Wing Commander IV Storyboards - Scene 48A (October 26, 2010)

[Bandit LOAF]

Scene 48A--ahh, transitions, those great little scenes that forced the player into an awkward position between liking how detailed the game was and being frustrated at how pointless they were. Here, Blair walks from Eisen's cabin to the rec room. I remember my little sister seeing Wing Commander IV for the first time and being very impressed that lesser ranks were stopping to salute for Blair as he walked by... so at least this game had some fun with it. Oddly, Wing Commander IV completely loses track of its transitions after Blair leaves the Lexington--there's no walking from place to place on the Intrepid.

These storyboard images were recovered from a backup CD containing materials belonging to Origin's web development team. They were dated November 17, 1995 and were likely planned for a never-completed web feature.

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Original update published on October 26, 2010

 

[Wedge009]

...ahh, transitions, those great little scenes that forced the player into an awkward position between liking how detailed the game was and being frustrated at how pointless they were.

I'd say that's a fairly accurate description of most players' opinion of the transition scenes.

Oddly, Wing Commander IV completely loses track of its transitions after Blair leaves the Lexington--there's no walking from place to place on the Intrepid.

I wondered a bit about that as well. I can only guess that either they couldn't be 'bothered' (whether financially, in terms of film time, or disc space) to include them, or they realised that most players would be regularly skipping transitions by the time they reach the Intrepid.

 

[Dundradal]

I'd say that's a fairly accurate description of most players' opinion of the transition scenes.

That damn elevator in WC3 used to drive me crazy...till I discovered I could skip it.

 

[ChrisReid]

That damn elevator in WC3 used to drive me crazy...till I discovered I could skip it.

You mean the transition scene, right? The elevator/exploration itself was still necessary until the clever map skip-around in WC4.