The Darkest Dawn is Cleared for Launch

Glad you liked it :)
And if you want more you should check out the mission editor. Maybe you can come up with ideas for cool missions yourself!
 
Glad you liked it :)
And if you want more you should check out the mission editor. Maybe you can come up with ideas for cool missions yourself!
Do you tell drug addicts how to make their own drugs, too!? You're perpetuating an addiction, sir. But, as an addict, I've gotta say: you're goddamn right I'll be making some of my own.

Also, with DD coming out, I am currently playing through the entire Wing Commander universe. Now that I finished up DD, it's on to WCIII, and, wow, what a difference. I know WCIII is old enough to vote, but in DD it felt like I was flying through space. Now, in WCIII, it feels like I'm sitting still, and, like, space is moving around me, dude. Whoa......
 
Do you tell drug addicts how to make their own drugs, too!? You're perpetuating an addiction, sir. But, as an addict, I've gotta say: you're goddamn right I'll be making some of my own.
As a matter of fact I.... ahem... No, I don't.
Don't hesitate to ask your questions here in the forums, I would love to regularly talk about mission design here as well. At the moment I always go to the HLP or WCS forums to do that.

it feels like I'm sitting still, and, like, space is moving around me, dude. Whoa......
Well, if you look deep down into the engine there are really some games in the space sim genre where the world spins around you. :D
X-BTF is one of them IIRC, I don't remember if WC3 is one of them, but it may be the case.

What I dislike in WC3 is that the mission structure and story in missions is often a bit... dull, compared to WC2. That's one of the cases where I say that more variety would have been better.
WCS is considerably newer of course. So it isn't really fair to compare them. Especially since it was WC3 that made WCS possible in the first place. Also if you consider that this game was released in 1993 it has awesome graphics! And I still like its graphic style (darker mood, "realistic" looking ships, asymmetric Kilrathi ships with sharp edges) most, followed by WC1 and WCP.
 
I just wanted to say I really enjoyed this game - the cinematics were great and it really recaptured the feeling of WC3/4 with an excellent engine. My only complaints were the 'waste all your afterburner fuel to arrive too late' missions, and that Mastermind sounded like a computer voice synthesizer with no emotion.

How were the cutscenes done? What 3D software was used?

Bravo!
 
Glad you liked it :)

btw: you can use "glide" in that mission you mentioned to save your afterburner fuel. You will still be too late though. ;)

And I think the 3D software used was 3DsMax and the character animations were done in Poser IIRC.
 
Aginor, thanks for your reply - it was a great game. I realised the Glide trick after I finished the game. I did wonder how my wingmen had afterburn fuel left after they raced ahead of me. Useful for when I played the Babylon 5 game though ;)

Would it be possible to make the Poser assets available to make our own cutscenes? For instance the Confed uniform they all wear is very, very nice.
 
I fear that won't be possible, the confed uniform was some uniform model Tolwyn bought IIRC and we retuxtured it, so it's not free to use IIRC.
 
Generally with Poser/Daz assets if you retextured it you can make the texture available and simply tell the user which product to buy to use it, but I see your problem.
 
I just downloaded this. :D

Coming as a Prophecy fan back in the day I always wanted a game like prophecy or better where I could fight the Kilrathi like in the simulator. Horrah for Darkest Dawn.

I'm slightly overwhelmed however so would like a bit of guidance to get my feet on the ground (although its space :\)

I'm trying to map buttons to my joystick but there seems to be so many controls! More than I could possibly remember even on keyboard. Are some of them not really needed and are just there because of the Freespace engine? What controls should I make sure to know except the obvious firing primary and secondary guns?

Is it easy to set all the commands you're used to from the other WC games to the same buttons they used ?
 
This depends on how you play, but not much.
First of all: You won't need most of the controls. Some are quite handy though.

Important keys (QUERTY layout):

Ctrl = Fire weapons
Space = Fire missile
, = previous gun
. = next gun
/ = cycle through missiles (actually I'm not sure if this is "/", it is the key next to the ".")
Q = equalize shields
C = communication
Tab = afterburner
T = cycle targets
K = cycle subsystems
Y = target ship in reticle
X = countermeasure
B = targets the next bomber or torpedo
E = cycles through your "escort list" (list of important ships, enemy or friendly)
The Autopilot which is "Alt-A" instead of just "A"
The energy management is on the keys del,insert,pageup,pagedwn,home,end, its layout on the keyboard is the same as on the screen.
I don't remember the keys for speed settings since I don't use them, sorry.
I also don't remember the "glide" key, but I have it on my stick. It is most useful when flying an Arrow or Excalibur. Use it!
"next attacking ship" may also be useful.

If you use a joystick you have to assign your throttle axis to "throttle (absolute)" and maybe also your rudders.
I also have Fire1, Fire2, Tab, Y, T, X, Q, Glide on my stick.

The rest is bonus. There is some nice stuff in it (for example attacker of target which is cool in escort missions) but the keys I mentioned should be sufficient for most missions.

You can change them, except the Alt-A I think, which had to be hardcoded in the mission files IIRC.
 
Oooops, there's an error in my post above. I reversed Y and Z it seems (I use a QUERTZ keyboard)
 
Brilliant. Helps a lot :)

It also helps that I have now started again with the prologue as I didn't notice it before... Definitely useful ha
 
Coming as a Prophecy fan back in the day I always wanted a game like prophecy or better where I could fight the Kilrathi like in the simulator. Horrah for Darkest Dawn.

Don't forget that Standoff used the Vision Engine (WCP's engine) to create its mod too. If you are just getting back into WC, you've got quite a bit of mod-playing to do between those two and the others.... :D
 
Oh man this looks like heaven. Are you still working on the mac port? Unfortunately I have trouble running games with bootcamp so I don't know if that's gonna work for me. I found a link to a wineskin but the file was deleted and I'm just itching to play this game.
 
This is an excellent game/mod/indie, whatever it is... Brings back memories of WC III and IV. Very well-made campaign, 55 missions in all from what I've read. Real voice actors and custom CGI cinematics too.

If you have trouble with your ship rolling when you start a mission (like I did), look here:

http://www.wcsaga.com/forum/index.php?f=3&t=857&rb_v=viewtopic

@Aginor

Also important to know: M = match speed with target, ALT-M = auto match speed. H to target hostiles, ALT-H will auto-target hostiles.

[ = 1/3 speed, ] = 1/2 speed, \ = full speed. - to decrease speed, = to increase... and BACKSPACE stops you completely. Also, A and Z keys are handy, they will lower (Z) or increase (A) your speed while pressed... Very handy for maintaining distances behind targets.
 
Not really familiar with how the AI works in the Freespace engine. I seem to remember that in Standoff and Wc3, as the Kilrathi got smarter and tougher, so do the Confed pilots. Does Saga work the same way? Am replaying on Hard, and it seems like it's a lot harder to keep some of them alive than I remember, and on several occasions, I've witnessed them doing very stupid things, like fly between to capships, stop, and just sit there until they get destroyed...
 
Somehow I didn't notice this before, but I (or rather a pilot with my callsign) was killed in the third Brimstone mission. :p
 
Iceblade... yes... main campaign mission 3 (Episode 1, Brimstone 3)... pilot from the Mud Shark squad. ;)
 
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