Enhanced Prophecy

Mekt-Hakkikt

Mekt-Hakkikt

Mpanty's bane
I can imagine that this topic is not new but perhaps there are some people who still wish to express their thoughts. So here we go:
I think most of us agree that WCP (and SOPS) whereas being great to play in game terms is extremely lame on atmosphere. I mean the bugs are nothing more than insect-looking Kilrathi, have nothing fearful to them and we do not get the feeling of battling a new dangerous species. So I'd like to know what you would have done to make the atmosphere tenser, apart from making the bugs tough enemies and not dumb cannon fodder. As example hre is what I thought of:
- You shouldn't encounter the bugs right in the first missions. Perhaps you first only examine the remains of the Kilrathi fleet, encountering only weird debris and listening to Dekker's report. In the following missions some more SOS and debris from Kilrathi/Terran installation and maybe you had to fight some rogue Kilrathi who have gone mad because of the return of their ancient star gods. Only then you should encounter the bugs. Just reaching the source of a distress call and seeing some bugs jump out after they utterly destroyed their target. And then you meet them the first time for combat...
- I would have liked it if some of my systems were not working against the bugs, e.g. the radar only sporadically showing them or only in grey colour. Perhaps the FoF would not work or even your communication is fuzzy while battling the bugs. The targeting computer not getting a permanent lock and such things.
- You have to do recon and scan bug Cap ships for weak spots before knowing where you can launch your torpedoes and then the Shield emitters could be a nasty surprise.
-Also, although this not that important, I would have changed the appearance of the aliens. I mean after cats and birds another animal looking species?
- Their ships, being organic, should regenerate to some degree until you find a way to stop it.

So these are some of my thughts (probably forgot some but after all I want to hear your thoughts and not you mine :) )
and if the topic is not too worn out I appreciated any suggestions.


[Edited by Mekt-Hakkikt on 03-06-2001 at 09:04]
 
Be able to choose what armaments to put on your ship...
make the bugs scarier etc improve ai
make the bugs CAP ships deadlier
 
I really like the idea of the ships regenerating until you develop a new weapon (or something)to stop them. I think maybe the first few missions should be setup like a "losing" branch ie, massive alien fleet attacking the Midway at once, a few WASP missions (like the one where you have to defend the Midway till she jumps) where you're continually jumping to try and regroup, and a few cutscenes of some planets or something be destroed couldn't hurt...
 
- The problem with not encountering the aliens in the first mission is that it makes for an especially boring game -- non-interaction was what the intro was for. (I actually like this idea, it's just that it wouldn't appeal to most buyers...)
- The idea of missiles not working does appear in Prophecy -- when you first aquire the experimental missiles... and, of course, communications with the bugs *don't* work until they translate our language.
- You *do* recon a capship -- remember being sent to scan the second Kraken in a Vampire?
- The aliens don't really look like any animal, though... I don't really think you could get them *farther* from lookling like an animal and still have them recognizable(G)
- The ships are *organic*, not *alive* -- plastic is organic...
 
Yes but LOAF you could have had pirates attack you to stake a claim on the wreckage :)
My favourite idea of those is constantly retreating at first, I did get the feeling of helplessness in freespace when I couldn't target them and my lasers did jack ****. But who knows, maybe all this was in the original script :(
We should definatley have seen more of the destruction done by the bugs, really all we saw them do was take out a few transports and just the fighters from the midway with very little backup took out numerous capships, I just felt that the bugs were a pitfull foe, they only really came to life in the fiction in the prophecy manual.
 
In freespace 1, we were set up thinking that an entire war was to be fought out with the vasudans. And for the first few missions, you were sucked into believing this. That is what he is talking about. Your excitement is there and everything, interaction and the such. And then suddenly, a twist in the story, and off it goes. Perhaps thats what Mekt was talking about.
 
I definitely need to try out Freespace.

I agree about the need for a "business as usual" atmosphere at the beginning. Also, they might have introduced a few more characters, not with all that much character building, but enough so you got a feel for them. Then these guys start disappearing on patrols.
 
I think the new ideas are intriguing... and while I think that the bugs act somewhat like Kilrathi... it might be more to make the connection to the Kilrathi, a sort of way of affirming that they are indeed the Kilrathi Kn'thrak. I could be wrong...

Also, the bug ships are also organic to the point that they "die" and decay when destroyed, being consumed by viral parasites. But I don't think that there is any organic being with an ability to heal that quickly, unless assisted by machinery. And given their flight abilities in the game, they wouldn't have a chance to heal much, as you are chasing them down firing constantly.

Also, maybe the bugs are bad because of the designers... but if you wanted to rationalize it, maybe they suck because they're arrogant and they're overconfident because of their sheer numbers? Just speculation.

Incidentally, I love Prophecy. I can relate more to Casey than to Blair in that Blair is so much older than I am in the earlier games. It's also a refreshing change to go from the serious colonel to the young, fun-loving Lance Casey, learning about life and war aboard a new Confed Supercarrier.

God, I sound like an advertisement.
 
Originally posted by Saturnyne

Also, the bug ships are also organic to the point that they "die" and decay when destroyed, being consumed by viral parasites. But I don't think that there is any organic being with an ability to heal that quickly, unless assisted by machinery. And given their flight abilities in the game, they wouldn't have a chance to heal much, as you are chasing them down firing constantly.
Click to expand...

They are aliens. We don't know what they can and can't do. Besides, this is science fiction. Your outlook is way too terestrial. Either that, or my outlook is way too extra-terrestrial.......
 
I am glad that you approve some of my ideas. :)
And, like Saturnyne said, it would be cool to have some more interaction with the Kilrathi. After all, an old prophecy becomes reality, they must be pretty upset.
And about having the "missiles not working" aspect in the game: I think it is something different if your missiles do not work when you first encounter the aliens because you are confronted with totally new technology or if your missiles do not 100% work after having incorporated new alien stuff you never saw before. And BTW I was astonished to read in the briefing that my experimental missiles were unreliable: I never remarked sth; I fired them and they hit most of the time.
Plus that second Kraken encounter: You are not sent to scan it for weak spots but you are contacted on a patrol to get a visual on it (if I recall it correctly). After all, you already destroyed a ship killer, so they do not bear so much secrets anymore.
But the first time you encounter cap ships, two of them even, your bombers automatically target the right sections and you know where that shield emitter is. That does not create a very frightening atmosphere.

People keep suggestions coming, I am really eager to hear more ideas from you !
 
I said that sort of thing before: that we should have had some difficulty in neutralising their threat in the first few missions.

I know not everyone likes Star Wars, and even less the new Yuuzhan Vong threat, but when they are introduced, standard New Republic/Imperial techonology had difficulty in eliminating the invaders, and even after half a dozen novels, the New Rep is still on the defensive.

Now that's an enemy to be fearful of.
 
Maybe to enhance the feeling of "being on the defensive" you could have 2 attached missions (like the one where right after you land you have to go back out to destroy a cap ship), such as escorting bombers out to kill a cap ship, have the bombers shot down, retreat back to the Midway to refuel and takeoff right away to defend her from incoming ships (the refueling and takeoff would be cinematic so you couldn't save between the missions). Also I remember saying this in another thread but have a finite number of pilots, ships, and missiles so if a ship gets shot down or a pilot killed they're gone for good (I know pilots can be KIA but it doesn't really affect the game play), so you might be stuck in the wrong fighter for the mission or a still damaged fighter, or have to go it alone, etc. One thing in WC3 I liked was trying to fly drunk (it was an interesting challenge)on a similar vein you could simulate fatigue by making the controls on the fighter drag and respond slower, or not work 100% of the time, or blur the screen, or whatever....
 
Something they could add was ship damage to the fighters' hull. When your wingman is banged up, show some burn marks or a chunk of wing missing. Of course it should relate to actual damage done to the fighter. That way when you land you can see exactly why your being chewed out for flying home with a damaged ship. (anyone else think Rachel got a lot meaner since the end of the war?)
 
Oh men, where should I start ?...

-I always had the feeling that I was fighting against fish. Bug-like aliens flying fish-like ships? Don't think so. The capital ships were alright but the fighters should have been smaller, faster and capable of doing fast turns or something. If they are powerfull aliens their thech. should be better then ours.

- Once again were are fighting alone. If this is a global menace, were the hell is our powerfull navy? And how about the other concerned parts? I always feel that WC games are about one carrier fighting the rest of the universe alone.

- Kill Blair right at the start ;) . That should give another "let's revenge the war hero" feeling to the game.

- The idea of not meeting the aliens in the first missions is very good, and there's a hand-full of options to do so (pirates, scavangers, mad kilrahties...).

- And the coolest idea of all would have been of the Midway jumping to the alien side of the universe, trough the jump gate.

But all this are just ideas of what could have been, and remember, we're talking of a gmae wich is 3 years old. If you ask me, at the time i tought that WC Prophecy was the best game ever.
 
Lemme see if I remember correctly, the drunk mission is in WC3 I believe right after you watch the vid with Thrakhath gloating, I think it's after Hobbes defects. You're at the bar and Rachael talks to you when youre drinking and you have the choice of something like, she understands or what the hell does she know, if you pick "what the hell does she know" there's an alert to scramble fighters and you down like half the bottle before taking off, so when you're in space all the controls are messed up...
 
Originally posted by Shooter
Oh men, where should I start ?...


- Once again were are fighting alone. If this is a global menace, were the hell is our powerfull navy? And how about the other concerned parts? I always feel that WC games are about one carrier fighting the rest of the universe alone.
Click to expand...
Yes, that is something what annoyed me a bit (only in WCP though, not in the other parts) too. I can understand that there are perhaps quite few Confed ships so deep in Kilrathi territory but the cats should definitely more appearances. And I got the feeling that time stood still while we were battling the bugs. What happened to the rest of the universe? To the Kilrathi population?
- And the coolest idea of all would have been of the Midway jumping to the alien side of the universe, trough the jump gate.
Click to expand...
I think that would have given away too many secrets about the enemy. I was mad that we got an entire wormhole device in SOPS because that means in WC6 we could already travel to their space. But there are some means to prohibit this.
 
Originally posted by Soma
Lemme see if I remember correctly, the drunk mission is in WC3 I believe right after you watch the vid with Thrakhath gloating, I think it's after Hobbes defects. You're at the bar and Rachael talks to you when youre drinking and you have the choice of something like, she understands or what the hell does she know, if you pick "what the hell does she know" there's an alert to scramble fighters and you down like half the bottle before taking off, so when you're in space all the controls are messed up...
Click to expand...
Mostly correct. Thrakhath has indeed just sent the vid showing Angel's fate, the vid which also contains the "trigger" bringing about Hobbes' true identity. It is before Hobbes defects, however, because he is your wingman on the mission. But, as the "trigger" has been activated, he's...shall we say...less than effective. It's easily the longest, and generally considered the toughest, mission in the game.

You end up having to take on an insane amount of Kilrathi in that mission, including 3 corvettes right off the deck, and several wings of fighters at numerous waypoints. There's ultimately 30-plus fighters total you have to eliminate. To top it all off, you're in an Arrow, which just isn't the best fighter for the opposition you face -- just too many heavies for a pair of lasers and ion cannon.

Save your missiles as long as possible -- the last couple of wings you face are Vaktoth, four at a time, and Hobbes has likely already ejected, so they are all gunning for YOU. Given that you're probably already damaged by that point...well, you get the idea.

Sober, the mission is long but not THAT difficult. Drunk, it's a marathon of defensive posturing.

[Edited by OriginalPhoenix on 03-07-2001 at 08:54]
 
According to Secret Ops, the bugs hit all over the frontier -- killed and captured a whole lot of people. THe Midway was cut off from Confed for the first half of the game... and then was joined by the Eisen battlegroup later for the push to Kilrah (Eisen actually moved ahead of us, and probably had just as interesting a story...).
 
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