Wing Commander Script Guides Updated For New Release (August 20, 2016)

ChrisReid

Super Soaker Collector / Administrator
In the chaotic hustle and bustle leading up to the CIC Birthday, sometimes we run out of time to process a few things in time for the party. Shades' Wing Commander script guides didn't quite make the cut this year, but that means they gets a whole news cycle to themselves today! These were first previewed back in 2014, but Shades has used the intervening time to edit and clean up the documents. He officially calls this a "beta 2" release, but they already seem pretty polished. There's good reference material included concerning mission branching, Colonel Halcyon's briefings as well as the cutscenes. My favorite part is that each branching variant of the game's dialogues is shown. For example, the guide will show both winning and losing text, plus specify addition lines that are spoken if a Kilrathi ace gets shot down or additional verbiage if a wingman survives. Grab them below!











Like all of you I am a huge fan of Wing Commander and have been since the first game. One of the things I loved most about it was its branching story and like many of you I played it many times just to follow the many story branches. Many year ago I decided to flowchart the script/story of the Wing Commander games, something that could be read in a "Choose your own adventure" style. My first public release was for Wing Commander II. It was rough but still felt lacking. With my current scripts I've changed the layout and added more picture to help bring more of the feel of the game to the story. It's not done yet but I wanted to release it for the Birthday party. Constructive feedback is welcome.

--
Original update published on August 20, 2016
 
Last edited by a moderator:
In the Secret Missions, what triggers if you are transferred to another squadron? Sometimes when I played the Secret Missions I was transferred to Raptors for a few missions, then to Scimitars and then to Rapiers, other times it was just to Raptors and then to Rapiers. The Secret Missions doesn't have much of a losing track, so is it completing or failing to complete certain objectives or number of kills, or amount of damage you take?

Also are specific medals awarded for certain accomplishments, such as for destroying x number of kilrathi, or a certain large ship?
 
In the Secret Missions, what triggers if you are transferred to another squadron? Sometimes when I played the Secret Missions I was transferred to Raptors for a few missions, then to Scimitars and then to Rapiers, other times it was just to Raptors and then to Rapiers. The Secret Missions doesn't have much of a losing track, so is it completing or failing to complete certain objectives or number of kills, or amount of damage you take?

The game is pre-programmed with the craft that you'll fly for each available mission group, represented by missions in a given system (Border Zone, Midgard, Jotunheim, etc.). What triggers a squadron change is if, when you reach the end of a current group, you're slated to fly a different craft in the next group. Now, which mission group you go to next is dependent on your performance in each mission in that group - you are earning "mission points" as you go. Earn enough and you advance along the winning track. Don't, and you're headed down the losing path. WC1, SM1 and SM2 all follow this basic structure - it's just that the losing path for SM1 and SM2 is much, much shorter...

Also are specific medals awarded for certain accomplishments, such as for destroying x number of kilrathi, or a certain large ship?

Individual missions have a number of "medal points" that can be earned, dependent on what you kill, what survives, etc. You have to reach certain point threshholds during the course of a mission to gain the available medal programmed for the mission. I think you can find the data for any given mission in a number of sources, not the least of which is WCPedia.
 
Thank you @capi3101, well said.

Awards are something I want to work more on in the guides. I have tracked some of the awards down but if there is a list of which missions get what awards can you please link me to them?

Constructive feedback would be greatly appreciated. Eventually I want to send it to the BIG MAN himself. (C.R.) and get his feedback but I want to clean it up a little more first.
 
IIRC, Mike Minasi had a pretty comprehensive listing of available awards and requirements in Secrets of the Wing Commander Universe. If there are other sources, I'm not aware of them, at least not off the top of my head.
 
Thanks @capi3101 I haven't looked at that book in awhile. I recall there was a lot of errors in it so I don't use it much. I'll have to go back and look at it again.
 
The game is pre-programmed with the craft that you'll fly for each available mission group, represented by missions in a given system (Border Zone, Midgard, Jotunheim, etc.). What triggers a squadron change is if, when you reach the end of a current group, you're slated to fly a different craft in the next group. Now, which mission group you go to next is dependent on your performance in each mission in that group - you are earning "mission points" as you go. Earn enough and you advance along the winning track. Don't, and you're headed down the losing path. WC1, SM1 and SM2 all follow this basic structure - it's just that the losing path for SM1 and SM2 is much, much shorter...
.


I am pretty sure on different playthroughs of the Secret Missions there have been times that I have gone from the Raptor to the Scimitar and then to the Rapier, and other times when I have just gone from the Raptor to the Rapier and not flown the Scimitar, and destroyed the Sivar. I don't think I was on the losing path since it is so short and it doesn't look like you can get back to the winning one.
 
The order is Goddard (Hornet), Border Zone/Midgard (Scimitar), Jotunheim/Bifrost (Raptor), Valgard/Vigrid (Rapier). You wind up in the Raptor if you retreat, and yes, once you're on the losing path in SM1 and SM2, there's no winning.

Thanks @capi3101 I haven't looked at that book in awhile. I recall there was a lot of errors in it so I don't use it much. I'll have to go back and look at it again.

There weren't too terribly many errors in the book - heck, I used it as my main strategy guide for years before I knew there was anything else, and it didn't fail me that often. The main gripe as far as I know is that it's the only guide that tries to provide any information about the Paradigm in Privateer, and it's pretty wildly incorrect about it. Or at least, there's little canonical about the information given.
 
I believe Mr. Minasi's source for the medal points (and the underlying mechanics) was a document called LAUNCH.TXT. Attached!
 

Attachments

  • LAUNCH.TXT
    80 KB · Views: 263
Thanks @Bandit LOAF this looks interesting. Where does this come from? What is the source?
After a quick glimps I remember seeing some of this in the guide. but I seem to recall some of it not adding up in his mission description. It HAS been I while since I looked at the unofficial guide, though.
 
Thanks @Bandit LOAF this looks interesting. Where does this come from? What is the source?
After a quick glimps I remember seeing some of this in the guide. but I seem to recall some of it not adding up in his mission description. It HAS been I while since I looked at the unofficial guide, though.
It's a guide written by a player, one David "Center" Raley. He also wrote one for WC2. It's pretty widely available, the CIC has it online somewhere as well.

I always wanted to find out how he figured this stuff out, because unless he talked to someone at Origin, it would've been pretty challenging to work out the points system. I guess we'll never know.
 
I should be able to use this to document all the awards. I'll have to examine the points system and decide whether I want to add that to my document or not.
 
Back
Top