Wing Commander Part #90 - Mission #86: TCS Concordia, Rigel system

Part 90: Mission #86: TCS Concordia, Rigel system

Mission #86: TCS Concordia, Rigel system

Previously on Wing Commander: While securing a jump point into Rigel, ran into some hostile human pilots. Admiral Tolwyn informs us that they may be mutineers from the TCS Gettysburg, but the whole situation is still unclear.

Weird, I thought she already knew about it from the Admiral. Guess I was wrong.

That sound you are hearing is fourth wall shattering.

As always, Maverick is all 'shoot first, ask questions later'.

As always, cooler heads prevail.

Ten minutes later...

Seriously? He's trying it again?

After you go to the Kamekh, return via the asteroids. Tactical believes that is the most likely area for an ambush, if these pirates intend to attack the Concordia.

Just a couple of redshirts, nothing to get excited about. They are not part of the story.

So, on the face of it, this sounds fairly simple. Go, check out that Kamekh distress signal, which may or may not be a trap; kill it or not, depending on a situation. True, we are in a *groan*Epee*groan*, but we actually did a Kamekh strike in an Epee before so should not be that bad. We again get two wingpeople instead of one, but this time they are just couple of no-name redshirts that we can't even issue orders to; so they will do whatever they want and we'll have to make the best of it. Of course this means friendly fire can be a bit of a problem. Also, before we start, let me just mention that this is probably the absolute hardest mission so far in all of WC2; partly because of genuine challenge, and partly because of annoying technical issues that are present (more on this later). In addition, I strongly suspect that this mission was deliberately made the way it was simply to annoy the players--I actually have some supporting evidence that I will also discuss after the video.

Mission Video (YouTube)

You know, in this mission, I think it's all about simply surviving, and if any objectives get fulfilled in the process that's an added bonus. Luckily, it's completely optional and does not influence your winning path in any way, so feel free to skip if it's giving you trouble. And give you trouble it will, be ready for multiple attempts to get this one right. Here is one small advice: since all enemies you'll encounter are fairly weak and approach you from a far, aim to kill at least one while you are still flying in formation towards them. This will help a lot.

The first encounter with the three Ferrets is not THAT bad, but it can turn sour quickly if you don't pay attention. Normally what these guys will try to do, in my experience, is to have one of them bait you into chasing it while the other quietly sneaks behind your back and shreds you to pieces. This happened to me a few too many times in discarded runs to be just a coincidence. But overall, it is possible to get out of this one in relatively good shape, even undamaged, if you remember to NOT GET CLOSE TO THE EXPLOSION! I hatehatehate how fragile the Epee is.

The main battle is of course at the location of the former Kamekh--and you get no less than SIX pirate Epees to fight. There's little advice I can give here... try to kill one on approach if you can, possibly even fire off a dumb-fire into the crowd, that can also work and an Epee will die from one hit. Other than that, the most important thing is to constantly keep moving so you are not spending long enough as anybody's target. Friendly fire can be a big problem in this battle as wingmen tend way too often to pick the same target as you. Unfortunately, since they won't, you'll have to be the one to choose somebody else to shoot at.

And finally, just as you thought you are on your way home, you get two more Epees in an asteroid field--and this is probably the worst part of the mission. An Epee can easily die from just a single asteroid bump, especially an Epee that's inevitably been seriously damaged in the previous part of the mission. Luckily, the same goes for the enemies and they are more likely than not to hit a rock too.

Try not to hit an asteroid on the way home, it would be a shame after all this effort.

A major technical issue in this mission, and one that makes it harder than it should be is the usual problem when fighting against confederate starfighters--namely, the wonky hit detection. We've first seen this problem in that nasty mission where you have to fight a large amount of Rapiers and it still persists here. Due to their thin shape, Terran fighters are difficult to land a hit on, and you can see that very clearly in the beginning of the mission where my hits are simply floating THROUGH the Ferrets no matter how much I try--the only reliable way to hit them is to aim for the strict middle of the targeting rectangle (this is the normal way of dealing with this problem on capital ships too).

And finally, the reason I believe this mission is there deliberately to be annoying is... the way debriefing is constructed. Missions in WC2 don't usually have very detailed debriefings (if they have any at all). But this one... this one has the most detailed debriefing ever! It goes point by point enumerating what you did and what you didn't do and Maverick even hangs his head in shame in case any enemies escaped! This is just so that you get even more annoyed if even a single enemy manages to escape in this mission! Even if you skip any objectives, such as deciding not to go through the asteroids and avoiding those two enemies, even that will be mentioned! There is just no escape in this mission!

The below version of debriefing shows the dialogue when you don't miss anything, but adjust accordingly for all other variations. Somebody was really taking the piss here!