Privateer Remake & Gemini Gold Websites

To explain the differences quickly:
Gemini Gold is a more 'purist' remake while Privateer Remake is a bit different and adds in some things that some fans have been wanting to do, such as fly certain fighters, etc.

They are different branches of the same tree, to speak metaphorically.
 
Do you have the exact difference listed somewhere?

It might be better to tell this on the website too, because when someone suggested Gemini Gold to me I noticed the link to Remake and also wondered about the difference.
 
I'm quite interested in a list of differences as well, and maybe which one's more stable. Thanks in advance :)
 
It's difficult to create a detailed list of changes while both games are rolling out new stuff, the list wouldn't be accurate and must be changed constantly. Maybe someday someone will create a list and post it here for you. The news section of the Gemini Gold website covers some major differences.

Both versions should be stable, the sources are mostly the same.
 
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1. Both dev groups think their version of the game is the best and will propagate that to the community.
2. Gold was released after the Remake 1.2 and is the most advanced version atm with new graphics, features and other improvements.
3. The Privateer Remake tries to remake Privateer along with fan-invented stuff like flyable capships&kilrathi fighters (without cockpits), selfaiming guns, cloaking devices, space communists, ...in short stuff that maybe fun for some people while others think they completely ruin the game.
Gemini Gold tries to recreate an "authentic" Wing Commander Privateer universe in high resolution with a few differences which shouldn't corrupt the original setting of the game like GUI changes.

My recommendation is if you're a newbie to Wing Commander and Privateer check out Privateer Gemini Gold or Privateer&DosBox and if you have played through Privateer in the past and you like modded games with "crazy" stuff inside you should check out Privateer Remake.
 
I haven't played privateer remake, but I have played Gemini gold, it's much harder then privateer original/dosbox, the AI flys at you then Kamikazes out of clumsiness, talons seem much more agile. Put it this way, I got further in two hours in privateer COG then i did playing the whole day in GG edition. I mean the graphics changes are great, but that's about where it ends. I love the old map and nav system, why change it, no clue. That's my assessment.
 
I also think that Gemini Gold's primary issue was with the AI. That game was never really finishes, as many features were still missing.
Still, despite all these issue, GG had great potential and I hoped back then that it would be finished sometime.

Perhabs one day this project will be revived in some form or a whole new remake will be made, perhabs based on an entirely different engine other than VegaStrike.
A fake trailer for a Privateer remake/successor was produced by the Rebel Galaxy team for April fools last year, which actually shows what kind of potential the classic Privateer has even today.

(If anyone ever wishes to takle such a project: I recommend using the Unity-engine. Despite running into some issues from time to time, we're otherwise having a good experience with it while developing "X-Wing Virtual Machine". There's also a WC-based project called "Flat Universe", which uses Unity as well.)
 
Hi there, The first link is inaccurate. There is no project called "Privateer Remake" at wcuniverse.sf.net Wing Commander Universe was my project. The aim of it was to make a privateer style expanded game with ships from 1-3/Academy/Armada set during 2669. The Privateer campaign did not need to be a part of the game, the point of it being there was just to act like a tutorial, players would then have an option to join the military at Perry Naval base, or go run missions etc in the expanded universe. We were basically just using the setting and had plans to do our own stories. The Vegastrike engine needs a lot of overhaul work for the modern era. It never delivered on the editing tools which are needed to make a game with this level of complexity. It does however have a complete online gameplay system including online trading, comms, multiplayer etc. Sadly, for what I want to do, no engine really exists at this point except maybe Unity, but I don't want to invest the time into learning it. There were changes made to the Vegastrike engine by other teams which negatively affected the Wing Commander features of the engine. E.g the map code. It should be simple enough to get into the C++ code for the map screen and fix it to be like the privateer nav screens. As stated earlier Vegastrike needs an AI overhaul, but there also needs to be major updates made to the code base. Most of the library support in Vegastrike is outdated, ffmpeg versions have moved on, same with libPNG and other libraries. I took a crack at fixing it up a while ago but my work stalled. I also took a look at making a FRED style editor for the engine. But it's something a team of people need to build. Really you need 3-4 programmers to modernise the engine and get editing tools made like Freespace 2 has. Art to asset workflow is abysmal at the moment. Taking something like PCS2 from Freespace 2 and adding support for Vegastrike formats would be a good first step, and a FRED clone for mission writing would open up the engine for editing. It's silly to expect non-programmers to write Python code for missions.
 
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FekLeyrTarg said:
.... we're otherwise having a good experience with it while developing "X-Wing Virtual Machine". ...
Click to expand...

I didn't know anything about that? Cool! Just followed you on moddb. Are you still active on this project?
Sorry, guys didn't want to change the subject.

AI was the reason that I stopped playing Privateer Gemini Gold too, by the way.
 
Re XWVM:
Thanks.
Yes, there has been lots of progress behind the scenes and I keep contributing when I find the time.
(I can't speak for the rest of the team, but personally I'd be interested in sharing our experiences with you guys sometime, especially about the issues which cropped up during development, including the input system.) :)

On topic:
Ah, that's a bummer. VegaStrike also had lots of potential imo. And I understand your reasons for putting WCU on hold for now. The concept however still sounds awesome and I'd love to see it realised in some form one day. :)

(By the way: Unity is based on C#, which is one of the reasons Azrapse decided to use that engine for XWVM.)
 
FekLeyrTarg said:
Re XWVM:
...(I can't speak for the rest of the team, but personally I'd be interested in sharing our experiences with you guys sometime, especially about the issues which cropped up during development, including the input system.)...
Click to expand...

Sure thing! It is nice to exchange views and ideas. Unity is becoming bigger and bigger and more powerful in every new update. Still, the input system is a little behind when it has to do with input assignment etc... My guess is that it is not top priority to them.
 
FekLeyrTarg said:
A fake trailer for a Privateer remake/successor was produced by the Rebel Galaxy team for April fools last year, which actually shows what kind of potential the classic Privateer has even today.
Click to expand...

These guys have been working on something in the last months that looks a lot like a WingCommander or Privateer game to me, full 3D combat and stuff. No name or official announcements yet, only hints, images and gifs via twitter.
This here for instance: https://giant.gfycat.com/NeedyGlitteringGermanspitz.webm

I strongly suspect the Privateer April fool joke trailer was kind of a technical demo or pre-vis thing.
 
That video is Howard Day's team. He was a regular on these forums a few years ago and was making Wing Commander: Pioneer. He's got a commercial project last I heard and that's what the video is from.
 
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