Making the Game: Mission F2 (March 22, 2009)

Bandit LOAF

Bandit LOAF

Long Live the Confederation!
F2 is the SWACS scan of Dula VII, a necessary plot mission -- but not overly exciting. Most interesting here is probably the fact that Hawk dies off-screen if you didn't choose to attack the Kilrathi -- which is a little odd, considering that the moral point should be that you don't slaughter cats rather than that you're rewarded with a more complex plot if you do.

These updates are thanks to John "Captain Johnny" Guentzel, who provided several CD image archives of material used by the Wing Commander Prophecy development team!

MTG_Mission_F2.jpg


Mission F2
Download (75 kb)

Date: November 25, 1997
Project: Wing Commander Prophecy
Donated By: John Guentzel
Pages: 6

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Original update published on March 22, 2009
 
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I don't remember - do we get a funeral scene for Hawk? I think not...which is very odd.

I found the Hawk-Casey interaction after the "Kill the Kilrathi"-incident to be rather awkward. Especially that scene in which Hawk attacks Casey if you don't kill the Kilrathi. It was way overdone I thought and both of Hawk's death scenes were very weak compared to the relative importance of the character.

Though the basis of the idea, that Hawk is still at war with the Kilrathi was good.

Eh, since it seems I'm mostly ranting in these updates I should stress that from a gameplay point, the fun of flying, WCP is one of my favourites if not the favourite :).
 
Don't worry about it, you're not ranting at all.

I was somewhat disappointed with the lack of a funeral for Hawk too. All we really see is Spyder giving Casey Hawk's favourite knife. But then, I suppose we already had the funeral scene for Dallas et al, so maybe they didn't want repetition in the scripted deaths department.
 
I think the problem was much more fundamental than the lack of a funeral. The Spyder scene does in some way serve as a funeral, and it's great in getting across a very important point - that Hawk was a loner and even though he was a good pilot, nobody really liked him.

The real problem lies in the premise of this subplot - you help Hawk get over his inner demons... so that he can die on a random patrol? That's just a really lousy payoff. I mean, I did wonder at one point if Hawk's death wasn't actually a suicide. You know, when Hawk says "Maybe I should..." and Casey finishes off for him - "try to stay that way?" Well, with Hawk dying offscreen almost immediately afterwards, you kinda get the impression that Hawk really wanted to end that sentence differently.

And you know what? That would have actually been interesting - but whether or not that was the intention, it's just not explored. All you get is the Spyder cutscene that tells you you really shouldn't care too much about him dying. Even the knife - that knife could so easily have been used later on as a device (e.g., a special pre-flight cutscene for some critical mission, where we see Casey strapping on the knife, and saying "wish you were on my wing for this one" or something), it's just never mentioned again.
 
I don't know, the knife-wielding aspect of Hawk greatly added to the cheesiness (?) of his character for me.

Though I think we three agree that Hawk's character offered good premises in WCP but was not explored or shown very well.
 
I didn't consider the suicide possibility. I suppose it might make some sense given that Hawk lived to kill Kilrathi, and since he couldn't in the current situation... what else was there? "Hawk died on Mylon II", as Spyder suggests. But on the other hand, I'm not sure if he would do something as pointless as taking his own life. While the Kilrathi might commit ritual suicide as part of keeping their form of 'honour', I think that Hawk would bide his time for another chance to blow up Kilrathi.

As for the knife... it might not have been necessary to re-introduce it in Prophecy - and personally I would think it'd be a major safety hazard, possibly should even be a banned item in an organised military as the Confederation. The scenes where Hawk and Panther are sharpening/polishing their respective weapons while expressing their frustration with Maniac to Blair comes to mind, though, those scenes were pretty fun.
 
I didn't mind it in WC4, almost forgot about it to be honest but in WCP it was overemphasized I think: Look here, that's the bitter silent killer, yes the one with the large knife!

And your concerns are very valid, having such a knife on a military ship. I could understand if the Captain was more lenient towards Hawk but towards Casey? (He is wearing it after Hawk dies, isn't he?)
 
Uh... guys, they're officers in the Navy. They all carry a sidearm - as in, a pistol. A knife is hardly any kind of risk to anyone, and certainly not a safety hazard. In fact, I'd argue that when you trust someone with a torpedo-carrying, plasma-armed Devastator that can turn the Midway into a heap of slag in a matter of seconds - yeah, you can probably trust him with a knife, too :p.
 
I am fully aware they're allowed to carry pistols (I recall the command to surrender side-arms after McGuffin was murdered on the Concordia). I just don't think a knife falls under the same category. But whatever, they allowed Cobra and Hawk (and presumably Casey subsequently) to carry a big sharp blade, so they obviously don't think it's a big deal. <shrug>
 
Well, you're right, a knife doesn't fall under the same category - it's a much lesser one :). Knives are something we use every day, starting from childhood - I would imagine the cooks onboard the Midway carry much, much bigger knives than Hawk ;).
 
As for the knife... it might not have been necessary to re-introduce it in Prophecy - and personally I would think it'd be a major safety hazard, possibly should even be a banned item in an organised military as the Confederation.
Click to expand...

Such knives are standard equipment for real fighter pilots; they're an essential part of any survival kit.
 
Bandit LOAF said:
Such knives are standard equipment for real fighter pilots; they're an essential part of any survival kit.
Click to expand...

After all, it's possible that a confed pilot can get stranded on a strange, wild planet. Didn't this happen to Blair a couple of times on Academy?

Blair is also ordered to surrender his side-arm upon landing on the TCS Gettysburg.
 
That's one use - it doesn't even have to be a wild planet where you need to defend yourself so much as one where you'd want to stab a tasty space animal for dinner.

Also, you have a knife so you can cut yourself (or someone else) out of a cockpit quickly.
 
Ok, didn't know that...though it's true I could have guessed from the fact that they're carrying sidearms that they could have other things. It's just, I don't know, I always thought they'd be only issued the guns when going out for a mission and then have to give it back. But now that I think of it, that does not hold up with the evidence very well.

Still, it's only Hawk who is showing his knife around and that's probably because they wanted to show what a mean killer he is and that I found somehow cheap.
 
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