The Art of Wing Commander Arena - Part Twenty-Four (November 13, 2007)

[Bandit LOAF]

This is the final orthographic image. This is the Rapier II in the
the textures it used in the finished Wing Commander Arena game. The interesting thing here is the never-before-seen details... like the gun inset and the landing gear! The latter, especially, is pretty interesting; it shows real dedication to detail, given that the game that was designed to be viewed from the top down. In fact, this art was done for a Privateer-style ship arming screen.

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This is part of a series of beautiful Wing Commander Arena concept images graciously provided by Gaia Industries. You can find the original article here. You can thank the guys at Gaia by picking up Street Trace NYC on Xbox Live Arcade!


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Original update published on November 13, 2007

 

[Vinman]

A Privateer-style ship arming screen?

Could you elaborate? Was it planned that you could create your own loadouts early in development?

 

[AD]

A Privateer-style ship arming screen?

Could you elaborate? Was it planned that you could create your own loadouts early in development?

Yeah, something like that. I think at one point they planned on some kind of economy system where the more kills you got, the more money you had to upgrade your fighter. That eventually got replaced with the multiple variants and pickup system.

 

[Mekt-Hakkikt]

Hmm, not a bad idea as well. It's always great to have your favourite weapon's loadout. But there always would be some over the top combination everyone would get. And no one would get Neutron guns or cloaks.

I think I'd like 2 Lasers and 2 Mesons.

 

[ChrisReid]

Hmm, not a bad idea as well. It's always great to have your favourite weapon's loadout. But there always would be some over the top combination everyone would get. And no one would get Neutron guns or cloaks.

The thing about economy in a multiplayer game is that the cheap guns you might have passed over in Privateer have a much bigger role as you lose ships more frequently and can't just reload a savegame. Cloaks are also far more useful in multiplayer.

 

[Mekt-Hakkikt]

Ah, I didn't understand it that when you lost your ship you had to re-buy it. I thought once bought, always have. That of course changes everything. Except that I still find cloaking useless.

 

[ChrisReid]

Ah, I didn't understand it that when you lost your ship you had to re-buy it. I thought once bought, always have.

Even in Privateer, short of reloading a savegame, if something gets too damaged/destroyed, you have to rebuy it.

Except that I still find cloaking useless.

Do you just mean that you don't like using them? In Arena right now, being able to line up behind someone without them being aware is something many players successfully do.

 

[Mekt-Hakkikt]

Even in Privateer, short of reloading a savegame, if something gets too damaged/destroyed, you have to rebuy it.

Yes, but I didn't think that Arena would have such a sophisticated (for lack of a better word) system as Priv. I thought that Arena would have money for unlocking ships and equipment instead.

Do you just mean that you don't like using them? In Arena right now, being able to line up behind someone without them being aware is something many players successfully do.

Ultimately, yes: I haven't found a proper use for cloaks for me yet. The energy cost is too high and you decloak too quickly IMO. More skilled people may have more use for it and I also quite sure that it has more uses in a game with less players where stray shots that decloak you are not that common.