Your favorite carrier to defend?

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Vice Admiral
So, what was your favorite ship to defend in the Wing Commander games?

Was it the Tiger's Claw and all those kills you made since it didn't fire? The Concordia and it's PTC fireworks? Maybe the Victory, Lexington, or Intrepid with their pretty red streams of turret fire? Or maybe the Midway with its vulnerable subsystems and missile turrets? Pick a carrier for a specific mission, its looks, or its guns. Heck, pick them all if you must!



Personally, I'd have to say the Victory. It was more for that gauntlet of a retreat from Kilrathi territory. That defense mission had such an august feel for me, like reading about a WWII naval battle. Taking down skippers from a corvette practically a nav point away felt like a true capital ship slugging match. I was relieved when a new jump point was found and I could catch a break. The latter games tried to replicate that, but perhaps the desperation of the war brought it to life for me whenever I scrambled to keep the Victory in the sky.
 
Space Point for you!

My favorite carrier defense was the Victory in Wc3 3DO - the 3DO version of the Tamayo scramble is *so cool*... you battle wave after wave of Kilrathi, including enemy destroyers! In comparison, the PC version was unusually quiet - all that fanfare for a couple of cats. The regular Midway scrambles come in second for me... they put a lot of thought into how those missions work and making them exactly complex enough. Plus, points for never *explaining* to the player that the red Mantas are the threat... that's exactly the sort of thing you should discover for yourself.

The WC3 scramble is also the best... I *love* that music.
 
I certainly hated defending carriers in WC1 & 2... it is unbelievably hard for me.

For me it was the opposite. The Tiger's Claw had such thick armor that I had to slack off or even shoot it myself for it to be destroyed. The Concordia had outright invulnerability I think. I just wasn't very excited. In both cases (outside of PTC kills) the only time they bagged anything when I've played is when the attackers accidentally colided with the carrier. To this day I can't help but laugh whenever the crinkCLUNKcrunchBOOM "We've killed an enemy!" nonsense happens, if only because I've died the same way so many times.

My favorite carrier defense was the Victory in Wc3 3DO - the 3DO version of the Tamayo scramble is *so cool*... you battle wave after wave of Kilrathi, including enemy destroyers! In comparison, the PC version was unusually quiet - all that fanfare for a couple of cats.

WC3 3DO was the first and only time just seeing the name of a game made me want to buy a console. Unfortunately I was still a kid and convinving my parents to buy a console after they had just invested a lot of money into a new computer was impossible. Ah well!
 
The Tiger's Claw let you do all the work, but it sure was tough! The only "defend the Tiger's Claw" mission that I found to be a bit of a pain was a SM1 mission.

The Concordia was fun due to the PTC... But the fact that it's nearly invincible is no fun, honest. :p

Defending the Victory was quite fun at times... I remember having a lot of fun playing a mission where you had to escort the Victory and even protect it from Skipper missiles.

There's only one mission where you can defend the Lexington, and you aren't supposed to do it.

The Dauntless is very fun to defend. I just love watching those turrets.

The Firekka's pretty fun to defend as well.
 
WC3 3DO was the first and only time just seeing the name of a game made me want to buy a console. Unfortunately I was still a kid and convinving my parents to buy a console after they had just invested a lot of money into a new computer was impossible. Ah well!

There's still time, though! Now that you're a real person (with your own friends and credit cards and keys) you can get a 3DO... and enjoy two wildly different Wing Commander games.

WC3/3DO is really a spectacular title, though - they got the conversion *just* right... a lot of ports (heck, *all* the other ports) try too hard to be WC3/PC and it just doesn't work right. WC3 3DO was willing to change the gameplay to make it more appropriate to the console, and it's both excellent and basically an entirely new Wing Commander for old fans to experience.

... it makes me long for WC2/SNES, too, since they apparently build that one with the same 'gameplay oriented redesign' philosophy.
 
There's still time, though! Now that you're a real person (with your own friends and credit cards and keys) you can get a 3DO... and enjoy two wildly different Wing Commander games.

And if all else fails, you can always apply for a WC CIC credit card!
:D

I'm sure they will approve if for the purchasing of any WC related accessory...
:D
 
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I've got to say Midway. I flew the Midway defense sim more than all the others combined.

I liked that the ships fate really did rest in your hands, and that it allowed for liberal use of the nav screen and ordering wingmen to attack certain targets.
 
My biggest problem with the Midway is that I don't like how Wing Commander Prophecy capital ships take damage in the first place... they should have destroyable components *and* take (less) damage to their hulls. The fact that the Midway is practically invulnerable if you shoot at the vast majority of its hull is kind of awkward.
 
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