Star Control: Origins News

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Stardock released Part 3 of its expansion to Star Control: Origins today. Humanity’s alliance is fraying and their plans for expanding into the galaxy are waylaid when they are faced with a new threat. Earth Rising - Part 3: The Syndicate introduces players to two warring factions: the Liberators and the Syndicate, both of whom want the assistance of humanity and won’t tolerate anyone working for their rival.

Set in the late 21st century, the player is the Captain of Earth's first interstellar starship with the mission to explore the galaxy, find allies to help protect Earth from hostile aliens, and find the resources necessary to help Earth begin to expand to the stars.

The Syndicate is the third part in a four-part expansion pack called Earth Rising. The expansion adds a host of new aliens, ships, adventures and destinations to the already rich universe introduced in Star Control: Origins. Because Star Control is a non-linear action/RPG game, the new content does not require the player to have already completed the main story arc from the base game.



New Characters and Factions - Interact with a new cast of characters and choose a side in the war between the Syndicate and the Liberators.
New Missions & Quests - Between the refugees fleeing the Scryve empire and two factions warring for the player’s alliance, there is no shortage of new content to explore.
New Ships - Both the Syndicate and the Liberators have some powerful vessels available for recruitment, depending on where the player’s loyalties lie.
New Weapons - Take on challenges as you face enemies with a new arsenal.

Check out the features and quests in: Part 1 | Part 2







More is on the way!

Following The Syndicate, the final part of the expansion will release. Purchasing the Earth Rising expansion will give access to each part as they become available.

Part 1: Aftermath (Now Available) | Part 2: Return of the Lexites (Now Available)

Part 3: The Syndicate (Now Available) | Part 4: Earth Rises (Winter 2020)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/271260/Star_Control_Origins/

It's been an exciting Summer so far for fans of Star Control. Last month we re-released the classic trilogy on Steam, posted a major update to the engine to improve the visuals and we are busy working on chapter 3 of the Earth Rising expansion.

For those of you who have played the game or will be buying the game in the near future, let's talk about the galactic scene today.

Star Control takes place in the not-so-distant future. The stars are real stars and in Origins they're placed based on their actual relative distances from Earth. We even have the known exoplanets in there.

The part of the galaxy we are in is known as the "Mid Spur" which refers to Orion's Spur (sometimes called Orion's arm) in a single sector called the "Scryve Sector".

The Scryve sector contains hundreds of stars with thousands of planets. We travel between stars skipping slightly above our dimension through what is called Hyperspace.

Hyperspace isn't truly FTL travel (though you are traveling at near relativistic speeds) in the sense that your ship isn't itself going faster than light. Rather, Hyperspace exists in a dimension that warps space in incredibly intricate and really impossible to understand ways.



Traveling through hyperspace requires two key components: A Hyperdrive (which allows a ship to enter hyperspace) and a Hyperspace map to tell you where the stars are. Without the map, a ship would quickly get lost in Hyperspace. It is only through the map that the sensors of a ship can detect other star systems.

What this means is that only stars that have been mapped and given Hyperspace coordinates can be found. This becomes obvious when you travel to the edge of "the map". The better question is, why is the edge so fixed and arbitrary? For instance, why is Earth placed where it is? These are all mysteries that Star Control players will gradually discover over the coming years.

For now, we hope you're having a good time playing and welcome any feedback, suggestions or requests for what you would like to see next!

If you're new to Star Control, welcome to the galaxy!

https://youtu.be/J-VZh7dKeSI
v1.4 is here with significant visual improvements, including updated planet visuals, adjustments to creature colors, and improvements to planet terrains.

Planets are now far more detailed than it was in the game’s previous versions thanks to enhancing terrain textures and lighting. Improvements to the terrain rendering system have also allowed for better frame rates and performance. Textures on props found on various planets like tentacle plants, mushrooms, bones, and more, have also been improved for more visual appeal.

Community requests have been addressed regarding bugs with the particle sorting and crashing. The game’s lore has also been updated. The aliens previously known as the Observers will now be canonically called the Arilou, and the ships they pilot will be renamed accordingly.

For more details, visit the forums or www.starcontrol.com.





https://store.steampowered.com/app/271260/Star_Control_Origins/

v1.4 Changelog

Visuals

• Updated planet surface textures to be more detailed.
  
• A small improvement of the terrain rendering system to improve the frame rate.
  
• Improved lighting of the planet surface
  
• Improved the textures on many props (glowing tentacles, glowing mushrooms, bones )
  
• Make the Bull critter appearance a bit brighter
  
• Improved the lander texture to make the windows stand out better
  
• Updated the magma hazard visual effect to improve performance
  

Bugs

• Listener orientation is no longer backward in a true 5.1 setup
  
• Fix for some particles not being properly aligned to the surface
  
• Fix for particle sorting and disappearing issue
  
• Fixed several crashes related to the particle effects trying to escape the bounds of known reality.  

Lore

• The "Observers"  are now known as the "Arilou"
  

https://youtu.be/QxDabf7XeRY


https://store.steampowered.com/app/961150
Play Part 1: Aftermath & Part 2: Return of the Lexites today!

Stardock released Part 2 of its expansion to the new Star Control game today. In it, players will finally come face to face with the very beings who inspired the formation of Star Control in the first place -- the Lexites. Earth Rising - Part 2: Return of the Lexites introduces players to the post-singularity species called the Lexites whose mysterious motives to stop Earth’s expansion into the galaxy will require all the player's efforts.



Set in the late 21st century, the player is the Captain of Earth's first interstellar starship with the mission to explore the galaxy, find allies to help protect Earth from hostile aliens and find the resources necessary to help Earth begin to expand to the stars.

The expansion pack, Earth Rising, is being released in 4 parts. It adds a host of new aliens, ships, adventures and destinations to the already rich universe introduced in Star Control: Origins. Because Star Control is a non-linear action/RPG game, the new content does not require the player to have already completed the main story arc from the base game.

• Lexites - The Post-Humans who left Earth decades ago are back!
  
• New Missions - A series of missions dealing with Earth's expansion into the galaxy as well as missions involving your command crew.
  
• New Ships - Battle against new, fully-armed Lexite ships. Earn rewards from quests in order to unlock and purchase ships.
  
• New Weapons - Take on new challenges as you face enemies with weapons you’ve never seen before.
  

https://store.steampowered.com/app/961150

Check out the features and quests in Part 1: Aftermath here!