Prophecy Missions

[Saturnyne]

I've never watched the cartoon... I'm kind of scared to get started.

I finally found the "hidden secrets" all you WC3 pros are keeping from me regarding Kilrathi Corvettes! Ha! erm... yeah. Well, I found a good strategy to take them out with minimal trouble.

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[Meson]

Satrunyne go see the cartoon. There's nothing to be afraid of, except for time you need to download them. They are available from this site. (that's if they found a server for them)

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Meson

come see the new Meson's Starport! Now at <A HREF="http://www.mesonstarport.com

Wing" TARGET=_blank>http://www.mesonstarport.com

Wing</A> Commander is more than just a game. It is a lifestyle.

 

[Nemesis]

So you think that there are three other systems through which you have to jump before you can get to Earth?

Three may be unlikely if we try to respect Origin's seeming initial effort to use real stars in Earth's immediate neighborhood. On the other hand, as the map would have it, proximity is no guarantee of linkage in the same way that distance is no bar--in real life, Barnard's Star and Wolf 359 are respectively the second and third closest stars to Earth, while Polaris is over 300 light years away, and yet . . .

In any event, unless it's masquerading under a different name on the map, "Lalande 21185" (fourth closest star to Earth with Sirius fifth) might be at least one candidate for an "intervening" set of jump points. And Fleet Action does confirm one such intervening system (p.260).

Otherwise, we are probably talking about intrastellar jump points. It's noteworthy that Sirius, in real life, is a binary system, with its companion, a very dense white dwarf, residing at a distance of around twenty astronomical units.

Of course, there's still the possibility that another WC source could totally debunk the statements in Fleet Action, and that would solve our problem too.

But my general point about the map remains that, like all other graphics in the games, it has to be approached with a grain of salt; it's easy to read too much into its "connect-the-dots" simplicity (sort of like the suggestion made in another thread that the Ranger and Concordia class carriers had to be related since they looked the same).

Another example from the map is Repleetah, shown linked to K'tithrak Mang (KM). We are told in the timelines printed in the game manuals for "WC3" and "KS" that Repleetah is "a distant outpost", "on the far side of the galaxy", which "quickly loses any strategic significance it might have had", and that in the same years Confed is trying to overrun KM, "the focus of the . . . War drifts away" from Repleetah and "supply ships . . . have long since ceased to visit". If Repleetah is just a single jump from KM, then the foregoing history is hard to swallow.

They have their nav computers for that though.

No doubt. I'm not criticizing the map in the sense I would like it itself to show more detail about jump routes, etc.; I'm only noting how its deficiencies must circumscribe its interpretation. (Nothing keeps it from looking good on the wall though.)

 

[Wolf Dog]

In WC4 we saw the Intrepid get to Sol as fast as the Vesuvious by taking jumps that wouldn't accomodate massive ships. Repleetah might be distant for fleets because most of the jumps to it only allow for the travel of very small vessels. Just a thought.

 

[Quarto]

Another example from the map is Repleetah, shown linked to K'tithrak Mang (KM). We are told in the timelines printed in the game manuals for "WC3" and "KS" that Repleetah is "a distant outpost", "on the far side of the galaxy", which "quickly loses any strategic significance it might have had", and that in the same years Confed is trying to overrun KM, "the focus of the . . . War drifts away" from Repleetah and "supply ships . . . have long since ceased to visit". If Repleetah is just a single jump from KM, then the foregoing history is hard to swallow.

But Repleetah is a distant outpost.
Look at its location on the map. It's of no significance to the Kilrathi, who are pushing towards Enigma and Ghorah Khar.
And what about Confed? Yes, they could use it to launch a sneak attack on K'Tithrak Mang. But they'd have to get there first. To do that, they must go either through Enigma or Racene (the Roddenberry quadrant route is obviously useless). Both of those systems already have jump points into K'Tithrak Mang, so why bother wasting time?
At any rate, it was irrelevant because after the Tiger's Claw, Confed went on the defensive in Enigma sector. They could barely hold on to Ghorah Khar and Enigma system, and you expect them to waste resources in Repleetah?

 

[Dralthi5]

To do that, they must go either through Enigma or Racene...

Hey, kind of like how I explained the reason for my made-up base in Racene in my story, right?

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If I'm locked on, there's no such thing as evasive action!

 

[Nemesis]

But Repleetah is a distant outpost.

You bet it is. So distant, in fact, that twenty years go by before word of the War reaches it. (Alternatively, word of the War reaches the outpost in a shorter amount of time, but it takes several years' travel for the respective Marines to reach the planet.)

The problem is not with the stated history of the outpost and planet, but with the depiction on the "Prophecy" map. If we read a single jump route as always equal to a single jump, then the map sorely conflicts with Repleetah's history of isolation and abandonment.

If we want to harmonize the map rather than disregard it, there are four possible choices:

1. Not until sometime between 2664 and 2678 (the date of the map) are the "more direct" jump routes to Repleetah discovered. (Strikes me as unlikely.)

2. The planet Repleetah resides in a different system the map cannot practically show; the same-name System the map does show is a coincidence (or a memorial?).

3. The four jump routes linking Repleetah with K'tithrak Mang and other depicted Systems comprise quite a number of intervening jumps and other systems.

4. Any other explanation that wins hearts and minds.

 

[Quarto]

The problem is not with the stated history of the outpost and planet, but with the depiction on the "Prophecy" map. If we read a single jump route as always equal to a single jump, then the map sorely conflicts with Repleetah's history of isolation and abandonment.

Distance is not always the reason for isolation. Iraq's been isolated from the world for ten years now, and they're certainly not far from Europe. The same goes for central Africa.

Dralthi: Yeah, the one I helped you with

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[Vondoom]

Iraq is hardly isolated. They can get news as easily as anyone else in the world can with CNN or the Internet.

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There is no God but myself. No destiny but what I deem for me. I walk my path and no others, for I am free.

http://www.ntr.net/~vondoom

 

[Quarto]

Wow, Vondoom. I'm sorry, but when was the last time you read a newspaper or watched the news? Was it, by any chance, before August 2nd 1990?

There is no Internet in Iraq. Even if the government allowed access to it, I find it very hard to believe that people who live waaaaaaay below subsistence levels could afford a computer. Oh yeah, and even if they could, who'd sell it to them? There's an embargo on the whole bloody country.

And CNN? Hah. Granted, TVs are more popular than computers (after all, propaganda has to be propagated somehow), but satellite dishes are illegal in Iraq.

 

[Vondoom]

Quarto: I never said everyone in Iraq has the internet or TV, I just said they aren't totally isolated. Saddam and his cabinet know exactly whats going on in the world. His biggest ally was CNN where they constantly were kind enough to report more on the USA's actions than he could have ever gotten on his own. We're talking about Repletah knew nothing of the war. I doubt that any powerful military orginazation would not have any outpost hooked up to a communication network. The everyday people wouldn't know what is going on but the leaders would. That's what I was talking about when I said Iraq isn't isolated informationally.

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There is no God but myself. No destiny but what I deem for me. I walk my path and no others, for I am free.

http://www.ntr.net/~vondoom

 

[Quarto]

Repleetah is not a military outpost, it's an isolated scientific one. The military couldn't care less about them - that is, if they knew about them in the first place. There were colonies unknown to the Confederation (ref: Action Stations), and this could be one such outpost/colony/whatever. Also, remember that Enigma sector was relatively peaceful until the Kilrathi defeat in Vega. Thus, scientists resupplying at nearby colonies might still not hear anything about the war.

His biggest ally was CNN where they constantly were kind enough to report more on the USA's actions than he could have ever gotten on his own.

No, CNN was just doing their job. You don't think that a war should be reported about? There were people dying out there, and an entire country getting bombed back into the pre-industrial era.

 

[Wolf Dog]

Repleetah is not a military outpost, it's an isolated scientific one. The military couldn't care less about them - that is, if they knew about them in the first place.

It is a scientific outpost, but the military did indeed care, for a while that is.

 

[Vondoom]

Quarto: the problem was that CNN would show the location of our forces and thier movements. I have no problem with them reportiing info after the fact but I knew they were going to attack before they even annoucned it because a reporter watched them prep the planes and get them ready and was telling about it live. Once the attack started that would be one thing but it is insane to report movements BEFORE they are even fully underway. My beef was that they reported before, during, and after the fact and they should not have been allowed to report before and I'm not even sure about during (individual battles here, not the whole war), but always after yes. Would you want your kid if they were in the army to die because a reporter had to get the scoop and they aired important information early and they died because of it? I wouldn't even want to take that chance with anyone's son or daughter. But thats just my opinion.

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There is no God but myself. No destiny but what I deem for me. I walk my path and no others, for I am free.

http://www.ntr.net/~vondoom

 

[Quarto]

That's BS, Vondoom. All the army pool journalists submitted (voluntarily, I might add) to army censorship. Of course, the US Army didn't play fair (as usual), and censored them way more than necessary, just to preserve that classic "Allies kick butt" image.

Still, in a way, you're right that the media contributed to the deaths of at least a hundred thousand men. After all, if they hadn't acted like a mouthpiece for the US State Department, the war might have actually been avoided. Unfortunately, when the government starts yelling "&lt;x&gt; is pure evil!!", many journalists forget that their primary duty is to get both sides of the story.

 

[Penguin]

Unfortunately like any other paid person a journalist's first job is to pay the rent. And that's part of the problem.

 

[Wedge009]

Seriousness aside, it's a little strange to get more information from the news than from your own intelligence sources, don't you think?

 

[Cricket]

Best kind of shadow you can have is a network of guys with radios and who know to report in and get down when they see something. That only works when you're defending though.

 

[Stunner]

Forgvie me "newbiness" but has anyone REALLY explained how to get to the WC4 systems in prophecy???

[This message has been edited by Stunner (edited October 11, 2000).]

 

[Wedge009]

Heh, heh. The question which started this thread. I found if you fail to kill the capships while in H'hrass, then get grilled cos Stilleto/Stiletto (whatever) had to finish your job, help get the H'hrass Relay Station back online (compulsory, else end), then you wind up in Hellespont then Alcor, before going back to T'lan Meth.