AB Fuel

AdmiralHuang

Spaceman
Does your AB fuel seem to run out faster in this game or is it just me?

I seem to be racking up lots of kills on the base assault mission but I end up running about of AB fuel and it is a real pain.
 
AB fuel is probably the thing I most dislike about Standoff right now.

Why, you ask? Well, because after starting out with true-to-WC2 levels, the rest of the team persuaded me to double it... then apparently it still wasn't enough, so Quarto went and increased it even more. Go figure. :p
 
Oh, sorry about that... I definitely should have remembered - specially since lately you've been putting a lot of effort in getting more WC2-like stuff into Standoff (wink, wink, nudge, followed by evil grin).
 
Hmm, the engines of WC2 and WCP are quite different. WCP has much greater distances and more afterburnering in combat, so you can't use WC2 fuel levels. By the way, the Stiletto has a lot more of fuel than all other ships, is that because it's supposed to be a long-range craft?
 
The AB fuel is simply a matter of what missions you're flying. WC2 had very little AB fuel... but its missions were limited to 16 ships (and that includes both enemies and friendlies!). So, we could have gone with WC2's fuel levels, and everything would have seemed fine... provided we would have kept the ship numbers down to WC2 levels. And that would have sucked, because one of the best things about working with the WCP engine is that you get to throw fifty enemies at the player.
 
Ha! ;) Not in Flight Commander.
Even without the AI upgrade you can't take on that many. A couple of suicidal mantas and crazy morays--all hell bent on killing you--and you are toast.

Especially in a Vindicator which runs like slug, and the manta can out-burn it in a second.

and they do it, too. ;)

*it might help if I had some decoys, too, for their missiles are the only thing killing me worse than their faces :p *
 
Well now, we all love to whine about the WCP AI being dumb and such, but have you ever wondered why it was so dumb? I rather doubt that it was a case of Origin being incapable of programming better AI. Far more likely - almost to the point of certainty - the AI was made dumb specifically to allow for big battles. It's one thing to be able to throw twenty ships at the player, and another thing entirely to be able to throw twenty ships at the player and still make the game fun.

In other words, I don't envy Flight Commander's AI. At the end of the day, if your AI is so good that you can't throw as many ships at the enemy as the game you're trying to remake did - that's a problem :p.
 
Well having AI that sucks isn't good because it means your wingmen suck as well. IMHO thats the flaw in Standoff.
 
Yeah, it's a problem when they go and get themselves killed... but at the end of the day, would you really want your wingmen to do your mission for you? :p
 
Quarto said:
would you really want your wingmen to do your mission for you? :p

Of course not, that's just stealing your glory :) . But it is not pretty when you are in a gladius with no afterburner fuel and no wingmen left.
 
About the AI: I just played trough on Ace level. I got a few scratches in every mission, but the base mission seemed impossible. LoL I know its just me, im just a bit out of shape. I haven't held a joystick for 2 months now.. But i noticed a few things. the AI has two statuses when in combat: either it attacks the player, or linger around wihtout porpous. That stands for the wingmen also: either they start shooting at one specific target, or they just fly around pointless. This flying around only remains for 1-10 seconds, but thats enough to blow anything apart. Btw, is there friendly fire? I'm just curious. About AB fuel: the problem is with the AI again: they always use afterburners, and only switch em off for turning around. The "normal" speeds of the ships doesnt really matter becasue of this. Ever tried to shoot down a Talon in a Gladius without AB? You can till your armor holds, but then... So, this leads me to another question. How in the hell a Talon, a civilan ship, can have such armor and guns to tear apart a full-time navy spaceship with 3*2 hits? Please don't take this as whiening. If you can throw 50 ships at the player, and you do, you should make em soft targets.The number of em makes it hard enough already. Otherwise it can turn out to be simply annoying, not fun. Think about it, test it out with not so tallented players also. I know there's inv. in the menu, but thats not fun anymore.
You already have enough work on your hands, so i wont tell you to try to patch the AI too :D
And now its time to say a GREAT THANK YOU to the whole team!! This is an amezing project, and I'm sure that everyone around is looking forward to the next chapters! You caught the real feeling of Wing Commander with the graphics, colors, style... Man, i will surey cheat on this years vteing ofr fan projects to get you as much votes as possible :) If you keep kickin the voice actors to make more belivable voices, then you should get a nomiation for the oscars :)
Note: Bradshews voice when saying the "help me out" messeges is a bit, well, sleepy :) He doesn't feel like he's in trouble, more like on a randezvous with a bunny... :D LoL He's got a good shouting also, try to make all the "help" messeges like that . But its surely a great work done!
 
I don´t think the Talon is a civilian ship. In Standoff fanon, it was designed for Confed to replace the Scimitar, and it didn´t work out.

AFAIK, the official line about Talons in the Gemini sector is that Gov. Menesch was illegally selling them, that´s how it got in the hands of civilians.

About a civilian ship taking out a Confed ship, well, in Priv I more than once took out a Paradigm and its escorts with my Orion / Centurion.

What else... yes, there is friendly fire, and it can be quite painful in a Stilletto...

About making the game easier, there´s always Rookie level :p
Seriously, as you pointed out, only the last mission is really tough, although beatable every once in 3 tries. I think our difficulty level should stay as it is.

Finally, the voiceovers. Of course not all the voiceovers are very convincing, but overall I think Tempest/Overmortal and their actors are doing a great job. My faves are Trigger, Freyers and the lady pilots. I´ve heard the Kats voiceovers are great too, wait for Ep.2 :)
 
What bugs me about the Talon is that Standoff fiction says Talons were decommissioned because their AB speed was too low, thus making them too vulnerable to missiles. Yet, the Gladius has the same AB speed and, if it weren't for Standoff's extra gun addition, about same guns.
 
The Gladius is a fighter-bomber, thus supposedly heavier than a Talon, which is a medium fighter.

However, the Talon is inferior to the Gladius in any and all aspects, because while it has less guns, missiles, shields and armor, it should be faster and more maneuverable, yet it ain´t.

Gladii have the same AB speed of the Talons, but they are supposed to fly with escorts, while the Talon was designed to be that escort. And since it couldn´t fulfil that and other roles as a medium fighter, it was (in Standoff fanon) decomissioned.
 
Lazy Panda said:
What bugs me about the Talon is that Standoff fiction says Talons were decommissioned because their AB speed was too low, thus making them too vulnerable to missiles. Yet, the Gladius has the same AB speed and, if it weren't for Standoff's extra gun addition, about same guns.
As Starkey said, the Talon is supposed to be a medium fighter, while the Gladius is a fighter-bomber. Not every ship needs to outrun missiles. And the Gladius is not supposed to be a great ship either, just a bomber-oriented jack of all trades.
 
Well, thanx for the explanation about the Talons. You'r right about the difficulty levels, i tried in Rookie, and it was waaay too easy :D I'm just not used to the good old style of gameing when you had to try a mission for more then once to beat it... It really brings back fond memories of WC whene i was trying to beat some missions for weeks! :) I once tried to make a voicover for a short animation, and its a damn hard thing, i have to admit. You guys are doing a good job there, i can'T wait to see Ep2. One more minor issue: the game feels a bit dark. Setting my monitor or the gamma in-game higher doesn't help. Maybe you should adjust it a very little bit IF possible. Btw, is it just me? I have only played during the day when the sun shines in form my back, so maybe it's really just me :D
 
Probably it is just you, or your monitor... Setting the gamma contrast to brightest both in-game and in the monitor leaves the game very bright.
 
OK, I'll say in an other way: Its still damn dark on an other computer, cause there is no contrast! Everything has a "close to black" darkness to it. And that ain't just me now :) But its not your error!!! Its the original SO thats a lot darker then prophecy, or any other game! Its fun anyway. Btw, is there any chance to download the addon missions for SO somewhere? (nope, i won't buy prophecy gold for that. It was never sold in our country, and Hungary is not allowed on E-Bay, cause we'r not allowed to use PayPal and such.. Damn, i really hate my country :) )
 
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