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Here's a peek at a fabulous physical Dralthi model that elend shared today. He's been meticulously crafting the wings and central structure and is finally to a point where he can show this beauty off. I really like how closely the lines follow the Claw Marks silhouette. Engines will be complete soon, and then there are a handful of finishing touches to go. High caliber models like this are nothing new to elend: you may recall his incredible Banshee model from a while back. If this is half as detailed as that one turned out, we are in for a real treat!

Finally attached the fins, wooo! Basic shape basically (lulz) done. I think. It's 1/48 scale actually. About 30 cm in diameter, I think

Engine exhausts are ready and just have to be glued on.Detailing will start now and then painting. Still worried about the canopy, though, because I have no idea how to do it.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

A former Neo-Marlinist megaship has been overrun by NMLA terrorists in the Hyades Sector RO-P b6-2 system.
The Steel Majesty was originally owned by the Neo-Marlinist Order of Mudhrid, one of the NMLA's key allies. After their defeat, it ferried many of them to the Marlinist Colonies where they were granted asylum by Minister Aaron Whyte. His faction then made use of the megaship during the civil war in August.
Minister Jean-Christophe Lyon, the current leader of the Marlinism Reformation Party, gave a statement:
"Despite our efforts to arrest any remaining extremists within our faction, a surviving group has gained access to the megaship. Security feeds show they were joined by several teams of well-armed NMLA fighters."
"The Marlinist Constabulary evacuated around half of the Steel Majesty's crew before the NMLA took operational control. Sadly, there is no way to free those still trapped

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Comchia recently shared some eye-popping screenshots of the EGA version of Wing Commander 2. WC2 is well known as a gorgeous game with lush colors and beautiful art, but not everyone in 1991 was able to appreciate its high end VGA graphics. Everyone with a high powered system quickly switched over to the 256 color option, but some fans were limited to just 16 simultaneous colors. It's pretty shocking how limited this was, however it's equal parts impressive that the artists were able to squeeze so much graphical fidelity out with such limitations. There's very little EGA Wing Commander content online these days. I've added an EGA WC1 video below so you can get a sense of what everything looked like in motion. It really makes you appreciate how far we've come!

Some screens of the EGA version of Wing Commander II. I'm used to seeing this game in the far more colourful VGA version, but I'm still

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 Wing Commander News-Bot

Today marks 20 years since the original Xbox launched, and Microsoft commemorated the occasion by restarting their backwards compatibility program as rumored last month. More than 70 games from the original and 360 eras were added as part of this effort, but Wing Commander Arena wasn't among them. It was and continues to be a long shot that it'll be added to Xbox One/Series X, but the fact that they keep committing to this effort is a really good thing. All of these 10-20 year old titles get HDR enhancements and many get resolution or frame rate bumps. And if they keep going, there's still hope for Wing Commander yet. In the mean time, the Xbox 360 remains the platform where you can play Arena online. If that changes, you'll hear about it right here!

You can read more about Microsoft's latest backwards compatibility plans here and find the entire back catalog here. And if anyone's playing the

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Orion University has been informed that its ownership claim of the Scriveners Clan dredger is placing its population at great risk.
In the Oochost PC-C c29-0 system, the university's megaship Scientia Aeterna has used override codes to prevent the dredger from departing. But the nomadic tribe's refusal to abandon their home has placed them under great pressure, as observed by freelance reporter Casey Kilpatrick:
"Dredger-class bulk cruisers are the sharks of space – they must always keep moving, constantly gathering raw materials to synthesize into fuel, air and other resources. The Scriveners Clan remained stationary for months while salvaging the Hesperus, but in this system they are trapped without such vital intakes."
"Independent observers are now reporting malfunctions in the vessel's power and life support systems. If the Scriveners maintain their siege mentality, further mechanical

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The subject came up on the CIC Discord and I was surprised some folks didn’t realize that the aces in Wing Commander III had custom, souped up versions of the standard fighters. Let’s go, there’ll be a spreadsheet at the end!

Victory Streak introduces us to five Kilrathi ace pilots, one per ship type in the tradition of Wing Commander I. Three of them appear in the PC version and two were cut but still have cool ships hidden in the game’s guts. All five appear in the 3DO port without special ships.

The aces themselves all look the same… in fact all the Kilrathi VDUs in the game use the same footage with updated dialogue. Each one does have its own set of taunts:

Aside: the 3DO and PSX versions use color versions of the Kilrathi pilot… and in the spirit of using every part of the animal, Wing Commander Prophecy reuses them with new audio instead of making/rendering new cats.

Time to meet the cats! For each

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You might recall we recently featured a Tarsus built in Space Engineers. That one was made by Spiritplumber, who actually dug around and just found another version of the famous merchant vessel. This one was made by klingon00. Nothing against SP's model, but this new one is even more fleshed out and refined. It's got an aft compartment, adjustable lighting and even a projection window system. The exterior has some excellent geometry and there are multiple propulsion systems. It looks like it'd be awesome to take for a spin! Check it out on the Steam Workshop here.

The year is 2669. You just inherited an obsolete Tarsus merchant ship from your grandfather.What you decide to do with it an the few remaining credits that you have is up to you! Although the Tarsus is showing its age and has been discontinued, the platform still has great potential for upgrades for those who wish to strike out on

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DefianceIndustries has added a nice big toy to the growing fleet of ships in his digital TacOps game. He's deployed a Clydesdale transport so you can see how a capship looks on the board. I love the scaling here. It just makes me wish the whole thing was a real physical game - but this is the next best thing! Playtesting is getting closer, so continue to watch this space if you'd like to try things out yourself soon.

It's no small feat to just "add a ship" to the project. First, Defiance has to rebuild and customize a given model to fit right in the engine. Here's some great work in process shots generated as he put the tanker together.

Here's a quick update to the TTS version of TACOPS. There is a version on Steam for playtesting though it is currently locked down for my Steam friends only. But I'm pretty close to being ready to release the starter pack to the public. Maybe next week or two. I

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
The Affiliated Counter-Terrorism unit has acquired an encrypted message that may reveal Theta Seven's location.
ACT successfully captured most of the bomb-making engineers known as Theta Group, and has now prioritised hunting down the NMLA's de facto leader.
This latest breakthrough was explained by Captain Milo Castile:
"Theta Group managed to delete most of their data prior to capture, but we retrieved a short message that they received on the 31st of July. At this point most of Theta Group were being harboured by Neo-Marlinist sympathisers within the Marlinist Colonies, but Theta Seven and his closest aides had fled to an unknown destination."
"Unfortunately the message has been encrypted using a pre-arranged cipher key, without which its contents are unreadable. It is unclear why this wasn't transmitted via the NMLA's dark-comms network, which remains

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

This week EA reconfirmed that another title in the Mass Effect series is in the works. Andromeda wasn't particularly well received in 2017, so the company took a break from the franchise for several years. But now we're excited for all the Mass Effect fans that there's more new content to look forward to.

This one image stirred a lot of speculation online, and the ship in particular drove a lot of conversation. More than a few folks observed similarities to the Excalibur, and Mac took it one step further with this tantalizing photoshop. To say again: this is just a fan mockup, but it's so nice on the eyes that we're excited to share! It might even make a good wallpaper. A Wingnut can dream...

I'm looking at the ship and I keep thinking it looks like a more advanced Excalibur from Wing Commander

I mean, I'm not the only one seeing it. Right?

You can find more of Mac's work on YouTube.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots Federation ALERT*
Successful campaigns in the Alcor and Colonia systems will result in new megaships being added to the Colonia Bridge.
Large quantities of ceramic composites, computer components and thermal cooling units were provided at either end of the route between the core systems and the distant Colonia region.
Brewer Corporation provided an update on the project:
"Once again, the galactic community has provided the vital materials required to construct dockable megaships. These additional ports should be operational by the 25th of November, making journeys to and from Colonia easier and safer."
"Pilots can now collect their rewards from Macdonald Settlement in the Alcor system and Jaques Station in the Colonia system. We shall also be awarding an engineered frame shift drive with long range and fast boot to the majority of contributors."
The top ten pilots who delivered

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
A rogue Aegis Defense force has initiated conflict with Taurus Mining Ventures in the T Tauri system.
The megaship Musashi is commanded by Aegis's chief military liaison Admiral Aden Tanner, who made this announcement:
"The Hind Mine asteroid base contains proof that Salvation's unlicensed anti-xeno weapon is intentionally designed to provoke the Thargoids, and therefore endangers us all. As Taurus Mining Ventures refuses to cooperate, we have no choice but to obtain the evidence by force."
"This may be our only opportunity to discover Salvation's true ambitions. I urge all independent pilots who have fought alongside Aegis to help us complete this vital mission."
Patience Middleton, a spokesperson for Taurus Mining Ventures, responded:
"This is an illegal attack that jeopardises the important work we are undertaking on behalf of Salvation. It is in the galactic

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots Federation ALERT*
A distress call has led independent pilots to locate an abandoned settlement in the Snake Sector GW-W c1-1 system.
The SOS was initially detected by one of the megaships that form the Colonia Bridge, inspiring many ships to search nearby systems. The source was eventually identified as Holloway Bioscience Research Facility 15 on the moon Snake Sector GW-W c1-1 AB 5 b.
Pilots unearthed a series of mission logs recorded in the year 3255 by a freelance military unit named Excalibur Troop. As yet, the contents of these logs have not been made available to newsfeeds.
Aanya Gupta, CEO of the Holloway Bioscience Institute, gave a statement to the press:
"Research Facility 15 was one of the first wave of planetary survey laboratories established by our founder, the esteemed scientist Lord Roland Holloway. Our records of these settlements are patchy, so we are grateful that

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Privateer 2 developer Paul Hughes managed to do a little digging and come up with three cool concept posters for the game. These are pretty early works and predate The Darkening becoming a Privateer title, which sometimes means material from this era can be harder to come by. Check out those taglines: "The City of Lights" is kind of odd, but "In the Darkness Lies the Truth" is a really good one. We also get an excellent look at that prototype Heretic that pops up from time to time!

Digging around on some backup drives, I found some old unused concept art for Privateer 2 from Paul Chapman...

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

ObscureArtifacts on Instagram has posted a phenomenal photograph of the animatronic Melek costume from Wing Commander 4. It was taken by one of the prop masters behind the creation of the suit and other artifacts used in the game. WC4 Melek doesn't get a whole lot of love, but in recent years I've come to appreciate the look much more. In retrospect, I find the design less bug-eyed than my teenage memories recall. It's starting to feel like a more natural evolution of the look in Wing Commander 3. He's also highly variable. Under harsh lighting, some of the more artificial elements become pronounced, but the warmly lit Melek depicted below looks pretty smooth!

Wing Commander 4: The Price of Freedom (1995)- My studio was hired to create the external design for the games solo Kilrathi character, Melek (Chris Bergschneider) by the animatronics superivsor Bud McGrew. It was a great responsibility and

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The nomadic Scriveners Clan continues to resist Orion University's attempts to take possession of their dredger.
Freelance reporter Casey Kilpatrick published an update from the Oochost PC-C c29-0 system:
"Orion University's claim that the vessel is their property has been countered by Advocacy's reminder of laws preventing cultural contamination. So the question now is: who actually owns the dredger? Is it the families that have lived there for generations, or the organisation which originally built it?"
"Various solutions have been proposed to resolve this stand-off. These include an offer from Canonn Interstellar Research Group to purchase the dredger from Orion University, gift it to the Scriveners Clan then publicly share the contents of their mysterious Knowledge Core."
"However, two centuries of isolation have instilled this academia-focused society with a pathological need to protect

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Today we have another look at DefianceIndustries' gorgeous digital interpretation of the tabletop fan game TacOps. It's got a more purpose-built table now, and a variety of amenities are being implemented to make the game function and flow better. There's also two exciting additions: the Sartha and Ferret. The picture of them below looks almost real. With more quality of life improvements in place, Defiance is planning to start some playtesting soon. Sounds like fun!

To quote Gold Leader: "Almost there...." I revamped the game using the Chimera table which made more ergonomic sense. Currently it's set up for 2 players (with an option for 4, though the table seats 6 so you could go nuts)

I added a bowl of pegs so you can track the status on the ship cards easier, added a copy of the rules for each side, as well as all the missile tiles (DF, HS, IMREC, FoF, Torp). It's about 90% there for some

Quote from Mass Effect News-Bot

For fourteen years now, the Mass Effects series has endeared itself with many video game fans and that energy has been renewed over the past year with the announcement of a brand new Mass Effect game and the Mass Effect Legendary Edition trilogy remasters. This celebratory fandom has been particularly seen in the realm of mods and fan creations as modders help improve the Legendary Edition by adding first-person perspectives, fixing glitches, and even bringing crossovers to life in the game. Now, one talented fan has made the games more groovy with a new Mass Effect Austin Powers fan video.

YouTube user eli_handle_b.wav recently released their new Mass Effect Austin Powers fan video on their YouTube channel. The video begins with Ambassador Udina and Captain Anderson conversing about who can protect the galaxy. However, instead of Commander Shepard, it is revealed to be the cryogenically-preserved Austin

Quote from Mass Effect News-Bot

Despite having released almost a decade ago, the ending of Mass Effect 3 always becomes a hotly debated topic whenever BioWare announces something new to the franchise, pulling the fan base into an unceasing debate about what could have ‘fixed’ the ending. Oddly enough the ending had the potential to be even weirder than the one we got, as apparently the original plan was to have Shepard come face to face with the Reaper Queen.

Speaking in a recent People Make Games video titled ‘The Inside Story of Mass Effect 3’s Endings, Finally Told,’ ex-BioWare animation director Dave Wilkinson revealed that the distinct color choices seen at the end of the game were originally used to represent the Paragon (blue) and Renegade (red) options, with the green path being referred to as “the other one.” Wilkinson goes on to reveal that the original plan was to have Shepard confront the Reaper Queen instead of The Catalyst