So, here it is--TASVideos' second TAS of a PC game!
...or not, seeing as it would be a TAS of a
port of a PC game. Anyway, I'm sure many of you are familiar with this game (or The Secret Missions, another port), and have fond memories of it, such as trying to get a clear shot at your enemy as your shields are down and the panic music is playing, gritting your teeth as you weave your way through an asteroid/mine field, or shooting down Maniac after he refuses to obey your commands again.
So, here's the thing--there are three ways a run on this could be made: the "fast as possible" method, which involves ejecting one's way to victory; out of 18 possible missions, only four need to be played, and once on the Venice, it's impossible to fail (unless you die, which wouldn't make the run any faster).
There's also the standard path, which involves completing enough missions successfully (possibly ejecting, if desired) to move along the chain to Venice, the final route (which can be played normally or ejected through, as already mentioned).
Finally, there's the longest path, which involves failing a couple of mission sets in order to play through six more missions (and get more kills). In any case, a FAQ with the details can be found
here.
One more thing: Wing Commander has a fair amount of dialog detailing the story (Briefing, Debriefing, and Ceremony--Bar Chat is useless), so considering the row going on over Star Control 2, would those watching such a run prefer the dialog to be skimmed through fairly quickly (say, 3 seconds per chunk of text), or skipped entirely (leaving more time for space combat)?
So the fastest route for *just* the good ending is eject every mission until you reach Hubble's Star. Then play Hubble's Star missions 1 and 3 (eject from 2). And play Rostov missions 2 and 3 (eject from 1). Finally eject from all 4 missions in Venice.
(This is probably faster than an alternate route where you win Port Hedland, because Port Hedland requires that you achieve every objective in order to win, so you have to play all three missions.)
Considering the TAS has already gone to McAliffe, PikachuMan is probably intending on either an all metals or max kills route or just play through the game "as well as possible." Completing all objectives in the shortest amount of time on the route that naturally follows from completing all objectives.
This is (as far as I can tell) what medals are available. This means that the best route is to win every system except Kurasawa.
