Wing Commander Saga

[Gold]

I have the Logitech Extreme 3D Pro and it works like a dream.

+1

Mine is like 7 years old and is still chugging along.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

Holy fuck this mod is hard. And not always in a good way.

 

[J_C]

Choose the Saitek bro, it will serve you well.

 

[Kitako]

Thanks, I'll ponder some more while I wait the monthly jewgold from work.

 

[commie]

I wish I could get my Microsoft FF Sidewinder Pro 1st generation model working properly. I even attached an old soundcard for the gameport, but no force feedback. Fuck you MS! The best stick you've ever made(probably one of the best ever period) and no support to at least XP?

 

[Admiral jimbob]

All the suffering was worth it to obtain the Excalibur flying this ship is Freespace heavan, and all the more so for having worked for it.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

Finished. What a fucking great mod.

 

[Nex]

Finished. What a fucking great mod.

How many hours approx did it take you?

 

[Admiral jimbob]

Probably about 20-30.

 

[catfood]

Are these games (WC in general) worth playing at all if you don't have a joystick?

 

[SuicideBunny]

yes.

 

[GreyViper]

Are these games (WC in general) worth playing at all if you don't have a joystick?

SO that you know Academy and Armada are more like a spinoffs without great story. Also Privateer with expansion is must play, the reason that got me into WC because of that game.
What else, 1st game can be brutal hard, 2nd is easier, some would say simpler, but honestly I liked 2nd ship lineup better. Take the classic glass cannon like Epee. Known as flying coffin, but it did boast particle canons that are overall the best gun at that time.
The story of Hobbes one of the kilrathi wingmen(wingcat?) you encounter in 2nd game is told in Freedom Flight book. So if you didnt read the book and went from 1st to 2nd, it raised a question why did Concordia have a Kilrathi on board.
Most of the WC series can be played with keyboard, but honestly if you have joystick use that.

I really like SAGA so far, its a great game. Now if only somebody would make worthy sequel to Privateer to.

 

[catfood]

Cool, thanks.

 

[Gold]

So thinking back the only thing I want added is a new game plus mode. Let me pick my fighter for each mission and pick guns/missiles like in FS2. Otherwise for a free return to the wing commander universe I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Now I want the Tie Fighter guys to start their kickstarter and take all my money.

 

[Cassidy]

I really like SAGA so far, its a great game. Now if only somebody would make worthy sequel to Privateer to.

http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/

Vegastrike is unique but strongly inspired by Privateer(as the main human faction being called Confed isn't obvious enough).

The creators of WCS also had a project on this open-source engine:

http://privateer.sourceforge.net/

Other Projects: Wing Commander Saga

I suspect they gave up on it and decided to focus on WCS instead, although the boards in that project are still active. Vegastrike is also strongly inspired by Privateer although it is very different. First because of a fully newtonian flight model. Second because capital ships in it are balanced in a way that they are much, much tougher to defeat and by all accounts space fighters will never put even a dent on them. Third because you can fit beam weapons on fighters and finally, most important of all, because it already got an alpha multiplayer persistent world mode on and a working server for trying it.

The bad news is that although already playable Vegastrike is far from finished, and from the pace of development, there are many thursdays left yet. Also joystick is pretty much mandatory for it unless you start up as a trader until you make enough money to install the auto aim upgrade on all gun mounts because its mouse control is very crude, and according to some its controls as a whole aren't stellar due to poor sensitivity. It is closer to I-War 2 because of the full newtonian physics, except for being far less polished of course.


As for WCS

Damn, I got stuck in a mission where you are supposed to attack several transports about to dock in a space station with a heavy fighter and no escorts because all escorts got wiped out by stealth fighters and I just don't like the "skip mission" or "lower difficulty" suggestions. Ignoring the enemy fighters to go straight for the transports is suicidal past the first transport you can take down with a torpedo, but shooting at the fighters will only spawn more of them and besides that you can't let more than one of them to successfully dock. destroying transports using only guns while faster fighters keeping spawning, add to that the fact the heavy fighter is the shittiest space fighter in the entire game.

Once I did it, but then I had tons of fighters after mine, the retarded AI allies doing nothing to help, all countermeasures depleted and suddenly several missiles homing.

And then the afterburner ran out and you can imagine the rest...

 

[Admiral jimbob]

My strategy with that one was to order my wingman after one of the nearest ships, afterburn to the one on the far side to the right and drop a lance on it, and dogfight to thin their numbers while shooting the engines of the transports. The engines go down really quickly, and once they're destroyed, you have all the time you need to clear up the enemy presence and destroy the now-stuck transports. Definitely one of the harder missions.