Thanks for this awesome game!

To the WCS devs,

Holy crap, this was a hell of a thing. I spent five years hardcore modding on RTS games, so I have a good idea how much effort went into this product, and god bless if it isn't impressive. The polish, the writing (the writing!) and the voice acting were top notch. Most of the missions were very well done and boy were there a lot of them. The depth of documentation available was excellent. I've played many professional games with more faults than I could find here. That you were willing and able to build such a project and release it for free is inspirational. While some missions were extremely frustrating at times, the overall impression I had was very positive. You brought out more emotional highs and lows than I've had in a game in a while, let alone a free "mod".

Thanks again very much! I'll be telling my friends to give it a try.

Instead of starting yet another thread, I'll chunk my observations in this thread already begun.

Howdy. I'm Isaac, a gamer since the Atari days. I've played them all right through WC4 (but please don't ask me about that WC movie...)

First impression - Should I be getting this for free? I've played a lot of freeware and payware games, and this game is bigger and frankly better than a lot of payware stuff I've played. I keep having the uneasy feeling I'm stealing from someone... and I do not run cracks. (Insert a lot of comments from smarties about "If it will make you feel better I'll happily take your money" here.) But I still find myself wondering if it's legal to get this game for free.

Second impression - I hate, I hate, I HATE escort missions! But I like this kind of game, and escort missions are part and parcel of this game type, so... *sigh* I get through them.

Third impression - HAHAHAHAHA! Sometimes I have to play a mission twice simply because I'm laughing so hard I can't shoot straight. Great dialog, just great! The House character was spot-on, and I know some people in real life who are just like Avatarr. My favorite wingman for dialog has to be Assassin.

(Speaking of which, could we make a thread listing all the in-jokes and pop culture references? Or would that spoil it for those playing the game the first time?)

Fourth impression - Man, y'all really got into the characters' thoughts. Little touches like the bandit saying "yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah what's it say in your manual about THIS?!" which would be what a real pirate, scornful of real confed pirates, would say. (Or something Todd "Maniac" Marshall would say... he's always criticizing Blair for "flying with one eye on the regs manual." Maybe Maniac would make a good pirate?) All in all, very well developed characters.

Fifth impression - Man, there are some real downers. Not that this is a bad thing, it's essential to the storyline, but my heart almost broke when the Wellington finally bought it. After all the hard work I did to save her... And losing Vega was a real blow. You folks did some great writing there. The player actually cares what happens. I like to think of myself as objective and slightly cynical, but you even got ME caring.

Sixth impression - Some of these missions are really hard even on very easy. Maybe some added dialog would help... like in the mission where you have to take out transports before they dock with Blue Point, might have a wingman mention "Just go for the engines, we can scrap them after we stop them all." And don't get me started on the skipper missile... how are WE supposed to magically know how far behind the Battleaxe we should hang around? I had to check the forum more than once to get past a mission, but by the power of the mighty Google I made it through.

Seventh impression - Ahhhh, Excalibur. This is how fighters should be! I finally get my coast back, AND auto-tracking guns!

Speaking of which... why can only the Arrow and Excalibur coast? It seems illogical that Hellcats, Thunderbolts and etc. can't coast. There is no friction in space, assuming you don't run through a gas cloud or something. There should be an in-game explanation for why coast is not available in those fighters.

Eighth impression - Capships are far too easy to kill, ours and the Kilrathi. If they are really that easy to take out, why are they so important to the war effort? One fighter (me) can take out multiple destroyers, corvettes, etc... And they seem somewhat worthless. I have never yet seen a destroyer destroy anything unless it's scripted. If that's the case, why not just send out waves upon waves of carriers loaded with fighters? Why bother with all those other smaller capships that can go down so easily? Just IMO. This is something I never understood in the official WC games either, so don't think I'm just picking at you guys.

Final notes: All together this was a well rounded, quite polished and professional game you have here. It fits right into the WC universe too, from the gameplay to the story. You could be selling this thing, or you could contact the company that owns the official WC copyright and sell it to them. But for my own reasons I'm glad you're not. Thanks for a great game!

Welcome aboard mate.
The devs don't come by very often, so I'll comment some of your impressions to make up for it

(Speaking of which, could we make a thread listing all the in-jokes and pop culture references? Or would that spoil it for those playing the game the first time?)

You certainly could, just mark it as a spoiler thread

Sixth impression

I was working a little while ago on a sort of upgrade project to see if I could tackle on some of the balance and gameplay issues I had with the campaign. Skippers are especially problematic; I tried poping up a warning and distance to Battleaxe indicator, but I wasn't quite satisfied with the result.
My ideal solution would be to have a sort of estimated time to impact / distance indicator with an error margin that increases with difficulty settings.

Speaking of which... why can only the Arrow and Excalibur coast?

The eternal complaint about (most) space shooter games I feel that any sort of in-game explanation would feel wonky at best, so I don't mind there not being one beyond "these fighters can glide, those don't".

Eighth impression - Capships are far too easy to kill, ours and the Kilrath

Hey, at least they feel tougher that the WC3/4 originals on default difficulty setting
I think the concept of dangerous capships didn't exist back then. All you've got is flimsy laser turrets whose only perk is their long range, and tachyon turrets that aren't much better. Good thing Saga equipped their big ships with actual ship-to-ship weapons so that they can shoot each other faster than fighters (without torpedoes) can shoot them.
After finishing Wing Commander Saga I tried making a small cross-over mod between WCS and Freespace 2 without altering game data beyond having FS big beams not pierce capship shields, which resulted in an interesting balance:

- From the perspective of Freespace vessels, WCS fighters are flying tanks that go supremely fast, can pop out capship with a few torpedoes and tear fighters and bombers appart with only a few shots.
- WCS Capship point defences, due to their range and damage are very effective against FS strike crafts.
- Freespace capship point defence, ie. flak guns and anti-fighter beams are surprisingly effective against WCS fighters, despite severely lacking range.
- FS warships are HUGE compared to Wing Commander's, with FS cruisers, which are equivalent to WC frigates or destroyers, are as big or bigger than a Confed heavy cruiser.
- WC Destroyers usually pawns FS Cruisers, Rakshasa and Lilith non withstanding.
- WC Cruisers and FS Corvettes (minus the Moloch) are pretty even, sometimes killing each other
- WC Carriers, unsurprisingly get stomped by Freespace destroyers which boast some of the heaviest anti-capship beams
- WC Dreadnaughts get omfg stomped by FS Juggernaughts

You could be selling this thing, or you could contact the company that owns the official WC copyright and sell it to them.

Actually they couldn't even if they wanted to, had the copyright and everything, the reason being that the Freespace Open engine can't be used for profit.