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Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The three candidates in the Federal presidential election have taken part in a second live debate to discuss policies.
The event was more closely moderated than the first debate in June. The candidates discussed their campaigns in detail, with minimal interruption from their rivals.
Republican Party candidate Jerome Archer is the current vice president and a former director of the Federal Intelligence Agency. He explained his intentions to tighten security and increase military spending:
"Shielding citizens from external threats, whether human or alien, is always my top priority. Ms Winters lacks any significant achievements in her political career, if we're honest. Whereas I can refer to many successes – such as the Proactive Detection Bureau – which prove I am a man of my word."
Shadow President Felicia Winters, leader of the Liberal Party, was previously the secretary of state in Jasmina

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Attention Captains, the Elachi are pouring into the Alpha Quadrant from previously undiscovered Iconian space gates in order to abduct helpless people! The Elachi have been doing with their captives, we need every Captain at the ready to help stop their forces. For a limited time only, the Elachi Alert queued event will return to Star Trek Online. From Thursday, August 2nd at 8AM PST til Monday, August 6th at 10AM PST, close these doors to subspace and receive bonus mark rewards. A joint fleet has gathered here to stop them. The fleet consists of science ships that have disabled their weaponry in order to divert all available resources to disabling the gate. We’ll need to protect them from the Elachi until they finish their work. Remember that the science vessels efficiency will drop as they lose crew members to the Elachi. Defend the joint fleet from the Elachi in order to ensure their success.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Will wonders never cease?!

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The disappearance of famous actor Consuela Knight and the crew of her luxury yacht has sparked a flood of rumours.

Independent reporter Flint 'Firemaker' Lafosse discussed the mystery on the Rewired news feed:

"The scientists say this might be an anomaly that only affects organic tissue. But that doesn't explain the discovery of Consuela Knight's half-eaten meal, does it?"

"Others think it could be a new Thargoid weapon that disintegrates humans while leaving ships intact. Or maybe the cultists were right, and the Far God has started snacking on individuals before it arrives to eat the whole universe."

"For all we know, this has been happening to ships for years. Maybe it usually gets hushed up, which is harder to do when a big-name celebrity vanishes. Which of us might be next? Think about that next time you jump into hyperspace…"

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

From March 28th at 8am PT to April 1st at 10am PT, we are having a 20% ship sale. Enjoy not just a discount on our ships, but fleet modules, dry dock slots and ship upgrade tokens as well! Have you been eyeing a new ship or ship bundle in the C-store? Now is the time to grab the ship you've always dreamt of commanding! All ships and dry dock slots in the C-Store are 20% off. This includes bundles which are comprised only of ships. This does not include bundles that have items other than ships in them. The ship upgrade token, ship upgrade token bundle, and the fleet module are all 20% off as well. .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:

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Eagle-eyed visitors may have spotted that our logo looks a little bit sharper today. We've made a

double resolution

version available to supporting browsers. The leap in quality isn't quite as large as when the logo was

recreated

from scratch with WC4DVD footage, but it's a noticeable upgrade on high dpi screens nonetheless. Below you can see how today's logo compares to the original from 1998. The CIC itself has gone through a few page design iterations over our long history. We posted an overview for last year's anniversary

here

.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

SonataFantatica has started posting a series of "visual novels" that include just the story portions of the original Wing Commander games. So far he's completed Wing Commander 1, both Secret Missions 1&2 and Special Operations 1. This is an interesting concept and a surprising gap in fan-generated video content of this nature. There have been comparable story cuts of WC3, WC4 and Prophecy for many years, but WC1/2 are somewhat underserved. There certainly are plenty of playthrough streams, but these new videos condense down the gameplay into bite size <90 minute movies that just focus on the plot. Sounds like a great way to recap on the events of each game!

I didn't find any Wing Commander 1 story summary videos on YouTube, so I decided to cut and upload this video that has no combat in it. This way, you can read and experience the story of the first "Wing Commander" game (the entire Vega

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

At long last, LOAF had finally hunted down a rare thorough magazine profile of the music associated with Wing Commander 4. It appeared in the April 1996 issue of Mix, a professional audio publication. More than just a preview of a video game, the piece goes into quite a bit of technical depth about how the music was made and recorded. It includes numerous quotes from composer George Oldziey and provides an exciting glimpse into the still nascent field of high end music for games. You can find full scans and a proper transcript in the WCPedia here.

eBay victory! After several years of watching I have the April 1996 issue of Mix, a sound mixing trade magazine. It has an in-depth five page feature on the sound work on Wing Commander IV! My only clue in this chase was a mention in the April 1996 Point of Origin that Mix had done a big feature ‘last month’ so I had to try a few issues. Worth it,

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

It's that time of the year again! Having see what all we managed to accomplish in 2020, what do you think 2021 will look like? Although more people will hopefully be able to spend more time outside this summer, we are blessed with a large group of folks who are pretty content to just be indoors. In either case, it's hard to not imagine this year will be better than 2020 in almost every way! What do you expect?

The old poll asked which non-PC platform was your preferred system for a new Wing Commander game. Xbox Series X edged out ahead of the Playstation 5, but by a lesser margin than the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro. The results were flipped compared to the original Xbox One and PS4 match up back in 2013. With all of this new generation's cross compatibility, you can't go wrong with either one!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Trelane spotted something that you don't see every day: Wing Commander mentioned in the lede of an Associated Press article. It's not the most auspicious mention by any means, but it turns into an article talking about the potential merit of video game movies as a genre. We've been saying this all along. Movies don't have to be high art to be fun. Sometimes you just have to take your thinking cap off and enjoy the show. You can find the full article here!

NEW YORK (AP) — Is there a more woebegone movie genre than the video game adaptation? This is the pantheon of “Max Payne,” “Wing Commander” and “Assassin’s Creed.” In the 27 years since the first video game movie, “Super Mario Bros.,” these adaptations have been so regularly mocked that you might think the genre was -- like a teetering fighter in “Mortal Kombat” surrounded by chants of “Finish him!” -- on its last legs.

And yet, Hollywood is

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The Alexandria has failed to arrive in the HIP 30944 system as scheduled, and may have been hyperdicted by the Thargoids.
The Aegis-owned megaship triggered an attack by Thargoid vessels when it travelled from the Delphi system to HIP 16538 on the 20th of May. Aegis believes this was caused by the large quantity of Guardian artefacts in its cargo holds.
To reduce the risk of further casualties, the Alexandria plotted a route to a low-population prison colony in the HIP 30944 system. All independent ships were undocked before it made the hyperspace jump on the 3rd of June.
However, the megaship never reached its arrival point and all communication with it has ceased. Search teams in local systems have not detected its presence.
Admiral Aden Tanner, chief military liaison with Aegis, informed the media:
"We regret to announce a complete loss of contact with the Alexandria. Although there is no

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots Federation ALERT*
Pilots have delivered commodities to enable Sirius Corporation to mass produce a fully engineered detailed surface scanner.
The enhanced ship module will shortly receive a commercial release, having previously only been available during a terraforming initiative by Sirius Atmospherics in late 3306.
The Engineered Detailed Surface Scanner V1 increases probe coverage to twice the normally achievable range, offering a more efficient mapping of planetary surfaces.
The project's success was declared by Sinclair Faraldo, marketing director for Sirius Corporation:
"We are most grateful to all pilots who brought us shipments of CMM composites, muon imagers and synthetic reagents as requested. Mass production of the enhanced detailed surface scanner has already begun, and it will be available for purchase from human technology brokers very soon."
All pilots who took part in

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone out there! It's another challenging holiday season for most folks around the world, but we hope you're making the most of it and staying safe. EmuMusicFan put together this festive Kilrathi for you to enjoy, so we're not without a fun image for the news this year. We'd also like to thank Will for reminding us to put the Christmas lights up a couple weeks back. They really put me in a wintery mood, and if you'd like to share in the Christmas spirit, drop by #Wingnut on Discord to hang out too!

We're also starting to see reports of people getting their Wing Commander-themed gifts in the wild. Here's Pedro and his brand new 3DO. He can finally play the awesome WC3 port!

Finally able to use my Christmas present, party like it’s 1995

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
Sirius Corporation has helped provide commodities to sustain the Didio system during the ongoing Thargoid assault.
Pilots transported multiple shipments of basic medicines, evacuation shelters and food cartridges to the megaship Chariot of Rhea in the Leesti system. These were then redirected to Didio and distributed wherever they were most urgently needed.
The campaign was orchestrated by Admiral Nikolas Glass, who announced:
"By replenishing key supplies during this time of great crisis, Sirius Corporation has again shown its dedication to the Alliance's military efforts. This will undoubtedly pave the way for the strategic defence pact to be accepted by the Assembly once the trial period has completed."
Sirius Corporation has confirmed that all pilots who contributed to the initiative can now collect payment from Chariot of Rhea in Leesti.
In related news, the

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

If you thought Scribbler's WC1 ambiance series had come to an end, he's got a surprise! The flight deck has joined the bar, barracks and briefing room. He's incorporated a bit of feedback and hidden the cursor this time. Most of the sound effects revolve around the crew fixing up fighters on the deck: ratchets, sparks, carts, elevators and the like. Check it out below!

In this file we stay in the ambience of the flight deck of the TCS Tigers Claw. Intended for radio plays or playing in the background while working or falling asleep. Where you want to let your imagination run wild.

Show time. Time to start. Quickly onto the flight deck. The pilots are ready. The mission begins. And everyday life for the technicians on deck. After the pilots have started, the daily routine continues. Repair, prime and prepare the other fighters. Attention, another flight returns. Clear the deck...

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Greg14 has a new project to share today. Using the WC Toolbox, he's taken a run at making a French translation for the text of the original Wing Commander. He's got some refinement yet to do and is still trying to figure out how to add accent marks, but this initial pass looks great. And it's always wonderful to see fans tinkering like this after more than 31 years! A video of the translation in action is below. Let him know what you think at the CIC Forums.

You can also find a fan patch that translates WC2 into French here.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

It's been widely reported this week that Electronic Arts has been holding talks with various companies about a potential acquisition or merger. The possible partners that are mentioned include "Disney, Apple, Amazon, and Comcast - NBC Universal." That's quite a list of suitors, although conversations with Comcast/NBC seem to have gotten the farthest. This has come to the forefront with Microsoft's recent acquisition of Activision/Blizzard and Sony picking up Bungie. With so much consolidation in the industry this past year, EA is apparently feeling the squeeze of going it alone.

As Wingnuts are well aware, EA is the primary rights holder for the Wing Commander franchise. What could this mean for the series? While it's an easy gut reaction to feel like WC could be further buried behind much more high profile IPs, I don't know that a shake up on this scale is necessarily a bad thing. Current EA

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

It's been getting teased for months, and now Mac's lore video about the TCS Johnny Greene is here! Mac does an excellent job building up the ship and detailing its heroic efforts as detailed in the End Run substory, Milk Run. Along the way, we're treated to scene after gorgeous scene of Klavs' models in action. The narration is spot on, but all of the snazzy artwork would make this a dazzling video even with the sound off!

A battered old corvette gets called to perform a "Milk Run" recon job on a planet. What they find are suicidal odds against their survival and the means to turn the Kilrathi War around for Humanity.

Thanks to Heart of the Tiger for the tip!

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The human colonists in the Coalsack Nebula has raised the alarm after Thargoid forces appeared several systems.
Following recent attacks on systems and vessels in the California Nebula, it appears that the Thargoids have again sought to occupy systems where barnacle fields are present on planet surfaces.
Councillor Lewis Laychurch, representing the Alliance Expeditionary Pact in HIP 62154, provided the following to the Alliance Tribune:
"Our security craft regularly patrol between the populated systems in this region. We had the first reports of nonhuman signals this morning. Obviously we've seen Thargoid activity in the Coalsack Nebula several times before, but this time was different. It's not an attack as much as a presence."
"We witnessed a huge upsurge in these signals in multiple systems. Over a couple of hours, it felt like Thargoid activity was visible on scanners wherever our ships

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We see a lot of reviews of Wing Commander games, the movie and even the TV show, but there is not a lot of discussion online about the books. What little there is focuses on the novels, but there's a whole universe of content packed into the various Wing Commander strategy guides. Sticks, Stories and Scotch recently took a look at one of them, the relatively unique Ultimate Strategy Guide to WC1&2. This one differs from most of the other WC guides because it's told in narrative form. It gives the protagonist a name, Carl LaFong, and follows the adventures of the the first few games in the series. You can read their review here. It's so good that it got the author hooked before they even actually played Wing Commander for the first time!