Jumping around from various Wing Commanders, I am curious to know if people either preferred cockpits, or just a HUD. I remember what first captured my attention when I first saw a demo of Wing Commander back in '90 was the detail of the cockpit, and the hand wrapped around the joystick that moved, mirroring the player's actions. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. Wing 2 looked pretty much the same, and then I thought the cockpit in Wing 3 was so super-cool, because it was photo-realistic, or close to it anyhow. Wing 4 introduced the cut-away HUD that gave you more room to see, and then Prophecy sort of combined the two ideas. I prefer a cockpit myself....just makes me feel like I am in that ship.
Cockpits or not?
- Thread starter Lunitari
- Start date
Lazy Panda
Spaceman
Depends. If the cockpit takes too much visuability, like the Longbow's or the Rapier II's, I prefer to turn it off.
TopGun
Vampire Ace
Marc said:I agree with you on that Topgun. (even thought there ARE not real Confed pilots)
cockpits are cool. when they're in the way, manuver your ship to compensate- after a while it becomes second nature. If that doesn't work, sell your Orion and get a Centurion instead
I know that there are NO REAL Confed Pilots, Yet
Maj.Striker
Swabbie
Banned
Cockpits were an integral part to WC, when they took it out it just wasn't quite the same. (IMHO). It was part of the way you could tell you had a new ship...by toting a nice shiny new cockpit. 
well, the whole idea behind the cockpits is that it keeps a seamless integration between FMV cutscenes and the like, and the flight part. taking them out killed that sense of 'you're really there'. cockpits all the way.
oh, and if you were a real pilot, you'd not be able to turn your cockpit off, you'd have to deal with the visibility issues and just be a good pilot.
oh, and if you were a real pilot, you'd not be able to turn your cockpit off, you'd have to deal with the visibility issues and just be a good pilot.
Cockpits definitely look better than HUDs. The decreased visibilty is just one of the elements of flying a ship which must be dealt with by the pilot. One thing I remember that made things challenging was when I was trying to lead kilrathi ships with the longbow when they were flying up, but they became hidden behind the cockpit so I couldn't see them. Although it still looks nice, the longbow cockpit was a terrible design from the point of view of a pilot.
Mjr. Whoopass
<FONT color=lightblue><B>I was going to say someth
This is a very interesting thread, I never imagined I would be in the minority on this subject. I started playing with WC3, and I thought the cockpit looked unrealistic. I rationalized turning it OFF as being more realistic visability-wise. In a real fighter, you could easily see more space than in the game even with the cockpit off. If I was looking forward, I could see enemy fighters to either side of me and slightly above by using my peripheral vision. In the game, you have to find and press keboard keys to look in various directions, press again to see forward, and you can't see both at once.
