WC2 Kilrathi Saga just isn't right

[Unregistered]

It had been years since I'd played wing commander, so I decided to dust off my Kilrathi Saga box and install the games. I played through Wing Commander I and it worked just fine, after starting wing commander 2 however, I could tell less care was taken in ensuring future compatibility for WC2.

First thing I noticed was It had speed issues which others here have reported. cutscenes and the title animation are too fast, while the gameplay is choppy and not nearly as fluid as WC1 was. Adjusting framerate doesn't help because some things are too fast while others too slow.

fast cutscenes and somewhat choppy gameplay I can live with, but I also encounter a plethora of weird bugs. I'll approach a wing of say 6 Sartha, after destroying 2, only one remains. After destroying it and returning to base, during debreifing it says I got 3 and shadow got 0, what happened to the other three ships? They just seem to randomly explode or something, sometimes I see it happen.

This also happens to friendlies during escort missions. During the third mission of the game, one I remember being fairly easy in the past, has been impossible so far. I've played the mission 6 times so far. 2 times out of those 6, both broadswords mysteriously disappear mere seconds after the battle begins. 3 other times the first would disappear and only seconds into the fight the other would go "NOOOOOO". The final try, I clearly saw both broadswords on my screen as I was tailing the final Sartha, after destroying the Sartha and circling around, I find only one broadsword, and just moments later, with no Sartha remaining, He goes "HELP MEEE!" and explodes. I can only guess that he was destroyed by flak from the Fralthra, but come on, they can't be that weak. A quote from my strategy guide suggests this mission shouldn't be nearly this hard.

"You can pretty much twiddle your thumbs on that mission, mainly keeping yourself alive, and the broadswords will do their job."

An it's not just that mission, every mission seems random and choatic, friendly and enemy ship exploding randomly, and also it's hard to track enemies because it gets really choppy with just a few ships. Choppy moments seem to be when alot of the ships will randomly be eliminated without explaination. Overall it just isn't fun. I enjoyed Wing Commander 1 over the past couple of days just as I had years ago, but 2 just seems out of wack, I don't feel like I have any real control over the outcome of the missions. Does anyone else have any of these problems, and possibly a solution. Hopefully this message wasn't to long to read through but I wanted to get everything across.

thanks

 

[Fearless]

First thing I noticed was It had speed issues which others here have reported. cutscenes and the title animation are too fast, while the gameplay is choppy and not nearly as fluid as WC1 was. Adjusting framerate doesn't help because some things are too fast while others too slow.

Yes, I noticed that, too. with a framerate of 12 to 15 fps, the in-flight game runs pretty smoothly on my 3GHz. Cutscenes are too fast, and trying to forward a dialogue by mouseclick results in skipping several lines of dialogue.

I'll approach a wing of say 6 Sartha, after destroying 2, only one remains. After destroying it and returning to base, during debreifing it says I got 3 and shadow got 0, what happened to the other three ships? They just seem to randomly explode or something, sometimes I see it happen.

I didn't have that problem. Possible answers are collisions, friendly fire, asteroids, or mines.

I've played the mission 6 times so far. 2 times out of those 6, both broadswords mysteriously disappear mere seconds after the battle begins. 3 other times the first would disappear and only seconds into the fight the other would go "NOOOOOO". The final try, I clearly saw both broadswords on my screen as I was tailing the final Sartha, after destroying the Sartha and circling around, I find only one broadsword, and just moments later, with no Sartha remaining, He goes "HELP MEEE!" and explodes. I can only guess that he was destroyed by flak from the Fralthra, but come on, they can't be that weak.

This is obviously about WC2. I guess I remember the mission (played it 2 weeks ago). Yes, the Broadsword probably was killed by flak after being weakened by fighters. I found it almost impossible to save both bombers, but one is definitely possible. Concentrate on the Sartha attacking the bombers and don't get distracted by those flying around. Use missiles were necessary.

Regarding choppiness: Try switching Win95 compatibility mode (in the context menu of wc1.exe and wc2.exe) on or off. I ran wc1.exe with Win95 compatibility and wc2.exe without.

 

[ChrisReid]

This isn't entirely a tech support subject. You should probably register and continue this in the general forum.

First thing I noticed was It had speed issues which others here have reported. cutscenes and the title animation are too fast, while the gameplay is choppy and not nearly as fluid as WC1 was. Adjusting framerate doesn't help because some things are too fast while others too slow.

fast cutscenes and somewhat choppy gameplay I can live with, but I also encounter a plethora of weird bugs. I'll approach a wing of say 6 Sartha, after destroying 2, only one remains. After destroying it and returning to base, during debreifing it says I got 3 and shadow got 0, what happened to the other three ships? They just seem to randomly explode or something, sometimes I see it happen.

That particular situation happens in the DOS version as well. The Sartha are ramming the Concordia, or in some cases, the Concordia's collision detection box. Weakened by the flak cannon fire, they'll instantly explode. The Sarthas are particularly prone to let this occur when circling the Concordia. It's not unusual to have a couple do themselves in. Sometimes Major Edmunds will come over the com and take credit for the kills.

This also happens to friendlies during escort missions. During the third mission of the game, one I remember being fairly easy in the past, has been impossible so far. I've played the mission 6 times so far. 2 times out of those 6, both broadswords mysteriously disappear mere seconds after the battle begins. 3 other times the first would disappear and only seconds into the fight the other would go "NOOOOOO". The final try, I clearly saw both broadswords on my screen as I was tailing the final Sartha, after destroying the Sartha and circling around, I find only one broadsword, and just moments later, with no Sartha remaining, He goes "HELP MEEE!" and explodes. I can only guess that he was destroyed by flak from the Fralthra, but come on, they can't be that weak. A quote from my strategy guide suggests this mission shouldn't be nearly this hard.

"You can pretty much twiddle your thumbs on that mission, mainly keeping yourself alive, and the broadswords will do their job."

If you eliminate all the Sartha and both Broadswords are remaining, you can follow that advice. I find in the DOS version, one Broadsword has quite a bit of trouble taking out the Fralthra. It's taken me half about dozen times to complete the mission (in the DOS version) when starting over when I'm out of practice. Broadswords have no afterburners, and Sartha are very maneuverable and have powerful neutron guns. I actually leave the Broadswords behind at the middle nav point and fly up to pick off a few Sartha, because the Broadswords are vulnerable.

An it's not just that mission, every mission seems random and choatic, friendly and enemy ship exploding randomly, and also it's hard to track enemies because it gets really choppy with just a few ships. Choppy moments seem to be when alot of the ships will randomly be eliminated without explaination. Overall it just isn't fun. I enjoyed Wing Commander 1 over the past couple of days just as I had years ago, but 2 just seems out of wack, I don't feel like I have any real control over the outcome of the missions. Does anyone else have any of these problems, and possibly a solution. Hopefully this message wasn't to long to read through but I wanted to get everything across.

If you previously disabled sound card hardware acceleration to fix the video playback in Prophecy, you need to turn it back on to have Kilrathi Saga play smoothly. The choppiness is a real problem, but Wing Commander 2 was known for having the most friendly fire and associated issues like that. I pretty much encountered all these issues on some level when I first restarted the DOS WC2 in DOSBox after a long time without playing. They mostly went away when I readjusted to the engine and practiced a bunch. There are some other occasional bugs Kilrathi Saga WC2 introduces, so I'd recommend the DOS one in DOSBox if you have it available.

 

[Krueg]

Unfortunatly I got rid of my cd DOS version of Wing Commander 2 when I got the Kilrathi Saga, and my disk version decomposed long ago.

Is it possible to patch the Kilrathi Saga version to convert it to the Dos version?

 

[ChrisReid]

No.

 

[TristanX]

I had the same problems but adjusting the fps to 26 worked for me.

For the cutscenes try to slow down the message speed.