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Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Shadow President Felicia Winters has called for the Federal Navy to help defend independent systems being invaded by the Thargoids.
She outlined her viewpoint during an interview with the Federal Free Press:
"The Thargoid fleets emerging from the Maelstroms have inflicted anguish and loss on millions. Our military forces have responded magnificently, and continue to fight hard against appalling odds. But while they are saving lives in Federal-aligned systems, independent systems are left to suffer."
"Surely this cannot be right? These are our neighbours, our trading partners, our historic cousins. Their populations cry out for help, and the mighty Federal Navy chooses to ignore them, claiming orders to prioritise saving our own. Is that who we are now? No better than the Empire?"
"I have argued in Congress that we have a duty of responsibility to protect any independent systems lacking the

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

President-elect Felicia Winters has vowed to defeat new legislation proposed by outgoing President Zachary Hudson.
If funded, these initiatives will establish a media standards regulator, set up a political think tank, and merge the Proactive Detection Bureau into the Federal Navy Intelligence Office. Tax rebates will also be granted to all corporations with existing government contracts.
The Federal Times approached Felicia Winters for comment:
"It's obvious that these pro-Republican measures are being pushed through because of Jerome Archer's poor electoral performance. It would look bad for Hudson to admit that his own vice president wasn't a popular choice of successor. So now he's giving Archer as many advantages as possible for when he becomes shadow president."
"We aim to block these legislative changes should they go through Congress. And I personally guarantee that once I am in

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

President-elect Felicia Winters has delayed the start of her term of office, in response to devastating earthquakes on the planet Rhea 3.
The following statement was delivered by her office to a special session of Congress:
"The terrible events on Rhea 3 have not only demanded President-elect Winters's full attention, but also brought personal tragedy. It seems that most of the Winters family, plus many close friends, lost their lives when the capital city of New Greenacre was levelled by the earthquakes."
"The president-elect therefore requests permission to temporarily suspend the inauguration ceremony. This will allow her to focus on coordinating emergency operations, and also process the unexpected loss of her nearest and dearest."
President Zachary Hudson agreed to a short extension of his presidential term, thereby allowing the motion to be passed by Congress. Vice President-elect Isolde

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

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The Popontia conflict and the mass arrest of Far God cultists have received civil and political criticism across the Federation.
Shadow President Felicia Winters delivered a statement to The Federal Times:
"It is logical that any organisation supporting the Thargoids should come under scrutiny. But this does not justify the harsh and oppressive treatment of our own citizens for their religious beliefs. The Federal Accord safeguards their right to worship, as long as no laws are transgressed."
"The Federal Navy Intelligence Office has accused the cult of disseminating classified material and damaging anti-xeno operations. I demand that their evidence be shared with the High Court, so that a legal ruling can be made."
"I also call upon Congress to reject the secretary of state's proposal to outlaw the Order of the Far God. This is nothing more than a blatant effort to prop up President Hudson's

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Shadow President Felicia Winters has claimed that the Proactive Detection Bureau is unconstitutional as it violates the Federal Accord.
In an address before Congress, she said:
"The Federation's constitution explicitly guarantees citizens the right to data security and privacy. The PDB tramples over this by raiding everyone's personal communications, casting aside decency and dignity so that algorithms can probe into every aspect of our lives."
"Furthermore, if ACT's hypothesis is correct and the NMLA is using an advanced dark-comms network, then the PDB's existence is baseless and unjustifiable."
Vice President Jerome Archer responded:
"The Domestic Counter-Terrorism Act is emergency legislation that temporarily suspends constitutional statutes, until we are satisfied that the terrorist threat has been negated."
"Following the PDB's success in uncovering extremist groups, we are widening the

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

President-elect Felicia Winters has officially selected new heads for each executive department of the Federal government.
She announced her choices during a session of Congress, where she gave a short speech about her upcoming presidency. This was followed by a similar statement from Isolde Rochester, who will serve as Winters's vice president.
Sofia Trevino, political journalist for The Federal Times, reported:
"With these appointments, Felicia Winters is laying the foundations on which to build a new Federal government. Long-serving figures in the Liberal Party are finally being rewarded with key positions in the upcoming administration."
"One notable loyalist is Congressman Bai Zheng, who will be Secretary for Security. She is already well-known for opposing the Proactive Detection Bureau, and will undoubtedly take pleasure in overseeing the surveillance unit's closure, as per Winters's

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The Liberal Party has published a detailed political manifesto in advance of the Federation's presidential election in June.
Shadow President Felicia Winters summarised her party's plans during a campaign rally on Rhea 3:
"The freedoms and privileges of Federal citizens have been abused or ignored by the Hudson administration. Our vision for governance focuses on restoring the Federation's core values, offering every individual the opportunities they deserve."
"As your democratically elected president, I will take great pleasure in dismantling the Proactive Detection Bureau on day one. The mass-monitoring of private communications is a violation of civil rights that must end immediately."
"For those concerned about security, especially the Thargoid threat, I assure you that there will be no reduction in military spending. In fact, our aim is to extend naval and humanitarian assistance to

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The art sets from Mike Winterbauer's latest Kickstarter have started to go out in the mail. If you backed this project, the items you were expecting should have recently arrived or will be on their way shortly. The new top tier item was a metal print that included his Super Nintendo box cover painting as it was used on a variety of different media. It's a nice complement to his original piece, and I've mounted mine side-by-side for a nice effect in the kiddos' reading nook. They're fun to look at!

Here's a couple of older wider shots when the first item went up.

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

From April 24th at 8 am PT to May 4th at 10am PT, on all platforms, Q will be returning outside of his usual seasonal timeframe, to re-ignite the festive season once more! The Winter Event will return for a brief period simultaneously on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4, beginning on April 24th and running until May 4th. Who couldn’t use a little bit of extra festive cheer this time of year? While this special event is active, Q’s Winter Wonderland will be accessible as if the same event from 2019’s appearance was in place, allowing players to return to the frosty playground and participate in all of its usual activities to earn prizes and let off some steam! Also during this limited time return, players that have not completed their progress toward the 2019 Grand Prize Ship – the Fek’Irhi Fe’Rang Dreadnought Carrier [T6] – may once more earn Daily Progress towards this mighty vessel,

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Anatoly Shashkin has posted another awesome bit of WC history. He's shared several pages of preliminary programming for Wingleader, which was the intermediate name for Wing Commander before release. The depiction includes some of the methodology behind how the Kilrathi approach a target, maneuver / evade and retreat for home. It's pretty cool to see what eventually turned into the pilot behavior that we all know and love! You can find more great throwbacks on the DOSNostalgia Twitter feed.

Some AI code from Wingleader, a game that eventually became Wing Commander

LOAF added this bit:

Anyone can have a look at this! The BRAINS.C file shown here was included with the Wing Commander I rolling demo and will open right up in a text editor. (And anyone interested in the WC1 AI should check out the Wing Commander I & II Ultimate Strategy Guide which reprints exactly how each enemy and ace 'thinks'.)

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Destro has a new update on what to expect in the future for the Wing Loader program. He added preliminary support for WC4, Prophecy and Secret Ops towards the end of last year, but there's still plenty to do for the earlier games in the series. Now that in-game speech is working in WC1, I might be most excited about what is happening with WC3. He's made some major breakthroughs regarding the ability to add ODVS' enhanced video footage. There's even the potential to add back in scenes like news clips and the Hobbes explanation that are only included in the console ports. It's all exciting stuff! You can download the latest version here.

I've got a few things planned for a new release. Currently I'm working on some memory fixes, better camera code to fix some jumpy issues I've seen online:

• A few changes to the scripting to make reading it easier.
• Added in Imgui support and making preferences so users

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Destro has returned with a spectacular announcement for the future of Wing Loader, which is a program he built to add audio speech to the Kilrathi Saga's WC1. The next evolution seeks to add high resolution video to KS WC3. The videos already exist. ODVS massively upscaled and enhanced the footage from WC3, WC4 and Prophecy a few years back, but at the time, it was only possibly to integrate these cutscenes into the latter two game. Destro's patch will finally close the loop and make it possible to enjoy the improved video in the game. There are many challenges to overcome still, but his success with WC1 shows that he has what it takes to make this happen! You can download the latest working version of Wing Loader here.

Hey everyone! I hope you are all having a great summer so far! This is my busy time of year but I'm keeping my head up and messing around with the next big feature of Wing

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today we've got an exciting update to Wing Loader to share! Destro is back with a major overhaul to the project. As you may recall, Wing Loader is a mod to The Kilrathi Saga to fully add original (Sega CD) speech to the PC version of WC1. As the years have gone by, the scope has expanded to add things like the new Secret Missions from SWC and the bonus SM1 intro from the SNES. A huge upcoming development will be the addition of enhanced WC3 video to a future release. In order to facilitate that update, Destro has significantly streamlined and improved the functional code of the existing material. You can download the latest update here (350 meg zip) and follow the latest at the CIC Forums. You can also find detailed installation instructions here.

Version 0.90 - (Engine Re-Write) Released!

Wing Loader aims to create the most definitive version of Wing Commander possible by supporting the most

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Howard Day has finished fully implementing a new ship into Wing Leader. Formerly available as an adversary, the game's first person rolling demo now has the ability to load a Salthi and play from the Kilrathi fighter's point of view. This even includes extensive cockpit damage! Catch a new video of it in action below.

Got the Wing Leader Salthi Cockpit all hooked up! Looking pretty awesome, very happy with the results. It's very much a glass cannon speedster. It came together quick, future Kilrathi cockpits should be as fast or faster. Enjoy!

Got the Wing Leader Salthi Cockpit all hooked up! Looking pretty awesome, very happy with the results. It's very much a glass cannon speedster. It came together quick, future Kilrathi cockpits should be as fast or faster.
Enjoy! pic.twitter.com/YuBupLeDA5

— Howie Day (@howieeday) July 14, 2024

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Howard Day

has developed another really cool effect for the

Wing Leader

project. The big video below shows off some fancy LCD distortion for use when your VDU takes a hit. Howard says he's working on further improvements to make it look even better in the future. There are also some enhanced backgrounds that now dot the spacescape, and the game's nifty chase cam helps show them off here as well!

Wednesday Wing Leader progress! Wrote a LCD distortion shader for the cockpit last night! Looks pretty gruesome. Also added some background artwork to the scene and more star types-really helps to make the game more colorful.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

In his latest round of updates,

Howard Day

has a whole lot of new polish to show off. His

Wing Leader

LCD/VDU filter has been tweaked to look even better, and the background objects have gotten a dazzling overhaul. While the videos and animations for the project already look amazing, Howard notes that he's building the engine for 60 FPS and most everything so far is only showing off the game in 30 FPS max. Prepare to be amazed when you see the real thing!

Wednesday Wing Leader progress! I'm really close to pushing out an update to the Rolling demo. I just want to polish it a litttle bit more. The background art was *too* colorful, so I made it more natural, and subtle. No more purple stars and bright neon purple galaxies!Just thought I'd post some fun videos. Enjoy!

BONUS: Here's an awesome peek at Wing Leader running at 60 FPS!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

A frequent question we get is to ask what's up with Wing Leader, Howard Day's impressive tech demo in the Unity engine. It's been in suspended animation for a bit, but Howard recently posted some shots of what it looks like with Mattias_G's CRT shader in place. It gets quite a retro vibe! He's also been playing around with some character models. His Hunter and Angel are below. I especially like the recreation of the flight suits. Howard was careful to point out that this wasn't a restart of the project, but it's always good to see him tooling around with Wing Commander stuff!

Here are some more direct side by side shots of the shader enabled.

My very early take on some talking heads for Wing Leader. Rendered in 3dsmax 2022, using Fessler's index painting technique!

This time with "Angel" Devereaux! The face model is by Damon Czanik. Straight renders outta 3dsmax.

#Wingleader Video with the CRT

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

There's been lots of gorgeous character and shipboard art for Wing Leader shown off over these past few months, but people are also interested in the project for its space combat. Howard Day has made some tweaks to the spaceflight engine and created some great examples of the latest build's gameplay. You can see everything from both the Kilrathi and Confed fighter perspectives below. The dogfighting is intense, fluid and explosive. Check it out below!

Doing some code refactoring about how the AIs control the ships. They're no longer able to turn faster than the player - and a bunch of hacks have been actually re-coded to work in a more straightforward, honest way. I've also been working on Reticles. As you can tell, these now shift around a bit as you maneuver. Makes the whole thing feel 1000% more dynamic.

Bonus video! This one's got the front/left/right/rear directional cockpit view enabled.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

It's only been a few days since our last update, but

Howard Day

already has a pile of exciting things to share in his

WC1-inspired engine

. For starters, he's dubbed the project

Wing Leader

after one of the initial concept names for the WC series. There's also a few new animations, and they show off the beautiful debris field that emerges from a destroyed ship. Finally, here's your first peek at the cute little Salthi! He's given it a single engine to better suit the Kilrathi light fighter's small

nimble

stature.

First look at the Wing Leader Salthi. Different from her canon version: she's only got one engine and has two photon cannons rather than lasers. I'm trying to make the various Kilrathi ships feel different, rather than the Salthi, Dralthi, Krant all feeling like fighting the same ship. I'm also looking at ways to only make them turn left.

New art for the photon cannon coming soon. Expecting