Prologue Released!

Though they got a few details mixed up (it seems they confused the WCU and SAGA projects a bit) , This weeks PC gamer podcast discussed The prologue a little.
 
I just hope there isn't too many other autopilot-and-dialogue-heavy missions along the way .
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Maybe just a little :) But to give you some motivation, at the end of Mission 3 is the model you are interested in taking a look at ;)

Spoiler :

And when you fly into the forward hangar opening, you can take a closer look on the inside. The backward hangar entry is the misson end. Or you take a look at Sim Mission 02, there is the carrier also
 
Magnum said:
The fact that the player is a wingman, not a wingleader is good, but the problem with that instant fail formation break is that the objective itself is not known until it's too late. The player really has no idea he really has to act like a subordinate to that degree without a direct order, which doesn't happen until a while after the pirates appear.
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Yeah, I haven't gotten around to playing the mod yet, but it's typical in games where the player flies wing to have your flight leader warn you several times before you fail a mission; the first mission of Independence War, for instance, where your commander chastises you twice and then yells at you before the "MISSION FAILED" screen - or all those times I got bitched at in Russian in Il-2 for breaking formation :p
 
Just curious, will it be possible to taunt enemy fighters to goad them into coming after you?? :)

(instead of whatever else they are attacking)
 
I agree with everyone about the formation script in Mission 2 being a little overboard, and a save feature at Nav points when there's a lot of dialogue in a mission sounds great (that way you won't have to reduce the amount of voice acting, just provide a way to speed up a retry). Other than that, PLEASE keep it going as is; this game is AWESOME!
 
A taunt feature is on our code wishlist. However, this list is so long that I placed the taunts very low in priority, so for the moment it's impossible to say what we will get and what not (we take what we get and be grateful for that, for the rest we have to make a workaround).

A save feature is very unlikely. The entire game didn't know something like this, so it will be a huge effort for little result (just our project i.e.). The main release will be a little different, more action and less dialogue at quiet stages, so that replaying it makes more fun.
 
The big amount of in-flight dialogue is IMO a good idea. It's a good substitute for cinematics, it helps to bulid up the "Wing Commander" atmosphere. Too bad that it's impossible to make Freelancer-style checkpoits in this game. But maybe putting all the talking at the end of the mission would be a good solution.
 
I have a suggestion concerning the whole mission 2 failing thing.

The wingleader should issue a Form Up order AS SOON AS you enter that nav point, and issue a KEEP FORMATION order after the pink blips appear on the radar...

I failed that mission because when the blips appeared, I immediately burned towards them. Then, when I got the Form Up order, I was too far away. I didn't know I was supposed to keep formation.
 
It's good to finally see you guys pull off a release - it's been a long time since this started.

I must say i'm very impressed by the final product here; I thought Baws' voice acting wasn't worth much, but everything else seemed great - it actually feels like being in Wing Commander again! Even the ending sucked in a good way!

That's just me; I thought all the endings for the WC games sucked, but they were still well executed and made good sense. It sucked here in that all your hard work was wasted over a fluke, but good in that it furthered the plot well and made sense.

All in all, things are top notch! Keep up the good work!
 
Well, I've currently gotten through the sims and the first three missions in the plot, I have to say I'm very impressed. Some thoughts:

- Installation and modifications worked fine: no CTDs. I fly using the keyboard, and found it pretty easy to modify the keys to fit the WC style.
- Thank God for the Asteroid Field fix. After two hair-pulling, low frame rate-based failures on the second mission without the fix, I reinstalled the game with it, and had no problems finishing the mission. I don't think my laptop is a low-end system (Pentium IV 2.8 GHz, 1 GB RAM, Radeon IGP 345M graphics card) however, and even with the fix, I get low flame rates when I get close to capships, even on medium detail. I'd appreciate any suggestions on how to improve that.

Positives:

- The graphics are excellent; the Confed capships in particular are absolutely amazing.
- Along the same lines, the cutscenes are absolutely jaw-dropping.
- The fiction is well done, and meshes well with the missions. The only way it would be more immersive is if it were actually included in the game, but from what I've heard, I gather that's not possible.

Negatives:

- I'm pretty much in agreement with everyone on the comms; getting through about five minutes of comms, then failing a mission and having to do it again is painful. I imagine it's going to be a learning process to figure out how much immersion one can provide with the banter until it starts to have a negative effect on the actual gameplay. My advice would be to try to keep the extra comms to the start and end of the missions. The ideal solution would be to somehow place them during the autopilot sequences, but since I have no programming experience with FS2, I have no idea how easy it would be to do that.
- Same goes for the 'fly in formation' command in the second mission. Argh.
- I'm currently having trouble with the fourth mission,
I only have about thirty seconds between reaching the Wellington and the mission suddenly ending in failure
, but I'm not getting any recommendations from the debriefing. Any advice?

Finally, one nagging question (minor spoiler): The third mission starts out with everyone talking about their New Year's resolutions, but according to all the fiction, it's around the 160th day of the year, which should be the middle of June. Am I missing something?

Keep up the good work. I'm looking forward to the next chapter.
 
Cardinal said:
- The fiction is well done, and meshes well with the missions. The only way it would be more immersive is if it were actually included in the game, but from what I've heard, I gather that's not possible.
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You could easliy put it in the library/tech data section. For example, rename intelligence to storyline and put the stories in there.

Another possibility would be to have the storyline read out loud to the user at the end of each mission. A quick hack would be to create a movie file that only shows one screen but include audio.
 
Cardinal said:
I only have about thirty seconds between reaching the Wellington and the mission suddenly ending in failure
, but I'm not getting any recommendations from the debriefing. Any advice?
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Punch the afterburner as soon as you drop out of autopilot, and head straight for the Gothris. Concentrate on them and don't let them line up torpedo shots.
 
And, last but not least, they could have used the Command Briefing section to bring the story, however i somehow don't like the idea (really don't know why it would be somehow err... 'improper', that's the word i think)
 
Their is a ficition viewer in progress as far as I know but their is no ETA on when this will be done.
As for the other solutions suggested here, their are limits to this system in matter how much text you can put into these screens. So some parts of the story would be to long and would have to shortend. It would be sad since the writing is quite good IMO explains a lot.
Personaly I would prefere more cutscenes for telling the story but then we would need very long to do them. Also HD cutscenes would be cool but the renderingtime would be to much and the size of the movies would be twice the size of the download ^_^
 
Tolwyn said:
IGP 345M is low end. I had the same kind of trouble with Intel 845 GPU.
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Darn. I have a feeling this is responsible for my low frame rate problems with Gemini Gold as well. I gave up upon reaching the third mission in the Rygannon series, since the multiple Kilrathi that ambush me upon entering the system would kill me easily, even if I tried to immediately jump back out. The asteroid field that surrounded the jump point just cut my frame rate to shreds.

Well (sigh), between that game and Saga, I guess it's time to look into a new graphics card for my laptop. Any advice on where I can find a good deal on an upgrade?

BTW, I got through the last two missions. It seems like it was dumb misfortune that I lost Mission 4 the first time. Mission 5 was pretty hairy (hull strength at less than 20%), but I survived it. I'm looking forward to the next part.
 
Don't forget to try out the sim missions as well. They are on the single player tab in the tech room.

Upgrading GPU card on a laptop is difficult and in most cases not possible.
 
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