You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In NowSign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountJul
Double Damage games has announced that
Rebel Galaxy Outlawwill be released on August 13! It will debut exclusively on the
Epic Gamesstore for $29.99. Check out our
previous coveragefor some exciting videos and screenshots of what to expect. The developers are huge Wing Commander fans, and the game's shaping up to be one of the most promising tributes to Privateer in many years!
August 13th, 2019 - That's what you wanted to know, right? You want to know MORE?
Aug
…Five new patrols are coming to Star Trek Online, bringing new challenges and story to the universe. J’Ula, sister of T’Kuvma, is on the march once again. She is seeking the spores of prototaxites stellaviatori to fuel her devastating new superweapon. With the aid of Lt. Commander Paul Stamets and Captain Kuumaarke, captains can stand tall in the fight against the dangerous matriarch of House Mo’Kai. We’ll be revealing the new patrols one at a time in the lead up to Awakening – check back with Startrekonline.com for more! Rescue and Search A Lukari research fleet near a Mycelial Rift in the Kern System is attacked by House Mo’Kai forces. Assist your allies and deal with the unstable rift into the Mycelial Network. You will first be able to access these new Patrols from your mission journal after completing the episode “Beneath the Skin.” If you are on a Patrol mission from the
Sep
…The Interstellar Association for Agriculture has announced that below-average crop yields are expected in several key locations.
Dr Genevieve Kane, writing on behalf of the organisation, published this statement:
"Recent audits conducted on two primary agricultural worlds, located in Diso and Orerve, indicate that staple food harvests have been markedly lower in recent months."
"Broader data analysis suggests that crop returns in several other systems may also fail to meet projected quotas. An investigation is underway to identify the reasons for this drop in produce."
"To prevent a shortage of produce from impacting consumers, the IAA is reviewing options to enhance the fertility of cropland used for domestic consumption. These include newly proposed synthetic treatments that we hope will increase the sustainability of essential harvests."
The situation was first highlighted during the
Oct
…The Freelancer port is making excellent strides as the fighter fleet continues to fill up. In a handful of pictures below, L.I.F. shows off the different Rapier variants that the mod will showcase. In a nod to both Super Wing Commander and Arena, the top end 'Super Rapier' will be the F-44X variant seen in the Xbox Live Arcade game. Older versions will also appear as light fighters in the project. Numerous additional Border Worlds craft have been added over the past week, so the game's civilian/pirate faction has plenty of designs to choose from now. A list of fighter conversions and what Freelancer ship they're replacing is included below.
I am glad to present here the ultimate fighter of the Civilian branch, accessible only to top-level Freelancers: the F-44X Super Rapier. Pretty much an early model of the Nephilim War era Rapier variants, capable of mounting the best weaponry and shields of
Nov
May
It's been a while since we reported on his progress, but EmuMusicFan has been steadily moving forward with his graphical novel project. The latest exciting addition includes ships! His first example is a Dralthi silhouette based on a 3D model by DefianceIndustries. There are also a couple of new expressions for both Kilrathi and Firekkan characters. Looking forward, Emu will be working to develop some of the more interactive aspects of the project so that fans can engage with the story and affect how it unfolds.
Thanks so much to DefianceIndustries for the fantastic 3D models! Now I could add ships to my visual novel!
Sep
…We don't usually write a news post about 9/11. Many others are doing actual September 11 memorials. But if we have a tiny relevant Wing Commander anecdote to share in the context of history, we're happy to do that. Just like with Oscar Mayer tweeting about the Wienermobile this weekend, there's a small amount of calm reassurance that comes along with everyone just doing what they're here to do. Our intent is never to exploit current events by finding how Wing Commander ties in to these things, but hopefully folks can appreciate the mission we're on. LOAF recalls this:
A bit of 9/11 trivia: [the evening of September 11th] had been scheduled to be the USA Network premiere of the Wing Commander movie with a rerun the next day. Instead USA rebroadcast news both days. Wing Commander finally aired a month later on October 14th.One thing I've seen more this year is a complaint that people are
Sep
Last week we got a peek at some fabulous French reviews for Wing Commander 2, including one from Generation 4 magazine. LOAF dug up the Gen 4 review of Privateer, and it's also a wonderful experience. You definitely don't have to read French to appreciate it: there' some crazy cartoon in the beginning and lots of artfully arranged screenshots. The ship component and dealer pages are especially cool! Privateer ends up with a nice 93% score in the end.
The Gen 4 review of Privateer is also absolutely off the hook.
Feb
…*Pilots' Federation ALERT*
Deliveries have been requested in the Alcor and Colonia systems to implement services to the Colonia Bridge starports.
A press release from Brewer Corporation provided the details:
"The fourth and final phase of our Colonia Bridge project will take place over the next four weeks. Our goal is to finish constructing the starports that were recently added to the route between the Colonia and Alcor systems."
"For the first week, we require deliveries of Coffee, Emergency Power Cells, Geological Equipment and Liquid Oxygen to Macdonald Settlement in the Alcor system and Jaques Station in the Colonia system. If we receive sufficient commodities, we can add Universal Cartographics and Vista Genomics to all six stations."
"Everyone at Brewer Corporation was impressed by the galactic community's dedication to improving the travel corridor to the Colonia region. For this
May
…Today we've updated our front page poll to ask what kind of Wing Commander stories people like. A lot of common themes emerge from the main games, books, movie and TV show, and we've simplified them into six categories. "Covert missions" are like the expansion Secret Missions/Special Operations or portions of End Run/Fleet Action. "Epics" are life-or-death struggles for the fate of all civilization in games like WC3/4 or Fleet Action. Even Armada qualifies. Other games like WC1/2 could be described as "grinds" where you see some of the dog days of the war. At multiple points we get to explore the "mysterious threat" like the Nephilim or Steltek. "Rookies" are stories like the WC Movie or Academy TV show (or even games like WC1 or Prophecy) that show under-experienced pilots learning the ropes. Finally, there are special personal adventures. Very different types of things fit here from the
May
Today we've got Scribbler's second ambiance video. This one takes place in the Tiger's Claw's barracks. As such, it's a little more peaceful than the bar scene. There's a more calming engine hum and an occasional water bucket drip. What do you think? You can help provide feedback at the CIC Forums and influence Scribbler's future projects here.
In this file we enjoy the ambiance of the TCS Tiger's Claw bunkroom.A long flight? Rest yourselves. It's not a five-star hotel. A water pipe has been dripping for ages, and announcements from the bridge can still be heard in the corridors. Don't be disturbed that a comrade has just come out of the bar and is now going to bed. After all, you are on a carrier ship that has seen its best days and has no single berths. Enjoy your sleep.
Jun
Another neat discovery from AD: the pinball machine (very briefly) seen in the Tiger Claw's rec room is a 1991 Williams Hurricane machine. And you can buy a detailed recreation in Pinball FX3 to simulate playing pinball on a space carrier!
Jul
…A counter-statement regarding Azimuth Biotech has been published by Professor Alba Tesreau, former head of research at Aegis.
"The recent declaration by Director Torben Rademaker paints a false picture of those pilots who are actively working against Azimuth Biotech. He frames them as criminals and alien sympathisers, betraying humanity to the Thargoids. This could not be any further from the truth. It is Azimuth's own inhumanity that they are fighting against."
"It's unsurprising that Salvation's focus is now on HIP 22460, given this system has long been part of Azimuth's sinister legacy. On planet 7c is the abandoned settlement Fort Asch, where unlicensed scientists performed monstrous experiments to link human minds with Thargoid vessels. We know from Project Seraph's sole survivor, known as Subject D-2, how brutal the results were."
"Alongside the Bright Sentinel above planet 10b is the
Sep
Hunter_13 found a cool starship size comparison video that includes a neat Wing Commander mention. There's a bunch of these types of videos and depictions across the internet, and we appreciate all of the Wingnuts out there who report these types of things because we can't catch them all ourselves! The clip begins with some familiar small ships like Tie Fighters and X-Wings and then progresses through a nice variety of sci-fi fighters before getting up to medium size vessels like what you might encounter in Star Trek. Eventually they reach large megastructures like the Death Star and Halo ring. Wing Commander 2's F-57 Sabre appears at about the 2:20 mark!
Here is 3D animation of the spaceship size comparison inside the Matrix city using Unreal Engine 5.
Mar
…
St3lt3k spotted a really cool interview with the lead designer of Wing Commander Privateer, Joel Manners. This is a person we have not heard a lot from over the years, so it's really great that badastroza at Steemit managed to have a lengthy conversation with him about how the game came to be. They talked about how Joel got started at Origin and how the concept for Trade Commander evolved. There were big discussions about whether to include the Kilrathi, and a big push to ensure the game still felt like a Wing Commander title despite the unique setting. Check it out for yourself here!
Sometimes you’re working on a game that has that incredibly distinct feeling and sometimes you’re not and you have to search for it, but Privateer was one of those times where it just had it. It was very easy to do – I wish I could tell you about our creative debates and pathos and struggle to find our golden
Nov
I love finding magazine articles where they've commissioned their own Wing Commander art. Even this one. From "PC Games" magazine.
Modern life may be rubbish, but it's worse in the future. So relieve tense headaches with this plethora of combat tips..."This one is good too, from a UK PC Gamer.
Nov
LYP Studios has done it again! Lee Yee Pei has built a second Wing Commander model, and it is absolutely gorgeous. This time it's the Centurion from Privateer. The bulk of the ship was 3D printed, but a handful of custom parts were added for detail. He also painstakingly masked and layered different colors of hull texture to simulate the adjoining panels as well as the shark mouth on the underside. Fortunately he's also an excellent photographer, so we get plenty of beautiful shots to admire. You can find even more here! If this inspires you to craft your own, you can download the source files at Cults 3D or Thingiverse.
Centurion Heavy Fighter from Wing Commander Privateer. 3D-printed PLA & resin, with additional detailing parts.
LYP previously put together an incredible Morningstar fighter.
Dec
Mods are asleep, post the Wing Commander III mini-shuttle.
It's one of the destructible cargo units that attach to the Confederation transport.
Attachments like these were pretty bugged and a bunch were cut from the game late. Here's the set that were intended to attach to the latticework on the Kilrathi freighter!
Unfortunately the bug persisted into Wing Commander IV and so the Confederation transports are all naked. Which is too bad given the number of convoy-related missions you fly! (And: the aforementioned Kilrathi transport.)
Jul
…Sometimes exploration of new ideas and new technologies leads to dark places. In Star Trek, we’ve seen many a cautionary tale about omniscient supercomputers, time travel, genetic manipulation, and telepathic oppression. The pursuit of knowledge isn’t always safe or pretty. Hearts and Minds is a mini-mission that explores the consequences of some unconventional research gone awry. This mission is a “story in one act,” so you can easily finish it in a quick play session, and it’s easy to complete it with any additional characters that you may have on your account – which is handy, because the mission offers a special reward. Since Hearts and Minds is a horror story, it will only be around for Friday the 13th, whenever that may fall on the calendar – and perhaps another sufficiently horrifying day that we might choose! Fortunately for the squeamish, Hearts and Minds is creepy, but not
Apr
AircPiratesNinseiflying
Hornet modelis ready for combat! He's mocked up some prototype laser cannons, and the results are pretty sweet. They're a real cherry on top of the overall design. The results are visible below, and soon they'll be
available to downloadfor prospective builders out there!
The laser cannons are installed! The AUW is 593 g (20.92 oz). Here are some pictures of the parts. The finished laser cannons resemble the tournament lance of a medieval knight! The plan for the laser cannons follows!
