Suggestion for the next build of Flight Commander

Maj.Striker

Swabbie
Banned
Ok, here's my big suggestion for your next build. Online multiplayer support. :) Doesn't have to be too fancy to begin with but just a simple selection screen where you select your faction (confed or Kilrathi) then your ship and square off. I know this is a big addition but it would be awesome to have a slick interface in a slightly more modern engine for us to kick around some WC combat. Just a suggestion...

After you've got that there's tons of ways you could expand it to include selecting your missile load out, maybe a gun configuration on some of the fighters and maybe add in some different factions (i.e UBW etc).
 
Maj.Striker said:
Ok, here's my big suggestion for your next build. Online multiplayer support. :) Doesn't have to be too fancy to begin with but just a simple selection screen where you select your faction (confed or Kilrathi) then your ship and square off. I know this is a big addition but it would be awesome to have a slick interface in a slightly more modern engine for us to kick around some WC combat. Just a suggestion...

After you've got that there's tons of ways you could expand it to include selecting your missile load out, maybe a gun configuration on some of the fighters and maybe add in some different factions (i.e UBW etc).
Well Striker is right that would be great but not everyone is a deathmatch person so why not include some form of co-op mode where 2 or more players can fly missions! It would add a whole new elemnt when it comes to flying with an actual maniac on your wing or see how many people fly by the book! Just a little add on to Strikers suggestion for multiplayer WC!
 
Sounds like a good suggestion, but it definitely won't be in the next build. Also, depending on the difficulty in coding this, it may not be in any builds to come for while.
 
well, as an alternative i would recommend a carier, where you can actually get a "real" wingman/commander, and go on a mision together, or when you log in you find yourself in a scramble. and can launch while the others are in battle.

An AI engine would be needed for your opponents though, i doubt a lot of people would play the kilrathi.
 
Mace said:
well, as an alternative i would recommend a carier, where you can actually get a "real" wingman/commander, and go on a mision together, or when you log in you find yourself in a scramble. and can launch while the others are in battle.

An AI engine would be needed for your opponents though, i doubt a lot of people would play the kilrathi.

That's getting ahead of the game, I'm just suggesting a basic deathmatch/team deathmatch setting. If that can be done successfully then you could expand it out. This could be a very popular project if it were the first "modern" WC game capable of online play.

For all those that don't know, you can play Wing commander Armada/Proving Grounds online via dosbox, its definitely worth looking into! :)
 
Yeah, it would be quite fun to have, but I'd like to get single player polished up to a prophecy level first.

Doing screens and such is easy, the difficult part is synchronizing game state in real time.

Still, the source code is out there, so if somebody has time to add this, they can. I'd definitely accept a patch that does this.

The main things I'm working on now are adding jumps/jump cutscenes, and the ability to create new custom cutscenes with scripts.
 
I think 1st you should expande single player as much as you could (costume scenes during the game or entering a new waypoint, better enemy and cap ship turret AI, inflight map, perhaps audio briefing or planetary bombardement, etc). Multiplayer could be fun, but it would take the engine into another direction. WC has been SP only -except Armada- and it has provided me more fun than any MP game. I've rather see a solid and highly moddable SP engine than having a weak SP/MP engine.
 
Unregistered said:
I think 1st you should expande single player as much as you could (costume scenes during the game or entering a new waypoint, better enemy and cap ship turret AI, inflight map, perhaps audio briefing or planetary bombardement, etc). Multiplayer could be fun, but it would take the engine into another direction. WC has been SP only -except Armada- and it has provided me more fun than any MP game. I've rather see a solid and highly moddable SP engine than having a weak SP/MP engine.

Yes, with the exception of planetary missions and an inflight map, those ones you mentioned are high on my priority list. You can already do audio briefings pretty much, maybe a minor change if someone actually produces a voice acted briefing.
 
How about Everytime you encounter the enmey they aren't six inches off your butt.

I miss is turning to face the enemy at a distance and burning in to engage.

Turning and burning to evade not cutting your speed to zero you can acutally fire on them.

Missiles locks are a little buggy I might as well be fireing dumbfires.
 
Two diffeent colors for armor and shields. and the ability to toggle a review VDU.
 
Thanks for your comments, you might want to register so I know who I'm talking to. Agree that the AI could use some work. But the AI always being on your tail, isn't that quite a strategically optimal place for them to be? I'll have to look into it to see if the collision response is right for that situation. Can you tell me if the physics is misbehaving, or is it just the AI you don't like in this situation.

What do you mean toggle a rear vdu, like pressing F4? Or a rear cam in the cockpit instead of the target cam? Was that in Prophecy?
 
In Prophecy in the upper right corner of the HUD was a zoomed in display of your target. Great because for iding Moray bombers. By pressing Ctrl-F4 you turned that zoom picture into a review mirrow of sort.


aliens appearing on your six, I'd feel better if they got there by flying there.

whole point of a dog fight is manvering for your shot. sometimes when you encounter an enmey the are not always flying towards you. sometimes they are flying away from you and sometimes you are flying away from them. I've got nothing againist being ambushed but to always start out like that.

autosliding
 
Ah, I also see Control F8 does something similar. These look like they would be quite doable.

As far as enemies starting off behind you, well that's completely up to the mission designer. I just had them like that because I was getting a sample of missions done as fast as possible. I tend to concentrate on the engine, not missions.
 
Idea

IF eddieb was to make MP, I might have a suggestion, but this would take considerable time to be accomplished, and would require a team to do it. Rankings of pilots. Like in the original WC you earn points for flying on missions and completing them and got rewards. Make it a certian amount of points to rise in the ranks, but cutting off at a certian limit (or else they would go all the way to fleet admiral and it would be no fun.) My favorite part of it all, you all know that you can't always bring your ship back, and you must eject sometimes. You will fly with real people on your wing and if you eject they must finish that nav point and the one after it before an SAR can get you, if they lose you are captured. Deaths happen also in real life flying, and they happened in WC, if someone were to die, they could redeem the pilot but drop only 1 rank. If they are 2 LT. then they just redeem and continue with no penalties. Missions are planned by the few Admirals that are allowed in the game. So it has some strategy involved and the other team (Kilrathi or Nephilum) Will plan there strategies. Each race will have their own ranks, pros and cons. Confed can eject from the fighters. The Kilrathi have the better fighters but weaker capital ships, Nephilum are the juggernaughts of the game, and are tough their only weakness is the limited ships they have. AI would also be inserted into the game for some missions if the other races aren't played as much as Confed (which everyone will want to play.)
 
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