Can I just interject something about this topic - and I think many will concur - I HATE spaceship games where you CLICK where you want your ship to move to. That would be a huge game-breaker for me. Make CERTAIN to give us specifically DIRECT control of our ship. No clicking on a location you want to go to. Please!

Agree about unique ships with unique abilities and unique weapon sound design plus victory ditties (and the pilot animations with ship stats).

HOWEVER, it would need to look super hot to be relevant with the current and future generation of gamers.

Could the top down 2d style still work without looking dated and toyish in today's advanced gaming environment?

Star Control has to either do the old 2d asteroids thing unbelievably well or come up with something so unique and impressive to play that it can't be ignored.

For me the core of Star Control was the exploration and dealing with weird aliens and so on. The Combat was the weakest element that felt counter to the whole thing to me.

You have this ragtag fleet of various races ships... and then you duel them one at a time? Just seems so out of place to me.
I never liked the 1v1 melee battles. I'd much rather be able to control all my ships at once. 

:EDIT: That doesn't mean I necessarily want an RTS style control.. In fact the best option imo would be direct control of your flagship while being able to issue orders to your escort fleet.

^ I think the direct combat in SC2 was satisfying, however, if we were to combine the directly controlling your flagship while giving orders to your escort vessels (I think escorts should be AI controlled, but I think the player should be able to select whether they are aggressive, defensive and what ships to engage) this way we still maintain the flagship combat of SC2 (albeit, at a slower, more realistic pace) while adding in the awesome possibility of huge fleet combat, with Fwiffo at your side beating the crap out of Ur-Quan in the Battle of Draco.

Yeah, it sounds like a good approach to me.

There was never a point in the game that the Spathi Eluder was not a viable main battle vessel.  It was a little tough to get the hang of dealing with the Slylandro probes, and in duels, beating a Chmmr Avatar was very tricky and not worth betting on, but I didn't use the flagship for combat.  There were too many fun ships, too much fun variety, to just spam Hellbore and collect RUs.

Besides, one well-piloted Spathi would get you all the RUs you could ever want.  Go into Ur-Quan space and farm their battleships.  Eluders were absolutely perfect Ur-Quan killers, green or black ^_^

There could always be the option of having the other ships add "bonuses" to the fight.  Have a full complement of ships?  20% bonus in damage to the enemy if its just 12 vs 1.  If its 12 vs 12, no bonus.  1 vs 12, well, the enemy gets the bonus.

Just a thought.

For the love of the game NO ! Countless of times we have mentioned why Star Control will not be a strategy game nor have strategy aspects ! There are 1000s of strategy games to choose from, go play them, star control has unique elements that no rts game can provide, change that and you have lost the spirit of what fuels the soul of Star Control, i would hate to have my ships fight autonomously, I really liked the challenge of fighting multiple ships one at a time, it honed my skills to be a better fighter maxing out my abilities on each and every unique ship, one has got to earn Progress in the game, not let a bot fight for you autonomously... The different ships is too interesting to be left fighting it out via AI style, i want to be in the jumpseat, ALL the TIME !

Another disrupting part of your idea is to suddenly stop fighting your main battle and look at the other ships status, it would highly interfere with the realtime "feel" of fighting your current battle and the sense of urgency and "on the spot" action would be lost.

above 2 posts edited to correct spelling,grammar...

Agree, however making it just a little more interesting, once you scanned a planet and decide to land, lets say 4 pods descent at once when pushing the launch button once, and land on the planet, automatically once a spot has been selected prior to launching just as in sc2, the descent and land like the latest mars rover was landed with a rocket propelled landing platform/husk.. Once landed, let all of them deploy automatically, the first being the refinery, the second the repair bay and the 3rd a harvester and the 4th a caryall. From there all you need to do is pickup your harvester via the caryall and control it in realtime to where you want to harvest, once the harvester is deployed to the given mining field on the planet, harvest at will, return to caryall, back to base offload the cargo and go harvest again or, push a button for everything to pack up and launch autonomously to the mothership outside the planet.

Everything being controlled in realtime, navigating the dangers of the planet would really put you on the edge of your seat !, flying the caryall, being struck by lightning or damaged by tectonics/alien critters, but please let the caryall have to land when waiting for the harvester ! Makes it more realistic, give it some extra armor to withstand the conditions a bit more though if required, the rush of harvesting as much as you can while pondering how much longer you can hold out before deciding to fly back to base to offload the cargo....  Exhilarating ! !

Already did and the whole cnc franchise thereafter too, not the same as Star control type harvesting.

Absolutely everything ! !

In Star control, things happen quick depending on which planet you are on, it puts you in the hotseat of an exotic planet, making you feel as if you are actually on an alien planet that puts an anticipation in you after you have scanned the planet to land on it and dare to harvest valuable minerals while dodging the elements, and critters, the sense of danger, reward and accomplishment can absolutely not be matched whatsoever by conventional automatic RTS style harvesting.

In Star Control, YOU are controlling the Harvester and Caryall, flying through the weather, landing on a tectonic plagued surface, acid rain/dust, lightning as quick as you can then putting your caryall atop a mountain to be safe from the ground dangers below, while your harvester mines and faces the dangers below, the Absolute reward experienced when you just..just make it to base with a damaged caryall and harvester with the minerals you've mined makes it feel like you've beaten the odds and together you and your machines got the job done ! Put the the harvester and caryall on the repair bay, and go harvest again, or return to the mothership.

There is simply no better way to feel each and every new planet, than to experience it First hand !

I do not think that Galactic Civ III is a good starting point for ship combat.  Galactic CIV III is Rock, Paper, Scissor combat and it is mostly the offensive stats versus defensive stats that determine the outcome.

In Star Control, it has always possible to develop a pilot's skills so that he could defeat any ship by using any other ship (or with most ships anyway).

I would like a boarding option where the captains could board a disabled ship and fight the enemy captain in order to capture the ships like Pirates but I'd make it an option that could be turned off for people who want more traditionnal options.   Each captain could have natural offence / defense.  Humans could throw knives, use swords, bows.  (Firearms would not be an option to avoid causing an explosive decompression.)   Ilwrath could shoot a spider web from their butts.   Thradash attack with their tusks like a wild pig.  I'm thinking that the captain vs captain fight could be a bit like a Archon I fight.

Getting close and boarding a ship would be a nice feature if a ship's capabilities are too much for the ability of the player's ship.   Orz meets Pirates !