[Stone48420]

Kinda curious I know I asked this before but has any decisions been made on what ships will be included in the main campaign. I know the wing commander 3 ships are to be featured but Im hoping to see some of my armada favorites like the wraith and the gladius among a few others.  Since Armada takes place just prior to wing commander 3 it fit’s the timeline. 

Also since the Lexington class carriers are the latest and greatest tech would it make sense to fly wraiths off of it instead of hellcats since wraiths are a slightly superior medium fighter than the hellcat.  Just a thought maybe a flight on some secret op who knows.

Are ships going to have a unique color scheme for their individual squadrons.  It would be cool seeing some hellcats with a red paint job or something unique looking.  Just curious if it could be done with out having to have a completely different model.

Just curious but has auto sliding been implemented in the mod?   Ive seen this thread (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,40547.0.html) and didn’t know if it could be a possible answer. 

Thanks later on

also wheres your guys command base? HW2 follows one looks great I just wanna see what your guys take on it is gonna be. That is if its even needed in the mod.

[Sphynx]

Stone,

I'm not the guy in charge of continuity and model inclusion, but let me see if I can answer your questions. Anyone on the team who knows otherwise could certainly correct me (wouldn't be the first time). 

1.) I don't know that I've seen a Wraith model done by the team, but I think I may have seen a Gladius. As far as I know, there is no plan to include the Wraith (one of the reason's being is that it was a very rare and expensive fighter, and may have been in service mostly in secret ops, like in Armada).

2.) You will see Lexington class carriers, I can confirm that for sure.

3.) As far as I know, we don't currently have plans for unique paint jobs for different squadrons. I'm fairly certain that the FS2 engine allows for different squadron insignia, but I'm not sure if we have implemented that. I'm sure someone else can say for certain.

4.) As of now, we don't have autoslide in the mod. That is an interesting thread. I'll bring it to the team's attention.

5.) I don't know that we have done a Confed Command Base just yet, because I can't recall it showing up in any of our missions. Psych or Viper might be able to correct me if that is not the case.

6.) Also, I just wanted to make this clear, while you are free to ask us any questions you want, we may choose not to answer some, or not to answer some directly, because there are certain parts of Saga that we want to keep a surprise. I hope you can understand that and won't feel offended if that occurs with any of your questions.

I agree, though, that czacen's command base looks incredible. He is very talented!

[gevatter Lars]

Autoslide is allready know..at least to me. I don't think that it will make it into the prologue...maybe into the final release along with other stuff the SCP might come up with.

As for bases...we have some bases in different stages of progress but mostly they are old and not fitting into the rest. As for the prologue you won't see any ingame. Still as with autoslide their are posibillitys.

[Sphynx]

Trust Lars to fill in my gaps in knowledge. Thanks, Lars!

[gevatter Lars]

Thanks...still I am also not that good with infos...I still refuse to read the main campaings story till I have to. I want some surprises left when I play the campaign ^_^

[Sphynx]

No problem. I know the story fairly well, you know the models and art fairly well: our ignorance doesn't overlap too much!

[Starman01]

There will be a few visitors from other timelines/wc-games, but unfortunately most other ships are not really fitting well together with the wc3 models. I think the time between the games, and maybe changing developer teams have left their scars in their designs.

While it is o.k. making a WC1,2 or 3 mod, but as an example,  a mix between WC2 and WC3 would look like a universe crossover to new players not familiar with the WC-Universe. That's one reason there will not so much visitors be in, even if it logical due to the story they have all in common. Most times, we will go the way of WC3 and don't use any other models.

We have tried merging a few models, but for the most WC2 designs (and armada too, though the lexington fit in very well) we would have to make drastical model changes to make them fit better in, and that is against our agenda staying as close as possible to the original.

As for starbases, not sure there will be the station orbiting jupiter in, but we have a good untextured model for a WC4-Ella type base (and a WCP Variant for ingame use, but it's just to low poly). The other starbases are in, that means the Kilrathi supply base (wc4), the kilrathi asteroid base (though it's old now and needs a UV-Map), the confed supply base (bluepoint) and a very good model of the WC3 blackmane base , we have already shown some pictures of it in the past when I remember correctly.

[Stone48420]

Now Im also curious will you guys make the models and stats for the other fighters and put them in the game engine for other uses like multiplayer or peoples customized missions? I mean even if they may not be used in the story it would be cool to see them in game.

I know you guys don't want to spoil it for every body Im just trying to get thrown a bone here .

[Backslash]

Are ships going to have a unique color scheme for their individual squadrons.  It would be cool seeing some hellcats with a red paint job or something unique looking.  Just curious if it could be done with out having to have a completely different model.

I like this idea.  We haven't done it yet, but with the texture replacement FRED allows, it is certainly possible without having to make a duplicate model.  All that's needed is someone with time to make a different texture.  It's not hard -- I could do it, but my attempt would probably not look as good as someone familiar with texturing.  And this sort of thing is just icing on the cake -- for how busy the texturers are, we'd rather they work on new ships than existing ships, right?

Just curious but has auto sliding been implemented in the mod?   Ive seen this thread (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,40547.0.html) and didn’t know if it could be a possible answer.

I like auto-sliding (or gliding, as termed in the game engine), but I look at it as an 'advanced technology' that WC3 era fighters don't have. However unrealistic that is (At least, I don't remember doing it in WC3...)  But it's really easy to add for yourself with a modular table; if you want, when the prologue comes out, feel free to ask me how.

[Mancubus]

Both Arrow and Excalibur had autoslide option in wc3. it was surly the best way of taking out a Carrier using Arrow

[IceFire]

Both Arrow and Excalibur had autoslide option in wc3. it was surly the best way of taking out a Carrier using Arrow

It also lets you nail those Sorthak in that one mission...I was sliding the whole time so I wouldn't have to take their tail guns.

[Scooby_Doo]

There will be a few visitors from other timelines/wc-games, but unfortunately most other ships are not really fitting well together with the wc3 models. I think the time between the games, and maybe changing developer teams have left their scars in their designs.

That plus the change from 2d to low poly 3d is what really makes things difficult. For example I like the symteric, pointy rounded look of wc1/2 kilrathi while you guys like the asymetric look of wc3.

[Backslash]

Ok, well gliding has been added to the Arrow in the Prologue now 

It almost seems unfair how useful it is. Plus the AI doesn't know how to use it (but this was the case in the WC games, too).  Fortunately the AI does know how to compensate aim for it, at least on Normal difficulty and higher (as far as I can tell).

Now Im also curious will you guys make the models and stats for the other fighters and put them in the game engine for other uses like multiplayer or peoples customized missions? I mean even if they may not be used in the story it would be cool to see them in game.

As for this question, remember that the WCSaga team is not going to just vanish after stuff is released (unlike certain real-world dev teams that get laid off the moment the game is out the door).  Not even counting the main campaign(s?), I'm sure there will be possibilities of patches and ship 'addon packs', especially if the Prologue does well and/or multiplayer really takes off.  Plus (and this is the part I like), this being FS2Open, the file formats are known and the data will be easily accessable so anyone who feels like it can try things and change stuff.  I'm hoping a similar thing to TBP will happen here, at least eventaully, where there's a common base to start from and many people can work on their own campaigns and more.

[Sphynx]

That's right. For most team members, the Saga we are working on now is just the beginning. I think it is safe to say that there will be more to come.

For now, though, we are focusing on the task at hand.

[Colonol Dekker]

I like this idea.  We haven't done it yet, but with the texture replacement FRED allows, it is certainly possible without having to make a duplicate model.  All that's needed is someone with time to make a different texture.  It's not hard -- I could do it, but my attempt would probably not look as good as someone familiar with texturing.  And this sort of thing is just icing on the cake -- for how busy the texturers are, we'd rather they work on new ships than existing ships, right?

Dunno if this is too late, but if you chuck me the original pics in a Paint Shop Pro compatible format (with layers still unmerged) I reckon i could give it a try.