Ur-Quan Masters - Is It Really That Good?

[urjaman]

Propably, i just twiddled with the file locations (checking pndrun output after each iteration) until it worked

 

[WizardStan]

I agree, I don't understand why the PND doesn't just include everything.

There hasn't been a new version since 2008, so there's little chance of more new versions...

there are a couple of reasons i didnt include it, mainly the size and my upload speed.

Craig's appstore also only supports files up to 30MB (or maybe it's 50 now). Score point for the open handhelds download server.

 

[Pickle]

Wait, the doc link says to put the files into content/packages/addons .. do they instead go to content/packages and not in the addons?

So two typos in the doc link

jeff

go in packages, (cant wait to see what i do with the stratagus readme ;-) )

 

[skeezix]

yeah, stratagus and gemrb are going to be 'fun' I think really clever run-scripts are needed to help tell the user what looks right or not

jeff

 

[Esn]

How big is the actual file size of the game?

 

[skeezix]

The 3 data files add up to about 150MB in size.

BTW, looks like its good to go now, and it enabled me to find a bug in libpnd too, so thats a win I guess

jeff

 

[skeezix]

I should add - thanks pickle

 

[Tempel]

I know I'm late to the party, but I'd like to add that I first found UQM a year or two ago and played the crap out of it until I lost really hard. It has the kind of dynamic open world that big companies today like to make a big deal about without realizing it was done better years ago.

Regarding game data: I recall that the majority of the data is freely distributable, but voices and music are not (and they are really great for the atmosphere of the game). There might have been a project to create free replacements. So it'd be cool if main data was included in the PND, but I don't think you could include the other stuff. But it's been a while since I checked.

 

[Esn]

Regarding game data: I recall that the majority of the data is freely distributable, but voices and music are not (and they are really great for the atmosphere of the game). There might have been a project to create free replacements. So it'd be cool if main data was included in the PND, but I don't think you could include the other stuff. But it's been a while since I checked.

According to the UQM wiki, that's incorrect:

Under what license is the game released?

The code is released under the GNU General Public License. The content (voiceovers, dialogue, graphics, sounds, and music) may be used freely under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 license. The content may also be copied freely as part of a distribution of The Ur-Quan Masters.

http://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/The_Ur-Quan_Masters_Project_FAQ#Under_what_license_is_the_game_released.3F

 

[bourbon]

Post your review here

Ive never played a Star Control game im afraid; some classics are classics forever, even tonew retrogamers. But some are only classic to previous players reliving their glory days.

Which is ur-quan?

I see a lot of praise heaped on it, so perhaps time for me to raid the local used game ahop- he has a bunch i noticed

Jeffphone

If you like it be prepared to spend a long time playing it XD
and watch out for the damn probes =\

Bourbon

 

[bzar]

I played it for a few (about six?) hours, but I guess I really didn't get into it. I generally don't like time- or vital resource (fuel) limits in exploration games. I like to take my time exploring every last nook and cranny

 

[tsh]

chexk out the readme for the links to the data

We need to fix this. I was wondering why the game didn't run, having (I though) selected a game which did not rely on needing any external data. Either a clear way of indicating with the download (wtf is a USER supposed to find the readme?) or a pnd based dependancy check with a popup to say why.

It would be less of a problem if pnd's didn't silently fail for a variety of problems. I regard this as a fairly low priority bug at the moment though.

Edit: Added a '**' footnote in the wiki, since there may be other situations where the game data can't be re-distributed, but is free. This doesn't solve the pnd problem though.

 

[fusion_power]

I suppose the thing with this game is that it'll have its hooks into you 15 minutes in, or it won't. It's not one of those "oh it gets really good about 4 hours in" things, so you don't have to sink a lot of time into it to see if it's your thing.

I do find random deaths annoying while searching planet surfaces, but crusing around the universe talking to / shooting other life forms is ace. Intelligence, depth, atmosphere, action, great dialogue, it's all in there.

[edit] I still owe Senor Quack a dozen beers or so for porting it to GP2X.

Yupp, I had ALOT of fun with the GP2X version which played surprisingly well.
But I guess you need some time to get into the game. At least I needed some guides at first. I never was into space fights and I avoided them as much as possible (or did auto-fighting XD). I spent alot of time with exploring and harvesting minerals/life forms, the Universe is quite large. After getting the Quasi-Generator and fully upgrated my ship, the things really started to get funny.
You still have to follow the story line (to get more crew members, Allys and Ships) but I actualy wasted much time in just exploring the universe. Sadly, I didn't knew that the game is limited in time, so AFAIK if you don't solved some story relevant stuff soon enough, you simply loose the game at a certain Date. You loose some of your allys so or so, funny if you return to them and they are vanished or the Enemy has taken over their planet.

 

[Sugar_Kane]

Did anyone sign the petition for Toys for Bob to take to activision (I think it was activision... )? They wanted to prove that there would be enough people out there for them to allow them to go ahead and make a new direct sequel (Star Control 3 was not made by Toys for Bob, and is largely considered to be pap. Although I did enjoy it at the time, it droops like a used, spunky clenex when held up to the crusty, veteran sock of SCII).

 

[WizardStan]

I played it for a few (about six?) hours, but I guess I really didn't get into it. I generally don't like time- or vital resource (fuel) limits in exploration games. I like to take my time exploring every last nook and cranny

You can explore every nook and cranny, visit every planet, mine every resource. The fuel limit is to prevent you from exploring too much all at once, so you actually encounter and are forced to advance the story. The story eventually leads you to the ability to jump across the entire map in an instant, and build larger fuel tanks so you can explore the entirety of the map before completing the game.

 

[Esn]

The time limit is actually very generous. It's not a problem as long as you don't just wander aimlessly for long stretches of time. You can actually tell when something is happening, because the map will change (and it will usually change pretty slowly, so that you have time to do what's needed). If you're in doubt, make separate saves every few hours or so, so that you can go back if something goes terribly wrong.

Skeezix, without giving anything away, there are 2 things that you need to play the game. They're pretty simple, but vital:
1) a piece of paper to write down some bits of information from time to time (it's a bit like Loom in that respect)
2) remember that if you fight with your main starship, you can warp out of the battle screen. Sometimes, you want to avoid fighting, and that's the only way out.

Edit: Added a '**' footnote in the wiki, since there may be other situations where the game data can't be re-distributed, but is free. This doesn't solve the pnd problem though.

Hmm? According to the UQM wiki, it CAN be redistributed. It just wasn't because Pickle's upload speed isn't very good.

P.S. I wonder if the original PC version works in DOSBox...

 

[skeezix]

Btw - it is up to he developeres to put data checks etc into their pnd. We're still at an early stage so few do this - consider hatari which pops up a warning dialog if TOS is not found, raher than silently fail like hatari normally does. Its not up to the pnd system or firmware to check such things

Jeffphone

Ill hopefully spend a few hours on uqm over the weekend

 

[darkblu]

yes. and then some.

 

[-Tj-]

Post your review here

Ive never played a Star Control game im afraid; some classics are classics forever, even tonew retrogamers. But some are only classic to previous players reliving their glory days.

Which is ur-quan?

I see a lot of praise heaped on it, so perhaps time for me to raid the local used game ahop- he has a bunch i noticed

You must play it, skeezix! I can't remember how long it took me, but I got very immersed in the game, and this was only a few years ago. I played it for many nights before falling asleep, and a lot of the music, characters, and experiences have stayed with me even till now.

I played the first one, but honestly you don't really need to have played it to enjoy the game. The original didn't really introduce much in the way of story, but then again I played the Genesis version, so if the PC version offered more I missed out.

It's one of those games that has a sense of exploration and wonder to it, and there are a lot of things in it that are introduced but never fully explained. It adds to the mystery and depth of the game. There's a lot of text/voice, a lot to learn and see.

There are definitely better games out there in terms of gameplay, but UQM feels very balanced. I'd rather it than many of the modern games that are out now.

I'd give it an 8.5/10 if I had to give it a score, but that kind of thing is very arbitrary and relative.

 

[Esn]

Out of curiosity, does the Pandora version have any sort of multiplayer yet for the melee? (either through a network, or through attaching a USB controller)