Lt.Death100
Spaceman
Well Blair was hailed as the savior of the human race at the end of WC3.Iceyl86 said:
Who do you think flies better. . . ?
- Thread starter maniac89
- Start date
Tigerhawk
Captain
Lt.Death100 said:
Well, and even if Marshall had kept his promotion, it still would ahve been to Lieutenant Colonel, not a "full bird" Colonel. He still would have been one paygrade below Blair regardless.
And I'm sorry...what "command" was Maniac given after his LtCol promotion came through? I'm taking it that Marshall never had a true, full command of his own until Drake made him the skipper of the Black Widows on the Midway.
Death
gh0d (Administrator)
At the very end of the WC4 novelization, Taggart gives Maniac an envelope with a promotion to full colonel ("They confirmed your treasonous rank"), as well as an assignment to command school for training him to take command of the light carrier (not escort, as I had previously posted) Kiev. (pp 342-343)
DangerousCook
Rear Admiral
I don't think the fact that Maniac is still a Major means his flying skill is automatically less that that of everyone with a higher rank, it just means his recklessness deters Confed from wanting to give him a promotion/leadership role.
Marshall has around 35 years of wartime combat experience (on and off obviously) with the Kilrathi where as Casey is a rookie.
Now Maniac's skills have probably deteriorated a bit, so it probably depends on the time period (are you comparing both of them at the time of Prophecy?)
I think if you are analyzing them both at their prime, then the person with more combat/wartime experience would probably win (as Maniac would say: "may the best man win! ... that'd be me.)
Marshall has around 35 years of wartime combat experience (on and off obviously) with the Kilrathi where as Casey is a rookie.
Now Maniac's skills have probably deteriorated a bit, so it probably depends on the time period (are you comparing both of them at the time of Prophecy?)
I think if you are analyzing them both at their prime, then the person with more combat/wartime experience would probably win (as Maniac would say: "may the best man win! ... that'd be me.)
Bandit LOAF
Long Live the Confederation!
I think we looked at this fairly recently. The only times where we actually know Blair outranked Maniac during the war were 2655-56 and 2667-69. That's (under) three years out of the 15 they served...
I don't have my TPoF novel here (I'm at work), so this may not be right... but isn't the result at the end of the novel that Maniac's Border Worlds rank of Lt. Colonel is confirmed and he is then promoted to (full) Colonel? Someone check that one.
The Kiev aside (since we have no idea what actually happened), he's clearly been in command before, though -- he commanded the Wild Eagles in Special Operations 2 and he was temporary Wing Commander of the Victory before Blair arrived.
I don't think that number is quite right... he'd only been in the service for 27 years as of Wing Commander Prophecy (2654-2681) -- and some twelve years of that was during peacetime... and then half his wartime service was spent as a test pilot instead of in combat assignments.
DangerousCook
Rear Admiral
Whoops, yeah you're right. I suck w/ numbers haha! The war only lasted 35 years to begin with, that's where I got the 35 from...
Tigerhawk
Captain
ChrisReid said:
If the end of the WC4 novelization is to be taken as canon, then we have some serious writing problems, a la Prophecy.
Casey: "What are we celebrating?"
Marshall: "My voluntary demotion. I'm no longer a squadron commander"..."...you've got the pilots whining all day about stats, you've go the CAG screaming for results...it's all pain, no gain..."
Doesn't sound like much material for a carrier skipper to me, as taking a ship that big would require a LOT more than that. Between that, and Marshall was outright surprised when Drake gave him command of the Black Widows. If the prototype squadron out of Special Ops 2 was a full squadron, then someone forgot something there, too. (I never got the chance to play either Special Ops games, so I don't know).
Anyone have a reasonable guesstimate for that...?
ChrisReid
Super Soaker Collector / Administrator
Tigerhawk said:
Every official product is part of the Wing Commander universe.
Tigerhawk said:
What's the problem here? Maniac has had several command positions, as we've already detailed earlier in this thread. They've all turned out poorly. The WC4 novel is talking about his promotion to Wing Commander on the Kiev, not ship's captain.
ChrisReid
Super Soaker Collector / Administrator
Colonel is a Confed Space Forces rank. Confed Navy captains the carriers.
The carrier remark is significant because Maniac lost a light carrier Wing Commander position to Hobbes and then Blair just a couple years prior. Any carrier in WC is a somewhat precious commodity, as they're vastly outnumbered by destroyers and cruisers that carry small fighter wings.
The carrier remark is significant because Maniac lost a light carrier Wing Commander position to Hobbes and then Blair just a couple years prior. Any carrier in WC is a somewhat precious commodity, as they're vastly outnumbered by destroyers and cruisers that carry small fighter wings.
Bandit LOAF
Long Live the Confederation!
Wait, what's wrong with Prophecy?
Also, stop saying 'canon'.
DangerousCook
Rear Admiral
~~~lercoasterz!
Maj.Striker
Swabbie
Banned
Well I don't know if it exactly a fair comparison...you're trying to compare a computer AI wingman to the human player. Obviously, depending on your skill you are most likely going to be better than Maniac. After all, before the game was over didn't you surpass him on the killboard? It'd be an easier task to compare him to another AI wingman. For example I remember seeing Goblin at the top of the killboard above Maniac for a long long time.