Star Control

[ridiculus]

Da bismo oslobodili ostale topike, svu priču o Star Control ću nastaviti ovde. Verovatno će najviše biti vesti o dolazećem rimejku, ali možemo ćaskati i o Star Control 1, Star Control 2, kao i open-source verziji, The Ur-Quan Masters. Setimo se, Star Control 3 se nije dogodio!


Dakle, ŠTA je Star Control? Kakve su bile te igre, početkom 90-ih? Osvrnuću se na SC 2, pošto je to deo koji poznajem.

Postavka je da moćna vanzemaljska sila, Ur-Quan, porobljava ljude i pravi od Zemlje jednu od svojih mnogobrojnih kolonija. Na igraču je da stvori alijansu od robova i protivničkih civilizacija i pobedi Ur-Quan-e. Priča i svet se odlikuju time da su vanzemaljske rase ZAISTA vanzemaljske - zamislite StarCraft sa mnogo više rasa, i blizu ste.

Žanrovski, ima tu elemenata svega, ali, po meni, avanturistički duh igre je ono što je najviše izdvaja iz mora svemirskih igara. Jedan od razloga zašto je nova verzija toliko zahtevna je ta šarolikost mehanika. Prema rečima čoveka odgovornog za nju (tj. Stardokovu verziju): delom istraživanje planeta, delom istraživanje kosmosa, delom avantura, delom akciona igra, i delom RPG. (Ne zaboravimo da, za SC 2, dodamo i: delom strategija)

Grafika je bila odlična za ono vreme, pre skoro 25 godina, a ova nova igra će da radi na Nitrous-u, vrlo moćnom Stardokovom endžinu, napravljenom za RTS Ashes of the Singularity.

Pisanje je bilo odlično - dobro, ne samo "bilo", već jeste i danas. Stardok je pokušavao da dovede Ričija III i Forda da rade na projektu, ali ne znam da li su uspeli, pošto je razvoj bio praktično pod haubom... ubačenom u titanijumski sef, koji je odnešen na 200 metara dubine u sklonište pod zemljom čiji je jedini ulaz potom raznet eksplozivom. A novinari ispred pobijeni. Iako se zvanično vode samo kao "nestali", mi znamo istinu, jel' tako?

Da ne bude da samo proturam svoje mišljenje, evo šta kaže vikipedija, pod Star Control 2:

Released to critical acclaim, Star Control II is widely viewed today as one of the greatest PC games ever made, and has appeared on numerous publications lists of the greatest video games of all time.

[ridiculus]

Danas-sutra, kada već budem dovoljno odmoran, sešću i sakupiću na gomilu sve informacije o Stardokovom ributu koje su mi poznate, i sve što je Bred Vordel otkrio u vezi njega. Kada sam rekao da  se razvoj dešava u tajnovitosti, nisam mislio BAŠ bukvalno: ponekad, nekoliko puta godišnje, neke informacije budu pružene javnosti.

Do tada, evo Kobetovog teksta sa RPS-a  o Star Control 2, u kolumni The RPG Scrollbars, za koji ne znam da li smo ga pominjali do sada. Ako nismo... pa, kolega Neomedjeni, obrati pažnju!

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/02/15/star-control-ii-retrospective/#more-347263

[neomedjeni]

Neko je rekao Kobet? 

[ridiculus]

Da, čuveni pisac za The Long Journey Home... i donekle za Sunless Sea.

[ridiculus]

Tim Cain o Star Control 2 (link)! Kolega neomedjeni, obrati dvostruku pažnju!

Za one koji ne žele da čitaju, skraćeni opis: Star Control 2 je za Tima Caina (tvorac Fallouta i vodja projekta na Arcanumu) najbolji kompjuterski RPG ikad.

[neomedjeni]

Okej, kupljen sam. Javljajte kad opet bude neki popust.

[ridiculus]

Imaš na GOG-u Star Control 1 i 2 u paketu za nešto više od 5 evra. Ali imaš i potpuno besplatni The Ur-Quan Masters na Sourceforge.net, koji je napravljen na osnovu originalnog koda Star Control 2 za 3DO konzolu.


Evo još jedne stvari pre nego krenem sa sistematizacijom podataka u vezi ributa. Sa prošlogodišnje Konferencije divelopera (GDC), Classic Game Postmortem, sa Polom Ričijem III i Fredom Fordom:


http://youtu.be/Napx0MjivCM


Zanimljiv podatak je da je omot za prvi Star Control radio Boris Valeho:

[Tex Murphy]

Еј, па ја имам сва три дијела тог Стар Цонтрола на ГОГ-у! Уопште се не сјећам кад сам их купио.

[ridiculus]

Sasvim prigodno za igre u kojima se pojavljuju sajrene, arilou lalee'lay (kako god da se to dodjavola čita), mmrnmhrm, i slični. [emoji38] Neki od njih umeju da zalude ljudsko biće. Ili bilo koje biće, u stvari.

[ridiculus]

Eh, hajdemo redom.


Još je 2014. Ars Technica objavila razgovor sa Bredom Vordelom - a to je CEO kompanije Stardock - i tu se mogu saznati neki bitni podaci, ali mi ćemo ih ionako dotaći na drugom mestu. Ipak, koga baš zanima, može da čita intervju ovde.


Sve ove informacije koje slede su sa Stardockovog foruma.


Prvo

It's not a secret that the new Star Control reboot is in development.  The approved budget is approximately $5 million (Star Control 2's budget was $50,000 - that's how amazing Paul and Fred were!).

Drugo

First thing, I talked to Paul and Fred and they suggested I talk to Riku Nuottajärvi about doing music for the new game (he worked on Star Control 2's music) but I don't know how to contact him.  So if any of you could do me the favor of letting him know we are looking to talk to him I'd appreciate it....
Third, the basic plot of the new game has been finalized.  We think people will like it.  Chris Bucholz (cracked.com columnist) is leading the writing effort. You'll be hearing a lot from him in the coming months.

Fourth, from talking to Paul about what sorts of things really matter to him about Star Control we've expanded on the community element of the game.  So in essence, the game will ship with all the tools necessary for modders to create their own "galaxies" (which we refer to as cluster groups until we come up with a better name) that has their own ships, aliens, etc. where users can download and add it to their in-game universe from within the game.

Treće, i možda najbitnije

Challenge #1: IS Star Control Star Control without the Spathi?
The new Star Control is a prequel. It takes place before the events of the original series.
And for those who are deeply into the Star Control lore, our long-term plan is to make the Star Control universe a multiverse.  The Famous battles of the Ur-Quan conflict (part of which is told in Star Control 1 and Star Control 2) take place in one universe.  By contrast, Star Control 3 takes place in a separate universe.

As mentioned, Paul and Fred are the ones who wrote the Ur-Quan conflict lore that manifests partly in the first two Star Control games.  Today, Paul and Fred, the founders of Toys for Bob, work at Activision which precludes them from being able to work on the new Star Control. However, since Star Control is a multiverse, we can, with patience, hopefully wait for the day for a continuation of the Ur-Quan story.

That said, regardless the new Star Control won't deal with the aliens from the Ur-Quan stories for multiple reasons.  First, in the Ur-Quan lore, the humans join the Alliance of Free Stars in 2116, 4 years after the humans are contacted by the Chenjesu and our story takes place in 2086.   Second, because we don't want to interfere with Paul and Fred's story, we want to wait until they're free to work on their story again to continue it. 

From Stardock's point of view, Paul and Fred own the Ur-Quan lore and in fact, this lore goes well beyond what was seen in Star Control 1 and 2.  So while Stardock owns the Star Control universe, we don't make any claim on their lore.  Similarly, post-release if others create their own lore for their own universes, Stardock won't be making any claims on that lore either (i.e. no sneaky EULA that tries to lay claim to any lore/assets made that uses the new Star Control engine).

Dakle, čisto da se zna, i kratko rečeno, Stardock poseduje samo pravo na ime Star Control, dok je predanje iz prve dve igre, zajedno sa svim divnim i čudnim vanzemaljskim rasama, još uvek u rukama Pola Ričija i Freda Forda, i tako će i ostati. Jednim delom zato što nameravaju da se vrate tom univerzumu, kad-tad. Nadajmo se.

No, Vordel obećava da će biti pogodjen duh serijala, pa nema razloga za negodovanje samo na osnovu gore rečenog.

Dakle,

Challenge #2: What IS Star Control?
While game designs are always unique, I'd like to propose that we look at what we are working on together collective as a specific genre (like 4X strategy).

In Star Control's case: It's an action adventure game. Specifically, an action adventure game in which you play as the Earthlings, go out into the galaxy and meet aliens, go on quests, explore planets, and have space battles.

That is what we're in the process of creating.

Challenge #3: Defining some core values

Each person will have their own vision of what they think a new Star Control must contain.  Like I said above, SOME people will absolutely say that Star Control is about the Ur-Quan and the Spathi and so forth.

For me, it's a bit more general.  I want to interact with really interesting aliens that are well written, funny, charming and try out lots of cool ships, design my own custom ship, etc.  That's why we brought on comedy writers early on and have put a lot of budget behind making sure that we're prepared to record 11 hours of voice acting that will be handle through our engine's lips syncing tech (our engine is made by the some guys who led Civilization V's engineering PLUS additional veterans from around the industry).

Takođe i

Challenge #4: Satisfying the super fans
So how are we going to make the hard core fans happy?

Broadly speaking (without giving too much away) we plan to provide fairly extravagant mod tools. Tools well beyond what has ever been made outside of say Spore.

If you've read "Ready Player One" then you have a pretty good idea of the authoring level we are going for.  We'll be talking a lot more about this as we progress.

The main point is that our goal is to make the Star Control universe all-encompassing. Infinite continuities with OUR included initial campaign just one of an endless number that the community can provide.  If you've seen what the Ur-Quan masters team have done, imagine if they had millions of dollars in engineering hours designated to providing tools and support to ensure that there's a never ending stream of Star Control content.

Negde uput je spomenut i endžin (Nitrous) koji su napravili Oxide Games - koji trenutno pomažu na ributu Zvezdane kontrole - i za koji kažu da je ekstremno moćan. Evo je demonstracija (iako od pre skoro tri godine):


http://youtu.be/elzpPFg8O_Q

[ridiculus]

Prvi tizer! Igra će se zvati Star Control: Origins. (Glupo ime, ali ko mene pita!  )


http://youtu.be/K6ntg47q_cM




Osim toga, na Stardokovom forumu je objavljeno ovo.


A Ars Technica baca prvi pogled na trenutno stanje igre: A First Look at Star Control: Origins Gameplay.


Planira se zvanični izlazak za drugu polovinu 2017, za PC verziju. Drugim rečima, igra će biti i na konzolama/konzoli.