Hard Light Productions Forums
Hosted Projects - Standalone => Wing Commander Saga => Topic started by: Tolwyn on August 13, 2010, 03:54:13 pm
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2nd Lieutenant David "Sandman" Markham's training took a cruel twist when his training carrier, the TCS Wellington, was ambushed and destroyed by the Kilrathi while cruising in a supposedly safe system. Unlike most of his fellow trainees and trainers, Sandman has survived to fight another day. But the days ahead are dark and foreboding.
The fight Markham has been prematurely plunged into is growing more desperate by the day. The Kilrathi are advancing on every front. Confed fleets are being forced to retreat in disarray. Terran losses are mounting catastrophically. System by system, the Kilrathi are pressing closer to the heart of the Confederation, hungry for the kill and the thrill of ultimate victory. Hope has run thin, and the total extinction of the human race seems all but inevitable.
Victory and survival for humanity can only be bought at a terrible cost. Gather your wingmen and your courage and prepare to play your part in humanity's desperate gambit as you face the Kilrathi foe. It is a time where even average men must reach inside themselves and become heroes. Answer the call. Face the enemy. Make your mark as the Confederation faces its darkest dawn (http://www.wcsaga.com/news-archive-2010/trailer-released.html).
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Awesome! Downloading now. :)
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Downloaded and watched, awesome trailer guys can't wait for the campaign release.
if i can be allowed 1 nitpick the music volume made some of the narration and excerpts difficult to hear
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Nice work ! Can wait to try :D
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Man, why didn't someone give this a highlight? Awesome stuff. :D
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Is "this winter" a release announcement? :)
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Downloading! :D It's been a while since I showed my face around here, hasn't it? Well, I'm sorry to say the pattern will keep up for a while yet, but I'll make a point of checking in a little more often. Can't miss THIS!
[Edit] I'm fairly sure the news-network is called TCN (Terran Confederation News), not TNC. Maybe a nitpick, but I think you'd prefer to have this down correctly. Best to double-check, of course.
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*cough* Terran News Channel *cough*
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Yep. I squee'd.
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*Cough* I stand corrected. *Cough* :p
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This has pleased me no end. Downloading now, I need to reinstall WC4 so I can see which is which. TCN sounds right, but so does TNC. TCN could be Terran Confederation Navy . . . . My memories fail D:
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Wicked trailer. Cool to see some character models and scenes in there.
It's a crime there aren't isn't more chatter over this.
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are strakha capable of atmospheric flying?
Also, I hope you have a place for the ekapshi...
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I'm a massive slowpoke for missing this
Awesome trailer there!
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are strakha capable of atmospheric flying?
There was a discussion about capability for atmospheric flight some time ago at the CIC forums, and judging by all sources we came to the conclusion that every fighter in Wing Commander is capable of atmospheric flight, no problem.
The fact that you could only fly the excalibur on such missions in WC3 and the CGI contains only hellcats was that there wasn't enough space on the discs for all the CGI you would have needed (for the cutscenes entering the atmosphere and leaving it). They even changed the Arrows flying over the Concordia in the intro into Hellcats so players won't ask why they can't fly an Arrow in the ground missions.
The only strange thing is the weapons: They say that meson guns (and I think lasers, too) are ineffective in atmospheres, yet the only pure atmospheric fighter in the game carries only those weapons. That's a little flaw.
But flight itself: No problem. Looking into the books and the "Academy" animated series you will notice that almost every fighter is mentioned doing atmospheric missions. Even the really not very aerodynamic Paktahn bomber is seen doing atmospheric flight, in the "bad ending" cutscene of WC3 over earth.
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There was a discussion about capability for atmospheric flight some time ago at the CIC forums, and judging by all sources we came to the conclusion that every fighter in Wing Commander is capable of atmospheric flight, no problem.
Do you mean, every fighter fighter in every Wing Commander ? Or just pre-WC4 ? Because I recall that the Hellcat, Vindicator and Dragon were the only fighters you could fly that were capable of atmospheric flight back then (which pissed me off because I wasn't really fond of Hellcats and Vindicators).
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Ok, I'll explain a little further:
We have to see two things separate: The games and the lore behind it.
The reason why you can only fly four ships in atmosphere (Hellcat V, Excalibur, Vindicator, Dragon) was limited space on the game discs and limited budget for all those fancy cutscenes the guys at Origin would have had to make. Remember that WC4 was one of the most expensive games of all time. They didn't want to spend even more. WC3 wasn't cheap, either. And it had only 4 discs. So they decided that you could only fly some ships.
I'm quoting LOAF now, for the list of ships:
Wing Commander:
Scimitar - Engage in atmospheric combat on WCA.
Rapier II - Ground support at Vukar Tag in End Run.
Dralthi - Bombs Hurricane in WC1 cutscene.
Dralthi II - Lands on Firekka in Freedom Flight.
Krant - Atmospheric combat at Vukar Tag in End Run.
Wing Commander II:
Ferret - Lands on Ghorah Khar, Novaya Kiev in WC2.
Epee - Visible on ground bases in WC2.
Sabre - Ground support at Vukar Tag in End Run.
Broadsword - Attack Mylon in Wing Commander novelization.
Sartha - Atmospheric combat at Vukar Tag in End Run.
Grikath - Engage in atmospheric combat on WCA.
Jalkehi - Land on a planet in WCA.
Wing Commander III
Arrow - Launches from Sirius on WCA.
Hellcat - Option for atmospheric missions in WC4.
Longbow - Enters atmosphere on SAR mission on WCA.
Excalibur - Option for atmospheric missions in WC3.
Darket - Land on Nargrast in False Colors.
Dralthi IV - Fly into throne room in WC3 intro.
Vaktoth - Fly into Kilrah's atmosphere in WC3 novelization.
Paktahn - Fly over Capitol Building in WC3 losing endgame.
Bloodfang - Fly into Kilrah's atmosphere in WC3 novelization.
Ekapshi - Atmosphere-specific fighter.
Wing Commander IV
Vindicator - Option for atmospheric missions in WC4.
Lance - Option for atmospheric missions in WC4.
I think he missed only one fighter in the list, the Jalthi. It is seen in Freedom Flight over Firekka.
And apart from fighters I think we see a shuttle landing in atmosphere, so although it doesn't look very capable of atmospheric flight it does. And of course the Marines dropship. can land on planets, otherwise it would be pretty silly.
Concerning weapons, I quote LOAF again:
The three guns that aren't effective in an atmosphere, per Victory Streak, are the Laser Cannon, Meson Blaster and Particle Cannon.
... except the atmosphere-only Ekapshi mounts Mesons and Lasers in WC3 and the Hellcat uses Particle Cannons in WC4.
I think that in that case the person who designed the manual mentioned a planned feature that was dropped during the development of the game and wasn't taken out of the manual.
(Similar things happen in a lot of SciFi. If you are a Star Trek fan you might have noticed the inconsistency that they tell you impulse drives don't work in atmosphere (Kira tells you in DS9 somewhere), yet you see ships using the impulse drive in atmospheres in a lot of cases during the series.)
So you see there are a few inconsistencies. Someone also pointed out that in WC4 the mechanic (Pliers) mentions sometimes when clicking on the Vindicator that it is the only one capable of atmospheric flight. But even in that game it is shown that he is wrong, so that is likely to be an error. (Yet there is the possibility that the Bashee really isn't capable of atmospheric flight, and Piers means that of the Borderlands ships the Vindicator is the only one. Quite a stretch, though, I think it is an error.)
Ok, having said that: Take a look at those ships that we are sure to be capable of atmospheric flight.
If all those ships can do it, why shouldn't others? I mean: Some of them don't even have wings and are quite small. We know that they can stand earth gravity and pressure because we see them all land inside the carriers on the flight decks when there are people around.
And if a Paktahn (which is as aerodynamically shaped as a brick) can fly over earth, why shouldn't a Thunderbolt or a Strakha be able to do that as well?
So I come to the following conclusion:
While we don't have proof that Strakhas or Hornets for example are capable of atmospheric flight, it is rather likely, because there are other similar shaped fighters that we know are capable of it.
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To qoute a Pilot or a mechanic I once heard "If the engine is strong enough even a brick can fly" ^_^
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I think the Hornet and Rapier II-G can be added to that list. Hornets in False Colors flew down to Baka Kar and attacked an enemy air base, and I think the Rapier II-G was seen landing on a planetary air base in WC2.
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Question then, out of curiosity: What could be the reasons for the ekapshi to be atmospheric only?
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Maybe production cost?
I would guess that creating a air/space craft is more complicated then building a ship that has to be good in either air or space combat.
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What Lars said.
But another reason: Those are still Kilrathi, they often don't trust each other. So if you give them atmo-only fighters it is less likely that they suddenly overrun your space forces. You can control that planet better.
Just a thought, I stick to Lars' explanation, it is the most obvious one.
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I always thought, a pure atmospheric fighter should be able to out-maneuver a pure space fighter in the atmosphere quite easily, because it was designed to stick to the rules of aerodynamics in the first place. Mass and uplift are essential here while a space fighter is a brick in comparison because it was never built to keep itself in any air...
The Ekapshi though, is a very bad example for an aircraft... I doubt, some RC model build with that shape would even fly at all!
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does saga have an ekapshi model?
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Just downloaded and watched the trailer--I know I'm in trouble when I catch myself leaning to one side in an attempt to actually see around the objects on my screen. Awesome eye-candy!