Changed SM2 Dialogue

Sylvester

Sylvester

Vice Admiral
Hey all. I've noticed that Iceman's dialogue changes for the first Firekka Mission in SM2 between the Deluxe CD version and the Kilrathi Saga version. This conversation takes place in the bar before you've flown the first mission of SM2. The Kilrathi Saga Version text is as follows:

Iceman: I challenge you to a game of Eight-Ball!
Hunter: No way, I’m not playing with you. You cheat.
Iceman: Oh, come on! I’ll spot you three balls.
Hunter: But all I have is five dollars!
Iceman: Your five bucks will get you twenty. Rack ’em!

On the other hand, the Deluxe Edition CD text is much different and longer:

Iceman: Maverick, I've just returned from escorting the TCS Tsiolkovsky in-system. They're here to investigate some strange gravitic effects in the sector. I spoke with their science officer, Lt. Lawrence, she said that there are only a few jump points in this sector, a lot less than any normal area. But you can make a lot of mini jumps within the system. Its nothing ike the famous Enigma Sector where you can cross the entire sector in a single jump but this'll be useful if you want to do a little local sight-seeing. And I heard the TCS Austin will be joining us here, as part of the Honor Guard for the Diplomatic Corps. A good ship, the Austin...an Exeter Class Destroyer. I've met some of their piots.
Hunter: Ice,I was wonderin'...any news on Maniac?
He's still in sickbay. Medical Leave, that's what they're calling it.
Hunter: The boy's nuttier'n a fruitcake. At least I won't have to fly with him again.
Iceman: True. I'm just glad we don't need him as a pilot right now.

I found this very interesting, because Iceman's dialogue explains a lot of stuff earlier on and clarifies a few things. It also introduces plot points like the jumping across all of the Enigma sector that is referred to in Wing Commander II. He also specifically describes the Austin as an Exeter class destroyer. Now I thought the Austin had been described as a Gettysburg class cruiser in Freedom Flight. Which source should be considered the more accurate? And an even more important question - why was this dialogue removed from the later version of the game and replaced with fluff?
 
I'm pretty sure the original disk version of the game had the same version of this conversation as the Kilrathi Saga. So perhaps they just used an older source when making the Kilrathi Saga.
 
Well if the original version of WC1 had it, then the question is - why did they change it for the Deluxe edition CD that came out in 1993?
 
Thats pretty intriguing, makes you wonder how many other differences there are in the scripts between the games and if the CIC's script project has taken that into account!

more importantly though, i definitely remember the pool conversation on my copy (which was a cd version i think) - though it always struck me as odd that iceman cheated :(
 
Another difference found - the Dralthi II that we get to fly in SM2. In my Deluxe CD version, they have three HS missiles and two dumbfires, while they only have two HS and two dumbfire in the Kilrathi Saga version. Additionally, the VDUs all work correctly and there are some slight cosmetic differences.
 
The 'eight ball' conversation is the original - I think you can tell that it's a lot more in tone with the rest of the dialogue of the original Wing Commander.

The 'explanation' is both out of character (for Iceman) and for Wing Commander I in general. It was added to later versions of Secret Missions 2, presumably after people who didn't read the little letter from Admiral Tolwyn had trouble figuring out what was going on. Because of that it appears in *some* later compilations but not others (ie, the Kilrathi Saga version used the original version of SM2 while the Software Toolworks shovelware version did not.)
 
It is odd for Iceman to say so much in a single sitting but is it not more out of character for him to cheat at Pool, given what we know about him? He seems so excitable in the original version, which is not his character.

Oh - and what about the Dralthi having a different number of HS missiles and all of its VDUs working properly? The Kilrathi Saga version of SM2 is the only one I've played besides this, so is the Dralthi in that the result of a bad port of SM2?
 
You're reading it wrong -- it's *not* out of character for Hunter to accuse Iceman of cheating when he's winning.

I believe those are KS-specific problems.
 
But back to the more interesting question to my mind...

WAS the TCS Austin an Exeter Class destroyer, or a Gettysburg Class cruiser?

Don't we run into the Austin at some point briefly in SM2? I have vague memories of seeing her on radar just before she jumps out, although I can't remember what kind of ship she was (I think the in-game radar actually identifies her as a Bengal, or at least something that uses the same graphic as a Bengal, but my memory is fuzzy)...
 
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