Author Topic: WCS colision model  (Read 9367 times)

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Don't see what this  is going to accomplish ... apart from making the game insanely difficult.

Well, that depends. X-Wing had instant-death collisions, and it played just fine. Arguably, instant-death collisions will actually make some things easier (since the AI is so stupid about ramming things).

Not the X-Wing I remember playing... I used to ram ships with the B-wing as it has superior shielding to nearly everything.

X-Wing didn't have insta-death at all. It was common for Tie Fighters to fly right into you on the initial attack run. And an X-Wing or Y-Wing could survive. Not sure about the A-Wing.

Tie Fighter was another matter, but then again anything that collided with that would kill it. Z-95s were particularly heinous. Though weaker opponents than most Rebel fighters, when they died their burning fuselage would often fly straight back, not uncommonly into you.


As for Freespace. Well, I agree that it would make the game very hard. I don't think the AI is that smart. Getting in a dogfight with a Basilisk for example and it's almost guarenteed you're going to run into it. Not only that but AI is going to run into things on their own. Enemies and allies alike will be exploding everywhere (see any mission around an Arcadia).



 

Offline Dragon

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AI should definitely be smarter when it comes to avoiding collisions.
Also, I think deadly colissions are important part of Wing Commander feeling and should be recreated in WCS.
On a side note, I noticed that collisions are much more destructive on higher difficulty levels, so maybe it's not density that should be changed, but rather a collision damage multipiler should be made controlable via AIProfiles (and set to the same level as on insane on all difficulties).

 
AI should definitely be smarter when it comes to avoiding collisions.

Yeah but they're not going to get smarter. Not unless someone re-writes teh code or something.

 

Offline Commander Zane

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Which utterly breaks the feeling of FreeSpace which a lot of people don't seem to like.

 

Offline Dragon

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I think this can be triggered as AIProfile flag (like $impoved colission avoiding:).

 
well the collisions in WC were not always fatal and there was a skill to using collisions with an other ship as a weapon and surviving. it been a while so i forget it which characters explained it in WC1 in the bar but it was a combination of a few over several dialogs . it wasn't a complete explanation but it was described as a Kilrathi tactic that gave you a hint if you payed attention on how to observe the Kilrathi doing it. although it would require a good bit of programing to replicate it, and some player skills to execute it. the trick is in a combination of shield strength, angle, and impact location on both ships. you see its not the impact its self that you use as a weapon but your shields :bump:.  what you had to do is a glaceing blow in critical spots on the enemy ship with a change of angle (by pulling away at the right time) in the process. the goal is to graze one quadrant of the enemy ship with two quadrants of your own shields, there by draining the one quadrant of the enemy shields and doing damage to the ship itself.  insistently this method even works better when flying light fighter against a heavier fighter because the better maneuverability and usually smaller size of the light fighter makes it easier to preform the maneuver and harder for the heavier fighter to avoid. It is always a risky last resort maneuver best used only when all of your weapons are destroyed, although i will admit to impatiently using it when taking out a heavy fighter with just a light fighters guns took too long. Ive used that trick in almost every WC game effectively and on many more than one occasion used it to rack up several kills after all my weapons were destroyed and successfully landed at the end of the mission (usually with the eject alarm going off or at least very close to it).

 

Offline Colonol Dekker

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Ramming in any Wing Commander was only really a viable tactic after pressing Alt + O and togglini certain options. But that removes all skill development and more importantly, fun.
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Offline Dragon

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Or weakening your target with guns.
Me and my father used it as an opening move, the sequence: missile kill the first, ram the second and gun down third while your wingman plays with the fourth (I even learned to hog his kills with either a missile or gun fire) was great for quick dealing with 4 fighter flights, one of the largest formations you encouncered in WC1.
It often damaged my hull a little, but the enemy always exploded into a giant fireball, so it was worth of it, I just had to be carefull not to execute head-on with the next enemy.
Of course, when the quick elimiantion of the fighters was needed the most (while escorting the captured Ralari) you faced Jalthis which were too heavly armoured to kill that way.
But at least one transport crew owes it's lives to this tactic used on Dralthis.

 

Offline starlord

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I actually believe them to be grathas, which have one of the most annoying target profiles in the game IMO...

Whatever I do, I can't lodge all my shots into them, and they take forever to kill.

 

Offline Dragon

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Indeed, those were difficult to kill.
Ramming them was risky, because of their armour, but I did it from time to time while in a Raptor.
This tactic allowed me to defend Tiger's Claw in the final mission, as it was vital to take them down quickly.

 
Ramming in any Wing Commander was only really a viable tactic after pressing Alt + O and togglini certain options. But that removes all skill development and more importantly, fun.

I don't think WC2 had that option and I know WC1 didn't. I think you are referring to the invincibility mode that they introduced latter I never once turned that on. I was talking about shield scraping and that definitely is a skill.

 
Ramming is ok in prophecy i think... I remember the last level with those squid things firing those o shapped guns constantly ramming into them.
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Offline Dragon

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That was good, but getting into position where you could ram the enemy became more difficult when WC moved to 3D.
Breaking Stingray formations was pretty much the best application of that in 3D WC games, since they were slow enough to get rammed and armored lightly enough for the player to survive a hit.
In WCS, ramming would also not be easy, but I think it should be introduced anyway.

 

Offline Aginor

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I recall that in WCP those... Lampreys (http://www.wcnews.com/ships/wcplamprey.shtml) I think kept ramming me. A lot.
Anybody else made that experience?
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I recall that in WCP those... Lampreys (http://www.wcnews.com/ships/wcplamprey.shtml) I think kept ramming me. A lot.
Anybody else made that experience?

Yup those were the ones.
That's cool and ....disturbing at the same time o_o  - Vasudan Admiral

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