[Darklord42]

I'm sure this has been discuessed in the past but i didnt find an older thread.
I know with the fs2 scp they allowed the ability for the ship to be renderd in cockpit mode thereby allowing cockpits to be added.  Will wc saga take advantage of this in future releases?  I seem to remember a very nice looking hellcat cockpit model that was used in the intro to the demo campeign.

[Tolwyn]

It depends on the time remaining and, most importantly, this

[Darklord42]

oh i see, thats a good question. I hope they add that so you can do 3-d cockpits. You guys did an excelent job making the game feel like wing commander As it is.  the cockpits realy would be the icing on the cake

[AlekTrev006]

Do most people tend to play the game with Cockpit off anyways though ? 

My understanding of the HUD-display was that you (the Player) were seeing things through the Computer-Enhanced Viewscreen of your Pilot's Helmet...everything is augmented, on-screen - etc. - appearing "before your eyes" - and allowing you to magnify and track things flying about at crazy speeds, as well as at "crazy" ranges.... ?

I wonder if most people (when given the option of with-cockpit or without) - played most of the games without it to give the full field of view it offered, instead of the sometimes limited sight-lines you got otherwise ?  ( I remember one of the ships - maybe the Scimitar from Wing-I ? - had a pretty small cockpit view for you - while others like the Arrow or Hornet were much more spacious)

[gevatter Lars]

A cockpit with all its little consoles and stuff gave me the feeling of beeing inside a fighters cockpit so I somehow miss the cockpit.
I think for games its a matter of taste of you have a cockpit or just the pure screens like FS has it.

[Javito1986]

I love cockpits, always have, and curse Wing Commander IV for starting a precedent and nixing them. If you guys brought back cockpits, I would buy pretty dresses for all of your wives and mistresses.

[gevatter Lars]

Okay everyone Cockpits get a priority and I need to find a nice girl ^_^

Now serious...I also would like to have cockpits in 3d. But as long as you can't set the HUD properly it would be hard to read some of the HUD elements.

[IceFire]

I always used the virtual method.  The cockpit in WC3 (and earlier) was always too much in the way.

[Scooby_Doo]

I always used the virtual method.  The cockpit in WC3 (and earlier) was always too much in the way.

Strange I did too, but now with cockpit I can't really seem to enjoy the game as much without them.

[Javito1986]

You know, yea cockpits got in the way a bit but -man- were they immersive. There's nothing quite like playing a Wing Commander game, taking a strong hit, and watching your instrument panel blow up in your face so that you're not able to see the radar or even access your computer to see how much damage you've taken. I first played WC3 on the playstation without cockpits... bleh. Recently I acquired a new copy and played it via DosBox and cockpits added SO much to the gameplay.

I realize it's quite impossible to bring them back in the same way with the Freespace engine. But it's just fun to think about. I was playing the defense of the Ticonderoga mission yesterday (-great- mission) and it really brought back the old WC feel. Just to imagine playing that battle with a fully enabled Wing Commander cockpit... *sighs dreamily*. We can't have everything but it's fun to think about. 

[KeldorKatarn]

Getting in the way is not soo much of a problem. One could counter that very easily by increasing the field of view value.
Try playing WC Saga with fov 0.39 and then with fov 0.65.
That's incredibly different. Dogfights become harder because you don't see that much anymore, but you don't really know why it's harder in the beginning.
So with a cockpit one could simply increase the view of the player so he sees pretty much about the same amount he saw before.

One could even link that to the cockpit, so the fov is adjusted everytime the cockpit is enabled or disabled.

[Mav]

Well, I certainly enjoyed enabling the Erinyes' cockpit. Added VERY much to the gameplay .
A pity things got harder through it (the struts should only be 1/2 or 1/3 as thick, me thinks, but well...) .


So if the Mod is released with the option for cockpit-on and cockpit-off, I'd propably first play it without cockpits, to get it completed, and another time (or at least some missions) with cockpits enabled to get more immersion out of it.

And really, even with still using the old FS-style cockpit overlayed, having a cockpit felt much more like being in a fighter... without it, I sort of have the impression piloting a shooting point .


As for the Wing Commander games... I liked the cockpits in WC1, WC2, Academy and Armada, but in WC3 I always turned them off - they were in the way and they also somehow didn't feel right to me... In WCP though, they are fine again . And as far as WC4 goes, the no-cockpit-view there looked quite a bit better then the one in WC3, I'd say.

And for -fov... I like to play with -fov 0.90 , as this feels even more immersive, but for comparing to my old highscores and for online-play I have to turn it off, because I somehow can't really adapt to the aiming-changes

[Scooby_Doo]

BTW how do my models cockpit stack up with them? Too big?