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Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

It’s a time of peace and understanding throughout the galaxy, where, thanks to the Khitomer Alliance, sharing of culture is at an all time high. Which is why it makes the most sense, right this minute, to bring a normally very small cultural festival to every corner of the galaxy! That’s right, music fans, the Klingon Concertina is going big time! We’ve sent concertinas to all of the major players in the Alliance, and they’ve been practicing for months for their big performance today. Experience the honor of traditional Klingon music wherever you go, starting at 9am PT today! We’ve also received word that Kurland himself is back on the promenade of Deep Space Nine, and he will have a very special item, today only! .share-footer a { margin: 20px 10px 10px 0; background: url(d7afaaa14e96d0d973f76157ae31ec5b1466398539.png) no-repeat 0 0; opacity: .5; display: inline-block;

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We've got a fantastic video upgrade to share with you today! ODVS has spent the past month toiling away to create incredibly detailed video remasters of the cutscenes in Wing Commander 4 and Prophecy. Over the years, we considered ourselves extremely lucky to be able to provide access to high quality DVD versions of both games, and while these were some four times as detailed as the clips originally included on CD, they're still "standard definition" editions that look quite dated compared to today's modern footage. For many years we resigned ourselves to thinking that these were as good as it was ever going to get. "You can't create detail where none exists," we thought. But we live in the future now, and Star Trek's "Enhance" feature has become astonishingly real. Through the use of advanced machine learning/AI filters and techniques, it is now possible to recreate old content with a sharper

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Origin composer George Oldziey tipped us off about a virtual jazz festival he'll be participating in this afternoon. Today is the grand finale of the Austin LuluFest. Due to virus limitations, the entire set is being livestreamed, so anyone can watch. George will be performing with his wife, Suzi Stern, at 1 pm Pacific US time / 4 pm Eastern US time / 8 pm GMT. Watch the live stream via Facebook if you're interested. An archived version will also be available later. It should be a quick fun thirty minute set. See you there!

Hi guys! Hope you are staying safe. This is kind of last minute, but I’m just doing a little shameless promotion to let you know that Suzi and I are performing live on FB as part of a jazz festival this coming Sunday at 1 PM PDT. The festival is called “LULUFEST 2020” and we’ll be doing a 30 minute set from our living room with our new/old Steinway O! I’ve spent a

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Happy Holy Day of Acclivity! March 23rd is the holiest day in the McDanielist (aka Pilgrim) religion, honoring the anniversary of founder Ivar Chu McDaniel’s ascension to a higher form of being during a jump to Sirius in 2311.

What is a Pilgrim?

The term Pilgrim has come to refer to several related, but distinct, groups. Most broadly, it can mean anyone associated with the former Pilgrim Alliance, a political entity which existed from 2325 to 2635, or the surviving culture it created. The term can also be applied to anyone (generally descended from early human space settlers) who carries any of a number of specific genotypes which are beneficial to space travellers or to a small group of militant terrorists who identified with the former Pilgrim Alliance and targeted the Terran Confederation in the mid-2650s (and their sympathizers.)

In the case of this article and holiday, it refers to the religious

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The WC4 Fan Remake team has a new update to share regarding shields. Wing Commander 4's game engine didn't visually depict shields for capships: it's one of those things your brain either glosses over or subconsciously imagines was there all along. We got some gorgeous effects during cutscenes, but you don't experience them in flight. After 26 years, that's finally being rectified with a fancy animated texture technique. The thumbnail below expands into an animated gif so you can see the sparkly results in action! You can also read about the whole process in a new article at WCRespace.com.

We’ve tried to create something similar, but not identical. The FMV has flat, circular ripples which can be carefully placed. We have no control over where the player fires and, if the player fired into a corner, it would clip into the geometry or extend past it (as seen in WCP). Instead we project an animated

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
Swarms of Thargoid vessels have invaded the 42 n Persei, Chun Pindit and Tekkeitjal systems in an apparently coordinated attack.
Vox Galactica published this report by field correspondent Ernesto Rios:
"Since the Thargoids conquered HIP 22460 a month ago, their presence has gradually expanded in all directions. But these are the first inhabited systems to be invaded since the Proteus Wave incident, threatening a combined population of over seven million people."
"The governing factions of these systems – Sirius Inc, SI Terraforming and Tekkeitjal Public Corporation, respectively – are expected to host defensive operations against the Thargoids. None are aligned to any superpower, and so have no formal navy to support these efforts."
"As yet, none of the starports in 42 n Persei, Chun Pindit or Tekkeitjal have been directly attacked. Civilians have been instructed to

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

President Zachary Hudson's motion to allow him to serve a second term of office has been defeated by congressional vote.
The proposal would have temporarily repealed the 77th amendment of the Federal Accord, which sets a maximum presidential term of eight years. A narrow majority voted not to accept this change to the Federation's constitution.
President Hudson addressed Congress following the announcement of the result:
"The Federation's democratic principles are paramount, and so I accept the decision of this chamber. I only hope that the disruption caused by a shift in leadership does not weaken our ability to withstand the current challenges. It is with total conviction that I say the Republican party will achieve victory in the ongoing war and maintain security within our borders. I intend to support the next Republican candidate to the best of my ability."
This outcome confirms that

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Azimuth Biotech has rejected Seo Jin-ae's unverified claim that Salvation survived by relocating his mind using advanced Guardian technology.
CEO Torben Rademaker issued this statement:
"I can officially confirm that Azimuth Biotech has no knowledge of any project related to a 'Nemesis Failsafe'. Frankly, suggesting that anyone could transmit their living mind across space stretches her credibility past breaking point."
"Seo Jin-ae's absurd outbursts have justified our fears that she suffers from paranoid delusions, and has falsified data to support her personal vendetta. And she now seems to have an exalted position among the Far God cultists. Only those deranged unfortunates would take her flights of fantasy seriously."
An article in the scientific journal The Empirical addressed the concepts featured in Seo Jin-ae's statement:
"The field of exoneurology, whereby the human mind is isolated

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

This is part of a series analyzing newly discovered Wing Commander IV continuity photographs. You can find the previous posts collected here.

Today we're giving you two Polaroids for the price of one! What's going on here? You're seeing two different pirate characters--Pirate and Pirate Ace--played by the same actor for their video loops. In the game, these appear as a total of six different video loops (three for each) that can have any pirate dialogue played over them (taunts, death screams, etc.). We can't confirm that the voice work, recorded later, was actually the credited actor, Todd Kimsey (despite being labeled 'Pirate #4' on both Polaroids, he's listed as only Pirate in the game's credits and no others appear in live action footage.) It's amazing how the amount of costume work you see in those photos ultimately becomes about five seconds of monochrome footage that ends up intentionally

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

One of my favorite things to discover is early previews for Privateer 2: The Darkening, especially those from the press junkets that occurred before the game added a '2' or even a 'Privateer' to the title. Today we've collected two more of these pieces for the archive. Privateer 2 had so much world building early in development and there's so much we've never seen... it can often eke out of the corners of these previews! Additionally, Privateer 2's team was always willing to provide reporters with a plethora of screenshots from their current build which has led to a lot of interesting differences noted in retrospect. More on that in a moment! But first, here's an excellent French preview of 'The Darkening' from the July 1996 issue of Génération 4. This would've been based on the game's showing at E3 that year (the first major reporting happened the previous year during the film shoot).

We also have

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Hey all, the CIC staff is trying to have a low key Thanksgiving this year. To those who celebrate, we hope you stay safe and manage to connect with those you love. And if you're tired of hearing about terrestrial pilgrims and would rather read about the space variety, why not check out Wing Commander Pilgrim Truth? Check it out online or grab it in .mobi (Kindle) or .epub (iBooks and other) formats.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Most of the Wing Commander games may be excluded from the holiday sale at GOG this year, but Electronic Arts didn't forget about them! The five WC games sold directly from EA.com (formerly the Origin Store) have been marked down as a part of the Player Favorites Sale. Each game is only $0.99, which is a pretty slick 80+% discount. Other Ultima and Origin games are included in a similar price range. There are some other hot titles as well like Star Wars Squadrons for $1.99 and the Command & Conquer Remastered package for $4.99, which are also good pickups!

• Wing Commander
• Wing Commander 2
• Wing Commander 3
• Wing Commander 4
• Privateer

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Happy New Year Wingnuts! We made it through another year. Some very cool projects got off the ground in 2023, and we're super excited where they go in 2024. Our annual new year's poll is live now. Got an idea for something that might interest Wing Commander fans in the year ahead? Or just want to hang out with a bunch of retro video game nerds? Stop on by the CIC Discord server!

LOAF also pointed out that we've got quite a few exciting 30th anniversaries on deck this year!

Some pretty big 30th anniversaries this year! 1994 was one heck of a year.

• Privateer: Righteous Fire - February 24
• Super Wing Commander - March 23
• Wing Commander (Sega CD) - March 24
• Wing Commander Privateer (CD-ROM) - June 13
• Wing Commander Armada - September 22
• Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger - December 8
• Wing Commander Armada Proving Grounds - December 20

And... here are the results from the birthday poll!

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Material gathered from the Titan Taranis wreckage has reportedly allowed Achilles Aerospace to complete the research on their prototype Frame Shift Drive.
The recent initiative sponsored by Achilles Aerospace saw over 5000 independent pilots enter the hazardous wreckage of Titan Taranis, retrieving enough Titan Drive Components to allow Achilles to allegedly design a new type of Frame Shift Drive based on Titan technology.
A spokesperson for Achilles Aerospace gave the following update:
The Achilles Corporation would like to commend every brave pilot that responded to our request. The data we are gathering from the collected materials is staggering, and our work has progressed at an astonishing rate. Our teams are hard at work getting the prototype ready for production as I speak, and we are eager to show you all the fruits of our labour very soon.
Sirius Corporation, the current sole

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Here's a fresh batch of whimsical Privateer scenes and objects by Cybot. He's got a couple of inspired bases, a sharp-looking Centurion, the Mercenaries' Guild office and some cars! Many of the items depicted are available as 3D models to download. Grab them at the CIC Forums here!

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The Federal Intelligence Agency has discovered an intact cryogenic pod underneath an outpost once used by Far God worshippers.

Freelance reporter Alexei Keel broke the news on Vox Galactica:

"The FIA survey team had been scanning the abandoned base on Etain 4 c with customised military sensors. It's thought this operation is part of a search for a missing undercover agent who infiltrated the Far God cult."

"A faint power source was detected in a collapsed underground chamber, which led agents to a solitary cryogenic pod hidden beneath tons of debris. Once excavated, it was conveyed to a medical facility where efforts to safely revive its occupant are now underway."

"There was no way of identifying who is inside the pod. But it seems likely that they are one of the adherents who recorded audio logs at the site, prior to entering suspended animation to await the Far God."

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, October 3rd at 8AM PST to October 7th 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

It's a new year and time for a new poll! Our annual new year's poll asks what kind of year you think it'll be for Wing Commander. As we saw in yesterday's recap, 2019 was a big year for Wing Commander, and there's no sign of letting up in 2020!

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The old poll asked about the most underappreciated Wing Commander games. Armada, with its strategic mode and expansive multiplayer options, took the lead with Privateer 2 a close second. Super Wing Commander, Academy and even the Prophecy port for the Game Boy Advance also took in a good number of votes. It's great to see people who are fans of all these lesser-known WC products!

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Starting today, new Science Vessels are being made available on the C-Store for Federation and Klingon characters, along with their respected allied members among the Romulan and Dominion factions! These new vessels will be available in both Non-Fleet and Fleet variants. Special Introductory Pricing Discount! From September 24th until September 30th, you can get these ships for 2400 ZEN each when purchased individually, or a bundle with both ships, a Fleet Ship module, and 5 Master Keys for the price of 4000 ZEN! Thereafter, they will return to their normal pricing at 3000 ZEN when purchased individually, or 5000 ZEN for the Bundle. Fleet versions of each of these starships will unlock upon completing your Fleet Starbase’s Tier 2 Shipyard. The standard Fleet Module discounts apply if you have purchased the ships from the C-Store. These starships all have a Commander-rank Intelligence Bridge

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