]: The Utwig Jugger cannot recharge its own battery, but its energy-hungry shields convert incoming damage into energy.

* [[Evil Sounds Deep]]: Any deeper and the Ur-Quan would [[Brown Note|trigger involuntary bowel movements.]]

* [[Eviler Than Thou]]: The Kohr-Ah pull this one on the Ur-Quan Kzer-Za. And the Ilwrath try to do this on everybody else.

* [[Freudian Excuse]]: For at least two whole species.

* [[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.

** '''B'''ackward '''U'''tilized '''T'''racking '''T'''orpedo, a Spathi weapon which shoots a backward-aimed homing missile (that makes a farting sound when launched).

** '''D'''e-energizing '''O'''ffensive '''G'''uided '''I'''nterceptor, a Chenjesu weapon which siphons battery energy from an opponent (and makes dog-like noises as it does or when it's destroyed).

** Not so justified with the [[Blue Skinned Space Babe|Syreen]]. The characters [[Lampshade Hanging|point out]] that this can't possibly be a coincidence, but no real explanation is given why they are so genetically compatible with humans that they can ''produce fertile offspring''. [[Wild Mass Guessing]] abounds, mostly involving the [[Little Green Men|Arilou]].

* [[Humans Are Leaders]]: Averted. The more advanced Chenjesu were actually the leaders of [[The Alliance]], and {{spoiler|the Chmmr}} retake their role in all but name once you get all the relevant plot coupons to complete the game.

* [[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}}.

* [[Humans Are Warriors]]: Variant 2, Humans Are Soldiers.

* [[Jigsaw Puzzle Plot]]: You have to piece together everything from the hints, rumors, and bits of information the aliens give you.

* [[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. (Their damage rating against a lander that runs into them is set to the maximum possible, meaning they're as deadly as the VUX Beast.)

* [[Knight Templar]]: Both Ur-Quan subspecies turn out to be this.

* [[Knowledge Broker]]: The Melnorme.

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

* [[Life Meter]]: Each ship has one, purportedly representing how many surviving crew it has.

* [[Machine Monotone]]: The Chenjesu and Mmrnmhrm (and later the [[Fusion Dance|Chmmr]]).

* [[Market-Based Title]]: The ''Star Control II'' part of the title was dropped for the open-source version of the game (ported from the 3DO port of the game to modern operating systems), due to the name ''Star Control'' being owned by Atari.

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

* [[Mildly Military]]: Used for laughs during one conversation with [[Green-Skinned Space Babe|Syreen]] commander. You may come down on her for her attire (which is [[Stripperiffic]] to say the least), only to hear that that's official military uniform.

* [[Might Makes Right]]: The Thraddash way of life.

* [[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.}}

* [[My Species Doth Protest Too Much]]:

** Admiral ZEX, the one VUX who is not a frothing xenophobe. Because he's a frothing xeno''phile''.

* [[Nice Job Fixing It, Villain]]: Applied to 'younger races' more than literal children, but the Ur-Quan Kzer-Za and Kohr-Ah would like to, respectively, totally subjugate or annihilate anything that isn't an Ur-Quan in case it eventually becomes a threat. This is what directly causes most, if not all, of the races who fight them to fight them, culminating in their crushing defeat.

* [[Nightmare Fetishist]]: ZEX does, in fact, find humans and most other species ugly, just like all the other VUX. That's why he... ''enjoys'' them.

* [[No Hero Discount]]: Even though all life in this sector of the galaxy is threatened with extinction, and the Melnorme have an abundance of knowledge and technology that could be given to you to prevent it from happening at any time, you won't get anything from them until you pay up. [[Justified Trope|Justified]] by the fact that their culture is completely fixated on business transactions and considers giving things for free to be crass and insulting, and by the fact that the Melnorme [[Screw This, I'm Outta Here|will be leaving this sector of the galaxy]] shortly before the extermination begins.

* [[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.

* [[Scottish English]]: Most Yehat speak with this accent.

* [[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.

* [[Sequel Hook]]

{{quote| '''Children:''' "But Grandfather! What happened? Where did you go? And how did you find the Mark II?"<br />

* [[Space Opera]]

* [[Space Is an Ocean]]: Except for True Space being frictionless, the portrayed universe fits the trope pretty much.

* [[Starfish Aliens]]: Many species, but especially the Orz. The Slylandro are pretty much this as well, being floating translucent gas bags with glowy bits inside them. Glowy bits which you aren't supposed to be able to see and which they get very embarrased if you mention, being their reproductive organs.

* [[Starfish Language]]: Orz again.

* [[Tactical Rock-Paper-Scissors]]: While the end result of a battle is heavily influenced by skill, there are a lot of predatory relations between ships given the wide range of ship specifications and weaponry. [[Gameplay and Story Integration|This often shows in the backstory and the scripted events in the game]]. For example, Illwrath ships are very effective against Earthling cruisers thanks to their cloaking devices, and the Illwrath will constantly boast about how they kill humans for sport.

* [[Take Your Time]]: Averted with the main quest. Played straight with the Sylandro Probe sidequest, where despite everyone urgently telling you to wipe them out before they grow exponentially, their growth rate stops eventually, so they never grow too numerous no matter how long you wait.

* [[Talk to Everyone]]: ''Very'' important if you want to get anywhere. The game just throws you into a huge map with hundreds of star systems to visit, and the only way to find out where important things are is to pay very close attention to the dialogue. Many hints are only repeated once and are easy to miss, so take notes.

* [[Tele Frag]]: When using the Arilou Skiff's [[Teleporters and Transporters|teleportation]], there is a small but nonzero chance of teleporting into the planet. Unsurprisingly, this is immediately fatal.

* [[Warp Whistle]]: The QuasiSpace Portal Spawner.

* [[We Need a Distraction]]: Fwiffo explains to the Captain how the Spathi stationed on the moon kept the Human Starbase convinced of their presence as such; machines were automated to push piles of dirt around to simulate militaristic activity, and the station's transceiver was fixed to "Send" using tapes of an indecipherable [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|alien porn flick.]]

* [[Weapon of Mass Destruction]]: The Utwig Bomb. No matter how shiny it looks in your inventory: Don't. Touch. ([[Tempting Fate|How bad could it be?]] It's just a [[Too Dumb to Live|giant bomb, and our scientists urge that if we test it, we be at least 17 parsecs away!]] [[What Could Possibly Go Wrong?|What could go]] [[Killed Mid-Sentence|wr--]])

* [[Weaponized Exhaust]]: The Thraddash ships leave a fiery trail in their wake thanks to their afterburners.

* [[Retcon]]: The intro tells you that instead of simply being unconscious from being caught in Sa-Matra's explosion, your character was briefly transported into the future to see the Eternal Ones killing everyone.

* [[Re Lex]]: Apparently all alien languages are relexes of English, as {{spoiler|the Precursor tells you that "all races who developed mathematics" had the confusion between "Eternal Ones" and "Eternal1".}}

* [[Simpleton Voice]]: The Doogs speak in one.

* [[This Is a Drill]]: One of the weapons of the Daktaklakpak Vivisector.

* [[Vaporware]]: ''StarCon'', a fully 3D sequel vaguely similar to ''[[Colony Wars]]''. The Harika were one of the confirmed races.

* [[Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe]]: The Owa speak this.

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Sega Genesis]]

[[Category:The Nineties]]

[[Category:Freeware Games]]

[[Category:ZX Spectrum]]