Save the Behemoth.

Why call it dumb?
It is just a good game, which makes you forget about such things as "mission-that-would-fail-anyway".
Me, too - tried it again and again...
It's not some tetris or ugly X-Wing, it's Wing Commander!
So, forgetting about "plot planned events" is only natural for me.
 
Ah, but he was the guy from Star Wars! It makes everything better...

But seriously - at least the novel tried to explain it off; 'them or us' is pretty simplistic as far as arguments go. And unfortunately, at that point in the war, there weren't many reasonable options left. The strontium-90 attacks on the inner worlds had made it clear surrender was no longer an option, and trying to split the Kilrathi through political means or whatever underhanded methods that were available to Confed wasn't an option - the only person who MIGHT have been able to pull it off and who would've possibly let the humans live afterwards (Jukaga) was already dead at that point.

Still, the way they just destroyed the Behemoth seemed, as you pointed out, overly simplistic. Yes, the filming was expensive and they probably couldn't do another route (Tolwyn fires the Death Behemoth into Kilrah), but at the same time, the forcing of the Temblor route basically shifted the blame/credit for killing a planetful of Kilrathi solely onto Blair's shoulders.

It was in the novelization of 3 (or 4) that they mention something pretty interesting about the Behemoth. They went with it first over the Temblor Bomb because the Behemoth could be used on shipyards and other purely military targets, whereas the Temblor Bomb could only do one thing: blow up planets and everything on them. When the Behemoth failed, the Temblor Bomb was next up.

At least, I think it was from the novelization of 4.
 
more than that, the temblor bomb only works on planets with unstable tectonics. word is still out on whether or not Earth also qualifies.
 
Along those lines: when Angel was making her transmissions from Kilrah, work on the Temblor Bomb had already begun. When you go to rescue Dr. Severin, Paladin mentions that Sevy was captured before he could complete his work. But Angel's transmissions were so recent, there's no way they had time to analyze the info she sent them, develop the theory of the Temblor Bomb AND have Severin get kidnapped. So I guess that means Covert Ops had a Temblor Bomb idea in the works "just in case they found a tectonically unstable planet?? Don't overanalyze it
 
I'm sure they knew kilrah was unstable before angel's survey work.. 30 years of listening to kilrathi brag about how much harder they are than terrans must've given confed intel some idea. I think angel's survey was more to find out exactly where the 'sweet spot' was. and to cache supplies for the attack all over the system. besides. Bondarevsky had already been to kilrah.. and those fault lines are pretty visible from space.
 
Angel's Team seems to be the final readings survey opposed to initial discovery.

False Colors also has some details about the T-bomb. The need for it to be a techtonically unstable planet is definitely not known at large because Ragark seems to think Confed can use T-Bombs on any planet.
 
Along those lines: when Angel was making her transmissions from Kilrah, work on the Temblor Bomb had already begun. When you go to rescue Dr. Severin, Paladin mentions that Sevy was captured before he could complete his work. But Angel's transmissions were so recent, there's no way they had time to analyze the info she sent them, develop the theory of the Temblor Bomb AND have Severin get kidnapped. So I guess that means Covert Ops had a Temblor Bomb idea in the works "just in case they found a tectonically unstable planet?? Don't overanalyze it
 
No. But then again, I owned the strategy guide well before I bought the game in CD form, so I knew ahead of time what was gonna go down.
 
There was probably existing intel on kilrah's planet that suggested it was unstable. Until the confederation cracked the cloak they couldn't get any specific data. The cloak was just as necessary as the development of the t-bomb itself. They could've seen the initial data on kilrah and started to develop a weapon that would send it over the edge if they could get enough geological data on the planet. Bat bombs anyone? Ironic how the kilrathi ensured their destruction with their own reverse-engineered tools, no?
 
Getting back to the original question (and yes, I know this topic is ancient :V), I wasn't actually tricked by the "you have to lose the mission" thing, even the very first time through... because I'd played a few JRPGs earlier in life, and those had introduced me to the idea of "unwinnable fights" already. At first I was freaking out over the Pakthans swarming the Behemoth, but then when the big cutscene kicked in, immediately followed by Thrak showing up to taunt and the realization that I was still on disc 3 (meaning the ending had to be some distance away still), I was all "ohhhhhhh".

I can see how people without RPG experience might've been confused by it, though. The Behemoth was the first "scripted loss" mission in the WC series, wasn't it?
 
I can see how people without RPG experience might've been confused by it, though. The Behemoth was the first "scripted loss" mission in the WC series, wasn't it?

Almost, but not quite. Off the top of my head:

* Shadow's death in WC2 is scripted.

* Jazz's rescue in SO 2 (or was it 1?) was scripted.

* The loss of the transport/communications ship in WC2 (where you're flying a broadsword and have to jump out to meet it) is scripted.

And even if you "win" SO2, the ending is pretty darned depressing.

Plus, the obvious one of Goddard biting the dust in SM1 regardless of how well you fly...

The Behemoth was certainly the first scripted loss in WC3, though...
 
Yeah, there are loads of "but thou must" moments in Wing Commander 2.

I used to think Kurosawa 2 was scripted in my younger days until I finally got past it. I admit before I knew it was impossible I fought my ass off trying to save the Behemoth.
 
The Behemoth was certainly the first scripted loss in WC3, though...
I believe that honor goes to "Weasel," the Arrow pilot who is shot down immediately as you're taking off in the Tamayo scramble mission.
 
Bandit LOAF said:
I believe that honor goes to "Weasel," the Arrow pilot who is shot down immediately as you're taking off in the Tamayo scramble mission.

Well, if you were going to be *really* pedantic, you might mention the covert ops team in the introductory sequence...
 
I'm pretty sure that by "scripted loss", Drake meant missions where you are prohibited from completing the mission objectives (e.g. the craft you are assigned to escort can not be saved, or a mandatory target can not be killed or jumps out too quickly).
 
There's still several of those before the Behemoth. The two transports that explode when you go to escort them in Tamayo (?) are probably first.
 
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