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Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
Torval Mining Ltd has announced that sufficient quantities of mined resources were delivered to its subsidiary faction.
The Aristocrats of Cuacocha, who control the LHS 3872 system, received the shipments of mined lithium hydroxide, painite, praseodymium and tritium. They have confirmed that all participating pilots can now collect their rewards at Curbeam Hub.
Constantia Torval, the corporation's recently appointed CEO, gave a statement:
"With this successful event, Torval Mining Ltd advances toward even greater prestige and profitability. I offer sincere thanks to our partners and contributors."
The campaign's background was discussed by Gwendolyn Nash, Empire correspondent for Vox Galactica:
"Senator Zemina Torval handing Torval Mining Ltd to her oldest daughter is the latest of several curious developments in recent years. She established the company by branching

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

I got curious about one of the transports from Secret Ops; turns out "Kyoto Rose" is a kind of tea! So we ordered some from Amazon to try. And it was just fine! Make your own fun!!!

You can also listen to all of the Kyoto Rose's comm transmissions in the WCPedia Holovids section here!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

It's been a killer week for Wing Commander models! Today we've got a Drakhri built by Ardias and based on Klavs' original 3D model. There's actually two variants depicted below that differ in a clever way. The first was built as one piece by the printer. It's a convenient way to manufacture something... although carefully removing the connection points still takes some time. This is the version that was painted, and it looks great in the end! There's also a second take that comes in several pieces. In theory, someone with a smaller 3D printer could still produce this with each element manufactured separately. This always makes it so tempting to buy a 3D printer! You can read all about the construction process or download the associated files at the CIC Forum.

This model is an exact duplicate of Klavs original model. The only modification I made was altering the underside slightly to allow for

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Longscope has posted a pic of a beautiful Centurion that he built with an Elegoo Saturn 2 8K 3D printer. I know we just posted another gorgeous Centurion model last week, but I see these as being slightly different animals. LYP's design is the result of lots of bespoke paint and custom detail work. On the other hand, this seems like a more approachable creation with fewer pieces. It's obviously unpainted, but I'm really liking that stark black. In retrospect, why haven't we seen more varieties of Centurion paint schemes over the years?

A Centurion from Wing Commander Privateer. 16 hours print time in ABS Resin.

Whenever I played Privateer, it was always a race to get it as fast as possible. I loved that ship.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

I would give so much to be able to read the text on these monitors from Wing Commander III. Look, there's a designation for the Hellcat V right there! F-86 maybe? F-46C?

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The Alliance Assembly has approved a formal evaluation of its strategic defence pact with Sirius Corporation.
The vote to launch an independent inquiry was led by Councillor Nakato Kaine, who summarised:
"This partnership has been in effect for nearly two years. What tangible military support have we seen? Sirius Corporation has done little to protect Allied populations from attack or abduction. The capital ships promised to the Alliance Defence Force remain on the drawing board. The Sirius Navy isn't even engaging the Thargoid fleets on the front line of this war. How much longer must we endure Li Yong-Rui's empty promises?"
Admiral Nikolas Glass, the megacorp's representative on the Council of Admirals, disputed these claims:
"In truth, an enormous amount of work is taking place behind the scenes. Sirius technicians have retrofitted many ageing ADF ships with modern weaponry and internal

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

LOAF and AD have completed another game in their march to completely overhaul the CIC's Holovids video archive. Secret Ops is the latest addition. You might be thinking, "Did that gave have video?" It didn't have a live action shoot, but it had a bunch of in-engine and specialty cutscenes/trailers. Plus, it had a ton of in-game audio, which the new archive also fully includes. There were also narrated ICIS briefings, and you can find them all here!

Although I may have called WCSO 'complete' above, is anything ever really complete? AD has added a new specialty page to the recently added WCP video archive. It now has all the public address announcements spoken over the loudspeakers aboard the TCS Midway. It's VERY COOL to have them all consolidated in one place! Check them out here!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

LYP Studios has done it again! Lee Yee Pei has built a second Wing Commander model, and it is absolutely gorgeous. This time it's the Centurion from Privateer. The bulk of the ship was 3D printed, but a handful of custom parts were added for detail. He also painstakingly masked and layered different colors of hull texture to simulate the adjoining panels as well as the shark mouth on the underside. Fortunately he's also an excellent photographer, so we get plenty of beautiful shots to admire. You can find even more here! If this inspires you to craft your own, you can download the source files at Cults 3D or Thingiverse.

Centurion Heavy Fighter from Wing Commander Privateer. 3D-printed PLA & resin, with additional detailing parts.

LYP previously put together an incredible Morningstar fighter.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

I love finding magazine articles where they've commissioned their own Wing Commander art. Even this one. From "PC Games" magazine.

Modern life may be rubbish, but it's worse in the future. So relieve tense headaches with this plethora of combat tips..."

This one is good too, from a UK PC Gamer.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
A mining initiative is being held in the LHS 3872 system, as Torval Mining Ltd welcomes its new CEO.
Senator Zemina Torval, owner of the Imperial company until recently, has formally transferred her controlling shares to her eldest daughter. Constantia Torval was already director of operations, but will now oversee all corporate decision making from the highest chair.
From the press suite on Curbeam Hub starport, Ms Torval gave an announcement from the megaship Zetian's Recall:
"My mother's tireless efforts to build a corporation worthy of our family name have brought enormous success and esteem to the Torval portfolio. It is my honour to continue supplying vital resources to the great industries that drive our Empire."
"To mark the occasion, Torval Mining Ltd offers generous payments for newly mined quantities of lithium hydroxide, painite, praseodymium and tritium.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Destro recently launched a big update to his Wing Loader program that adds speech to WC1. In preparation for a future update that would aim to add high quality videos into WC3, Destro made this simple patch to upgrade the commercially available GOG DOS edition into an updated Kilrathi Saga Windows version. I think a couple iterations of this have been made by various folks over the years, but it's still good to have a modern update handy. You can grab the patch here (51 meg zip). You can also learn more about and download the current edition of Wing Loader here.

Also on another note, I made up a little patch that will upgrade the GOG version of WC3 to the Kilrathi Saga version. Trying to make Wing Loader work with current purchase options available for the games.

WING COMMANDER 3 GOG TO Kilrathi Saga

1) Install Wing Commander 3 via GOG.
2) Right Click DATA.DAT inside Wing Commander III and use

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Does anyone out there use Classic Gaming Arena? We've seen it come through Anatoly Shashkin's DOS Nostalgic feed in the past, and it supports DOSBox and Wing Commander Armada's IPXNet/NetBIOS protocols. Looks like it's another great option to get some online dogfights (or sector-wide domination) going. They have detailed instructions on how to get things set up here. Stop by the #Wingnut Discord if you're looking for fellow pilots to compete against!

Classic Gaming Arena is a website based portal to link up with friends, family or just random people to play DOS based IPX network games over the Internet via the use of DOSBox and out small client program, the CGA Client. The CGA Client is installed locally and the website uses it to launch DOSBox and get you connected to your networked game. The website essentially passes off all the required information about the game you want to launch and the

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

People who were recovered from the Thargoids have been flagged as potential biohazards by an Imperial medical institute.
Dr Zoe Terentia , chief researcher at Kamadhenu Medipure , published her findings in the Citizens Chronicle.
"Our analysis of abducted Imperial citizens currently in isolation has yielded disturbing results. There is clear evidence of an auto-immune response in multiple subjects. These manifest as minor physiological changes at a superficial level, which are mostly being dismissed."
"In my professional opinion, this qualifies as evidence that these individuals have been altered in some way by the Thargoid-constructed bio-storage capsules. I recommend they all be relocated to a high-security location beyond inhabited space. Should further mutations manifest, euthanasia should be considered to prevent any chance of contamination."
Director Ivano Colombera of the Imperial

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Lars Ivar Igesund tipped us off about a neat feature shown at NDC Oslo. It includes a brief segment on how Wing Commander leveraged its audio design in the "A Brief History of Computer Music" panel. It's an interesting topic overall, and Wing Commander fits right in! Jump to 29:38 below if you'd like to skip straight to the WC chapter.

Computer programmed music has come a long way since the CSIR Mark 1 played a scratchy Colonel Bogie back in the early 1950s.In this talk we'll go on a journey through the history of music made with code. We'll meet the pioneers who invented computer music, visit classic video game soundtracks, learn how computer musicians made big sounds with tiny tech, how algorithms create never-ending soundtracks and the huge impact computer music has had on popular culture. Expect lots of nostalgia, vintage code on vintage computers and a musical experience of epic proportions.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

President-elect Felicia Winters has vowed to defeat new legislation proposed by outgoing President Zachary Hudson.
If funded, these initiatives will establish a media standards regulator, set up a political think tank, and merge the Proactive Detection Bureau into the Federal Navy Intelligence Office. Tax rebates will also be granted to all corporations with existing government contracts.
The Federal Times approached Felicia Winters for comment:
"It's obvious that these pro-Republican measures are being pushed through because of Jerome Archer's poor electoral performance. It would look bad for Hudson to admit that his own vice president wasn't a popular choice of successor. So now he's giving Archer as many advantages as possible for when he becomes shadow president."
"We aim to block these legislative changes should they go through Congress. And I personally guarantee that once I am in

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Folks, I’d like to introduce you to a true mystery that is driving insane. These photos were kindly posted by a game art collector who purchased them from artist Greg Winters.

The first is the (wonderful!) cover to Mindscape’s SNES Secret Missions port. The second was said to be for an insert… but it was not something found in the final product. So what the heck is it and what was it for?!

Is it even from Wing Commander? At first glance it is certainly at least referencing a bunch of WC visuals that would be appropriate for Secret Missions SNES. For instance, these readouts are straight from the Hornet cockpit:

And the armor gauge is straight from the Raptor art!

That’s absolutely a Wing Commander pilot comm on the left.

And while it’s not a proper WC layout it IS designed around a central Patriarchal radar display, something specific to WC.

So maybe it’s an insert created for the game but dropped? A

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Accelerwraith tipped us off about a wonderful little easter egg segment in the animated show Invincible on Prime Video. He captured the clip below where a bunch of purple people in helmets and suits run down a red corridor. The way it frames both their heads and their feet seems to confirm it's an intentional nod to the classic Wing Commander dash from the briefing room to the flight deck. Here they are side by side so you can appreciate the similarity!

.@banditloaf Someone(s) on the @InvincibleHQ team played Wing Commander. pic.twitter.com/XOFfh3bogZ

— 山ㄩㄥ千 (@Accelerwraith) November 10, 2023

Did you know there are actually several different running sequences in the original Wing Commander? You can get different combinations of crew wearing a flight helmet, cap, long hair and short hair. Pretty neat!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

EmuMusicFan has posted the final page of chapter one in his boldy artistic take on Wing Commander Freedom Flight. Emu's got quite a knack for conveying emotion in his Kilrathi sketches, which is really visually pleasing to see. The emphasis here is primarily on the interrogation of Hobbes. There are nearly 20 pages all told and it took almost exactly one year to draw everything out. We applaud the diligent pace and commitment to see this through! For the first time, here is the completed chapter!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Klavs is back with a gift to share with Wing Commander fans this week. He's officially releasing a handful of enhanced 3D models that were put together over the last couple years. The direct art assets were originally available in exchange for a donation towards his family's medical bills, but now they are available at SketchFab for free. Hit the links below for links to each. These designs have made their way into a variety of fan projects over time, and we're excited to see what else fans can do with them!

• Rapier II
• Movie Rapier
• Sabre
• Ferret
• Dralthi
• Hornet

Hi everyone, the Wing Commander redux models are now available for free on Sketchfab. MANY many thanks go out to those who purchased them, your support is so greatly appreciated, and if we ever meet in person I owe you a coffee!

They are a little rough in spots! As with the original models, I was using them as a way to learn substance a little better.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Analysis of objects and refinery compounds obtained from Thargoid spire sites has revealed a crucial connection to the Titans.
The announcement was made by Professor Ishmael Palin, who has been receiving deliveries of these materials from Pilots' Federation members:
"Genetic commonalities between the spire compounds and Titan hull fragments have now been verified. My research suggests these surface sites have been established to harvest resources which sustain the Thargoid motherships in some way. It may be that their supplies of some vital enzymes or fuels are running low, after months of being deployed away from their home worlds."
"To capitalise on this newfound understanding, my team has synthesised a biological contaminant based on the chemical composition of the samples. Introducing this to a spire's processing chain can only help our efforts to disrupt their invasion plans."
Dr Maximo