Tachyon: The Fringe - Vision Engine?

-danr-

Vice Admiral
When this came out in 2000, I saw it at my local 'Staples' store and momentarily thought from the game's title that there'd been a Wing Commander sequel that I'd somehow not heard about. Upon closer inspection of the box, I decided it wasn't worth dallying outside of the Wing Commander universe, and left it on the shelf.

A week ago, I picked up a boxed copy for £1 from a charity bric-a-brac sale put on at a local school. I just got done completing the game, well half the game, since you can fly for one of two factions. Overall I'd give it a 6/10, it's fun, but has little replay appeal - in fact, if it weren't for Bruce Campbell's voiceover and one liners I'd only give it a 4.

The game borrows heavily from Wing Commander, blatantly - and the box markets the game as if to make it sound like it's free roaming (like Privateer) - but it's not, the story is linear, and you can't freely travel the Universe and land wherever you like, you can only transfer to a new star base after a certain number of missions. There's no trading either, other than you get to buy/sell new ships and customise them out with a wide variety of weapons. Here are some familiar Tachyon: The Fringe ship names:

- Shrike
- Barracuda
- Manta
- Demon
- Piranha
- Orion
- Leviathan

What I'm most curious about though, is the game's engine. It flies just like Prophecy's vision engine; the lighting, the ship handling, weapon locks, capship components, weapon projection, cockpit struts that drift around, but most curiously of all - the autoslide feature, and it's afterburn 'bug'. In Secret Ops, you can cheat fuel consumption and fly at afterburn speed by releasing the TAB key once you're up to speed, and holding down the autoslide button - exactly the same glitch is true in Tachyon! Hold autoslide and you still get full speed, but you don't burn off the extra fuel (or boost power, as it's called in Tachyon).

Can anybody confirm if Origin leased out the Vision engine for this game?
 
It really, really doesn't fly like the Vision engine (not that this means that it isn't the Vision engine - Saga doesn't fly that much like Freespace, either). If it did, I wouldn't find Tachyon on default difficulty much harder than Secret Ops on Nightmare. My preferred flying style is essentially adapted for Vision, it seems...
 
Hmm, how do you find Tachyon to be different? I find the flight dynamics very much similar, perhaps a difference in the ship speeds and maneuverability are what makes it feel different to you? I'm certain somebody will be along to say it's a different engine entirely.
 
Played out both the Galspan, Bora, and used to Base War. Even if it's not the vision engine it plays a lot like it, although the ships feel slower. The one major difference is the power recharge/battery system. Sort of smacking together of a bit of XvT and WCP.
 
I'd say the gun power settings are one of Tachyon's biggest downfalls, if you strap the heavy laser onto the most basic fighters you can only re-fire about once every 6 seconds, and with the game's best fighters, only about once every 3 seconds. One thing I do like is the number of missiles the ships can carry.
 
I had Tachyon back in 2002, played it and beat it on both factions, then sold it due to needing the cash. Now I can't find a copy anywhere
 
http://store.steampowered.com/app/32760/ There you go! For best results be sure to use with nglide to your monitors native resolution. (default direct3d render isn't the best and limited to the ancient 1024x768. Though with one ati card I own had to downgrade to nglide v.99

I really don't get what you mean. It handles nothing at all like Prophecy/SO. You are far more encouraged to abuse the slide function in this game in conjunction with thrusters to conserve momentum and zip around. Otherwise thruster power depletes rapidly and unlike freespace is slow to get back. (Also q and tab are right next to each other and being the default) One of my favorite things is take a light fighter and just go nuts in the ring course. Feels more like 1st person freelancer without trading, but Bruce Campbell really sells this game.
 
http://store.steampowered.com/app/32760/ There you go! For best results be sure to use with nglide to your monitors native resolution. (default direct3d render isn't the best and limited to the ancient 1024x768. Though with one ati card I own had to downgrade to nglide v.99

I really don't get what you mean. It handles nothing at all like Prophecy/SO. You are far more encouraged to abuse the slide function in this game in conjunction with thrusters to conserve momentum and zip around. Otherwise thruster power depletes rapidly and unlike freespace is slow to get back. (Also q and tab are right next to each other and being the default) One of my favorite things is take a light fighter and just go nuts in the ring course. Feels more like 1st person freelancer without trading, but Bruce Campbell really sells this game.

Hadn't tried the Nglide option. Now I have an excuse to replay it. Felt like Prophecy in my memory. I haven't played Tachyon since I think '04?

And you're right, Bruce Campbell got me to buy it. I said to myself, if he's doing the pilot voice, they'd be liberal as hell with his comedy. I'm happy I was right.
 
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