Remember the WC4 Model pack that was released a while ago? Tolwyn has also released a WC4 Demo to accompany that package! Download the whole thing at this HLP thread. I helped beta test it, BTW, since I am on the WCS dev team.
just to make one thing clear: it is not a remake, nor was it supposed to be one. This package is just a result of internal testing of the branching capabalities of the game engine, ingame cutscenes and refined autopilot scripts. It turned out pretty well - it would have been a shame not to make it public.
It was great... I loved it Only one problem, there were some graphical issues with the Tallahassee, the Banshee and the Concordia. There were some weird things that would come out of the ships, like the conning tower in the Tallahassee and the Concordia models. On the banshee was worst, some times it would just disappear and only the engines could be seen, other times it would look like a big rock, only up close it will look like a banshee I don't know why this is...
Don't be tricked into installing 7zip on your computer, Winrar can handle the .7z moon-format just fine. Ideally you'd compress this with the zip standard, which Windows supports natively.
Yes, I know. It is just that we are now hosted on a server with limited bandwith and every mb counts.
I happen to find 7-Zip very useful. I just played the Border Worlds path, very nice. I'll probably never get used to the Freespace 2 environment, but otherwise it was pretty fun. That nebula effect was quite disorienting, but the lightning reminded me of the New York Badlands in Freelancer.
The throbbing movement of the poofs makes me nauseous over an extended period of time. At some point the nebula effect will be redone. SCP guys plan to basically redo it from scratch, using shaders, to make it look like it does in the FS2 cutscenes. It will be approximated when not using shaders, but will look far more realistic with shaders. There is no ETA for this to happen, but hopefully they will be able to get it done for 3.7 (it's low priority on the 3.7 todo list though).
@Wedge Could you give us a hint in what you mean with FS2 enviourment? Maybe we can fix/improve it. I am quite used to it by now but I think its quite good as it is. Its not Prophecy but its was never intendet to be since its orianted on the WC3 fly and fighting style.
Maybe Wedge refers to the interface. VDUs etc. Or maybe he misses cockpits (many people do) Or maybe he isn't familiar with the look of the target boxes in FS (just guessing)
Sorry, I just meant I wasn't familiar with the overall feel of the FS2 gameplay. Mostly the keyboard controls differing from WC tradition. I know re-mapping the keys is possible, but I only had time to play through it quickly, not to try to customise controls to what I'm used to in WC.
I really do miss cockpits. Always have since the vanished after WC3. Like LOAF said in another thread, cockpits and scramble missions are what makes you feel like you ARE there in Wing Commander...
Yeah, LOAF is right. That brought atmosphere into those games. Although I got used to see more without them, that can also be nice. But I really liked cockpits, too. Like in the raptor in WC1, you really knew that you were sitting in a heavy fighter. And I liked the little effects like the broken instruments when your fighter was damaged, or the fact that you had to hit the "c" button more times to get your comm-screen. Lovely. Simply lovely. I still love it after all those years. Most games don't get this great feeling today. The problem for modders creating such things is: Every ship has to have a different cockpit (otherwise it sucks), someone must model them etc. Much work if you want to make them look good. And if cockpits don't look good, then I rather want no cockpits at all. This is my opinion about that.
I can't help but wonder how things might have turned out had Privateer shipped with the "virtual cockpit" that was planned at one point. I know that X-Wing Alliance gave it a shot, late in the game, but if the idea had really caught fire years earlier, Wing Commander IV might have advanced it further instead of dropping it entirely to focus on cinema, and it would have been mandatory for all follow-up games. Freespace, if it was made at all, would be a very different game. ...or maybe people would have just been annoyed, especially if the cockpit was part of the model and couldn't be turned off. I remember similar complaints about Fighter Squadron in 1999.
I don't think anyone would have noticed - Privateer wasn't the huge hit everyone makes it out to be today. Strike Commander was a much bigger deal and its much-hyped virtual cockpit went over like a Christmas brick.
yeah your best bet is to spend some time changing the keys. Now this is difficult because there are so many keys to use in freespace. So its best to work out what you will use (like toggle targets, bombers, decoys etc) and know where those are. Its kindo frustrating to do but if you play both Standoff and Saga like I suspect a lot of people do its a nightmare having to relearn the controls each time you change game. So its well worth it in the long run. One thing i really liked in Saga is that you can shift your shield strength around with the arrow keys. I can't count the number of times that has saved me. The other thing I really like is that the target you have selected shows which direction it is facing. So you know if a fighter is chasing you
