WCP Explosions

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Sonntag

Spaceman
I am a bit curious about destroyed CapShips in WCP. Since I have played WC1-5, I still remember the great explosions of WC2 when you have blown up a Cap Ship

However, in WCP, if I've blown up a ship, it just stays there as a hull and keeps exploding over hours. Why is this so, has it anything to do with the graphics engine? I personally would prefer the old, great explosions, is there any way to change this in the game?
 
It's that way for two reasons:

First and foremost, it's more realistic. If something is shot to hell, it won't necessarily explode. A massive hull rupture can kill everything on board, thereby kill the ship, and render it useless. You should be glad that you get the explosions you do get. Still, from time to time a big explosion would work.

Secondly, because they can/could. After a wc1, 2, priv, and on and on, explosion, the ship would completely dissapear. Why? At the time, they wouldn't have wanted to tax your video system with a lot of debris floating around. As video cards evolved, they could get more realistic and leave chunks around. WC3 ships would be floating hulks, etc. That's the way a lot of game makers had to handle it. X-Wing, the original, had those explosions too, but by the time they got to X-Wing Alliance, they could leave chunks there too, and you notice them. A Star Destroyer thats been destroyed fragments into a bunch of large chunks that stay there.
 
Big Boom Good/Bad?

Originally posted by Sonntag
I am a bit curious about destroyed CapShips in WCP. Since I have played WC1-5, I still remember the great explosions of WC2 when you have blown up a Cap Ship

However, in WCP, if I've blown up a ship, it just stays there as a hull and keeps exploding over hours. Why is this so, has it anything to do with the graphics engine? I personally would prefer the old, great explosions, is there any way to change this in the game?
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Well, in WCP it's a little more realistic - remember, when we torp a CapShip, we take out its Engines and Bridge - control center and main power. This takes the ship out of the action, but doesn't mean the whole ship goes up as its reactors go supercritical and explode. Just that we've gutted it, so it'll vent atmosphere and fuel for hours. These days, with our 'powerful' machines, the game engine can do things more realistically and have a lot of object litter space for a while without causing your system to choke. In WC1/WC2 days, we were using 386's and couldn't really keep all those objects (parts of engines, etc) floating in the area for a long time without causing your machine to die of a stroke. :)
 
Originally posted by TyeDyeBoy

Secondly, because they can/could. After a wc1, 2, priv, and on and on, explosion, the ship would completely dissapear.
Click to expand...

Well I get your poin, however, as far as I remember, in WC 1/2, the debris actually didn't disappear, it just was spread through a bigger area, while in WC3 if you kill a Fighter, it really disappears after some time. I just liked the graphics of Wing 2 most.
 
Well... when you consider that a ships anti-matter reactor and all the weapons stores get torched when you torp it, it makes sense that it goes up in a ball of flame. What I figure, is that in WCP the reactor and stores are shielded enough that it doesn't explode, therefore leaving the ship whole.

TC
 
Well, some people (not me) were moaning about the lack of capship explosions in WCP, though I think they might look a bit better if some of the extremities disintegrated, such as the Tiamat's 'arms', or having it end up like the Fralthi II in the first WCP mission.

IIRC, LOAF said something about the lack of explosions as being something the designers didn't have time to complete. But he also said that the lack of explosions gave another opportunity: the virus story in SO. Pity it doesn't explain the lack of explosions for Confed ships, thouugh...
 
yes, yes i do believe i will. That is if they are even still around. With all the firings over there Im not sure they are. And if they arent I will wait and tell the programmers on the next game.
 
The group in charge of WCP is gone. Has been for a while. The programmers are still alive, however.

TC
 
You can find various WCP team members using an Austin area phone-book (I'm sure you can look their numbers up online, too). I'm sure any one of them would be glad (well, not glad) to enlighten you regarding the difficulties behind producing a quality game to a pre-set deadline. :)
 
Im not some nut whod call them up and ream them out for such a silly thing. I by an large loved Prophecy and that is such a little thing that it is probably one of the only things that i could have to nay say about it. Besides LOAF you made it sound like earlier that the programmers didnt want big explosions on the capital ship explosions. If you had just said from the beginning that it wasnt possible becasue of time constraints due to a deadline, a lot of anguish could have been saved. As long as there are regrets about it not being included im satisfyied. :)


WHy didnt they add it to Secret Ops when they overhauled the engine?
 
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