Random Q's from an annoying Newb

[Eder]

As for the communications array and the textures... I don't know why they're different. In the case of the communications array, Eder probably simply didn't want to waste polys on such stuff.

Yep... It would be a waste of polys to model anything like that WC2 thingmajig there... it has a pretty tricky shape, and serves no practical purpose. It would also be a waste of a pretty good turret location.

And textures... most likely, he just felt like doing them that way .

I'm not even sure. I seem to remember having seen the front part as gray and the keel as something darker than the other green parts of the ship (whether it was still green or not, I don't remember)... that model is pretty old, and I didn't check the original one to make it.

As for the red lights, they're not there because painting lights on a texture usually makes for a very ugly effect, as can be seen on some ships' engines. Therefore I tried to avoid that effect as much as possible (the red lights on the frontal part of the Gilgamesh's engines, for example, don't look as bad since it's a mostly plain black background).

 

[Lance Casey]

(Please don't use this thread to advertise, Lance Casey. Also, you may want to re-read the rules, particularly Rule 4. - Death)

 

[frostytheplebe]

6. Many. The novel mentions that some of the Hakaga's components had armor that made them nearly impervious to torpedoes (hence the desperate Marine attacks). To give Standoff that same feeling, we've made it so that for a Hakaga to go down, you need something like a whole wing of Confed bombers landing all of their torpedo hits.

Then why not bring the Concordia along and have her make short work out of a few of them with the PTC?? Don't tell me they can withstand that too?

Oh, btw, Does anyone else find it next to impossible to aim using the freaken Raptor heavy fighter? The mass drivers need ther own crosshairs... its funny and annoying at the same time. Good work on the cockpit though, really brought back memories..

 

[Quarto]

The Concordia could never get close enough to the Hakaga in order to fire her PTC - she'd be destroyed by Kilrathi bombers long before then.

 

[frostytheplebe]

The Concordia could never get close enough to the Hakaga in order to fire her PTC - she'd be destroyed by Kilrathi bombers long before then.

wow... ok now i can't wait to fly against one of these things! Be as badass as flying against the SSD in X-Wing Alliance!

 

[Quarto]

Yeah, I can tell you it is quite an experience. I know that showing off about big capships is soooo 1997, but it really is something. Especially when you fly a Crossbow, and you need to get behind the Hakaga to get at his engines. It takes ages to get there .

 

[Dundradal]

Remind me to find the guy that thought it was prudent not to install ABs on the bow and sword. I'll attach a AB to his....

 

[Spertallica]

Hey, it's been about 2 months since a progress update... any word?

 

[Dundradal]

Hey, it's been about 2 months since a progress update... any word?

Actually just under 1 month...check out this thread.

 

[Thunderbolt]

First off, I'd like to say that this game is genious. The graphics are better then Prophecy (no easy task), and the game play rocks. Everything looks pretty close to accurate and the storyline revolving around the Novels is pretty cool itself.

I agree the graphics for Standoff are awesome especially the textures for the Rapier but sadly I can't remember Prophecy all that well. The kilrathi fighters are also nice I just wish they were harder to kill - unless your flying a broadsword or Stiletto. In some ways I preffered the dog fights in Unknown Enemy because they were much faster. The missions in Standoff are a lot more creative hence for that reason I prefer Standoff over UE.

If your new to the Wing Commander mods check WC Saga out as well as they are also working on a very impressive project and have a demo out too.

I also have a question - Will we see any Starbases, shipyards or drydocks in episodes 4 and 5? Cause the Sol System would have lots of infrastructure at that time - until most of it was torpedoed by the kilrathi fleet of course.

 

[Quarto]

We're not sure. Eder is working on a starbase for episode 5, but it's one of those things we'll be quite happy to cut out of the game if he doesn't find time to finish it - it's so unimportant to Standoff, we won't even put it up on the progress chart until we're sure it's going do be done.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

The Battle of Earth gets a brief mention in the Wing Commander IV novel - Orion, the station with Tolwyn's offive, was rammed by a Darket while it was in low Earth orbit. That would probably require two ships you aren't planning on including, though...

 

[Dundradal]

IIRC FA mentions some small bases getting destroyed as the kat fleet jumps into Sol, but most of the system's infrastructure was untouched except for the shipyards on the Moon and the cities destroyed by the AM missiles, but those strikes involved heavy capships slugging away at the targets.

Please, if it's not gonna make it, well it's not gonna make it. Just do your best to finish what's on your plate before going to get add some more. I can't wait to launch from the Firekka and see the rest of the 3rd fleet around me as we go to escort in the landing ships. Oh man oh man.

 

[frostytheplebe]

Please, if it's not gonna make it, well it's not gonna make it. Just do your best to finish what's on your plate before going to get add some more. I can't wait to launch from the Firekka and see the rest of the 3rd fleet around me as we go to escort in the landing ships. Oh man oh man.

Seconded, without question i will probably fly around checking out the badass fleet thats ready to meet the Kilrathi.

... yeah, whos brilliant idea was it NOT to equip WC2 bombers with AB? I can kind of understand it with the broadsword, given her heavy defenses, but the crossbow has only a single turret! One would think that something as irreplaceable (and probably costly) as a bomber, would want it to have any and ALL possible advantages in combat. Seriously... this isn't star wars where they just equip the outdated, slower fighters with bombs and try to pass them off as bombers (Y-Wings). We all saw how that turned out... "Gold 5 to Red Leader, lost Tyree, lost hutch... They came from behind" ...BOOM!!!!

What is so special about the longbow that it has an AB system? I hate that ship.

Finally, I prefer the WC1/ late WC3 idea: have heavy fighters double as bombers with a simple loadout change. It works on so many levels, may not carry the 8 torpedoes that are used on Broadswords... but I played through WC2... and I never ran out of torpedoes... unless I somehow managed to launch one at an enemy fighter... which happened a couple of times... I see this dralthi hitting afterburners like crazy to avoid this large, slow moving, missile... i get tired of it and just blast it.

Quarto, huge capships may be 1997... but it never gets old in my book, you keep bustin em out, and I'll keep finding new and more creative ways of bustin em up.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

The WC2 fighters give you an entirely new gameplay dynamic, forcing you to rely on your escort fighters and turrets (and truly terrifying you through torpedo runs). WC1/3/4/etc.'s "one guy can shoot down everything" is easier, but it's not quite the accomplishment that a WC2 torpedo mission was.

I have *heard* that the original 'trick' to the Crossbow was going to be that it added afterburners... and that this was lost somewhere in development. Having gained this knowledge you must never, never, *never* go around insising that the Crossbow is "supposed" to have afterburners.

Also, Broadswords in Arena will be getting afterburners.

 

[Quarto]

The WC2 fighters give you an entirely new gameplay dynamic, forcing you to rely on your escort fighters and turrets (and truly terrifying you through torpedo runs). WC1/3/4/etc.'s "one guy can shoot down everything" is easier, but it's not quite the accomplishment that a WC2 torpedo mission was.

Yeah, of all the different bombers we see in WC, the Broadsword and the Crossbow remain the most memorable. Heck, Origin must have been of the same opinion, because the Devastator in WCP went as far in the direction of the Broadsword as possible without actually removing the afterburners.

I have *heard* that the original 'trick' to the Crossbow was going to be that it added afterburners... and that this was lost somewhere in development. Having gained this knowledge you must never, never, *never* go around insising that the Crossbow is "supposed" to have afterburners.

Oh, come on - you know very well that if the afterburners were dropped on the Crossbow during development, it must have been because of the hardware limitations in 1991, and it's our duty to make the Crossbow fly the way it was originally intended!

 

[Bandit LOAF]

I always thought the Devastator was underappreciated -- all the B-29 styled turrets make the ship a lot more interesting than it initially seems. Unique cockpit art would have made it a heck of a lot more memorable...

 

[Delance]

What makes the Devastator so memorable to me is that it had a big plasma gun that allowed us to destroy capital ships without torps. Very useful.

 

[frostytheplebe]

What makes the Devastator so memorable to me is that it had a big plasma gun that allowed us to destroy capital ships without torps. Very useful.

Without question, i agree... however i did think it somewhat strange that they then added on a single tachion gun to the ship... i personally don't see why. A true master of the devastator can knock out a good wing of fighters using the plasma gun (I've done it quite a few times) secondly... realistically, as good as the tach is... one by itself really doesn't do much good.

Which reminds me... what ever happened to the conventional plasma gun, meson gun, and the reaper gun? You see all the other guns from the pervious WCs, in prophecy and SO O(except for maybe the neutron gun... I can't remember). But besides maybe time consumption on the game designers clock... in prophecy, all the fighters that used to carry these guns have been modified not to anymore. The old Excaliburs carry 4 Tachs and 2 Ion, and the Thunderbolt... I can't really remember her layout...

 

[Dundradal]

I always thought the Devastator was underappreciated -- all the B-29 styled turrets make the ship a lot more interesting than it initially seems. Unique cockpit art would have made it a heck of a lot more memorable...

After HCl released the WCP MP patch last year and we played a few games with everyone in Devastators watching those turrets fire is pretty impressive, makes for a pretty sight but very deadly piece of space.