Making the Game: Powerups (May 6, 2009)

[Bandit LOAF]

Here is another fascinating remnant of Wing Commander Prophecy's multiplayer which again mirrors that of Wing Commander Arena: the decision that it was necessary to include arcade-style "powerups" in the game. Clearly, the team knew longtime fans would take powerups poorly and wrote this "rational": "In Privateer and Armada, there was no problem with our player/customers flying through cargo that the ‘enemy’ ships dropped, and having that automatically stored onboard their ships. It was a natural game element. We are bringing it back. Shield power icons will look like blue shield power, fizzing away in space; armor icons will look like armor plating in space. The look will be as ‘real’ as possible, keeping with the Wing Commander mindset (Space War, military style, etc.), but fun should be the real deciding factor."

These updates are thanks to John "Captain Johnny" Guentzel, who provided several CD image archives of material used by the Wing Commander Prophecy development team!

Powerups
Download (27 kb)

Date: June 9, 1997
Project: Wing Commander Prophecy
Donated By: John Guentzel
Pages: 7

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Original update published on May 6, 2009

 

[Vinman]

That's interesting. Their example of having a piranha upgrade from lasers to gatling guns makes me curious about how the energy pool and regeneration rates would be dealt with. If you've messed around with wcpedit to the extent that I have, you'll know just how fickle the firepower-energy balance can be.

Also, nukes? Awesome.