Wing Commander RPG

Good Monday to you, wingnuts. Just thought I'd pass a quick update for WCRPG for this week. I'm still in Chapter Ten, though at the rate I'm going I'll probably be moving on fairly soon. Object creation is pretty much done at this point, with the exception of one crucial step (namely determining the value of an item). I'm still in the process of evaluating commodities, which I'll need to finish before I can wrap that procedure up. Meantime, I was able to knock out character archetype creation rapidly and was able to move on to creature creation this past week. Most of the work there is finished as of today; I still need to do an example for a sapient race. I've decided my example there will be the Firekkans; I'll probably be asking for input from the community on them later in the week this week.

Chapter Ten is nearly completed; the RPG as a whole is perhaps about 25% complete at this point. Next stop is probably going to have to be either character creation (Chapter 2.3 and 2.4) or finishing up in Chapter Three (Skills). I won't be able to put either off for very much longer in any event.
 
Alright, I've been working on skills the last couple of days; another day and I should have that knocked out, so I figured I'd get back to working on the Firekkan example in Chapter 10.2.7 (creature creation).

As I mention there, the descriptive text I have for them says "The Firekkans are an avian race that resemble seven-foot tall predatory birds. Firekkan males are slightly smaller than their female counterparts." Which is basically what I have to go on. Not a difficult concept.

Step 2) Niche, symmetry, size class. Well, we say they resemble predatory birds...that would suggest to me a strictly carnivorous diet, making them carnivorous consumers. They have a definable front, back, left and right side; they therefore have bilateral symmetry. Size...is going to be a tricky one. There wouldn't happen to be a picture of a Firekkan in flight in existence anywhere, would there? I'd like to see how their wingspan compares to their overall height.
 
Good Monday, wingnuts. Just wanted to send a quick update for WCRPG this week. I've finished up as much of Chapter Ten as I can for the time being, though I should be able to go back and finish the chapter up in its entirety pretty quickly at this point. I spent most of my time during the week revisiting the basic skill set in Chapter Three and was able to get that all squared away this week, adding that chapter to the list of stuff that's done at this point. I also finally got back to work on Chapter 1.0; rather than put in a summary of every game, book and other canon sources of the Wing Commander continuity, I changed my mind and put in just a general summary of the entire series. I figured that the specific details would be covered elsewhere in the game (such as the planned timeline in Chapter Twelve). This let me put Chapter One behind me as well this past week. Finally, I was able to revise my set of character archetype tables for Chapter 2.4 this last week, and began work on the formal character creation rules in Chapter 2.3 over the weekend. I'm a little over halfway through the basic procedure at this point. Finally, I've done some more work with the Firekkans; took an educated guess on what their wingspan might be based on the body/wing proportions of other raptors, which let me make substantial progress on them. At this point, I just need to start typing up their profile.

This week I plan to focus on Starflight. I've been kinda neglectful of that project of late. Probably won't see much going on this week, though I may at least try to get character creation done, and maybe a little more work on the Firekkan profile as well.
 
Hello, wingnuts, just a quick update. Well, as I mentioned last week, I didn't get a lot done on WCRPG, though I did make good progress on the character creation rules. In fact, those rules are complete at this point; what's still missing from Chapter 2.3 are some example images of a completed character template sheet, and those haven't been done simply because I haven't finished designing one as yet. I hope to turn my attention to that soon and get it done. Meantime, though, all that's missing from Chapter Two at this point are specific race profiles. To get things to where the game might become bare-bones playable, I'll probably get the Terran and Kilrathi profiles up first (and the Firekkans as well, as I need to finish their profile anyway to finish out Chapter 10.2.7). I don't know if I'll attend to that this week or not; I'm thinking about moving on to Chapters Six and Seven, the rules on vehicles and capital ships (definitely something that needs to be there for Wing Commander).

No new pages are 100% complete this week; the game is still sitting at about 46% completion.
 
Hey, does anybody out there have the specifications for the CF-117b Rapier (the one from the movie)? I'm about ready to test out the revised vehicle creation rules and needed something in the way of an example; I thought the movie Rapier would fit the bill. The only other vehicle I was thinking about maybe doing for the example was that bulldozer-like vehicle that pushes the wreckage of Maniac's fighter out the bay (again from the movie), though I think finding the dimensions of that vehicle is going to be nigh impossible. Couldn't think of any other vehicles in the WC universe that didn't have game stats already.
 
capi3101 said:
Hey, does anybody out there have the specifications for the CF-117b Rapier (the one from the movie)? I'm about ready to test out the revised vehicle creation rules and needed something in the way of an example; I thought the movie Rapier would fit the bill. The only other vehicle I was thinking about maybe doing for the example was that bulldozer-like vehicle that pushes the wreckage of Maniac's fighter out the bay (again from the movie), though I think finding the dimensions of that vehicle is going to be nigh impossible. Couldn't think of any other vehicles in the WC universe that didn't have game stats already.
Click to expand...

Here's the Rapier blurb from the Confed Handbook:

Confed Handbook said:
CF-117b Rapier

Currently the primary utility fighter of the Confed space force, development on the Rapier began in 2527 and the first order of 700 was commissioned in 2536. The B model, with enhanced missile capacity and gun, was phased in beginning in '45, and the A model has been completely phased out. The Rapier has now largely supplanted the earlier CF -105 Scimitar, particularly in frontline operations. The Rapier combines acceleration, maneuverability and firepower to make it the premier one-on-one dog fighter in space today. Its handling superiority is necessary, since its short-range neutron guns require close approach to the enemy in combat.

The Rapier's most distinguished visual feature is its rotary-barrel neutron gun. The rotating multibarrel allows longer continuous neutron fire. The duel neutron pulse generators can be set to alternate or synchronous fire. Wing mounted lasers provide longer-range fire support. It also mounts up to ten guided or dumbfire missiles.

Confed Tempest targeting and navigational AI, and a jump capable drive array. Its life-support
systems are rated for up to seven hours cruise time. (A LARP variant exists, the 117b -L, with an enhanced sensor package and rated for up to 72 hours life support, but lacking the neutron gun.) The Rapier is not capable of sustained atmospheric operations - its wings function strictly as weapon/missile mounts. It can generate a retrieval tractor rated for up to 75 tonnes.It is capable of ejecting its pilot into a standard survival pod.


Class: Medium Fighter
Length: 9 meters
Cruise Velocity: 250 kps
Max Velocity: 450 kps
Weapons: Two Wing-Mounted Laser Cannon
Duel-Pulse Rotary Barrel Neutron Gun (forward)
10 Missile Mounts
Armor: Fore and aft phase shields rated to 7 cm
5 cm fore armor /4 cm aft armor
3 cm port /starboard armor
Click to expand...
 
Thank you AD.

A quick Google Image search picked up the following URL with front and side visuals of the thing:
https://www.wcnews.com/chatzone/threads/need-pics-of-wcm-fighters.6384/

Are those the only profile pictures of the movie Rapier, or are there ones of higher quality out there? Not that it matters...between those two profiles and the data you've provided me, I have sufficient for me to be able to calculate the bounding box. Mainly just curious.
 
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Good Monday and Happy Halloween, wingnuts. Quick update on WCRPG. This last week was spent largely getting things ready to go in Chapters Six and Seven, which finally starts to cover the good stuff (vehicles and capital ships). Most of my focus has been in Chapter Six (vehicles). I've finished the basic rules for using vehicles, have successfully converted over the chassis and user data, and have finished the text of vehicle creation and modification. I still need to work on the actual equipment list itself; this will be a focus for the coming week. In Chapter Seven (cap ships), I've gotten as far as conversion of chassis and basic rules; I haven't gotten to the creation and modification rules yet, but hopefully that will also happen this coming week. As mentioned earlier in this thread, I was looking for a canonical or semi-canonical vehicle to use as an example in 6.2 (the vehicle creation rules), and I've settled on the Rapier from the WC movie. I hope to be able to put information on it in later this week; I foresee the Gatling neutron gun giving me a few problems. It may have to wait until after I can formalize the vehicle equipment list.

I only got a little bit of work done on the Firekkan profile this week (mainly in preparation for the composition of their physical description section of their race profile). I did get some other work done in relation to characters. On Monday, I built a prototype character record template sheet, and after tinkering with it I came up with what I imagine will be the final version on Tuesday. I haven't posted the template to Appendix Two yet - I still need to do that. Meantime, though, the template's creation allowed me to create pictures for Chapter 2.3 (character creation) and get that chapter to a completed status. I also found a big set of mistakes in the archetype chapter (Chapter 2.4), which I was able to correct without too much fuss. Finally, I did go ahead and add the whole of the WCPedia text to the Terran profile (2.2.1); not much there, so it should be relatively easy to incorporate. Chapter Two is now complete with the exception of specific race profiles, which I hope to be able to get to sometime in the near future (seeing as how they'll be part of the "meat" of the game).

Only other thing I've got in my notes for this past week was work on the kinematic table in Chapter 8.0, which I was able to complete; 8.0 is now finished as well.

As of this morning, there are 59 out of 109 pages completed (54.13%) in the game. I'm past the halfway mark at this point, though I'm certain the time-consuming part lies ahead.
 
Alright, beginning the same process for Chapter 7.2 (cap ship creation/modification). I'd like to do the Wake-class for the example; I need some actual specifications, though, and I'm coming up empty. Can anybody help me out? The Standoff folks have speed and size on their site and there's a nice picture of their version of the ship up on WCPedia (from two aspects, enough data for me to calculate the bounding box). What I'm missing is armament and defense data.
 
Got my first set of initial costs on a select group of fightercraft today. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to adjust the prices upwards by an order of magnitude to get close to the hundred-million credit mark for "Any Confederation fighter in WC1" y'all gave me early on in this project. If I did adjust things upwards, a Hornet comes in just over 80 million, a Ferret around 25 million, a Rapier-II/G comes in at 69 million and a Sabre weighs in at 101 million. Those values seem reasonable to y'all? For comparison, using the system I've got going for WCRPG, the price of an F-22 Raptor or F-35 Lightning-II/B would come in at about 32 million credits.

Should have in-game stats on these craft soon; in fact, at this point I just need to figure up their derived statistics to call them done.

Also have got a lot of work done on the Wake-class as well, though it's obvious I'll have to adjust things upward there...so far she's coming in at just over 60 million credits, not nearly expensive enough. Probably have to bump things up by two orders of magnitude for capital ships.
 
Good Monday, wingnuts. This past week with WCRPG, my area of focus was in getting the rules for vehicle and capital ship creation up in Chapters 6.2 and 7.2. I was able to get the procedure completed in 6.2 and I have finished up 7.2 right up to the part where you calculate the ship's cost (so that's nearly complete). I will need to make some tweaks to both systems in regards to the cost of fightercraft and capital ships; from what's been established so far in the WC universe and considering where things sit now, I've got the cost of fighters too low by an order of magnitude and capital ships too low by two orders of magnitude. Shouldn't be too hard to tweak them and I hope to have things settled by the end of the week. Meantime, I was able to produce a set of in-game stats for the movie Rapier (for the 6.2 example build) as well as stats for the Hornet, Ferret, F-44G Rapier and Sabre. I also got started on a set of stats for the Wake-class (as the 7.2 example build). Last major thing that happened this week in regards to building craft was the initial edits on the equipment lists for vehicles and capital ships, in Chapters 6.2.3 and 7.2.2 respectively. I'll probably wind up staying in the same spot this week, and keep y'all posted on how things progress. With luck, things might be to the point where I can start taking community submissions for new craft sometime in the next week or two.
 
Been working on silhouettes for some tabletop wargame counters for WCRPG/WCTB the last couple of days. As far as I can tell, I've got most of a complete set at this point. I am missing the various craft from Arena, though, which begs the question: are there any top-down images anywhere of the craft in Arena, and if not, would it even be possible to get a hold of them? By craft, I mean all eighteen player controllable fighters in the game along with the two battlecruiser classes.
 
Good Monday, everybody. Not much to report this week, I'm afraid; spent the better part of the week working on making silhouettes (though I made some significant in-roads there and now have a reasonably complete set from WC1 through Prophecy; I lack Arena silhouettes as yet because I can't find an Ogre mesh viewer that's worth a damn). Most of what work I did do on the game involved making tweaks in Chapters Six and Seven to account for recent changes, dropping notes at various other spots in the game, and working on the equipment tables in Chapters 6.2.3 and 7.2.2. I did go ahead and finish work on Chapter 7.2 this week. The game sits at 54.45% completion as of this morning.

I'm still likely to be focused on making counters this week, so I can't guarantee much further progress this week. I am getting fairly bogged down with everything this week, so it's possible I may move on to some of the other portions of the game that haven't seen any work as yet (seriously considering starting work on Chapter Nine: Combat).
 
Hello, wingnuts! Just thought I'd pass a quick word about WCRPG's progress this week. As you might've guessed owing to Sunday's CIC news entry, I spent a fair amount of last week working on my counter sets. That did not, however, prevent me from making any progress on WCRPG. This week was all about combat (Chapter Nine), beginning with a dump of the combat rules from SFRPG into WCRPG Chapters 9.1-9.5. I was able to finish up 9.1 (the general purpose combat rules) and I've made significant progress into Chapter 9.4 (capital ship-scale combat). I am finding the need for some rules changes as I go along (most notably, SFRPG had a set of limitations on weapons usage which I've been removing from WCRPG; didn't realize just how deeply ingrained that feature was into the system until I started trying to remove it). The plan is to continue work on the combat rules this week (along with designing more counter sets, of course). WCRPG sits at 56% complete as of today.
 
Good Monday, wingnuts. I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving holiday (at least all y'all who live in the States). Due to the holiday and owing to the fact I was out of town with family in a location with very limited Net access, not a lot got done with WCRPG this last week. My log notes show that I spent a fair amount of time continuing work with my counter sets; the layout designs of those are nearly complete at this point and given some time this week I might have them done (though my master plan for the week involves churning out the first physical set, so that may not happen either). I was happy to get the Arena silhouettes done over the break (which was a bigger pain than I'd originally anticipated).

Anyway, 9.4 was the only part of WCRPG that saw work this past week, and I was not able to finish it (though it's awful close at this point). I was able to build a preliminary set of stats for the Ralari-class Destroyer, which I needed for one of the chapter's examples. I was also able to finish revisions to the capital ship-scale systems damage chart. I still have two pieces of the chapter that need completed editing, the damage resolution example and a more detailed picture illustration of combat arcs. I hope to finish up both later this week and move on to a different combat scale. As of this morning, WCRPG still stands at 56% completion.

I had thought to add the counter sheets to the WCRPG Wiki; they certainly belong there. That may occur once all the basic traditional sheets are up and ready to go. I've also given some thought to setting up a service wherein wingnuts may be able to purchase physical copies of the counter sets, but I'm holding off on that until I've had a better chance to think about it and have at least finished production of one physical set.
 
Hello wingnuts. Good Monday and happy undead week* to everyone. This week I was again focused on my counters a bit more than I was on WCRPG, but I can report some progress with the game. Chapter 9.4 (capship combat) was finished up after last Monday's update and work proceeded on Chapter 9.2 (character-scale combat) afterwards. 9.4's completion on Monday included a bit of GIMP work on an illustration of how combat arcs work within the game. As of this morning, the bulk of 9.2 is finished with only the particulars of attack actions, damage resolution and healing rules remaining in the chapter. I'm hopeful I'll be able to finish up 9.2 this week and be able to proceed to vehicular combat in Chapter 9.3. Mixed-scale combat in 9.5 will follow, rounding out the chapter on combat. As of this morning, the game is 57% complete.

Counter sheets are still coming along. This last week I finally posted up the WC4 counter sheet after some difficulty finding a suitable Flash-Pak image for the silhouette (ultimately had to create one from scratch). I also posted the Arena and Prophecy sheets, though I was informed that I was missing two classes of ships from Special Ops on the Prophecy sheet. I'm working with several members of the CIC community to try and fill in those missing craft. I've also been working on an ordnance sheet, which is proving to be difficult in its own right. Still hopeful that I'll be able to finish that up this week as well.

*You may be asking yourself what I meant by "happy undead week". This is an inside joke...I work at the University of Oklahoma's central library, and this week is the week before final exams (what's known locally as "dead week" because professors are expressly forbidden from having any major semester projects due this week so that students may prep for finals). The library has 24 hour services this week, with staff coming in from two in the morning until 7:30. I call it "undead week" because A) I always had a major project due the week before finals when I was a student, and B) in the wee hours of the morning, everybody in the library acts/looks/sounds like a zombie...
 
Hey, I was going back over the Privateer 2 cluebook today, and I found a commodities chart on pages 76-77. Has anybody transcribed that info to the net anywhere yet?
 
@AD: Its similar, though there are a large number of minor differences in the prices, and the table in the book includes the specific quantity of particular goods available at each location.
 
Good Monday, wingnuts. Not a lot to report on WCRPG this last week; I spent most of my time working on silhouettes again, finishing up the ordnance sheet and getting things prepped up for the Privateer 2 sheet (I finished the last of these silhouettes this morning, so barring a few that I still want to get together like the Hakaga, I'm pretty much done with them at this point). I'm still working on character scale combat, and am still working on the attack action section. With the silhouettes done, I'm hopeful things will start to pick back up later this week. Overall plan hasn't changed; still at 57% complete this week.
 
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