Hey can any confed pilot give the WHOLE story from the beginning of the WC1 till the.

[Quarto]

Knight: They're not fans.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

Oh, sorry, Knight, I was referring to a particularly violent thread regarding the meaning of fan fiction a few weeks back... thought you were, too.

 

[Knight]

Yeah, LOAF, I know the thread you are talking about. Quarto, then why would the write about Wing Commander, if they weren't fans? Surely they like something they have ideas for, if they're not fans.

------------------
Member of the LMG and hating it (Disgruntled Man)
Real heros wear SCBAs, not capes.--Me.

 

[KrisV]

If your writing a novel on something makes the difference between being able to buy food and starving, you'll write the damn novel. Interests and hobbies don't even enter into it.

 

[Shane]

Occasionally you'll find an established writer who happens to be a fan of something and because of his name recognition and the subject's name recogonition, everyone (the publisher, some lawyers, the writer) agrees he can write about it. That's happened with Star Trek and Star Wars novels to some extent. I wouldn't call those novels fan fiction, though. From what I've read, I think Andrew Kieth became a Wing commander fan, but that still doesn't make his novels with Forstchen fan fiction.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

Forstchen, Keith and Telep have all claimed that they became interested in Wing Commander after assigned to write a book.

Ellen Guon, of course, worked on the original games.

The sad, sad, sad, sad thing is that Jerry Pournelle is a WC fan, and specifically mentioned wanting to write in the WC universe in one of his Byte columns... grrr!

------------------
Long live the Confederation,
Ben "Bandit" Lesnick
( loaf@wcnews.com - 302228)

The Wing Commander CIC

LOAF's Merry Guild

"You go, LOAF! Get some!" -JPG

 

[Mad Hatter]

So is there any particular reason he doesn`t?

 

[KrisV]

Writers don't just walk up to their publishers and say "Hey, I like this, let's do this." The publisher decides he wants a certain book written because he thinks there's a big enough market, and offers it to a writer he thinks would do a good job.

 

[Shane]

Sometimes they do. However they need to convince the publisher there would be a demand for it. Granted it probably is rare in series like WC. It also helps if you have a big enough name in the industry, or a connection to the product. I'm thinking specifically of William Shatner (if you want to be generous and call him an Author

)who wrote non-Trek books, established enough of a rep as an author to convinve the publishers to let him start writing a Trek book. That and his tie-in with Trek to begin with. I think he's doen something like 6 to date. Richard Hatch from Battlestar Galactica is the same way. I don't think it was Zahn, but I do remember one of the Star Wars authors approached Bantam wanting to do a novel, I just wish I could remember which one.

[This message has been edited by Shane (edited August 03, 2000).]

 

[Dralthi5]

Funny thing. Bill Shatner was recently on the Conan O'Brian show and when asked how he co-writes his Trek books with Judy and Gar Reeves-Stevens, he responded, " I go over to their house and sit around while they write," or something to that effect. At least he's honest, unlike Mr. Fabio

.

Oh, he has done six Trek books, by the way. I have 'em all. They're pretty good.

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

 

[Rider]

Hey Shane thanks for the begning part of the sotry and now I can hardly wait for the next part to come up

------------------------
My mouth is watery now

 

[Shane]

Some of the other games are problematic. Academy doesn't really have a history, I always looked at it as the simulator they left out of WC2, with a couple additonal features thrown in. Armada's story depends somewhat on how you play the game and in some ways it doesn't fit nicely in with the rest of the games. At least from a historical perspective. I will give you a brief synopiss of Privateer and Righteous Fire and touch on Prophecy and Secret Ops. There are plot spoilers, so read with care.

Privateer takes place around the time of WC3, if I recall my dates correctly. You start off as a pilot who has barely managed to survive an attack by a group known as the Church of Man. They are eco-terrorists or neo-luddites. They are opposed to technology and think man would be better of if he returned to a simpler life. I always viewed them as the radical wing of the Amish

Anyhow, you inherit your uncle's crappy old ship and set up shop in the Gemini Sector. You are not part of the confed military but a private businessman. You are attacked by pirates and while you take care of them, one of your missles goes astray and hit a ship that had been powered down in an asteroid field. However you leave before it can do anything to you. You have this old ship, with barely any weapons and just a few credits. The rest of the game invovles you flying missions to make money and upgrade your ship, eventually selling it and buying a nicer ship. You haul cargo, hunt down pirates, members of the Church of Man, and the occasional Kilrathi. Gemini doesn't seem to be a focal point in the war, Confed and the Ctas seem to be in a stalemate here, and you don't see much in the way of the war. The game does have a purpose, though. The ship you hit was a Steltek drone. You go through the game and in addition to the mission you choose to fly for money, there are missions you fly to "win" the game. During these you do some smuggling, survey work for Confed, and some escort missions for a university. Along the way you find out more about the Steltek. They are thought of as a myth by many, but there is some archaeological evidence that points to their existence, but they have long since disappeared. Eventually find an old Steltek derelict which convenently has a gun that you can mount on your ship. Finally, you meet up with the Steltek who admit they left this part of space many years ago, and thought they had removed all evidence of their bieng here. They tow their derelict away and supercharge your gun to allow you to take out the drone, which has been wreaking havoc in the area, destroying Confed, Kilrathi and civilian craft and occasionally dogging you. Once you destroy the drone the storyline is over. You can keep flying missions to your hearts content and make more and more money. The game is open ended.

Righteous Fire is an addon to Privateer. It takes place shortly after the end of Privateer. It starts off with you being informed that someone broke into the hangar where your ship was stored and they stole your Steltek gun. There are some more ship imporvements (better engines, shields, guns, etc.) that you can buy so you still have a need, unless you had a ton of money, to fly some of the regular missions, but this game revolves around you trying to find yur gun and getting it back. You fly some missions for some of the same folks you did in Privateer, and you encounter some nasty new fighters. You eventually find out that a corrupt Confed offical has been selling technology to the Church of Man (and either he or they have been selling it to the Kilrathi as well, if recall correctly.) You eventually find their secret Headquarters and take out their corrupt leader, and they supposedly go back to their more peaceful ways, that this guy had diverted them from.

Privateer 2 is set in the future and it's story is more complicated than I want to tell, perhaps someone else will. It has a number of subplots, that you can choose to become invovled in, but are not necessary to win the game. Also, because it is set further in the future, it isn't tied in very closely with the rest of the games, so it has little beraing on most of the discussion around here.

Wing Commander Prophecy. It takes place sevral years after the end of WCIV. You are now Lance Casey, son of a famous dead Confed pilot Iceman. (he flew off the Tiger's Claw and both Maniac and Blair knew him well.) Christopher Blair is no longer a pilot or very active with the flight wing. He seems to be a consultant of sorts, though his exact role always seemed a bit vague to me. You are flying on Confed's newest carrier, the TCS Midway, and this is her shakedown cruise. She doesn't yet have a full complement of fighters or crew. Confed has had little trouble with the Kilrathi, the situation with the Border Worlds is over, the only thing Confed deals with anymore is the occasional pirate. Well, that all changes. Some new species appears in the Kilarthi and makes it their base of operations. They seem to be very tough and wipe out a number of bases and some Kilrathi capships. The Midway is the closest ship and even though the ship is new and not all of the bugs have been worked out she is deployed to the area. Your new opponents are insect like, but their ship designs sort of resemble sea creatures like squid and rays. As with the other games you meet a bunch of different pilots, get to fly a bunch of different ships and fly the standard escort, patrol, defend the carrier and attack missions. You don't have as much freedom to make decsions like you did in WCIII and IV, though their is a lot of spraks flying between you and a couple of the female crew memebrs. Along the way you learn of a Kilrathi prophecy about a great time of darkness that is supposed to follow if the Kilrathi are ever defeated. Along the way, Hawk, a pilot from WC4 is killed, along with one of your new friedns, Dallas. Blair is captured by the bugs but then resuced. The game ends with the Midway in the Kilrathi system and you flying support for marine ships that are tring destroy the gateway that the Bugs have used to get their ships into this part of space. During this battle, Christoper Blair is attacked by one of the bugs, and later the part of the gateway he was in is destroyed so he is presumed dead. The gateway is closed just in time since the bugs were getting ready to move a huge fleet in.

Secret OPs. I have this when I found a copy of Prophecy Gold a whie back but I have yet to play it. What I do know is that it is a follow up to Prophecy. You have been trnasferred to the TCS Cerbeus which is te latest cruiser built by Confed. There are some scattered reports of possible bug activity in some parts of Confed a little too close to Sol for comfort. It is believed they are stragglers. It turns out the bugs have another gateway and are bringing more ships into the area. If I am correct, by the end of the game, Confed actually captures this gateway intact. Now you are current. Again if anyone else wants to correct me, flesh this out some more, whatever, feel free.


[This message has been edited by Shane (edited August 04, 2000).]

 

[No Regret]

Well, Shatner does have a real knack in bringing himself back from the dead. Twice

IMHO he should have rot on that borg garbage dump

------------------
The time is near.
There are still quite a few days remaining.

Hail to the king, baby.
-Ash, housewares

I don't care for fame, power or money...
I just want to FIGHT!
-Sanosuke Sagara

 

[Dralthi5]

In "Avenger", right?

Hey, I like Kirk (and Shanter). I hope that that "Kirk Will Return" blurb at the end of "Preserver" will pay off sometime soon.

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

 

[Rider]

The whole story is superb!! well now I know much about it

thanks to you my friend!.

Nephilium:Well so the bug war is not yet over I guess.

Kilrathi:The Kilrathis are no longer a threat to confed I suppose.

questions:
1)Who are the border worlds?
2)Kilrathis are nothing before the confed right?
3)C.Blair is not really dead right?
4)Bugs live in which sector?
5)Which are the sectors still under Kilrathi?
6)Which are the sectors still under Bugs?
7)What's there in Deneb Sector?
8)How many sectors are know to the Confed and how many are not?
9)How many systems make a sector?

--------------------------
Any one are free to answer these questions

 

[Quarto]

Anybody who even *touches* question 3 will be shot...

 

[Kain]

1)Who are the border worlds?
2)Kilrathis are nothing before the confed right?
3)C.Blair is not really dead right?
4)Bugs live in which sector?
5)Which are the sectors still under Kilrathi?
6)Which are the sectors still under Bugs?
7)What's there in Deneb Sector?
8)How many sectors are know to the Confed and how many are not?
9)How many systems make a sector?

(1)another group of unitied homeworlds,smaller than confed

(2)umm yes and no,there is still rogue clans
but don't expect another battle of terra.

(4)unknown

(5)not sure about this,but these days kilrathi and confed space are shared.

(6)none

,expect maybe for where ever they came from

(7)goddrard or the firekka homeworld,i don't remember

(8)all.expect for those tri-systems in privater 2

(9)i think around 9 systems make a sector.

 

[Death]

questions:
1)Who are the border worlds?
2)Kilrathis are nothing before the confed right?
3)[CENSORED]
4)Bugs live in which sector?
5)Which are the sectors still under Kilrathi?
6)Which are the sectors still under Bugs?
7)What's there in Deneb Sector?
8)How many sectors are know to the Confed and how many are not?
9)How many systems make a sector?

1) A group of colonists who aren't part of the Terran Confederation. Though they fought with Confed against the Kilrathi during the war, they were never formally part of Confed. In 2673, they formally declared their independence, re-organizing as the Union of Border Worlds (before then the border worlds were seperate, with common interests resulting in informal cooperation).

2) Not quite sure how to translate that question to English...

3)

4) They're not in any of the sectors that Confed knows about. They've made visits to what's generally referred to as "known space" (unrelated to Larry Niven's Known Space stories), but no one's been to their home space.

5) Most of Epsilon, M'shrakKilrah, Vukar Tag, and Trk'Pahn, with a few systems in Vega and Enigma sectors.

6) Currently there are no sectors in known space with any Nephilim presense.

7) There is no "Deneb Sector". There is, however, a Deneb Quadrant in Episolon Sector, which has several worlds important in WC history. There's Goddard, the colony that was wiped out by the Kilrathi in WC: Secret Missions 1; Locanda, where the Kilrathi wiped out the system's inhabitants with bioweapons that have a 500 year half-life, in WC3; Peleus, where the Tolwyn-supported pirates from WC4 had that jamming frigate; and Deneb System, home of the 6th Fleet that was wiped out by the Kilrathi during WC2: Special Ops 2 (you don't participate in that battle, but find out about it afterwards during the closing scenes).

8) If Confed (and thus we the players) don't know they're out there, how can we tell how many are unaccounted for?

Not everything is shown on the WC universe map, so we can't really count up how many sectors there are.

9) There is no set number of systems per sector. Some sectors, like Avalon, are lightly populated, while others, like Gemini (right next to Avalon, and where Privateer/Righteous Fire takes place) are relatively densely populated as far as the number of systems is concerned.

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SubCrid Death
Official Net.Nazi, LOAF's Merry Guild



[This message has been edited by Death (edited August 05, 2000).]

 

[Rider]

So thanks to all those who helped me in getting the answers on WC but why my 3rd question is such as secret like I dint write anything bad in it or is it some suprisey thinghy coming up in the new WC I guess?

 

[Mad Hatter]

I wouldn`t raise my hopes up.
Fact is, wars have been fought here over that question, and they`ve ended in a cease fire at best, so triggering another topic about whether Blair is dead or not, would be a very foolish thing to do. I`d leave the subject alone if I were you.