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Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

On the Empire's homeworld Capitol, fears over imminent Thargoid invasion sparked a public gathering outside the Imperial Palace.
Cassia Carvalho, political journalist for The Imperial Herald, reported from the scene:
"The arrival of the Thargoid Maelstroms has triggered protests on many Allied, Federal and independent worlds. The Empire is rarely troubled by such disruption, so the spontaneous march by tens of thousands of citizens through Capitol's streets caught the media and security services by surprise."
"Chancellor Anders Blaine addressed the crowd, his image projected above us all. He spoke of the Imperial Navy's swift response to the Thargoid threat, making assurances that our systems were protected and we were all safe."
"But this wasn't enough to quell the increasingly strident demands that more should be done. I saw anger, frustration and fear etched into those shouting faces. The

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

One for the never noticed/can't unsee file: the destroyer that flies towards the screen in the Wing Commander Academy intro is traveling BACKWARDS!

Every other appearance has the conning tower in the back and the round... pod... in the front.

Another good backwards ship is the Vaktoth used on the Wing Commander card game packaging!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Mac's upcoming End Run lore video is still in the cooker, but he's released this glorious wallpaper to help tide fans over in the mean time. It features one of Klavs' Rapiers screaming towards a planetary target. Top notch wallpapering!

The Wing Commander End Run video is being pushed to January. It needs to be done right, which requires more time. In the meantime I will see about uploading something smaller to appease the Youtube algorithm for this month. So here's a still shot.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Thargoid vessels are interdicting human ships travelling through systems that have been occupied by their fleets.
The Thargoids' ability to force craft to drop out of hyperspace is well documented. Over the past couple of weeks, pilots have reported that the interdiction ability used by human ships in supercruise is also being utilised by the alien forces.
Colonel Bris Dekker, an engineer who specialises in frame shift drive technology, submitted his analysis to The Federal Times:
"Being intercepted by the Thargoids mid-way through an interstellar journey is certainly a disturbing experience, but not necessarily a fatal one. Many ships have survived such encounters, unless they happen to be carrying Guardian or Thargoid artefacts. By contrast, these more recent incidents are uniformly acts of aggression, with ships being wrenched out of supercruise and immediately fired upon."
"We don't know

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Deadline reports that Matthew Lillard, who starred as Maniac in the Wing Commander Movie, will soon have a role in the film conversion of Five Nights at Freddy's. Although Lillard has seen huge success in roles relating to Scooby Doo and the Good Girls TV show, he's also got quite a horror following thanks to his time in Scream and movies like Thir13en Ghosts. When he's not acting, Lillard also has a company that focuses on tabletop gaming. Last year they did a really great joke Wing Commander box set for April Fool's Day. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how the Freddy's movie turns out!

The characters they are playing are not being specified. Production on the film is set to begin in February in New Orleans.

Lillard recently starred on the NBC hit Good Girls opposite Christina Hendricks, Retta and Mae Whitman. He has appeared on great shows such as Bosch, Billions, Halt and Catch Fire,

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

This 27th century press release was made for the Kilrathi Saga manual. It used the original concept sketches of the Strakha made for Wing Commander II… and they forgot to edit out the artist’s note identifying “meaningless pods”!

Also what a baller non-explanation for why the design changes so significantly between Wing Commander II and III. Up there with Worf not discussing it with outsiders.

Does the press release match the mission in the game (K’tithrak Mang B)? Yes, nine Strakha. Does it match the official guide’s in universe history? No, you shoot down seven of the Strakha and not six there.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Oh man I never noticed how obvious it was that the Axius corridors were the Lexington set relit.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
A further 13 systems have fallen under Thargoid control as the last of the Maelstroms materialise.
The three rogue signal sources – designated Thor, Raijin and Hadad – entered human-occupied space yesterday. As with the previous five anomalies, they manifested as colossal clouds of corrosive gas over 100 kilometres in diameter.
Pilots who attempt to investigate the Maelstroms have been warned that the highly caustic nature of the clouds can disable and destroy ships. Xenologists have speculated that the cloud is a defensive asset, maintained by the huge numbers of caustic generators clustered within.
All eight Maelstroms are now established at their destinations, positioned in a broad semi-circle along the fringe of the core systems. Each of these entities has become the centre of an expanding Thargoid sphere of influence. Populated systems in the surrounding

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Aggressive Wing Commander pilots continue to shave minutes and seconds off their best Wing Commander times! When we first started reporting on the competitive sport of SNES speedrunning some five years ago, players were completing the game in the 41-46 minute range. Over the years, players perfected the route to Hubble's Star and Rostov. You can eject through the early part of the game, win a few key missions and then eject through Venice and still get the winning endgame. At the beginning of this year, the best runs were down to about 23 minutes, and now players are hitting times as low as 15:40, which is amazing! You can read about the specific choices that ShesChardcore made to accomplish the run below here:

This submission is for the SNES version of Wing Commander, a space/flight sim about a war between the Terrans (humans) and Kilrathi (cats.) This showcases the fastest route through the SNES

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
Sandra Corrs, CEO of the largest manufacturer of children's toys in the core systems, has requested help this holiday season.
Many parents will be familiar with Sandra's Workshop, recognising the company logo stamped across countless datapads, interactive suites and tactile play sets designed for youngsters. But the joy of this year's festive season is at risk, with the recent Thargoid invasion impacting the Workshop's distribution chain.
In an interview with Vox Galactica, Corrs explained:
"We typically use a fleet of transports provided by our partner company, Dolph's Routes, to deliver presents to good children all across the bubble. But those transports have been assigned to provide evacuation support to 63 Tauri. Entirely understandable, and I applaud the company for its brave work. But it does leave many presents without a sleigh, as my grandfather used to

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Pilots' Federation ALERT
The continued project to provide enhanced AX weaponry for all ships has announced its latest progress update.
Independent pilots have been tasked with establishing a manufacturing base at select locations in the core systems. Thanks to these focused efforts, the following weapons are now available for purchase:
Enhanced AX Multi-cannon (Turreted)
Enhanced AX Missile Rack (Turreted)
Enhanced AX Multi-cannon (Fixed)
These modules are offered at all rescue megaships, which can be found using the Galaxy Map filter. Ships looking to engage Thargoid forces are advised to equip these weapons, particularly in Maelstrom systems where Guardian-based technology has proven ineffective.
Work continues on the other enhanced weapons, based on designs by the engineers Liz Ryder and Zacariah Nemo which improve the original Aegis models. A further update will be provided next Thursday,

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

GOG has kicked off their big annual winter sale, and Wing Commander is once again on the list of discounts. It seems like the WC series spends more time on sale than not during this season, but that means it's a great time to finish your collection or get friends into the franchise. Each title is $1.49 - or less than $12 for the whole main DOS/Windows series!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

I’m concerned about what happens to all other human religions and cultures between now and 2634.

"Why not Confederation Day?" Joshua said slowly. "It'd be the logical time to really nail us. Half the crews will have the weekendoff."

"Maybe, but I wonder if the Cats would be that crazy. Do that and it'd really get our blood up. It'd be an act sure to arouse our rage. That's the biggest holiday of the year outside of Christmas.'

In spite of this, let me simp hard for Action Stations: it is so much fun. It’s an in-universe Wing Commander prequel where the author literally just rewrites At Dawn We Slept but in space. You can’t read it without imagining F4F Wildcats and Zeroes and square jawed navy heroes. (Despite the cover of the ebook, it is not at all from Wing Commander V, the new release.)

Which is something that happened a couple times. Have you ever wondered what the weird paintings that showed up in

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Newsfeeds have published their reactions as the Thargoid Maelstroms launch fleets to overpower multiple inhabited systems.
Sol Today: "Be in no doubt: we are in a war for survival! Dark days are upon us. No more ridiculous ideas of peace with the aliens. No more time for politics or debate. The Thargoids have come to wipe us out unless we stand up and fight."
Old Worlds Gazette: "This is the most severe Thargoid attack ever recorded. Hundreds of thousands slaughtered. Millions more fleeing their homes. Stations and planetary ports bombarded, entire star systems conquered… all in a few days. Many fear that nowhere will be safe if these savage onslaughts cannot be halted."
Citizens' Chronicle: "The speed with which our navy responded to defend Imperial citizens against the Thargoids must be applauded. However, it is becoming harder to ignore the screams from less fortunate systems. Might their

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Greg14 shared this French preview of Wingleader from a June 1990 issue of Génération 4. It appears to be based off previews from the Consumer Elections Show in Chicago. The name change to Wing Commander happened relatively close to launch, so a lot of the prime promotional materials from this summer emphasize the 'Leader' name. Can you imagine how amazing these huge screenshots would have looked at the time? Also check out that small in-game Wingleader logo!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today's update is one of those 'under our noses the whole time' events! It turns out that Wing Commander III and IV co-writers Terry Borst and Frank De Palma actually wrote and spoke quite a bit about the game at the time. Both gave lectures and provided interviews for academic books relating to interactive storytelling... and we've found three fascinating ones that were published in the wake of Wing Commander IV that go into detail we've never seen before about the process behind scripting the game!

The first and most detailed is Chapter 10 of a book called The Multimedia Scriptwriting Workshop (Douglas J. Varchol, Sybex, 1996). The book spends a full 50 (!) pages walking through the development of Wing Commander IV's script, complete with screenshots and script extracts. Even more shocking is the fact that it was published in January 1996... some six weeks before Wing Commander IV even came out! If

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Mac has posted a couple of teasers for his next Wing Commander lore video. This one is shaping up to be bigger and more elaborate than his usual episodes, so he's posted these snippets to tide fans over while work continues. The first image sets up the ground attack on Vukar Tag with a couple of Rapiers. There's also a Ferret furiously dodging laser bolts from an entire wing of Kilrathi. Although I'm already quite familiar with what happens in End Run, I can't wait to see the video come together!

This End Run video is going to be what I have now termed "The Long-Ass Format", going by how the script is wrapping up.

I may have to split it, worst case scenario I might need to put out another, smaller video for the month. But here's a thing Im doing for it:#wingcommander pic.twitter.com/EA6kzwlf86

— Mac's Lore (@MacsLore) December 6, 2022

"Tarawa, Bear. Play the music on the comms, I'm coming in hot."

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

In Wing Commander IV, the TCS Lexington's Officer's Lounge features a prominent image of a historical aircraft carrier at sea. The photograph, part of a framed presentation of some sort, is easily visible in the gameflow scene and in other passing shots. It then appears more closely during the cutscene where Captain Paulsen attempts to recruit you.

But what's the carrier? Conventional wisdom was that it must be the USS Lexington (CV-16); after all, the Wing Commander IV team had spent time aboard the Lexington doing research for the game and they'd named the TCS Lexington (CV-44) in her honor. But that didn't pass the visual test: the carrier in the lounge is a modern supercarrier rather than one that served in World War II. For a long time, the image was thought to be the USS Enterprise because of her unique conning tower which seemed to match the footage... but it turns out that was a false positive

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We've got another vintage magazine review of Wing Commander III today... but this time, with a twist! This 'technical review' was printed in the June/July 1995 issue of Game Developer magazine, an industry publication which ran from the dawn of the multimedia age in 1994 all the way until 2013! This review doesn't just tell you how good the game is, it tells you how it works under the hood. And as an added bonus, it's actually written by Wayne Sikes, the man responsible for the beloved PREDIT Privateer editing tool.

The article also mentions an earlier feature on Pacific Strike's related file structure that had been printed in the December 1994 issue. This information is also likely of use to Wing Commander III modders and so we've reproduced it below:

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
The rogue signal sources Cocijo and Oya have arrived at their estimated destinations.
Their impact mirrored that of the Taranis, Indra and Leigong Maelstroms. A total of 16 neighbouring systems were immediately overwhelmed by Thargoid fleets, which launched devastating bombardments against orbital starports and planetary infrastructure.
Other inhabited systems in the vicinity are resisting occupation. Superpower capital ships and independent pilots are currently battling to protect the local populations.
Five rogue signal sources have now manifested as Maelstroms, with three more approaching at faster-than-light speed. Many systems have completely fallen to the Thargoids in the vicinity of each Maelstrom. Safeguard Interstellar reported that millions of refugees are threatening to overwhelm emergency services and rescue teams. Military forces are also struggling to