Bandit LOAF
Long Live the Confederation!
DO YOU think that these--seen in Wing Commander III, IV and Prophecy--are supposed to be the same space station?
The answer is: maybe? It's a classic case of the individual game's developers probably intending them to be the same station but the endless march of lore deciding otherwise. Let's take a closer look...
The script refers to the WC3 base only as "Confed HQ" with no location specified. The novelization, however, decided that it was Epsilon Sector HQ, located at "the Confed HQ complex on Torgo III." (A reasonable choice since the Victory picks up Tolwyn at Torgo later.)
The folks doing the Kilrathi Saga manual don't seem to have been aware of that, though, as we have orders sending Blair to "Addington Station, Border World 8, Leyton Sector" for his new assignment. Must've been a stopover!
The story behind the WC4 base is a bit messier. The script calls for the shuttle to appear near the rings of Saturn and then to swing around Jupiter to reveal the supercarriers and then the base...
We don't see Saturn in the finished segment but we do seem to end up near one of Jupiter's moons (after passing the Victory). Here are the storyboards!
The novel, however, comes up with a pretty detailed story about how it's a former LEO defense station named Orion that had been moved to Earth-Moon L5 after being damaged in the Battle of Earth. Wonder what that planet seen out the window is!
The Prophecy version is pretty unequivocably orbiting Jupiter, though, and that's supported by both the script and the official guide. Of course, it doesn't last long!
Oh! It IS the same mesh carried over from game to game. It's the rare object that never appears in-engine... but you can also tell it's a pretty quick kitbash: the center is a stack of Blackmane base bridges and the prongs are from Clarkson-class transport cabs.
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Original update published on October 18, 2023
The answer is: maybe? It's a classic case of the individual game's developers probably intending them to be the same station but the endless march of lore deciding otherwise. Let's take a closer look...
The script refers to the WC3 base only as "Confed HQ" with no location specified. The novelization, however, decided that it was Epsilon Sector HQ, located at "the Confed HQ complex on Torgo III." (A reasonable choice since the Victory picks up Tolwyn at Torgo later.)
The folks doing the Kilrathi Saga manual don't seem to have been aware of that, though, as we have orders sending Blair to "Addington Station, Border World 8, Leyton Sector" for his new assignment. Must've been a stopover!
The story behind the WC4 base is a bit messier. The script calls for the shuttle to appear near the rings of Saturn and then to swing around Jupiter to reveal the supercarriers and then the base...
We don't see Saturn in the finished segment but we do seem to end up near one of Jupiter's moons (after passing the Victory). Here are the storyboards!
The novel, however, comes up with a pretty detailed story about how it's a former LEO defense station named Orion that had been moved to Earth-Moon L5 after being damaged in the Battle of Earth. Wonder what that planet seen out the window is!
The Prophecy version is pretty unequivocably orbiting Jupiter, though, and that's supported by both the script and the official guide. Of course, it doesn't last long!
Oh! It IS the same mesh carried over from game to game. It's the rare object that never appears in-engine... but you can also tell it's a pretty quick kitbash: the center is a stack of Blackmane base bridges and the prongs are from Clarkson-class transport cabs.
--
Original update published on October 18, 2023
