Wc universe page updated

[Wedge009]

What's wrong with the site as it is? Simplicity is good.

Originally posted by Quarto
Oh, and the Free Trader is available much, much earlier than '68. We first encountered the Bonnie Heather in '55 or '56 - and even then, IIRC, it was not a new design.

Free Traders are indeed "a classic design", but when did we see it in SM1/2? Or are we referring to novels here?

As for excessively expensive military ships - can you imagine managing to get that much money, then having to eject on your first mission? No, I think the enlistment idea seems much better, both in terms of practicality, and WCU realism.

 

[redwolf]

I'll give you simplicity...and its covered ground in Priv...

You can't eject! (or even if you DO eject, you get taken as a slave...)

 

[Wedge009]

Uh huh. One thing that always cracks me up is the explosion music you hear when you're shot down or self-destruct. Love that slowing-down-running-out-of-batteries sound.

 

[T A F K A W]

I'm not talking about totally cahnging it, just improving it slightly graphically...

 

[$tormin]

will you be able to change the ordinance loadout in this game?

 

[Bandit LOAF]

Bonnie Heather herself appears in the WC1 manual for Kilrathi Saga and Super Wing Commander -- and then in the novel Freedom Flight.

 

[Darkmage]

I'm thinking of making it that when you eject you can end up at a planet, if you have enough credits to buy a ship, if not, your screwed, always good to keep 25,000 credits handy for an emergency!you can change your loadoutm but you need cash!

[Edited by Darkmage on 04-22-2001 at 19:14]

 

[Darkmage]

still... the idea of wnlistment, I don't know If we can for a start, and doesn't that mean I have to write a storyline, and design missions etc, at the moment we can use randomizing programs to do the missions and stuff.

 

[Darkmage]

What if you are a pilot who has left confed? you have the qualifications to fly military level craft, As I recall, the militia get to fly military craft and they're civilians.

 

[Ghost]

Darkmage: in what stage the game is, you have something or only ideas ???

 

[Darkmage]

We have an engine and a lot of the code is complete. We are importing models and working on code right now, the code will be finished in a few months.

 

[Ghost]

How many Mb it weights and how will be the distribution ????

 

[Darkmage]

I don't know, I'm the Idea's man I came up with the game and I had ideas on how to implement some parts I also do 3d graphics. Hellcatv is the man on coding and size, we are going to include mp3 music so any privateer mp3s will help us, we already have the privateer mp3s from the cic's music section. There is sort of a demo out, it misses all the features though. I'm using it to design some space scenes.

 

[Viking26]

I admire your vision, Darkmage, but I think you may be getting ahead of yourself. You seem to be full of ideas for features...these need to be documented in one place and looked at together to see how they depend on each other...they can then be prioritised and investigated for feasability. Before you promise a feature on here you need to make sure it's going to work.

It would be great if the web page had contacts for all the team, and an explanation of the technical approach to the mod, for example what software development process you are using, programming languages etc. If you don't know what you're using I suggest you find out before you do anything else...without a formal spec and an understood process I think you are going to have a very hard time designing and implementing (let alone testing) your code. I presume your project will work across the Net, so it's even more important to make sure that the methodology is well known.

The last of my 3 cents is to think abstraction...that is, don't put more detail in than you need to. It is impossible to specify everything in exact detail at the beginning of a project and to get it right. I think (eg) to talk about commodities and their prices now is premature...a more appropriate requirement at this stage is "the game shall allow players to buy and sell commodities while docked in space stations" or something similar. The same goes for key bindings...you've already defined what keys end users will press to get certain functions...this can be a good thing because now all your coders know that is reserved. (Key mappings are another thing that should go in a central file that everybody has an up to date copy of, so there's no confusion). But say you get half way through and you've written code on the assumption that the A key does X, and you think "hmm...it would make more sense if A did Y". Because you committed earlier than necessary, you restrict yourself down the line. So IMHO you should start abstract and work slowly towards more detail, and don't commit yourself to a particular way of doing things before you need to.

Good luck

 

[$tormin]

could you make it so that when you fight some types of enimies like pirates or retros thier ships don't have ONE weapons loadout. sorta random or having several loadouts for the comp to chose from. it would make things WAY more interesting if you don't know what the other guys packing

 

[Darkmage]

the project is getting coded in linux, I don't know what language is being used. I am focusing on commodities right now because I KNOW what can be implemented, I have been in contact with the head programmer, and everything on the webpage CAN be implemented. Most of it has been, Vega Strike was intended to be made as either a Privateer game, or an armada game, I'm just taking it further.

 

[Bob McDob]

Originally posted by Darkmage
I would have thoughtn though that there would have been at least one ship from wc3 in there.. though I t does tie-in it has a gladius which armada has, armada also has the arrow from wc3, it sort of ties in doesn't it?

And the Dralthi from WingIII...and the Demon, I believe, which kinda looks like the Phantom...and let's not forget the confed carrier in Armada was named Lexington.

BTW, on enlistment, I know I mentioned this before, but how about a desperate Confed (in the war's most hopeless areas) hiring Privateers to raid the Kilrathi, giving them low-level military craft and paying them bounties? I don't know, my nerves are on edge right now...

 

[Quarto]

Originally posted by Darkmage
Ok how's this then, that would be crap. Everyone I've spoken too wants to fly Wing Commander ships from the first 3 games, I was sure there was a mention somewhere in Wing Commander about people being ableto own military ships. In either event owning an excalibur while it may be the best ship in Wing Commander Universe, it does have draw backs, Any confed craft who see you will open fire, as they will detect you are flying a stolen craft. the sam goes for all black market craft, confed or Kilrathi.

You have to understand one thing - you are designing the game. You, not the community. Why were there no MilSpec ships in Privateer? Is it because the designers thought that nobody would want them? No - it's because they knew that those ships would disbalance the game.
Now, I don't know much about how a Privateer-type game should work, but I know this much - the Privateer designers knew what they were doing.