Wing Commander Privateer

Porcupine

Spaceman
I'd like to start a Wing Commander Privateer and Righteous Fire gameplay mechanics discussion/guide here. I've been replaying the game in this past week and hacking the crap out of it, along the way uncovering tons of vital statistics about weapons, guns, missiles, ships, shields, etc in the game. So if anyone is interested and still plays this damn old game I guess you can start by asking me any questions you might have about playing the game, or how certain things work. And if you have any hacking ability please check this thread in the Editing/Hacking Chat thing.
 
Starting a thread to hold general questions normally doesn't work too well. When people have questions they normally start a thread to ask about them, the best plan would probably be to just watch for any of the privateer threads that pop up and add whatever you can to the discussion. (or come up with a question or more defined topic of discussion to talk about)

TC
 
But it really is interesting what he's doing, TC.

Originally posted by Porcupine
...and still plays this old game...
Still plays? Guh, I intend to play it again once I finish the WC2 campaigns. Replaying the entire WC series is fun. :)
 
I know what you mean, TC. I'm new here and I checked some of the recent threads such as Guns and Missiles and I noticed a couple Privateer questions being debated (how many missiles kills X fighter) that I could now answer definitively. But most of that thread was on other Wing Commander games, and although I've played them all I've only hacked Privateer (because it is easy) enough to have figured out and ripped out the mathematics of everything in the game. So I tried seeing if a new thread might work.

Anyway, I'm going to post a massive stat list and explanation in the Editing chatroom later today for anyone who wants to see it. It's mostly ripped data and is way more accurate than most Privateer publications/manuals/webpages.
 
OMG, I just finished playing WC2: SO1, and having that whole fleet being a diversion was awesome!
 
Wow, topic drift already.

Why awesome? Are you a kitty-lover? It was funny to drop a data pod for the Kilrathi, then Taggart says something about manoeuvring the Kilrathi while the Kilrathi are manoeuvring them for something bigger.

WC2 seems so happy and all that you conquer the Enigma sector (much like WC1 for conquering the Vega sector) then the SOs come along and push Confed downhill. Despite not having read the relevant novel/s, it's no wonder that Confed is losing big time by WC3.
 
Hey Porc?

How's about a link to a file like that. So as not to take up unnecesary CZ server space, and to make it a little more accesible. Then put a link up to it in this thread or something of the nature.
 
That's neat stuff, Porcupine! :) :cool:

On a side note, in RF... we're supposed to find our Steltek Gun that was stolen, right? But in the end... we don't see it ever again, do we? :(
 
It seems that Retro informant kept his word. There are no more Salthis once you defeat Jones anyway, and AFAIK, only the Retro Salthi mounted the Retros' version of the Steltek.
 
hack the savefile

If you want your Steltek gun back just edit your savegame file. I'm not sure which downloadable utilities edit Righteous Fire properly, though. Maybe none. In any case though it's easy to do. A couple downloadable textfiles explain it or I can tell you how to do it easily.

Unfortunately, in Righteous Fire the Steltek gun has been weakened massively by the incompetent Retro engineers. Check my Guns List to see what I mean. You'll have to edit PRSO.TRE to return it back to it's original powerful state in Privateer, which is kind of harder to do but possible.

BTW, in Righteous Fire, Jones and Menesch have cheat Centurions. Not only do they have different guns, they both have Shield Generator 7 shields, and Jones even has a Shield Regenerator thing (but it's not as good as yours is). Menesch before he jumps has a super duper Shield Regenerator that makes him near invincible (but he's not, notsure/forget what happens if you kill him then).
 
Interesting thing about being able to blow up Menesch before he jumps. I doubt there's any difference whether you kill him in the current system or the next, but it might be fun if you could manage it. It was hard enough killing the Steltek Scout, and all that did was fly in circles. :)
 
hehe yeah

Yeah, I have a hard time with the Scout as well...I need to bring down my shields to get it. Well, I guess a lot of the problem with killing the Scout is killing it just after you get your gun but before it jumps. Since you only have a second, you need your guns at maximum power to stand a chance to get him then.

I used to think the Scout had super regenerative shields that no other ship does. It does have super regenerative shields, but it turns out the Paradigm and Kamekh have the same shields. Oh well. But on a small ship like the Scout...it's the best ship in the game by far if you take away the Drone's invincibility. By the way, there is nothing about the Drone ship in Privateer that gives it invincibility. It's the Drone's pilot data that makes it semi-invincible. If you cheat and put a Bounty Hunter into a Drone, the Drone is easily killed with normal guns hehe.

Oh yeah, that reminds me. I was sorta wrong about Menesch having Shield Generator 7. He only does after he jumps. Before he jumps, he has those awesomely regenerating Capital Ship Shields again hehe, PLUS a modified super effective Shield Regenerator. No wonder he is so invincible.
 
Super Galaxy!! *dum* *dum*

Lol. Well a lot of people consider the Galaxy the worst ship you can be flying in Privateer fighting ability-wise. I flew one years ago and had to agree. I haven't really tried flying one this last time I played Privateer, but I just thought of a great idea on how you can turn the Galaxy into maybe the strongest ship you can have, stronger than the Centurion!

As most of you probably know and feel, turrets are mostly useless in Privateer because they don't shoot for themselves and you can't move your ship while shooting from your turret (although you can still afterburn). They are also harder to control since they don't always "move" in the normal intuitive way. There is no ITTS from the turret, and aiming backwards is super hard because your guns' projectile velocity is relative to your ship's velocity. If they aren't pointing in the same direction your shots will go flying off in weird directions not quite what you'd expect. For the same reason, if you are shooting backwards from your turret at an enemy who is still running away from you, your shots will never reach him because he will be running at faster speed than your bullets.

So what can you do with your top and bottom turrets in the Galaxy? Well, when you take off they start out pointing forward. Go into each turret and carefully move them up/down to aim them all directly straight ahead of your ship. Now, when you are in battle you can do a nifty trick. Whenever you fire your main pair of guns, immediately after the bullets appear, hit F5+F6 simultaneously without letting go of Spacebar. Then a massive volley of 6 shots will come out of your front! It's just like flying a ship with 6 forward facing guns!! Then hit F1 again and wait until your guns can fire again. Repeat forever if you want.

I haven't tried using this technique in-battle yet but I have tested it out and it seems awesome. I'd recommend buying 6 neutron guns for this strategy. Tachyon guns refire too quickly, so it's better to buy a slow refiring but more damaging gun, because it will make this technique easier on your fingers. Plasma guns eat up more energy than neutron guns and you probably need all the energy you can spare while firing heavy weaponry like this, so I think neutron guns will be best.

You might not always have enough energy or even a need for the massive damage potential of 6 neutron guns (one direct hit will probably kill most ships). What you can do is fly around normally without the trick, but at any moment when you feel you need extra blaster power or have a sure-fire opening to hit, hit F5+F6 and suddenly get 4 extra super powerful scary gunshots out of nowhere.

What do you guys think of this?
 
I think it's awesome, Porcupine!! :cool:
I can't wait to play Privateer once again to try this shit out! :D

From what you've told us and the way you've hacked into the data files, seems you know more about Priv than LOAF himself... <g>
 
Nice idea, though I don't know if enemy fighters aren't just too evasive to be hit by this trick. But it has been quite some time since I played Priv.

BTW, what annoyed me most about the turrets was that they had no radar. Not so bad in a rear turret but terrible for a top/bottom turret.

But again, nice work-out :)
 
Turrets have no radar? Hehe, I didn't even realize that on a conscious level. Guess that goes to show how often I use my turret. Yeah, turrets were a lot better in Wing Commander 2. They even fired for themselves.

I think enemy fighters may evade my Galaxy guns trick, but enemy fighters can evade any guns you fire. The Galaxy guns trick just allows you to fire as if you had 6 forward facing guns so it should work about as well as anything else I guess. Neutron guns are a bit easier to evade than most guns though, so you could use the trick with 6 tachyon cannons instead if you wanted.

Although I still haven't tried this in real battle, now that I had time to think about it the Galaxy might still be the worst ship in Privateer even with this trick. Even though you now have supreme blaster power, you'll still be limited by your engine power so you won't be able to fire often. And being in a Galaxy you will probably need to afterburn more than any other ship since it is so big and slow, further draining your engine power. Still, 6 neutron guns are so scary it's hard to say. Using this trick the Galaxy might be better than a Tarsus, and who knows maybe even the Orion. I doubt it will be a better overall fighter than a Centurion with 6 tachyon cannons though.
 
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