* A Privateer 2 reference! Isaac System is one of the Tri-Systems and Titan Alloys and Pleasure Borgs are two of the games commodities. Hopper Drives are a precursor to jump drives which don't function around jump points - this all helps to explain exactly how the Tri-System relates to the rest of the Wing Commander universe geographically...
Yeah, the call for "three to five year" hopper flight crews to go to Isaac - which, if memory serves, is one of the three systems in P2 - really stood out for me, too. The implication seems to me to be that the systems in P2 are not, for some reason, connected by jump points, at least to the rest of the galaxy. Meaning the only way to reach them is through "long haul" missions using old style hopper drives.
This raises many questions. Among them:
~Are the humans in the Tri-system descendants of settlers from earth, who traveled there a long time ago and developed a differing culture? I realize that in game fiction establishes them as having "originated" on one of the tri-system planets, but you'd be surprised how local cultures and/or governments can "re-write" history or establish their own creation myths.
~At what point did the Confederation make contact with the Tri-system government? How much of a relationship do the two governments have today, especially in terms of population movement and/or transfer of technology?
~Obviously, the Tri-system would have been isolated enough to be spared damage from most of the Kilrathi war. If the Confed had contact with the Tri-system during the war, wouldn't there be a strong incentive on the part of many people to relocate there, and avoid all of the risks that come with living near an active and nasty war?
In any event, the manual is awesome. One simple document will put to rest arguments that P2 and the WC movie are not "canon."
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of all this stuff.
