Kilrathi Saga sucks..(?)

Hmm...I'm tracking down a legit copy of KS that wont cost me my first born, maybe I'll be lucky and not experience the graphic or sound issues hopefully.
 
I seem to recall having difficulty with turning and firing at the same time while using the keyboard on Kilrathi Saga. The DOS version did not have this issue. It could be the different ways that DOS and Windows handles keyboard interrupts.
 
Ironically i tried to play wc2 recently on my laptop and had the opposite problem wc2 in dosbox i couldnt turn and fire (or could fire and start to turn and the turn would lock until i stopped pressing fire!) yet the KS version worked fine for me!

I'd suggest trying the dos games first (cheaper, easier etc) and then getting KS after, even if the dos versions work KS provides some cool manual stuff and mp3 music files (easier to extract).

As for suggesting that emulation requires too powerful a system. While wc3 and 4 would be a push on some systems, you'd have to go back a long way to find a pc that can't run dosbox and wing2 perfectly (around the 800MHZ mark or so) basically, if you aim to emulate around 10-20 times smaller than your actual system you're probably going to be okay! (so for wc1,2 around a 400-800MHz, and for 3 and 4 around 2GHz)
 
When you say simultaneous key input, does that include... say control and e? I can't seem to eject. Or adjust the music and sound volumes.

I'd have to check on that one. Not sure if it would affect control+e, since that triggered one action (ejection). The primarily complaints were with how it handled multiple inputs such as afterburning, turning and shooting together.
 
I just got my hands on a nice Kilrathi Saga box but regret it already for various reasons that were already stated. I LOVE the enhanced music and sfx in WC1 but...:
First there is that sticky flippy mouse steering which drives me nuts. Then there is DIFFICULTY!
What the hell happened with the difficulty in WC1 Kilrathi Saga version?
I barely made it to the third mission in McAuliffe, where you have to escort a Drayman transport back to the Tigers claw. I am completely stuck at this one. Tried it like a felt thousand times but the first wave waiting for you at NAV1 always manages to bring the transport down or hit it so hard that it only takes seconds for Bhurak and his mates to destroy it. If not, its me who is shot down.
Paladin is no help at all, either he is killed himself or doesn't score a kill at all.

General tips in the guides like taunting the fighters to draw them away or not approaching Nav1 to stall the jump of the Drayman doesn't work.

Frustrated I installed DosBox and WC1 DOS version and guess what...
I succeeded this mission on the very first try with nearly no scratch on my hull. Whats up with that?

*pant pant* ok /rant mode off

I also noticed the mouse steering reticle is much smoother in DosBox than it is in the KS version. I really love the improved sound but I think I have to stick to the DOS version if the difficulty can't be fixed in any way without cheating.
I have the feeling that this has something to do with modern machines speeds. The animations are not too fast or anything, but the raw processing power might break other stuff like trigger timing.

E.g.: In KS version, the Drayman jumps in like 15 seconds after I engaged the first four cats waiting at Nav1.
In the DOS version, the Drayman jumped in just before I landed the final blow on the last remaining Kilrathi which was around 2 minutes after engaging on them.
They also landed much less hits on my ship and generally behaved like they did back in the days and on the Amiga.
KS version tho, the AI seems smart like a Chess World Champion.

Sorry for all these exaggerations, I'm just trying to put into words how it feels to play KS WC1 on this machine.

P.s.: I tried to record a video of that mission but 'Fraps' doesn't work. Looks like KS WC1 doesn't use DirectX
 
I think you've kind of hit it there. There's no difference in difficulty level between WC1 DOS and KS really, but the game potentially runs at full speed in Windows where the DOS version would have lagged, and that makes some things harder.
 
That sounds like the KS version is what the designers ultimately had in mind. If thats really the case, WC1 needs a difficulty switch badly because currently its just unfair and frustrating.
Although I'd propably give a damn if you could save the game mid-mission. :)

I tried to swap the file "SAVEGAME.WLD" between the DOS and KS version and it seems to work nicely. I'll just do the impossible missions in DosBox.
... That could be considered cheating already but well...
 
That sounds like the KS version is what the designers ultimately had in mind. If thats really the case, WC1 needs a difficulty switch badly because currently its just unfair and frustrating.
Although I'd propably give a damn if you could save the game mid-mission. :)

That's what games were like in 1990. :) Games were universally HARD and mid-mission saves were unheard of. That's why WC1 has such extensive plot branching.
 
Actually, the BEST way to play WC is knowing that there are missions deliberately put in there that you CANNOT win!

The "save the ralari" in WC 1 is one, but you can let the ralari blow up and STILL win the game, so what is the point of having that stupid mission in the first place? Why make unwinnable missions at all?

There is another one in WC 2 and one in WC3.

WHY Origin decided to make these games that way I will never understand, but if you come across a mission like save the ralari and you cannot pass it, it may not have been meant to be passed! Just skip it and let the stupid ship blow up and go on to the next mission.

I still think that is the stupidest thing to make a mission no one can pass.

But game designers do a LOT of idiotic things, like the new just cause2 that has a save feature that if you use it, it wipes out the checkpoint, so either you just depend on the game not screwing up and use it's checkpoint system or save your game yourself and go WAY back in the game every time you start back up...IDIOTIC!

That is why I HATE STEAM games!
 
/facepalm~

There are no missions in either WC1 or WC2 which are impossible to complete. Even those on losing paths, where you lose the overall campaign, are still possible to 'win' in themselves.

WC3 had a mission which was impossible to win if only because it is the end of the war - and humanity is conquered by the Kilrathi.

Origin made the early WCs the way it did because they 'created worlds'. That was the way the did things and they did it very, very well. I'm not an expert gamer by any means, but even I can see that recent games are much easier than they were in the 1990s.
 
Actually, the BEST way to play WC is knowing that there are missions deliberately put in there that you CANNOT win!

The "save the ralari" in WC 1 is one, but you can let the ralari blow up and STILL win the game, so what is the point of having that stupid mission in the first place? Why make unwinnable missions at all?

The Kurasawa Ralari mission in WC1 is not unwinable. You can save the Ralari, and many people have done it. Winning contributes to sending you directly to Venice, losing puts you in Rostov. It's a hard mission, but there are others throughout the series that are harder. Here's a screenshot of the Ralari alive with all the enemies destroyed.

wc1screenshot08.gif
 
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/facepalm~

There are no missions in either WC1 or WC2 which are impossible to complete. Even those on losing paths, where you lose the overall campaign, are still possible to 'win' in themselves.

WC3 had a mission which was impossible to win if only because it is the end of the war - and humanity is conquered by the Kilrathi.

Origin made the early WCs the way it did because they 'created worlds'. That was the way the did things and they did it very, very well. I'm not an expert gamer by any means, but even I can see that recent games are much easier than they were in the 1990s.


The save the ralari mission is one that if you play it 1000 times you may get it right ONCE! That is very, very stupid in my opinion.

I am not saying you CANNOT win it, but I did win it once only after DAYS of trying and I KNOW what it takes to win that stupid mission, so please don't try to tell me that mission is not nearly impossible, when I know it is.

Playing something over and over again can be nothing but frustrating.

Now if YOU think that is the way games are supposed to be, well I strongly disagree with that opinion.

The Kurasawa Ralari mission in WC1 is not unwinable. You can save the Ralari, and many people have done it. Winning contributes to sending you directly to Venice, losing puts you in Rostov. It's a hard mission, but there are others throughout the series that are harder. Here's a screenshot of the Ralari alive with all the enemies destroyed.

wc1screenshot08.gif

I am not saying it is totally unwinnable, I DID win it...ONCE, but that it is very very HARD!

And to save myself pulling my hair out, I just let the stupid ship blow up and went on to win the game! Quite frankly, I don't need the aggrivation!
 
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You are, of course, entitled to your opinion.

However, refusing to accept that something is not impossible solely because of your opinion is, well... not very smart. I'll leave it at that.
 
You are, of course, entitled to your opinion.

However, refusing to accept that something is not impossible solely because of your opinion is, well... not very smart. I'll leave it at that.

I also fail to see how having really hard missions in a game with a branching mission tree is a problem. That particular mission doesn't punish you in any way for not saving the ship... If anything, saving it is a bonus akin to some of the really tough acheivements on the xbox.
 
The save the ralari mission is one that if you play it 1000 times you may get it right ONCE! That is very, very stupid in my opinion.

I am not saying you CANNOT win it, but I did win it once only after DAYS of trying and I KNOW what it takes to win that stupid mission, so please don't try to tell me that mission is not nearly impossible, when I know it is.

If you just bang your head against a wall a thousand times, you'll be able to walk through the hole. Twist the door knob, and it's a lot easier. I can probably finish the mission about a quarter of the time. It wasn't always like that, and I lost the mission many times before I developed a winning strategy. As soon as you arrive, you need to tell your wingman to break. Bossman will stick with you and be worthless otherwise. Dash straight for the Gratha that's pounding the Ralari, and take it out quickly with missiles. Bossman will be tangling with one fighter, which will leave you 2 against 1. Switch back and forth between the Gratha that's attacking the Ralari, and eventually you'll take one out. At this point it's a normal dogfight that should be fairly winnable. I think a lot of people drop at the nav point and start blasting the first thing they see. You're setting yourself up for a 4 versus 1 fight then, and a couple enemies are going to toast the destroyer in no time.
 
Back to the Kilrathi saga vs. the DOS originals, I personally find the KS versions better because of the improved sound and music. I don't have an Mp-32, and the Munt derived emulations for DosBox sound wonkier IMO than KS's sometimes glitchy music. WC1 and 2 in general midi sound pretty nasty and basically have no sound effects....

KS getting stuck on the enemy destroyed theme is pretty bad and surprisingly frequent....but at least I can hear my guns and explosions...

I do vastly prefer Wc3 in dosbox however - computers are more than fast enough these days to get that baby running in emulated glory, music also sounds pretty nice through an mt-32 emulator, and not bad at all in general midi.
 
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