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Nenid opened her eyes, only to see the worried face of Centurion D’mev staring down at her. “Status report,” she said hoarsely, having taken in a lungful of smoke during the last exchange of fire. Coughing, she got to her feet with the junior officer’s assistance and took a seat in the command chair. “Preferably before the Tholians manage to find and destroy us, if you please, Centurion. “ D’mev blanched before speaking. “Commander, we are under cloak, per your orders. A Tholian fleet is massing within the Azure Nebula; it seems we encountered their vanguard during our investigation of the temporal anomalies there.” Nenid nodded as she called up tactical data to the main viewscreen. And in a moment, a mission of science becomes a mission of war, she thought silently. “Engineering,” she said as she activated her command channel. “What’s our situation? That volley from the Tholians

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

It's been a while since the Cloud Imperium team has shown off new Squadron 42 material, so they've put together a striking teaser of the game's visual effects. The new graphics shown off here are intended to highlight advancements made in the past year. There's definitely some pretty space environments to see! The Wing Commander-style single player campaign associated with these visuals will star Mark Hamill, John Rhys-Davies and many others. It's currently scheduled to advance to beta state in the later half of next year.

As a special holiday gift to all of you, we put together this visual teaser reel, highlighting some of the work we’ve done on Squadron 42 over the course of 2019.

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It's been more than fifteen months since we last reported on the progress of Star Citizen and Squadron 42, so as 2020 winds down I thought it'd be nice to check in and see how they're doing. It was just last week that Roberts Space Industries posted a new roadmap on the future of the games' development. We previously reported that the team was projecting the storyline campaign to enter beta late this year, but that will not come to pass. Chris Roberts has just announced that it's "too early to discuss release or finish dates on Squadron 42." The new roadmap shows elements like art and level design will continue as far as the projection goes into 2021. Chris has drawn parallels between Star Citizen and Cyberpunk 2077, which was in development for about 9 years before being released to a mixed reception, so there is clearly no rush to the finish line imminent. And with that being said, it'd been a

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Squadron 42 Monthly Report: September 2018

This is a cross-post of the report that was recently sent out via the monthly Squadron 42 newsletter. We’re publishing this a second time as a Comm-Link to make it easier for the community to reference back to, and plan on following this process for future Squadron 42 Monthly Reports.

As the development of Squadron 42 thunders on, the brain trust at UEE Naval High Command has retooled their dispatches.

We aim to bring you the most significant and comprehensive project updates available. However, particularly sensitive details will remain under wraps to avoid unnecessary leaks to the civilian community.

Read on for a look into the work done on Squadron 42 during September and keep a weather eye open on this channel for future briefings.

CitizenCon 2948 saw the first look at the latest Squadron 42 trailer. If you missed it, or want to check it out again,

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Squadron 42 Monthly Report: January 2019

This is a cross-post of the report that was recently sent out via the monthly Squadron 42 newsletter. We’re publishing this a second time as a Comm-Link to make it easier for the community to reference back to, and plan on following this process for future Squadron 42 Monthly Reports.

Attention Recruits,

What you are about to read is the latest information on the continuing development of Squadron 42 (SCI des: SQ42).

Read on for classified details from every corner of the planet, collected over the course of the last month, concerning Squadron 42-related work. The information contained in this communication is extremely sensitive and it is of paramount importance that it does not fall into the wrong hands. Purge all records after reading.

Over and out,

UEE Naval High Command

AI

---

The AI Team worked on the perception system, which was expanded to handle

Quote from Star Citizen News-Bot

Squadron 42 Monthly Report: February 2019

This is a cross-post of the report that was recently sent out via the monthly Squadron 42 newsletter. We’re publishing this a second time as a Comm-Link to make it easier for the community to reference back to, and plan on following this process for future Squadron 42 Monthly Reports.

Attention Recruits,

What you are about to read is the latest information on the continuing development of Squadron 42 (SCI des: SQ42).

Read on for classified details from every corner of the planet, collected over the course of the last month, concerning Squadron 42-related work. The information contained in this communication is extremely sensitive and it is of paramount importance that it does not fall into the wrong hands. Purge all records after reading.

UEE Naval High Command

AI (Ships)

---

February’s roundup starts with the AI Team, whom improved various aspects of

Quote from Star Citizen News-Bot

Squadron 42 Monthly Report: December 2018

This is a cross-post of the report that was recently sent out via the monthly Squadron 42 newsletter. We’re publishing this a second time as a Comm-Link to make it easier for the community to reference back to, and plan on following this process for future Squadron 42 Monthly Reports.

Attention Recruits,

What you are about to read is the latest information on the continuing development of Squadron 42.

Read on for pertinent details from our planet-wide operations on Squadron 42-related work over the last month, as well as intel on an exciting new dispatch. The information contained in this communication is extremely sensitive and it is of paramount importance that it does not fall into the wrong hands. Purge all records after reading.

Over and out,

UEE Naval High Command

The Road to Glory

---

Today sees the unveiling of our Squadron 42 roadmap, a useful

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Join the brave men and women of the 2nd Fleet as they stand strong against the greatest threats the UEE has ever faced. Will you answer the call?

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We spotted a classy

Italian WC3

last month, and this time here's an original Italian Wing Commander courtesy of

Dennis Mull

. This is one of the European

Hit Squad

rereleases, and in this case it was published by Jackson Libri. It came with a similarly stylized version of the manual/Claw Marks as well. We salute everyone going around collecting all these uncommon variants - there are tons of them out there and it can be hard to hunt them down!

Mail Day: Wing Commander from Chris Roberts by Origin Systems in 1990. The Jackson Libri company published the 'Hit Squad' version of Wing Commander in Italy.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The Federal Security Service has abruptly terminated its investigation of The Mars Tribune regarding personal administration robots fitted with hidden surveillance programs.

Although interviews with Tribune employees were underway, it has been alleged that a senior figure in the FSS ordered the task force to focus elsewhere.

The Tribune's owner, billionaire Kingsley Cordova, stated:

"I'm pleased that our innocence has been accepted, and I'm confident that the guilty parties will soon be found."

An opinion piece in The Federal Times from chief editor Lena Ravenhill took an alternative view, however:

"Last week, Cordova suggested the spy robots could share the many secrets they've gathered, and suddenly the FSS is ordered to leave The Mars Tribune alone. Does anyone really think this is coincidence? How many powerful people are frightened of what Cordova might reveal about them?"

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Here's another slate of fantastic ships (and more!). These originated the Wing Commander Movie's conceptual style book. It was sent out to merchandisers potentially developing WCM-related products. We've pulled out a few of these images here and there over the years, but here's the full book!

Summary and background:

"Good Guys" cast:

Patches, weapons and Pilgrim Cross:

Kilrathi armor, bodies and equipment:

The Rapier (model and sketch):

The Diligent (model and sketch):

The Broadsword (model and sketch):

The Tiger Claw (model and sketch) and missile sketch:

The Dralthi (model and sketch):

The Snakeir (model and sketch):

Ship identification chart:

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Last week we shared a cool Australian promotional shirt for Wing Commander 4, and now LOAF's found one from Singapore. The design is markedly different with the Black Lance symbol over the WC4 logo on the front. Classic Blair, Tolwyn and Seether art is featured on the back side on a lightly stone washed background. Very nice!

Scored another great find on southeast Asian shirt sorting Instagram

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Popular video blogger

Spoony

recently dedicated his live stream gaming show to Wing Commander 3. He's dabbled in Wing Commander stuff over the years, so it's interesting to see his take here. Perhaps even more interesting are the live reactions from the audience. It's a credit to WC3's engaging FMV and spaceflight engine that it still holds up remarkably well nearly 25 years later. This also speaks to the pace of advancement in the early '90s. This came just a few years after WC1&2, yet it's often a significantly easier point of entry to the series due to how much more it resembles a modern game.

We can also help clarify one mystery in the vid. At 1:30:30 he encounters a 'bug' where he appears to be zooming away from his target backwards. It looks like what happened was that he accidentally engaged auto slide (with the / key), which temporarily disables the atmospheric flight style and throws

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Found a pretty neat Wing Commander IV preview from the November 1995 issue of PC Power. Lots of cool set photos and a great one of Mark Hamill as Colonel Blair...

... but even more fascinating, look at that gameplay shot on the last page! That's the earliest build of Wing Commander IV I've ever seen. What's going on with the radar?!

Apparently the September 1995 issue (21) has a Privateer 2 preview which I'd love to see! Anyone out there have back issues of PC Power? I believe it's from the UK.

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Yesterday we talked about WC4 rumors in the press, and today's the whole big preview. A lot of magazines got in to glitzy cover stories on Wing Commander 4 like this, which was fabulous to see on news stands in game stores in the mid '90s. Based on the success of WC3 just a year earlier, editors weren't going to miss out on this, and the January 1996 issue of X-Gen is a prime example of a flashy six-page preview of the game. They gush about the production values and technical benchmarks that the game sets. They also talk about how it was made with Playstation development in mind (WC3 was actually the first PSX game, shortly after PC WC4 shipped). The article also has some nice storyboard art and set photos, which can be somewhat uncommon for this shoot. Good stuff!

Blair, Maniac and Admiral Tolwyn return in the biggest games production of all-time. Wing Commander IV is the most expensive, most

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

tsstevens

posted this video of Tekken Tag Tournament 2 in action. The game allows a wide range of clothing customization options, and he observed that this outfit results in the Asuka character bearing a striking resemblance to Spirit in her Wing Commander 1 duty uniform. This just makes us imagine how incredibly awesome a Wing Commander fighting game would be! Can you imagine beating up on Maniac? Or fighting a Kilrathi as a Firekkan? You could have stages like the flight deck or in the bar. That would be amazing...

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Asuka cosplays as Spirit from Wing Commander

Yes, this is Asuka playing as Mariko Tanaka. The idea actually stemmed from playing around as Anna and thinking that dressed in a fighter pilot outfit the similarities.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Professor Palin's biological impurity has proved effective against the Thargoid spire sites, and is capable of halting their functionality.
Independent war reporter Gus LaChappelle published an on-the-scene report of the site in the Hyades Sector ST-Q B5-5 system for his ICE-cast channel Muzzle Flash:
"The eerie stillness surrounding me now is even more unnerving than when I visited this horror factory before. Bioluminescent nodules no longer pulse their sickly glow. Spires blot out the stars above, twisted towers made from solid night. Mega barnacles have ceased producing their foul byproducts. I'm walking through an alien cemetery."
"The soldiers escorting me constantly perform pirouettes with their weapons, trigger-twitchy. But there are no black-hulled monstrosities spitting fire from the shadows or wheeling across the sky. Only rotted mineral sacs drooping from mechanical vines, and

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The recent talk about the

WC1 Sprite Refresh

has gotten a lot of people excited, so here's a closer look at some of the potential assets. The original Wing Commander games worked by arranging and then displaying dozens of potential snaps of each ship from

each potential viewing

angle in order to simulate 3D.

DefianceIndustries

and

Goliath

put these three rotating gifs together to give fans a better sense of how this works. Click each one to see them in motion!

I was playing guinea pig with Goliath's awesome sprite rendering script for Blender. I think we can call it successful. I'll just leave this here....

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Today we've got a couple of cool 3D takes by Tore Gettoni. He's taken the 2D sprites from a pair of famous WC2 ships and visualized them in rotating three dimensions as a type of pixel art. The result is a neat hybrid of modern and classic visuals styles. We'd love to see more material like this with a similar aesthetic!

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Wing Commander II - TC Fighter F-44 Rapier II

Flying high with my brother @boldyfrenk and his beat straight from the shadiest systems in the Enigma sector

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A post shared by Tore Gettoni (@toregettoni09122)

Wing Commander II - Kilrathi Empire Fighter Drakhri

Second joint with my brother @boldyfrenk and his beat recovered from a covert operation behind Kilrah's lines in the Enigma sector

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Today we've got a pair of compilation videos by Michael Jean that showcase the European boxes of the Wing Commander series. It's pretty simple, but it's a nice change of pace if you're used to boxes from other regions. I do appreciate the charm of just recording a parade of Wing Commander like this. It's a nice and thorough rundown too with games like Academy, Armada and Privateer 2!