Wing Commander II Proper Speed Consensus?

sgupta

1st Lieutenant
Hey all,

So finally got my other issues sorted out and am ready to play Wing Commander 2 on DOS using SlowDOS (as it's a Pentium rig). I'm trying to decide between two different levels of delay that both seem acceptable.

31 (more delay) seems to play generally really well. Cutscenes seem maybe a tad choppier, as does the action, but lips move like they should, and autopilot feels the right speed. If anything, this setting is just a tiny, tiny bit slow, but it's the most like my Wing Commander playthrough (where 30 was unacceptably fast and 31 seemed proper/maybe just a tad slow in certain cutscenes and heavy dogfights).

On the other hand, 30 (less delay) seems a bit smoother in general, especially as far as cutscenes (which have more of a sense of speed), but lips move a tad too fast, and autopiloting looks too fast as well. There may be an issue with dialogue being a little faster than I'd like to read, but I'm not certain yet.

It's very playable either way.

I'm leaning towards 31 (more delay) as it seems more like my Wing Commander I speed (a bit faster as far as firing, etc.), I won't risk missing any dialogue, and it still seems plenty fast with everything seeming in the ballpark of correct.

YouTube videos I've seen are all over the map. Some videos (guessing Kilrathi Saga) are MUCH more uneven than this, and I've seen gameplay both slower than mine and faster.

Is there any consensus on the best way to adjust proper speed? I tend to use the autopilot animation myself (which is one reason I'm leaning towards the 31).

Thanks for any opinions. =)
 
Just an update that I keep experimenting between the two and I'm still torn. I feel like the faster speed is just a teeny bit too fast (ship exploding, landing, autopilot), but the gameplay is certainly smoother with lots of ships onscreen.
 
Final update (tho' comments of course welcome) for anyone interested or anyone venturing something similar in the future.

When I posted this, I had been tinkering about with both speed settings flying random missions (first several) and viewing partial cutscenes until last night and still couldn't decide.

So I just decided I would play the entire beginning chapter (cutscenes, mission 1, and then cutscenes/dialogue after) using both modes and decide. Winner was pretty clearly the faster mode. It just feels too sluggish on the slower WC1 mode, and some of the scenes I hadn't viewed yet (particularly the deck hand pointing and you launching) was painfully slow/unrealistic (it was like slow motion), and it just seemed choppy - even the mouth animations didn't flow well, but it's something you only get a feel for really watching a whole scene both ways). On the other hand, that next setting up worked pretty great, and now that I'm used to it, I really don't think anything's too fast afterall. Autopiloting feels a little faster than the first game (and even 3, though 3 uses completely different technology and its own speed limiting), but I think that's just the way WC2 is - everything seems paced pretty evenly and nothing absurdly fast at all.

Now onto enjoy the campaign! =)
 
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