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The countdown continues towards the CIC's Birthday Party! There's now just five weeks until we celebrate 21 years at wcnews.com. We hope you join us in

#Wingnut

on the CIC's

Discord Server

. We are also planning a livestream to accompany the chat room event, which should make this one of our most fun events yet! The party takes place on Saturday, August 17, at 7:00 pm EDT (4:00 pm PDT and 11:00 pm GMT). While this is always our biggest single event of the year, there's a party going on in #Wingnut every day.

Stop by

anytime and get acquainted before the cake arrives!

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Here are this week's main stories.

Aegis Research has announced that the Witch Head Nebula is a viable alternative source of meta-alloys. Professor Alba Tesreau confirmed that the survey data provided by the galactic community allowed her team to identify this area as a prime source of Thargoid barnacle sites. The Alliance, Empire and Federation have all initiated plans to establish a presence in the area.

The Thargoids have withdrawn from human-occupied space. Multiple sources have corroborated reports that Thargoid craft have disappeared from almost all systems, with only Maia and Merope as exceptions. Speculation continues as to the reason for this development.

In other news, Jan Sandoval has provided proof that the Red Family cartel she co-founded intends to begin circulation of a new, highly addictive narcotic. The substance poses such a danger to Federal space that Sandoval felt

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

It's time for another exciting update to

Howard Day

's

WC1-inspired engine

. These new animations really show off how much features and systems have been integrated into this functional test. Most of the cockpit elements such as the radar, shield and armor display, speed indicators, gun capacitor and more are fully active. Even the legs move during intense maneuvers! The crackling shield display is especially cool, and we even get a glimpse of the ace Dralthi in the Hornet's sights. Howard's working on banging everything up for the damaged version next.

Auto pilot and Tape are both off in those - they both have little red lights like the lock warning going off next to them, but yeah! Basically everything except for the weapons display, damage display, target display, comms menu and navigation display are all done and working! Still work to go before this is at pairity with the basic Hornet

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

We’re teaming up with the fine folks at Tribble Toys, and you can win an STO Tribble of your very own! These makers of fine Tribbles for companionship are making an STO set of Tribbles, including the Triolic Tribble, the Gamma Quadrant Tribble, the Radan Tribble, and the Winter Tribble. You’ll be able to take these adorable pets home with you starting right now, as long as you can follow these very simple rules: Do not leave them alone with food. Do not leave them ever. At all. Be considerate, and let any visiting Klingons know there are Tribbles in your home before they get there. When you purchase a large size version of these adorable, prolific creatures, you’ll also receive a code for an in-game Black Alert tribble on PC. Petting this furry guy will get you 2% extra run speed, and 3% extra manimum health. And that’s not all! We’re adding a new food item, the Sauteed Shitaake,

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

JAYCE'S INTERSTELLAR EARTH ORBIT, SOL SYSTEM In the months since its inception, the Allied Cooperative Starship Development Board (ACSDB) has become a central figure in the rebuilding initiatives for both Starfleet and the Klingon Defense Force. Now, after spearheading several successful design initiatives, the ACSDB announced it is expanding to welcome representatives from the Romulan Republic Navy and the Jem’Hadar Vanguard Fleet. Representatives of the ACSDB also announced inaugural programs for new Romulan and Jem’Hadar starships that utilize allied technological advancements and logistical resources. The ACSDB was created during the Iconian War to facilitate technology sharing initiatives between members of the Iconian Resistance. After the war, the ad-hoc alliance between the United Federation of Planets, the Klingon Empire, and the Romulan Republic matured into a more formal one.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Here's another peek at the immersive Hellcat cockpit

Pedro

is working to incorporate into his

WC4 Remaster

project. As the team works through the details, it turns out that the question is more complex than just adding in Defiance's cockpit art. There are several ways to do it, and each option has various advantages and disadvantages. You can help weigh in with your thoughts at the

CIC Forums

!

This is the camera Defiance originally intended (I'm now loading the cameras from the model files he provides so you don't get stuck with programmer settings). This would be the default view closely mirroring the original. The joystick and throttle were primarily meant for VR, so for any players opting for a more traditional view the hands/ legs wouldn't even be visible. We'll add them but will prioritize other things.

Anyway the reason I'm setting this up is my next focus will be the cockpit camera and it

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Starting July 18th, four new ships are being made available on the C-Store. These new vessels will be available in both Non-Fleet and Fleet variants, and additionally will be a part of the first-ever bundle with ships from four different factions! Special Introductory Pricing Discount! From July 18th at 8am PT to July 22nd at 10am PT, you can get these ships for 2400 ZEN each when purchased individually, or in a bundle with all four ships and a 50% off T6 Ship Coupon for the price of 6400 ZEN! Thereafter, they will return to their normal pricing at 3000 ZEN when purchased individually, or 8000 ZEN for the Bundle. Fleet versions of each of these starships will unlock upon completing your Fleet Starbase’s Tier 2 Shipyard. The standard Fleet Module discounts apply if you have purchased the ships from the C-Store. For the first time ever, non-Romulan characters will be able to fly the Warbird

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Game Magazine Print Ads

& RetroMags spotted a really cool page from the January 1995 edition of Next Generation magazine, which would have been on store shelves right when Wing Commander 3 debuted in December 1994. The core art is similar to the general

WC3 sell sheet

with some slightly tweaked screenshots. The big focus though is that this is an ad for the Premiere Edition. A similar

big boxed

edition entered the retail stream via Sam's Club, but the most prime version was just available through EA. You had to know about it to place an order, and a limited number of ads like this was the communications plan to let fans know it existed!

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

This weekend, starting Thursday, July 18th at 8AM PT to Monday, July 22nd at 10AM PT, we are running a special event where Captains can earn bonus Marks by playing content throughout the game! During the event, content that provides Marks (Fleet or Reputation) will reward a 50% (1.5x) bonus above normal amounts – this bonus is available for all content that rewards Marks, including the three new reputations that came to Console with Agents of Yesterday. Start building your Fleet projects and reputations! We hope you enjoy this special event and we’ll see you in-game! .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 Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The Thargoids have returned to the Pleiades Nebula in large numbers, with several conflicts reported within hours.

Professor Alba Tesreau gave an update on behalf of Aegis Research:

"The Thargoid forces that recently withdrew from the core systems have resurfaced in the Pleiades Nebula following a brief disappearance. An initial analysis of their movements suggests a subtle change to their tactics. I believe they are seeking to reassert themselves in their original nexus."

"A considerable number of Thargoid craft have gathered in the Maia system. With the Palin Research Centre facing an imminent attack, the decision was made to evacuate Professor Palin and his staff, thereby protecting a number of vital research projects. All work at Palin Research Centre has been suspended."

"Regrettably, however, a transmission from Palin's megaship, Carson's Spring, indicates that it was assaulted by

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Howard Day

has done some serious damage to his

Hornet cockpit

, and the results are amazing! The shattered displays and windscreen are so severe that they almost make you gasp. He's also working on how to introduce minimum functionality so that tiny bits of the broken elements still work through all of the broken glass, which is really cool. There's also already prework happening now on what the game's other cockpits will look like with a similar overlay.

Muwhahahah, I was right. I just did a pass on doing damaged versions too - these get dynamically masked in based on your ship taking core damage. I plan on having the typical LCD distorted display flickering going on + some white noise. The parts that are visible through the damage should still occasionally show information.

When last I left off, I was working on the two remaining screens - the MFDs. I have to code in the display that tracks

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

From July 18th at 8am PT to July 22nd 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, including the new ships of the Temporal Warship Bundle! 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;

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

General: The Enterprise Pack now actually unlocks the NX Enterprise when bought. To make up for the accounts experiencing this, when you buy the pack a version of the ship appears in the Promotions tab with the word Make Up in its subtitle. They can claim this and it will unlock the actual ship in the Tier 1 tab. Resolved an issue that would sometimes cause 100% Admiralty missions to fail. Jem’Hadar Gamma Reputation armor is now available to outfit Bridge Officers with. Ships: Borg Impulse Engine visuals now appear correctly on the Jem'Hadar Recon or Strike Ship. Borg Impulse Engine and Deflector visuals now appear correctly on the Lukari Dranuur Scout Ship. The Mobius' windows now correctly appear as an option for the Klein Temporal Destroyer (T6). The camera now centers on the Tal Shiar Adapted Battlecruiser in sector space correctly. The camera now centers on

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

The latest episode of ALL WINGS CONSIDERED is live now! We're back after several weeks off due to illness and ready to take on the Gemini Sector! 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:

• Privateer and conversation! Time to start earning ourselves a Galaxy.
• What's the deal with the moon?
• We blow up a planet, NBD.
• Privateer 2 ship of the week: the famous Heretic

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 Star Trek Online News-Bot

We’re headed back to the fabulous Rio Hotel for 2019’s Star Trek Las Vegas! Join the developers of Star Trek Online and some of your favorite cast members from Star Trek: Discovery for panels, meet and greets and giveaways! This year, Star Trek Online will be featured in a few different panels, which we’ll have more information on soon, along with some special events: Live Interview with Priority One and Rekha Sharma When: Friday, August 2nd at 12:00 pm Where: Roddenberry Entertainment Island The dev team will sit down with the hosts of Priority One: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast at the Roddenberry Entertainment Island for a live interview right on the show floor, with special guest Rekha Sharma from Star Trek: Discovery! Join us for this special event to meet the developers from Cryptic Studios, lock down this year’s STLV-exclusive Landry and Lorca Holographic Bridge Officers, and

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

As most of you are well aware, today marks 50 years since the Apollo 11 landing on the moon. And although Earth's moon might not immediately jump to mind when you think about Wing Commander, it actually shows up quite a bit! LOAF recently went through the (often tragic) history of our natural satellite in Episode 19 of

All Wings Considered

. Check out the embedded clip below to go straight to the retrospective:

If you haven't seen it yet, here's a nice video of the really cool show projected on the Washington Monument this week. Dundradal was lucky enough to see it in person!

What's next for the moon? India appeared set to launch an ambitious mission to become the fourth country to send a rocket up earlier this week, but the attempt was

scrubbed

with an hour to go. Meanwhile, NASA is still heading down a path that could lead to a return to the moon in five years.

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Double Damage games has announced that

Rebel Galaxy Outlaw

will be released on August 13! It will debut exclusively on the

Epic Games

store for $29.99. Check out our

previous coverage

for 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?

Quote from Freelancer News-Bot

Mod "Advanced Widescreen HUD" for the Freelancer game has been released and accessible for everyone!

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

It's only been a few days since our last update, but

Howard Day

already has a pile of exciting things to share in his

WC1-inspired engine

. For starters, he's dubbed the project

Wing Leader

after one of the initial concept names for the WC series. There's also a few new animations, and they show off the beautiful debris field that emerges from a destroyed ship. Finally, here's your first peek at the cute little Salthi! He's given it a single engine to better suit the Kilrathi light fighter's small

nimble

stature.

First look at the Wing Leader Salthi. Different from her canon version: she's only got one engine and has two photon cannons rather than lasers. I'm trying to make the various Kilrathi ships feel different, rather than the Salthi, Dralthi, Krant all feeling like fighting the same ship. I'm also looking at ways to only make them turn left.

New art for the photon cannon coming soon. Expecting

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Carson's Spring, the megaship transporting Professor Ishmael Palin from the Maia system, has successfully completed its journey, having endured a number of attacks by Thargoid craft.

Admiral Aden Tanner provided this update on behalf of Aegis Research:

"With support from many independent combat pilots, the Thargoid assaults on Carson's Spring have been successfully repelled."

"The megaship has now arrived in the Arque system with Professor Palin and his staff."

Palin currently remains aboard Carson's Spring. Efforts are underway to establish a new permanent home at Abel Laboratory on Arque 4 E, from where Palin's previously offered engineering services can resume.