Compliments, Suggestions, and Offer to Help

Hello.

I'm completely new to the WCS and FreeSpace Open communities, so I don't know if this is the best place to post this; please bear with me if it's not.

First, allow me to say:

AWESOME GAME!

I'm absolutely blown-away with both the length and quality of this game. I've always regretted being unable to play the WC series (except for very briefly) back when the computers it was designed for were common, and I'm quite thrilled that you've created a new-and-awesome free version. I played X-Wing, Tie Fighter, X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter, and X-Wing Alliance to death, way-back-when, and I have to say that this is the continuation of the genre I've been hoping for, for about a decade. Thanks, and good job!

Next: suggestions.

I just finished playing the Darkest Dawn campaign, and I have 2 suggestions that I'd like to put forward. I don't know if they've been discussed previously, so please be patient with me if so.

1) Some missions involve very long periods of simply watching the story unfold. This is great for story-telling, and I don't object to it. I would, however, like a way to skip these sections, in case the player has recently seen them. A prime example is the destruction of the Kinny. I enjoyed the mission, but after messing-up and having to wait to be able to re-play the part where I had a problem, I ended up placing a heavy object on the TAB (afterburner) key and doing something else while the game went through the "story" part of the mission. I think it would be cool to skip that part if the player wishes.

2) Similarly, some missions are VERY long. I absolutely love long, involved missions with great stories, and WCS does this VERY well; unfortunately, it sucks to die at stage 9 of 10 and have to replay the rest, only to possibly die again and have to start from scratch. What if there were a "save point" mid-way through? I don't know how well the FreeSpace Open engine would support this, but it would be a great feature, and would allow the player to avoid a certain amount of boredom before getting back into the otherwise very engaging storyline and missions.

Finally: my offer to help.

One thing I noticed in this game is the great soundtrack. Kudos to whomever wrote, performed, recorded, and/or mixed it! Since I understand that new game content is imminent, I wish to offer my services as a composer, should you have a need for another one. (I fully see whomever is currently doing the music as very competent, so please understand that I'm only offering help, not competition.)

I have a fair bit of college-level music theory training, and do freelance composition of my own music (in staff notation, using MuseScore). I play the guitar (jazz, rock, blues), and have previously been in a rock band, though my compositional bent is rather apart from that musical paradigm. I have very little experience with orchestral bands, but I do understand much of the theory for composing for them, and have access to material on instrument transposition, etc. More importantly, though, I am competent at classical-style composition theory (with focus on 4-part harmony, but I can do smaller and larger harmonies), following the edicts of tonal voice leading. I have written music for piano, as well as more "modern" scores for jazz ensembles and, for lack of a more descriptive term, "neo-classical/choral" music (involving 4-part classical voice leading with electric guitar, acoustic guitar, and electric bass). I can provide samples to individuals, but since I'm still working out the copyright license(s) I want to release the music under (possibly Creative Commons or similar), I would require a binding agreement not to share the scores without my express permission.

Also, I have won awards for creative writing, so if you care for help with script writing, or whatever else, I can provide some service there. (Of course, you're already quite good in that department, as well.) I can provide samples of such writing, as well, if need be.

If this is not the best place to present these offers, comments, and suggestions, will someone please point me to the right place?

Thanks, again for the great game you've made! Please let me know if you would find my assistance helpful. I am afflicted with chronic illnesses that would require my work to proceed at an "as I'm able" pace, but even so, I think I could be of assistance.

Sincerely,

Dane Mutters

Hello, and welcome to the WCSaga forums.
I'm sure the Saga team will pleased by your review and your offer to help.

As for your two suggestions, they indeed have been discussed and can, in theory, be implemented. However, as I understand it (someone correct me if I'm wrong), the Wing Commander Saga Team no longer has the time, manpower or will to go through 50+ missions, implement either of these features and make sure the missions still play as they should. Which basically means it's up to the community to do this.
Of course, this would require a coordinated effort and some motivation, but I'm sure it's doable, at least dialogue skips. Checkpoints are a bit more tricky, especially if the mission hasn't been designed with them in mind, although I imagine WC's auto-pilot system would make that easier to do in WCS than in FSO. See the discussion here if you want more insight on how checkpoints work.

Thanks for the reply, X3N0-Life-Form.

I'm glad you think they'll appreciate my review and suggestions. I'm hoping that at some point, a member of the relevant team will notice this thread, or that someone will tell me a better place to post this. This is such a fun game and great effort that I want to be a part of it however I can be.

I can see how the changes I suggested aren't necessarily in the cards. I'm well familiar with the need to simply "call it done" where any work of love is concerned. I don't think these measures would have to be placed in more than about 5 missions (by my rough estimation), but that would probably still be a good bit of work (especially in the way of getting the underlying system ready for implementation), and I wouldn't suppose to pester anyone to do it, unless they already feel so inclined.

Anyway, if my particular skill set can be used to make future content, I want to make sure the offer is available to those who could give me something worthwhile to work on. If you can tell me a better place to post/person to email, please let me know.

Have a good one.

--Dane

First of all I would like to thank you all to have released this amazing game!!!
I've started nearly 20 years ago with "Wing Commander Privateer" and this game made me trully get addicted. Then years later I bought "Wing Commander Privateer 2" and "Wing Commander Prophecy".

Sure between the basically "original" Wing Commander games and the Privateer games is a difference. But I liked both!

I have nothing to complain about the game! And even if I would have something to complain, then I wouldn't really have the right for, because this amazing game is for free. Recently I have unfortunatelly problems with the keys... maybe some of you folks can give me a tip about? The Targeting System is somehow different... at least it is not really putting me the nearest enemy ships on targeting system.

Well else, about such a poll, it would be really nice if you find time and mood to maybe creat more terran ships from all "Wing COmmander" and the "Wing Commander Privateer 1" I never flow the Talon or Stiletto, but once i allways wanted and was so much disapointed with Privateer 1 that the choice of ships was so limited...

Maybe you might even include an new function that you are assigned to lead your own fleet. So also lead capital ships.

I was just thinking... the Midway must looks like giant beside the Hermes

To include those bugs from Prophecy, I am against, because it would turn like in Prophecy that you and the cats would walk and in paws... instead to blow those kitty cats back into their litter box. If a three party war woudl start.... I guess the overview would be lost quickly, because too many enemies would have to been killed and too many missions.

Maybe you might make a release one day of a kind of Privateer. But if you would do this, please then not without the Planet New Detroit, Planet Oxford, Perry Naval Base and New COnstantinople Base, and also not without Eden System

Don't get me wrong, I don't await of you to realize all this, it is only an inspiration of an WC Fan.

Like I've allready readed arround here in the Forum, someone said about the sequences in the bars... sure I also miss such sequences, or on bases... I also know that it would be a lot of work to realize those animated ingame movies, but it would be amazing.

What else might be nice would be maybe an Pirate or Tycoon campaign... I mean playing as a pirate or a Industrial Tycoon, capturing ships or building own fleets to maybe reinforce the Confederation with it...

Sorry I write much
By the way... does any editor exists for the game?
Would be amazing if i could creat my own fleet^^


Greetings from germany


P.S.:

Apparently you folks like Southpark and Dr.House, I like it!!!

The mission designer is available for the game, check the modding forum. If you want to make your own ships though you're going to have to learn how to mod the game.

That's not impossible of course, that's how the team started.

I see a lot of gret suggestions for modifications to the game, and people willing to volunteer time and effort to help make modifications interesting. I can't speak for all of the development team, but I seriously doubt there will be any heavy effort by the WC Saga team to recreate missions or even develop new missions beyond those already done. Consider this, it has taken over 10 years to come this far. The team has sacrificaed a lot to bring about a game that is on par and in some ways superior to the original WC games. I think any new developments will probably be game mods developed by fans of the game, so for those of you looking to volunteer time and talents, that is probably the route to go...find modders who are working on new game elements and I'm sure they would love to have all the help they can get.

That's pretty much the main reason I'm hanging around here. I don't have the time to spend working on a mod for WCS but I have a huge amount of experience with the engine and I'm available to answer questions for those who do want to get started modding for Saga.

I've seen a lot of people say "I could never do something like that! I don't have the skills!" But how many of you have actually downloaded the mission editor and tried it? How many of you have every played around with a 3D modelling program?

I'm actually somewhat surprised at the lack of missions that have appeared for WCS. You have the mission editor (which is remarkably easy to use!) and you have an entire fleet of ships to use in it. Why aren't you guys getting to work on your own missions?

In my case, it's pretty much lack of creativity (and some impatience) which stops me from completing my missions. The only mission I've ever finished (with some help by Talon_1024) was the Historical Mission about the Gwenhyvar, which is part of his Asset Pack for the WCS-Demo:

I have also created some models but it's usually the UV-Mapping part which stops me from finishing them. The only thing I've finished to far is the tank for the Dilligent-class Transport from The Secret Mission 1. (1st Add-on for WC1) You can see it at enigma.de.to/ under "pics".

Yeah, it's an interesting question to ask, Karajorma. I think there are two main reasons why people are reluctant to release missions for Saga. One is that most people are just (no offense) what I call "consumers". They like to play the game but they don't want to spend time on making missions. That also creates the effect that when doing a mod it is very easy to get testers but it is very hard to get people to actually help you modding the game, which is also the reason why I'm working on my mod completely alone.

And you are right on the topic of FRED: It is easy doing simple missions, but when you want to do missions that are near the quality the Saga campaign has you quickly hit the brick wall that is the autopilot template. Tolwyn did a really nice tutorial on it and now I'm familiar with it, but it still isn't easy to use. Especially when you have to add things. But then I am a software developer so I'm familiar with script languages and so on. Most people have their problems creating event chains for example.
My approach is that I always start with the full Kilrathi template mission I created based on Tolwyn's autopilot template and then delete the stuff I don't need. But you can't do that without planning ahead because once something is deleted it is not easy to get it back. I don't mind that, but I understand that planning the mission isn't exactly the most fun part of the process. People just start up FRED and do some things and then the realize they have to start over because they didn't plan enough. That can be discouraging. And while FRED is indeed easy to use compared to most editors for games it still requires a bit of reading to do all the tutorials and so on.

Maybe I should also translate some FRED tutorials to German one day, I could bet some of the German WC fans have that language problem with FRED that prevents them to try it, but at the moment I'm busy with my mod.

And before I forget it: Thanks for your support, Karajorma! It is good to know that someone who knows FS2 and the editor really well is here with us.


@FekLeyrTarg:
I am also able to 3D-model a bit in blender and 3DMax, but UV-mapping and texturing are also things that are beyond me, I've never done a good texture. And I couldn't do round shapes on models to save my life, despite doing tutorials on that already. I have still to learn that.

Concerning creativity: That's also one of my problems. I always need a lot of input to create something that isn't really lame.

@Aginor: Texturing is also a bit of a problem for me. At least I can't do it from scratch, so I usually modify existing ones like the base texture by Talon_1024. My Mace Missile and the Dilligent's tank use it.
www.moddb.com/members/fekleyrtar ... 1#imagebox