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General: Celebrate the anniversary of First Contact Day! Join in on this special re-enactment event from April 4th at 8am PT to April 11th at 10am PT. Captains of level 10 and above may participate in this event. Play the event to unlock the following rewards: When you complete the queue for the First Contact Day event, you will receive a special Zefram Cochrane Memorial Hologram Voucher (limit one per day, per character). 1x Captain Specialization Point Launch Toy Rocket Holo Emitter - Phoenix Shuttle (NEW!) Replica Thompson Submachine Gun Ships: You can now properly select between windows types for the Faeht Intel Warbird. Aft torpedos now fire correctly on the Europa Heavy Battlecruiser. Content: Enemies in Peril over Pahvo & Dranuur Gauntlet Task Force Operation now award Experience Points when they are defeated. Addressed an issue that could cause debug

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One of the most exciting moments of STLV this year, for us, was getting to watch Lead Ship and UI Artist Thomas Marrone join the Eaglemoss panel to announce that Hero Collector would be doing a full line of Star Trek Online ship models. Earlier this year, Eaglemoss released the first of this line, the Enterprise F, and it looks fantastic. The image at the top of this article is an image of the model, in fact. We want to show you how fantastic in a little more detail, so tonight at 4pm PT, we’ll be doing a special unboxing video on Ten Forward Weekly to show off these ships, and give you a chance to win them! You can watch the show on our Twitch Channel, or on the Star Trek Online Facebook page. In addition, we’re teaming with Hero Collector to offer you 15% off every starship they’ve produced so far, including the Enterprise F. If you’ve been on the fence about starting a collection, or

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Content: Updated the Elachi computers during the “Mycelial Realm” Task Force Operation, to only allow one person to use them at a time. Animation: Resolved an issue that caused the player’s neck to stretch awkwardly when using the Feminine stance. Character: Survival Outfit Updates: Coloring the shirt no longer will color other parts of the costume pieces. Armpatches for Klingon and Romulan factions tinting correctly apply full saturation. Armpatches for Klingon and Romulan factions tinting scheme changed to allow for more tinting across the entire costume piece. Armpatches for Klingon and Romulan factions redone to have proper contrast and details. Armpatches for males no longer clip during running. Survival Jacket for males no longer clip during running. Resolved an issue that caused Romulan and Reman characters to have invisible torsos with certain upper body

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Here's a clip from the 1987 movie, The Hidden. A synopsis: "An alien parasite with the ability to possess human bodies goes on a violent crime spree in LA, committing dozens of murders and robberies. In pursuit of the extraterrestrial criminal is an FBI agent, and the local officer investigating the rash of violence. As they close in on the vicious intruder, the city faces a brutal threat like no other it has ever encountered." Wing Commander 4's Chris Mulkey stars as one such possessed individual, and Kyle MacLachlan of Dune fame is the main character. I'd just like to think that after going on this crime spree, Hawk decided to lay low in the Border Worlds for a while...

This video of Hawk shooting up a bank and driving like a maniac gave me a laugh.

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General: Reduced the price of existing T1-T5 Starships that cost Dilithium: Tier 1: Reduced from 5,000 to 1,000 Tier 2: Reduced from 10,000 to 2,500 Tier 3: Reduced from 20,000 to 5,000 Tier 4: Reduced from 40,000 to 10,000 Tier 5: Reduced from 80,000 to 20,000 Removed most Tier 1 thru Tier 4 Starships from the Zen Store. Ships previously purchased with Zen will remain available Account-Wide for Reclaim via Ship Requisition Stores. The following T1-T4 ships are not being altered with these changes: Walker-class Prototype Light Exploration Cruiser (Scaling)

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We've posted plenty of visual treats so far, so now here's something specifically designed to please your ears. Improbable Cadence first put together this beautiful rendition of the opening credits music back in March, but now he's actually sync'd it up with the WC1 intro (so there's a still a visual component after all).

I've always wanted to hear a more realistic rendition of the main theme, but I couldn't find anything similar to what I had in mind -- which I guess was something in between Superman and Star Wars. 30 years later, I finally got around to making it myself.

My goal was to retain as much of the original MIDI as possible and match the overall voice, while expanding the instrumentation and textures to add variety, giving each section a different feel. Based on the Roland MT-32 MIDI tracks by Dave Govett / Team Fat.

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*Pilots Federation ALERT*
Commodities are requested to create new settlements for Marlinist refugees who fled from the Empire to the Federation.
Sirius Corporation has offered to resolve the current standoff between superpowers by establishing colonies where the refugees can live independently.
Li Yong-Rui, CEO of Sirius Corporation, summarised his proposal:
"It is clear that the Marlinists cannot return to the Empire, and are a destabilising presence within the Federation. We offer an alternative by constructing permanent habitats for their population. These will be self-governed and may freely trade with the galactic community."
"Sirius cannot stand by while the risk of interstellar war increases. I sincerely hope this leads to a more stable and profitable period for us all."
After intense debate, both Congress and the Senate accepted the proposal, with the proviso that any refugees

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EG1918 tipped us off about an impressive Russian effort to dub over Wing Commander 3. The team used ODVS' fancy AI-upscaled HD clips, so everything looks super slick, and they had a host of Russian speakers voice each of the roles. It's great to see such dedication around the world! Everything has been packaged up into this YouTube video below. For an extra meta layer, you can use the auto-translate feature for real time English (or other language) captions of the Russian speech!

While those are just the FMV clips, the team also recently streamed a full playthrough of the 3DO version of the game. This one shakes up the combat slightly to better fit the console. The 3DO port adds some fun gameplay elements and even adds back in movie clips missing from the PC version. You can find their four-part series on that below:

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

A day of mourning has been declared across the Empire to mark the first anniversary of the NMLA's Imperial starport bombings.
On Thursday the 10th of September 3306, Imperial stations in the Cemiess, Gabjaujis, LHS 4031 and Rabh systems were attacked without warning. Over sixty thousand people were killed and twice as many wounded by powerful explosives that delivered a caustic enzyme payload.
The Neo-Marlinist Liberation Army is an extremist paramilitary group that is dedicated to reforming Marlin Duval's original republican government. Prior to these bombings, it had only performed minor strikes with low casualties.
The NMLA's terror campaign grew to encompass all three superpowers with the Nine Martyrs attacks in March 3307. It also led to supporters of Marlinism fleeing from the Empire as refugees, eventually resettling in the Marlinist Colonies.
Princess Aisling Duval paid respects to the

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots Federation ALERT*
Thirty megaships have been placed between the core systems and the Colonia region to serve as stationary ports.
Twenty-five dockable megaships were sent out from the Alcor system toward Colonia, taking position in systems approximately 400 to 500 light years apart. Five further megaships have been established from the direction of the Colonia system.
Each vessel serves as a permanent way station for travellers and businesses, designed to improve the journey to and from Colonia. A variety of services are provided, including tritium refuelling for Drake-class fleet carriers.
The Colonia Bridge is the product of Brewer Corporation, which ran a highly successful deliveries campaign to collect resources. The megacorp has confirmed that phase two of this project will commence next week.
During the creation of the Colonia Bridge, the crew aboard the stationary megaship

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
A decrypted message suggests that the NMLA leader Theta Seven avoided capture by infiltrating the Far God cult.
ACT publicly requested help to decode a message received by Theta Group, the bomb-making engineers of the NMLA. The cipher key was cracked and the decoded message submitted by Commander Therion Cygni. It revealed that Theta Seven and his closest aides fled to the Panjabell system on the 31st of July.
Captain Milo Castile, one of ACT's co-leaders, provided an update:
"Our theory is that Theta Seven and his crew were travelling undercover as Far God worshippers, who were gathering in the Panjabell system in huge numbers at that time. Since all members of this religious order renounce their past identities, this would have helped the terrorists to avoid detection."
"The Pleiades Concordat and other factions in Panjabell are cooperating with our investigation.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Emperor Arissa Lavigny-Duval has attended a public ceremony following her year-long abduction by the Lords of Restoration.
Her proclamation from Trasken Square, standing before millions of Capitol's citizens and flanked by legions of Imperial Guard, was broadcast across all channels:
"To those who protected the Empire during my enforced absence, I offer my deepest gratitude. My trusted chancellor, senators and security agencies are to be commended."
"To those who dared to attack Imperial citizens, who dared to impersonate me and mislead my people…who took the lives of my family. Know this: there will be no place to hide from my wrath."
"And to all citizens who may fear these uncertain times, I vow that your Emperor will lead you into the glorious future that is ours by right."
Subsequent messages from the Imperial Palace praised ACT and its supporters for their work in freeing Arissa and

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Spacedock has posted a new video about the different types of faster-than-light travel in science fiction. It's a wonderful breakdown of the different ways that different franchises do it. The type of visitors that frequent this site are probably going to be familiar with most of this information, but the organization is thoughtful and fairly comprehensive. Wing Commander, of course, gets a nod for its jump drive system. Check it out below!

Spacedock delves into Science Fiction's many flavors of Faster than Light travel.

Thanks to Rattler for the heads up!

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Here's a short clip of a deleted line (and alt takes and temp cues) from the Wing Commander movie. Hugh Quarshie's Mr. Obutu utters an apparent African expression that I'd love to learn more of its origins and meaning. I feel it gives the scene an interesting flavor.

One thing that was always great in the WC games (and to an extent the movie too) was the international representation on the crew, and cutting the line feels like a missed opportunity.

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We've got good news to report today for Wing Commander Arena fans! Back in August, people started to notice that the Xbox achievement records for certain games were no longer showing properly. This was distressing to us, since Arena was one of the games that appeared to be suffering from this predicament. Players' total point score seemed unaffected, and the achievements still appeared to show up at third party websites that had access to the source data, so we were hoping that this was just some kind of technical glitch. Additionally, other classic Xbox Live Aracade games like EA's Boom Boom Rocket were still appearing normally. Fortunately, we noticed this week that the game was one again showing up properly in Xbox gamertag profiles. You can now see all 12 Wing Commander achievements on your console, the web or mobile app. Check out how your score stacks up here (may need to log in to an

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Here's a throwback to a classic issue of Nintendo Power magazine. It comes from Issue 60 in May of 1994. I used to absolutely love the Classified Information section with things like cheat codes and passwords. This one is specifically for The Secret Missions. Press the Left and Right bumpers, plus Select and Start, on the second controller while on the title screen. Then press start on the first controller, and you'll go to the debug menu. This lets you pick what mission you want to play, turn on invincibility or play with the game sounds. You can do the same thing with the original SNES Wing Commander by typing "B, A, B, Y, B, Y, L, A, R, A" at the title screen and then pressing start.

I've previously expressed mixed feelings about mag scans going into YouTube videos, but I happened to see this one through a Video Games Magazine clip, which is pretty neat!

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Maxi de Sokar has come across another vintage Wing Commander article from the Spanish press. This one is preview of Wing Commander 3 from Issue 78 of Micromanía. It features the wacky Spanish art and early engine screenshots. I always say that you don't have to speak the language to appreciate the artistic and historic merit of scans like these, but I also included a Google Translation to help convey a bit more of what they're saying. As you might expect, they really play up the size and scale - from shipping on multiple (ultimately four rather than two) CDs and featuring a big budget live shoot. It's really hard to recreate the sense of how mind blowing all of this was to gamers in 1994, but this gives you an idea!

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Sylvester found this very fun Wing Commander-adjacent video to share. DCSWorld PL created a impressive high fidelity version of the Strike Commander introduction in the Digital Combat Simulator engine. It's super sharp and features an authentic reproduction of things like the game's iconic F-16s. Strike Commander has many diehard fans out there and it's cool to see what they're churning out almost thirty years later!

Waiting hopelessly for the remake or sequel of one of the most beloved games - STRIKE COMMANDER - I decided to start by myself. Here it is the intro from the original version (floppy disk, not CD), recreated to the letter in DCS World.

I made skins for Wildcats squadron based on Sudden Death magazine included in the big box and added some from myself.

The clip is one to one recreation of the original scenes using Mission Editor in DCS World. The music and sound effects are from Strike

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Here's another fun oddity by FekLeyrTarg. He's composed George Oldziey's WC3 Behemoth track in the MIDIS2Jam2 program. The instrument effect is kind of cool, and it sounds great!

George Oldziey's Behemoth theme from "Wing Commander III - Heart of the Tiger", performed by a virtual orchestra in MIDIS2Jam2 using Patch 93's SC-55 soundfont.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Reports from planetary settlements within Thargoid-occupied systems have described alien drone vessels attacking on-foot personnel.
Field correspondent Ernesto Rios summarised this development for Vox Galactica:
"Scores of populated systems in the vicinity of the Maelstroms have been invaded by Thargoid fleets, causing horrific casualties and mass evacuations. But military personnel still risk their lives exploring settlements within those systems, to search for survivors or scavenge remaining materials."
"These troops have come under attack by 'airborne vehicles of Thargoid design', according to one account. Their relatively small size suggests they are the equivalent of combat drones. 'I've seen them patrol the abandoned settlements as if on guard duty,' said one eyewitness, 'and become extremely hostile when they detect any living humans.'"
"It seems that the Thargoids now view these