Site update, new Stiletto...

Hmm. Some EXE research in that area might be nice... but at the current stage, it wouldn't be worth the trouble. Might as well face it - the AI is something that you can mess around with when you're developing a game from scratch, not when you're trying to mod a game not designed to be moddable :p.
 
When Origin finally gets the idea in their heads to put out another flight sim (And there seems to be a bit of a jump in that genre here lately), they'd better allow the capability to mod. There would be such an influx of new projects that the CIC would stop listing them all.
 
I don't think EA (not Origin - remember, Origin doesn't exist any more :p) would make the next WC game any more moddable than WCP. As LOAF has frequently pointed out, EA's business is not game engines, but game content. They gain nothing from moddability, and there's always the risk that the widespread availability of mods will reduce demand for official expansion sets and sequels.
 
More and more there's a certain value as a sales point to letting your game be 'modded' -- although that may well simply mean including a nicer mission builder or leaving graphics files easily swappable (a la Freelancer). The "this is your whole adventure, you don't need to touch it" was a very (*intentional*) Origin idea - from Crusader to Ultima to Wing Commander, the titles developed in Austin have a very low degree of customizability even compared to other games that weren't supposed to be modded. Even Wing Commander's mission builder really didn't involve a high degree of mission building. :)

Of course, I would be willing to bet a solid gold dog that the next Wing Commander game would be for some evolution of the PS2 or X-Box, rendering the entire debate voind...
 
I'd be interested in seeing that...the solid gold dog and the Wing Commander title for xbox...it'd be difficult to choose which one is more important.
 
Easy. A new WC title for Xbox, PS2, and Gamecube (and a PC port, perhaps?) with a solid gold dog included as a special edition. Along with a dvd about the making of the game.
 
Fruitcake said:
Sadomachochist is when you're flying in a Hellcat with no afterburners trying to kill the remaining four Vaktoths

Four Vaktoths in a Hellcat is no sweat (the lack of afterburners would make it a little more challenging, but it's still *quite* doable. Try it in an Arrow with no AB. That's when you're in for a tougher time)
 
How many missions does Standoff have? The site lists 38 but are they all the mission variants or do we have to play 38 straight missions to beat the game?
 
Our focus is more on replay value than on sheer length. Look at the progress page where missions are split into series for a better idea of length... I'll tell you that the possible paths go like this:

Prologue->Series A->Series B1 or B2->Series C1 or C2->Series D1 or D2

And that's really it, that simple. For example, if you screw up on Series A and get sent to B2, just do well in B2 and you can get to C1. There's no trapping players in a dead end path... and likewise, there's no amount of previous victories that will let you screw up the final missions and still win (Come on, we all know the final missions involve space kittens trying to bomb Earth :p).

I think the shortest path takes 23 missions from the beginning of the Prologue to the end of Series D. Some will take longer because there are "transition missions" in some of the, well, transitions. For example, going from B1 to C1 skips a mission that you'd get to fly if your poor performance meant you were to go from B1 to C2 instead - these are not extra missions to reward successful players or anything like that, they're extra missions to make sure that all possible combinations of Series Bs, Cs, and Ds fit together into a coherent storyline. Going down the B1-C2-D1 path has to feel as seamless as going down the B1-C1-D2 path, etc.

The only way to get less than 23 missions (IIRC) before the credits is to let the Lionheart or Firekka get destroyed. :p
 
So basically, what Eder's saying is that 38 is the total number of missions in all series of the game - if you were to play each of the series through once (Prologue+A+B1+B2+C1+C2+D1+D2), you'd end up playing about 38 missions. However, in fact the game will include a bit more than that - for example, while the Prologue has 7 missions, most of them are included in A and B versions like in UE, and (also like in UE) the differences between the A and B versions sometimes are so big that they're basically two completely different missions.

The game will have a lot of replay value... if this replay value doesn't kill us during production :p.
 
The best part is that, after the armistice is broken, it's not a story of "The Cats aren't our enemies anymore" or any such namby-pamby stuff. I've been pining for the days when murdering Kilrathi was encouraged, and this mod will deliver.

Am I the only one that hated that? In WC4, you saw those tempting little Dralthi and thought "Damn, I'd sure love to stuff a heatseeker up those pipes", but knew that it would be politically incorrect to do so? Or, in WCP, when you really wanted to avenge your father, and stomp some ass with Hawk, but knew that it'd get you in trouble because it was "wrong"? Meh. Bring on the Kilrathi. UE had a nifty little taste of killing kittens, and in Standoff (to borrow a quote), you won't be able to swing a dead cat without hitting a Jalkehi.
 
overmortal said:
The best part is that, after the armistice is broken, it's not a story of "The Cats aren't our enemies anymore" or any such namby-pamby stuff. I've been pining for the days when murdering Kilrathi was encouraged, and this mod will deliver.
Indeed, all our characters are very resentful war-loving pricks.
 
I'm not sure whether that's supposed to be an insult or not . . . but I'm gonna take it as a compliment. What can I say? I love killing Kats.
 
who doesn't? I mean the bastards leave fur everywhere and when we aren't trying to kill them they are busy killing each other...
 
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