What's your least favorite craft to dogfight with?

[ChrisReid]

Yes, yes, yes, yes. Overall, I hated P2 (the gameplay - the story I thought was fairly neat), and the Jincilla Skull was one of the contributing reasons. Maybe not quite in the same league as getting stuck at one navpoint for half an hour because of random-and-potentially-infinite enemies, but...

Aww, I love P2, I just loathe Jincilla Skulls with a passion that will never die.

What about proximity missiles? The Skull was a tough fighter to hit with your guns, but proximity missiles took care of them decently well. The big turrets on the Trisystem Capships were pretty tough to get around though.

 

[Quarto]

Aww, I love P2, I just loathe Jincilla Skulls with a passion that will never die.

Yeah, most people more or less like P2, or at least dislike it less passionately than I do. I utterly detest it, I have to say - I never even tried playing it a second time, in spite of the fun and interesting storyline. I hate it when people use the word "broken" in regards to gameplay, but that's really the way I feel about P2's gameplay. I was bothered most of all by the random encounters that could get you stuck in one place until death, and by the terrible, terrible ship progression - all those ships to choose from, and none of them worth a dime except for the most expensive one.

There are, however, two things that especially ruined my experience, and which imply that I never really had the full picture of the game - firstly, the fact that I am a mouse player, and P2's mouse mode was terrible. Secondly, I only ever had the Deluxe (Win95) edition, where the frame limiting mechanism is broken, and the game ran too fast on modern machines. I used a program to slow it down to acceptable speeds, but obviously, this came at a price, the gameplay was nowhere near as smooth as it should have been.

 

[ChrisReid]

I do think that P2 had way too many ships for its own good, but there were a couple of good stepping stones. The Straith & Shaman are what most people spend their starting time on, and then they end at the Danrik or Freij II. I'd also recommend trying the Icarius, Drakkar, Duress & Heretic. If these were all that you could fly, we'd probably be talking about how great the P2 ships were, debating the merits of one or another, making paper models of them, etc., but unfortunately, they all blur together. Who can tell the difference between a Skecis and a Kalrechi? (weirdo names, too...)

 

[t.c.cgi]

I hate fighting the WC2 Bloodfang. There's no other fight so boring because it always turns into me spinning around like a top in the Saber to keep the ugly little thing on the screen. I did it three times, now I just hit the explode button on that furball.

 

[Gimpy]

I do think that P2 had way too many ships for its own good, but there were a couple of good stepping stones. The Straith & Shaman are what most people spend their starting time on, and then they end at the Danrik or Freij II. I'd also recommend trying the Icarius, Drakkar, Duress & Heretic.

Personally I never saw the merit of the Icarius but gladly bought the Heretic whenever I played through. Only issue with it is the spacing of the guns so off center, trying to down a Skull without missiles was like trying to swat a fly with a baseball bat.

 

[Mekt-Hakkikt]

Me neither for the Icarius but the Drakkar, Duress and Heretic were all once in my possession before I got to the Freij II. What I never understood was why the Danrik is more expensive than the Freij II despite being inferior. But I think it's accessible earlier in the game than the Freij II. They're both rather ugly though.

Hmm, I think I should have used the proximity missiles more often...

 

[ChrisReid]

The Freij is a box, but the Danrik was relatively sleek. The Freij II was a kind of bonus ship. It's got the best stats and it's even cheaper than the Danrik, but does not appear until the news bulletin announces its release.

 

[Flashpoint]

I've just started replaying SM2 and am thinking that Hhriss, while not as armoured as Gratha, are much more dangerous.
Only met them in pairs so far. Not looking forward to wings of 4+

Edit: Just checked out the ships database and that seems to be wrong. Strange, because I always felt it took longer to chew through a Gratha than a Hhriss. Maybe the Hhriss' larger size meant it was simply easier to score hits with a full spread of guns

 

[Wedge009]

I hate fighting the WC2 Bloodfang. There's no other fight so boring because it always turns into me spinning around like a top in the Saber to keep the ugly little thing on the screen. I did it three times, now I just hit the explode button on that furball.

That's why you're supposed to make some distance between you before closing the gap again. Jazz exhibited a similar fighting style too, though I suppose the Bloodfang is superior to the Sabre and Morningstar in some aspects.

 

[JasonRocZ]

I didn't mind P2 really...I rather liked it... The gameplay at the time for me at least was different from any of the other Wing Commanders I played, and I think that was one of the selling points for me...It gave a real eerie feel to the game as you were in a really futuristic/odd/strange/exceedingly different universe than our own, I have to say that I never knew what was going to happen next....Although, the story for me was a lil hard to follow. I did and still do rather enjoy it....Except when I see Christopher Walken in the game I always think "I need more Cowbell" or him singing that Lady Gaga "Poker Face" song....either or are hilarious, good Youtube material.

Oh and my least favorite craft to fight of all time... would have to be.... Grikaths....It always seemed like they had a set of "SUPER" Neutron guns up the butt. Or an extreeeeemely accurate turret

 

[t.c.cgi]

That's why you're supposed to make some distance between you before closing the gap again. Jazz exhibited a similar fighting style too, though I suppose the Bloodfang is superior to the Sabre and Morningstar in some aspects.

Oh, I know. I did it the proper way the first two times. And all of the AI behaves similarly. Sartha's can hug pretty tight and spin around in your blind spots all day... but they tend to explode with a shot or two.

 

[ChrisReid]

I didn't mind P2 really...I rather liked it... The gameplay at the time for me at least was different from any of the other Wing Commanders I played, and I think that was one of the selling points for me...It gave a real eerie feel to the game as you were in a really futuristic/odd/strange/exceedingly different universe than our own, I have to say that I never knew what was going to happen next....Although, the story for me was a lil hard to follow. I did and still do rather enjoy it....

As the years have gone by, I'm really happy that this is the prevailing feel for the game now. I hear it summarized like this quite a bit today. The really exotic feel and a couple of the cumbersome bits really irked the internet back in 1996. People were freaking out. I suppose the same happens/happened with Prophecy, the Movie, Arena and everything else too, to varying degrees, but Privateer 2's boldly different setting was shock to some at the time.

Oh and my least favorite craft to fight of all time... would have to be.... Grikaths....It always seemed like they had a set of "SUPER" Neutron guns up the butt. Or an extreeeeemely accurate turret

Just like the Neutrons in our Broadsword, which seemed very strong.

 

[Mjr. Whoopass]

WC4 cloaking Arrows. I remember the defending Melek mission in particular where I learned to dread those.

 

[Dundradal]

I've always had a dislike for WC3 Vaktoths.

In Standoff, I can not stand the Krant. It's such a bastard.

 

[Lt.Overload]

Remoras! Ugh, so much trouble over a little...bug...

 

[NinjaLA]

the talons in standoff really give me fits. I'm not sure why.

My least favorite fighter to dogfight in or with has got to be the Rapier though.

 

[Aeronautico]

the talons in standoff really give me fits. I'm not sure why.

You too, huh? I know exactly what you mean!

The Talons are a bitch to deal with. The fact that they come in large numbers and glide about like the end is coming means that they always get a chance to bite away at you. It's like shaking off a pack of junkyard dogs, dammit! I had to replay the assault on the pirate base like fifty times because of them.

It's like Admiral Tolwyn once said: "You got a junkyard dog at your heels, you turn around and kick it in the chops."

 

[Highball]

After facing some Rapiers recently, I have to add Rapiers to my list. Absolutely no point in trying to take them on if there are more than 3, and even then, I'd consider trying to run. Unless you're IN a Rapier yourself, you have no hope of outmaneuvering them, and they will almost always outgun and outshield you.

 

[Ilanin]

As for Standoff, well, nothing will ever quite be as annoying as trying to take out a Vatari in a Stiletto. But if we ignore the Vatari as a supership, then there's no single fighter in Standoff that really annoys me - the problems in Standoff are usually numbers and tactics. Sartha with their dumbfires deserve a mention in the other direction, because I love the challenge. They're made of cardboard but trying to take out the full wing before half of my pilots eat a dumbfire or two is hard in all the right ways.

 

[Mace]

As for "Getting a full wing", does the vision engine damage the surrounding ships when one explodes in their proximity? I was recently playing through "Star trek - shattered universe"(terrible space-flight physics btw), And in one mission you could gain a tactical advantage by blowing up a ship when it is close to another, the explosion of the first ship would be powerfull enough to blast through the shields and armor of the second and have that explode as well...