About to try to beat Star Control 2...no spoilers!

[Elestan]

I just noticed this thread and took a look, becoming rather shocked to discover that this playthrough has been running for over three years...you're really getting your money's worth, Trog!

I suspect that may be a record; it also looks like you may have the most detailed notes ever compiled from in-game play. Just FYI, about six or seven years ago, I dumped the planet database to a sortable wiki table. You can find it here if/when you decide you want to see it. It's only a little spoilery; it has a comprehensive list of planetary conditions and resources, but not plot items. However, it does list the Rainbow world locations.

I noticed you expounded on the heat at Zeeman I; that is, indeed, the hottest planet in the game. However, it's worth noting that increasing temperature has no further effect on the game above 800 degrees.

There are some assorted planetary trivia here, if you're interested. These include factoids like the most hazardous planet, highest/lowest gravity, largest amount of resources, lifeform data, etc. I'm not sure whether you'd consider those spoilers at this point in your playthrough.

[Draxas]

I have to assume at this point that Trog is going to eventually rewind several months (or more, depending on how long he keeps following this doomed chronological thread) to before he incited the rebellion in Yehat space. He has taken many casualties already, and I have a feeling he is just waiting to see what happens to the Ilwrath at this point before backing things up and following a more efficient route to all of the actually interesting things he has accomplished since that time. That should, at least, buy him some time. As long as he is a bit more efficient with his explorations of Utwig / Supox, Thraddash, and Umgah space, he still may be able to get this done before the Death March starts, or at least before it ends. I suppose only time will tell, though.

[The Troglodyte]

I just noticed this thread and took a look, becoming rather shocked to discover that this playthrough has been running for over three years...you're really getting your money's worth, Trog!

You bet Elestan! And welcome to the thread! It’s kind of evolved over time into what it’s become, and if I were being pretentious I’d say it’s grown bigger than me now, but that would of course be rather ostentatious of me, so I won’t.

Perhaps when you have some time set aside for some “light reading” you can continue to follow my adventure, which is sure to include a wonderful playthrough of SC2/UQM with scientific observations and some humor sprinkled in as you get to know me and my portrayal of the unflappable Captain Zelnick, replete with my somewhat eccentric nature, my love for edification, quotations, alliterations and my gift for understatement. Please stay for a while, ask anything, and above all… Enjoy!

I suspect that may be a record; it also looks like you may have the most detailed notes ever compiled from in-game play. Just FYI, about six or seven years ago, I dumped the planet database to a sortable wiki table. You can find it here if/when you decide you want to see it. It's only a little spoilery; it has a comprehensive list of planetary conditions and resources, but not plot items. However, it does list the Rainbow world locations.

Interesting. I take it that you extracted this info through the code itself rather than flying around to each and every planet and recording it firsthand. I have noticed a few discrepancies along the way, for example, when I explored Eta Vulpeculae VI, a gas giant, its mass reading came in as -367.-84 (and yes, that did take me a little while to look up in my logs ) It’s probably just a bug from my version of the remake.

I’ll refrain from looking at the database for the meantime, but I’ll definitely bookmark it for whenever I complete the game, at which time I may even fact check the data with my own! (This may sound silly but recording planetary data is really one of my favorite things to do; it makes me feel like a real explorer!)

It’s funny you bring up the Rainbow Worlds, because they still remain one of my most illusive mysteries. I know that there’s supposed to be 10 of them arranged in a pattern to give some indication as to the Precursor’s whereabouts and/or fate, but I’ve only found a few so far and can’t detect a discernable pattern yet, but hopefully the more I explore and talk with different alien folk I may track down some more of them. The fate of the entire galaxy may very well depend on it!

I noticed you expounded on the heat at Zeeman I; that is, indeed, the hottest planet in the game. However, it's worth noting that increasing temperature has no further effect on the game above 800 degrees.

Oh yeah! I remember now… Boy! That was a while back, and if I recall correctly, I even handed out awards to all the planets, with Zeeman-I picking up the gold trophy, coming in at over 5000° C!

There are some assorted planetary trivia here, if you're interested. These include factoids like the most hazardous planet, highest/lowest gravity, largest amount of resources, lifeform data, etc. I'm not sure whether you'd consider those spoilers at this point in your playthrough.

It probably wouldn’t hurt my game experience at this point, but I’ll forego the look-see for now, if nothing less but for consistency’s sake; I assume that Delta Centauri III-b made the list? Granted, it was before I ever obtained lander upgrades from the Melnorme, but that place was a nightmare!

There’s hardly any need for obtaining more minerals, and I’ve only kept one cargo bay on the Vindicator for quite a while, mostly for picking up exotics and seeing if there’s other element names, since you can’t make that determination without a place to put them.

Animal lifeforms remains my persisting curiosity when my scanners reveal life on any given planet, and I’d like to see if there’s any other types of lifeforms I haven’t found yet. Even for somebody following along it may be difficult to know for certain which ones I’m referring to without cross-referencing, since I usually give them my own descriptive names, like jumping jack gummy bears or celery stalks with eyeballs. They must have their own names that everybody’s familiar with since I’ve occasionally heard what I like to call octoshrooms (or the ever-popular portabella krakens!) as ‘fungal squids’, and palmpet called one of the lifeforms ‘merry whumpets’, which I describe as cyclopean elves.

By the way, on a completely separate note, I actually love it when I start seeing a bunch of black-covered text! It must mean there’s either some speculation going on within the group, or an entire conversation about something that would otherwise be spoilerous to me.

[Elestan]

Perhaps when you have some time set aside for some “light reading” you can continue to follow my adventure, which is sure to include a wonderful playthrough of SC2/UQM with scientific observations and some humor sprinkled in as you get to know me and my portrayal of the unflappable Captain Zelnick, replete with my somewhat eccentric nature, my love for edification, quotations, alliterations and my gift for understatement. Please stay for a while, ask anything, and above all… Enjoy!

I actually binge-read the entire thing over the last two days. Aside from some cringing at your mining methodology it's been a really fun read.

Interesting. I take it that you extracted this info through the code itself rather than flying around to each and every planet and recording it firsthand.

Correct. But since the planets are all procedurally generated, the code itself doesn't have those stats in it; I had to modify the game to dump out that information.

I have noticed a few discrepancies along the way, for example, when I explored Eta Vulpeculae VI, a gas giant, its mass reading came in as -367.-84 (and yes, that did take me a little while to look up in my logs ) It’s probably just a bug from my version of the remake.

Interesting...you should report that in the bug database.

I’ll refrain from looking at the database for the meantime, but I’ll definitely bookmark it for whenever I complete the game, at which time I may even fact check the data with my own! (This may sound silly but recording planetary data is really one of my favorite things to do; it makes me feel like a real explorer!)

By all means. My table only includes information that has a game effect, so things like Axial Tilt and Mass aren't included (fuel consumption is).

It’s funny you bring up the Rainbow Worlds, because they still remain one of my most illusive mysteries. I know that there’s supposed to be 10 of them arranged in a pattern to give some indication as to the Precursor’s whereabouts and/or fate, but I’ve only found a few so far and can’t detect a discernable pattern yet, but hopefully the more I explore and talk with different alien folk I may track down some more of them. The fate of the entire galaxy may very well depend on it!

I will just say this: Only 5 of them have in-game hints pointing to them.

There are some assorted planetary trivia here, if you're interested. These include factoids like the most hazardous planet, highest/lowest gravity, largest amount of resources, lifeform data, etc. I'm not sure whether you'd consider those spoilers at this point in your playthrough.

I assume that Delta Centauri III-b made the list? Granted, it was before I ever obtained lander upgrades from the Melnorme, but that place was a nightmare!

I think you mean Beta Centauri III-b. That moon has hazard levels Tectonics 6, Weather 3, Thermal 1, Bio 5. No, that's only at about the 75th percentile for hostility. You've certainly encountered nastier planets since then, but probably didn't notice because you'd gotten the lander shields (or you just didn't go down because they had nothing of value). The most hostile planets (it's a tie) are Alpha Camelopardalis II and Alpha Geminorum Ia; they have Tectonics 8, Weather 7, and Thermal 8. There, even a fully shielded lander doesn't last long. However, they are in systems that most players are probably unlikely to explore during the game.

I'm surprised you didn't comment on Alpha Illuminati VI when you were there; that one is very high on the list, thanks to the fungal squid there, along with Tectonics 8 and Thermal 6. If you want another particularly cruel challenge, try harvesting the lifeforms on Gamma Aquilae II.

Animal lifeforms remains my persisting curiosity [...] They must have their own names that everybody’s familiar with [...]

Correct; there are names in the code for the various life forms. Fungal Squid are the purple ones that kill you the most. There are 26 different types of lifeforms in total.

By the way, on a completely separate note, I actually love it when I start seeing a bunch of black-covered text! It must mean there’s either some speculation going on within the group, or an entire conversation about something that would otherwise be spoilerous to me.

Yes.

[The Troglodyte]

I actually binge-read the entire thing over the last two days. Aside from some cringing at your mining methodology it's been a really fun read.

Great to hear! As far as my mining habits are concerned, I like to think of it as not merely dumping minerals like some petty criminal, but rather forming new rings around the planets lucky enough to be the subjects of my artistry.

I think you mean Beta Centauri III-b.

Just making sure you’re still paying attention Elestan!… or should I say, Elestan: Grand Master of Planets! (eater) (and jk, btw, I actually goofed and wrote ‘Delta’ mistakenly )

I'm surprised you didn't comment on Alpha Illuminati VI when you were there; that one is very high on the list, thanks to the fungal squid there, along with Tectonics 8 and Thermal 6.

I found the innermost planet troublesome as well; it has class 7 weather and 1686°, which I guess would be “Thermal 8” as you call it, since it’s capped at 800°. A few questions for our resident planet expert or anybody else knowledgeable of such information:

How are the thermal levels broken down, and do you know what that means in terms of flames on the planet? In other words, does the level control the number of flames and the time interval frequency as to when each flame spawns, or is it generated randomly, but the higher the level the higher the probability? I may not be wording that well, but I’m curious about the relationship between the thermal levels and the actual effect on the surface flames and their numbers, since the flames appear and then disappear.

also

Is the damage level potential of each flame stagnant at a fixed percentile, or does it increase as the level increases? How about earthquakes and lightning bolts? Again, just curious about how the game mechanics are governed within the game.

I think Beta Centauri III-b must’ve stood out in my brain since I had such a difficult time avoiding casualties, but at the time I had placed a high premium on bio-data, since I had only recently encountered the Melnorme and was eager to cash in on their offered benefits. The effort was both tedious and rewarding, and the shower of comments that followed left a lasting impression. As I earned more and more lander upgrades, my troubles seemed to mostly subside and only became more of a minor inconvenience to use the time portal when the occasional crew member would perish, and whenever I’d go into “survey-mode” I ignored casualties altogether, since I’d reset back to system entry after recording the data, as was the case with Alpha Illuminati.

Correct; there are names in the code for the various life forms. Fungal Squid are the purple ones that kill you the most. There are ?? different types of lifeforms in total.

I’ve chosen to keep most of the black-covered stuff untouched (I took a peek at the number of rainbow world hints) but I’ve searched back through one of my logbooks (I keep separate documents for things like planet types, artifact locations and coincidentally, biological lifeforms!) and even though I haven’t updated it in a long time, I think it’s up-to-date in terms of new lifeforms encountered, so going off of that I can confidently say that I’ve found 21 different types of lifeforms (23 if you count the VUX Beast and Fwiffo’s Bulldozers). Am I close to completion?

And thank you for marking those items, giving me the option to choose if I wish to see them or not; I welcome anybody (subtle wink) to use your example as a good way to offer up in-game info.

[Elestan]

A few questions for our resident planet expert or anybody else knowledgeable of such information:

How are the thermal levels broken down...

The thermal level breakpoints are 50, 100, 150, 250, 350, 550, 800.

...and do you know what that means in terms of flames on the planet? In other words, does the level control the number of flames and the time interval frequency as to when each flame spawns, or is it generated randomly, but the higher the level the higher the probability? I may not be wording that well, but I’m curious about the relationship between the thermal levels and the actual effect on the surface flames and their numbers, since the flames appear and then disappear

Is the damage level potential of each flame stagnant at a fixed percentile, or does it increase as the level increases? How about earthquakes and lightning bolts? Again, just curious about how the game mechanics are governed within the game.

The hazard level only affects the odds of a new instance of the hazard being randomly generated each frame, not its duration and damage once generated.

I can confidently say that I’ve found 21 different types of lifeforms (23 if you count the VUX Beast and Fwiffo’s Bulldozers). Am I close to completion?

Reasonably close. The hidden number does include the beast and the bulldozers.

[The Troglodyte]

Reasonably close.

This is good! (in Mycon voice) I was kinda hoping there would still be more for me to find!

(Meanwhile…)
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Captain’s Log – Apr 12, 2158 – Sol – Status: Green

We departed Alpha Tucanae and being aware that trouble was waiting for us outside the system, we immediately activated the Portal Spawner as soon as we hit HyperSpace before any Ur-Quan or Kohr-Ah could show up and ruin our day.

We were quickly whisked into the greenness of QuasiSpace, but as soon as we entered, the Vindicator was already resting atop of one of the portals. Then, as the day transitioned to March 20th, the portal suddenly disappeared. Of course! It was the original portal entry point that appears in normal space every month for 3 days!

Seeing the portal reminded me about the Arilou, whom we haven’t checked in on for a while, so we set course for their QuasiSpace corner and proceeded to Fa-la-la-la Land, or whatever it’s called. Unfortunately, we didn’t learn much from them; they simply told us that one day they’d love to show us the surface of their homeworld and all of the various “sites” to visit (whose descriptions sounded that they were all places that didn’t fall into the normal laws of our physical domain) but we would first need to be “acclimated” to the unusual terrain, so we wouldn’t be rendered “numb”…

We used the portal to put us closest back to home, and we emerged back into HyperSpace, and we referred back to the starmap to check on the Ilwrath and it seems with each passing moment the Ilwrath’s circle of being is growing smaller and smaller. I’ll give the Thraddash some credit -- they’re much tougher than I thought they’d be… that is, if that’s what’s actually occurring with the Ilwrath’s SOI shrinkage:



I also noticed that the Pkunk were almost right on top of us, so we altered course to put ourselves within the Pkunk’s purple migrating sphere to go see if somehow, someway we could prevent them from continuing their journey, and we were able to track down a few around the vicinity of Zeta Centauri, but despite all of our best efforts, it was all in vain, just like it was during the Pkunk migration experiments.

We have finally entered the Sol System and will set course for Starbase. Zelnick out.
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Captain’s Log – Apr 12, 2158 – Sol – Starbase – Status: Docked

As soon as we had disembarked, I was personally greeted by Commander Hayes, but all he said was “Hello, Captain.” What? I thought he would be talking about all of the many Syreen walking around the station, but he seemed to be distracted, looking out his office window at… well, all of the many Syreen walking around the station. Sheesh.

We offloaded our minerals, refueled the Vindicator, and then started looking at making some fleet adjustments before heading out for our next mission. We replaced our significant crew losses from the Avatar squadron, decommissioned the Yamato Scout and replaced it with a fresh, new Syreen Penetrator. Suddenly, every officer who’s ever served under me was in line asking to be transferred to the newly christened H.M.S. Jarrett.

However, I’m not sure everybody would be quite as excited if they knew where we’re heading next. Speaking of which, I’d better go ahead and end this log entry, because I’m about to be late for my own meeting! Captain out.
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[The Troglodyte]

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(“Link established. You should be reading a positive signal lock, Yes? No? Oh, wait just a sec. There! How about now? Yes? Good!”)
…

Commander Hayes – “Thank you everybody for attending. This is Captain Zelnick’s meeting, so I’ll turn over the floor to him. Captain?”

Captain Zelnick – “Yes, and thank you, Commander. Before I begin, I’d like to get an update on our newest recruits and am anxious to see how the training simulations are going. Captain Yeep-eep?”

Captain Yeep-eep – “Aye, Captin. Things are goin’ mighty weel, jist point tae the nearest dreadnooght an’ we’ll give ’er a trooncin’ she won’t soon forgit!”

Captain Zelnick – “Grand, grand Captain. Thank you. Who all us under your command?”

Captain Yeep-eep – “Well, there’s Beep-eep… an’ Ceep-eep, oh yeah! Deep-eep! And don’t be forgitin’ Eeep-eep! An’ then there’s Feep-eep, and Geep-eep and ’is brither Heep-eep, an’ ay coorse there’s also––”

Captain Zelnick – “Very good, Zeep-eep… that’s a bunch of eeps! I assume your guys are just as confident to handle a Kohr-Ah Marauder or two?”

Captain Yeep-eep – “Aye to ’at as well Captain! But we may come back wi’ a wee few more dents in the haggis after pullin’ ‘er out frae their blue fire, sairrr!”

Science Officer – “Okay, so I get the whole Scottish accent thing, but why would he reference haggis? What’s that about?”

Communications Officer – “It’s the translator acting up again. It continues to associate the Yehat with the Scots, you see, so even though in their native tongue he probably was proudly comparing his Terminator vessel with some succulent dish from their world, but the UT doesn’t have prior knowledge to their food, so it substituted a Scottish one.”

Science Officer – “Annoying.”

Captain Zelnick – “And how about you… I’m sorry, what was your name again?”

Captain Teela – “Captain Teela, sir. It doesn’t bother me, sir, but the crew didn’t help matters by replicating piles of bagpipes for the Yehat as welcoming gifts!”

Captain Zelnick – “Yes, you’re right of course! Who would do such a thing? He he. I was actually referring to the simulations, but I thought Captain Aelita was supposed to be the squadron leader.”

Captain Teela – “Yes sir, she is… but she hurt her foot playing spring ball and was unable to command her ship during the simulations, so I took over at over-seeing the training.”

1st Officer – “What? Her foot?”

Captain Zelnick – “I doubt a hurt foot would keep me out of the big chair!”

Captain Teela – “Well, sir, to be frank, you don’t have to depend solely on your foot in battle to fire your main weapon!”

Captain Zelnick – “Oh!… that’s a good point!”

Captain Fwiffo – “I get it! ‘Solely!’”

Captain Yeep-eep – “Aye, lest time mah neck was so sair I cooldn’t fly fur a week!”

Captain *Dancer* - “Not enough *bubbles*!”

Captain Fwiffo – “I remember one of many times performing the Spathi prime battle tactic, so in other words… retreating, and I was hanging from the thruster pulley for soooooo long that my arm got so sore I couldn’t even––”

Captain Zelnick – “Fwiffo!”

Captain Fwiffo – “Sorry!”

Captain Zelnick – “Captain, I couldn’t help but notice that the Penetrator ships have ample room to take on much more crew than you have assigned. Shouldn’t we take advantage of every possibility and equip them with crew at full capacity?”

Captain Teela – “That would not be a good idea, Captain. I served during the War and I remember at one point the Alliance Council suggested that very same thing, but the results were disastrous. Everybody was willing to go along with the reassignments, especially the human males, but once on board, things took a turn for the worst.”

Captain Zelnick – “I don’t understand. Please clarify.”

Captain Teela – “Our species have specialized psychic abilities that allow us to use the power of hypnosis. Individually, these hypnotic capabilities have somewhat limited effect, and only the most refined minds can hold a targeted individual against their will. Over time, we incorporated the ability into our ships to use as an effective weapon. We not only take prisoners, but we also compel them to do our bidding in battle, and as long as they stay inside the vessel, the psionic hypnosis amplifier creates a resonance field that conforms their thought patterns to stay influenced by our commands. However, this resonance field will have adverse effects on any non-Syreen within the confines of the ship, even during non-battle operations, and if this were to continue to go unchecked, the unfortunate victims would eventually be put into a vegetative state, sometimes on a permanent basis, due to the stress levels and unrepairable damage inflicted on the brain.”

1st Officer – “Well, so much for that idea, eh Captain?”

Captain Teela – “Besides Captain, our main weapon really is the psionic amplifier, since it can greatly reduce a crew if we can get close enough to utilize the device in conjunction with our abilities, and the confusion it renders in the process will often times allow us the opportunity to swoop in and steal their crew while following up with a quick Stiletto Beam attack to finish them off!”

Captain Zelnick – “Yes, I see your point, Captain… Okay, now with that out of the way, let’s take a look at our next mission objective. We are going to set out to find the Ur-Quan’s battle platform! That’s right people: The Sa-Matra!”

Tactical Officer – “That may be inadvisable, Captain. The Sa-Matra is at the very heart of Ur-Quan space, which is also inhabited by heavy amounts of Kohr-Ah. It may be a suicidal endeavor.”

Captain Zelnick – “You may be right, but it is imperative that we locate their ‘great trophy’. I want to see the thing for myself!”

1st Officer – “But at what cost? I know the time portal can repair and revert any losses, but this might be pushing the envelope in that respect.”

Captain Zelnick – “I understand where you’re coming from, but this particular mission objective isn’t up for debate. I’ve already weighed all of these possibilities, and I’ve made up my mind.”

1st Officer – “Then the discussion is over… and wherever you lead… we shall follow. Right everyone?”

(Everyone in unison) – “That’s right!” / “Yes sir!”

Captain Zelnick – “Good! Now let’s get to work. First, we’ll need to use the Portal Spawner to enter QuasiSpace, and then from there we’ll enter the twelfth portal, which should take us all the way into Ur-Quan space, where we’ll arrive, assuming the portal is still stable, at the other side at coordinates five eighty-seven by six thirty-two point one. Computer… display image ‘Crateris-One’.”



Captain Zelnick – “As you can see, even though we’ll be placing ourselves right in the thick of the Ur-Quan and Kohr-Ah’s ritual war, but we’ll also be very close to where the location of the Sa-Matra has been reported by several sources, including the Pkunk and Melnorme, and was even most recently referenced by Commander Talana.”

Tactical Officer – “We might find ourselves in over our heads very quickly once they realize we’re exploring the Crateris region.”

Captain Zelnick – “You can count on it, Commander. But that’s why as soon as we re-enter TrueSpace, I’m going to place a time portal immediately. That way we can proceed but still have a fallback point if we start attracting unwanted attention when we begin exploring the nearby stars. If whenever we come up empty-handed at any given system, and those bug bullies hone in on our position, perish the thought, we can always reset back to the portal exit point and try again fresh. Any questions?"

Captain Fwiffo (waving his claws wildly) – “Yes! I do!”

Captain Zelnick (deliberately ignoring Fwiffo) – “None? Very well. You all know your duties. Godspeed. Dismissed.”
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[krulle]

What, Fwiffo?
You're volunteering to wait at the site we place the time portal?
All by yourself, alone in the middle of Ur-Quan space?
Why, thank you!

[Quasispatial]

Are ye daft, human? Ye cannae jus' imitate tha language of us mighty Yehat wi'out prop'r practice. Yer behavin' like one a tha Queen's cronies, unfit for tha duty of representin' tha mighty an' honourable starship clans in this here forum. T'is like ye ne'er heard us talk before. Ye be needin' ta put more thought inta yer words, or we will be forced ta do this revolution wi' our own might alone.

(No offense, but that Yehat dialogue was sort of... cringy. You may want to practice a bit to really get their speech right. The other stuff was nice though. Have been keeping up (more or less), and it's always nice to see a fresh take on things.)