MOD:WCU:Privateer3:Storyline

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Special Acknowledgement

• Thanks to CharlieG for cattle-prodding our asses into using this wiki. -- chuck_starchaser

Introduction

WCU being a union of Wing Commander and Privateer maps, ships and factions, needs something special for its storyline. Spiritplumber dreamt of a fusion of privateering alternating with military career stints, and also threw in the idea of there being another Privateer (an evil one?) that Burrows must overcome. But there was no "plot" per se, and spiritplumber did not want to be the plot-writer, or even to be perceived as veto-ing alternative plot line ideas.

Plot-writing actually began with Captin cocksniff's brainstorming a "19th Fleet" stint idea, plus some stuff happening afterwards. Pretty good ideas, though I (chuck_starchaser) didn't think so when I first jumped into his thread. Unfortunately, and for various reasons, none of those early ideas have remained. (Did I kill them? ^^) For example, the 19th Fleet happens a bit too early in WC canon to be able to "make it" to it. Not that this precludes a "20th Fleet" for lack of a better term, and this idea is in, as of this writing.

The rest of those original ideas were interesting, but later we began to analyze the Priv/RF plot in more detail, and something different emerged...

It seems to us, Origin came up with a "deep" plotline, much more complex than meets the eye. If that was indeed their intention, they did a great job: The storyline of Priv/RF is chock full of hidden hints to stuff going under the surface. It is this stuff, we realized, we needed to understand fully well, before we could come up with a continuation of the story.

Thus, what's in this continuously evolving wiki, comes mainly from the 'storyline ideas' forum thread, which began here: storyline ideas and, for technical reasons, continued here: storyline ideas (part 2) If you wish to understand the full evolution and discussions surrounding the plotline, by all means, read those threads in their entirety. This WIKI does NOT document the evolution of the storiline, but is rather a destillation of its current status. It's like the latest CVS version of code. I will try, however, to provide links to specific posts in those, and other discussion threads, where the justification for some concepts may not be too obvious.

The plotline for our yet to be named "Privateer 3" begins at the end of RF (Righteous Fire) and overlaps the end of the Kilrathi War; --and probably the Black Lance saga, and beyond. Thus, it happens long before Privateer 2 :-) but may tie into it somehow.. And, before you ask, NO, no Stelteks, and no Nephilim... well, maybe...

Background

Most of the info used in backgrounding comes from various internet websites, including,

• WCnews' encyclopedia
• LOAF's timelines and maps
• Wonder Chicken's exquisitely detailed timeline zoom
• factbites
• And many more I forget...

((None of the links below this line are there yet.))

• The Privateer/Righteous Fire storyline dissected -- MUST READ!!!
• Observations and elucubrations about the much longer Wing Commander plotline
• WC canon timeline overlapping our "Privateer3" timeline.
• Maps, systems, map expansion chronology, eploration, the "Gray Zone"...
• Privateer's corporations listed alphabetically -- e.g.: Azuma Weapons
• Miscellaneous tidbits of possibly useful data
• Factions, subfactions, sub-subfactions, sub-sub-subfactions, ...

== The Plot == (WARNING: ***Spoilerish, read at the risk of your eventual fun.***)

• THE PLOT -- (WARNING: ***Spoilerish, read at the risk of your eventual fun.***)

Technical Requirements

• Faction Relations need to be twisted...
• At bases and in space, shall we talk?
• All but one of us want to read mags.
• Ship upgrades/gadgets for exploration, colonization and stuff.

WCU Community:

• WCU Homepage
• WCU forum over at the Vega Strike forums - development discussion

Other useful Links:

• Wiki editing reference