Orz is thinking *silly cow* are want to *dance*. July 23, 2013 3:06 PM Subscribe
This post about Stardock buying the rights to Star Control revealed a fair degree of affection for Star Control II on the Blue. Seeing as The Ur-Quan Masters project has has made playing the game on your modern platform of choice a simple download, I think a Metafilter UQM Super Melee tournament is in order.
You are just saying that because of the B.U.T.T. missiles.
posted by aubilenon at 3:12 PM on July 23, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by aubilenon at 3:12 PM on July 23, 2013 [2 favorites]
Naaaaah, the Thraddash Torch is the undisputed champion of the perpetual stalemate. It should probably be banned.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 3:17 PM on July 23, 2013
posted by [expletive deleted] at 3:17 PM on July 23, 2013
while I have a lot of affection for the game, it was really about the single player for me, so I'll pass. but nice (ab)use of tags.
posted by juv3nal at 3:31 PM on July 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by juv3nal at 3:31 PM on July 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
I have to confess: as much as I love Star Control II, I'm terrible at the actual combat. My dream game would be just the talking-with-aliens parts of SCII.
Frungy Frungy Frungy!
posted by Metroid Baby at 6:13 PM on July 23, 2013
Frungy Frungy Frungy!
posted by Metroid Baby at 6:13 PM on July 23, 2013
Nothing but Spathi eluders, all day, every day.
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:08 PM on July 23
I used to respect you.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 7:04 AM on July 24, 2013
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:08 PM on July 23
I used to respect you.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 7:04 AM on July 24, 2013
I'd play some perhaps, rather busy
posted by jeffburdges at 7:45 AM on July 24, 2013
posted by jeffburdges at 7:45 AM on July 24, 2013
I love the game, but it's always been about the single player part for me also. I almost never played Star Control II because my cousin would consistently kick my ass despite whichever combination of ships we chose in Super Melee. Seriously, I couldn't even launch fighters fast enough before he would glory device my ass.
No Zebranky tag?
posted by Rob Rockets at 7:54 AM on July 24, 2013
No Zebranky tag?
posted by Rob Rockets at 7:54 AM on July 24, 2013
I actually agree with the sentiment that the single player game is where it's at. The sense of humor, the plot, the alien races, it all combines to make such an absorbing game and is indubitably why it's such a classic.
That said, the combat model is quirky, with very diverse ships, and it's well optimized for fun.
I'm not a terribly proficient player, especially against human opponents, with most of my PvP experience in the form of sharing a keyboard with my opponent and playing the old DOS version.
Once we have enough people, I think a simple round-robin could be organized, tracked on a google docs spreadsheet or something, and there could be a championship finals, maybe semi-finals as well. It could be played at a leisurely pace that way, and people could even join late in the round-robin, as long as they played their rounds quickly enough.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 8:44 AM on July 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
That said, the combat model is quirky, with very diverse ships, and it's well optimized for fun.
I'm not a terribly proficient player, especially against human opponents, with most of my PvP experience in the form of sharing a keyboard with my opponent and playing the old DOS version.
Once we have enough people, I think a simple round-robin could be organized, tracked on a google docs spreadsheet or something, and there could be a championship finals, maybe semi-finals as well. It could be played at a leisurely pace that way, and people could even join late in the round-robin, as long as they played their rounds quickly enough.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 8:44 AM on July 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
I am a possible for this. My current home computer situation is somewhat unsettled, but provided I could get enough notice to kick my wife off her computer to play, I'd be up for it.
I am also probably terrible at melee, so if you're good send my wife a MeFi Mail asking her to help me be your opening round bye.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 8:58 AM on July 24, 2013
I am also probably terrible at melee, so if you're good send my wife a MeFi Mail asking her to help me be your opening round bye.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 8:58 AM on July 24, 2013
I'm totally in for this. Like I said in the original thread though, I'm pretty bad at melee against humans, so... ;)
posted by Juffo-Wup at 10:02 AM on July 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Juffo-Wup at 10:02 AM on July 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
Hey Captain Fwiffo—I'm lookin' at you, Cortex—I take it you're in?
posted by [expletive deleted] at 10:34 AM on July 24, 2013
posted by [expletive deleted] at 10:34 AM on July 24, 2013
I am happy to participate in an embarrassing, disqualifying first tier, sure.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:47 AM on July 24, 2013
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:47 AM on July 24, 2013
I am totally in, guys. I love melee, though I play with perhaps more enthusiasm than skill. Prepare to be vaguely annoyed by ineffectual Arilou lasers.
posted by en forme de poire at 11:15 AM on July 24, 2013
posted by en forme de poire at 11:15 AM on July 24, 2013
I'm happy to bring some Juffo-Wup to the party. When and where?
posted by Happydaz at 1:25 PM on July 24, 2013
posted by Happydaz at 1:25 PM on July 24, 2013
Mefight Club is where you can find more people who might be in to this, if you need to find more people who are in to this.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 3:18 PM on July 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 3:18 PM on July 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
Thanks Stavros! Will you be participating yourself?
posted by [expletive deleted] at 3:46 PM on July 24, 2013
posted by [expletive deleted] at 3:46 PM on July 24, 2013
Nah. With my very limited free time and unfortunate addiction to building and rebuilding websites, my available game-playing time is extremely limited these days.
But I know out of our 2600-and-counting MFC members, there are more than a few with a love for the genre and that game in particular, and the forum format (and dedicated IRC channel) is a good place to stage and discuss ongoing group-play endeavours. Feel free to use it as a home base, if you want -- the recent EVE Online group that started with a MeTa thread here is, as far as I know, going great guns (so to speak) using MefightClub as a place to organize.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:23 PM on July 24, 2013
But I know out of our 2600-and-counting MFC members, there are more than a few with a love for the genre and that game in particular, and the forum format (and dedicated IRC channel) is a good place to stage and discuss ongoing group-play endeavours. Feel free to use it as a home base, if you want -- the recent EVE Online group that started with a MeTa thread here is, as far as I know, going great guns (so to speak) using MefightClub as a place to organize.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:23 PM on July 24, 2013
obligatory
I would be interested in this!
posted by kagredon at 1:09 AM on July 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
I would be interested in this!
posted by kagredon at 1:09 AM on July 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
Any opinions on the easiest way to connect? Just use ssh port forwarding?
posted by jeffburdges at 5:30 AM on July 25, 2013
posted by jeffburdges at 5:30 AM on July 25, 2013
I've used Hamachi in the past for this purpose. It worked reasonably well, but has now been bought out by LogMeIn, so I don't know if it will still do what we need in the free version.
Details at: https://secure.logmein.com/products/hamachi/
If port forwarding works, that'd be good as well.
The computer I'll be playing from has a public IP, so my opponents shouldn't need to do anything special if I host. But that only works for me, so we'll need to figure something else out for everyone.
posted by Juffo-Wup at 8:10 AM on July 25, 2013
Details at: https://secure.logmein.com/products/hamachi/
If port forwarding works, that'd be good as well.
The computer I'll be playing from has a public IP, so my opponents shouldn't need to do anything special if I host. But that only works for me, so we'll need to figure something else out for everyone.
posted by Juffo-Wup at 8:10 AM on July 25, 2013
I don't know where else to put this so I'll drop it here
posted by en forme de poire at 12:03 PM on July 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by en forme de poire at 12:03 PM on July 25, 2013 [1 favorite]
I considered adding some ships to Ur-Quan Masters given that it's open source, but never did so. If I recall, my favorite ideas were :
Shadow Vessel (Babylon 5)
Cost : 50+ pts
Stats : Good speed, turning, and power regeneration
Crew : Oodles + very slow crew regeneration
Weapon : Slicer beam - Powerful laser with double the Chummer range, auto targets amongst three-ish forward facing angles.
Special : Fires a ball of fighters that explodes into three automated shadow fighters when special is released, similar to UrQuan fighters but fire pellets and 2 crew each. Special consumes 4-6 crew. Fighters die eventually but never return, crew slowly regenerates instead. If special is tapped quickly so that fighters launch near by, they assume a defensive posture.
Comment : Absolutely evil ship but killable.
Arilu Cruiser
Cost : Mid 20s
Stats : Good speed, turning, and power regeneration. Not necessarily inertialess.
Crew : 12+
Weapon : Spacial disruptions - Instantaneous well-but-not-perfectly aimed ranged effect. Not blocked by defensive satellites, planets, etc.
Special : Rewind game time
Comments : Impacts game balance massively, think Utwig levels. Not sure how automatic aiming should be.
Earthling Battleship
Cost : Low 20s
Stats : Better speed but worse turning than old Earthing
Crew : Slightly more than old Earthling
Weapon : Cloaking long range nuclear missile - Missile occasionally uncloaks to track enemy location. Missile is not detected by an enemy's automatic defenses unless uncloaked. Good for killing Chummer, Shadow, Utwig, etc.
Special : Rail gun barrage - Less precise than point defense but more useful for combat
Comments : Cloaked missile first seen in Wing Commander film.
NewRace Collective
Cost : Mid teens
Crew : Tenish separate fighters with two crew each, weapon hits take out at most one fighter each.
Stats : Small ships that always fly in formation directed by the pilot. Maneuverability varies by formation mode.
Weapon : Pellets - Range, number, spread, targeting, etc. depend upon formation mode.
Special : Change formation mode
Comments : Green UrQuan's fighters, Space Marines, missiles, etc. must target individual fighters. Wide angle effects like the Ilwrath or Umgah sound devastating against tight formations. Needs a widely separated formation with automated weapon control so that Shofixti doesn't automatically kill it. Needs a formation with enough range that Black UrQuan and Chummer don't automatically kill either.
posted by jeffburdges at 9:10 AM on August 1, 2013
Shadow Vessel (Babylon 5)
Cost : 50+ pts
Stats : Good speed, turning, and power regeneration
Crew : Oodles + very slow crew regeneration
Weapon : Slicer beam - Powerful laser with double the Chummer range, auto targets amongst three-ish forward facing angles.
Special : Fires a ball of fighters that explodes into three automated shadow fighters when special is released, similar to UrQuan fighters but fire pellets and 2 crew each. Special consumes 4-6 crew. Fighters die eventually but never return, crew slowly regenerates instead. If special is tapped quickly so that fighters launch near by, they assume a defensive posture.
Comment : Absolutely evil ship but killable.
Arilu Cruiser
Cost : Mid 20s
Stats : Good speed, turning, and power regeneration. Not necessarily inertialess.
Crew : 12+
Weapon : Spacial disruptions - Instantaneous well-but-not-perfectly aimed ranged effect. Not blocked by defensive satellites, planets, etc.
Special : Rewind game time
Comments : Impacts game balance massively, think Utwig levels. Not sure how automatic aiming should be.
Earthling Battleship
Cost : Low 20s
Stats : Better speed but worse turning than old Earthing
Crew : Slightly more than old Earthling
Weapon : Cloaking long range nuclear missile - Missile occasionally uncloaks to track enemy location. Missile is not detected by an enemy's automatic defenses unless uncloaked. Good for killing Chummer, Shadow, Utwig, etc.
Special : Rail gun barrage - Less precise than point defense but more useful for combat
Comments : Cloaked missile first seen in Wing Commander film.
NewRace Collective
Cost : Mid teens
Crew : Tenish separate fighters with two crew each, weapon hits take out at most one fighter each.
Stats : Small ships that always fly in formation directed by the pilot. Maneuverability varies by formation mode.
Weapon : Pellets - Range, number, spread, targeting, etc. depend upon formation mode.
Special : Change formation mode
Comments : Green UrQuan's fighters, Space Marines, missiles, etc. must target individual fighters. Wide angle effects like the Ilwrath or Umgah sound devastating against tight formations. Needs a widely separated formation with automated weapon control so that Shofixti doesn't automatically kill it. Needs a formation with enough range that Black UrQuan and Chummer don't automatically kill either.
posted by jeffburdges at 9:10 AM on August 1, 2013
« Older On the Internet, nobody knows you're a whelk | I guess it's ok to NOT answer the question now? Newer »
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:08 PM on July 23, 2013 [2 favorites]