Guess this is a 'Maniac move' I'll just have to live with

[Sycrusian]

Hello, guys. Long time no see.

Something just happened that made me want to share a little anecdote.

It had been some 2 years since I had played any Wing Commander. I.E., decidedly too much.

I still had my old games running on DOSBox but, to get a new freshstart, I decided to repurchase the series in GOG and get myself started on a new all-series playthrough.

I've already played the full Vega Campaign (and I do mean full. Since I've already played that campaign more times that I can remember, I got the idea of using WCSAV to force the game to let me play all 13 series and 40 missions in sequence with a single character. I had to pretty much reinvent the story of the campaign to accomodate all those series in the order I decided to play them. But it was pretty interesting.) and then used the transfer tool to move on to Operation Thor's Hammer.

Well, the Secret Missions are pretty much linear, so, I didn't have to pull my little stunt with WCSAV again to play all of SM1. But, after I shot down the Sivar, I got the idea of doing it again, and annex the Retreat series to my save file before transferring it again to SM2 and moving on.

After all, I reasoned, even if the Claw managed to destroy the Kilrathi secret weapon, this doesn't magically transport it back to Confed space. They still got to escape a horde of vengeful Kilrathi and all that. (Of course, this is just me being eager to fly every mission there is to Wing Commander I).

So, I used WCSAV again to reasign my save after my last Vigrid mission, ignored all the dialogue about the failure of the operation, and merrily launched on my Scimitar with Maniac on my wing. All documentation says this is a recipe for disaster but, again, I reasoned, I flew with Maniac on a Scimitar back in Brimstone not long ago, and he acquited himself... semi-adequately back then. What could possibly go wrong?

Yeah, I should have known better.

Well, after a few tries through Retreat Mission 1 in which Maniac either managed to get himself killed pretty fast or, worse, got ME killed, I finally grew wiser to his ways, and started to see progresss in the mission.

I managed to keep him alive through the Fralthi and the Krants at Nav 1.

I managed to keep him alive, surprisingly, through all 3 wings of Dralthi at Nav 2.

Finally at Nav 3, things are looking good. I still have all my 3 heat-seekers and a decent supply of fuel, so, I hunt down each of the Grathan in turn, and take them all out. By now, Maniac is attacking one of the Ralaris.

Well... I had learned my lesson. Never put yourself between the Maniac and his target. So, I decide to attack the other Ralari. I take it down, and turn to see that Maniac is still taking pot shots at the other one.

Take it easy, I say to myself. This mission is pretty much over. I carefully approach the remaining Ralari. It's already pretty damaged, and obviously won't survive for much longer. I can already feel the taste of victory in this difficult mission.

And then, Maniac rams the Ralari...

 

[Ilanin]

Ahh, Maniac. Killed a thousand times by his own poor decision making, and yet always back again to be a terrible wingman in the next game.

In fact, he's so ubiquitous he even gets into games he's not in. Or at least, I'm pretty sure he sneaked his way into Standoff. You see, I was minding my own business trying to avoid a swarm of Kilrathi escort fighters in Episode 5 Winning, Mission 2, when suddenly there's a bright flash of light and my Crossbow disintegrates around me. After staring at the screen completely dumbfounded I pieced together what must have happened.

I'd been hit by friendly fire. From a Mace missile.

And who, in that engagement, was carrying Mace missiles? A flight of Morningstars off the TCS Concordia.

We agreed that it had to have been Maniac.

 

[Sycrusian]

Well... I ended up going back to that mission and actually concluding it with Maniac alive. Funny thing is, apparently, not even the game designers seem to have thought that possible, because, in the next (final) mission, you can't talk to Maniac. He is there, launches along with you, but doesn't appear in your Comms options. Actually, in that mission, if you're not targetting someone, you can't even open the Comms on the VDU.

On a side note, for anyone planning to play Retreat Mission 2, be aware that both MISSIONS.WC and Mark Minasi's guide fail to account for all the enemies that might spawn there (the mission is a defense of the Claw, with no Nav Points). They list only the first 2 waves of enemies, but there are 3 more after you're done with those. Here's the full list:

5 Dralthi
5 Gratha
3 Jalthi
4 Krants
3 Gratha

And finally, you get to land in the Tiger's Claw.

And then, I transferred my game to Crusade, for the final leg of Wing Commander 1. I made it to Charon, and braced myself to meet a Maniac, once again. Charon is very similar to the Retreat series back in SM1: a target-rich patrol followed by a defense of the Claw. Except that you do the former in a Raptor and the later in a Rapier, instead of both in a Scimm.

And then, I couldn't believe what happened. I completely left Maniac to his own devices. And he behaved... like an excellent wingman!!! I kid you not! He managed to keep himself alive, harrass enemies, and even shoot them down! Coincidence or not, he did everything I wanted him to do, without having to tell him to (though I bet he would have done something else if I had tried to give him orders).

At Nav 3, as I rushed to attack that fleeing Snakeir before it jumped, with 5 Krants after my hide, I thought of telling him to attack my target to speed things up, but saw he was already doing that. And, after the carrier went up, and I was planning on how to deal with the Krants... He shot 2 down in rapid succession! What? Fireworks? He did end up stealing the credit for both the Ralaris and the Snakeir (ended the mission with 5 kills to his name) but, since I still got the Pewter Planet anyway, it didn't really bother me. I was just... WHO is this guy, and what has he done to the real Maniac? Because I'm gonna give him my (spare) Medal of Valor if he keeps doing that!

And then, in Charon Mission 2, the final mission of all of Wing Commander 1... He just continued doing that. Nailed 3 enemy fighters, without much fuss. Seriously, did GOG hack Maniac's AI for SM2 before releasing the game, or what??

Then, the final Hhriss of the mission tried to run away. I still had plenty of fuel, so, I pursued and got my final kill of the 2650s. Time to take this playthrough to Wing Commander 2, now.