Wing Commander 3 Replay Week 1

Hi guys!

It appears I'm always late..

I just started Wing3 today. It's been some time after I beat Wing1 & 2..
Well, I had my business to finish..

I just LOVE Wing3. The movies, the fighters, crew of the Victory..

In Wing 3 there is a real difference between light fighter (Arrow) and Heavy (Thud).. The Arrow flies like a real light fighter.. like an Epee for example.. It turns swiftly and it's fast despite it's poor armour and missile loadout.. The thoud on the other side.. has V. good shields, 6 guns! and good armour but it flies like a tone of bricks!

I had thought thud is better than sabre but despite it's 6 guns and impressive missle loadout it's v. slow and anything but agile! Sabre was better fighter IMO.

I beat the first missions easly on Hard level.. I can see that Lorien and DaveO are still playing through the replay, that is commendable! Good luck ! (You are playing through Wing 4 when I play Wing 3, I;m always late..)
 
Thanks for the sentiments, Larkin! I hope to hear some good stories or some perspective for Hard difficulty. I stuck with Ace due to a general rule I had that WC3 would be one difficulty higher than WC4. I might have been able to do Ace on WC4, but notched it down to Veteran. Even on that difficulty, I've been having problems but I got thru perhaps the toughest mission already.

P.S. - Of the series, WC3 is my favorite due to how things were executed in terms of gameplay, missions and story. WC2 is still a blast to play, and Prophecy ranks higher than WC1 and WC4 being my least favorite entry(mostly due to what I felt to be excessive cinematics in comparison to actual mission flight times).
 
Sentiments :) heh

Playing on hard lvl isn't that bad, the only mission which may be difficult is the transport escort (with the kilrathi skipper missile). I know how to deal with this mission with a little "cheat" on my part.. [well.. first pick the Thunderbolt as your fighter. When corvette with skipper and dralthi escort appears order your wingman to attack fighters and you should lock torpedo on the corvette ASAP and destroy it on the first run. After you finish corvette kill dralthis v. quickly (the skipper missle will be flying toward transport - ignore it..) After you kill everyone, wait for autopilot to lit, hit 'A' fast and.. that's it.. you'll go to another way point without transport being killed]. Another missions are not so difficult, I pick Arrow for escort missions, and Thud for assault (I use Longbow rarely - I rather pack my Thud with dumb fire missles to use it as second torpedo - I use 'B' to fire volleys). Playing Wing 4 on Hard is much more difficult because the enemy launches missles more often. Take care DaveO!
 
The best Confed fighter in WC3 is the Arrow in my opinion. I thought the TBolt was good enough for its role without the sluggish response like the Longbow. TBolt has good maneuverability, powerful guns, and a torpedo for those cap ships. For any capships above Corvette, TBolt was a good choice. I saved Longbow for when I really needed it and Hellcat for missions where I did not need the fast firepower and speed of the Arrow.

As far as WC4 goes, the other fighters like to use missiles liberally against you and one hit usually means death whereas you could take two missile hits with most of the fighters in WC3. Bombers like the TBolt and Longbow could really take a beating.

EDIT - I took a look at how the videos I posted have been faring, and the Intro cinematic to WC3 has over 3500 views in just two months. It was sitting around the 200-300 mark for the last few weeks and all of a sudden things exploded. If the views are any indication, EA should seriously consider a successor to Prophecy for the future. I think fans are aching for a new game in the franchise besides Arena.
 
I really like comparing tactics in Wing Commander DavO, it's good that I've got someone I can talk to..


In my opinion the Arrow is too weak to engage enemy capital ships (corvette and above), weak shields, no dart df's, weak guns.. but it's agility and speed makes it an excellent dogfighter, interceptor and defender. Thunderbolt is on contrary, slow, clumsy tug compared to Arrow but nothing can stand it's 6 guns and powerful missle loadout.. I recently chose an Arrow to escort Victory in nebula (Ariel I think).. it was a real pain to kill the Kilrathi carrier, Cobra even ejected (I was playing on Hard of course). If I was flying a Thunderbolt than.. :D

The worst part is to destroy Kilrathi corvettes (man I hate those), the only good option is to kill it with a torp or dart DF's volley.

The only fighter I hate is the Hellcat.. it has no strong sides I think.. I'm pretty happy whan Pliers canibalizes 'em in Wing 4 :)

The longbow is a bomber so I understand It's lack of agility (it turns like a giant asteroid ;) ) but you can always fire like 1000 X FoF missles at the enemy ;) or move all power (without engine power of course) to shields and fire from it's turret (quite effective tactics against light fighters). The Longbow's full guns salvo is quite strong (plasma guns among others).. The Longbow also has afterburners! (nice change since the Broadsword)

The deadliest enemies are: Fralthi II cruisers, corvettes and Sorthak fighter

What's your opinion on Hellcats guys? (I know it has been discussed before but it is always nice to have friendly chat with other pilots)
 
The Hellcat has its uses, but the big problem is that the Arrow can outmatch it in many areas. The Arrow has more missiles, is much faster, and has a smaller profile so that it's harder to hit. Targeting in WC3 is finicky, so you have to make your shots count in a Hellcat. In an Arrow, you could blaze away without worries about the capacitor. The Hellcat felt more like an interceptor fighter that could dance with Darkets, Dralthi, and those rare Asteroid fighters. And it was an annoyingly average fighter in my opinion. Anything heavier like the Vaktoths needed the Thud or the Arrow if the heavy fighters were not too many. Of course in some missions, you're stuck flying whatever you're given. I flew the Thud the most in WC3, but I could have used other fighters for a number of those missions.
 
The Hellcat has its uses, but the big problem is that the Arrow can outmatch it in many areas
Click to expand...

True!

I think Hellcats and Arrows are much cheaper in use (for confeds) than heavier Lonbows and Thuds.
 
LarkInFlight said:
What's your opinion on Hellcats guys? (I know it has been discussed before but it is always nice to have friendly chat with other pilots)
Click to expand...

I'm not a fan, but the recent play-through has shown the Hellcat it's uses. Mostly, though it lacks the huge missile numbers of the Arrow, the heavier guns are much better against the Corvettes. I also found that, though the difference is minimal, the extra armour and shields were noticeable. I returned in banged-up Arrows more often than Hellcats.

Overall, I liked the Hellcat for the long endurance missions where you're likely to run out of missiles and the Arrow for any other mission that didn't involve cap ships. The Thud is great for any capship attack.

The Excalibur, of course, can do all of the above.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top