Privateer 2 IRC Chat Log

Jan. 14th, 1997: This is a log of an official IRC chat held by Origin between Wing Commander fans and Privateer 2 programmer Paul Hughes. Unfortunately, the chat was scheduled on the same night as a freak ice storm in Austin, TX - one frantic webmaster risked life and limb to come in and run the chat via telephone, only to find the session 'flooded' with angry Ultima Online players. As a result, very few questions were asked.

Wayfarer_: Is the patch going to include keyboard equivalents for roll?
Origin: Wayfarer: We haven't determined what will be in the patch at this point

presofusa: After the last clip of the game it locks up is there anything i can do to stop it from happening?I have not been able to see the complete ending.
Origin: presofusa: for technical questions, send email to p2support@origin.ea.com We'll need to know more specifics about your system, therefore contact them

Mr_Kiasu: The BB missions come up again and again, like the Norman Blagger one. THis is pretty rediculous. Was it an actual oversight and will it get fixed. Thanks
Origin: Mr_Kiasu: Some people have had a problem with missions repeating. Check the web page for any kind of work around/solution

LOAF: Thank you:) In Privateer 2, the ships you encounter have 'liscense numbers' which you can identify when you get close to them. Do you know if this is a set thing, or are they random? (for random encounters, not set missions)
Origin: LOAF: Each ship has a fixed number

ecnirp: is paul hughes here?
Origin: ecnirp: yes

STALIN: Are there communists in P2?
Origin: STALIN: Yes

Acady: why is Privateer not in Atlantic CAnada....we always get the games first.....so why...is it in Europe and not here.....
Origin: Acady: You need to check with your local distribution channel. That's a bit beyond our control

Maverick_: I was wondering why it sounds like people were gurgling instead of talking. Somethin is wrong with the sound because all my games work perfectly
Origin: Maverick: (gurgle) It might be their accents (gurgle). If it's technically related, write p2support@origin.ea.com

Odie: Why does P2 freeze up when I go to view the news?
Origin: Odie: You should contact p2support@origin.ea.com Anyone who has a technical problem here tonight with the way their game is running, please write p2support@origin.ea.com

Bearcat: why are subtitles not made in P2?
Origin: Bearcat: It was a determination by the team that becuase the game required a sound card and would support the audio for 4 languages, we decided subtitles weren't needed

Dundradal: Will POL use the same engine design as P2? or will they be two totally different interfaces
Origin: Dundradal: We have not yet made any decisions on Privateer Online

LOAF: Thanks! Whats next for the Privateer series? Next game or an addon maybey?
Origin: LOAF: Again, no decisions have been made concerning future Privateer projects.

Geiser: So P2 was developed in UK bu 'Euro-Origin'. Was this just a P2 thing, or is the UK one a steady installment of Origin System which will go on developing games?
Origin: Geiser: It's a project developed by Electronic Arts Manchester under the ORIGIN brand. EA Manchester is not a branch of ORIGIN

maniac__: In spaceflight, is there anyway to turn down the volume of the Midi music...or do i just have to cut it off?
Origin: Maniac: No there is not.

Jarwa: Thankyou...I was going to ask is the game gonna be linear or will it change everytime you play from scratch?
Origin: Jarwa: The main plot is linear. The subplots vary differently every time you play as well as the randomly generated missions.

ProtoCult: My question is in regards to the fact that the game has an unfinished look--the engine is AWESOME, but there are a lot of ...well, things that seem to be a step down from previous WC games. Is the engine from this going to be used in future WC games(I HOPE), and if so, will they be adding back a lot of the features left out in this one?
Origin: ProtoCult: Origin is not planning on using that engine.

Duron: will the movie compressor be improved in the future?
Origin: Duron: Yes

ecnirp: did u write mag max for ocean on the C64...as i know u if u did?
Origin: ecnirp: Oh my God, yes I did. WHo is this?
ecnirp: we used 2 hang out with geoff roskell at nsc manchester
ecnirp: your from wigan
Origin: What's your real name?
ecnirp: paul...used to hang out in manchester with geoff and fatneck...he was writing a boxing game on the bbc
Origin: Thanks.

JYD: I have two quick questions about the communications in P2. First, why can't you talk to everyone in the game like in the first one (the military, fellow merchants/mercanaries, and pirates)? And second, why isn't there video when the people talk, or why can't you hear yourself talk?
Origin: JYD: The reason was because of memory limitations

maniac__: Yeah, why was it decided to keep the auto landing features instead of going to a more WC style of landing?
Origin: maniac: it was a design decision to speed up transitions between missions

LOAF: Hi! thanks! The people and ship databases in p2 mention that the trisystem is part of a 'Confederation' and that it's at least the year 2789. Does P2 really take place 100 years after WC4 in the good old Terran confederation?
Origin: LOAF: The Tri-System is in a separate part of the Wing Commander universe and has no contact with the Confederation

Geiser: Is P2 recorded (or can it be played back) in Dolby Surround, and Is the shading Phong or Goraud?
Origin: Geiser: It's not Dolby encoded and objects are textured

bluehair: I was wondering what other work will erin do? any more projects for origin?
Origin: bluehair: we don't know what Erin's plans are

SilverWol: I was trying to ask how pirates were determined to be in the sector, (too many), and a way to turn off the pirate comments. Why was the ability to jump out of a sector taken away during conflict?
Origin: SilverWol: There is no way to turn off comments. The number and type of pirates is generated randomly and based on a number of factors. If you fly far enough away--out of radar range--you can still jump

SwiftEagl: (Accents? What accents? We Yanks are the ones with the accents ;) *Ahem*, sorry. Looks like this one may have been addressed partially by LOAF; I hadn't noticed the date difference. It seems from early ads that The Darkening wasn't initially intended to be a sequel to that game, or even to take place within the Wing Commander universe. How do you feel about this change, if there was one, and were any storyline modifications required to align the g
Origin: SwiftEagl: There were no story line modifications.

Achilles: Thanks, I haven't picked up P2 yet so I was wondering if P2 runs in Dos and how much freedom of movement do we have as compared to P1 and will there be a WC soundtrack ? By the way will this chat be available for download ?
Origin: Achilles: P2 is DOS native, Freedom of movement is a relative question--difficult to answer, There are no plans at this time for a WC soundtrack. Yes, the chat will be available

Antilles: Thanks for your time! We were told that the P2 flight engine was ~4x as fast as the WC4 engine, yet, even on my P5-120 w/24M RAM the slowdown with multiple ships or a planet is quite high. All of the config/autoexec files are configured as per your specifications. Will there be a patch to enhance the flight engine speed?
Origin: Antilles: The game speed is relative to many factors including the CPU and hardware that you use. All games slow down when a large amount of data is drawn to the screen.

Jibbo: What I'd like to know is why were all the controls revamped? The "traditional controls" have been in place for about seven years. And also if possible, I'd like to know if Origin have ANY hand in the production of P2?
Origin: Jibbo: There were game design differences that required a change in keyboard. Origin had no hand in the production.