Wing commander

Kilrathi (Kilrafi)

The main race-antagonist of almost all the works of the series, humanoids, outwardly resembling earth cats, but upright, rising a little taller than a human. Kilrathi Society is built on a clan principle. The political system is empire. Religion canonizes the predatory instincts of the distant ancestors of Kilrathi.

According to the magazine World of Fantasy , Kilrathi reveals some similarities and parallels with the Kzins from the Mir-Ring universe by Larry Niven , including the development of the military conflict described in the work of the People and Kzin War ^[2] .

As for the origin of the name, according to one version, “Kilrathi” sounds like “Kill rathi”, which can be interpreted as “Kill rats” (killing rats) ^[3] . According to another version, “Kilrathi” comes from “Kill wrath”, which means “murderous rage” ^[4] .

Others

• Black Lance is the main antagonist of the game Wing Commander IV, a secret organization of people (mostly genetically modified), created by individual members of the top leadership of the Armed Forces of the Earth Confederation at the end of the war with Kilrathi, as an elite squad to counter future threats.
• The Firekkan Planetary Alliance is an ally of people in the plot of Wing Commander Secret Missions 2 the Crusade, erect birds feathered taller than a human.
• Union of Border Worlds is an alliance of star systems rich in resources, but poorly adapted to living, located on the border of the areas of influence of the Earth Confederation and the Empire of Kilra, populated mainly by people, but not formally members of the Earth Confederation.
• The Nephilim is the main antagonist race in the games Wing Commander: Prophecy and Wing Commander: Secret Ops , the appearance of which was predicted in the ancient prophecy of Kilrathi. Probably the same race is mentioned in the game Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger as Mantoux, and in the game Wing Commander: Privateer as Steltek

The main trilogy, also known as the “Kilrathi Saga,” is dedicated to the war between the Earth Confederation and the Kilra Empire. In addition to the main trilogy, this plot is also common for Wing Commander: Privater and Wing Commander: Armada , as well as for the fan-made but officially recognized Wing Commander Saga .

Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom is dedicated to the nearly-heated war between the Earth Confederation and the Union of Border Worlds.

Wing Commander: Prophecy is dedicated to the fact that the victorious people face the ancient prophecy of Kilrathi from the holy Book of Sivar, which predicted the coming of the enemy.

The events of Wing Commander: Privateer 2: The Darkening take place a century after the war with Kilrathi, and the scene is a remote star sector.

The Wing Commander series of games and franchise dates back to 1990 , when Wing Commander I was released .

In the original version, the game was to be called Squadron (Squadron), and the state of the people was the Empire ^[6] .

Chris Roberts , a leading designer, producer, and programmer, also created Freelancer ^[5] , his brother Erin Roberts , an AI creator and tester, also created Privateer and Strike Commander , later Starlancer and Freelancer ^[5] .

In 1992, Origin Systems was acquired by Electronic Arts for $ 30 million. One of the sales goals was to support games that were at that time under development by Wing Commander: Privateer , Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger and Ultima II: The Revenge of the Enchantress ^[7] .

Chris Roberts explained his reasons for leaving Origin after creating Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom by saying that “he burned out, creating a WC again and again ... ” ( Eng. I was burned out in creating WC again and again ... ) ^{[ 8]} .

The Darkening, known as Wing Commander: Privateer 2: The Darkening , was originally designed as a non-Wing Commander game, but then a marketing decision was made to link the game to the Wing Commander universe as the second game in the Privateer series ^{[9 ]} .

According to the magazine World of Fantasy , the Wing Commander series not only entered the top 100 Best Fantastic Games , but was recognized as the “ Simulator Standard ” ^[10] . Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger was named as the “ quality standard ”, and Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom was called the “ swan song ” of the entire series ^[11] .

Gambling called the Wing Commander series "the main film triumph of the gaming industry of the 90s " ^[12] . Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger has been called the blurring of the line between play and cinema. ^[4] Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom , which Gameromania called the “ quintessence ” of the ideas of the creator of the Wing Commander series, also called it “a game as close to his beloved Star Wars as the technology allowed at the end of the last century ” ^[4] .

The Best Computer Games magazine noted that it was the games of the Wing Commader series that laid the foundation for the tradition of “fighting” space physics, existing in the genre of space simulations, by introducing the effects inherent in flying in the atmosphere rather than in space ^[13] . At the same time, LCI and 3DNews note that the game turned out to be very spectacular - “ cinematic ”, allowing the player to feel like a hero of the film with beautiful special effects and a fascinating plot ^{[13] [14]} .

Game World Navigator rated Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger as Gold, and Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom as Platinum ^[15] . The best game in the series, he called Wing Commander: Privateer ^[16] . And the worst - Wing Commander: Privateer 2: The Darkening ^[9] , harshly criticizing it for its incompleteness and, in particular, for its imbalance ^[17] , as well as for its very weak plot connection with other games of the series ^[9] , at the same time noting her the presence of " good ideas under a pile of bad " ^[18] . Wing Commander: Prophecy was praised for its improved physical model, which gave it “ aesthetics and refinement ” ^[18] , and was also called “ almost the first game in the series in which the scale and power of the capships were felt ” ^[19] , but the story of Prophecy was rated as “ unpretentiously simple ” ^[18] .

According to the British magazine PC Zone, Wing Commander influenced all subsequent games of the space simulator genre, including even X-Wing ^[20] . The best game in the series was named Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom , which also, according to the magazine’s assessment for 2005, was the most expensive game in the history of game creation, and outperformed most of the 1996 Hollywood films ^[8] .

Physical Model

The games in the Wing Commander series are classics of the space simulator genre, largely defining its canons. A feature of the series is arcade physics of flight (traditionally explained in the game by the presence of fighter “inertia dampers” - English inertial dampeners ) in combination with well-developed technical characteristics of space technology. For example, in the game Wing Commander: Armada, reservations and shields differ in bow , sides and stern , and maneuverability is divided into yaw , pitch and roll . And the fighter itself does not consist of abstract hit points , but of various systems with their own damage percentages, such as engines, fuel system, batteries, shield regeneration system, auto repair system, radar, weapon systems and so on ^[21] . In addition, a shot from a weapon does not reach the target instantly, and requires a lead that helps to take the English. Inertial Targeting and Tracking System (Inertial Tracking and Aiming System ). At the same time, the necessary lead for different types of weapons is different, for example, in Wing Commande: Privateer, there are lead for eight types of weapons (neutron gun, meson blaster, pulsed ion gun, mass driver, particle accelerator, laser, plasma gun and tachyon blaster). Significantly, in the first Wing Commander, injuries sustained by a fighter in battle were reflected in a video showing the ship landing aboard ^[22] .

If in the first Wing Commander large ships were a target with hit points ^[23] , in later games the system of damage to large ships represented not only by one common abstract life-bar , but consisting of separate parts, such as guns and missiles, became zonal towers, shield generators, command bridge , engines, etc. ^[24] In addition, in Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi, the shields of large ships ( English capital ships) were only vulnerable to torpedoes , and there were noticeable differences in maneuverability and speed characteristics between conventional fighters and torpedo bombers ^[25] . But then in Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger, large ships again became recognizable to rockets and guns ^[26] . In Wing Commander: Prophecy shields that are vulnerable only to torpedoes and are vulnerable to other weapons, protect critical components - the captain’s bridge and engines ^[24] . Remarkably, in Wing Commander: Prophecy, large English class ships . capital ship were made not just large, but colossal, and even special missions appeared that were dedicated to attacking cyclopean ships bristling with many anti-aircraft guns ^[19] . What received from the Game World Navigator rating “ almost the first game of the series in which the scale and power of the capships were felt ” ^[19] .

The “calling card” of Wing Commander, according to the Game World Navigator, is the active use of afterburner during battles ^[27] . In Wing Commander: Prophecy , mass and acceleration of the spacecraft appeared, which have a noticeable effect during sharp maneuvers with the afterburner or solid-fuel accelerator on ^[18] . Especially when performing a maneuver known in the Wing Commander series as “afterburner slide” or “Shelton slide” (Shelton slide), during which the pilot, having accelerated to maximum speed, turned on the afterburner, and then could, turning, “slide” for a while sideways. Moreover, in the opinion of the Game World Navigator, it is in Wing Commander: Prophecy that the battles are distinguished by special “ aesthetics and refinement ” ^[18] . Such an attack, as well as the classic “tail-to-tail” tactics, is also stimulated by the fact that an attempt to frontal attack often threatens with a quick loss of frontal shields from the enemy’s oncoming fire ^[24] .

Other game engine features

In the first Wing Commander, the “fighter model” actually represented a parallelepiped with a fighter painted on it ^[27] .

Starting with Wing Commander: Armada, a series of games has switched to real polygonal models of fighter aircraft ^[28] .

One of the features of the Wing Commander: Prophecy engine is that the ships are compiled into a database consisting of such general properties of the ship as weapons, shields, engines, etc., connected to files containing both its appearance and additional properties ^[29] .

Story and actors

The gameplay feature is also the non-linearity of the campaign ^[27] . So, for example, in the first Wing Commander the plot consisted of non-linearly interconnected plot arches , each of which was named in accordance with the star sector in which the events took place, and consisted of three missions, and the player’s further movement in the plot depended on the ratio of won and lost missions in the story arc ^[27] . In the second Wing Commander, the plot began to include a romantic story ^[30] , and in the third a love triangle with alternative endings appeared ^[31] . In addition, the second Wing Commander included elements of a spy detective , in which it was necessary to identify the enemy agent ^[30] .

The main form of presentation of the plot was various videos (first animated, and starting with Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger and with live actors), dedicated to various events, such as a briefing before the departure or the award of a medal ^[22] . It is noteworthy that the role of the protagonist was played by Mark Hamill , known for the role of Luke Skywalker in the movie Star Wars . Actors John Rhys-Davis , Thomas Wilson , Malcolm MacDowell , Josh Lucas , Ginger Lynn also played in the videos. But besides this, in between missions, the player could voluntarily go to the bar on the ship and talk with other characters of his choice ^[22] , and in the later games of the series there were other available rooms with NPCs ^[31] . The result of the conversation could be both plot information, and tips on tactics and piloting ^[22] , and even a bet or duel on a simulator ^[31] (which can also be visited for training purposes). However, in the second Wing Commander, instead of a bar with a free choice of the interlocutor, there was a wardroom , during which a story dialogue or video was launched ^[27] , and in Wing Commander: Prophecy the improved “ battle ” turned out to be compensated for by simplification of the non-combat part of the gameplay ^[18] - from the dialogs with the selected character, the choice of phrases during the conversation ^[24] disappeared, and the plot itself became more linear ^[24] .

In the first Wing Commander, unlike subsequent ones, partners could die in any of the missions (in later games they usually manage to eject if the storyline does not provide for the possibility of his death) ^[27] .

In the third, ground missions appeared ^[31] .

Series Timeline

• Wing Commander: The Kilrathi Saga (PC, 1996) - reissue of the original trilogy:
  • Wing Commander I: Vega Campaign (PC, Amiga, SNES, Sega CD, 1990)
    • Wing Commander: The Secret Missions (PC)
    • Wing Commander: The Secret Missions 2: Crusade (PC)
    • Super Wing Commander (MAC, Panasonic 3DO) - re-release on the updated engine
  • Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi (PC, 1991)
    • Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi: Special Operations 1 (PC)
    • Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi: Special Operations 2 (PC)
    • Wing Commander: Academy (PC) - Mission Editor
  • Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger (PC, MAC, PlayStation, Panasonic 3DO, 1994)
• Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom (PC, MAC, PlayStation, 1996)
• Wing Commander: Prophecy (PC, GBA, 1997)
  • Wing Commander: Secret Ops (PC, 1998)

Trading space simulators

В отличие от основной серии игр Wing Commander, являющихся практически полной противоположностью такой классической игре, как Elite ^[13] , игры серии Wing Commander: Privateer близки к ней по духу свободы ^[32] .

По мнению 3DNews, Wing Commader: Privateer на момент своего выхода был не просто продолжателем традиций жанра, сформированных Elite , а « стал новым эталоном для игр такого плана » ^[14] .

Навигатор Игрового Мир называет Wing Commader: Privateer — « непреходящей классикой жанра » ^[33] .

Иногда в качестве своеобразного продолжения серии Wing Commander: Privateer называются Starlancer и Freelancer ^[32] .

Несмотря на отличие в жанре от основной серии, геймплей игр наследует традиционный для серии Wing Commander бар для пилотов, в котором игрок может свободно беседовать с другими персонажами, получая информацию, советы и задания ^[16] .

• Wing Commander: Privateer (PC, 1993)
  • Wing Commander: Privateer: Righteous Fire (PC)
• Wing Commander: Privateer 2: The Darkening (PC)

Стратегии

Главную роль в стратегии игры играет огромный корабль-матка , скромно именующийся просто «авианосцем», хотя без него в игре не может быть не только колонизирована ни одна планета, но и не может быть построена (или снесена) ни одна постройка на уже колонизированной планете (для апгрейда матка не требуется). Более того, победа или поражение в игре определяется по уничтожению этого корабля. Помимо истребителей и оборудования для строительства и колонизации, матка имеет свой собственный склад ресурсов, расходуемых при строительстве и колонизации.

В связи с тем, что «авианосец» всего один, истребители способны совершать дальние межзвёздные перелёты самостоятельно — без авианосца. Все межзвёздные перелёты осуществляются по гиперпространственным туннелям.

Планета считается колонизированной, если на ней имеется хотя бы одна из следующих построек:
• шахты (Mines)
• космическая верфь (Shipyard)
• звёздная крепость (Fortress)
Каждая из них строится и сносится «авианосцем» (кораблём-маткой); кроме того, постройки могут быть разрушены вражеским флотом. Планета, на которой не осталось ни одной постройки (упомянутого типа), считается покинутой.

• Wing Commander: Armada (PC)
  • Wing Commander: Armada: Proving Grounds (PC)

Отменённые игры

По версии Игромании: разработка третьей части серии Privateer — Wing Commander: Privateer 3: Retribution - началась в 1998 году, но затем в 1999 году после провала фильма, и последующего увольнения Нила Янга снятого Electronic Arts с поста руководителя Origin Systems , была начата переделка в Wing Commander: Privateer Online или просто Wing Commander: Online. ^[34] Однако, на следующий год, в 2000 году, проект был закрыт и отменён в пользу Earth & Beyond , а команда разработчиков присоединилась к Star Wars: Galaxies ^[34] .

По версии Навигатора Игрового Мира в 1998 году началась одновременная разработка Wing Commander: Privateer 3 и мультиплеерной Wing Commander: Strike Team с возможностью кооператива , которые было вскоре решено объединить в Wing Commander Online ^[35] . После провала фильма весной 1999 года, проект был закрыт, а Нил Янг — уволен, но через несколько месяцев проект снова воскрес под названием Wing Commander: Privateer Online , чтобы вновь оказаться закрытым в 2000 году ^[35] . Причиной отмены явились Earth & Beyond и тоже впоследствии отменённая Ultima Online 2 ^[35] . Команда разработчиков присоединилась к Star Wars: Galaxies ^[34] .

Что касается геймплея, то по некоторым слухам игра ожидалась подобной Star Wars Galaxies , которая на тот момент не имела космических полётов и боёв ^[35] . По другим же, помимо наземных приключений в духе Ultima , ожидались также и традиционные для Wing Commander космические бои ^[34] . Более того, на основании некоторых скетчей делался вывод о возможной поддержке полной кастомизации космического корабля игроком путём сборки своего корабля из различных деталей ^[34] .

Иногда в числе отменённых игр называют Wing Commander VI и Wing Commander VII на основании неподтверждённых данных о том, что Wing Commander: Prophecy (неофициально именуемая «Wing Commander V») являлась началом новой трилогии ^[36] .

Игры от фанатского сообщества

Wing Commander: Privateer Gemini Gold на движке Vega Strike ^[37] .

On March 22, 2012, Wing Commander Saga: the Darkest Dawn was released , which received official recognition from the copyright holder Electronic Arts as a game officially included in the Wing Commander series of games ^{[38] [39]} .

• Wing Commander Arena (Xbox 360)

About a year after Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger , in 1995, a collectible card game was also released ^[15] .

Failed at the box office, receiving negative ratings from both fans of the game and critics.

According to the recollections of the Game World Navigator, the first doubts of the fans arose when a relatively modest budget for the blockbuster of $ 50 million was released ^[19] . In fact, the budget was even less - $ 30 million ^[4] , and the film, having failed at the box office, was able to raise a little more than $ 11 million ^[4] . Among the actors who played in the film, Chris Roberts himself was noted - as a cameo , he played the cameo role of one of the pilots ^[19] . Both 3DNews and the Game World Navigator praised the game of Cheki Cario , who played the Paladin ^{[14] [35]} . But their opinions on the game of Matthew Lillard , who played the pilot with the call sign "Maniac", diverged sharply, and if the Game World Navigator called his game excellent ^[35] , then according to 3DNews the actor constantly replayed ^[14] .

3DNews described the replacement of Mark Hamill by Freddy Prince Jr. with the following words: “ it was difficult to find a more inappropriate actor for the role of Blair than Freddie Prince Ml. " ^[14] . The Game World navigator, on the whole, more favorably appreciated the casting of the actors ^[19] , but he also called Freddie Prince’s choice of the main role “ irreparable harm to the film ” ^[35] , and even emotionally reflected the opinion of Wing Commander fans, calling the actor “a big-mouth spawn ” ^[35] .

Gambling noted that Kilrati in the film is not only different from the canon, but completely bald, losing not only his famous lion's manes, but also all his fur ^[4] . According to 3DNews, Kilrathi “is shown in dotted lines, ” and the viewer simply does not see them for most of the film ^[14] .

Cardinal changes in the plot, directly contradicting the plot of the series of games ^{[4] [14], were also} especially criticized. So, for example, the introduction of the previously unknown mysterious pilgrim race, whose descendant was the main character ^{[4] [14] [19]} , was especially heavily criticized.

Regarding the evaluation of the director’s work, 3DNews compared Chris Roberts with Taras Bulba, who himself spawned and killed himself ^[14] , since it was Chris Roberts who created the Wing Commander phenomenon (also as a game designer) and then had a hand in creating luxurious videos.

But gambling about him wrote that he “ stepped on all the rakes he could ” ^[4] .

The 13-series American animated series with an anime-style drawing tells the story of the time when Christopher Blair with the call sign “Tramp” and Todd Marshall (call sign “Maniac”) were still cadets who had just begun their service on the aircraft carrier “Tiger's Claw” ( “Tiger Claw”) ^[15] .

Gambling praised Wing Commander's novelties, praising Flight to Freedom, The Heart of the Tiger, and Price of Freedom for being able to look at events from a different angle ^[40] . Praise was also given to the spinoffs “Reckoning”, “Battle of the Fleets”, “Action Stations” and “False Colors” ^[40] . But the trilogy written by Peter Telep on a failed movie and consisting of the books Wing Commander, Pilgrim Stars and Pilgrim Truth was called mediocre ^[40] . The Game World navigator called the publisher’s refusal to publish the latest film novelization book, Pilgrim Truth, as “ very clever ” ^[35] .

Original trilogy

• Wing Commander: Freedom Flight
• Wing Commander: Heart of the Tiger
• Wing Commander: The Price of Freedom

Spin offs

• Wing Commander: Fleet Action
• Wing Commander: End Run
• Wing Commander: Action Stations
• Wing Commander: False Colors

Movie novelization

• Wing Commander (film novelization)
• Wing Commander: Pilgrim Stars
• Wing Commander: Pilgrim Truth

• AG.ru : “Star Citizen - a project from the author of Wing Commander”

• Andrey Schur "The Fast and the Furious Saga. The Story of Wing Commander, Magazine of the Game Navigator, November 2003
• “Computer games how to do it” per. from English LLC “Lorgus. RU ”- Moscow 2000: LLC“ Lorgus. RU ”, in the series“ Game.EXE ”library ISBN 5-93896-001-0
  Game Design: Secrets of the Sages (c) Brady Publishing, 1999-2000 ISBN 1-56686-904-8
• Wing Commander II, PC Plus Magazine, December 1991
• Richard Longhurst Origin Sells Out to EA, PC Format Magazine, November 1992
• Richard Longhurst "Forward Thinking. Privateer, PC Format Magazine, January 1993
• Richard Longhurst Wing Commander Academy, PC Format Magazine, October 1993
• Wing Commander Academy, PC Zone Magazine, October 1993
• Ed Ricketts "Privateer", PC Format Magazine, November 1993
• Privateer: Righteius Fire, PC Zone Magazine, May 1994
• Super Wing Commander, Edge Magazine, July 1994
• Paul Pettengale Wing Commander: Armada, PC Format Magazine, September 1994
• Paul Galancey Wing Commander: Armada, PC Review Magazine, November 1994
• Paul Pettengale "Wing Commander 3", PC Format Magazine, February 1995
• Ed Ricketts "Pull the other one", PC Format Magazine, October 1995
• “Eyewitness. Getting better all the time! More news on Origin's eagerly awaited Wing Commander IV, including the playing bits, PC Gamer Magazine, November 1995
• Bulletin Wing Commander IV, including the playing bits, PC Zone Magazine, December 1995
• Charlie Booker “Wing Commander IV. The Price Of Freedom, CD-ROM, April 1996
• Paul Pettengale “May the fourth be with you”, PC Guide Magazine, May 1996
• Richie Shoemaker “Games That Changed The World: Wing Commander”, PC Zone: “Games That Changed The World”, Volume 1, 2005-2006
  Richard Shoemaker "Games That Changed The World: Wing Commander"
• Supplement to September 1994 issue of PC Format Magazine: Collectors' Series Volume 1: Origin
• Best computer games : Wing Commander: Prophecy
• Best computer games : "Wing Commander: Secret Operations" (article from Gambling)
• Best computer games : Nina Belyavskaya and Richard Psmith (Andrey Lensky) “Year of 1990”
• Best computer games : Richard Psmith (Andrey Lensky) "Games in space"
• 3D.ru world : Yuri Ilyin “Space simulators - a bygone era? "( Part 2 , part 3 )
• Fantasy World : Dmitry Zlotnitsky "Wing Commander 3: Heart of the Tiger"
• The world of science fiction : Svetlana Karacharova, Roman Ostroverkhov, Mikhail Popov, Arseniy Krymov, Alexei Korotaev and Alexander Kiselev "Virtual masterpieces: 100 of the best fantastic games"
• World of fiction : Dmitry Zlotnitsky "Bestiary. Fantastic cats: Glamorous creatures - Fantastic cats »
• Gambling : Dmitry Zlotnitsky «Wing Commander on the captain’s bridge. The story of the first franchise game with which the game novelties, film adaptations and space simulations began ”
• Gambling : Sergey Klimov “Games of difficult genres”
• Gambling : Dmitry Zlotnitsky "From Monitor to Paper: Art Books Based on Games"
• 3DNews Daily Digital Digest : Ivan Vasiliev "Game adaptations: Wing Commander - there will be enough space for everyone"
• PlayGround.ru : “Electronic Arts has approved the release of Wing Commander Saga: The Darkest Dawn”

• FAQ on the Wing Commander universe (WC1-4, Prophecy, Privater1-3, SO, UE, Standoff ...)
• http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3842/wing-commander
• Wing Commander: Saga - EA Recognized Game
• Wing Commander: Privateer Gemini Gold is another game from the creators of Wing Commander: Saga

Parallel series of flight simulators from the same developer ( Origin )

• Strike Commander - Jet Aviation
• Pacific Strike - World War II
• Wings of Glory - World War I

Other space simulators by Wing Commander ( Chris Roberts )

• Starlancer
• Freelancer
• Star citizen