FAQ

If you've got a quick question, you may be able to find the answer here.

What is Wing Commander: Hostile Frontier about?

Wing Commander: Hostile Frontier follows the story of Jonathan "Rider" Darrel, a young pilot of the Free Republic of Landreich Navy, as he serves aboard the FRLS Independence while it undergoes a series of missions to stop Kilrathi attacks on the Landreich. The demo campaign begins right after the ending of Wing Commander 3, when Blair drops the Temblor bomb on Kilrah. The campaign is based largely on the novel Wing Commander: False Colors, but through a different character's perspective.

What kind of fan project is WCHF?

WCHF is an addon-style mod for the Wing Commander Saga total conversion for Freespace 2. The demo campaign requires a 3.6.12 build of FS2_Open and the Wing Commander Saga Prologue. After WCS: The Darkest Dawn is released, a patch will be made available for those people running off of WCS: The Darkest Dawn. The main campaign for WCHF will run off of WCS: The Darkest Dawn. Missions from the WCS prologue campaign can still be played while the WCHF mod is activated.

When will WCHF be released?

Like most other mods, WCHF will be released when it's done. Remember that we are just people who are giving up their spare time to work on this mod. We won't be able to give any definite estimates as to release time.

What new ships are in this mod? Do we get to fly any of the new ships?

The new ships in WCHF include all of the fighters from WC1, plus the Broadsword, Wake, Exeter, and several Kilrathi ship classes from Wing Commander 3. In the WCHF demo campaign, you'll be able to fly the Hornet, Rapier II, and Raptor.

How far along is the mod now?

We currently have all the new strikecraft and capital ships in place, so all that I need to do now is create the missions.

What kind of improvements have been made?

Wing Commander: Hostile Frontier takes advantage of the new AI features in 3.6.12 to allow the enemies to fly like humans, which provides a more challenging gameplay experience to players. The mod also takes advantage of the latest graphical enhancements in the 3.6.12 mediavps, including realistic explosions, improved normalmap shaders, and cool-looking suns.

Landreich? What?

The Landreich is a canon WC faction that was only seen in the novels, but never mentioned in any of the WC games. The Landreich is a group of rebellious colonies who swear allegiance to their maverick president Max Kruger. They are being harassed by the Kilrathi, even after the signing of the treaty of Torgo.

How hard will WCHF be?

Here's a list of some of the features in WCHF which affect difficulty:

• WCHF will feature skilled AI pilots, thanks to the new AI features in FSO 3.6.12.
• The number of fighters involved in dogfights will be much less than in the Prologue.
• The new fighters you'll be flying cannot take much punishment (one hit from a Dralthi IV kills the shields of a Hornet, for example)
• The AI pilots won't be as missile-happy as they were in the WCSaga Prologue.

I'm trying to make the difficulty of WCHF feel a little bit like WC1, so it will be harder than the WCSaga Prologue, but in the end, it's up to you to draw your own conclusions.

Will there be X in WCHF?

Cockpits? Yes, for some ships, but otherwise no.

WC-style mouse flight? Yes, but it has to be enabled with the middle mouse button.

Cutscenes with characters? No.

Fiction viewer entries to read in-between missions? Not in the demo, but maybe in the Director's Cut version.

Wingmen with developed characters? Yes.

New mainhalls? Not in the initial release of the demo. Maybe for the director's cut version of the demo, but there will be at least one new mainhall in the full release.

Gameplay that is exactly like Wing Commander in every aspect? No. Due to differences between the FS2_Open and WC game engines, that may never be possible.

Can I play the WCS Prologue with the WCHF mod activated?

Yes! We are trying not to make any changes that would affect the gameplay in WCSaga Prologue.