Best way to play every mission and see every cutscene on a new playthrough WC1-5?

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Phox

Rear Admiral
Hello everyone,

after easily 10 years without Wing Commander, I have decided to play it again, at least WC1 and WC2 (and SM/SO) but if I enjoy it and find the time, why not WC3-5 too.

I played through each of them 2-3 times already. Now I have realised that there is probably a lot of missions and cutscenes that I don't know yet because so far, when I failed a mission I played it until I succeeded (even managed to save the Ralari once without tricks ;-) so for the games with mission trees (and that's all of them, correct?) I always went through the winning path.

Can someone share some tips how I should go about that (I really want to play everything, not just watch cutscenes on youtube). Does it even make sense e.g. I think remembering that the WC2 tree is quite flat, maybe just the cutscenes differ between winning and losing path? For WC1, I suppose make a save at the start of a new sector, play the winning path to the next sector, save, then load the former save, eject after launching everytime to get on the losing path and map my way through the tree.

It's probably not rocket science but any advice is appreciated =)
 
This is an extremely fun thing to think about! And it could get pretty complex depending on how deep you want to go. I'll start with Wing Commander I and add the others in future posts.

This is the original mission tree which is by far the most complex and varied of any of the games. There are a total of 40 missions (plus 4 trainsim missions) but you will only play 18 of them in an all-winning playthrough.

https://www.wcnews.com/wcpedia/images/Wc1-mission-tree.png

If you want to play through every mission 'naturally' then I think it would take four playthroughs (two complete and two partial):

- WINNING playthrough (Enyo->McAuliffe->Gimle->Dakota->Kurasawa->Venice)
- LOSE Enyo -> WIN Gateway -> WIN Brimstone
- LOSE Enyo -> LOSE Gateway -> WIN Chengdu -> WIN Port Hedland -> WIN Rostov
- LOSE Enyo -> LOSE Gateway -> LOSE Chengdu -> WIN Hubble's Star - LOSE Rostov - WIN Hell's Kitchen

If you're willing to muck around a little out of universe then there are some game supported ways to just select the missions you want. The transfer programs included to move your character to Secret Missions and Secret Missions 2 (transfer.exe and trans2.exe) will let you move your character to any of the original missions. Or you can use the surprisingly complex command line options to simply start the game anywhere you want. Here's a guide for that: https://www.wcnews.com/news/update/14189

The Secret Missions are almost entirely linear except they have two 'losing' missions that you can fail to after any series. So one winning playthrough and one where you eject through the first couple missions will do you there. (The command line stuff works for Secret Missions, too).

Are you interested in ports? Wing Commander I in particular has a LOT of ports and many of them have little details or changes for individual systems that are pretty interesting. (At least check out the SNES version of The Secret Missions which adds an opening cutscene!)

There's also Super Wing Commander, which is a port of Wing Commander I for the 3DO and Macintosh that updates all the graphics and includes an additional set of missions after Secret Missions I. There's a fan patch that 'backports' those missions to WC1 or you can emulate the originals. Cutscenes and many many other things are totally different, too!
 
Thank you for the all this information! I didn't know about the command line switches or the additional 3DO missions or the SNES cutscene yet.

I was going to get started with the DOSbox version of WC1 this weekend and see where it takes me. I'll report how it goes =)
 
You can play every mission and experience every cutscene in WC1 in two playthroughs, although if you want the experience of winning every mission you will have to backtrack in a few places.

Here is the mission tree. Note how in a few places a success or failure can move you "sideways" in the tree.

Cutscenes only play when you move "down" the tree, across the white lines I've drawn below. So you can play sequences like this:
  • Win series 2 (McAuliffe) (Win McAuliffe cutscene)
  • Fail series 4 (Gimle) (no cutscene)
  • Win series 5 (Brimstone) (Win Brimstone cutscene)
WC1 Traversal.001.png


Here is how you can experience the whole game in two runs. The red path just fails everything. The blue path fails twice to catch Brimstone and Rostov, also a good way to get more medals (although getting maximum possible medals is an advanced topic involving some very odd actions...)
WC1 Traversal.002.png


However, there are more creative routes. Below, the yellow path fails early, then succeeds to Kurasawa, then fails when it really matters. Meanwhile, the green path has some early wins, then fails all the way to Hubble's Star, then saves the day at the last possible moment. (This is hard to pull off, Hubble's Star 2 is like the notorious Kurasawa 2 except you're flying Scimitars instead of Rapiers. But it is winnable, I have done it...)
WC1 Traversal.003.png


Happy flying! I hope you enjoy some of the rarely seen "losing path" missions, however you get to them.
 
Thanks for your input Dondragmer!

I finished my playthrough of WC1 this weekend, focusing on the losing path. Pretty sure I never played Chengdu, Port Hedland, Hubble's Star or Hell's Kitchen before.

You would think that on the losing path, the game would help you to get back on the winning path by giving you easier missions, better craft, more able wingmen. Instead you keep flying Hornets and Scimitars (and Raptors once) and some missions are real tough. The one you mentioned where 4 Gratas jump 2 Drayman... However I went to Rostov from Hubble's Star losing the two Drayman so there must be some scoring system.

I'll play through SM1/2 now
 
Phox said:
The one you mentioned where 4 Gratas jump 2 Drayman... However I went to Rostov from Hubble's Star losing the two Drayman so there must be some scoring system.
Click to expand...
Congratulations on completing WC1 by saving the day at the last possible moment, through some of the least played missions in the entire saga.

Yes, in several series you can fail one mission and still win the series if you are exceptionally good at the other two. While there has been considerable work on reverse engineering the Wing Commander I file formats, the most comprehensive single source I know for the mission scoring system is the Wing Commander Unofficial Strategy Guide and FAQ by Kasey Chang in 2001. Has anyone added the victory points to the Wiki here in an accessible way?

Good luck with both Secret Missions; even if there are only two losing path missions in each, make sure you give them a try.
 
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