>>2870593
>is it enough to explore every galaxy?
There's only one galaxy. And no, you don't have enough time to explore every star system. The time limit feels a lot like the time limit in Fallout 1. It's strict enough that you can't ignore it but not so strict that it's excessively limiting. If you're concerned, there's something you can do to make it much less pressing (spoilers from mild to explicit):
Found the Melnorme yet? Check out gas giant stars
Trade for current events information until you discover something interesting about hyperspace
There's a portal to quasispace at 043.8 : 637.3, open monthly 17th - 20th on the month
Find the Arilou in quasispace, talk to them to get the location of the warp pod
Retrieve the warp pod for them, get the portal spawner. Experiment with the portal destinations. All your travel times are now dramatically reduced

>>2870593

>Any tips

I don't want to spoil the game for you so I'll give you my patented Best Star Control 2 Newbie Tip:

If you get your ass kicked in ship combat learn to fight in a cowardly fashion with a Spathi Eluder. It is very safe if tedious to destroy even Ur-Quan ships by fleeing, dodging everything and launching B.U.T.T.s.

You can obviously find other ships and learn to fight with all of them but early on you can feel pretty weak with the starting selection.

If you want more time to explore every system/play at your own pace without the clock ticking down on you (and if it's your first playthrough, you WILL run afoul of the death march) then download the time dialation mod, or the delay mod. The dialation mod makes the game go much slower overall so other timed events also take longer to manifest, while the delay mod just puts off the final deadline without affecting any of the other events/general timeflow.

>>2870593
There are a few in game events that can delay the end of game timer. You can talk to the melnorme for a sense of when the game will end.

>>2870623
>>2870645
>>2870660
>>2870662

Thanks for the answers. My only doubt remaining: is it more profitable to destroy ships or minerals are enough?

>>2870673
I think mineral collecting gives you more RUs per real life time if you find good planets. But it's not a big difference so do whatever you find most fun.

>>2870673
It's all minerals. The resources you get from destroying ships is more like a little consolation prize than anything else. Combat is tedious and pretty much everyone approaches the game with the attitude that the only fights actually worth fighting are the story-advancing ones.

>>2870593
OP, are you playing the Ur-Quan Masters edition? I am playing it for the first time myself, am probably 85% done, and love it. Adding on to what others have already said about the "time limit", if you are playing this version you might want to read this section from their FAQ, it was a shock to me:
In the PC version of Star Control II the Melnorme volunteer some information about [the time limit]. As there is no spoken text for this in the 3DO version, it is also missing from The Ur-Quan Masters:

How nice to see you again, Captain. Before we go on, I have a small announcement. As you may know, in our travels throughout the galaxy we Melnorme have found many strange and interesting alien artifacts. One of these devices is the MetaChron, a kind of trans-time alarm system. In a nutshell, it warns me of future dangers by predicting its own demise which is most likely linked to my own well being, since I keep it under my pillow. The unit is a small pyramid and, when all is well, white in color. But if we are proceeding along a timeline which will eventually result in the destruction of the MetaChron the unit slowly darkens. Presumably, it will be destroyed at the same time as it turns completely black. When we first entered this region of space, the MetaChron was white. Now it is light gray. At its present rate of change, something will destroy the MetaChron in the early part of the year 2159. In order to avoid this unpleasantness, we may be leaving just before this time so if you have business you wish to conduct with us I suggest you do so before January 2159, or February at the latest.

>>2870696
> OP, are you playing the Ur-Quan Masters edition?

Actually I am playing the DosBox one. Is it easier to maneuver the ship on the modern edition?

>>2870713
Yes, the UQM version has smoother control and continuous zoom in combat. Also it has awesome voice acting. But it's somewhat more difficult, mostly because unlike the PC version you aren't told the exact location of a certain plot-required energy source.

>>2870713
I for one don't know, because I have only tried the UQM version. But I will say that for that version at least, ship combat is still difficult in the sense that fine movements are tough, I run into the planets all the time, and the AI is a damn-near perfect pilot.

I mostly rely on using ships that exploit weaknesses in the ship class that is assaulting me, or use my flagship once its been upgraded somewhat. Be prepared to accept heavy losses with Earthling Cruisers in most situations, and prioritize "quests" involving alien species you might be able to befriend if you want to diversify your fleet.

Destroying Ur-quan and Kohr ah ships can be very profitable.

I don't think combat is tedious. Maybe people need to ease off the Spathi Eluder for a while. Play the super melee program to work out what your alliance ships are good against.

The flagship can be the strongest ship by a mile, killing anything in a few seconds, but you need expensive Melnorme tech and lots of RU.

>>2870872

But isn't the flagship space limited?

Or I will need less crew and storage spaces later?

I wouldn't want to spoil all the shiny tech for you. ...But yes, it comes at the expense of storage space. No, it probably won't bother you much at that stage.

I think the first modules to really spend money on are maxed out thrusters and turning jets. These don't take up space obviously. If you still manage to get chased down and cannot handle something, enter battle with the precursor ship, get far away, and {Esc}.

>>2870902
If you just spend the first couple years collecting minerals and maxing out of storage space, eventually you'll have enough that you can stop caring about it, rip out your storage bays, and replace them with more advanced weapons instead.

>>2870872
Kohr-ah can get pretty dangerous if they teleport in next to you with their flame shield thing. I remember using the Vux for a while, but that was even worse. You can kill Thraddash really quickly too, but you don't always have access to them and there's a lower amount of RU per kill.

>>2870991
Yeah, that and fuel, since abusing the quasispace generator and searching for rainbow planets can really save you loads of time. The ship is awful for a while, then really good, then useless at the end when plot related stuff takes up most of your parts.

>>2870685
Nigga u wot. I melee you nub.

Seriously though, the starship fighting (in melee mode) is one of the best things in the game.

>tfw no full game mode like SC1.

Destroying Slylandro probes is profitable with the Spathi, they are worth 550RU because they are full of minerals. There's no good way to summon them though. They are easy to destroy with Spathi. Other ships it's possible but you'll probably lose enough crew to be annoying.

You should be following up quest leads as much as you can and harvest around them when you get there. Sometimes it's not feasible to enter enemy space if their ships perfectly attack your weaknesses. So you have to turn to the side and find a different quest. Or sometimes you just need to git gud. It's always pretty scary to go into Ur-Quan space say because they can always do some damage. Spathi can pillbox them pretty well but the solution the devs have to that is the kohr-ah mine field that you are going to also randomly encounter if you're trying to farm kzer-za.

I'd recommend two resource bays before you leave Sol. After you get the nearby stars (there's a small cluster to the southwest or southeast that has a lot of hot planets but a few ones cool enough to land on. You also get introduced to melnorme.
Then add a fuel tank. Avoid getting stuck away from base, fuel is expensive if you don't have any biological credits banked.

Get max thrusters quickly, and max turning for the mothership. I usually even sell the starting ion cannon because it's not worth fighting with it. You'll protract the fight and probably lose more RUs in crew than you'll make up for by winning or just running and taking a few hits.

When you decide to 'run' from a ship, fly broadside to the planet as close as you can and warp. If you do it right the enemy will have a hard time hitting you. The hyperspace escape system makes you immune to gravity so you can park right next to the planet and not get sucked in, but they must fly by.

>>2871153
This can ruin the difficulty of the game by giving you too much money fairly early. You can sell one mycon egg casing (as far as I can recall this is the only safe item to do so because you can get another one on different planet) to the Druuge for 'completely filling your fuel tanks' If you max out your ship with double capacity fuel tanks you have enough money to never worry about anything again when you go back to base and sell it all. The druuge also scream and cry.

>>2871154
>Space Jews
Yeah, this is the best way to earn fuel/RU. Requires a bit of time to setup though.

The other spacejews will can also buy info from you with their own "credit". Find the rainbow worlds,sell the locations, use all the credit to upgrade your ship.

>>2871154

you can do this twice, you get two hyper wave casters for this as well.