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[USEC_OFFICER]

After finding that the amount of time I can spend on making screenshot LPs has diminished greatly, I've decided to bite the bullet and try making a video Let's Play. After wrestling with Hypercam for forty days and forty nights I have emerged triumphant, allowing me to bring you a Let's Play of

The Ur-Quan Masters is a fan-made recreation of Star Control II, a game that was released in 1992 yet remains one of the greatest PC games in history. Star Control II is a space-combat/exploration game, packing hours of fast-talking, space-exploring, alien-blasting fun into 9.2 Megabytes. How they managed to do that without witchcraft is beyond me. The game rapidly gained a cult following, and its developers released its source code to the community in 2002, prompting the creation of The Ur-Quan Masters. While The Ur-Quan Masters is only on version 0.7~, as far as I can tell every aspect of the original game has successfully been included, except for nameable save files. However it also includes some major improvements over the original, namely a resolution that won't make you squint and voice acting so that I don't have to keep on rambling.

Before you start watching the videos (or at least glancing over them), I'd just like to say that I'm going to do this game mostly blind, though obviously with help from you wonderful people at Bay12 of course. I have played through the first section of the game in Sol, I've looked up Juffo-wup since it came up in one of my previous threads, I've probably picked up some stuff off of the internet, and I've played the Super Melees a bit. But other than that my knowledge about the game comes to an end. Oh, and I've listened to the game's music, which is freaking awesome. I'll be posting it in the thread, because you guys deserve to listen to it without me or some aliens yapping over it. I'll also be posting things from the game's manual, since it is a treasure trove of information and gives a lot of background on the history of the game and the alien races. Plus it also gives descriptions about the various ships in the game, which is awesome since I'm not the greatest captain. Or pilot. Or gunner. Or grunt. Basically, expect me to die a lot because I suck at combat.

Oh, and one more thing before we begin. Checking my Steam inventory reveals that I have a spare copy of Civilization V to give out. If enough people are interested, I could hold a contest during the course of this LP, with Civilization V as the grand prize. At the very least it'll give you guys something to do while waiting for me to post the next videos. Sound like a plan?

Anything else to talk about? No? Then let's begin this epic journey through space!

Video List

Link to the entire playlist, for those guys who are into that.

Chapter 1: Today's music ain't got the same Sol
1 - 21^st Time's the Charm
2 - Commander Hayes Speaks
3 - We Need More Minerals
4 - Spy in our Base!

Mining Intermission:
Galena

Chapter 2: Meeting the Neigbours
5 - Aliens
6 - Birdbrains
7 - Battle Royale with Cheese
8 - Thrilling Conclusion
9 - Ain't no Friends of the Zebranky
10 - Linguistic Master
11 - You never visit!
12 - *Fingers*

Chapter 3: The Grand Tour
13 - Blobby Things
14 - You are like Ants to Me
15 - Why Hello There
16 - Scotsmen in SPAAAAAAAACE!
17 - A Complete Waste of Time
18 - A Completer Waste of Time
19 - Whoops
20 - A Good Probing
21 - Tech up!
22 - Tall Green Men

Mining Intermission:
Hematite

Chapter 4:  The Littlest Chapter
23 - Now You're Thinking with Portals
24 - HOLY %@#$%^@$%@$#!
25 - VUX Perv- Aesthetic

Chapter 5: Is it really 2013?
26 - "Whoops"
27 - Greenish Speaks!
28 - Pimping
29 - Wasting Time
30 - Mycon Mayhem
31 - Don't Feel Like Dancing
ERROR
33 - Et Tu, F2?
34 - Can't Walk the Walk
35 - Big Damn Heros

Chapter 6: Ultronomicon
36 - The Ugggghwig
37 - Symbotic Supox
38 - The Crimson Corporation
39 - Two out of Three
40 - One Step Closer
41 - Crank Calling
42 - On the Hunt
43 - Cooking with Mycon
44 - YAFQ
Bonus Battle Bideo: PROMOTIONS!
45 - Ultron Handyman

Chapter 7: Perfect Way to End Things
46 - I Have a Cunning Plan
47 - Exciting Thumb Twiddling Action
48 - THE PROCESS IS INCOMPLETE
49 - Title Drop
50 - Assault on Black Sa-Matra

[USEC_OFFICER]

Alien Races

Earthlings

Theme Music: Commander Hayes's Theme
Alignment: The New Alliance of Free Stars
Personality: Helpful. Easily convinced.
Military Force: One pilot in "The Vindicator", a badass precursor starship. One Earthling Cruiser. One Spathi Eluder. Three Pkunk Furies. Two Arilou Skiffs, 2 Zoq-Fot-Pik Stingers
Known Systems: Sol (Earthling Starbase) (175.2,145.0)
Vela (Zelnick Homeworld) (334.5, 193.1)
Notable Persons: Commander Hayes, Capitan Zelnick, Captain Ender

History: Will soon be revealed...

Notable Events:
Lost the war against the Ur-Quan Hierarchy. Became a fallow slave world. Liberated (kinda) by Captian Zelnick.

Rumours:
Detected odd alien broadcast from Rigel. COMPLETED

Shofixti

Theme Music: 95% sure it'll never come up again, so enjoy!
Alignment: The New Alliance of Free Stars
Personality: War-like. Brave. Suicidal. Japanese. Sterotypical.
Military Force: Two extremely broken down starships.
Known Systems: Delta Gorno (Shofixti Homewolrd?) (290.8, 26.9)
Notable Persons: Tanaka, Katana

History:
The Shofixti were living in crude mud huts when the Yehat found and "uplifted" them. The two races co-operated closely together until the start of the war with the Hierarchy.

During the war the Shofixti fought bravely, and their rapid breeding/maturation rate keep the ranks of the Alliance thick. When the Alliance lost the Shofixti blew up their star systems, taking large numbers 30% of the goddamn Ur-Quan fleet with them. The only survivors were Tanaka and Katana, and 12 Shofixti maidens in cyro sleep in General ZEX's zoo.

Notable Events:
Captain Zelnick and Tanaka met in Delta Gorno and... eventually worked out their differences, involving much swearing (the good kind!).

Tanaka buggered off with the Shofixti Maidens somewhere, and eventually returned with a starship full of them. Don't ask me how that works. They probably found cloning pods or something.

Rumours:
None.

Orz

Theme Music: I have to catch up with this stuff, don't I?
Aligment: *Parties* with *happy campers*
Personality: With the horrible translations, only Armok knows.
Military Force: Pretty strong fleet of Nemesises. Probably an expeditionary force.
Known Systems: Gamma Vulpeculae (Orz Homeworld???) (371.3, 253.1)
Beta Lalande (340.0, 280.4)
Delta Vulpeculae (372.1, 261.9)
Notable Persons: None

History: Someone else can make sense of this mess. Something involving dimensional travel and *fingers*

Notable Events:
*Partied* with *happy campers* Zelnick and Fwiffo.
Are currently chasing the Taalo through *Pretty Space*. Okay then...

Rumours:
Implied genocide of Androsynth. DON'T WANT TO KNOW
May be the Elder Gods. Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Orz R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!

Zoq-Fot-Pik

Theme Music: Pretty damn good.
Aligment: The New Alliance of Free Stars
Personality: They're three different alien species. Don't ask me.
Military Force: Pshaw. Military force...
Known Systems: Alpha Tucanae (Zoq-Fot-Pik Homeworld) (400.0, 543.7)
Notable Persons: None.

History:
Four sentient species evolved on the first planet in Alpha Tucane: The Zoq, the Fot, the Pik and the Zebranky. The Zebranky used the other three species as a food source, prompting them to band together and form a coalition to attack the Zebranky. The Zebranky were completely wiped out.

The Chenjesu met the Zoq-Fot-Pik at some time before the end of Star Control I.

Notable Events:
Tried to communicate with the Earthlings from Rigel. Were met by Captain Zelnick and the Vindicator.
Joined the New Alliance of Free Stars when their homeworld was visited by Captain Zelnick.

Rumours:
Caught in a crossfire between an Ur-Quan civil war. WORKING ON IT
Source of the alien probes. ALREADY GOT IT, BRO
Being attacked by the Kohr-Ah. THANK GOD FOR PORTALS

Chenjesu (featuring the Mmrnmhrm)

Theme Music: Also the Chmmr Theme?
Alignment: The New Alliance of Free Stars/Fallow Slaves of the Ur-Quan Hierarchy
Personality: Rational. Mechanic. They're freaking Crystal/Robot people. What did you expect?
Military Force: Going to kick your ass in 35 years...
Known Systems: Procyon (Homeworld) (074.2,226.8)
Notable Persons None

History:
The Chenjesu were chilling in their neighbourhood when they detected the Ur-Quan oppressing the people and stuff. So they went to their bros the Mmrnmhrm and gave the Ur-Quan a black eye. However the Ur-Quan just went after a bunch of other races, so the Chenjesu called up the Shofixti and Yehat to help lay the smack down on the Ur-Quan. They also found Earth and decided that the humans were cool enough to join their Alliance, which prompted the Arilou/Syreen to jump out of the woodwork and join too.

Eventually the Ur-Quan deployed the Sa-Matra and totally destroyed everyone's asses. So the Chenjesu bent the knee, only so that they could team up with the Mmrnmhrm on Procyon to enact revenge. They would commit unspeakable acts against nature to fuse the two races to smack the Ur-Quan and their Sa-Matra into next Tuesday. But that's going to take 35 years. And we don't have that long.

Notable Events:
Zelnick managed to communicate with the Chenjesu through the Slave Shield.

Rumours:
Need more power for the Process. GOING TO MAKE US SOME SUNS

Pkunk

Theme Music: Pkunk Theme
Alignment: In love...
Personality: New Age. Love and Kindness. Freaking annoying.
Military Force: Large numbers of fast Pkunk Furies.
Known Systems: Beta Krueger (Pkunk Homeworld I think) (53.0, 44.2)
Gamma Krueger (Pkunk Homeworld Maybe) (52.2, 52.5)
Beta Giclas (84.3, 43.1)
Notable Persons: Screech, Crow, Hooter

History:
Split from the Yehat ages ago after learning crystal harmony blah, blah, blah. Squaking was involved somehow. Yehat now fire on the Pkunk on sight.
Were attacked by the Ilwrath 8 years ago.

Notable Events:
Became friends with Zelnick (and by extension all of humanity).
Tried to reunite with the Yehat. Zelnick convinced them to head back (for now).

Rumours:
Have a year until the Ilwrath wipe them all out. I HAVE NO CLUE ANYMORE

Supox

Theme Music: SupoxTheme
Alignment: Want to get all symbiotic with us.
Personality: Friendly. Plant-people.
Military Force: Reasonable number of highly-maneuverable ships.
Known Systems: Beta Librae (Supox Homeworld) (741.4, 912.4)
Notable Persons: None

History:
Evolved to trade... reproductive assistance for nutrients on their homeworld Earth. Somehow became friends with the whiny Utwig.

Notable Events:
Gave Zelnick the broken Ultron.

Went to attack the Kohr-Ah with their best bros, the Utwig.

Rumours:
None

Arilou

Theme Music: Good luck getting out of your head.
Alignment: Only Lord Armok knows. Definitively friendly though.
Personality: Little Green Men (except taller). Mysterious. Condescending.
Military Force: Unknown. Probably greater than mortal man can ken.
Known Systems: UNKNOWN (Arilou Homeworld) (Quasispace, Good Luck)
Notable Persons: That guy who touched my face while I was sleeping.

History:
Having been grooming and altering humanity for generations. No clue why.
Were called the Arilou Laleelay by the Celts.
Lots of ancient human monuments and artwork were dedicated to them for some reason.
Got really, really personal with humanity. Really.

Notable Events:
Captain Zelnick found the Arilou homeworld in Quasispace. Was condescended to.
Arilou contributed three skiffs to the Alliance.
Built a snazzy portal device for the Vindicator.

Rumours:
Junk we already know about. THANKS A BUNDLE
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend, at least for a little while." I HOPE IT'S THE TALKING PET
Do not trust the Orz. WHOOPS
Behind everything. EVERYTHING

Syreen

Theme Music: Pretty cool, I must admit.
Alignment: Fallow Slave World of The Ur-Quan Hierarchy. French kissing the Alliance.
Personality: Hippies (the sexy kind). Peaceful. Matriarchal.
Military Force: None.
Known Systems: Betelgeuse (Syreen Starbase) (412.5, 377.0)
Notable Persons: Commander Talana

History:
Evolved peacefully on a lush, vibrant planet. Developed a peaceful culture devoted to the aesthetics instead of brutally murdering each other.

Syree got bombarded by a mysterious asteroid, that penetrated the planet's crust. Several weeks/months volcanic eruptions spewed out everywhere and killed almost everyone on the planet. The survivors in the Syreen Space Patrol (mostly women), saved as many as possible before setting out to find a new planet. Joined the Alliance of Free Stars after being harassed by the VUX.

After the war they surrendered to the Ur-Quan, who gave them a lush, vibrant planet like they wanted instead of blasting them apart into Syreen chunks. Choose to become a fallow slave world instead of battle thralls, due to their peaceful nature.

Notable Events
Captain Zelnick tried to seduce Commander Talana.

The Syreen were convinced by the Mycon Eggshell to abandon the Hierarchy. Since their ships were taken from them by the Ur-Quan Masters, a shuttle of their best officers joined Zelnick's fleet to find their Penetrators.

Rumours:
Mysterious asteroid bombardment of Syree SPOILED/SOLVED

Slylandro

Theme Music: Rocking as hell.
Aligment: Neutral
Personality: Curious. Clueless. Naive.
Military Force: Swarms of rapidly multiplying probes are taking over the galaxy in their name, but otherwise none.
Known Systems: Beti Corvi (Slylandro Homegiant) (033.3, 981.2)
Notable Persons: Joyous Lifting, Sullen Plummet

History:
Evolved senescence in a gas giant in their homesystem, preventing them from developing spaceflight. Were visited often by the Precursors thousands of years ago, who set up a satellite system to communicate with them. Eventually the Precursors stopped making visits after discovering their 'answer', which is somehow connected to the rainbow worlds.

After the Precursors came the Milieu, which was an association of several alien species, the Yuli, the Drall, the Taalo, the Mael-Num, the Faz and the Ur-Quan. The Ur-Quan (who were brown back then) often visited the Slylandro to talk about their scouting missions. However, after several thousand years, the Milieu suddenly stopped arriving, indication some kind of galactic disaster.

Eventually the Slylandro were visited by the Melnorme, who traded a self-replicating probe for biological information about the Slylandro and their ecosystem. Before the probe left, the Slylandro turned the replication behaviour to the maximum.

Notable Events:
Gave the self destruct sequence for the probes to Captain Zelnick.

Rumours:
The ten treasure worlds have something to do with the Precursor's disappearance. TWO DOWN
Treasure world in a system with two blue stars. FOUND
The Ur-Quan used to be such a nice species. THEY NEED MORE HUGGLES

Melnorme

Theme Music: One of the better ones.
Alignment: Neutral
Personality: Traders. Hard Bargainers.
Military Force: Freaking annoying.
Known Systems: Alpha Centauri (155.9, 99.3)
Zeeman (335.2,194.0)
Alpha Apodis (258.2, 850.7)
Notable Persons: Trade Master Greenish

History:
Unknown, but they'd probably sell it to us for the right price.

Notable Events:
Encountered the "Inevitability Successful in all Circumstances" in Alpha Centauri.
Not getting invited to any of the cool Earthling-Orz *parties*, those buzzkills.

Rumours:
Two Shofixti brothers in Delta Gorono. FOUND
Shofixti Maidens on Alpha Cerenkov I. BEING RAVAGED
Ur-Quan civil war around Crateris. THANKS FOR THE INFORMATION. NEVER WOULD HAVE GUESSED
Dimension portal between Chandrasekhar and Columbae. COMPLETED.
Ur-Quan Dreadnaught in the Alpha Pavonis system. SUCKS TO BE THE UMGAH
Extinct Burvixese race on Arcturus I. VIDEO GAME SENSES TINGLING
Utwig Homeworld on Zeta Hyades VI-B, where they found a bomb. OH BOY!
Druuge in the Algol, Almagest, Persei systems. OKAY
Druuge Trade World on Zeta Persei I DON'T NEED MORE FUEL
Druuge sold the Utwig a piece of Precursor junk. AT LEAST THE UTWIG ARE HAPPY
Ultron Rosy Sphere in the procession of the Druuge. STILL DAMN IT
Ultron Aqua Helix on a Thraddash world. BEING 'RESOLVED'

Utwig

Theme Music: Blah. Too slow-paced for me.
Alignment: Neutral
Personality: Emo. Depressed. Full of themselves.
Military Force: To be reckoned with.
Known Systems: Zeta Hyades (Utwig Bomb) (850.0, 937.2)

History:
The Utwig were feeling depressed, so the Druuge (smelling a good deal), sold them the Ultron, which would improve their society in a whole host of unspecified but amazing ways. The Utwig bought the Ultron, but pulled the old switch-a-roo, giving them a bunch of precursor junk they found in their attic instead of the Precursor Bomb they found on Zeeta Hyades. The Utwig then became party animals, until they broke the Ultron, throwing them into an incredible funk.

Notable Events:
Was given the completed Ultron by Captain Zelnick.

Went to attack the Kohr-Ah with their bros, the Supox, at the urging of the Ultron.

Rumours:
Utwig Bomb on Zeta Hyades. NEEDS IMPROVEMENTS. GAH.

Dynarri

Theme Music: Yes, they do have one.
Alignment: Vaguely Helpful
Personality: Liars. Manipulative. Evil.
Military Force: Zip.
Known Systems: None
Notable Persons: Talking Pet (Nicknamed 'Jimmy')

History:
20,000 years ago the Sentient Milieu and their Ur-Quan scout vessels encountered the Dynarri. The Dynarri used their psychic powers to take over the Milieu and acted all evil and stuff. Eventually the Ur-Quan overthrew the Dynarri at the cost of horrible, horrible mental scarring. In retribution, the Ur-Quan crippled the Dynarri's intelligence, so that they could perform the most demeaning task they could think of: Translating the words of slaves. Pretty much everything we've heard 10 times before, to be honest.

Notable Events
A talking pet managed to survive a crash landing on Alpha Pavonis, and was picked up and tended to by the Arilou. However the Arilou could not heal it, and passed it over to the Umgah, who had more knowledge in these matters. The Umgah discovered that its intelligence was crippled, and managed to make it sentient again. Whoops. The Talking Pet quickly took over their entire society, and began to develop a plan to get revenge on the Ur-Quan.

Eventually Captain Zelnick in the Vindicator arrived on the scene. Immune to the Talking Pet's mind control due to the Taalo Shield, the Talking Pet set his Umgah ships against the Vindicator. The Umgah were quickly defeated because they absolutely suck. Faced with utter destruction, the Talking Pet made a deal with Zelnick. Provided that it helps defeat the Ur-Quan, it won't be shoved out into an airlock.

Rumours:
None, but I hear that if you pay Watchuki $10 she'll let you poke it with a stick.

Yehat

Theme Music: Yehat Theme
Alignment: It's complicated.
Personality: Scottish. Honourable. Accomplished Jazz Musicians.
Military Force: Highly honed and professional. Extremely deadly.
Known Systems: Gamma Serpentis (Yehat Homeworld) (492.3, 029.4)
Alpha Serpentis (491.0, 018.0)
Beta Serpentis (486.1, 026.2)
Notable Persons: Queen Veep-Neep.

History:
For 2000 years the Yehat clans have been united Veep-Neeps. Before Star Control I, the Yehat discovered the Shofixti in the Gorno system, and 'uplifted' them.

After fighting the Ur-Quan and the hierarchy bravely, a fleet of Ur-Quan dreadnoughts was dispatched to Gamma Serpentis, which the Yehat were prepared to fight to the death to defend. However, before much blood was shed, the Queen of the Yehat surrendered, much to the displeasure and shame of the Star Clans. The Yehat, being Scotsmen in Space, obviously became battle thralls of the Ur-Quan.

Notable Events:
Blew up Captain Zelnick in the Vindicator twice.

After discovering that the Shofixti had returned, the Zeep-Zeeps rebelled against the Veep-Neeps, the Veep-Kreeps decided to join the revolutionaries while the Freep-Neeps attacked the Zeep-Zeeps while the Deep-Leeps watched that the Leep-Treeps Beeped Zeeped Feeped and... I need to lie down.

Rumours:
Star Clans are annoyed at becoming Battle Thralls. UPRISING COMPLETE
Mycon guarding a planet in Gamma Scorpii. NO CLUE

Spathi

Theme Music: Maybe after we face them in glorious combat.
Alignment: Battle-Thralls of The Ur-Quan Hierarchy
Personality: Cowardly. Paranoid.
Military Force: Unknown, but presumably annoying and deadly.
Known Systems: Spathiwa (Spathi Homeworld) (AKA Gruis Epsilon) (241.6, 368.7)
Notable Persons: Captian Fwiffo

History:
Enslaved by the Ur-Quan and became Battle-Thralls, despite their natural cowardness. Perhaps they decided that they needed the weaponry/power despite the risks?

Formed the second half of the Earthguard after the Alliance was subdued. After the Ilwrath left they strategically withdrew to Pluto in case the humans did something sneaky. Eventually began withdrawing their forces altogether to face THE ULTIMATE EVIL!

Notable Events:
Remaining Spathi in Sol, Captain Fwiffo, was recruited by Zelnick. Their loss.

Rumours:
None, unless you count THE ULTIMATE EVIL!

Mycon

Theme Music: Kinda the odd one out, to be honest.
Alignment: Battle-Thralls of The Ur-Quan Hierarchy
Personality: Religious. Spaced out. Not all there.
Military Force: Powerful, but not a threat to us.
Known Systems: Epsilon Scorpii (Mycon Homeworld) (629.1, 220.8)
Beta Brahe (???) (639.5, 231.2)
Alpha Brahe (620.8, 233.3)
Gamma Brahe (635.4, 272.9)
Epsilon Brahe (641.6, 262.5)
Zeta Brahe (650.0, 245.8)
Notable Persons: Juffo-Wup

History:
Bombarded the Syreen Homeworld with one of their Deep Children. Or something like that.

Joined the Ur-Quan willingly, for some silly reason.

Notable Events:
Captain Zelnick found the remains of the universe's biggest omelet.

Rumours:
To be honest, I kinda zoned out after a while. Still, I'm sure that I didn't miss anything, right?

Umgah
Like hell I'm dirtying this post with their ugly visage

Theme Music: Oddly similar to the Orz.
Alignment: Battle-Thralls of The Ur-Quan Hierarchy
Personality: At least they have a good personality. Jokesters. Pranksters. Great bio-engineers.
Military Force: Totally lame and underpowered.
Known Systems: Beta Orionis (Umgah Homeworld) (197.8, 596.8)
Alpha Orionis (190.2, 606.5)
Notable Persons: None, but if they had any they're be horrible ugly.

History:
Clobbered a Mycon for ‼SCIENCE‼ and discovered that they are actually sophisticated bio-tools.

Notable Events:
USEC_OFFICER tried to not look at them.
Were saved from the Talking Pet by Zelnick and the Vindicator, making them the Great Hero.
Almost immediately did an about-face and declared Zelnick to be the Great Enemy. USEC_OFFICER is cool with this.

Rumours:
Ur-Quan wreck in Alpha Pavonis found by Arilou. FOUND!
Pulled a prank on the Ilwrath by pretending to be Dogar and Kazon. WON'T SHARE THEIR COMMUNICATORS WITH ME

Thaddash

Theme Music: Honed over centuries of battle.
Alignment: Battle-Thralls of The Ur-Quan Hierarchy
Personality: Hostile. Brutal. Aggressive. Complete and utter inability to pilot their own ships effectively. Are like ants to me.
Military Force: Dies too quickly for me to check.
Known Systems: Gamma Draconis (251.8, 805.6)
Delta Draconis (253.5, 835.8)
Zeta Draconis (Aqua Helix) (277.6, 867.3)

History:
Developed a series of different cultures over their history, each of which has an interesting history that I care so little about.
Culture 18 was attacked and obviously defeated by the Ur-Quan before Star Control I. Culture 19 succeeded them by introducing poisons into their enemies's air and water.
Afterburners were developed when an unlucky engineer dropped his cigar into a fuel valve, propelling the ship at a great distance and frying him to a crisp.
Couldn't play nice with the other Battle-Thralls, so they had to sit in a corner while Star Control I happened.

Notable Events:
Was graced by the presence of Captain Zelnick.
Went to help the Ur-Quan with their Civil War, got their asses kicked.
Were attacked by the Ilwrath, allowing Captain Zelnick to sneak in and steal the Aqua Helix for the Ultron.

Rumours:
Alien probes coming from Vega. FINISHED!
Mysterious World in Epsilon Draconis. FOUND
Aqua Helix STOLEN

Ilwrath

Theme Music: Soon...
Alignment: Battle-Thralls of The Ur-Quan Hierarchy
Personality: Evil. Destructive. Aggressive. Religious Fanatics.
Military Force: Large and terribly annoying number of Ilwrath Avengers. An unnamed planet converted into a starship (responsible for 99.999% of the Ilwrath's kills).
Known Systems: Alpha Bootis (Ilwrath Homeworld) (022.9, 366.6)
Alpha Tauri (022.9, 266.6)
Notable Persons: None

History:
Warlike but insignificant race until the Ur-Quan attacked and enslaved them. During the events of Star Control I, their main forces were sent against the Chenjesu and Mmrnmhrm.

After the war they acted as half of the Earthguard until they got bored and went to attack the Pkunk.

Notable Events:
Were tricked by Captain Zelnick into attacking the Thraddash. Are somehow getting their asses handed to them.

Rumours:
Dogar and Kazon, their dark gods of evil/destruction, are a hoax. DONE!

Druuge

Theme Music: Druuge Theme
Alignment: Neutral
Personality: Slavers. Corporate. Conservative.
Military Force: Long-ranged yet outclassed Druuge Maulers
Known Systems: Zeta Persei (Druuge Trade Centre) (946.9, 280.6)
Notable Persons: None

History:
Looking to get their hands on the Utwig Super Bomb, the Druuge tried to sell the unhappy species the Ultron. While an actual Precusor artefact, the Ultron was as useful as a fork to anyone. However the Utwig bought it anyways, and became incredibly happy/exciting. However instead of selling their Super Bomb, the Utwig gave the Druuge a box of crappy Precusor junk they had lying around in their basement.

The Burvixese, upon hearing from the Gg that the Kohr-Ah were attracted to Hyperwave broadcasts, told everyone, including the Druuge. The Druuge, being evil and all, immediately shut down their own broadcasts while building an incredibly powerful one on the Burvixese's moon. The Kohr-Ah soon detected these broadcasts, and went after the Burvixese, thus sparing the Druuge.

Notable Events
Got their asses handed to them by the Vindicator for trying to steal the Utwig bomb.

Zelnick is no longer welcomed at their trade world.

Rumours:
100 crew for a Rosy Sphere. FOR THE GREATER GOOD

VUX

Theme Music: Blah.
Alignment: Battle-Thralls of The Ur-Quan Hierarchy
Personality: We've hardly met a representation of their species. Hates humans with a passion. Vain.
Military Force: Slow as heck, threatening as a dead duck.
Known Systems: Alpha Cerenkov (General ZEX's Party Planet) (422.1, 198.6)
Notable Persons: General ZEX

History:
Were insulted by humans in Star Control 1, which prevented them from joining the Alliance of Free Stars. Were conquered and enslaved by the Ur-Quan.

General ZEX apparently helped the VUX win a bunch of battles. For his heroic efforts, he was given an entire planet to be creepy on.

Notable Events:
Captain Zelnick was severely creeped out by General ZEX.

General ZEX got eaten by the VUX Beast while trying to double-cross Captain Zelnick.

The Shofixti Maidens where found on the surface of Alpha Cerenkov.

Rumours:
General ZEX wanted a special creature. It lives in the 'Linch-Nas-Ploh' system, around a yellow star. 'Linch-Nas-Ploh' apparently means: 'The long, thin creature who has swallowed the huge beast.' OM NOM NOM NOM

Ur-Quan

Theme Music: Eh...
Alignment: Supreme Leaders of The Ur-Quan Hierarchy
Personality: Control freaks. Evil (though they act more like traumatized children).
Military Force: Big, bad, destructive and highly vulnerable to a bunch of ships.
Known Systems: Alpha Camelopardalis (606.2, 404.1)
Beta Camelopardalis (595.8, 408.3)
Notable Persons: Lord 21

History: Ages ago the Ur-Quan evolved and slowly developed civilization, due to their territorial and hunter instincts. When they entered space they joined the Milieu as scouts and explorers. The only people that the Ur-Quan could talk to were the Taalo, due to their rock-like biology not setting off the Ur-Quan's natural instincts. Presumably the Slylandro became their friends for similar reasons.

Eventually one Ur-Quan scoutship encountered the Dnyarri, who were sentient and telepathic back then. They were also huge dicks. The Dnyarri telepathically controlled the Ur-Quan, and spread throughout the Milieu, enslaving it races. Since the Taalo's unique biology was resistant to the Dnyarri's mind control powers, the Dnyarri forced the Ur-Quan to kill all the Taalo. All of them, along with a couple other 'inferior' Milieu species. The Dnyarri then began to tinker with the Ur-Quan's genes, splitting them into the black and green Ur-Quan. Eventually it was discovered that intense pain would block out the Dnyarri's signals, so for decades the Ur-Quan lived in intense, unceasing pain as they sought to eliminate their oppressors.

The Green Ur-Quan were the scientists and bureaucrats of the Dnyarri, thinkers rather than leaders or workers. After defeating the Dnyarri they developed the Doctrine of Now and Forever. Basically, the Ur-Quan were to control and 'protect' all other races for their own good, through horrific slavery. After developing and deploying the first slave shield over of the remaining races of the Milieu, the Kzer-Za stumbled across the Kohr-Ah over the Mael-Num homeworld. Nasty words were said, one thing led to another, and the First Doctrinal Conflict started, which the Kzer-Za won. Being sporting chaps they let the Kohr-Ah go before leaving in a self-imposed exile in the other direction.

After 20,000 years and the events of Star Control I, the Kohr-Ah have finally found the Kzer-Za and decided that it's about time for the Second Doctrinal Conflict. Oh boy.

Notable Events:
Erected a slave shield around Vela.

Got horribly murdered by Captain Zelnick in the Vindicator.

Rumours:
Ur-Quan Civil War. ACTUALLY A DOCTRINAL CONFLICT
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend, at least for now." DOES IT HAVE TO BE NOW?
















If you can't tell, the alien races are ranked by their hostility towards us.

Ur-Quan Kohr-Ah

Theme Music: I... honestly cannot remember it off the top of my head.
Alignment: Kohr-Ah
Personality: Evil. Horribly evil. Genocidal maniacs.
Military Force: Big, bad, destructive and highly vulnerable to Fwiffo.
Known Systems: Alpha Tucanae (400.0, 543.7)
Notable Persons: None

History:
Ages ago the Ur-Quan evolved and slowly developed civilization, due to their territorial and hunter instincts. When they entered space they joined the Milieu as scouts and explorers. The only people that the Ur-Quan could talk to were the Taalo, due to their rock-like biology not setting off the Ur-Quan's natural instincts. Presumably the Slylandro became their friends for similar reasons.

Eventually one Ur-Quan scoutship encountered the Dnyarri, who were sentient and telepathic back then. They were also huge dicks. The Dnyarri telepathically controlled the Ur-Quan, and spread throughout the Milieu, enslaving it races. Since the Taalo's unique biology was resistant to the Dnyarri's mind control powers, the Dnyarri forced the Ur-Quan to kill all the Taalo. All of them, along with a couple other 'inferior' Milieu species. The Dnyarri then began to tinker with the Ur-Quan's genes, splitting them into the black and green Ur-Quan. Eventually it was discovered that intense pain would block out the Dnyarri's signals, so for decades the Ur-Quan lived in intense, unceasing pain as they sought to eliminate their oppressors.

The black Ur-Quan were the soldiers/builders/doers of the Dnyarri. Thus when the Dnyarri were defeated they developed the Eternal Doctrine, which basically called for the extermination of all non-Ur-Quan life. After killing off one of the three remaining races of the Milieu, the Kohr-Ah were about to eliminate the Mael-Num when the Plea was uttered. When the Kohr-Ah were explaining themselves the Kzer-Za warped in and whooped their asses in the First Doctrinal Conflict. The Kzer-Za, being nice people, exiled the Kohr-Ah.

After 20,000 years (which is apparently nothing to the average Ur-Quan) the Kohr-Ah have finally found the Kzer-Za and decided that it's about time for the Second Doctrinal Conflict. Oh boy.

They enjoy long walks on the beach, and wiping out entire alien races, like the distant Gg and the not-so-distant Burvixese.

Notable Events:
Were not as nice as they led us to believe. Are still cuddly and lovable though.

Got horribly murdered by Captain Zelnick in the Vindicator.

Rumours:
Ur-Quan Civil War. STILL A DOCTRINAL CONFLICT

[USEC_OFFICER]

Ships and Combat

Ilwrath Avenger

Primary: Hellfire
Special: Activates/Deactivates Cloaking Field

Pros:
Cloaking field prevents missile lock-on.
Hellfire devastating close up.
Decloaking auto-orientates the Avenger towards the enemy; No sneaking up on the Ilwrath!
Energy regen like nobody's business.

Cons:
Hellfire has a very short range.
Quite slow.
Completely vulnerable to cherry-tapping by faster ships.
Freaking annoying.

Counter with: The Vindicator. The Spathi Eluder.

[USEC_OFFICER]

Well, I've finally mustered up the courage to post this thing. Quality not guaranteed, especially with the piece of crap that is HyperCam. If anybody wants to mention some free alternatives, I would be eternally in your debt. Any suggestions for improvements would be welcome as well.

Right now I've got nerdy things to do, but eventually I'll come back to talk about where to go after Sol. I'm not going to spoil anything, but plot hooks ahoy. The game has a fairly big map, so if you want to play along or at least have a vague idea of where everything is, I suggest that you download the (non-spoiler) map from here. It's pretty much identical to the map that came with the game, but prettier and easier to understand. Plus it comes with a legend of all the planets, which will certainly come in handy.

[Aklyon]

I didn't know this had a manual.

[Girlinhat]

I want to love this game, but combat proves too tricky for me.  What with the quick action, manual aim, and the way the camera zooms in and out spasmodically...

The only good guides I've heard are scumsaving, though, to save, begin harvesting a planet of minerals, and to reload if you lose a lander.

[USEC_OFFICER]

I want to love this game, but combat proves too tricky for me.  What with the quick action, manual aim, and the way the camera zooms in and out spasmodically...

The only good guides I've heard are scumsaving, though, to save, begin harvesting a planet of minerals, and to reload if you lose a lander.

Well the game has a cyborg option that let's the AI battle for you. Obviously I won't be using that option (hopefully), but I wouldn't blame you if you turned it onto max. Having an option to tone down the AI difficulty would have been nice though.

Oh, and I'll be saving often. The game has tons of save slots, and I'm going to use all of them.

[Girlinhat]

Yes, but the cyborg pretty much does dice instead of battle, just skips the conflict and declares a winner.

[Itnetlolor]

The starmap was also part of the copy-protection that came with the original PC game, where you were given a series of coordinates, and you had to guess the constellation/star it was referencing before you could play either the main game, or Super-Melee.

I gotta finish my game. I'm so close to the end, but other things, and Borderlands 2 have been eating up my time.

I went amnesia/cold-start (forgetting everything), and played it absolutely classically, just a notepad (or notepad++, more like, with a custom formatting for highlighting purposes), but also for Hyper-/Quasi-space efficiency, as well as mineral/BIO bookkeeping, I also made myself a custom Excel spreadsheet. I'm willing to provide it if you want. I know the mineral value tracker would be the most helpful thing to use, especially when you've got several storage units, found awesome awesome planets, but are almost fully stocked, and don't know what minerals to sacrifice in exchange for some Radioactives, Precious Metals, or Exotics.

As an added feature, the mineral value tracker can also tell you what you have the most of, and what's contributing the most value. Trivial, I know, but interesting when you have like roughly 50 exotics, several hundred Precious, many many Base Minerals, and Commons out-class them all in both value and amount.

Nice to see someone LP this. Spread the love.

  >--\
(•)===(
  >--/
Fwiffo Approved.
This message brought to you by the Interstellar Frungy League

[Aklyon]

Frungy, you say?

[USEC_OFFICER]

Yes, but the cyborg pretty much does dice instead of battle, just skips the conflict and declares a winner.

Huh. Must be something with The Ur-Quan Masters then, since the Star Control II manual heavily implies that Cyborg just makes your ships AI controlled.

I went amnesia/cold-start (forgetting everything), and played it absolutely classically, just a notepad (or notepad++, more like, with a custom formatting for highlighting purposes), but also for Hyper-/Quasi-space efficiency, as well as mineral/BIO bookkeeping, I also made myself a custom Excel spreadsheet. I'm willing to provide it if you want. I know the mineral value tracker would be the most helpful thing to use, especially when you've got several storage units, found awesome awesome planets, but are almost fully stocked, and don't know what minerals to sacrifice in exchange for some Radioactives, Precious Metals, or Exotics.

As an added feature, the mineral value tracker can also tell you what you have the most of, and what's contributing the most value. Trivial, I know, but interesting when you have like roughly 50 exotics, several hundred Precious, many many Base Minerals, and Commons out-class them all in both value and amount.

I wouldn't mind having that spreadsheet. I should probably have better organization than a piece of paper with random scribbles on it.

[Darkmere]

I came for the international frungy championships, I stayed for *parties* in the *middle* with *happy campers* *dancing*! Also, thanks for making me feel old as hell for having the orignal Star Control Collection box. Thank you.

I'd like to add a couple non-spoilery things that will make the game vastly less rage-inducing.

-There is a time limit. You aren't likely to see it unless you spend a couple years in-game solely mining planets, just be warned.
-The starbase radioactives don't have to be from Mercury.
-The Earthling cruiser can kill the crippled Ilwrath ship in 2 shots; firing the homing missiles slightly to one side almost guarantees a hit long before they can close on you.
-Fwiffo can kill damn near anything (early game) if you keep his ship crewed. Make the other ships chase you and fire secondary torpedo (homing, flies out behind your craft).

That said, my vote on what to do next is pragmatic. Mine out nearby systems until the ship has all thrusters and turning jets, add one or two cargo bays, another fuel tank and crew pod. There's 0 penalty for replacing old modules at the starbase, and it's MUCH faster to make 1 trip with 5 or 6 systems' worth of minerals, than 7 or 8 trips. The starbase has unlimited storage, too. By the time you have that stocked up, you should be in good shape to play the rest of the game picking only the best minerals, or harvesting the ship wrecks of people who annoyed you.

Unrelated: The original game music is awesome, but there's also The Precursors Project that aims to update/remix the original tracks. Almost all of them are awesome.

[USEC_OFFICER]

-The starbase radioactives don't have to be from Mercury.
-The Earthling cruiser can kill the crippled Ilwrath ship in 2 shots; firing the homing missiles slightly to one side almost guarantees a hit long before they can close on you.

It's a bit of a moot point now, but I'll remember that next time I play. The reason I used the precursor vessel is that, as I've mentioned before, I've done a bunch of the super melees against the AI, and one scenario I made was Ilwrath vs. Earthlings. Needless to say the Earthlings got demolished, though they did give the Ilwrath a good trashing through the use of gravity slingshots and sniping. However I have recently learned that the Cruiser's missiles have a surprising tight turning radius, and can hook around the Ilwrath's flame-thrower as long as their cloaking field is down or destroyed. Ah well.

-There is a time limit. You aren't likely to see it unless you spend a couple years in-game solely mining planets, just be warned.

I remember hearing about the time limit, though I have no clue what triggers it or how long it is. Since I'm not planning on mining out entire star systems to build up my RU as that'll make this LP boring, I hopefully shouldn't run into it. Still, we have just lost a couple weeks mining out Sol...

-Fwiffo can kill damn near anything (early game) if you keep his ship crewed. Make the other ships chase you and fire secondary torpedo (homing, flies out behind your craft).

After getting my asses kicked by the Spathi in Super Melee, I'm glad to finally get my hands on an Eluder. Heh heh heh heh...

That said, my vote on what to do next is pragmatic. Mine out nearby systems until the ship has all thrusters and turning jets, add one or two cargo bays, another fuel tank and crew pod. There's 0 penalty for replacing old modules at the starbase, and it's MUCH faster to make 1 trip with 5 or 6 systems' worth of minerals, than 7 or 8 trips. The starbase has unlimited storage, too. By the time you have that stocked up, you should be in good shape to play the rest of the game picking only the best minerals, or harvesting the ship wrecks of people who annoyed you.

Storage in the starbase? As in RUs, or is it something that I haven't encountered yet? Either way, you've pretty much outlined my basic strategy for now: Mine worlds and upgrade the Vindicator as much as possible. But after that...

_{(I'd pull up the star map now if I were you, because I'm going to be referencing it a lot.)}

Anyways, I'll probably mine out the Sirius, Wolf, Canopus and Centauri systems before we really start exploring. I'm not sure how many minerals I'll need though, so I'm erring on the conservative side as much as possible. But after mining and upgrading... I'm not really sure where to go.

Right now our ship has 60 fuel units in its tanks. That's enough to reach Crateris, though it'll be a one-way trip. Obviously we can't spend more than 30 fuel on a journey, else we'll never be able to get back. And since landing takes up fuel, that number is probably closer to 25~28 for a productive. Thankfully(?) the Hierarchy Battle Thralls mark the edge of where we can explore, since their space-control-sphere-thingies form a bubble around Earth that's around 20~30 fuel units in radius. So we could check out the Spathi, Ilwrath, Androsynth and Vux if we wanted to, but we can't pierce their space until we have larger fuel tanks. Additionally, the Mmrnmhrm, Chenjesu and Shoflxti civilizations (or their remains) are all in our little bubble, while the Pkunk (as the Ilwrath have so gleefully told us) are hanging out around Giclas and Krueger. If nobody says anything, I'll check them out first, because their little ships can be damned useful at times.

Sound good, or should I be saving this rambling for the videos?

[Itnetlolor]

I went amnesia/cold-start (forgetting everything), and played it absolutely classically, just a notepad (or notepad++, more like, with a custom formatting for highlighting purposes), but also for Hyper-/Quasi-space efficiency, as well as mineral/BIO bookkeeping, I also made myself a custom Excel spreadsheet. I'm willing to provide it if you want. I know the mineral value tracker would be the most helpful thing to use, especially when you've got several storage units, found awesome awesome planets, but are almost fully stocked, and don't know what minerals to sacrifice in exchange for some Radioactives, Precious Metals, or Exotics.

As an added feature, the mineral value tracker can also tell you what you have the most of, and what's contributing the most value. Trivial, I know, but interesting when you have like roughly 50 exotics, several hundred Precious, many many Base Minerals, and Commons out-class them all in both value and amount.

I wouldn't mind having that spreadsheet. I should probably have better organization than a piece of paper with random scribbles on it.

Here you go (XLSX format; has some fancy (conditional) formatting within, but with somewhat practical purpose, so it uses the never Excel 2007 stuff). It's based on my current progress, however, so some parts are somewhat incomplete; seeing as it is from a cold-start, and certain events and such haven't been done yet (I am updating this alongside my gameplay notepad++). But I did discover something rather spoileriffic; pretty much, all of it (and with a bit of lateral thinking too).

Anyway, the contents within are:
Ship and RU= Track the total investment into your ship/total value of it (update crew and fuel accordingly to keep track of your expenses; fuel ain't cheap, unless you found other means, then it's crazy-cheap).
Traveling Costs= I like this. Have a destination in mind? Punch in your current coordinates, and your target coordinates, and the chart will take care of the rest, telling you which path will provide you with the cheapest fuel cost (with RU value included, down to the fraction (which the game also calculates/includes, like in Lander/Orbit Mode; it does stack), or the shortest amount of time to travel (great for those time-sensitive tasks; you'll know when you come across them). Caution: some spoileriffic material is in there. Don't page down, unless you want to be spoiled about a particularly useful discovery that is a challenge in the game. The main attraction of this page, however, is the QS/HS-chart that is primarily why the x1:y1::x2:y2 system was established. I know you'll be making a ton of use out of this when the time(s) call for it. I know I did. And below that is another somewhat spoilerish part with the homeworlds of alien races; incomplete due to cold-starting. Oh yeah, and for the hell of it, I did a couple other hypothetical hyperspace calculations, that should still be lingering within, just in case you're curious how long it would take to go from one corner of the galaxy to the other.
Combat Energy Matrix Grid= This is an interesting tidbit for when you make your ship combat-ready. I ripped the numbers and calculations (for the main page as well) from the Ultronomicon to assist in whatever crazy plans you have firepower-wise with your ship. Let me just say, you can easily fire nonstop rapidly with 3 dynamos and 12 furnaces and a cannon. I already excluded what can't be setup from the chart.

I hope you like it. It took plenty of work to get it down correctly, especially that traveling cost sheet. Viewer discretion is advised where spoiler content is concerned.

Besides one part or another in the spreadsheet requiring access to the Ultronomicon (energy matrix, and any other math that needed tuning up), the rest of the info has been gathered legitimately while playing in 'amnesia mode'. Everything else, including my NP++ notes, is gathered straight from the game itself (questions, purchases, bribes, questions, clues, and figuring out puzzles; you know, classic DOS adventuring); including the in-game challenge that becomes a gamebreaker if done early as possible.

EDIT:
Oh right, on the front page, I also have a time card you can fill, so you can keep track of exactly how much game time passed between saves/videos.

[Darkmere]

^^ That's... quite the spoiler list

The time limit is quite long and there are certain quests you can do to extend it. I only felt compelled to mention it because it's not mentioned ANYwhere, aside from getting far enough into the game to know that one exists. Time doesn't pass in planetary systems, which makes fewer mineral trips to the starbase more of a boon. Also, on starbase storage I did indeed mean RU's.

A note on the maps: The spoiler-free version is the starmap from the first SC2 release. The manual lists it as the last known spheres of influence when the Vela expedition left. May not be entirely accurate. (The spoilerific map straight up ruins the plot just by opening it.) Your plan is good. I'm pointedly not mentioning adventure, you'll find it soon enough. Also, some of the earliest tech you can get in the game is upgrades to make your landers resistant to weather and lifeforms, so don't worry too much about auric worlds with firestorms. I wasted a lot of crew and landers for no reason that way.

I also used to dump/skip large amounts of the 1-point common metals after I left the immediate Sol area. It just wastes time hauling that crap back, after a while. The rough guide for planet value was Very Young Orangutans Might Grow Bananas, Perhaps Rather Well (violet, yellow, orange, magenta, green, blue, purple, red, white, most to least valuable) while star systems *tend* to have better minerals accessible around hotter (blue/white) and larger (supergiant) stars. Really though once you get a few tech upgrades and some plot going, mining is something you can just do when you see a mineral rich world and drop off whenever. I don't recall it being that tedious.