Wing Commander Standoff: Episode Five Released (August 11, 2009)

[Bandit LOAF]

Here's the news you're all here to read: Episode Five of the Wing Commander Standoff fan mod is now available for download. I don't think I'm overstating this: Standoff is, perhaps, the single grandest achievement of the Wing Commander community -- a more than fitting tribute from a team of more than talented people. Here's the official word and download links:

Start by downloading
Standoff Prologue + Episodes 2, 3 and 4 Bundled (270 MB). Then download the Episode 5 upgrade (173 MB)! The combined Episode 1-5 package will be released later this week, but it will be the same as the separate 1-4 & 5 packages that are available tonight.

August 10th, 2009 - Standoff Episode 5 released!

Well... it's been a long, long time coming, hasn't it? And just like Episode 4, this is another one that only barely made the release date. We'll be honest - we really, really wanted to make this release date, because it's the Wing Commander CIC's birthday. Had the release date been set to any other day, however... we would have chosen to delay this episode for another day.

We'll start with the bad, to get it out of the way: the game crashes. Big time. There's a major memory issue in there that we've been going crazy trying to fix... and failed. For now. But in the meantime - basically, if you play two or three missions in a row (especially the kind of huge missions you have in Episode 5), the game will most likely crash in the middle of a mission. You can avoid these crashes simply by quitting after every mission. It's not fun, but it seems to work. And we are working on it...

Two other small bits of bad news - first up, with all the new features in the game, we did not have time to finish testing the simulator missions. Rather than releasing something half-done, we've decided to hold off on releasing any new sim missions at all in this package. In about a week or two, we'll hopefully have them all polished and ready to go. As it is, the sim missions are unchanged from Episode 4 - all of them are functional, but only some are enabled for the scoreboard. And the other thing is - we didn't get a full Episodes 1-5 package done for tonight, only Episode 5. However, all the additional content for previous episodes is present in this package. If you have missed out entirely on the previous episodes, we suggest you wait until the big package is available - but if you absolutely must play Standoff tonight, simply download the Episodes 1-4 package, install it, and then install Episode 5 on top of that.

Enough with the bad, let's talk good news :-). First up - we've got a new website, the old layout was... well, old :-). And the other good news, obviously, is that we've released the final episode of Standoff :-D. It's a big package this time, over 180 MB in size - more than twice what the previous episode had taken. Apart from the big damn finale, this episode also contains a lot of fixes for various issues in previous episodes. And new cutscenes for Episodes 1 and 2. And all those great graphics improvements we mentioned in the last update. In short - it's the best damn Standoff release ever!

--
Original update published on August 11, 2009

[Dundradal]

Bah don't let Quarto scare you...the game seems to only crash in a few select missions. Taking the above advice though will help prevent the crashes. During testing I found that the problem missions tended to crash 3 out of 5 times. Not a great ratio, but still not too bad. The problem is the missions it crashes in Episode 5 are pretty epic and difficult, so it really sucks when it happens.

I also have to thank the Standoff team. I came onto the team before Episode 4 came out and have been testing every since. I've learned a ton of stuff (who ever knew that Quarto really is that big of a jerk? ) and had a great time helping to create this Wing Commander experience.

I hope all of you enjoy it as much as I did in play testing it. Have fun...oh and remember to save Earth while you're at it.

[PopsiclePete]

And here's the last of our weekly updates to Standff episode 5's release. Hope you had fun following us as much as to play our game !

August 10th, 2009 - Standoff Episode 5 released!
Well... it's been a long, long time coming, hasn't it? And just like Episode 4, this is another one that only barely made the release date. We'll be honest - we really, really wanted to make this release date, because it's the Wing Commander CIC's birthday. Had the release date been set to any other day, however... we would have chosen to delay this episode for another day.

We'll start with the bad, to get it out of the way: the game crashes. There's a major memory issue in there that we've been going crazy trying to fix... and failed, for now. But in the meantime - basically, if you play two or three missions in a row (especially the kind of huge missions you have in Episode 5), the game will most likely crash in the middle of a mission. You can avoid these crashes simply by quitting after every mission. It's not fun, but it seems to work. And we are working on it...

Two other small bits of bad news - first up, with all the new features in the game, we did not have time to finish testing the simulator missions. Rather than releasing something half-done, we've decided to hold off on releasing any new sim missions at all in this package. In about a week or two, we'll hopefully have them all polished and delivered to you via our launcher's built-in patching system. As it is, the sim missions are unchanged from Episode 4 - all of them are functional, but only some are enabled for the scoreboard. And the other thing is - we didn't get a full Episodes 1-5 package done for tonight, only Episode 5. However, all the additional content for previous episodes is present in this package. If you have missed out entirely on the previous episodes, we suggest you wait until the big package is available - but if you absolutely must play Standoff tonight, simply download the Episodes 1-4 package, install it, and then install Episode 5 on top of that.

Enough with the bad, let's talk good news! First up - we've got a new website, the old layout was... well, old. And the other good news, obviously, is that we've released the final episode of Standoff! It's a big package this time, over 180 MB in size - more than twice what the previous episode had taken. Apart from the big damn finale, this episode also contains a lot of fixes for various issues in previous episodes. And new cutscenes for Episodes 1 and 2. And all those great graphics improvements we mentioned in the last update. In short - it's the best damn Standoff release ever, even though we're still working on improving it!

[Quarto]

...Weekly? Why, it's only monday... nobody told me we still had four days .

[Starkey]

Congratulations on a great effort! The game is great and you guys are the best!!

[Dundradal]

It's nice to finally see the new website up.

And all of us should enjoy the night...tomorrow it will be back to work to kill that damn bug...finish the sim missions...and put Dundradal in eternal hell of finding any bugs he may of missed...

Here's a bug... None of the ships appear during flight mode. They're there as far as the game is concerned, but they're not visible to the player at all.

No, I have no idea what's causing this. Coin toss between Wine (running it under Linux, bleh) and my rubbishy Intel video chipset.

[TCS-Concordia]

Hey guys, awesome job. I played a few missions tonight and really enjoyed the experience. I forced myself to stop so I can ration it over the next few days. I havn't checked to see if yall fixed the bug that crashes it on my desktop, which is a shame because I have my desktop hooked up to my 32inch TV.

It does however play flawlessly on my laptop.

Cheers guys! Great job and thanks for the fun!

Originally Posted by Spoons

Here's a bug... None of the ships appear during flight mode. They're there as far as the game is concerned, but they're not visible to the player at all.

No, I have no idea what's causing this. Coin toss between Wine (running it under Linux, bleh) and my rubbishy Intel video chipset.

Black screen? Me too.

No, no black screen, the starfields and the movies show up fine. Ships just don't appear at all. I have my HUD and I have space and stars, and no ships.

[Ptarmigan]

Originally Posted by Spoons

Here's a bug... None of the ships appear during flight mode. They're there as far as the game is concerned, but they're not visible to the player at all.

No, I have no idea what's causing this. Coin toss between Wine (running it under Linux, bleh) and my rubbishy Intel video chipset.

I am having the same problem too with no ships in game play. I have Windows XP SP3. Like it though.

[Falcon988]

I'm getting a black screen too. Only when I use HDR though. I have a 9600M GT card and the FAQ says I should be able to run HDR... unsure what's up.

[Dundradal]

Originally Posted by Spoons

Here's a bug... None of the ships appear during flight mode. They're there as far as the game is concerned, but they're not visible to the player at all.

No, I have no idea what's causing this. Coin toss between Wine (running it under Linux, bleh) and my rubbishy Intel video chipset.

Intel chipset...turn off Enhanced lighting...that should fix it. This is something Alex and I were working on the other day. Intel chipsets just suck.

As for the other gfx issues...those are strange and new. We'll look into them and definitely see about fixing the situation.

EDIT: Iceblade also mentioned something I forgot ....yes update your vid drivers

[Iceblade]

Guys, update your video cards to the absolute latest. I didn't think it would work so well on mine (what with it being just a black screen) but it worked perfectly.

This is actually something that probably needs to be said in the news update, since I ep. 5 requires mid-09 drivers.....very few people bother to update their drivers that often.

EDIT: PS I found a typo in the second cutscene of the game, the word was "against" The error is minor and therefore hard to notice esp. for game dev.

[Andropolos]

Could it be that those cards lack proper OpenGL support? IIRC, the new patch was using OpenGL for all the new graphical updates. Unfortunately many cards, especially those on laptops, don't support OpenGL, at all, so, unfortunately, something like what you wrote about, happens.

[Iceblade]

The card is a Nvidia GTX 285. Its possible the initial drivers from December had no openGL support, but the update sure did. I know my old card (a 9800 series Nvidia) had no trouble. (pity it got burnt out....heat stress I think)

[Dundradal]

Originally Posted by Iceblade

EDIT: PS I found a typo in the second cutscene of the game, the word was "against" The error is minor and therefore hard to notice esp. for game dev.

Yeah...blame Quarto...and me...I didn't have time to check the scenes with subtitles in today before I had to go to work...

[Falcon988]

Updating drivers worked.

WOW the game looks -spectacular- now. I especially love the new explosion effects. And all these additional cutscenes inserted into the prologue are quite a treat! I lost all my old Standoff saves and so need to replay eps 1 - 4 to play ep 5, but with all these new additions it's going to be a REAL treat to do so! Viva la Wing Commander!

[Max Gene]

Ohh man! I'm excited, but you guys have some of the worst timing... I have to leave for Ohio for the week tomorrow! I just hope some of the remaining patches come during that time so that the wait was even more worth it...!

[Kyran]

Wow, there's a Kilrathi ~~~~ pilot on the first mission. That's completely unexpected.

[Toast]

holy crap it's intense! My entire right arm is twitching after four missions. Have to take a break - can't shoot straight anymore!

[Quarto]

Originally Posted by Max Gene

Ohh man! I'm excited, but you guys have some of the worst timing... I have to leave for Ohio for the week tomorrow! I just hope some of the remaining patches come during that time so that the wait was even more worth it...!

Heheheh... I'm sorry... I know our release was kinda unexpected, what with having been announced about four months ago .

If it makes you feel better, I got the impression the timing was bad for most of the team, as well. For most of the weekend, we didn't have even a single tester on duty .

[Ghost]

Waiting for the Ep1-5 megapack.
Thanks guys!

Originally Posted by Dundradal

Intel chipset...turn off Enhanced lighting...that should fix it. This is something Alex and I were working on the other day. Intel chipsets just suck.

Ah thanks, that worked. Yeah, these Intel chipsets are crap.

[Glabro]

Hmm...is there any reason besides convenience we should wait for the megapack?

Great job, in any case!

[Max Gene]

Originally Posted by Quarto

Heheheh... I'm sorry... I know our release was kinda unexpected, what with having been announced about four months ago .

OK, so actually it's my family with the horrible timing- you guys planned ahead, and they chose this week... well, considerably sooner .

Oh, well. Still can't wait to play!

[Natreg]

Hey first of all congratulations on a great work and all

I'm really enjoying playing the game again with the new graphics and new cutscenes for the first chapters.

I got a suggestion for the complete pack with the 5 episodes though. If you still have the source material for the cutscenes maybe doing them in a better resolution would be a good idea. Of course is that is too much work, or if you don't consider it worhtwile, then no problem

Also, I still want to do that spanish translation. So if you can tell me how to extract the file/files with all the text for episode 1, I could also start working on that.

[Wedge009]

I haven't seen the new FMVs yet, but if they're a similar resolution to the ones in the first four episodes, I believe they're stored in a relatively low resolution in order to keep the file download size down.

[Iceblade]

Sounds like an optional movie pack is in order....I'll download a high-res stmovie.tre

Great game guys!
But in regards to the graphical issues, I've the latest directX, and latest graphics drivers (catalyst 9.7) and still get the no ships issues unless I turn off enhanced lighting.
Also noticed in the ship viewer however with those options off, green and blue lighting doesnt do a damn thing, and red only changed the overall brightness.
Could the hack used to improve the graphics be affecting the way the engine renders RGB lighting?
Also a minor thing, but sometimes in larger battles Kitty VDU's come up with Confed images?

Running on an intel dual core cpu and Radeon HD4670 card, hope this helps

[Bar-None]

You guys are amazing, thanks for the great game!

[Iceblade]

Thats was totally awesome....flee kind of sad though with it ended (granted their are several other paths I need to explore, but sad nonetheless.

Well, good luck getting the bugs worked....I'll probably wait for the additional fixes before trying the other paths.

[Quarto]

Originally Posted by Natreg

I got a suggestion for the complete pack with the 5 episodes though. If you still have the source material for the cutscenes maybe doing them in a better resolution would be a good idea. Of course is that is too much work, or if you don't consider it worhtwile, then no problem

Unfortunately, we don't have the source material. It's hard for Eder to keep a backup of all this stuff over the years, uncompressed video takes a lot of space. Next time, we're gonna have to get him a second hard drive or something .

[Vidmaster]

YEAH! Now I just have to get it working (read my post in the "Drivers" thread) and I am going to enjoy pure WC fun.
And just wait until we release WC Saga (probably early next year?). That will rock the house too.

[Lt.Overload]

Originally Posted by Quarto

Next time, we're gonna have to get him a second hard drive or something .

Next time?

[Natreg]

Originally Posted by Lt.Overload

Next time?

Standoff 2: Revenge of the Terrans!

They attacked Earth, now... it's our turn! (to attack Kilrah, not Earth...)

heh


Anyway getting serious

I'm sorry to hear you don't have the source material
But well, the cutscenes don't look that bad, just a bit pixelated in high resolutions. Also maybe it's me but scenes in later chapters look better anyway.

Also, about the translation? I know you probably are really busy searching and fixing the remaining bugs, but when you guys have the chance I really want to make this game avaliable for spanish people

[Quarto]

Originally Posted by Lt.Overload

Next time?

It's a disease. You can't cure it, man. I am tired, I really am - I also know that in a few weeks, I'll be missing it. And, there's all those ideas...

But, let's be clear about one thing - there will absolutely never, ever be a Standoff sequel. Bradshaw's story ends at the Battle of Terra - I'm sure he did many exciting things in the remaining months of the war, maybe he even survived to do less exciting things after the war... but we don't need to know about them. There are other stories to tell out there.

Originally Posted by Natreg

But well, the cutscenes don't look that bad, just a bit pixelated in high resolutions. Also maybe it's me but scenes in later chapters look better anyway.

That's correct - the earliest scenes were pretty badly compressed, compared to later ones. I'm not sure why - maybe back then we were more concerned about space? Or maybe Eder had better compression tools later on?

And of course, the Episode 5 intro is twice the usual resolution - it deserved it .

Also, about the translation? I know you probably are really busy searching and fixing the remaining bugs, but when you guys have the chance I really want to make this game avaliable for spanish people

Well, once we're done with the great bug-fixing effort and we release the full Episodes 1-5 package, we'll certainly see what we can do to make the job easier for you... but make no mistake, it will be your job . You'll get the tools, the files that need to be localised, and some basic info, but the actual job will be yours.

[Natreg]

Originally Posted by Quarto

Well, once we're done with the great bug-fixing effort and we release the full Episodes 1-5 package, we'll certainly see what we can do to make the job easier for you... but make no mistake, it will be your job . You'll get the tools, the files that need to be localised, and some basic info, but the actual job will be yours.

~~~, don't worry I wasn't planning on making you guys work more ~~~
Well I keep waiting for that package to be released

[Iceblade]

One time period I think would make a good mod would be to have it set during those 10 years Blair was on that station (obviously I don't mean the focus to be on Blair but on some of the other pilots, it could even focus on Maniac ). It would be interesting to see more of the war post-claw or even pre-claw. The war is so long there are countless stories to be told.

[Lt.Overload]

Originally Posted by Quarto

It's a disease. You can't cure it, man. I am tired, I really am - I also know that in a few weeks, I'll be missing it. And, there's all those ideas...

But, let's be clear about one thing - there will absolutely never, ever be a Standoff sequel. Bradshaw's story ends at the Battle of Terra - I'm sure he did many exciting things in the remaining months of the war, maybe he even survived to do less exciting things after the war... but we don't need to know about them. There are other stories to tell out there.


That's correct - the earliest scenes were pretty badly compressed, compared to later ones. I'm not sure why - maybe back then we were more concerned about space? Or maybe Eder had better compression tools later on?

And of course, the Episode 5 intro is twice the usual resolution - it deserved it .


Well, once we're done with the great bug-fixing effort and we release the full Episodes 1-5 package, we'll certainly see what we can do to make the job easier for you... but make no mistake, it will be your job . You'll get the tools, the files that need to be localised, and some basic info, but the actual job will be yours.

Mod sequels are usually unused ideas for the first game, but recycled. So yeah, keeping it without a 2 would be the right choice.

[Dundradal]

Originally Posted by Quarto

It's a disease. You can't cure it, man. I am tired, I really am - I also know that in a few weeks, I'll be missing it. And, there's all those ideas...

But, let's be clear about one thing - there will absolutely never, ever be a Standoff sequel. Bradshaw's story ends at the Battle of Terra - I'm sure he did many exciting things in the remaining months of the war, maybe he even survived to do less exciting things after the war... but we don't need to know about them. There are other stories to tell out there.

First we have a post-mortem to do.

[Glabro]

In other news, I got the Finnish gaming media covered by getting my news tip published on www.pelit.fi

How about you do the same for your countries? Let's spread the word and revive Wing Commander to the public eye, too!

[Natreg]

Originally Posted by Glabro

In other news, I got the Finnish gaming media covered by getting my news tip published on www.pelit.fi

How about you do the same for your countries? Let's spread the word and revive Wing Commander to the public eye, too!

It's a good idea, but I think it would be better to wait until they fix the memory crash bug.

[Mace]

Originally Posted by Glabro

How about you do the same for your countries? Let's spread the word and revive Wing Commander to the public eye, too!

http://www.tweakers.net had already covered the story on EA re-registering the trademark, and the name WC already stirred some attention, ofcourse i did point those guys to this site.

[Glabro]

Originally Posted by Mace

http://www.tweakers.net had already covered the story on EA re-registering the trademark, and the name WC already stirred some attention, ofcourse i did point those guys to this site.

Good. What was a bit disappointing that I saw a poll on gamefaqs about which classic EA title should receive a sequel, and when I checked, Wing Commander had less than seven percent of the votes. Road Rash (why?) was the winner, followed by System Shock (the more obvious choice). OTOH, Road Rash prevailing over SS shows what type of people frequent gamefaqs.

a very big thanx to all the team behind standoff. i dled and started playing ep1 (although a wc vet, i dled standoff about a week ago). wc1+wc2/post-wc2 era is the one i like most from the wc "story" (wc2 was my favourite). to my surprise you did a formidable job in reviving a post-wc2 era atmosphere.

with wc saga, gemini gold/priv remake (i played those), and all the other wc fan projects, the future for the community looks primising and ABOVE ALL creative!!!
i only wish x-wing/tie fighter/x-wing alliance had a treatment like wc has.

i admire your passion and appreciate that a high-quality product such as standoff is made BY FANS FOR FANS!

again, a big thanx guys!

P.S: all of us realize that you need a period to get some rest (after all, everyone has a daily job!!)... but, if you decide to write another game, how about a priv1 story (involving InSys, Confed, Pirates, Retros, very minor Kilrathi presence, megacorps - espionage, intrigue, action, romance, vendetta), with a cyberpunk mood (instead of space opera), pink-floyd-ish music on a modern engine??
ok, enough of my mumbling... everyone here has an i-would-like-your-next-project-project-to-be-something-like-a-... idea...

[Glabro]

Heh, "some rest" is indeed in order. I'll be pleasantly suprised if they start doing something else, but I bet life and gaming call.

And IF they start doing something, the spark for it has to come from themselves in order to finish it like Standoff, so it's no good giving them suggestions.

[Lt.Overload]

UE, Standoff, it might be time to retire...

[PopsiclePete]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

i admire your passion and appreciate that a high-quality product such as standoff is made BY FANS FOR FANS!

Quality ? Good to see people aren't too disapointed at us releasing a bug-ridden crashy game !

Originally Posted by Unregistered

P.S: all of us realize that you need a period to get some rest (after all, everyone has a daily job!!)... but, if you decide to write another game, how about a priv1 story (involving InSys, Confed, Pirates, Retros, very minor Kilrathi presence, megacorps - espionage, intrigue, action, romance, vendetta), with a cyberpunk mood (instead of space opera), pink-floyd-ish music on a modern engine??

Well, we need to finish Standoff and fix it before we can think of taking some rest

[Lt.Overload]

Originally Posted by PopsiclePete

Quality ? Good to see people aren't too disapointed at us releasing a bug-ridden crashy game !

I haven't have many problems. I haven't needed to exit after a few missions, mine is crash free for the most part. And after you look past those crashes it really is a high quality, detailed piece of work.