Wing Commander Saga

@213: Those are actually original designs from Wing Commander 2. Remember: That game was designed in the early 90s. This is faaaar away from being realistic spaceship design and it is even further away from current 3D models as you will see when you play WCS.

Of course the ships in our mod are a bit higher quality, but it's 2012 now, so that's not something special.

btw: We also have a Concordia with a complete flight deck. I think it is used somewhere ingame, if not it is at least available in the mission editor. (which will be released soon)

Actually I like some of those ships, for example the Privateer ones.

Regards

Aginor

Yes, some of the models are nothing more than spheres and oval shapes melded together. ORIGIN must have had very limited render software at the time, and they were used for art only.

The ships in game were actualy just print screened 2D textures of those models. They took 8 perspective snapshots in each axis to give the player illusion of them being 3D. Of course it was very limited as some of the biggest ships would snap onto next snapshot texture without a smooth transition as you moved along them.

So accuracy of the models were not something we had the luxury to complain about. :D

Also, Wing commander 2 was the Best christmas present I ever had. It was my very first PC game of my own (although I have tried F-19 and F-15 on a friends computer a year before).

It had 7 disks, and I remember being so nervous with this new sophisticated immersive game I was shaking when I opened the box.

The sad part was, one of the disks was corruped and I had to wait almost full week after the holiday before the store would open and give me a new disk.

It still took 3 friggin hours to unpack on my rather slow AMD 386 clone. And it ran somewhat slowly. I spent a great deal of time studying the DOS manual to squeeze the max out of the hardware. Ahh the times of the Config.Sys and Autoexec.bat and expanded memory. :D

Must have played this game for like 4 full years non-stop before I switched to WC3 (which was out for a while before I could grab a copy) and any other PC games.

some of the most unpolished, campy, buck rogers-like spacecraft designs i've ever seen.

 

putting more wings on your ship isn't going to make it go faster or be more stable, or have more lift. it's space

Of course it would be short sighted for this advanced space race to limit their space craft to space alone....wings for the transition to planetary flight my friend ;). (Closest earthly example is the space shuttle) Not to mention they act as excellent weapon mounts.

Now as far as their design sense...well much was left to be desired, but as a kid playing it...didn't really notice. :pilotfly:

Actually the in-universe reason for having those wings on the ship consists of two parts:

1. Some of those ships are capable of atmospheric flight, for example the Hellcat V and the Excalibur.

2. some of the weapons' generators (especially those of older ships, which explains why the WC1 and WC2 ships have bigger wings than the later ones) produce some sort of radiation which could harm the pilot. So they mounted the weapons on the wings.

And of course the "rule of cool" applies here as well. If wings look good, why don't use them? :)

EDIT: btw, I don't like the WC2 designs that much, either. I prefer the earlier ones from WC1 or the later ones from WC3/4/5

Regards

Aginor

many of the ships were inspired by TV movies and series. The Drakhri from WC2 was almost identical to a fighter seen in flash gordon animated series (as were their pilots too!), the Pirate razor fighter from Wc4 can be found in the original battlestar galactica (a Police fighter from a distant outpost), as are some capital ships taken from Disneys Black hole movie etc etc.

So is the campaign like in Wing Commander 1? Is it more like a tree structured campaign with different routes and endings?

Or are all the 55 missions linear? Whats the shortest amount of missions to win?

Unfortunately the engine does not allow branching that simple like the original games did (although it is not completely impossible). So yes, you can (and must) finish all missions in a single play through.

So this might be a positive thing if you want to see everything and get all the story, but of course if you don't... well, it is long.

You might want to play it on easy mode, then, so you at least don't have to play any missions more than once (ok, perhaps one or two are a bit harder, even on easy)

(and of course you don't have to play the prologue campaign, so you can have 5 missions less. You're just losing a bit of story and some tactics then.)

Regards

Aginor

Unfortunately the engine does not allow branching that simple like the original games did (although it is not completely impossible). So yes, you can (and must) finish all missions in a single play through.

 

So this might be a positive thing if you want to see everything and get all the story, but of course if you don't... well, it is long.

You might want to play it on easy mode, then, so you at least don't have to play any missions more than once (ok, perhaps one or two are a bit harder, even on easy)

 

(and of course you don't have to play the prologue campaign, so you can have 5 missions less. You're just losing a bit of story and some tactics then.)

 

Regards

Aginor

Does the difficulty setting only change the vulnerability of my ship? Or also of my allied ships?

Because at the moment I am at the mission where you escort some Strike Sabers, which end up as cat food for the corvettes after I defeated all the fighters. They shoot their torpedoes too early so the corvettes guns destroy them before they reach their target. I tried playing the hunted duck by drawing their fire on me, but still no joy, will try more times.

The settings change the AI skill level mostly, but IIRC also the shield and armor strength of the AI fighters.

In the mission you are at it is indeed not simple to save both of the Sabres.

Here's what I did: I killed 2-3 fighters as fast as I could, then I afterburned to the corvettes and killed their medium turrets by flying under their shield and blasting the hell out of them.

Normally the Sabres shouldn't get that much damage now.

I admit that I only saved one of them, though.

EDIT: But I admit I am not a very good pilot. Our beta testers beat every single mission in all difficulty settings, so I guess it is possible. :)

Regards

Aginor

I replayed that mission on easy instead of normal and not even got a scratch on our wings. The coward ace got away, is that normal? It seemed that I couldnt scratch his fighter under 68%...

Yes, Fireclaw is invincible in this mission. He is supposed to get away.

The problem with him is that he has to have "plot armor" because hardcore Wing Commander fans are very strict with their canonic story and Fireclaw canonically died in Wing Commander 3, he was killed by the player (Chris Blair). We wanted to show some aces the fans know though.

(btw: Don't count on all the aces being invincible, they aren't)

The same is true for other famous ships and persons in the WC universe.

For example the two cruisers who rescue your hide in one mission, IIRC the Langley and... some other, those are famous capships from one of the books.

Of course this heavy scripting is not popular with some fans, we know that, but the team decided that the story is worth it.

Regards

Aginor

Damn, it is hard shooting down cap missiles with the Arrow after being used to the Hellcat...

Ok, just please don't try to explain why we can hear sounds from other craft in space in a game or in a movie :)

I have to say I was pretty surprised to see this thread on this forum just now. I had been looking forward to Saga for a while, and I've gotten a little more than halfway through the campaign at this point. Any fan of the original series should definitely give this a go.

@Impact: Yes, the feeling is quite different. Actually I personally dislike the Hellcat and I don't like the Longbow that much either. Arrow and Thunderbolt are my favourites to fly, although the Excalibur is the über-fighter in the game.

@Crunch:

Well, I'll explain it anyway because it is easy to explain: It is a game, not a simulator. Sound is there for more fun. The same goes for fake-airplane-like-behavior instead of realistic physics and a lot more things. :D

@MagnumHB:

Thanks for your comment, it is always nice to hear from other gamers that they like our game. We put a lot of work in it. :)

I was surprised as well when I saw this thread, I wouldn't have thought that there would be enough gamers in the simulation community who like that sort of game that someone dares to open a thread here.

After all the game has not much to do with simulations, as you all know. :D

Regards

Aginor

Just came on to add rep for Aginor. Awesome to play in the WC universe as well. Awesome to see ships that I recognise from my youth - even if I can't remember the names. I found myself perking up in my seat thinking "I remember that one!".

Ok, just please don't try to explain why we can hear sounds from other craft in space in a game or in a movie :)

The sounds of other spacecraft are simulated by the audio computer to enhance situational awareness of the pilot.

Also to wake up command by buzzing the tower!

Oh, and I discovered while fighting a cap ship that my wing men where strafing around by using the glide mechanic that the Arrows have. Now I am fighting like the Babylon 5 fighters! Should make it easier to conserve fuel, shoot down missiles, etc.

Just afterburn to 1400, glide and set it off. Cant wait to fly the Excalibur of the old WC3 days.

I was surprised as well when I saw this thread, I wouldn't have thought that there would be enough gamers in the simulation community who like that sort of game that someone dares to open a thread here.

After all the game has not much to do with simulations, as you all know. :D

Ain't nothing wrong with blowing off a little steam and blowin up stuff real good for fun. I like realism in a sim, but that is when a sim is trying to be realistic. If you are just out to make a good fun game like WCS, then no need to pretend that it is something that it is not. Thanks again to the WCS team!

I hate to ask a tech support question here, but how do you get TrackIR working in WCS please?

I'm glade to know that such sims allife!

I'm in!

:thumbup:

Ok, just please don't try to explain why we can hear sounds from other craft in space in a game or in a movie :)

Because it would be super boring otherwise. Space ship and space battle sounds are awesome.

Again, thanks for playing, you all!

@Crunch:

TrackIR support is easy. You will need a DLL from the SCP project and put it in your Saga main folder. Then start your TrackIR software normally and it should work.

You can get the DLL here for example:

http://www.mediafire.com/?ihzkihqj2ky

Regards

Aginor

Wow, this sounds like really great news! Until this thread popped up I'd never even heard of WCS. I was a huge fan of the series, now I'm looking forward to playing WCS tonight. Torrent at 78%, almost good to go. :-)

Again, thanks for playing, you all!

 

@Crunch:

TrackIR support is easy. You will need a DLL from the SCP project and put it in your Saga main folder. Then start your TrackIR software normally and it should work.

 

You can get the DLL here for example:

 

http://www.mediafire.com/?ihzkihqj2ky

 

Regards

Aginor

Great, Thanks again!

Installed it and loving it!

Brings back many good old memories...

Tip for people that use more than one controller (WC-Saga only accept one) and want to use their rudders in WC-Saga for yaw :

Download PPJoy and install a Virtual Joystick.

And than use the "Joystick Remixer" (via start-menu)

to compose a controller of your choice.:)