What is Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter?

[@DavidWessman]

After TIE Fighter we started working on a Millennium Falcon game. It was going to add a traditional FPS mode where you would be able to run around inside large ships and stations. It featured a narrative with 2 intertwined storylines, one as a smuggler, the other as a bounty hunter. About 4 or 5 months into it the decision was made to cancel it due to our realization that we wouldn't be able to reach the quality level set by TIE Fighter. Since multiplayer was the most requested feature I proposed that we do a game focused on multiplayer. The dev team loved multiplayer already (Doom, Descent, Command & Conquer, etc.) In fact, it was observing the post match conversations where we would excitedly retell the story of what just happened that inspired me to suggest that we didn't need to provide the usual cutscene driven story. Biggest mistake I ever made!

[@TheValiant]

Thank you for sharing this. Even though I understand the decision to drop such a project in 1994, it's a shame that we still don't have any game which offers something similar. The closed thing we have is Star Wars Galaxies & Kotor games, but those are of course RPG games. It would be such an amazing experience mixing an FPS and Space Combat Simulation in the Star Wars universe :) I hope you don't mind me asking, but would you maybe be interested in sharing more details/stories about the development of X-Wing & Tie Fighter?

[@DavidWessman]

@@TheValiant Yes, in fact I am right now preparing a Classic Game Postmortem on TIE Fighter that I will deliver tomorrow at the Game Developers Conference!

[@koopanique]

I remember as a kid, I loved X-wing VS Tie Fighter precisely because it was a loose collection of "random" engagement between Rebel and Imperial forces. I could just select a mission randomly and get playing. I didn't speak English at the time so it was perfect for me. I love X-Wing Alliance but I often replay X-Wing vs Tie Fighter too!

[@koopanique]

I absolutely love this game! This is my all-time favorite Star Wars game. I love X-Wing Alliance too, but the "random combat engagement" feel of X-wing VS Tie Fighter makes it special to me, it feels more "simulation" in a way

[@tkc1129]

Thanks for the interview. It was interesting. I loved the X-Wing games so much when I was a kid, and even now I often think about how much further the series could have gone, or a series like it could go now. Multicrew gameplay was announced for XWA, but it wasn't actually there upon release. Some hacking revealed that the code actually was in the game, just had a few bugs. For instance, the turret lasers would come out from wherever the cockpit was located instead of the turret location. I have to say that at the time, I was in some ways disappointed with XvT. The lack of a story and the lack of a diagetic menu system really disappointed me. I also excitedly tried the multiplayer once, and it was so laggy that I couldn't play. Since I only had the sample amount of MSN minutes, I didn't have an opportunity to try it many more times. At the time, I loved the countermeasure system, but now I dislike it despite its obvious necessity. And jumping craft was kind of immersion-breaking and often led to chains of death. There also wasn't really any mission-specific recorded dialogue, and it's the only game in the series like that. That said, I played through BoP on Hard a few years ago and loved it despite having a very, very high difficulty. Some of the PvP missions/battles were easy because the mission was designed to be balanced, but the BoP campaigns were hard as nails. Anyway, I had a lot of fun. The only problem is that the game is limited in terms of how it can use a modern HoTAS. And I even came to find the datapad menu to be relaxing. I am super curious about the un-produced X-Wing series expansions. The original XW was obviously intended to have an additional expansion disc, and XWA was obviously intended to have an expansion as well. I wish Jedi could tell me about the latter, even if he wasn't working at TG for the formee.

[@DavidWessman]

I don't recall any plans for a 3rd expansion to X-Wing. The CD-ROM Collectors edition had 6 bonus missions. Despite very strong initial sales, XWA's 1st year sales total was disappointing. The simulator genre went into serious decline that year and most publishers stopped supporting it.

[@tkc1129]

​@DavidWessman Wow, thanks for replying to me. I want you to know that the X-Wing series holds a very special place in my heart even after this 31 years. There are a couple of game series or games (the Smash Bros series and MechWarrior: Living Legends come to mind) that reach that level in terms of how fun they are to play, but the X-Wing series was more than just fun to me. It is good to learn exactly how things happened with XWA's end. It would have been really unique if it had gotten an expansion, since the only game taking place in the aftermath of Endor was Dark Forces II, and that wasn't focused much on the war itself. More recently, there were Squadrons and a silly mobile game, although those are in a different continuity. I think we all wanted the series to continue, but yeah, the games industry turned away from both complex games and PC games. A few years later, I'd work for GameStop and see this sad trend continue. The clues I am thinking about for a Tour 6 are as follows: there are graphics for an extra, unused set of ToD ribbons that came with either the B-Wing expansion or the DOS CD-ROM version, and was updated along with everything else in the 98 remake. There is room made in the medal case for that ribbon and another medal. The pilot file apparently supports another ToD, although I understand that may be future-proofing. The GR-75 (Rebel Transport from ESB) is in the Tech Library in the 98 remake despite being in no missions. Apparently, there is some unused 2D art that may have been the back of a tauntaun's head as if it were the main cockpit view, but I haven't seen that one. This may be a big stretch, but the Death Star missions recorded "surface" hits/kills, which seemed to be a little suspiciously-generalized. There are unused alternative versions of one of the Bonus missions, leading some to believe Totally Games was experimenting with allowing players to choose their craft in a future expansion. All that and the last Tour 5 cutscene featuring Snowspeeders made me think you guys had been considering a Hoth or at least a T-47-oriented ToD. I have heard of interviews in support of this, but the people making this claim couldn't find the links. I guess there is no room for T-47 training badges, but you wouldn't logically do the PPG in a Snowspeeder, at least. There are a lot of people who suspect the above, but I have a silly theory of my own, if you would indulge me. X-Wing was the first source (outside of maybe the RotJ novelization, which I haven't read) that indicates the A-Wing has missiles. The Farlander Papers also don't make any mention of missiles, but they do talk about the A-Wing's lasers sometimes swiveling to attack at unusual angles. I get the impression that at an early stage, you guys tried to implement the ability for A-Wings to gimbal their laser cannons, but couldn't (or at least, joysticks at the time would have had difficulty supporting this), so gave them concussion missiles to make up for it. Do you know if there anything to this little pet theory of mine? ;-) Anyway, the XW series is still important to me. I'm at a stage in my life where I don't have a lot of free time, but if things ever change for me, one of my silly dreams is to work on some sort of spiritual successor. It's a far-off, but I'd like to think well-honed fantasy. I think things have turned back in the direction of PC games, consoles all now have USB ports you could plug a HOTAS into, and cross-platform play is no longer being blocked by console manufacturers. Maybe some of the gaming populace wants just this sort of game without being conscious of it, and they just need a proper introduction. But it'd still be something I want to do, even if there was almost no audience. Hopefully, I can take a tiny step in that direction soon. I apologize for having a very long message, and I thank you for taking the time to read it.

[@matthewfors114]

omg, the countless hours i spent playing this game.... my teen years. i think i bought this the moment it came out and i had some joystick thing to play it with

[@JosephAlanMeador]

This is great, thanks! Especially cool to hear a first-hand account of the development of this game.

[@JosephAlanMeador]

p.s. I'm curious what mods you are using for XvT in this video? For widescreen/high res specfically?

[@TheValiant]

@@JosephAlanMeador Thank you for your kind words :) I use nothing special just a fix to enables Hardware acceleration, 60fps and in the config I enable anti-aliasing. Here is the guide I used: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eWHce4SLfa-JiK8si=gMoWRFogmsXxInfk

[@JosephAlanMeador]

Thank you very much! And I may have mistakenly thought you had somehow achieved a widescreen aspect ratio, looks more like this footage was the just cropped to fit 16:9? Thanks again! @@TheValiant

[@TheValiant]

Yes, I just changed the config, so it will give me a stretched widescreen ratio. I just prefer to play that way. @@JosephAlanMeador

[@JosephAlanMeador]

Excellent, I appreciate that info, I will give the stretched widescreen ratio a try! Thanks again @@TheValiant

[@Lviz]

been there, done that! all of it ;-)

[@baydenwoodland1235]

This was fun to watch