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Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

General: Resolved an issue that was causing enemy critters to not match player level when a player joined a Task Force Operation midway in. Resolved an issue that prevented Vulcan characters from being able to proceed in "Diplomatic Orders" when speaking with Vulcan aide T'Pela. Removed “The Once and Future Agent” from Discovery faction mission journal. Moved “Task Force Operation: Age of Discovery” handoff mission into the Klingon War arc. Added a 5-minute Cooldown to the "Defense of Starbase One" Task Force Operation. This should improve its interactions with Random TFO selection. Unlocked Age of Discovery mission group for all non-Discovery captains. You can now go directly to "Secrets" even if you haven't finished the rest of your journal. Updated description on Age of Discovery starter pack to include ship claim instructions. Known Issues: Gamma Marks

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

General: Resolved an issue which was occasionally causing maps to crash. Deep Space Nine: Resolved an issue that caused the consoles in the ship yard to be exclusive to one player at a time. Qo’noS: Resolved an issue where the new banks were exclusive to one player at a time. Resolved an issue where players who logged out in the old Deep Space Nine interior were not immediately taken to the new interior when logging back in. Cardassian Bridge Officers can no longer be sold on the exchange. Resolved an issue where the Gamma Vanguard Species description was incorrect in the C-Store. Added messaging that states a Jem’Hadar captain needs to have played for 20 hours in order to receive the 50,000 Feet Dilithium reward for joining a fleet. Resolved an issue where the Marks Weekend that started on July 5 was set to run for 2 months. Content: Swarm Elite: Resolved an issue where the

Quote from Mass Effect News-Bot

Several developers in the world of gaming have become fan-favorites, but one of the most notorious hit-making developers of recent years has been BioWare. The beloved house behind such hit franchises as Mass Effect and Dragon Age has formed a significant bond with its fans over the course of its lifetime, even as these series remain dormant. Aside from a confirmed return to the Mass Effect and Dragon Age series’, perhaps what these fans have wanted most is the return of the official online BioWare store that was suspended a while ago. Well, now it seems like these BioWare fans may finally have this wish granted.

? Breaking news: The BioWare Gear store is back! The long elevator ride is over. Come visit the one stop shop for all your @masseffect, @anthemgame, and @dragonage collectibles! https://t.co/h5qaqzxnye pic.twitter.com/33cgB5AyUX

— BioWare (@bioware) July 20, 2020

As reported on Prima Games,

Quote from Star Citizen News-Bot

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Hello everyone,

Last week we fired off the first commercial contest of 2019, highlighting the rough and rugged Tumbril Cyclone series. We’re currently in the process of selecting the winners and will post an announcement very soon. Thank you to everyone who took the time to enter.

The Roadmap was updated last Friday, now showing a look at what’s coming to the Persistent Universe throughout 2019. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you can do so here.

Along with the updated Roadmap we also released our Star Citizen Monthly Report, covering progress the teams made in December and January.

As we’re approaching Valentine’s Day (only 3 more days, everyone!), we’ll celebrate with a “Be My Valentine” Card Contest. Share the love and design your own Star Citizen Valentine for a chance to win a ship that shoots straight for your heart. All the juicy details can be found on Spectrum here.

Now,

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

In late 2018, we kicked off a Foundry Challenge to celebrate the release of Victory is Life, and now it's time to announce the results! We had a lot of entries from very, very talented people, and we were blown away by the stories you tell in the Star Trek universe. The requirement was to tell a story for a Jem'Hadar or Cardassian Captain, and our winner has done that to a T. So without further ado, congratulations to XR-377, and their winning mission, "Flowers of War, Thorns of Peace." XR-377 was kind enough to make the mission twice, once for Federation Captains and their allies, and once for Klingon Defense Force Captains and their allies, so all of your characters should be able to play it. In addition to winning a T6 R&D Promotion ship of their choice, the mission is joining our roster of spotlit missions. Thanks again to everyone who entered! .share-footer a { margin: 20px 10px

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Here's a couple of really cool Japanese advertisements that LOAF recently came across. As is common in the country, they're chock full of text and liberal with the exclamation marks. The first is a small embedded ad for the Mega CD port of Wing Commander 1, which was the only version that got full speech as it was transferred to the disc-based format. We also get to see a sell sheet for the Japanese Armada, which was ported to a surprising number of platforms: PC-98, FM Towns and DOS/V. I love that Armada color tone filling the Japanese block text!

Little find this morning: an ad for the Mega-CD port of Wing Commander I from a Sega flyer. I'd love to find the advertising ASCII did for Wing Commander SFC in Japan!

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Still striving to get the greatest performance out of your equipment? This weekend will be the perfect time to apply Tech Upgrades to your gear, as we’re doubling the amount of Technology Points earned from each one applied! From Thursday, June 14th at 8AM PST to June 18th at 10AM PST, every Tech Upgrade used will apply twice as many Technology Points toward your next Upgrade! This in turn reduces the amount of Dilithium that must be spent to reach each Upgrade threshold, allowing Captains additional chances to attain both Mark and Rarity increases on their favored load outs. .share-footer a { margin: 20px 10px 10px 0; background: url(d7afaaa14e96d0d973f76157ae31ec5b1466398539.png) no-repeat 0 0; opacity: .5; display: inline-block; height: 60px; width: 60px; padding: 0; border: 1px solid transparent; -webkit-transition: opacity .3s; transition:

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Cherno has shared a neat video of tech demo project he's put together. It's a top-down 2D space shooter with Wing Commander models. This reminds me a whole lot of the early Arena concept shots. Although it's conceptually pretty basic, there are some nice touches with familiar asteroids and damage sound effects included. Cherno's been toying around with different ideas to give the game some more meat, and we hope he continues to develop the idea further!

This project was started about two years ago using Unity, then abandoned and now (January 2022) I got back to it, fixed some bugs, and made this short gameplay video. What you see is all there is to it: just glorified placeholder assets using the original graphics and sounds of Wing Commander. I always wanted to make a top-down game but the limited field of view restricts the gameplay mechanics. Initially, I opted for a straight conversion of the

Quote from Mass Effect News-Bot

Few things get gamers excited quite like BioWare’s Dragon Age an Mass Effect franchises. With deep stories and role-playing for days, these two entities are at the top of many people’s lists. That said, Casey Hudson recently had something to say about Dragon Age 4 and more Mass Effect, and fans are sure to be excited.

Speaking with Game Informer, the BioWare GM had a lot to say about their upcoming action RPG Anthem. However, it was the other staples of the studio that has received a bit of attention. When asked about the prospect of Dragon Age 4, he said:

I would say a majority of the people at BioWare are working on Anthem, but we do have people who are figuring out what a next Dragon Age would look like.”

Sadly, he wasn’t about to get into it with details, but it is good to know that they aren’t solely focusing on Anthem. After all, how do you take a popular franchise and add a new entry without

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

We have exciting news! Captains on PC will be able to enjoy a bonus on purchased ZEN! Is there a ship in the C-Store that is tempting you? Now is the perfect opportunity to grab ships, keys, and whatever else has caught your eye. From November 21st at 9am PT to November 27th at 9am PT, Captains will earn an extra bonus on purchased ZEN when you charge through Direct Credit Card, PayPal, Skrill, BoaCompra, Xsolla, Paysafecard, or Steam. *Please note that this Charge Bonus offer is ONLY available for the following payment processors: Direct Credit Card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover) PayPal Skrill BoaCompra Xsolla Paysafecard Steam .share-footer a { margin: 20px 10px 10px 0; background: url(d7afaaa14e96d0d973f76157ae31ec5b1466398539.png) no-repeat 0 0; opacity: .5; display: inline-block; height: 60px; width: 60px; padding: 0;

Quote from Star Citizen News-Bot

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Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

The Crystalline Entity is back and stronger than ever. After the success of the updated Crystalline Cataclysm Event last year, we’re bringing those changes to the regular Crystalline Catastrophe Task Force Operation. The Crystalline Catastrophe Task Force Operation has undergone some improvements! Our goal was to provide a deeper experience when taking on the Entity. The mechanics in place had the potential to do this, but weren’t able to shine. The following are some of the bigger changes: There is now a 30 second mission briefing time before the queue begins. This allows players time to join the queue and read the briefing if necessary, before taking on the Entity. The Entity shards that it deploys are now immune to control effects, this allows the feature more room to breathe as the queue progresses. Small Shards will no longer buff the Entity’s damage for the entire queue. Instead,

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

CirclMastr

has previously

set the record

for the fastest winning and losing times for Wing Commander on the SNES. Now he's bested his previous run from Enyo through Hell's Kitchen by six seconds to 5:24. That might not seem like something to strive for to some, but finding the very fastest time from start to an endgame is a highly sought after milestone in the speedrunning community. Once you crunch this down smaller and smaller, shaving off seconds gets harder and harder! Check out the evidence here:

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

KRANT! It’s time to answer one of the great universal questions: do they have, y’know... two?

Short answer: yes? There are two cockpits on the VDU and if you look closely at the sprites you can see two distinct cockpits on the 3D model.

And here’s what the Claw Marks art looks like mirrored so you just see the top. Head canon: they’re bubble canopies and the Kilrathi pilot and weapons officer (maybe?) can give each other thumbs ups.

But nothing twin-cockpit can stay: when the Krant was redesigned for Super Wing Commander it lost its most distinct feature. Designer Sean Murphy, who would go on to create the TCS Midway, said he was asked not to refer to the original.

Even the Nintendo Power comic parodying Wing Commander I has only a central cockpit:

The Krant shows up in the Wing Commander movie script but I don’t think any serious concept art was developed. It was dropped early to save the overworked FX

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Found a nugget tonight: an tiny uncatalogued Privateer pre-release screenshot in a 1993 Mindscape catalog! An earlier version of the New Constantinople landing pad.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Princess Aisling Duval has made an unexpected announcement regarding her relationship with Federal Ambassador Jordan Rochester.

At a press conference in her palace on Emerald, the princess looked radiant as she addressed the media:

"It's no secret that Jordan and I grew close during his official visit. The time has come to let you know that we are to be husband and wife."

"I'm aware that some will see this as unorthodox, even controversial, but love knows no borders. It's our wish that our marriage will build lasting bridges between the Empire and the Federation."

A statement from Ambassador Rochester appeared in a special edition of The Federal Times:

"Representing the Federation has been my life's work, but meeting Her Highness – Aisling – made me realise that being by her side means even more. We hope that our betrothal will usher in a new era of cooperation between the two superpowers."

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Raph Koster

has posted

additional

snippets from his upcoming book on video game development,

Postmortems

. This time he provides a glimpse into the incredibly ambitious economy that Privateer Online was supposed to include. This includes complex guild mechanics, a virtual stock market and an offline web-based interface for certain tasks. Pretty wild for the time! The 700 page paperback publication is still slated for June 26, but ebook editions are starting to trickle out. The

B&N Nook

version is already available at just $20.

Another feature of Privateer Online that arose out of its heavily commerce-oriented gameplay was its in-game stock market... which may not have worked the way you'd expect. Long before Farmville, MMOs were exploring asynchronous play. There were player vendors in UO, of course, but in Privateer Online we planned to extend that to a fully player-driven economy. I mean, we were

Quote from Star Citizen News-Bot

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Hello everyone,

Last week, we published the Monthly Report for March, helping you stay up-to-date with what our teams around the globe have been working on over the past month.

Also last week, we had developers from our Frankfurt Studio attend the Asus ROG Convention in Germany. They had loads of fun on the live stream, talking to players and showing Star Citizen to the crowd.

Finally, Gamescom 2949 is right around the corner, and we’re looking forward to meeting all the Star Citizen fans making the trip to Cologne. Members of the community team will be on hand at Bar Citizen events in the evenings, with Friday’s meetup including special guests Erin Roberts and Brian Chambers. Find out more!

Now, let’s see what’s going on this week:

Keep a weather eye on your email inbox later today, as we’ll be sending out the latest covert Squadron 42 development intel, reporting details from the

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

During Star Trek Online’s 2020 Summer Event, players participating in the festivities available at the Risa resort can earn Daily Event Progress towards an exciting new ship by participating in any of the following activities once per day. As with other recent events, progress towards this ship is account-wide, as is the final reward! Flying High Sun, Sand, and Scavenging Dance Party Horga'hn Hunt Making Waves Risa Biathlon Earning a total of 20 Daily Progress will allow players to claim a Risian Weather Control Vessel [T6]! Once this starship is obtained by any character on your account, all of the characters on your account will be able to claim the Risian Weather Control Vessel [T6] from the Account Claim tab within the Event Store (in the Event Tab of the Mission Journal). You can take a look at our community stream about this ship below! We are also excited to announce

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Christian Klein

marches ever closer to having a complete set of Wing Commander games translated for Spain. This looks like a pretty thorough job with everything from the box to disc to manuals in Spanish, although no in-game audio has been revamped. The front doesn't have the big Midway flap that opens, but the static front and rearranged rear screenshot collage make it its own unique collectible! Compare to the original packaging

here

.

This Wing Commander Prophecy version arrived today, and now my Spanish Wing Commander collection is almost complete. \o/