New X-Wing/Tie Fighter **RUMORS**

[Kamakazie Sith]

Are X-Wing, TIE Fighter Coming Back?
LucasArts president hints at return of beloved franchise.
by Jason Ocampo
August 4, 2009 - If you ask veteran PC gamers to list their favorite games of all time, odds are X-Wing or TIE Fighter (or both) are somewhere on their lists. There's a reason for that, as both were superb action flight simulators that immersed you in the epic Star Wars conflict between the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire. X-Wing was the first game in the series and TIE Fighter the sequel, so TIE Fighter is often more beloved because it was more refined. Plus, it was awesome to rise in the ranks of the Imperial Navy and become the Emperor's most valued fighter pilot.

It's been more than a decade since the last game in the series was released; hard to believe but X-Wing Alliance was released in February of 1999. The space sim genre that was established by the Star Wars games and Origin's Wing Commander series then began to fade for various reasons. However, fans have longed for a sequel to TIE Fighter since then.

However, things may be changing. There's a new president at LucasArts, Darrel Rodriguez, who seems intent on revisiting the company's past glories. In the past few months, LucasArts has begun to release its library on Steam, and the company recently released The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition on PC and Xbox 360. The latter was a remake of the classic adventure game with improved graphics (but for those who want a nostalgic return, you could toggle the original graphics at any moment.)

Now here's where it gets interesting. G4 recently asked Rodriguez about the possibility of X-Wing and TIE Fighter returning. His answer: "We don't have any announcements now, but stay tuned. We will soon."

It might be time to dust off that joystick.

Link

I'm hoping for a new Tie Fighter over a new X-Wing but either would make me very pleased.

[Darksider]

*Starts hyperventilating and drooling like fry in that futurama ep where he found out he was rich*

Please let this be true.

First Mechwarrior, now this? C'mon Freespace 3! Let's go for the hat trick.

[Slacker]

God, please, let the space sim genre return from the dead.

[Stark]

Doesn't it suggest it would simply be a spruce-up of the existing games, like Monkey Island? That's not very interesting - although nerds would probably explode if they made an X-Wing game without all the stupid laser-charging 100hp shield stuff.

[Nephtys]

The energy management system in at least XWA really got to me. I forget if it was in the previous ones, but sheesh. Can't I just keep my shields up, and have my guns recharge without gutting my engines? Who designed these ships so that they literally cannot operate without utterly hosing another totally vital system?

I mean, redirecting power is cool, until you realize the only actual settings are

'shields on, guns on, engines off'
'shields off, guns on, engines on'
'everything off' (default)

[Darksider]

Not this nerd.

I fucking hated the power distribution system in the X-wing series. It wouldn't have been so bad if they'd done it more like freespace, where you only lose gun power if you divert all energy to shields or engines, but the way they handled it was incredibly annoying.

I played through the entire X-Wing Alliance campaign with unlimited lasers on because power management annoyed me so much in the other games.

[Stark]

Remember, charge the shields with transferred laser energy; it's faster. WORKING AS INTENDED.

[Perseid]

I found a way round the power management system in XWA. It involved turning off the power drain for the tractor beam in the settings, meant I could have shields and weapons recharging without gimping my engines.

On topic, it should be interesting to see what they do, besides update the graphics. I hope they just go through and update them without changing the story line(s).

[RogueIce]

Remember, charge the shields with transferred laser energy; it's faster. WORKING AS INTENDED.

I always cheated with the Imperial fighters: since I never used the beam weapons for anything, I would put all of that into engines, which let me recharge shields and lasers without losing engine power.

But yeah, a different system would be nice. And whatever they set it for, I hope it's like XWA where you can choose to fly fighters from all over in the combat sim or whatever. And a LucasArts made, not sucky map editor would be icing on the cake. AlliEd is good, but there are some things I just can't do with it.

[Stark]

Despite what you'd think, I think if they stole a more modern (ie, simpler but deeper) stat system and put the old missions in, peolpe would like it.

All the stat silliness in the old games was near-useless anyway; just make it more like Rogue Squadron et al (although, not THAT simple) or Burnout or something. 'This one is fast with good shields', 'this one has lots of guns but is big', etc. Fuck the energy management simulator.

Make it so you can drop in/drop out in missions with units, and it'd be great.

[Logical Mike]

I'll settle for a good port on XBL. A little x-wing slaughter before work is good for the imperial morale, in my opinion.

[YT300000]

The energy management system in at least XWA really got to me. I forget if it was in the previous ones, but sheesh. Can't I just keep my shields up, and have my guns recharge without gutting my engines? Who designed these ships so that they literally cannot operate without utterly hosing another totally vital system?

I mean, redirecting power is cool, until you realize the only actual settings are

'shields on, guns on, engines off'
'shields off, guns on, engines on'
'everything off' (default)

Indeed, that was the only thing wrong with those games. Towards the end of the campaign, I'd spend a good quarter of each mission flying evasive maneuvers with no lasers, to recharge my shields. I actually mapped the "shunt laser power to shields" button to my joystick, I used it so much.

The one thing out of XWA that I'd really like to see in a revamped X-Wing/TIE Fighter is separate buttons to roll in either direction - holding down a key to roll was always annoying. It was like playing the original Doom, and cursing the lack of strafing buttons.

[Darksider]

XWA implemented joystick roll, so it's a safe bet that any remake or new game will have it.

[Vympel]

The one thing out of XWA that I'd really like to see in a revamped X-Wing/TIE Fighter is separate buttons to roll in either direction - holding down a key to roll was always annoying. It was like playing the original Doom, and cursing the lack of strafing buttons.

Errr - you only needed to hold down the 2nd fire button on your joystick. Since like, the original X-Wing, dude.

[Darth Quorthon]

I still have my old Tie Fighter Collecter's Edition CD ROM kicking around somewhere. I even got it running on DOSBox a few years ago, but only flew a few missions before I decided to stop before it ruined my memory of playing the game on my old Packard-Bell back in high school. I've always maintained that I'd love to see the original Tie Fighter redone with modern graphics, with the same story and missions, but damn I'd forgotten how annoying that power management was. If it's true, I'll probably buy it, since I've been jonesing for a good space sim for so long. Hopefully if there are changes made to the story and missions, we'll get to blow away some more rebel scum, since I seem to remember more than half the Tie Fighter game being against insurgent imperials instead of the actual rebel alliance.

[CaptHawkeye]

I want to see more individuality to the fighters and characteristics about them. Like

"TIE Fighter Pros:
Excellent Firepower from twin 20mW cannons.
Good flight characteristics.
High manueverability.
Simple, cheap, and easy to repair.

Cons:
Flimsy construction.
Prone to snap-spins at high speed atmospheric flight.
Cannot carry large bomb load."

Basically, IL-2: Star Wars?

[Vympel]

I still have my old Tie Fighter Collecter's Edition CD ROM kicking around somewhere. I even got it running on DOSBox a few years ago, but only flew a few missions before I decided to stop before it ruined my memory of playing the game on my old Packard-Bell back in high school. I've always maintained that I'd love to see the original Tie Fighter redone with modern graphics, with the same story and missions, but damn I'd forgotten how annoying that power management was. If it's true, I'll probably buy it, since I've been jonesing for a good space sim for so long. Hopefully if there are changes made to the story and missions, we'll get to blow away some more rebel scum, since I seem to remember more than half the Tie Fighter game being against insurgent imperials instead of the actual rebel alliance.

I never found power management that annoying, myself. I guess I just got used to it.

I don't want to see TIE Fighter's story redone, though. Do a new Imperial campaign, which doesn't have the disappointment of spending most of the time fighting your own damn side!

[Thanas]

^It showed some realism, though. Plus, your ships could eat hundreds of rebel fighter at that point, so they needed tougher enemies.

In the end though, I always liked the "pacify system X" more. That was my favorite campaign of the whole lot.

[Oskuro]

What I don't want to see is a re-use of Battlefront 2's sad excuse for space combat. Darn, I miss the Galactic Conquest space battles.

[Zac Naloen]

As someone who was far too young to appreciate xwing first time round and missed out on alliance due to not having a PC at the time... I would LOVE it if they re-released the old stuff with spruced up graphics.


And then made a brand new title.

[OmegaChief]

Not that I want to rain on anyone’s parade here, but isn’t it far more likely they’ll just port up the old X-Wing trilogy on Steam like they have with a bunch of old games recently (Of which the X-Wing games were noticeably missing).

Not that I wouldn’t mind a new/redone game, and echoing an earlier statement I would kill for (a well done) Freespace 3.

[Steel]

Not that I want to rain on anyone’s parade here, but isn’t it far more likely they’ll just port up the old X-Wing trilogy on Steam like they have with a bunch of old games recently (Of which the X-Wing games were noticeably missing).

Not that I wouldn’t mind a new/redone game, and echoing an earlier statement I would kill for (a well done) Freespace 3.

If they were planning on doing that why didnt they release them already?

The games still work on modern systems, so it isnt like they have lots of compatibility work to do. Could be an indication that they're planning a special edition version like with monkey island, so new graphics, same game.

While the old ones are still good I would like to see just what could be accomplished with new technology. People have chucked out some great looking stuff in the freespace 2 engine (best part of a decade old) as well as the B5 space sim which looked great and had good physics (when it came out half a decade ago...) and was made by like 3 russians from scratch as a free project.

[Invictus ChiKen]

I don't want to see TIE Fighter's story redone, though. Do a new Imperial campaign, which doesn't have the disappointment of spending most of the time fighting your own damn side!

Agreed I want to be a Gods damned Imperial pilot and fight the rebels, not an Imperial fighting other Imperials and I REALLY hated the parts in the story where you won the mission BUT the rebels still won. The ending of Tie Fighter knowing Endor was going to still be a loss was what really got me, I love playing games and feeling a sense of accomplishment not winning and feeling like I still lost.

Perhaps a campaign where you can fight at Endor and turn the tide of battle in the stars?

[Nephtys]

I like games that give me a loss even if I win, because the story demands it and it makes a more realistic, immersive storytelling experience. Freespace 2 had you win about 1/4th of each mission with a 'loss' of some sort, like when the Icini Escapes, the Lysander is destroyed, Collossus is lost, Psamtik is lost, and the final retreat. I even enjoyed the Wing Commander series 'losing track', such as the last defense of Earth in WC3, or your unathorized attempt to singlehandedly hold off an enemy battlegroup in WC2.

[Mad]

The energy management system in at least XWA really got to me. I forget if it was in the previous ones, but sheesh. Can't I just keep my shields up, and have my guns recharge without gutting my engines? Who designed these ships so that they literally cannot operate without utterly hosing another totally vital system?

I mean, redirecting power is cool, until you realize the only actual settings are

'shields on, guns on, engines off'
'shields off, guns on, engines on'
'everything off' (default)

The same basic system was in place from X-Wing to X-Wing Alliance.

Typical mission setting: weapons on "increased", shields on "normal" (hold steady). This will have and engines on "decreased". Transfer weapons energy to shields, but keep some supercharged energy banks lit up.

Somehow this gets shields charged faster than having shields on "increased" and weapons on "normal".

Typical furball setting: weapons on "increased", shields on "none". You'll get a boost to your engines.

In either case, if possible, equip a beam weapon and said it to "none" for a boost in speed. If you don't have a beam weapon, your engines will act as if you did have the beam weapon and it was on "normal".

Yeah, the energy management system was broken.

FreeSpace's energy management system was much better: having everything at normal allows everything to charge. Transferring weapons energy directly to shields was for emergencies, not SOP to charge shields. But your energy banks were typically smaller so you had to keep a closer eye on each.