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Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Captains! We're happy to announce that you'll be able to enjoy 20% off all Duty Officer Packs! Captains can select from the following Duty Officer Packs for 20% from Thursday, May 2nd at 8AM PT to Monday, May 6th at 10am PT. Gamma Quadrant Duty Officer Cadre Reinforcements Duty Officer Pack Fleet Support Duty Officer Pack Romulan Survivor Duty Officer Pack Delta Alliance Duty Officer Pack Delta Pack Federation Pack Klingon Pack In addition to this sale, purchasing and opening any of the above packs (except the Fedeation and Klingon Packs) during this promotion will provide an extra bonus prize, on top of all the Duty Officer packs’ existing contents! Opening any of them will be guaranteed to provide either 10 Lobi Crystals or a Special Requisition Choice Pack, which contains one of the Tier 6 Starships featured in previous similar promotions. The Special Requisition Choice Pack will

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 May 2nd at 8AM PT til May 9th 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 a

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The Distant Worlds II expedition has reached its final destination on the far side of the galaxy: the Beagle Point system.

Science correspondent Leon Banerjee reported for Vox Galactica:

"The Distant Worlds exploratory fleet, comprising thousands of independent pilots, set out from the Pallaeni system on 13th January 3305. Over three months later, after travelling more than 73,000 light years, ships have begun arriving at Beagle Point."

"Included among the expedition's achievements is the construction of the scientific research station Explorer's Anchorage. This now serves as a permanent waypoint for travellers to the galactic core, as well as facilitating detailed observation of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*."

"While Distant Worlds II is coming to a close, its participants will now plot their own routes through unexplored space back towards the core systems."

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

The Discovery Legends Expedition seeks to understand the pivotal events of the 2250s and the people those events revolved around. The consequences of this time continue to resonate through the galaxy today, and J’Ula has made it painfully clear that more secrets remain to be found. Separation of fact from myth is necessary. A mix of black market acquisitions, archeological expeditions, and defense industry research, this group seeks to catalogue and remember the facts of our history. This new reputation will be available with Rise of Discovery and will feature all new traits, kit modules, space equipment sets and a ground equipment set, as well as new ground armor and space visuals. Progression Submitting Discovery Marks will increase your standing with the Discovery Legends Expedition. These can be earned by participating in “Operation Riposte”, our newest queue, as well as

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

“That’s the whole point of Starfleet Security—to keep us secure. Because if we can’t protect people who need it the most, what the hell are we even doing?” —Commander Ellen Landry “Impossibility of Reason” is a new mission following the story and events of “Plausibility of the Possible.” After Klingon captives from the Priors World skirmishes escape from custody, it’s a race to get back in time to aid the Buran against further Klingon attacks. With Commander Landry and her security team along for the battle, it’s up to you to rescue Buran, save Priors World from invasion, and stop the attacks by the Klingon Captain Aakar! Experience the events that led Ellen Landry to become the hardened Chief of Security aboard the U.S.S. Discovery. You can access this mission from your mission journal. Captains of all factions will be able to play “Impossibility of Reason” when Rise

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The individual responsible for stealing a docked Diamondback Explorer in the Vega system has been identified.

Fort Dixon Security Chief, Misaki Sanders, told the media:

"We have determined that Commander Bjorn Lennox's vessel was stolen by a starship technician, who evidently acted alone without backup."

"The technician, Gan Romero, has worked at Fort Dixon as a member of the hanger service teams for the past eleven years. He has a stable home life on the station with a wife and three children, with no criminal record."

"Although Romero's job gave him access to landing pads, it does not explain his ability to bypass ship security protocols or launch without authorisation. We have yet to determine his motive or destination."

"The scope of our investigation is widening and we hope to know more soon."

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Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The latest episode of ALL WINGS CONSIDERED is live now! All Wings Considered is the CIC's first ever streaming variety show which features news, conversation and gameplay relating to our favorite series. This week's Nav Points include:

• Everything you ever wanted to know about the Steltek!
• Special Operations 1, Series 4: the big finish!
• Privateer 2 ship of the week: the Skecis Mk II
• Book Club: Chapters 4 and 5 of Fleet Action

Missed the stream? The replay will be available below once it has been processed by YouTube. You can subscribe to the AWC channel for future notifications here.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

President Gibson Kincaid has been accused of receiving illegal campaign funding via the Bank of Zaonce.

Councillor Elijah Beck presented evidence to a special session of the Alliance Assembly:

"During September 3304, President Kincaid's re-election campaign received several billion credits worth of undeclared funds. I have received data suggesting that these transactions were secretly arranged by a senior figure within the Bank of Zaonce."

"Regrettably I cannot reveal the source of this evidence since it constitutes part of an ongoing investigation. However, I call upon the Assembly to open an official inquiry to establish if there was any violation of campaign finance law."

Councillor Beck's proposal was approved by a majority vote, after which Prime Minister Edmund Mahon authorised the inquiry to begin immediately.

As yet there has been no comment from President Kincaid.

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Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Rotten Tomatoes has put together a ranking of 47 movies based on video games. It's an interesting read to see all of the different films represented here, even if the Wing Commander ranking is atrocious. WC comes in at 35th place thanks to its 10% score. I get that it's not the type of film that a professional reviewer is going to rush to thumbs up, and there's plenty of reasons why casual fans may or may not like it, but it's just not that bad. Among the ranks of cringey awful video game movies, it should really be in the upper quarter. You can check out the ranking for yourself

here

.

Thanks to Robin Ward and Gordon Lucas for the tip!

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Here are this week's main stories.

The Distant Worlds II expedition has reached Beagle Point, its final destination. Thousands of independent pilots have travelled over 73,000 light years in the past three months, with the establishment of Explorer's Anchorage among their many achievements.

President Kincaid has been accused of receiving illegal campaign funding from a senior figure at the Bank of Zaonce. Following a vote at the Alliance Assembly, Prime Minister Mahon authorised an official inquiry to establish the truth of these allegations. Kincaid is yet to provide an official response.

In other news, the thief of a ship stolen from a starport hangar in the Vega system has been named as Gan Romero. Security reports indicate Romero has no prior criminal record and is believed to have acted alone. The search for his motive and current location continues.

And those are the main stories this

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Forbes magazine has published an interesting

article

on the ongoing development of Star Citizen. As this also appears in the May 2019 print, the article spends some time initially to catch the reader up on the concept of crowdfunding, the history of Star Citizen and Chris Roberts' background as a game developer and movie producer. There's an update on the game's haul so far. It's taken in some $242 million from players and another $46 million in private investment, so they'll soon cross the $300 million milestone. We noted just

six months ago

that they hit $200 million, which suggests their revenue intake is still surging ahead at a very strong pace and may have actually accelerated in 2019. Per the game's

roadmap

, the Squadron 42 campaign beta is still a good year away, and there's significant work yet to go on building out the game's universe.

The piece also delves into some of the more

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Here's a first look at one of the new fighters being prepped for the next update to the Prophecy & Secret Ops

Model Upgrade Pack

. The Panther will be a welcome addition since it appears so often in the game - especially Secret Ops. New images below show off

DefianceIndustries

' original render, some peeks at the ship viewer and finally some in-game views. A shot of the original is also includes so you can see just how advanced the update is!

First of the new batch is ready - The revised Panther is now completed and in the game - and in the next update she'll be yours to fly...

Quote from EVERSPACE News-Bot

We've just released a new patch with some bug fixes and one small quality of life improvement - you can now increase the HUD marker size. Here's the complete list of changes:

Features

• Added an option to adjust the HUD marker size

Bugfixes

• Fixed time speedup bug that occured when having Time Extender activated and either destroying Okkar frigate turrets or Outlaw Snipers or scrapping a Shock Rifle Pro that is floating in space
• Make sure Okkar Corvettes don't flee outside of level area
• Fixed a handful of hardcore mode handicaps carrying over from sector 6 to sector 7
• Fixed that disabling TrackIR without changing anything else in the game options would break freelook until restarting the game
• Fixed nano injectors not working while emergency shield is active
• Fixed black holes not being framerate independent
• Fixed enemy sentinel sometimes still firing discharger while dying/already dead
• Fixed

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Here's a fascinating look at Origin's product plan as of 1989, just before Wing Commander changed things. It's amazing what could have been (a Star Wars RPG by Richard Garriott!) and also how far in advance they planned for projects like Ultima Underworld.

• Bad Blood: released
• Ultima 6: released
• Dinosaur Valley: became Ultima Savage Empire
• Squadron: became Wing Commander
• Time Travel: became Ultima Martian Dreams (?)
• Super Heroes: didn't happen
• Ultima 5 NES: released
• Ultima Gameboy: became Runes of Virtue
• Ultima 7: released
• Car Wars: didn't happen
• Ultima 6: became Ultima 6 SNES
• Star Wars: didn't happen
• The Underground: became Ultima Underworld
• Ultima adventure game: didn't happen
• Ultima 7 Spinoff: became Serpent Isle
• Ultima 8: happened (two years later)
• Blood & Fog: didn't happen
• Ultima 7 Spinoff: went into development as Arthurian Legends, ultimately cancelled

After we initially

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Still striving to get the greatest performance out of your equipment? This weekend will be the perfect time to apply Tech Upgrades to your gear, as we’re doubling the amount of Technology Points earned from each one applied! From Thursday, May 9th at 8AM PST to May 13th at 10AM PST, every Tech Upgrade used will apply twice as many Technology Points toward your next Upgrade! This in turn reduces the amount of Dilithium that must be spent to reach each Upgrade threshold, allowing Captains additional chances to attain both Mark and Rarity increases on their favored load outs. .share-footer a { margin: 20px 10px 10px 0; background: url(d7afaaa14e96d0d973f76157ae31ec5b1466398539.png) no-repeat 0 0; opacity: .5; display: inline-block; height: 60px; width: 60px; padding: 0; border: 1px solid transparent; -webkit-transition: opacity .3s; transition: opacity

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

The central, identifying concept of space was that it was quiet. Space, after all, was a vacuum. With no air to carry sound, you’d never hear an atomic bomb going off directly behind you. Still, in Lieutenant Rautert’s time in space, she had never found that kind of quiet. Space was loud, filled with voices screaming commands, consoles exploding at the slightest provocation, endless beeps and whistles from endless readouts – it was why she had moved away from active duty on a starship, and joined Starfleet Intelligence when the opportunity was presented to her. Numbers, facts, analysis – she was more comfortable with those concepts than the loudness of space. Now, for the first time, as the boots of her environment suit clicked across the metal gantry, space was quiet at last. Certainly, her surroundings couldn’t be considered ideal. The lights were flickering in a way that made it most

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

DigitalOrgami

has put together another gorgeous Wing Commander wallpaper. This one features a spirited chase through a dark asteroid belt. The stars are Klavs' gorgeous

Grikath

and its Confed pursuer. There's good usage of light and dark, and there's even a sense of anticipation thanks to the missile that's just launched. You can find more of his work at

DeviantArt

or his WC scenes

here

.

Thanks to GrahamTG for making this awesome background available. I ended up going way darker than I originally intended, but things kind of led me that way. Also thanks to Adam Burch for the great Wing Commander ships.

Got a little carried away with engine glows, but hey, there's the nebula gas and all the dust from the asteroids, so that's my excuse.

Unfortunately, my positioning of ships meant Graham's sun gets lost in the starboard engine glow of the Kilrathi ship, but.... Should probably have gone with some

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

AD recently found a music-related podcast that's profiled Wing Commander 1. They listen to the Sound Blaster basic music and then compare it to the deluxe Roland MT32. The hosts seem to be more versed in music history rather than video game history, which provides for kind of an interesting analysis. They also profile the movie

Creed

's score in this episode, and they jump back and forth between that and Wing Commander repeatedly, which is certainly an unusual format choice. The whole bit is more than an hour and forty minutes long, but it's always neat to hear some great WC tunes and some fresh admiration thereof as well. Give it a listen

here

. Afterwards, if this gave you a hankering for Team Fat's masterpiece work, you can buy their Wing One album at

Amazon

($7.99) or

iTunes

($9.99).

This is episode 18 which is basically our glorious comeback (again) into a more constant rhythm. Let's see how

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Section 31. The Tal Shiar. The Obsidian Order. Intelligence services like ours have always been shrouded in mystery and the allure of power. One day, it will likely be known that the Romulan Star Empire was manipulated into war with the Dominion. When that day comes, it will brush aside the other legacies of Captain Benjamin Sisko like footnotes for all but Bajor’s faithful. Stories of secret intelligence service have resonated with us throughout the ages. The means they use (and the ends which justify them) cast a long and deadly shadow, shrouding the victors in a heavy moral gray. Folk scarcely notice the extra wrinkles on their leader’s face as they stand among the ruins of a town sacrificed to keep a secret. From the tiny spec that listens in the right room to the ultimate prize of a compromised head of state, intelligence services are a heavy burden and powerful tool for any nation. Star

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

A megaship service offering transport to Guardian space from Zende is now in operation.

The CEO of Zende Partners, Freya Taine, announced:

"Following the recommendation of the galactic community, my company has established an outpost in Synuefe EN-H d11-96 that will serve as the termination point for this new ferry service. Our two megaships, Sadler's Song and The Conduit, will make weekly trips to the selected location."

"This first step of our initiative should encourage activity at nearby Guardian ruins. In addition, we have now finalised the design of an advanced military module based on Guardian technology, and we hope to begin manufacture of this design very soon."

Among the feedback from the technology industry was a statement by Cedrik Stone, CEO of rival arms manufacturer Segnen Exchange:

"While Zende Partners' recent efforts to promote Guardian-human research are admirable, I would