Wing Commander: Eagle Rising - A Game Idea

CGI conversations similar to Standoff are perfectly fine IMO. We're not trying to produce Mass Effect 4 for the Xbox 720 here, after all.

As for the player character, I have no problem with her as a woman as long as she's not overly played-up as a sex object (e.g. Lara Croft's Boobs of Steel). The reluctance towards being a leader is more of a problem, I think.

As I said - its not so much she doesn't think she's capable as its something new. She used to be a shuttle pilot - never had to worry about commanding anyone else. Now its her opportunity to lead.

In regards to the trasition from flying transports to fighters - perhaps you can incorporate it into a prologue campaign somehow...

I envisage something like this:

You start in a backwater system ferrying some pilots in an unarmed shuttle from a base to a carrier, with the basic flight tutorial comments delivered via the subtitles.
A few minutes before rendezvous with the carrier's fighter escorts you are jumped by a token contingent of Kilrathi. You survive long enough, and finish the run. Somebody notices your talent and recommends you for fighter training.

The next mission in the prologue occurs x years later during fighter training...

You know Mincemeat....that's a great idea. We could make one mission, set in say 2654, with the PC ferrying the new pilots (and hence the game tutorial). Then after they survive the attack, she is recommended for fighter training. Then the actual intro titles and cutscene play. Kinda like a James Bond movie with the teaser before hand.

Heck the player character could be ferrying Blair and Maniac to the Tiger's Claw.

That can be an option. Or the idea with a prologue mission before the game really starts. The PC ferrying Blair and Maniac to the Claw (original plot). Then on the way return from the Claw the Shuttle is under attack by a kilrathi raider wing. Then you need your flying style to get the transport to the jump point. After the jump your co-pilot recommended you to join the Confed Academy fightertraining.

blair and maniac get ferried to the claw by taggart. it'd make more sense for you to be hauling some of the academy pilots.. maybe archer and blizzard?

I actually like that idea - it'd be cool to see some of the Academy pilots again. I may even feature one of them later in the campaign.

If you want to get an inspiration on how a truly amazing prologue/tutorial -mission works, (re-) play the Babylon 5: I've Found Her game.

...Just wanted to mention it, because the discussion reminded me of it. Maybe not all of you are aware of it.

If you all are doing stuff between WC1 & WC2, I'd like to see some of the stuff in Privateer, too. Maybe we can pin down exactly what type of ship a Paradigm is supposed to be (and maybe make it look a bit more Confed-y?). Also, there are loads of ship types that are mentioned as having older, crappier variants, like the Arrow and Hellcat are mentioned as having older variants... an Arrow variant even older than the Armada one, I mean.

The Arrow and Hellcat are set to make an appearance, as are several of the Privateer designs (Tarsus and Orion especially).

I hope you don't plan for full voice-over and tons of cutscenes. Text is fine with me, and i don't think i can wait another ten years in anticipation.

Is the movie universe and the game universe considered the same? Aren't there some irreconcilable differences? This has probably been discussed elsewhere. Personally I prefer the video game universe although the movie had some cool stuff too. Can't we just ignore the film when making the game? I think having some character overlap would be cool.

Well we can just have our PC ferrying Blizzard and Archer....which takes care of that can of worms.

they are absolutely in the same canon. nothing presented is in any way irreconcilable. star*soldier includes both movie and 'academy' events in the official timeline.

I didn't know that. Is academy included in that canon as well? Are the visual differences just kind of glossed over?

The visual differences are indeed glossed over. We're going to be using the original Wing Commander's art style, possibly with some blending from Wing Commander Academy (especially when it comes to things like seeing the Hellcat and Arrow). I'm in the process of learning WCPPas....I think we're going with the Vision engine for this one, as it allows me more freedom to make a branching campaign.

Malcolm, as far as Wing Commander goes, every officially released product, to include the books, movie, and TV show, is considered 'canon'.

if you haven't yet read star*soldier.. I suggest doing it.. it's all kinds of fun.

you can find it here: http://www.wcnews.com/news/update/8016

Quick question, where did you get the number CV-09? Is there some list somewhere of all the used callsign designations? Have been doing my own mod for a while, and you've totally stolen my number! (don't worry, I just pulled the number out of my ass, I can easily change it).