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Here's a really nifty collectible that Christian Klein has added to his collection. It's a copy of Privateer localized for South Korea. You might not be able to tell from the first frame, but the box is extremely tall! Check it out side-by-side with a more conventional package. The Wing Commander series got a fair amount of translation in South Korea. Here's a lengthy 14-page review of Privateer as well as a local magazine ad. This also isn't Christian's first SK WC game: he's also got a tall box WC4!

FINALLY added a Korean Wing Commander Privateer (SKC Soft Land) to my collection. Look at this huuuuge box. Thanks to Dominus of Exult

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

President-elect Felicia Winters has discussed her election victory and other topics during an interview with The Federal Times.
On defeating Vice President Jerome Archer:
"One cannot dispute that Archer played his campaign straight, with none of the underhanded tricks utilised by some of his predecessors. But the election results prove that the citizens want a change from the Republican Party's bombastic approach."
On the priorities for her forthcoming administration:
"Our government will expand investment in the Federation's soft infrastructure, pulling the economy's focus away from military projects and corporate profits. Many systems are in dire need of improved healthcare, housing and work opportunities. Billions of people need temporary financial support as refugees from the Thargoid invasion. We are not the Empire – we serve our people rather than rule over them."
On the Proactive

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DO YOU think that these--seen in Wing Commander III, IV and Prophecy--are supposed to be the same space station?

The answer is: maybe? It's a classic case of the individual game's developers probably intending them to be the same station but the endless march of lore deciding otherwise. Let's take a closer look...

The script refers to the WC3 base only as "Confed HQ" with no location specified. The novelization, however, decided that it was Epsilon Sector HQ, located at "the Confed HQ complex on Torgo III." (A reasonable choice since the Victory picks up Tolwyn at Torgo later.)

The folks doing the Kilrathi Saga manual don't seem to have been aware of that, though, as we have orders sending Blair to "Addington Station, Border World 8, Leyton Sector" for his new assignment. Must've been a stopover!

The story behind the WC4 base is a bit messier. The script calls for the shuttle to appear near the rings of

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People have been loving the recent glimpse of Mac's massive Concordia fleet, but the scene we've gotten has featured the ship and its many escorts majestically cruising through space. Now it's time for a peek at the action! He's posted this teaser that shows the dreadnought's powerful phase transit cannon warm up, take aim and blast a Fralthra to bits. The encounter is inspired by this famous scene!

This is what all y'all wanted from the Concordia video wasnt it.

So here's the first pass of the Phase Transit Cannon in action.#wingcommander pic.twitter.com/jJb2bDtorK

— Mac's Lore (@MacsLore) October 19, 2023

Way back in 2010 I wondered if perhaps by 2020 it would be appropriate to post the full 250 kilobyte animated gif directly on the front page. Dear readers, I believe that day has come. Brace yourselves:

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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

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We've reported in the past on the sale of the Origin Museum collection and today we're happy to report that the new owner is serious about preserving Origin's history! Dominus Dragon has begun digitizing Origin Museum material and he has been kind enough to share the Wing Commander-related discoveries with us... including an enormous Wing Commander Prophecy producer's bible! We're very grateful for the effort and the thought that went into sharing this for the Wing Commander community. Here's an index to 17 new documents added to our digital archive... plenty to explore and it sounds like there may be more to come!

Wing Commander I:

• Best Sound Presentation award
• Advertisement Draft

Wing Commander III:

• Concept Board Photo
• Hire and Quantity List
• Production Notes

Wing Commander IV:

• Bug Report
• Team Patch Design

Privateer 2:

• Customer Service Issues
• New QA Tester Information

Wing Commander Prophecy:

• Anderson Costume

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Thousands of people rescued from captivity within the Thargoid motherships remain isolated under strict medical and security protocols.
Professor Alba Tesreau, head of Aegis, spoke at a press conference:
"I'm relieved to see that the sub-surface extraction missiles are proving effective, especially considering how quickly they went into production. Many pilots are using them to excavate bio-storage capsules from beneath the hulls of the Thargoid Titans."
"Each resuscitated individual has undergone an exhaustive range of physical scans and psychological evaluations. Some are being treated for stress-related conditions and mental trauma, but otherwise they appear to be unharmed. With no clear evidence that these people have been infected or influenced by the Thargoids in some manner, Aegis has sent a number of proposals to superpower governments as they consider the next steps."
Despite this

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The gang at Roberts Space Industries is holding their annual Star Citizen convention this weekend, and they're wrapping events up with a big announcement: the campaign-driven game announced in 2012, Squadron 42, is now "feature complete." This means the core items are in place, and they are entering a new phase of polishing. This is expected to still take a significant amount of time, so the team is not putting a release date out there yet. They have, however, published a very cool new video that highlights the latest in the game's cinematics and spaceflight. The clip even begins with familiar nods to things like their iteration of the Hornet fighter and the Vega System. Chris Roberts says, "We want to make sure that Squadron 42 delivers on the promise of being this generation's Wing Commander," and it does indeed seem like this generation may get to experience it!

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Mac is on a roll with fabulous Wing Commander renders this month, and his latest is a spectacular Super Ferret as originally modeled by Klavs. His new scene is vertically oriented with a lot of hard angles and implied speed. There's also some great interplay between the engine flare, background nebula gases and other light sources. The new image is below, and you can see it assembled with two of his similar pieces as well!

Ferret model by Hangar B Productions. Which now completes the poster series I started way back. Now to see what they'll look like printed.

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Klavs is back to polish his Sabre model again, and he's got a neat new setup here. He's put together an expansive 8K backdrop and then added his own models to it for a very ultrawide wallpaper. It would fit nicely across two 4K monitors with very slim bezels or anchor a higher/wider monitor very well. The ships look slick as always, and the Sabre is especially mean from a head-on perspective!

Fiddling with these models again with a heavily tweaked Midjourney AI background and a LOT of passes to make it look more painterly.

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It's been a while since we've last seen Chronocidal Guy's Excalibur model in action, but the ship is back on track and under construction on his workbench. He's reworked the design in a handful of ways, including rescaling the model to be considerably larger. This has allowed him to add more detail to items like the mounted weapons. It's pretty far along, so hopefully we won't have to wait forever to see the final ship!

I have been busy revisiting this design though, and decided to finally dig in and rebuild the blank sections, add a simple cockpit, and print a slightly larger scale one.

Good progress being made, but the print times have scaled up along with the size, and I'm waiting for the weekend to print the engine modules, since they'll take 24 hours each. The fuselage and wings were both about 36 hour prints.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
A large naval squadron has gone rogue in the Shamash system, amid claims of widespread mental instability caused by an unknown signal.
Security forces for the Shamash Future faction were practising fleet manoeuvres, shortly before they turned their weapons against passing traffic. Lieutenant Commander Mackenzie Coates , one of the officers coordinating Fleet Exercise Grey Swan, told the media:
"All crews deployed for the exercise are now ignoring orders and attacking anything within range. The evidence we've gathered suggests they're suffering from violent mania, caused by some kind of mass psychological disturbance. They are still capable of operating the ships, making them a danger to civilians."
"Garrett Orbital outpost reported an anomalous multi-frequency signal during Grey Swan, which also broke through our primary comms network. We think it's related to the

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
Commanders have been asked to help destroy the rogue Grey Swan pilots killing civilians in the Shamash system.
Military squadrons taking part in Fleet Exercise Grey Swan became irrationally violent following an unexplained mass hysteria that swept through Garrett Orbital during a fleet training exercise. Captain Ulrich Maurer, commanding officer of the San Tu State Network megaship Khonsu Gleam, broadcast the following message:
"Shamash Future's security forces have asked us to help stop the carnage taking place throughout this system. No medical or technological solution has been found for affected pilots, who seem reluctant to leave Shamash. Therefore, to prevent the loss of more innocent lives, there is regrettably no choice but to eliminate every ship in the Grey Swan fleet."
"We are urgently seeking to recruit independent pilots with combat experience. Financial

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The results of an evening of hex editing! This is how Privateer figures the cost of repairs (and the prices for selling damaged components, which is never worth it!).

Every component has a damage rating from 0 (destroyed) to 100 (no damage). Repairs are a percent of the total item value times the damage rating.

The armor is the exception: it has four values (one for each side) and the total amount varies by armor type. It’s also super broken and rolls over so will charge you more for a tiny amount of damage. But the range is so small you never notice while playing!

The one component you can’t buy are the hated maneuvering jets. But from their repair costs we can see they seem to have a total value of 75,000 credits!

The maneuvering jets graphic was actually initially created to be an EMP shield. This was part of a cut game loop that would've let you disable enemy ships (and need such a shield to protect

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Pretty neat discovery by AD: the German dub of Wing Commander Prophecy includes two post-mission attaboys that aren’t present in the English release!

They are both included in the shooting script and the schedule! It’s not some giant missing piece but it’s pretty neat to see more of Ginger’s Rachel… even if she’s speaking German! Yes we are adding the entire German dub to Holovids! You can learn more here and here.

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Fun Privateer 2 background element: Angus Santana has a model of a Bexian public transport balloon on his desk.

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Mac's highly anticipated lore video on the TCS Concordia has been released! The clip has been teased in a variety of forms over the past month, and now you can enjoy the entire episode. It details the extensive history of the vessel from its commissioning in the wake of The Secret Missions 2 through the exploits of WC2 and the Special Operations and finally with her heroic efforts from the WC novels. The thorough narration is complemented by more than twenty minutes of gorgeous fleet footage. It's very informative and visually striking. Don't miss it!

The Rockstar of Confed's Carrier Fleet.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Vox Galactica's Jade Sanderlyn discusses the successful recovery of people from the Titans and developments at the new Thargoid spire sites.
"When Aegis announced its plans to free abductees from the Thargoid motherships, I wasn't the only one expecting the worst outcome. Turning a core mining missile into a way to extract life-support capsules from the Titans sounded extremely risky. And even if it worked, what state would these poor people be in after such a horrific experience?"
"Much to my relief, the scheme is working. Many thousands have now been brought back to civilisation, and seem to have suffered few ill-effects. Wisely, all are being kept under strict quarantine while a battery of medical tests are run on them. But I understand that, in most cases, abductees are permitted to communicate with their friends and families - most of whom never expected to hear from them again."
"Another

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As we mentioned last month, LOAF, AD and team are working through an exhaustive overhaul to the CIC's original video archive. Our Holovids video index was pretty great for its time, but this takes the concept to an entirely different level. Right off the bat, you can see how branching plot choices work along with alternate video clips and dialogue script. With that text, you can understand exactly what was being said, even through the muffled parts. Alternate language French, German and Spanish editions are also included as are alternate quality sources where available. Plus, there are an enormous number of behind-the-scenes clips, deleted scenes, reviews and more. Want an extensive array of print reviews? That's included too! If that wasn't enough, a complete rundown of in-flight comms from both the story and gameplay are now available. Incredible! Today's update is all about Privateer 2,

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The rapid evolution of Thargoid barnacle matrix sites into colossal spires has sparked intense scientific scrutiny and concern as to their purpose.
Dr Maximo Fonseca, the Allied scientific liaison to Aegis, discussed recent developments in an article for The Empirical:
"There's no doubt that these twisting, biomechanical towers are important to the Thargoids. Each site is defended by highly aggressive drones, including a new type designated the 'Banshee'. Larger Thargoid vessels also routinely come and go, in a manner similar to ships docking with an outpost."
"Some believe that each site is an alien city – a xenopolis, if you will – and that this marks the start of a colonisation programme. But I believe the Thargoids remain on a war footing. Either way, we are bringing together our finest xenologists to decipher their function as rapidly as possible."
One of these scientists is Professor