Flashpack background

C

chanman

Spaceman
Haven't played WC4, so I'm curious what this Flashpack/Flashpak thing is. Couldn't find a good description of it, so I'm asking :(

What is it?
What does it do?
How does it work?
Who made it?
What happend to it in the timeline?

Thanks
 
The Flashpak (I think it's officially called Flash-Pak, but Flashpak is easier to type- I use to call it Flashpack with a "c" until this post :) ) is the ultimate anti-capship/starbase/superbase weapon as of WC4. It functions like a missile, but looks like a frisbee. When it attaches to a capship/superbase/etc. it creates a heat so intense that the entire ship is consumed, leaving nothing but the charred remains of the ships hull. Unlike missiles and torps which generally require several hits to destroy a huge target, all you need is one Flashpak. The only weapon comparable is the Torpedo, which takes 16 sec. to lock and does a damage of 2,000. In comparison, the Flashpak takes only 5 sec. to lock and does a damage of 60,000 (30 times as powerful). This should answer most of your questions.
Your remaining ?'s:
Who made it? It was used by a secret elite Confed force called the Black Lance, but I'm not sure of the details of what organization (Confed military I assume)/who the inventor was/ whether it was based on Confed or Kilrathi tech./ etc..
What happened to it in the timeline? I'm not sure...
 
Flashpack is an anti-ship weapon whose design originates (as per WC4 novelization) from a Kilrathi attempt at giving medium fighters anti-capship weaponry.

There's not really any fine details on how it works, other than a comment from Pliers (chief mechanic aboard the BWS Intrepid, your/Blair's base for much of the game) about it being similar to old strip-fusion bombs (which themselves are never explained), but the basic idea is that it burns through the hull (if it's thin or old enough... Vesuvius-class armor was too thick/tough for an FP to work from outside), and ignites the atmosphere of the target ship, cooking everyone alive.

It was produced by Tolwyn's secret project, an organization based on genetically engineered "super pilots", for use in their main strike craft, the Lance. There's no further mention of it, but since the FP is only really useful as a terror weapon against thin-skinned transports or other civilian craft, it's highly unlikely that any remain, except perhaps in the few pockets of Project personel Tolwyn mentions as being stashed away in secret places, near the end of the WC4 novelization. It's certainly not something deployed by Confederation forces, at the very least.
 
Yeah, that was a funny scene... I'd forgotten it. Thanks Chris.

(to those of you not in the loop, the person in the above pic is Pliers, holding the disc-shaped flash-pak for the first time. While trying to determine its arming/detonation mechanism, he has the brilliant ideal of just dropping the damn thing on the deck to see what will happen- at witch point the gathered crowd of techs in the background scrambles away)
 
Also for those not in the loop, Pliers (from the above picture) is the guy from the (IMO, especially if you've lived in Southern California) very funny movie "Office Space". He plays the guy who comes up with the idea of the "jump to conclusions mat" and breaks his neck and earns a bunch of money so he can retire.
 
Hey, thanks BrynS, I didn't realize he was in so many big movies- and alot of them I've seen but forgotten his roles (since he didn't matter as much to me until I played WC4 for the first time last month :D)- how could I forget Time Changer!? one of my favorite movies.
 
I wish he'd do a convention. Having him autograph a picture of that flashpak scene would be neat.
 
Yeah, he was funny and well cast in Office Space. He is the perfect everyman character.

As far as the Flashpack is concerned, does the WC4 novel mention how it bypasses capship shields? I assume via the same phase-syncing tech employed on torpordoes? The tech must surely be more advanced/efficient though if it can get a lock in 5 seconds, versus 16 seconds for a torpodo?

Cheers,


BrynS
 
I was wondering that myself. Also, BrynS does your post imply that torpedos bypass the shields and deal damage directly to the capship? If that's implied, I didn't realize that, I just assumed they had to destroy the shields to begin working on the armor.
 
Torpedoes do indeed bypass the shields - it's the reason for the length of time associated with gaining a torpedo lock. That time is spent analyzing the shield frequency so that the torpedo can pass through them and damage the hull/armor directly.
 
Flashpaks and torpedoes skip the shields in the continuity -- in the actual game they're just set to do enough damage that the level of the shields don't matter.
 
Bandit LOAF said:
Flashpaks and torpedoes skip the shields in the continuity -- in the actual game they're just set to do enough damage that the level of the shields don't matter.
Click to expand...
Except for ships like the Vesuvius, of course, which requires more than one torp. (at least more than 2 in the case of the Vesuvius).
 
Mjr. Whoopass said:
Except for ships like the Vesuvius, of course, which requires more than one torp. (at least more than 2 in the case of the Vesuvius).
Click to expand...

That's factored in pretty much. The shields are not so thick that it makes a difference in the number of torpedoes in most cases.
 
Two is the "correct" number of torpedoes for destroying a large capital ship - as introduced by Wing Commander 2, which *did* simulate skipping shields properly.
 
Interesting... so in other words it's treated in-game as a super-torpedo, but doesn't have very specific fluff, so we don't know what happens if it is activated in say, vacuum, or the atmosphere of a planet

Speaking of Capships, am I the only one vaguely irked by the sci-fi tendency for them to explode and vaporise instead of sections blowing out and crippling the ship? I know it wasn't possible on the tech of the time, but like I said, it's just a little pet peeve

PS. The Tolwyn's Black Lance, how did he hide all that, and how long was it in the planning? Unless he found something that speeds up aging, gene-altered pilots means the conspiracy must be as old as those pilots to have created them
 
chanman said:
PS. The Tolwyn's Black Lance, how did he hide all that, and how long was it in the planning? Unless he found something that speeds up aging, gene-altered pilots means the conspiracy must be as old as those pilots to have created them
Click to expand...
Well, I would recommend getting WC4 and playing it. Part of the fun in the game is not knowing what exactly is happening, yet you have to make important decisions based on only partial information. You might want to stay away from spoiler type information until you've played the game to enhance your enjoyment. I just played it for the first time last month, and I was loving all the mystery and twists behind the game.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top