I have got through I believe 4 missions in both campaigns.
Mission 5 in the prologue campaign, this is the strategy I intend on using for my next attempt with some thoughts on how the level works.
Nav 1 - Hide inside Wellington. All ally fighters are invulnerable. Engaging just reduces my chances of success. Wellington IS vulnerable, but they can't scratch it.
Nav 2 - Play as normal.
Nav 3 - hide inside Wellington again and let allies clear fighters.
Nav 4 - participate in helping clear fighters. Hang around Wellington and shoot down capship missiles. Tried hiding and emerging to shoot missiles, but destroyer closes in point blank, so need to buy time.
Nav 5 - Thunderbolts become vulnerable, but your wing stays invulnerable. Hide inside Wellington until it starts being destroyed, then flee. I think at least two enemy fighters are scripted to chase me only, so don't stop fleeing (my undoing in my last attempt. Thought I was safe at about 120,000 away after removing my 2 pursuers, didn't notice the next two until they were on me.)
But this isn't gameplay. I've exploited the obvious invulnerability of teammates in the past too when straight play hasn't worked. My gameplay ability means nothing even at nav 5, as fighters just keep spawning, it makes more sense to flee than fight. It is illogical to fight in almost all parts of this mission. I was checking the names of the kilrathi fighters after my last death, and they were deep into the teens, there should be some reward for fighting and killing, instead of a reward for just hitting your burners and trying to stay alive or hiding inside the Wellington.
I've noticed Spoon about in this forum, and I've played his Wings of Dawn campaign. He too uses invulnerability on some of his characters, but there are very few places if any where you can use this as a crutch, once or twice I've exploited it against specific targets by ordering invulnerable people in to destroy or soften up certain targets, but overall, he's done a very good job of making it necessary and beneficial to fight on every stage. No eternal enemy spawns.
In this game, so far, every level who lives and who dies on your side has already been selected before the battle even begins. The only variable is your death and perhaps one objective that needs protecting.
My question is simple, are the early levels merely to set the tone, and will it open up to a more organic game where pilots that continue on in the story can die and eject and fights are "real", rather than "staged", or does this continue? Normal play is simply detrimental at all parts of this stage except Nav 2 and partially Nav 4. Engaging in combat simply decreases your chance of winning.
I don't want to just complain about a 10 year project, The game is a technical marvel, very easy on the eye, and the story is interesting enough for me to want to see what happens next despite this, and the Wing Commander feel has been captured beautifully, but the missions are so tightly scripted that it's really souring the experience for me. Wing Commander Prophecy and Wing Commander Standoff, two games with large battles, one official and one fanmade, both see all allies and enemies vulnerable. And sure, occasionally, this means your allies suck, leaving you to get swarmed and destroyed, but it doesn't ruin the gameplay. Will I get to see battles like those later?
Congratulations on the release.
EDIT: I mixed up my campaigns. Edited title and post accordingly. As this was the prologue, I guess I should expect less polish in that, but I've still seen the same kind of scripting at work in the main campaign so far, though nothing as drastic, so the question still stands.