Thoughts on Prophecy Advance...

Zor Prime

That guy.
Well, I bought Prophecy right after it came off the truck at my local gamestop today, and read the instruction book while I sped home. So far to me, the game is amazing for a GBA port. I'm higly impressed with the quality that they were able to port to the handheld, and with a GBA:SP you can even play in the dark!

My only big problem with it so far (stop reading if you want to fins out for yourself) is the story. They did a decent job transferring the story, but there are a few place where they left out a sentence or a whole paragraph (especially in-mission comms) that would would have made the game make more sense to people who are new to WC. Other than that so far, it's great!

Now I just have to find somebody to play against! Anyone live in Fort Worth?
 
I haven't got the game yet, so I can't check the cuts, as a result this is somewhat speculative.. but that's probably the stuff that wasn't particularly essential and was cut to save space. When LOAF wakes up, he can let you know for sure.
 
Yeah.. they made a script with prioritized items.. The lower priority stuff was the first to get cut as they fit it all into the game. I think game flow on the different medium was probably more a concern than actual space.
 
My only real gripe is the inability to use "full guns". Everything else that was cut is understandable and forgiveable. In fact, it's probably a blessing...the PSX version of WCIII left so much of the original game intact that it was almost too confusing to play with an 10 button game pad. The gba has only 6 buttons, you know.
The ablilty to cycle through targets would have been nice. Otherwise, I am amazed at how fantastic this GBA game is. It's the greatest treat that the gaming industry has ever given me...a portable Wing Commander game...and a fine one at that. Now everyone buy it so EA will consider the profit potential of a Wing Commander VI.
 
If I'm not mistaken.. it automatically capitalizes the first letter (and only first letter) of each word in your callsign.. So ChrisReid is impossible. It's slightly frustrating having to choose Chris Reid (because that's my name, not my callsign). Though I suppose, if that's my biggest gripe..
 
Originally posted by ChrisReid
If I'm not mistaken.. it automatically capitalizes the first letter (and only first letter) of each word in your callsign..

Tc :(
 
Originally posted by deelee74
My only real gripe is the inability to use "full guns". Everything else that was cut is understandable and forgiveable.

In that case, I doubt that anybody will be using the Panther's Ion guns--everyone will just choose to go with Tachyon guns only.

The ablilty to cycle through targets would have been nice.

Is it possible to select a target, or are you stuck with whatever it defaults to? If you cannot change your target, then it will make anti-capship missions extremely difficult since you will be targeted onto a fighter instead of a capship (or vice versa).
 
Originally posted by Ijuin
In that case, I doubt that anybody will be using the Panther's Ion guns--everyone will just choose to go with Tachyon guns only.

The guns seem more distinct.. On the Wasp I switched between Tachyon and Ion a few times to see how each felt.


Is it possible to select a target, or are you stuck with whatever it defaults to? If you cannot change your target, then it will make anti-capship missions extremely difficult since you will be targeted onto a fighter instead of a capship (or vice versa).

It autotargets what's in front of you. Since fighters dart around so much, if you want to target a capship, it's easy to target a capship. For the same reason, a fighter isn't likely to stay between you and a capship for long, so in the process of chasing it you'll get a lock on it as well.
 
Originally posted by ChrisReid
The guns seem more distinct.. On the Wasp I switched between Tachyon and Ion a few times to see how each felt.

Isn't that Ion and Mass Driver? Anyway, the guns would probably have to have different specs if they want players to use all of them. Ion guns are actually the crappiest guns in WC3/4/P. They are the LEAST energy efficient guns available, and their refire rate and damage per shot are good only in comparison to the laser--lasers do 18 damage per shot and refire every 250 milliseconds, while Ions do 30 damage per shot and refire every 350 milliseconds. If it were not for their longer range (4000 m), then they would be inferior to the Mass Drivers (range 2500 m) in EVERY respect.


It autotargets what's in front of you. Since fighters dart around so much, if you want to target a capship, it's easy to target a capship. For the same reason, a fighter isn't likely to stay between you and a capship for long, so in the process of chasing it you'll get a lock on it as well.

Ah, so in other words it will target fighters, but it will not lock onto the target and hold the lock when you face away?
 
Thats correct, you can't lock on to a target. The only way to cycle through the targets is to move your cockpit so the fighter you want to target is the only one on the screen, which isn't too hard.
 
The guns in WCP:GBA seem a lot more 'individual' than those in regular-Prophecy. For instance, I find myself using the laser much more often than the mass driver because the increase in range is quite noticable...
 
Yeah, having the differences emphasized would definitely help. In PC WCP we have:

Lasers: Best range and refire rate in the game, but they also have the weakest damage output, so they are too weak to destroy heavy fighters on their own.

Mass Drivers: Best energy efficiency, medium damage, and a refire rate that is second only to Lasers, but their drawback is that they have the shortest range of any gun in the game.

Charging Mass Drivers: Powerful enough to destroy a Skate in one burst, a Moray in two, or a Manta in three, the CMD takes a couple of seconds to charge up, and has the same range limitation as the regular mass drivers.

Ion Cannons: Actually the crappiest gun in the game--they have the worst energy efficiency of any gun, their damage output is lower than any gun except for Lasers, and they have less range and a slower refire rate than Lasers. The only advantage they have over Mass Drivers is their greater range.

Particle Cannons: Medium damage, energy efficiency, and refire rate, combined with good range, makes the Particle Cannon a good all-around weapon.

Tachyon Cannons: The basic heavy gun, they have good range and power, but with an energy efficiency and refire rate that are a bit below average.

Stormfire Mk II: Possessing lots of range and a super refire rate that inflicts heavy damage rapidly, the Stormfire is mainly limited by its ammunition supply. Use your ammo wisely!

Plasma Mortar: Heavy enough to kill a light fighter in one shot, and anything lighter than a Skate Cluter or a Devil Ray in two shots, this weapon is also the only fighter mounted gun capable of penetrating the Phase Shields of Nephilim capital ships. Its drawbacks are the short range, refire delay of more than two seconds, and voracious energy consumption.
 
Originally posted by Zor Prime
Thats correct, you can't lock on to a target. The only way to cycle through the targets is to move your cockpit so the fighter you want to target is the only one on the screen, which isn't too hard.

In that case it will really suck when you are trying to lock a heavy torpedo and a fighter zips in front of you, interrupting the whole locking sequence.
 
My own complaint with WCP:A thus far is that the tiny little Select button is for decoys. Sometimes, when theres four or five bogies at a time, I get lock-ons one after another and the button is tiny and on an odd angle.
 
In that case it will really suck when you are trying to lock a heavy torpedo and a fighter zips in front of you, interrupting the whole locking sequence.

It only changes targets when the current target leaves the field of view.
 
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