End Run - Any interst in these missions for a WC2 Engine?

mkdud

Captain
Hello,

Please excuse my ignorance if this topic has been previously discussed. I'm a long time WC fan, but I'm new to your community.

One of my favorite WC novels is End Run. This book sets the stage for what could be the greatest WC game ever. If you haven't read this book, I can't recommend End Run highly enough. Please read it if you can.

WARNING! A bit of plot summary is below, so you may want to skip the next paragraph if you haven't read the book. I would hate to detract from someone's enjoyment of this great book.

The covering of the ground assault on Vukar Tag, the magnificent end run with the split Kilrathi fleet in persuit, and the climactic rescue of Tarawa by the Concordia would be fantastic as a game. I think it would be great to see a severely battle damaged Tarawa with the inscription "First to Kilrah" on the side as a closing scene of the winning path.

I've tried to create some of the missions using Academy, but there is no way to render the ships as they are in the book, such as the Tarawa..

I'd be happy with just the WC2 engine. I've got experience writing in C++ and native 88 doing physics routines for some popular pinball sims, as well as the physics for a major golf sim about 10 years ago. I was hoping that there would be sufficient interest by some Wing Nuts who are graphicly skilled to render the ships as in the novel. I am not a graphic artist, but was hoping there might be a couple End Run fans who would want to render some ships.

Please let me know if you have any interest, opinions, or suggestions.

Thank You,
MK
 
Why don't you try another engine? (I do love the WC2 engine, but...) Try fiddling around with Flight Commander, or Vega Strike
 
Actually, I like the WC2 engine for this -- because that's what Dr. Forstchen had to visualize when he was writing End Run...

I think HCl actually made one or two 'End Run' missions years ago, when he was first doing WC mission editing. They may be floating around somewhere.

(I don't have any graphical abilities, though, or I'd offer to help.)
 
I think it might be somewhat hard to get End Run right in the WC2 engine - you'd have to skip all the planetary missions, and they're quite significant in the novel. Still, that didn't stop them with the 3DO version of WC3 - so don't let it stop you, either :).

I think the guy to contact about models would be Marc - he's made a whole bunch of models with WC2-styled textures, and the Tarawa is one of them.

The second thing you'd have to do is contact HCl, and obtain the source code for his WC2 graphics viewing program (or the improved version - WCNAV) and the WC2 ship editing utility. The ship editing utility only allows you to change stats, so the challenge for you would be to create a new utility that allows you to convert graphics into WC2's format, and build new ship files containing the new graphics.
 
I wonder if you could get around the planet missions by creating the "sky box" to look like half of it's planet and the other half is sky, and have 'ground targets' be stationary objects. It probably be crap though.
 
If you flew underneath the 'ground targets' wouldn’t they look like they were floating in the air and, therefore, no longer like ground targets?
 
The game would have to be programmed to kill you if you flew 'underneath' ground targets, kind of like what would happen if you tried it in a real fighter.
 
OTOH, except for the planetary missions part, the Standoff team already has most of what would be needed to create another WC2-era campaign. A Battle of Vukar Tag or End Run campaign would be possible, but would require much work--like half a dozen people working on it for a couple of years.
 
Actually, I like the WC2 engine for this -- because that's what Dr. Forstchen had to visualize when he was writing End Run...

I agree, WC2 is exactly how I picture of the events of End Run and the fact that in WC2/SO1/SO2 we several of the key personel on the Tarawa.

mkdud said:
One of my favorite WC novels is End Run. This book sets the stage for what could be the greatest WC game ever. If you haven't read this book, I can't recommend End Run highly enough. Please read it if you can.

WARNING! A bit of plot summary is below, so you may want to skip the next paragraph if you haven't read the book. I would hate to detract from someone's enjoyment of this great book.

All the Forstchen books are my favorite, End Run has a slight lead though. I don't think you need worry about warning us about the events that happened, it's a nice gesture, but wingnuts tend to have voracious appetites for knowledge of the universe, so even those who haven't read it are mostly in the know.

I think your idea is a great one and I'd be really interested to see it come to fruition. Although, I have no graphical abilities, there are a great many people who are very talented who would probably love to help.
 
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