Wing Commander Saga

[Aginor]

Yes, that's a problem which occurs with all FSO-based games. They support just one device, and most HOTAS sticks are often multiple devices.

 

So thanks for mentioning PPjoy, which should be the perfect solution for people who really want to use their HOTAS sticks for Saga (or any other FSO game).

 

Regards

Aginor

[Impact]

If you use the Warthog, just startup the TARGET GUI and make a new config, selecting both the stick and the throttle. Run it and you should have a Warthog combined in your game controller menu of Windows.

 

Then just start the game and set up your joystick. For some reason it seems to only recognize 32 buttons... But thats sure enough for the most important settings.

[Aginor]

That's right, the TARGET software does the job.

But the Logitech Profiler for the G940, for example, does not have this feature, and I think Saitek doesn't provide this possibility either (I'm not sure since I don't own one.)

 

I used my G940 because of the FF effects, but then I switched to my old MS Sidewinder Precision Pro because I couldn't get PPjoy working on my XP64 PC :-(

 

Regards

Aginor

[PeterP]

That's right, the TARGET software does the job.

...as long you are using only Trust-Master controllers.

If you want to "marry" different brands like saitek-rudders with a TM-Warthog you have to use PPJoy.

 

But you can still program the buttons of your warthog via Target.

Edited March 30, 2012 by PeterP

[104th_Crunch]

Does WCS use the semi Newtonian controls like glide and side slip? Thanks

 

btw CH Controls can be setup as one virtual device for all CH devices as well.

[MagnumHB]

Does WCS use the semi Newtonian controls like glide and side slip? Thanks

The Arrow and the Excalibur have a glide function. Be sure to take full advantage of it.

 

Anyway, I finished the game this morning, and overall enjoyed the whole thing immensely. If I had any complaints, the biggest would be a few over the top characters and some "talkiness" that I thought was excessive. Still a worthy experience for sure though.

[Aginor]

@Crunch:

MagnumHB is right. The Excalibur and Arrow have that function. Best you put it on a button on your stick, it is really useful.

 

@MagnumHB:

Glad you liked it. :)

 

Actually I just finished the first playthrough of the finished game myself. Of course I knew some of the mission and played them, but I haven't seen the thing as a whole until now. It was a great experience, seeing how everything fit together in the end. I guess that's how people feel that make a movie when they first see the whole thing.

 

So what's next, you might ask.

Well, we are working on the German translation at the moment, and we'll also release an SDK including a mission editor and tutorials to show the fans how they can make own missions, campaigns and so on. The game will be open for any kind of modding and we are all looking forward to what fans will come up with. I can't say when it will be released, that may still take a few weeks, since the most active members of the team are pretty tired now that it is done. We'll see.

 

For more infos visit our website wcsaga.com, and if you are interested in Wing Commander maybe you should also visit wcnews.com or (if you happen to speak German) wingcenter.net

 

Regards

Aginor

[Pilotasso]

Article about this MOD on HOT HARDWARE:

 

http://hothardware.com/Reviews/Wing-Commander-Darkest-Dawn-is-Fabulous-FanMade-Goodness/

[Yurgon]

After hours of HOTAS config I've finally started playing and finished the first two missions of the training campaign (well, the second one took 6 attempts until I nailed it). It's pretty hard IMO, but I'm loving it. Those guys did an incredible job of bringing the good old Wing Commander feeling into the new game, and I like the story that comes with it (if only the contrast on those screens was black on white; my eyes wanna jump out of my head when reading light letters on black background...).

 

Anyways, great job and thanks a lot to all of them!

[PeterP]

Ha! - it also took me several missions to realise how important it is to have all the energy management functions mapped when you use a difficulty setting above "easy"

- and it also took me the same amount of time to map this 7(?) energy -management functions to my HOTAS in a ergonomic and easy to use way.

 

:D and can you imagine how the text looks/reads on a TH-Setup? :P

Edited April 1, 2012 by PeterP

[elchacal]

Nice!

[Pilotasso]

Flew half a dozen missions. The immersion is great, even better than the original games safe for the missing famous actors of course :D

 

Graphics are grand considering how the original game looked like. Awsome 3D models and bump mapped textures, and the various ship versions.

 

The ony slight gripe I have is with the flightmodel, the ships are too slow and turn in a dime, and soon it all becomes a knife fight in the phone booth with the inevitable bumps with the front fender (sometimes to death).

 

Oh yeah I fly with maximum level of difficulty.

Edited April 2, 2012 by Pilotasso

[Impact]

Flew half a dozen missions.

...

Oh yeah I fly with maximum level of difficulty.

 

You won't be flying at maximum level of difficulty for long, Dorothy.

Edited April 3, 2012 by Impact

[Yurgon]

As much as I love Wing Commander, this new installation also reminds me of the parts I really hate about it: the unforgivingness of a "make the whole mission or don't make it at all" system. That's fine most of the time and I don't mind a challenge.

 

But for the past couple of days I've been stuck at the same mission; it's the one where, for the first time, a Kilrathi ace shows up. I don't mind aces, either. I think in the last attempt I actually scratched his paint a little until one of his missiles that seem to exist in endless supply blew me to pieces, again. From 19 to 0 countermeasures in less than a minute, wow. Then again, I wasn't keen on saving them for later keeping.

 

The part I always hated about Wing Commander (and WCS) is putting such a challenge at the end of a mission that already contains quite a huge challenge given by two corvettes that need to be taken out by no more than two Hellcats because those hero Sabre pilots have, in all my attempts at this mission, not fired a single damn torpedo on those things until they got their ugly asses shot up. And it's not just the challenge of getting that far - it also the time it takes to fight line by line of enemy defenses again and again.

 

Sure, I could always play at the game's simplest setting, but like I said, I don't mind a challenge. It's just that in some missions, these challenges eat up so much of my time it stops being fun. :-/

[Aginor]

Sorry for the late answer!

Yes, there are several hard missions, and yes what you mentioned is the way games like that are played. I also admit that I beat several missions only after lowering the difficulty one or two steps. All of them are tested at least on medium though.

Concerning the Fireclaw mission: The Sabres can destroy the corvettes if you protect them, which means to kill the fighters attacking them and disabling one or two turret on each corvette. Then they will launch torpedos, hit, and kill the corvettes.

Best tactic for Fireclaw is: Save your missiles, kill his wingmen fast, don't launch your countermeasures too early, and hit him hard once you get behind him.

 

Similar tactics apply to other missions as well.

 

Regards

Aginor

[Yurgon]

I've just played the final mission and would like to add a brief summary of my impressions of the game.

 

WCS has kept me playing for a good, long while. It has a huge number of mission. I think the immersion in terms of being a pilot in wartime, having to cope with too few friendly assets almost all the time, is just brilliant. The voice acting is very well done (except for maybe a few characters whose names I've already forgotten). The plot of the game progresses nicely and serves very different kinds of missions, some of them even a bit scary.

 

I also like how WCS adds a new perspective to the story of WC3. It's been ages since I've played that game, but playing WCS brought back a lot of good memories of my days spent playing Colonel Blair (or was he a Captain back then? Not sure...).

 

I still think that some of the missions are ridiculously difficult and disagree with the choices made for those missions. However, the hardest missions IMO were located more towards the game's beginning and middle part. At the end, especially with the introduction of the Excalibur, things got a lot easier (although I had to refly a lot of the missions in that stage and sometimes lower the difficulty as well).

 

All in all, WCS is a fantastic game and I thank all those people who made this thing come to life. You guys really did an amazing job!