Wing Commander: Privateer Remake out!

Post by **Vympel** » 2005-03-14 06:35pm

Ok then I'll install it

If I can't hear "Heathen taste righteous fire!" I'm not interested

Iceberg · Post by **Iceberg** » 2005-03-14 06:50pm

I'm just sad that the game doesn't cut transmissions off the way it used to. It used to be so much fun to cut Retros off in mid-sermon. "Deliver us, O Lord, for we are in" *BOOM*

Batman · Post by **Batman** » 2005-03-14 07:21pm

Vympel wrote:Ok then I'll install it
If I can't hear "Heathen taste righteous fire!" I'm not interested

I can assure you that very phrase is being spoken by Retros in the remake

Warning to all you chickenshit pseudocheaters (like me

) who like to save a game at a planet/base, then reload until a likeable mission selection shows up: doing so if you already HAVE a mission/missions can result in the missions disappearing and/or having failed.

So, any news on which craft are actually flyable in the game? I'd just love to fly a Stiletto or Broadsword!!!

Enigma · Post by **Enigma** » 2005-03-14 11:14pm

Can't get the remake to work. All I get is a pink blur of pixels.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2005-03-15 06:55am

the 4 autotargeting plasma guns on my Demon cut through talons in a single shot. Dralthis in two. My afterburners perpetually glow. I am death incarnate.

Sharpshooter · Post by **Sharpshooter** » 2005-03-16 02:20am

Cyborg Stan wrote:Note to self : when the bounty mission says that the ship has 16 capital ships for protection, it's actually the case. I wish I took a screenshot. Luckily, they were slow and started out in a straight line.

Sixteen? Shit, a Talon and four or five piddlin' escorts can net you a good ten grand alone, and throw a few capitals into the mix - how much was the bounty on that job?

By the way - not to highjack or anything, but has anyone checked out Vega Strike and Vega Trek yet? I've got Strike running on Fresh Download right now, and it should be finished by some point in the afternoon.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2005-03-16 07:25am

i bought a centurion last night. after selling my demon, and buying the stock Cent, i had over a million credits to spend, and i spent every one. I promptly flew out of Perry naval base and blew the shit out of a Kamekh. The fucker took a beating from my 4 auto-tracking plama guns and absorbed all 40 torpedoes i was carrying, but she went down.

With 3 dralthis and 4 Gorthis to boot!

Enigma · Post by **Enigma** » 2005-03-17 06:17pm

Finally got it to work after meddling with the setup. I like the game. It is just as I remember it but with some changes. Have they removed some cut scenes? Wasn't there an intro? It has been a while.

EDIT: Oh and the game was much better after I fiddled with my account.

Batman · Post by **Batman** » 2005-03-19 08:50pm

Okay, the game engine is officially nuts. I mean those 15-20 ship kill missions might be doable by a competent pilot (unlike me), but a target (a Kamekh no less) escorted by 18 Kamekhs? You gotta be shitting me!!!!

Cyborg Stan · Post by **Cyborg Stan** » 2005-03-19 10:39pm

It's not as hard as it seems at first glance. Whenever I play something like that, they bunch up, crash into each other and shoot each other and stuff.

And I still can't buy the Righteous Fire stuff, which is disappointing. The Paradigm still seems to have tons of messed up stuff added on it, even when buying it legit. By utilizing the sell-reload bug I can equip all of the RF stuff except the Add Small Cargo Volume and the Fusion Guns, and because the Paradigm has so much messed up stuff (Like every type of Radar in multiple amounts and a small fleet of fighters in the cargo hold.) you may be able to make a small profit when you buy it.

Sharpshooter · Post by **Sharpshooter** » 2005-03-20 02:43am

Those kind of misions are actually quite fun, esecially if going up against Retros or Pirates - you retreat with full burn, do an about-face wth autopilot once your power's back to full, and lob a few quad-plasma bursts at the mob while spraying the rest with rapid-fire single shots. Managed to get five kills in about three seconds with this - and another nice thing is that you can pick up the ejected pilots and sell 'em on the exchange for a decent mint.

Going up against a mob like that is far better than trying to protect a Drayman against a group of six Ace Demons, anyway... ::Grimaces as the transport is blown up for the tenth tim:: Guessthat's why I started playing Vega Strike.

...

Huh. Pokin' around the Privateer directory, I noticed a few odd things:

*It looks as though they have a holdover from Vega Strike they forgot to remove - awacs.ogg (actually something of a nifty song, though some of the vocals are quite odd - too few singers, I think, and it sounds as though the sopranos/males are going a bit higher than they should be) and awacspeace.ogg in the music directory aren't supposed to be there, I think. Nor the AWACS folder in sounds/communications (which are something of a cheesy kick to listen to, by the way)
*I wonder why there's a game slowdown - or WinAmp speed-up - of the music in the directory?
*Weird - all of the files in the /sounds subfolders are in .wav format, which is unreadable by WinAmp - but change the extension to .ogg, and the work fine. Why not simply have them all be .ogg? And furthermore, why do sound effects work in .wav, but communications do not?
*Why name the .mid of the credits as base11?

Enigma · Post by **Enigma** » 2005-03-20 10:27am

This is confusing. I buy a stock Centurion and added level three shielding and tugsten hull and armour and added four particle cannons and yet a Dralthi can reduce my shields to nothing in seconds and start hitting armour.

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2005-03-20 01:51pm

Dralthi are amoung the nastiest ships in the whole game. Taking them out is near impossible. With a upgraded Demon and surprise as a factor, you can take several. Though when I got jumped by 12 of the fuckers in my Demon, I knew I was truly fucked. I've never seen my ship die so fast before. They teleport in, and less then 3 seconds later I am dead.

Ma Deuce · Post by **Ma Deuce** » 2005-03-20 02:05pm

I can now take on 2 or 3 Dralthis with a fair certainty of victory in my riced-up Galaxy, and I can still *possibly* win if you add a Gothri to the mix: they have more firepower, but they're easier to hit and not much tougher. Still, even without the Gothri, 3 Dralthis is not a chance I like taking, as no matter how good the engagement ends for me, my ship still ends up rather heavily battered.

My upgraded Galaxy has got some nice firepower for a freighter (2 autotracking plasma guns plus 2 plasma turrets), but the best shields I can put on it are still a little weaker than I'd like.

SpacedTeddyBear · Post by **SpacedTeddyBear** » 2005-03-20 02:25pm

Is it just me, or does it seem that the pirates and retros use nastier weapons ( neutron and plasma guns) later in the game? It's kinda scary to hear the constant "whooshing" sound of plasma fire coming at you.

Batman · Post by **Batman** » 2005-03-20 03:54pm

SpacedTeddyBear wrote:Is it just me, or does it seem that the pirates and retros use nastier weapons ( neutron and plasma guns) later in the game? It's kinda scary to hear the constant "whooshing" sound of plasma fire coming at you.

Definitely true. It's propably either
a) to keep them at least something of a threat in the later stages of the game (a laser-armed Talon against a souped-up Centurion, Demon or Broadsword? C'mon), and/or
b) to reflect the increase of their natiness that was apparently done in the original Rightous Fire, which at least as far as thes story is concerned, is definitely included.

Some comments of my own
-The Kilrathi are definitely nuts. My faction rating with them behaves like a Valendamned yo-yo. 100, -100, 100, -100

I mean I know they despise piracy and hate the retros but that is definitely extreme...
-Anybody know why there's apparently no level 4 reactor? The highest I've seen in medium is 3, the lowest heavy is 5. Huh?

Oh, and

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IF you DON'T want to know which ships are definitely available (among other things) DON'T read the tinies.

I've seen the following ships at the ship dealers:
-Orion
-Tarsus
-Galaxy
-Centurion
-Demon
-Gladius
-Stiletto
-Broadsword
-Paradigm (so far milspec only)
-Drayman

Drayman I saw on my very first base in Troy, Gladius shows up once you've finished the Exploratory Corps missions, the rest of the confed ships when you've iced the Steltek drone.

A warning to you Broadsword fans: Her turrets are inherent and cannot be replaced. No triple tachyon turrets...

Her missile loadout is weird, too. 3x1 and 1x6 missiles, and four racks that will hold 4 proton torpedoes (and ONLY proton torpedoes) each. Huh?
Also so far I failed to find the advanced armor and weapons Righteous Fire was supposed to have. Are they perhaps story-specific in ability like the confed ships were?

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2005-03-20 04:32pm

I know that some of the RF stuff shows up early. Like the advanced repair droid and that sort of thing. I guess the nice guns and better upgrades show up a bit latter.

The Broadsword is fixed with 3 double laser turrets? DAMN!!!! Putting tachyon or plasma turrets into that thing would make it an absolute nightmare for anything to fight.

Anyway, has anyone had a chance to use the Gladius? How does it stack up to the Demon and Centurion?

One other question, this is for everyone. Which do you prefer:

Demon
or
Centurion

My personal preference is the Demon. Better manueverability, almost as much firepower, better acceleration, same engine power, and better top speed. Going 1200 sure gets you out of trouble fast.

Batman · Post by **Batman** » 2005-03-20 05:43pm

Alyeska wrote: The Broadsword is fixed with 3 double laser turrets? DAMN!!!! Putting tachyon or plasma turrets into that thing would make it an absolute nightmare for anything to fight.

Well, two laser and one plasma, but basically yeah. I was kinda looking forward to that myself.

One other question, this is for everyone. Which do you prefer:
Demon
or
Centurion
My personal preference is the Demon. Better manueverability, almost as much firepower, better acceleration, same engine power, and better top speed. Going 1200 sure gets you out of trouble fast.

I prefer the Centurion myself. More firepower, tougher shields, a flexible second missile rack, and a rear turret. I'm not so hot a pilot so I need the extra oomph.
That's one of the reasons I was looking forward to the Broadsword. Bastards.

Cyborg Stan · Post by **Cyborg Stan** » 2005-03-20 06:48pm

I use the Centurion. IIRC, future releases may limit the Demon to two medium and two light gun mounts.

Having re-installed, I now have all the RF upgrades on it. If you like Plasma or Tachyon Guns, you'd love the Fusions. Their damage on a per-shot basis is slightly lower than the Plasmas, but they fire faster and cheaper. On top of this, their damage/energy ratio is better than the Tachyons. The shot speed, IIRC is faster than either which means that they'll be more likely to hit as well.

As for Drathli, I don't seem to have that much of a problem with multiple ones, although 12 would take awhile. I usually end up with some beaten-up armor though. One strange thing that one might try doing is adding a Repulsor Beam with Autotracking on, and then using that and full afterburners to 'kidnap' ships from dense formations one-by-one, although I suppose one may or may not want to give up the missles.

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2005-03-20 06:57pm

Cyborg Stan wrote:I use the Centurion. IIRC, future releases may limit the Demon to two medium and two light gun mounts.

I don't especialy like that. With the Centurion supposed to be a heavy fighter, they ought to upgrade it with maybe 6 guns or add a 3rd missile bank.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2005-03-21 07:11am

i have come to the conclusion that the Centurion sucks. It just doesn't have the speed or acceleration to get me in and out of combat situations. The only advantage is some extra armor and an added turret (which i have no use for) I'm now back to a maxxed out Demon (with autotracking on every hardpoint including my tractor beam mouted on the single missile hardpoint and my torpedo launcher)

As for Dralthi's being the devil, i find them to be quite an easy kill with my Demon. Plasma guns cripple a Dralthi in a single 4 shot burst. Also, Kamechs in large numbers have the tendancy to blow each other apart if you fly between them.

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2005-03-21 10:29am

Its harder to hit Dralthi's with Plasma guns. Tachyons travel faster, eat up less energy, and have a faster refire rate.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2005-03-21 01:00pm

Alyeska wrote:Its harder to hit Dralthi's with Plasma guns. Tachyons travel faster, eat up less energy, and have a faster refire rate.

maybe, but i can wear down a Kamech with my plasma guns, try that with tachyon beams!

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2005-03-21 01:14pm

I seem to remember calcing the difference between a plasma and a Tachyon and the Tachyon came out in the lead...

Anyway, if I could mod the game, I would do the following.

One, give the Centurion 6 gun slots, 2 capable of carrying heavy guns, 4 restricted to light/medium. This makes it a gunship and allows it to eat through enemy fighters better. Maybe give it a boost on shields.

Two, give the Orion three modable turrets along with two more forward guns. Its a HEAVY fighter for crying out loud.

Remove that pathetic 1 missile thing on the Demon and expand the sole remaining launcher by 50%.

Anyway, the Demon is by far the best fighter in the game all things considered. The Centurion just doesn't pack enough power to do a lot of good for its lower speed and manueverability.

Batman · Post by **Batman** » 2005-03-21 01:47pm

The game appears to be quite modable from what I read in their forums. Maybe you should take a look at them on the how to.