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Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The Federal Intelligence Agency has warned of heightened interest in the Far God cult and groups considered sympathetic to the Thargoids.
Deputy Director Bethany Blake, who runs the Proactive Detection Bureau, delivered a public statement:
"We have confirmed a significant increase in communications between local chapters of the Far God religious order, which includes the sharing of unverified xenological data. The Thargoids' victory in HIP 22460 seems to have caused unprecedented excitement among the cultists. At present, there is no evidence that they pose any danger to the public. However, we are concerned by a recent increase in citizens abandoning their conventional lifestyles to join the cult."
"We have also noted the rising popularity of a civil movement that advocates diplomatic relations with the Thargoids. This rhetoric is being promoted by several high-profile media figures. There is

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
Taurus Mining Ventures has requested help with a mining and delivery operation in the Synuefe CE-R c21-6 system.
In recent weeks, the mining corporation has performed research on what it claims are atypical radiation signatures detected within Synuefe CE-R c21-6. It now seeks shipments of the system's native ores to explore commercially valuable applications of any molecular changes caused by this radiation.
Dr Ruben Carpenter, head of the company's research division, outlined the initiative:
"I'm very excited to offer pilots this opportunity to support our scientific studies, which will hopefully prove lucrative for all involved. We require coltan, lithium hydroxide and methanol monohydrate crystal to be mined from locations within Synuefe CE-R c21-6 and delivered to the Heart of Taurus megaship."
"We will also pay for shipments of the same ores that have been mined

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
The Reorte Pro-Alliance League's success over the Reorte Mining Coalition means the system will stay in the Alliance.
A greater quantity of advanced medicines, skimmer components and building fabricators were delivered to the Trobairitz megaship than to the opposing faction. As a result, Reorte will remain an Allied system.
Pilots who contributed to the Reorte Pro-Alliance League's initiative can now collect their rewards at the Trobairitz, along with the additional pre-engineered heat sink modules provided by Sirius Corporation.
Chief Administrator Louisa Leblanc proclaimed:
"I am deeply grateful to all those who helped convince our people that Reorte's future is more secure with the Alliance. We look forward to working alongside Sirius Corporation on increasing defences against the Thargoids."
The Reorte Mining Coalition's CEO Fergus Cassidy expressed his regret

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
Plans for a new mining initiative by Taurus Mining Ventures in the Synuefe CE-R c21-6 system have been announced.
The corporation's megaship Heart of Taurus has been conducting scientific studies on 'unusual radioactive signatures' within the system. The next phase of this work is to identify mineable resources to learn more about the radiation's effects.
Dr Ruben Carpenter, head of the Taurus Mining Ventures research division, provided an update:
"The source of the radiation found in Synuefe CE-R c21-6 has not yet been unidentified. But our team has theorised that naturally occurring ores in the system may have altered properties. If we are correct, that ore may have high commercial value once processed into usable metals and minerals."
A public statement was delivered by Commodore Morag Halloran:
"It is paramount that we maintain positive relations with the

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Comchia recently shared some eye-popping screenshots of the EGA version of Wing Commander 2. WC2 is well known as a gorgeous game with lush colors and beautiful art, but not everyone in 1991 was able to appreciate its high end VGA graphics. Everyone with a high powered system quickly switched over to the 256 color option, but some fans were limited to just 16 simultaneous colors. It's pretty shocking how limited this was, however it's equal parts impressive that the artists were able to squeeze so much graphical fidelity out with such limitations. There's very little EGA Wing Commander content online these days. I've added an EGA WC1 video below so you can get a sense of what everything looked like in motion. It really makes you appreciate how far we've come!

Some screens of the EGA version of Wing Commander II. I'm used to seeing this game in the far more colourful VGA version, but I'm still

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

EmuMusicFan has continued to experiment with and refine his art style for the Kilrathi characters he's sketched out of Wing Commander Action Stations. Here's a few different techniques employed on Baron Vakka nar Ki'ra. And while at first it might look like this guy could pass for any noble Kilrathi, Emu has put a lot of thought into how the look exemplifies the attributes of each character. Some of his rationale is included below!

When reading certain scenes of Action Stations, I really feel that this book depicts the Kilrathi as a relatively complex civilization, not just a simple fierce brutal race. There are complex relationships and politial issues among the clans. So I am trying to imply different feelings to different characters.

Let's see Gilkarg and his two sons, Ratha and Thrakhath. These three characters are definitely villains. But they are not the same. Gilkarg's actual military ability

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Destiny's Way is back! DsW is the in-universe magazine of the Wing Commander Flat Universe project. It's the first issue since 2016, and it's actually a retro edition that turns the clock back from 2681 to 2654. The cover and lead article involve a fascinating story about a captured Jalthi. There'a also some immersive propaganda and a discussion on tactics. Grab the full issue here (3 meg PDF) and find back issues at Daedalus Station.

Time to wipe out some dust... Go and grab a copy WingNuts!

Have Fun!

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Content: Resolved an issue that could prevent completion of the mission “Frozen” based on certain choices made during the mission. Systems: Jem'Hadar Vanguard Heavy Destroyer [T6]: Resolved an issue that was causing the Vanguard Wingmen to not be present on while flying this ship Resolved an issue that prevented the Admiralty Ships from being usable by Klingon-aligned Jem’Hadar. Resolved an issue that prevented the ship’s stats from scaling with Structural Integrity, Shield Capacity, and Impulse Expertise boosts. Resolved an issue that caused Hangar Pets to have worse stats while at two stars than at one star. Resolved an issue that prevented the Polaron Beam Turret kit module from making sound when firing.

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Cryptic Studios is proud to participate in the Extra Life Charity Gaming Event once more! On December 7 and 8, from 10am to 10pm Pacific Time, Cryptic Developers will be playing video, tabletop, and board games live to raise money in support of UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals! You can tune in on Cryptic’s Twitch Channel, win in-game prizes, and donate to help children in need! Take a look at our schedule and see below for more details on the event and prizes! You don’t have to wait for the event to donate! Click here to donate right now! PRIZES & DONATIONS During the livestream, players can donate in support of Extra Life. For Neverwinter, there are 7 donation tiers where players will receive in-game codes for the tier they donate in and any tier below. Please note that prizes are subject to change and can be replaced by an item of equal or greater value.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Our new poll asks about some of the most underappreciated games in the series. The "A-games" are all considered secondary titles, but each one fills a significant niche. We pulled Privateer from the list since it routinely gets plenty of accolades, but Privateer 2 has its own pros and cons that affect its popularity. There are also quite a few much lesser known ports that are remarkable in their own way. Prophecy Advance took a modern 3D accelerated game and managed to fit it on a tiny 2003 vintage handheld cart. Sega CD's version of WC1 includes full speech, Super Wing Commander is a complete revamp of the original and the 3DO port of WC3 has a slew of new missions, weapons and gameplay dynamics to suit the console. We think every game on this list deserves more credit, but you can just pick one this time around!

The old birthday poll asked when fans first arrived at the CIC. Once again, the

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation Alert*
Titan Oya is under siege. This is an urgent call to all independent pilots to aid in the complete defeat of the third Titan.
The key modules for the assault continue to be readily available at all Rescue Megaships:
• Thargoid Pulse Neutraliser – To break through the maelstrom defence wave.
• Caustic Sink Launchers – To protect your ship from caustic effects of the maelstrom.
• Guardian Nanite Torpedo Pylon – To hamper the Titan's vents and make it vulnerable to damage.
Rewards have been requisitioned for all Commanders able to participate in ending the Titan threat.
Good luck, Commanders.

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Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Adm_Maverick has a very cool new model project to share! He's souped up a printable model of the Vampire and is making some very cool modifications to it. It's much larger than the original source and the engine pods rotate. As you can see from the pictures below, he's also adding lights so that the engines even glow! The sections that are complete so far look great. You can see more of the subcomponents come together with step-by-step captions at the CIC Forums here.

There comes a point in any project where you look at your in-progress work and you see the work coming together that you’re like “okay… this is looking friggen awesome!” Here is that moment with the Vampire model:

I decided to something crazy and I took the Vampire figure from Thingverse, and upscaled it to produce a roughly 14" long model. Now because of the size of my resin printer, I had to break the model down into segments. But

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

GOG.com is starting to rollout their annual Spring Sale, and Wing Commander has gotten a nice price cut across the board. In order to keep things interesting, rather than a straight 75% off each title, Prophecy, Armada and Privateer 2 are each marked down 65%. Happy Wing Commandering!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

You made it to the weekend! Time to repair, rearm and refuel. To help ease you out of the workweek, here's a brief primer on the Refueler. No, not the Condor Refueling Shuttle, but that's a good guess! We're going all the way back to the Privateer Refueler truck that was cut from the final version of the game. It appears in a variety of prerelease screenshots and even several images on the back of the box. LOAF did a bunch of research on it last year, and here's the scoop:

Privateer was originally intended to include an animated refueler and loader at nearly every hangar which would interact with your landed spacecraft. The animations were cut from the game and the refueler removed entirely. The 3D model for the Refueler has been discovered marked inactive in PAD.3DS in the WC3D archive.

It does appear in a screenshot used in print advertising and then three times on the box of the game itself.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

It’s time to put the Hhriss back in Chhrisstmas.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

CountvonSchnaps has a new sketch: a wonderful Tallahassee class cruiser like the TCS Coventry in WC3. I really like what he's done with colors, paneling and detail across the hull. It adds some rich character! He originally drew a Southampton destroyer, which we highlighted last year. I missed the cruiser addition until Dragon1 pointed it out this week, but I'm happy to be able to share both now!

A redesign (slightly) of a cruiser featured in Wing Commander 3 and 4: the Tallahassee Class cruiser. Sporting 11 turrets (2x dual barrel heavy antimatter turrets, 1 x dual barrel tachyon gun turret and 8 laser cannons) it also has a front mounted axial gauss cannon and a torpedo/missile launcher. Similar to the Southampton it has a hangar bay located at the back which can house a full wing of fighter; typically, 4 Arrow light fighters and a shuttle.

It is fun to make ships like these, in a sketchy and

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

After learning about how Denis Loubet came up with Wing Commander's enduring radar display I've been looking into how the design developed over the series. I found a note in the WC2 manual I never picked up on: "In VGA graphics mode, the shade of the dot indicates its range."

I ran some tests and sure enough, it's true! Each dot has THREE shades reserved in the 256-color palette. Close is within 5,000 meters, medium is 5,000-25,000 and far is over 30,000! NEVER noticed in gameplay. So I made a chart:

Strange case I just remembered: Special Operations 1 has the Gettysburg escorted by Epees that show up as GREEN on your radar... for about a second and a half between cutscenes! What an odd addition that never shows up again.

I went on a little tangent experimenting with this. Trying to fly to the Gettysburg remotely to see them hits a bug, no ships spawn until you get to the exact nav point and suddenly

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

This one's a repeat, but it's so glorious that we can't help but share it again (and will be doing so for many years to come!). Last year, Klavs commissioned this wonderful Cameo clip from Malcolm McDowell to celebrate our 24th anniversary. He fondly remembers both his role as Admiral Tolwyn and how his late friend, David Warner, also got to portray the character. If you missed this earlier, be sure to check it out now!

I must say, I did love Tolwyn. A really wonderful character in many ways. Strong. Very, really cool. ... I'm thrilled that you liked my interpretation of him, because I really went for it, enjoyed it.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

It’s a Shrike! Thank you to GeekToyLove for selling me this orphan torpedo bomber (and Thunder_Owl for sharing that it was available). Murphy Labs’ TB-81A Shrike was a four-person torpedo bomber (class B) developed for use aboard escort carriers during the post-war fleet modernization. They served with distinction during the first Nephilim incursions.

GeekToyLove also made this fabulous Arrow!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

If you haven’t filmed an exhaustive retrospective of the Wing Commander series on a hillside while sitting on a giant boulder, are you even a Wing Commander fine? Yes, if you’re reading this, you definitely are, but this is still one of the most unique takes on the WC series rundown video I’ve seen in a while. Where will the next Wing Commander fan vid take place?