From: jhpace1@eos.ncsu.edu (Technoknight)
Subject: Star Control II SPOILER EXTREME
Originator: jhpace1@c00733-239rd.eos.ncsu.edu
Keywords: SC2 sc2 ][ accolade
Reply-To: jhpace1@eos.ncsu.edu
Organization: Secret_NCSU_group
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1993 21:48:38 GMT


First of all, I'd like to say thanks to the guys who posted hints here.


SPOLIERS AHEAD ON STAR CONTROL II - THE UR-QUAN MASTERS


























OK.  It took 4 weeks, but I finally solved the game on a friend's computer.

The 10 rainbow worlds are:

Beta Pegasi
Zeta Sextantis
Groombridge
Gamma Aquarii
Beta Leporis
Epsilon Lipi
Epsilon Draconis
Gamma Kepler
Gamma Reticuli
Alpha Andromedae

You can find them by taking some thread and lining up Beta Pegasi, Epsilon
Draconis, and Groombridge, and then another one lining up Groombridge, Alpha
Andromedae, and Gamma Reticuli.  I dunno why the designers (anybody else read
that update.txt?) made the "V" formation, but they did.  The gas beings at Beta
Corvi II say the "Shaggy Ones" (Precursors) made the rainbow worlds and that
they were "worried by them".  I _don't_ know what this has to do with the story-
line, since all the rainbow worlds give you is 500 credits apiece with the
Traders.  No Precursor tech is left on ANY of these worlds.  Don't waste your
time, folks.

Does everybody know about the homeworlds?  Each alien homeworld has SOMETHING
of value, whenether it be the Mycon's Sun Device, the Druuge's Rosy Sphere, 
the Shofixti's single male survior, etc.

To get the QuasiSpace drive, first get the Ur-Quan Warp Pod at Beta Pegasi,
then go ahead and get the probe self-destruct at Beta Corvii II, kick Thraddash
trunks in the Draconis cluster, and then go between the Chandrasekhar and
Columbae systems (lower half) between the 17th and 20th of any month.  An 
Arilou ship will usuall meet and talk with you beforehand about the Talking
Pet.  Then go into the big green star and goto Starmap, and auto-pilot to the
biggest star in the upper right hand corner.  The Arilou will tell you the
rest.

I LOVED the QuasiSpace Portal Spawner!  But why didn't the designers include
a starmap in the book?  It took 3 hours to map that tiny cluster.  And why 
have the starmap on the computer full-screen when the cluster only took up a
fifth of the space?  I think the designers need to add a bit of programming to 
the next game so that if you fall through a portal, it will make the normal
HyperSpace screen put a "ghost" star in that location, and also somehow label
the QuasiSpace starmap.  Save a lot of headaches and time that way.

The game talks a lot about "Dimensional Fatigue" (DF) (Anybody watch the movie
"From Beyond? - same stuff).  If HyperSpace and QuasiSpace are only two of the
dimensions that exist simultaneously with normal TrueSpace, then there should
be even fancier dimensions in StarControl III.  Ideally, a starship would have
three drives:  a normal TrueSpace drive (stupid Newtonian physics), a "crusing"
drive (for exploration), and an instanteneous drive (QuasiSpace, in this game)
to go to specific spots and save fuel, time, etc.

In the game, the Quasispace holes were always near important places, like 
Centarus for home, Gamma Corvi for the Slyandro, one near the VUX beast, one
near Arctucus, one near Crateris (in the middle of Kor-Ah/Ur_Quan space,
YIKES!), etc.

Everybody who has the STARCON2 manual pull it out and turn it to the page where
they explain the Devices option on the menu screen.  Does the picture they show
look interesting?  It should - it has the date being in 2175, not 2156-9, and
the devices they show are a CLOAKING DEVICE and VORTEX SPAWNER.  Sound good to
you?  But these devices are nowhere to be found in the game!  I think they
will be in Star Control III - (finding the Mark II and marrying Talana).

I thought it was sweet justice to use the Burixese Hyperwave caster on the
spiderly Illwrath to annilalate themselves on the Traddash.  Good way for two
non-humanoid, dead-end cultures to end.  But it came as a shock to find out the
Illwrath's homeworld was NOT in their sphere of influence!

At the end of the game, the ending credits (halarious, by the way) say that
the next game is going to be about Talana Syreen, finding the Mark II Precursor
ship (the last pic looked nothing like a starship to me!), and fighting the 
escaped Talking Pet and the Druuge.  Maybe finding a new Ultron for the
depressed people too.  But the Quasidrive, Taalo shield, the two Hyperwave
 'casters, etc. are GONE.  And they were irreplaceable.

This was a good game, but it needed a LOT more documentation on the storyline.
Yes, yes, it was to be 20 years out of date, etc.  BULL.  You want to know how
many hours I spent looking for the VUX beast alone?  :[  There were also a few
bugs in the programming.  For instance, you could go to the same star system
400 times and not remember which planet or moon those nice bios were on.  There
should have been a "ship's computer" that would have told you that you already
checked out X planet, it had X bios, X minerals left, no energy sources, and
REALLY bad weather!

Has anybody read the hint book yet?  What is it like?  Does it have the rainbow
worlds, chronology, QuasiSpace map, etc?


E-mail me for questions - I don't read this newsgroup much.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generic disclaimer:  These thoughts and writings are my own unless otherwise
                     noted - although Jerrold my twin may think them too.

Jeremy H. Pace        |  The Vindicator          Eph. 6:12
jhpace1@eos.ncsu.edu  |  Technoknight
NC State, Raleigh     |  Electrical Engineering

"Peace, through superior firepower." -  Minos V motto, ST:TNG "The Arsenal
                                        of Freedom"
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Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games