Thanks for the welcome!
The concept of in-system jumps initially appeared in Secret Missions 2 -- because of its location, ships could 'mini-jump' between locations in Firekka. This ability also appears in Enigma, in Wing Commander 2...
The 'main' jump tunnels in Privateer 2 (the ones you are charged entrance to) are, in fact, the same as regular jump points in Wing Commander -- rather than be opened by individual jump drives, they are kept open by jump gates. The technology behind these gates first appears in the Wing Commander IV novel, where specialized ships can open jump points to allow non jump-capable fighters to use them.
I must reply to your counterpoints...
"Counterpoint: Origin says a lot of things that are full of crap."
This is not a point as you provide no solid evidence to back it up. I am well aqquanted with the authors of the FAQ in question, and have never known them to be "full of crap".
"Point: There are two or three as-of-yet UNSPECIFIED instances in The Darkening in which WC or the Confeds are mentioned."
There are far more than two or three, and they have been specifically unspecified. Run Privateer Two and examine the planet and ship databases. You will find that various ships are registered to fly in the Confederation, and that various planets are sources of various materials for the Confederation.
"Counterpoint: These were thrown in at the last minute to justify placing a "Privateer" monicer on the game."
This is incorrect -- the game was always a "Privateer" spinoff -- can you doubt this, based on the gameplay itself? The issue in question has always been the "2" in the title. I note that the game had gone gold before the "2" was added (in fact, it shipped almost immediately afterwards in England).
Counterpoint: The physics are different.
Wing Commander has physics? Actually, the non-physics of Wing Commander are emulated rather well in the B-Render engine -- the only difference is the effect of ships ramming eachother, which is surely caused by the electronic shields and *not* the actual physics of the universe (which are, of course, a universal constant).
Counterpoint: Everybody's british.
Then, by your logic, England is not part of the world.
Counterpoint: It wasn't designed to be a WC game.
This is the point you're trying to make, not a specific counterpoint.
Counterpoint: Chris roberts had nothing to do with it, though he was still at the focal-point of the Wing Commander franchise at the time. (If anybody says that that rules out Prophecy, I'm going to laugh at you.)
Not true, Chris Roberts had left Origin before Privateer 2 shipped -- further, Privateer 2 was developed in England, not in Austin -- by his brother Erin. Chris Roberts, although credited as executive producer, had nothing to do with the original Privateer, either... or Armada, or Academy -- or even Wing Commander II.
Counterpoint: The refferences made to WC are vague at best, and could far more easilly be chalked up to "Whatever" than "It's WC!"
Please back up this point.
Counterpoint: We're all big, fat nerds for arguing about this for so damned long. Not because arguing is stupid, but because if one looks over these posts in full, one will notice that the argument has turned into a game of "Repeat as neccesary"
Disagree, we were nerds before we started arguing about this, and we're fat for completely different reasons. (I note, however, that it is very difficult to take the high moral ground after attempting to argue ones point...)
"Actually, you can speak japanese, french, spanish, portuguese...and people will still think youre intelligent"
Not if you don't use punctuation.
(And, of course, we'll think you're an idiot for posting in Spanish at an English speaking board... not that bilinguality has anything to do with my initial comment.
).
As for the far more interesting issue of Rangers and Concordias -- no, 40 Rangers were not produced... the 'CV' designation is for *all* carriers. It is not an accurate guage for how many ships are in service, since blocks are reserved for entire classes (the 70 series, for example, was reserved for the Vesuvius class, although only four have entered service to date).
We know of a whole *lot* of COncordia class ships that were produced -- twenty-five.
