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Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

If you caught last night's Voices of War stream, you saw how we discovered that the US and UK versions of Armada shipped with slightly different formats of the game's manual. The American edition has purple on the left and black on the right, and the British version is partially inverted with black and light purple on the left and darker purple on the right. The game's play guides are more similar to eachother with dimensions to match the slightly squatter European shape. I've added pictures of the exterior box as well (US, UK, CD-ROM Classics) for even more side-by-side goodness!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We now know why the Wing Commander series was left out of GOG's big annual winter sale... because it was being saved for the Classic Winter Sale! A whole host of games from a similar era are now on sale, especially from Origin and EA. You can complete your digital collection for less than $12 as the series is now 75% off.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

LeHah reports that GalaxyCon has a new Wing Commander autograph opportunity with Matthew Lillard. Fans can order either an 8x12 inch photo or 11x17 poster with his signature. If you happen to have a particular piece of Wing Commander memorabilia that you'd like him to sign, you can also send that in! These items have to be confirmed by February 11 and the regular orders get a bit more time. Hit the links below for more info!

• Photo $95
• Poster $110
• Send-in $105

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

General: Resolved an issue that was causing PvP matches to award negative experience points. Resolved an issue that would sometimes prevent the game from launching. Clicking on the Into the Breach Welcome Screen now opens the Event Window, instead of launching the TFO. Systems: Resolved an error that was preventing players from receiving Bonus Event Dilithium if they progressed using the Voth Patrols. Resolved an issue that caused the Shield Mastery skill to make the player immune to all Critical Hits, instead of only one per 20 seconds. Resolved an issue that prevented the Discovery Class C Shuttlecraft hangar pets from being available after purchasing Earhart Strike Wing Escort [T6] Updated Zen Store description for the Sech Strike wing Escort [T6] and Earhart Strike wing Escort [T6] to correctly state 5 fore weapons. Kobayashi Maru Resupply Beacon can no longer be used in social

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

When I learned that our Away Team would go to Destination Star Trek in Birmingham, I had no idea what would await me there, and that it would turn out to be the best experience ever as a Community Manager. Of course, there was a lot of work to do. The perfect opportunity to turn that thrill of anticipation into announcements, teasers, games, and of course, to prepare the Universal Translator for Europe's biggest Star Trek party. Thanks to our Communicators, the members of our Away Team were in constant contact, and getting there from different regions of the planet went almost without incident. I say almost, because Ambassador Kael did steal someone's luggage, but luckily, that was solved quickly, so we could proceed to our first personal meeting over fish & chips and some amusing anecdotes. If you've worked at a Star Trek Convention before, you will know how it feels to be there on the first

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

We are excited to announce the return of the Phoenix Prize Pack, which return to Star Trek Online on PC from October 3rd at 8AM PT til October 10th at 10am PT. Just like Zefram Cochrane’s experimental vessel, the Phoenix Prize Pack blazes a trail into new frontiers! And, following in the model of its mythological namesake, the Phoenix Prize Pack also represents the return from the ashes of items, ships and other rewards that have been retired from Star Trek Online, and are no longer accessible by any other means. Purchasing and opening this promotional prize pack will offer players the unique opportunity of obtaining many otherwise inaccessible items, ships and equipment, which were previously available from events or promotions, or as other limited-availability rewards. (Check further below for complete prize information!) How it works is simple: Players may visit the Dilithium Store to purchase

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Good Old Games is celebrating the lunar new year with a big sale on the WC series (and 1500 other games). We're happy to see the super low prices, since each discount means more people get a chance to try out Wing Commander. The entire series is just $11.92, or individual game packs are just $1.49. Even if you still have your boxed copies, the GOG editions come with plenty of extras and make startup a snap!

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EpytronOmega has been diligently working on rendering Wing Commander ships over the last few months, and he's got several sharp models to show for it. His first two designs exist at opposite ends of the Confed spectrum: a Behemoth class dreadnought and Arrow light fighter. I used to love flying around the interior of that giant gun, so the angle that looks down the Behemoth's maw brings back some fond memories. The Arrow is also quite respectable, and his new Bearcat is coming along quite well. Epytron's main goal is to try to build assets for games like Sins of a Solar Empire, so it'll be interesting to see where these pop up!

• Here is my take on the Behemoth from Wing Commander 3: Heart of the Tiger.
• This is my rendition of the Arrow Class fighter from Wing Commander. It is my first texture made in Substance painter, and I have to say that I am pretty pleased with it.
• Here is the work I’ve done on

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

EmuMusicFan is starting to branch into new territory with his graphical novel project. So far he's created a lot of regal, stoic or deceptive-looking Kilrathi, but there are more active emotions needed to fully convey a good story. In particular, he's managed to pull off a very decent laughing Kilrathi. There's also been general progress advancing the narrative. These different elements look like they're all starting to gel really well. You can see how it's coming together here.

First attempt at drawing an open-mouthed, laughing expression. It's very tough indeed. It's important to make the character laugh and not overdo it, but also to be aesthetically pleasing. Once again, FF14 Hrothgars are really good models!

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The WC4 Fan Remake team has another exciting trailer to show off their latest progress! Here we see ODVS' fantastic high res video combined with some of the latest dazzling next gen visuals. Check out the video to see the spiffed up ships, upscaled game flow rooms and retro visual mode.

The upcoming Wing Commander IV - The Price of Freedom: Remastered mod is a fan preservation project; it was created for experimentation, education & research, is completely nonprofit, and should be considered fair use as stated in the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. section 107. To install this mod you must own an original, unaltered, retail-release of the game. Please, respect the rights of the copyright holders and purchase a copy of the original product if you do not own one already.

Learn more at WCRespace.com. The original game can be purchased at GOG and Origin.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots Federation ALERT*
Open warfare has begun in the Paresa system between Nova Imperium and the League of Mandu, a Federal faction.
Imperator Hadrian Augustus Duval has been accused of masterminding the NMLA starport bombings, according to evidence provided to ACT.
Admiral Natalia Lee, commanding the Harmony's Shield megaship, declared:
"The Empire refuses to arrest a Duval, even when he and his organisation are brutal terrorists. In the name of the hundreds of thousands of Federal citizens they murdered, we will enact justice."
Hadrian Duval made an announcement from Dyson City, the home station of Nova Imperium:
"This invasion of Imperial space is based on false information. The Federation does not have the right to act as our judge, jury and executioner. I call upon the Empire to come to our defence, as stipulated in the Treaty of Paresa."
Nova Imperium is an isolationist group that

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Here at the CIC, we're super lucky to have quite a few fan artists who are also professional 3D modelers in their day jobs. But everyone has to start somewhere, and we're also big supporters of Wingnuts who are just dabbling in these types of subjects. On that note, here are some early attempts at the TCS Tiger's Claw by Rictheron. He only first started learning to model last month, so I'd say these are a pretty cool first effort! He's shared these early renders in order to get some feedback from the community. And while he might be new to modeling, he's been visiting the CIC for a couple decades, so head over to the CIC Forums to let him know what you think!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Today I'm going to pop around on a thread that starts with author Diane Duane. She's a very well known sci-fi author who's written lots of Star Trek novels, various video game books as well as her own series. Of particular interest to WC fans: she also wrote the screenplay to the cinematic story of Privateer 2! And just yesterday, she had this to say on the topic:

I was a busy girl on this one. It remains the single longest screenplay (at 300+ pages) I've ever done. And had the BEST cast. Brian Blessed, Clive Owen, David Warner, so many more...

Now to jump franchises, we're also still gushing about the fantastic final season of Star Trek Picard. The show's production designer, Dave Blass, also recently shared that one of the many ships featured in the show is the USS Inaieu, which is 'a nod to the Defender class ship from Diane Duane's [1984 Star Trek novel] "My Enemy, My Ally"'. Dave also posted

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Wing Commander Prophecy veterans: do you remember Lt. Anderson, the TCS Midway's comm officer? He showed up in briefings and other cutscenes as well in dozens of postage stamp videos in-flight.

So, Origin's Official Guide to Wing Commander Prophecy has a surprisingly extensive biography that claims that Anderson traces his lineage back to an RAF pilot who fought in World War II. Is there a historical figure who matches the clues?

We're looking for an RAF pilot (specifically an officer) who defended against the Blitz. Luckily, The Few are extensively memorialized online… which leads us to a clear candidate: Squadron Leader Michael Anderson!

Anderson commanded 604 Squadron during the Battle of Britain flying Bristol Beaufighter night fighters. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for shooting down a Heinkel 111 (and two probables). Here's a great painting of that encounter by Mark Postlethwaite!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Wow, look who is trending! Mothers, lock up your ejected pilots.

To be clear: there are two Deathstrokes. They are similar but they are different kils. Dakhath nar Sihkag is the Wing Commander I ace, Dakhath nar Caxki is the WC3/CCG/Arena ace.

The original Deathstroke flew a Dralthi during the Vega Campaign. He was ultimately shot down at Gimle by Spirit! Color art from the SFC manual:

The later Deathstroke flew a Dralthi IV (and later a Dralthi Striker). The red livery is from WC3 but never actually appears since he isn’t really in the PC version!

Some clever and handsome fellow did think to lampshade the similarities in their backgrounds:

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Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

A few months back, LOAF took a look at the development timeframes for the Wing Commander games. It's really interesting comparison! Someone asked how these durations correlated with the size of the development teams, which is also a very neat set of data, so LOAF compiled a new table!

This question fascinated me so I decided to put together some rough numbers with the previous chart. I divided credits by modern disciplines... you can see the size of the development teams basically quadruiples in eight years! (Does not include film shoot crews.)

With regards to the expansion packs, they were all very tight 3-4 month productions. A small team of rising juniors would usually develop them while the rest of the group moved to the next big game. They kept it up as long as the concept was profitable!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

It may be the dog days of summer in the northern hemisphere and the throes of winter in the south, but GOG is ready to kick off fall today. The Autumn Sale runs from August 28 through September 11. We've noted a few quirks and omissions in the discount rate this year, and they've stepped it up a bit this time. Wing Commanders Prophecy and Privateer 2 are discounted by 70%, and Armada plus Academy are each 55% off. All other DOS/Windows Wing Commander games get the regular 75% markdown from the normal $5.99 price. Just for fun, I checked Strike Commander and it's on sale for 50% off!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Mac has posted a new teaser for his next Wing Commander project. This one picks up on the Concordia theme from last week and now has the famous dreadnought anchoring an absolutely massive battle fleet. It's flanked by some of Klavs' most popular models, including Bengal class carriers and Waterloo cruisers. There are also scores of smaller destroyers, corvettes and fighters filling the space throughout. What an epic scene!

IT DIDNT CRASH THE COMPUTER ON RENDER!
WOOOOO#wingcommander pic.twitter.com/gG7aYVGwq6

— Mac's Lore (@MacsLore) October 5, 2023

  

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Binary Legends saw our recent post about their WC2 EGA video and offered up some more. While EGA clips are relatively uncommon, Secret Missions and Special Operations are even more rare! I know the typical video game archetype is to aim for the highest resolution and fanciest graphics options, but from an artistic and historic perspective, it's very cool to see how they made the game work with so few colors to choose from. Just check out that amazing EGA Waterloo class cruiser (the TCS Centurion!).

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Vox Galactica has released an in-depth piece about the economic impact of the Thargoid war on the galaxy's superpowers.
Senior Political Journalist Vanya Driscoll compiled the piece over several months after witnessing the increasing strain and instability in systems galaxy-wide. The report boasts interviews with high-ranking individuals across the galaxy, talking candidly about the impact of the war.
Excerpts from the piece follow.
Federation Vice President Jerome Archer said, when asked about strain in Federation space:
"The Federation has put a lot of resources into ending the war as quickly as possible, but that inevitably spreads what we have left thin. Because of that, we've seen more and more opportunistic attacks on systems in our space and we've nullified just as many threats through the PDB. Every citizen deserves protection, and any criminal that thinks exploiting a state of war is