How do I fire torpedoes on WC2?

B

bluewomble88

Spaceman
I recently got Wing Commander 2 Delux Edition for my PC and have finally managed to get it working through DOSbox (mission!).
Anyway, I'm only about 4 or 5 missions in and I was given a different ship to fly, one that had torpedoes fitted. I selected them by pressing W and targeted an enemy using L to lock on. However, my HUD says I need a lock on to launch a torpedo and yet nothing happens while I keep the enemy in my sights. There is no flashing target, no tone, nothing. It says in the book I should get a lock this way but it's not happening. What am I doing wrong?
 
You're doing the right thing, you just have to remember that torpedoes can only be fired at big stuff like capital ships and installations, not fighters. If you're locked onto an appropriate target, the music with change and a targeting reticule will steadily align itself with what you want to destroy. After 30 seconds, you'll get tone and will be able to launch the torpedo.

There are two caveats: if you orient your craft's nose too far from your target you'll lose the lock, and if you fire the torpedo from too far away enemy flak will destroy it before impact.

Torpedoes bypass shields, so you'll know you did everything right if the target shows up as having heavy hull damage on your VDU. Or if it explodes. Either or.
 
Adding to catnip's statement:

You are doing the right thing...but you might be missing something small. Firstly, double check you are "locked on" a Cap Ship (is this the 'rescue the eject pod before the Ralatha can get it' mission?)...are you CERTAIN you have torpedoes selected? (some fighters have a few types of ordinance installed, torps may not be the second on the list, check the VDU when you push W to be sure)

Are you sure you're not too far away? (good tip for you: figure out the range at which they stop firing flak, come to a halt, face the target, establish lock, then run the torpedo in close before releasing it!)
 
bluewomble88 said:
There is no flashing target, no tone, nothing. It says in the book I should get a lock this way but it's not happening. What am I doing wrong?
Click to expand...

Oh I just thought of something else...

SOMETIMES..not always, but SOMETIMES...

I had problems in WC2 with the lock-on reticule appearing outside the view area.

The way you know a torp is locking on, aside from the sound, is the red target reticule appears some distance away from the capital ship in your HUD. As the torpedo syncronizes itself with the phase shielding, the reticule moves towards the capital ship target box. When the reticule gets there, the box will change (blink I think) and you'll be all set. It really does take like 30 seconds to get tone, though, so be patient.
 
Thanks for the replies, can't believe I was being so stupid. I was trying to fire them at the fighters and not capital ships :rolleyes:
At the moment all I'm flying are the really basic ships with just cannons. Hopefully won't be too long before I get something with some rockets too.

On a side note, I'm using DOSbox to run the game but it's quite choppy. I've discovered that pressing CTRL + F12 increases the frame rate but if I press it more than twice the on-screen cursor constantly moves right when I'm not touching the joypad. Is there any way to fix this?
 
Since CTRL + F12 increases the number of cycles, you could try setting the cycles higher in the first place in your dosbox.conf file. Go to where it says "cycles=" and replace the default value (it'll be set to "auto" in the newer versions of DOSBox), then save the config. I haven't played WC2 in DOSBox, but "11000" works for Privateer. Maybe someone else here could tell you what setting they use.

As far as the ships go, I'm not sure what point you're at now. You start out flying Ferrets (guns only), then move to Rapiers (a variety of guns and missiles), and then to Broadswords (fixed guns, multiple gun turrets, and missiles and torpedoes), and then switch around a bit.
 
Torpedo runs were my favourites in WC2, paitently braving the flak, waiting for that lock, hoping your sheilds don't fail on you, getting the lock, waiting for the exact right moment to fire (if you were too far away the Torpedo would be knocked out by the flak), releasing and getting the hell out of there as fast as possible before you took too much damage.

I miss those days. :(
 
Catnip said:
Since CTRL + F12 increases the number of cycles, you could try setting the cycles higher in the first place in your dosbox.conf file. Go to where it says "cycles=" and replace the default value (it'll be set to "auto" in the newer versions of DOSBox), then save the config. I haven't played WC2 in DOSBox, but "11000" works for Privateer. Maybe someone else here could tell you what setting they use.

As far as the ships go, I'm not sure what point you're at now. You start out flying Ferrets (guns only), then move to Rapiers (a variety of guns and missiles), and then to Broadswords (fixed guns, multiple gun turrets, and missiles and torpedoes), and then switch around a bit.
Click to expand...

This worked perfectly, thank you
 
If you have other questions be sure to check out the Tech Support Forum and the CIC's Tech Support Section

The second link will probably be what you want to check out first. It has step-by-step instructions for the games in DOSBox.

And good luck with your fight against the Kilrathi.
 
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