WC1: eject while Claw explodes

Kaunisto

Rear Admiral
In the second last mission, I was about to fail (either me or TC die), so I decided to eject - just take Golden Sun, I wasn't playing real seriously anyway (my annual christmas run).
But just as I ejected, Tiger's Claw started exploding, I'm pretty sure it was dying. However as I had ejected, the game interpreted Claw to have existed in the moment mission ended and I was picked up and got Golden Sun. I don't think I've seen this ever before (because I very rarely eject).

So I'm wondering, can you eject after the moment TC starts to blow up or can this happen only when you've ejected just at right time before?
And the same thing for all other WCs, when carrier is mortally wounded, is it still possible to move on by ejecting if you do it (so that mission ends) before carrier is totally destroyed?
 
I remember doing that waay back when... I was upset I didn't see the claw explode as I kept spinning.
 
So I'm wondering, can you eject after the moment TC starts to blow up or can this happen only when you've ejected just at right time before?
And the same thing for all other WCs, when carrier is mortally wounded, is it still possible to move on by ejecting if you do it (so that mission ends) before carrier is totally destroyed?
I can't say definitively, and it probably is unique to each game, but generally I think losing the carrier would trigger a loss condition, so ejecting after that would not allow you to progress.
 
losing the carrier would trigger a loss condition, so ejecting after that would not allow you to progress.
But the question is, when exactly does the game consider carrier lost. Is it at start or end of the destruction animation?
(Also, when you eject, when does it count the mission to have ended? The moment you eject or at end of ejection animation? And could this mean that if you hit esc right after ejecting, that could make difference between the carrier having time to die?)

You'd expect the ship counts as destroyed the moment it gets fatally hit, but I'd imagine there could be programming that makes the carrier remain an object as long as there's animation and the game could judge result based on whether that object existed at moment of mission ending.
 
You'll see a capship go down in explosion and then crying it is exploding(even in tekst, not using the speech delay issues in WC2), at that time the ship is still "present"(you see brbrackets around it as it is signalling you). My guess during the "I'm dying" text/animation/scream it is still "present" in the game, and it's current state "alive". That would explain it.
 
Ingenious speculation here, and WC1 ships do indeed have a moment when explosion is imminent but you can still target them, and then you lose targeting and it's just animating the explosion. The Claw has an unusually long sequence where it cannot be targeted and sparks a bit before finally vanishing. But it doesn't make that distinction to determine when to give you the game over. First, it's useful to know that the "With your carrier destroyed, you drift endlessly through the void..." text was a last-minute addition. From Wing Commander 1 & 2 : The Ultimate Strategy Guide, page 257:

Chris Roberts and Ken Demarest were the two individuals most affected by the active bug lists. They were working 18 to 20 hours a day, often catching just a few hours' sleep on the couches in the lunge before starting on the next round. They were beat. "The last two weeks were mainly spent fixing all the bugs, large and small, and squeezing in a few final details," said Demarest. "Don't tell Dallas [Snell], but we managed to fit in the battle view (where the camera picks up all the action) and the sequence where, on the losing path, you float in space after the Tiger's Claw has been destroyed."

Both of these features indeed show signs of incomplete testing. The battle view (accessed with F6) results in a crash to DOS if you use it while a ship jumps out. Other views show the jump-out animation as expected.

But the drift-in-space message only displays after no enemy ships are present, at every time that I've seen it. This means you'll sometimes see it while the Claw sparks and explodes in the background (especially if you destroyed the Claw yourself to see what happens...) But it's quite easy to continue playing for minutes after it's gone. Just keep an enemy ship alive and close enough.

And if you eject any time before the message appears, the game continues as normal, delivering you to Halcyon's office even though it should be space dust! The post-ejection sequence doesn't check if the Claw is alive, so it doesn't know it should do anything else, and doesn't have anything in the script to display then.

And the same thing for all other WCs, when carrier is mortally wounded, is it still possible to move on by ejecting if you do it (so that mission ends) before carrier is totally destroyed?

Is there even anywhere in WC2 that the Concordia (or whatever other ship or base you're flying from) can be destroyed? I've tried using the "finger of death" cheat on them in some missions, and the game freezes, indicating that the ship has scripted invulnerability. But I didn't have the patience to try that in every single mission.
 
Is there even anywhere in WC2 that the Concordia (or whatever other ship or base you're flying from) can be destroyed? I've tried using the "finger of death" cheat on them in some missions, and the game freezes, indicating that the ship has scripted invulnerability. But I didn't have the patience to try that in every single mission.

The Bonnie Heather was notorious for having its invulnerability flag set.

As for the Concordia - if I recall, the mass Grikath torpedo runs at one of the mission which occurs in normal gameplay. Also, it can be destroyed in most capship CQB missions if you parry the phase-transit cannon shots with your own guns so that the Fralthra can survive long enough to chip away at it.
 
I assumed that in wc2 the capships are invulnerable, since they can have the full explosion animation, play the sad song then continue to fight.
 
Back
Top