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Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Starting today, we’re making some much needed updates to the Duty Officer Packs on PC, and having a massive sale on our Infinity Promotion Packs – both Research and Development and Duty Officer! These packs can open into a T6 Starship, including the classic Constitution Class and the brand new Section 31 Battlecruiser! Here’s the updates we’re making: We’re adding a Duty Officer Pack Bundle, with a starting, pre-sale price of 1000 Zen. This pack includes a Fleet Pack, a Delta Pack, a Gamma Pack, and a Romulan Pack. Each of those four packs will now have an additional Uncommon and Rare Duty Officer. The Reinforcement Pack is being retired. The Tuffli Freighter from the Reinforcement Pack is now a potential reward in the Gamma Pack, replacing the previous potential reward of four fleet modules. The four fleet module potential reward is being removed from the Delta Pack, and we are

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Here's one from deep in the archives. AD found an interview with the Fat Man and Team Fat in an early 1995 article of the New York Times, before they even started posting stories online in 1996. This one's been turned into a digital story for completeness so future generations can learn a little about the state of early game audio. It goes a little bit deeper than your typical magazine blurb. The conversation begins very similarly to many other interviews George Sanger has given over the years, but it also delves into some of the side-projects and other attempts that he was trying to use to expand his business. These are portrayed as controversial, but it sounds more like they were trying to throw everything at the wall to see what stuck - which a lot of folks were doing in this new media space at the time! You can read up on the whole article here.

Starting with "Loom," one of the first computer

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We see so few clips of modern YouTubers and streamers trying their hand at Prophecy for the Game Boy Advance, so I'm always eager to share the ones that I run across. Here's a mission from fastrun14. It doesn't really sound like they enjoyed the experience - the game controls take some practice to get used to - but it's wonderful to appreciate the technical aspects here. Check out the 3D autopilot effect and the paint scheme on those Piranhas! And wow to the "mission accomplished" spoken audio at the end. It's hard to avoid comparisons to the 3D accelerated PC version, but the game is running on something less than a tenth as powerful as the minimum PC specs here. What Raylight achieved never ceases to amaze!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The Wing Commander Confederation Handbook is a book that's presented as a fake web browser... and since it's from 1999 it's full of absolutely garish banner ads. And here they are, collected from the book's layout files! I could sure go for a warsop egg.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Van Burnham has posted an update on the next phase of the campaign to produce a Deluxe vinyl pressing of the WING COMMANDER score. While the initial Indiegogo effort didn’t hit the funding goals necessary to kick off production, Van is working the numbers and determining what it will take to move forward from here. The album was initially projected for next year, so there's still time to work through options and figure out how to close the gap and make this a reality. Of course, Wing Commander fans are nothing if not patient. Stay tuned for future updates!

Hi everybody... thank you so much for supporting this project. I'm incredibly excited to make the Wing Commander orchestral score on deluxe vinyl a reality. That said, it goes without saying that I'm disappointed the campaign did not reach it's minimum funding goal and am in the process of sorting out some issues with this platform as a result. I

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Lady Florence Lavigny is recuperating from a serious illness, but the experience has prompted her to call for changes within the Imperial Family.
Official sources confirmed that the Imperial Mother remains under constant medical supervision at her home on Topaz, following a successful surgical procedure. Emperor Arissa Lavigny-Duval has now returned to the Imperial Palace on Capitol, and is being regularly updated about her mother's condition.
Countess Guinevere Lavigny, cousin to the Emperor and niece of Lady Lavigny, also visited Topaz. She told a local reporter:
"My aunt is now able to communicate properly for short periods, and is dwelling on the past a great deal. She talks about wanting to bring together our entire family, and resolving minor disagreements which have lingered for too long. This is something that my brother Lucius and I have always felt is long overdue, so I hope she

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We're still in recovery mode here, so the team is taking it easy today with another ASMR style ambiance video from Scribbler. This one's a little more laid back than his other recent WC3 additions. You can hear the familiar hum of the Victory's engines and the elevator opening in the background, but this time there's also music playing. It's not quite the swankiest of Oldziey tunes, but it's a nice background track!

Mission successful, report submitted, off to the bar and finally peace and quiet. Let's grab some snacks and good cocktails. A little card games or charming conversations? Or just chill. We're not doing anything tonight.

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

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The Alliance has ended medical isolation for all citizens who were rescued from the Titans after being abducted by Thargoid vessels.
Prime Minister Edmund Mahon's official declaration was published by all newsfeeds:
"The Assembly has agreed that quarantine procedures for everyone recovered from the Titans are no longer necessary. Those who hail from an Allied system are being transported from the secure facilities back to their families and communities. Their long nightmare is over. We are sending our people home."
"I call upon the governments of the Empire, Federation and independent systems to follow our lead with their own citizens. We must not treat these unfortunates as criminals or laboratory specimens. During this dark time of war, let our humanity shine through."
Some medical institutes such as Kamadhenu Medipure and Vandermeer Corporation opposed the Alliance's decision, claiming that

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Did you know that Wing Commander III has THREE different official guides?!

I thought it would be fun to compare what ships, wingmen and loadout each book recommends for each mission. And I was right, it was extremely fun.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

New year, new Originator! AllTinker is kicking off 2024 with another release to his impressive Wing Commander modding and hacking tool. New features include a better reader for hex editing, support for more WC3 elements like cockpits, improved decompression of Privateer 2 contents and more. You can download the updated package here!

Version 0.2.03 (2024-01-01)

• Improved the hex viewer; added hover highlighting between hex/character views, also fixed an issue with larger font sizes.
• Added support for packed WC3 shapes (e.g. for cockpits), and more IFF-embedded shapes in general.
• Added automatic decompression for IFF chunks (QFS/Deflate), which is especially relevant to Privateer 2. As usual there are many palettes still requiring hook-up logic, so colours will be wrong in many cases for several games (including P2).
• Added "Experiments" (under "Tools") which I will be adding to over time. Currently the

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Now let's take a look at some of the background vehicles that did make it into the game!

This is TRUCK, CART and CARGO which drive through Perry Naval Base. Truck and cart also appear on the mining base.

LOADER is a variant of truck that appears in the ship upgrade room. From the dev files (and the Oxford promo shot that started all this!) it looks like they intended for these guys to appear on the landing screens too.

This is the first of several CAR models. It drives through the New Constantinople concourse scene (in both directions.)

Perry's pad vista has this blink-and-you-miss him fellow: a tiny SHUTTLE that comes in from the left entrance. I can't believe they built so many tiny models (large at the time) for background animations that weren't more than a few pixels in the final game.

New Detroit's landing pad has two vehicles flying around: JACKO and AIRCAR.

New Detroit's street level has another CAR

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Goge stopped by to share a very cool space sim tech demo that he's been working on lately. It's called Squadron: Mercenaries and he's got some very lofty goals in mind! The core portion starts as a traditional Wing Commander style sim, but there are larger secondary element planned as well. One really cool thing that jumped out at me is that it just runs in a browser window. You can visit the website here and be playing in a few seconds without installation. More info is on the page to get oriented. We hope to see some of his ambitious plans come together!

Squadron: Mercenaries

Squadron Mercenaries is a thrilling spacefaring epic that blends the adrenaline-pumping space flight combat simulation of Wing Commander with the intricate personnel and material management aspects of 'Mechwarrior Mercenaries.' In this immersive game, players will not only engage in intense dogfights and grand-scale space

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

CountvonSchnaps has a brand new Wing Commander sketch, and this one is a bomber! He's created a Longbow named "Sledge Hammer" for the war effort. It's a chunky beast with lots of gorgeous details to look over. There's also an extra turret up top to fend off the Kilrathi. It was just published to DeviantArt yesterday and already has 80 Favorites, which seems like a lot. It's really nice to see the Wing Commander love out there! You can find his previous destroyer and cruiser takes here.

As per the results of the previous poll a Wing Commander design was in order. As such I picked the Longbow torpedo bomber. I played Wing Commander a lot and I did like the designs of the fighter and other ships in there. Kilrathi ships felt really alien and the story in which you could interact also appealed to me.

I did make a few alteration as to its design. It now has a turret and 3, instead of a 2 man crew. A

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

There's a piece of IMDb trivia that claims the poster in Blair's quarters is Freddie Prinze Jr.'s future wife, Sarah Michelle Gellar. I hate to ruin a non-Star Wars-related Wing Commander factoid but...

... it's not true. It's one of several propaganda posters made for the Tiger Claw sets (note the Confed flag behind her) and like the ones in other quarters and the lounge the lady is a stock photo model from a collection licensed by the production.

I don't know who she is but as you can see I've found the source photo for the first time! Plus another one from the same shoot. Today she shows up frequently as the graphic for scammy social media accounts in search of wealthy American husbands.

I also found her on a Czech translation of a romance novel by... Jude DEVERAUX! Which is pretty on-the-nose, IYKYK.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The campaign to make a new Wing Commander album had a very good week! It added more than $1500 in pledges from a couple dozen new fans. With that being said, its current $18,500 tally does make it a challenge to hit the $22,000 mark to add in a live choir. As great as it would be to hit the $22K stretch target, composer George Oldziey says that if we end up falling a little bit short, he may be able to generate a little bit more live orchestral material with the funds. Either way, the money will be used to enhance the final product! The final few days of any crowdfunding effort can be unpredictable, so we'll keep our fingers crossed! You can secure your copy and help the project here!

Note that George's comment below is from a few days ago. The Kickstarter officially closes this coming Saturday. Now's the time to jump in if you haven't yet!

Greetings all! As a result of your amazing support

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We've got a new poll today, and the topic is the Wing Commander Collectible Trading Card Game. Our specific focus is on the Weapon Systems aspect of the game. Some people might have a black and white interpretation of ship specs based on what they're used to playing, but there's plenty of variability that happens in the universe. This can range from mention of an Epee with a torpedo in WC2, Rachel/Pliers offering to upgrade your loadout or straight arcade-style pickups that appear in several games such as Arena, Armada Proving Grounds and the WC4 demo.

The CCG allows players to enact their version of this by modifying the stats of particular flights with the upgrades below. To limit the poll options, we didn't include Kilrathi variants of most things except for the Skipper. It's functionally the same as the Tachyon Cannon in-game, but since the in-universe device is so different, that's on the list

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

When Maniac and Blair first arrive on the Tiger Claw they're wearing CSS Concordia patches on their peacoats. It's not really clear why unless the only other option was a Tiger Claw one.

He changes sweaters between acts, too! Or I guess maybe he just hot glues a different patch onto the same sweater.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

It's been quite a while since we've reported on real life space news, so I'm happy to report that the gang in the CIC Discord was very excited to see the Boeing CST-100 Starliner successfully lift off this morning. It's only the third time in the past fifty years that a brand new crewed vessel has taken off from the US, so to say we don't see this every day is an understatement. The two NASA astronauts aboard plan to dock at the International Space Station tomorrow, where they will deliver a much needed urine pump. We're hoping for an uneventful mission and safe landing over the next couple weeks!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Howard Day

took some time out of his busy post-

Rebel Galaxy Outlaw

launch schedule to release an update to the online

rolling demo

for Wing Leader! Much like the actual

WC1 demo

, this isn't a playable artifact, but it shows live assets interacting in the game engine. Even moreso than any trailer, this gives fans a first hand up-close look at what the game will actually be like live. The battle is pretty intense - all those Dralthis start to make me nervous, but fortunately they have both Firekkans and Confed opponents to contend with! Load up the rolling demo

here

.

The live demo's been updated! Includes the intro, menu (static for now) and initial fighting in a Dralthi! as soon as you die, tho, it switches back to Hornet.

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