Started replaying SC2 with Ur-Quan Masters HD, crazy how well it holds up..
Playing modern games lately, something feels like it's missing, maybe my shorter attention span these days/less time. I feel a couple things have been lost and forgotten that I hope are in the next star control game.
depth in the game/story beyond 9 feet - allow the player to discover, but never truly know - throughout SC2, several hints of other ominous and unknown forces were afoot in the galaxy, yet we still could grasp a picture of what was below, and it wasn't an overload of text-lore. Hints of a history and ancestors long before the player that are still holding their cards, such as the Melnorme or the Orz. I'm hoping it's a swim in the ocean, versus a swimming pool. Never knowing what lurks beneath, but still willing to swim out and discover.
Allow player authorship - let the player choose how they are going to get there, avoid linearity. And avoid the Tell-Tale route of meaningless choices.
The exploration and discovery are still amazing in the game. Hopefully the fad of procedurally generated content is avoided. Sure it makes each playthrough "different" but it really doesn't make anything "remarkable" or "unique". There needs to be those instances that stand out. Those absolute moments, those monuments that are there each go-around. A randomized universe may as well be noise. I'm not saying don't randomize anything, just don't make it roguelite
And my main thing I wanted to post! KEEP THE SCIENCE. Remember the feel of exploring Venus - "well, that is not a friendly planet to put my lander on". "Off to Alpha Centauri, oh so that's a gas giant". Since Star Control 2 came out way back in the day, so many scientific discoveries have been made about the universe. Use that newfangled knowledge!!! Catch up on some Ars Technica articles, weave that into the exploration. Two blackholes orbiting eachother, cool, we didn't know about those. Exploring a fictional universe can be cool, but exploring the galaxy we live in and all the mystery that is around today, really takes you out of the present and thinking about something grander. There are soooo many stars and galaxies we have observed. Use them. Use the theories. http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/exoplanet-exploration/
http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/mysterious-ripples-found-racing-through-planet-forming-disk
Please avoid base management or RTS. Plenty of that already.
Also, it's too bad the Founder's Program is closed. I missed the chance to apply.