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Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

It looks like a certain movie has people talking about a certain war-ending bomb. It just so happens that I took a wonderful senior seminar on the bomb decision and would be happy to walk everyone through the details of what really happened.

Step back in time with me to the '50s. Faced with a seemingly endless standoff, both sides began investing heavily in scientific 'wonder weapons' intended to rapidly upset the status quo of the war.

Black budgets would increasingly fund a rogues' gallery of amoral projects: Project Behemoth, the 'planet-killer' Hopper Drive, the biological warfare laboratory on Greenhouse, the Genetic Enhancement program and others.

In 2659, the task of developing a classified large-scale demolitions laboratory was assigned to Col. James Taggart, a rising star in Special Operations fresh off coordinating the Kilrathi-led rebellion on Ghorah Khar. The effort will cost billions of

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
Azimuth Biotech has requested shipments of rare commodities to Xi Wangda, as luxury supplies for its business convention.
Torben Rademaker, CEO of the anti-xeno corporation, announced the initiative via public channels:
"We expect this prestigious gathering to be attended by many representatives from research groups, manufacturing companies and military forces. To ensure that our esteemed guests are made welcome, we will pay handsomely for shipments of Albino Quechua Mammoth Meat, Gilya Signature Weapons and Harma Silver Sea Rum."
"The cornerstone of this event will be the commercial launch of Azimuth's newly modified ship-mounted weapon: the pre-engineered Overcharged Gimballed AX Multi-Cannon with Auto Loader. Our proprietary redesign will make a significant contribution when engaging Thargoid vessels in combat. Those who contribute the greatest number of rare

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
Requests for tissue samples obtained from the Thargoid Titans have been made by Aegis and Azimuth Biotech.
Leon Banerjee, science correspondent for Vox Galactica, reported on the rival initiatives:
"The Titans offer a tremendous opportunity for xenological research, but carry equally significant risks. These involve passing through the Maelstroms' caustic clouds and energy barriers, avoiding Thargoid patrols, and escaping with tissue samples intact. Only the most determined pilots would undertake such missions, and the two leading anti-xeno organisations seek to attract these individuals with considerable payouts."
"There are numerous unique materials identified so far. In this campaign, both Aegis and Azimuth Biotech are looking to acquire a large stock of tissue samples. These are recovered using research limpets at various points on the Titan's architecture,

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Reports from planetary settlements within Thargoid-occupied systems have described alien drone vessels attacking on-foot personnel.
Field correspondent Ernesto Rios summarised this development for Vox Galactica:
"Scores of populated systems in the vicinity of the Maelstroms have been invaded by Thargoid fleets, causing horrific casualties and mass evacuations. But military personnel still risk their lives exploring settlements within those systems, to search for survivors or scavenge remaining materials."
"These troops have come under attack by 'airborne vehicles of Thargoid design', according to one account. Their relatively small size suggests they are the equivalent of combat drones. 'I've seen them patrol the abandoned settlements as if on guard duty,' said one eyewitness, 'and become extremely hostile when they detect any living humans.'"
"It seems that the Thargoids now view these

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We're going to start this week off with a new Kilrathi Lego creation by John Nelson. You can see from the sweep of the wings that this is clearly the Dralthi IV variant, which puts it right in line with the Darket and Strakha he put together earlier. He's started to incorporate a larger mix of brown panels in an attempt to better mimic the WC3 color scheme. It makes me want a Lego Excalibur to start tearing them up!

This was a fun one to build years ago in a simpler state, but with the new colors and brick types this guy is far more accurate - albeit with my little tweaks and touches. This is the second model that I needed technic parts to complete.

Pliers (would) say, "Dralthis are pretty pathetic, but don’t turn your back on them. Their particle cannons can fire continuously and will bring down anything from a carrier to an interceptor."

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
Commanders have worked alongside Federal authorities to destroy criminal ships in the Gliese 868 system.
The pirate gang was responsible for multiple raids while Federal security services were distracted by public protests around the Hudson Contravention. To help protect shipping and eliminate the threat, bounties were placed on all criminal vessels.
Gliese 868 Services, which organised the counter-offensive against the pirates, announced:
"The combat expertise of Federal Navy auxiliaries and independent pilots has succeeded in driving back these ruthless criminals. We will be pleased to reimburse bounty vouchers at Bacon Port in Gliese 868."
The Federal Times reported on the political repercussions from these events:
"It is not just the security agencies that are embarrassed at relying on volunteers to protect trade in Gliese 868. Members of both the Republican and

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Surprise! Most diehard Wingnuts know the movie takes place from March 15 to 17, but the novelization has an epilogue that happens the next day. It's a dark scene that takes place on Mylon III. This sets the stage for the events that unfold in Wing Commander Pilgrim Stars and are concluded in Pilgrim Truth. There's some wild stuff in those novels!

Day 4 - 1900 Mylon Time - BREAKING NEWS: The supercruiser TCS Olympus has fired on Confederation forces in the Mylon System?! MORE

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
Darkwater Inc in the Summerland system has been declared a hostile military target for its role in abducting Emperor Arissa Lavigny-Duval.
The private military firm, led by Colonel Ronan Brock, was secretly hired by the Lords of Restoration to train and equip the NMLA. Darkwater troops also kept the Emperor imprisoned in a concealed bunker for over a year.
Once their involvement was revealed by ACT, Darkwater's forces regrouped around the megaship Pearl Mandate. Colonel Brock led an attempt to gain control of Summerland as a defensive measure but was unsuccessful. The mercenaries have now been branded as wanted criminals by the system authorities.
The order to strike against Darkwater came directly from Emperor Arissa:
"I call upon my loyal servants and all other warriors of honour to wipe out this nest of traitors. We remember the innocent victims of the NMLA by

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The Washington Post (or more specifically, their Launcher video game section) has run an article about video game franchises they'd want raised from the dead. Wing Commander gets top billing as their first series on the list, which is always great to see! Since this is Halloween-themed, each game also gets a small piece of zombie artwork. In WC's case, there's a disembodied hand on a joystick with a familiar reticle superimposed on top. You can check out the full article here.

Wing Commander

We all know Mark Hamill once saved the universe while waving a lightsaber in a galaxy far, far away. But did you know he also saved Earth by dropping a tectonic bomb on the war-hungry planet of Kilrah? Then he followed up those heroics by staving off a civil war through exposing the plans of a warmongering admiral played by Malcolm McDowell, whose character’s motivations preceded those of Call of Duty’s

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The German Shock 2 gaming site has posted a new speculation piece about the potential for a new Wing Commander game. They base this on comments in Jeff Grubb's GamesBeats show. As the story goes, EA Motive of Star Wars Squadrons fame is working on a new game that's a comeback of a popular franchise. For many years, Wing Commander was in a distant third place behind Electronic Arts' other space sim franchises, Star Wars and Mass Effect, so prospects were slim. A lot has changed lately with Star Wars going non-exclusive and the mixed fortunes of the Mass Effect franchise. This means Wing Commander is certainly a potential contender once again, although the stars would need to align for a viable project to actually see the light of day. It's only a matter of time though, and we'll be here to bring you the news when it happens!

Google's translate features are working better than ever these days, so

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

Ever wonder how medals work in Wing Commander I? Well, I am putting together a guide anyway.

It's not uncommon for discussions at the CIC Forums to touch on the concept of "medal points" and how this influences whether you are awarded a certain star or sometimes nothing at all. It often shows up in the news and on Discord too. Many fans have had a general understanding dating all the way back to Secrets of the Wing Commander Universe, but what exactly are the details? How many points do you get for taking out a Dralthi versus a Snakeir? Certain missions each make a single medal available, but we realized we didn't have a nice concise article that spelled out what that threshold was and how you achieved it. So LOAF finally went and did it! This then naturally led into topics like the hypothetical maximum medal slate that a pilot can earn based on their path through the game, which have been noted

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Star Trek Online is pleased to once again invite you to join us for the First Contact Day Celebration starting on PC on April 2nd, 2020 and continuing until April 23rd, 2020. This Event will also run on console platforms delayed by only one week. Join the celebration there, starting on April 9th, 2020 and running until April 30th, 2020. Just as we did for the Anniversary Event, the First Contact Day Celebration has migrated over to the Events Tab. The usual activity of competing with four other players to build and launch your very own Phoenix Rocket will contribute toward your Daily Progress in the Event, but alongside it is the opportunity to travel back to April 4th, 2063, and participate in a brand new patrol surrounding the titular event. Participating in either of these two activities each day will earn you progress toward the Grand Prize – a Temporal Vortex Probe (Universal

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Klavs has produced a glorious sequel to his recent Bearcat wallpaper. This one features three Hellcats zooming through the air - of both the old and new variety. It's the culmination of a model we've seen Klavs working on for over the past year. Although the Hellcat doesn't strike me as the most aerodynamic design, there's just something about how it hangs in the air that looks really good. And while it's not the most powerful offensive force, a few of them can put down some solid firepower!

DefianceIndustries: Are those rivets done via texture or physically modeled?

Klavs: I do both nowadays, if they're flush they get bumped, if they're proud they're modeled. The rivets on the Hornet are all flush except in a couple specific cases. The panel lines are likewise modeled.

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

We are getting closer and closer to Destination Star Trek Birmingham, and the Star Trek Online Away Team is performing our final preparations for the convention! The shuttle is getting loaded with all that is needed to see you in Birmingham from October 24th to October 27th. Our Away Team is bringing plenty of swag for those of you that come say hi, including holographic Landry and Lorca Bridge Officers. And this is your chance to win a 3-day-ticket for Destination Star Trek and to meet the team from Star Trek Online! We can’t wait to meet you at Destination Star Trek Birmingham, Captains. We’ll see you there! Star Trek Online [EN] | Destination Star Trek Giveaway .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:

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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Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Dominus of Exult has some more cool collectibles to show off! He's managed to track down a pair of Wing Commander games localized in Portuguese. These rare copies of WC4 and Privateer 2 have a bit of warping and tearing damage, but it's still wonderful that they were saved. I'm still poring over the minute differences here despite not speaking the language! These should look great alongside his Portuguese copy of Privateer 1.

Got some new rarities. Portuguese Wing Commander IV and Privateer 2. Unfortunately the seller stored them in a very humid place. Trying to open the IV he destroyed the slide cover.

LOAF: Are they localized at all?

Dominus: Boxes and documents all in Portuguese. At least the intro has no subtitles. Look like the standard UK CDs. Even the quadruple CD case inlays are the UK ones and not translated (manual etc. are translated).

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Knight26-77 is back with an impressive new set of 3D prints - plus the time lapse videos to go along with them! The first model is the fantastically large Midway class megacarrier compared to variety of other large capital ships. We also get to see his new Piranha side-by-side with a handful of light fighter favorites. It's very cool to see how everything comes together on the printing pad!

DefianceIndustries gave me permission to do some test prints of a couple of his WCP Model upgraded designs. We have started with the Piranha and the Midway. DI warned that they were but under-detailed, but I decided to give it a try anyway. We'll start with the Midway.

Flying alongside her Kilrathi War contemporaries, you can see just how much of an absolute unit the Midway is.

Next up the 1:72 F-106 Piranha alongside some of her Kilrathi War era precursor light fighters, most by the super talented Klavs and one

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

As the saying goes, great artists steal... and what we're looking at today is a case of great artists stealing from themselves! We thought it would be interesting to take a closer look at StarLancer's cutscenes to pick out assets and finished footage that it reuses from the Wing Commander movie. StarLancer's cinematics were developed by the same artists at Digital Anvil who worked on the Wing Commander movie with the two projects overlapping for a time. As a result, a number of 3D models made it from one to the other and (in the case of the game's various act breaking interstitial news reports) several completed sequences from the movie were used to sort of decorate the background of StarLancer! Let's take a closer look...

Intro

StarLancer's introduction shows the Coalition's dastardly Pearl Harbor-style attack on the Alliance and it includes several reused Wing Commander assets! The cinematic model for

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