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Here's a fresh batch of whimsical Privateer scenes and objects by Cybot. He's got a couple of inspired bases, a sharp-looking Centurion, the Mercenaries' Guild office and some cars! Many of the items depicted are available as 3D models to download. Grab them at the CIC Forums here!

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Users of the Supercruise Overcharge function of Achilles' new Frame Shift Drives have reported that the module puts ships under immense mechanical and thermal stress, often causing severe hull damage. Ship manufacturers throughout the galaxy are now diverting research towards overcoming this issue.
Stent Jackson, a ship engineering and design consultant, spoke to Vox Galactica about this new surge of research:
"Now don't get me wrong, every manufacturer I've spoken to considers Supercruise Overcharge to be a great thing, but it's also ripping our hulls apart. The good with the bad, as always."
"Funny thing is, every manufacturer is realising all at once that there are some crucial things about ship construction that they've all taken for granted. When you get down to brass tacks, we assume certain thresholds, right? Before, we didn't need to worry about exceeding certain temperatures or

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

GOG has kicked off a brand new Sci-Fi Sale to help you complete your Wing Commander collection. Each of the games is marked down 75%. There's actually almost 600 games that fall under the sci-fi definition over at GOG, so I did a check to see where Wing Commander places in the all-time best seller rankings. It looks like WC1&2, WC3, WC4 and Privateer are all in the top ten behind System Shock 2 and Masters of Orion 1&2. Prophecy, Privateer 2 and Crusader are close behind in the top 15. Armada and Academy make the top 25, with Star Trek 25th Anniversary between them. Those are excellent numbers!

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There's a piece of IMDb trivia that claims the poster in Blair's quarters is Freddie Prinze Jr.'s future wife, Sarah Michelle Gellar. I hate to ruin a non-Star Wars-related Wing Commander factoid but...

... it's not true. It's one of several propaganda posters made for the Tiger Claw sets (note the Confed flag behind her) and like the ones in other quarters and the lounge the lady is a stock photo model from a collection licensed by the production.

I don't know who she is but as you can see I've found the source photo for the first time! Plus another one from the same shoot. Today she shows up frequently as the graphic for scammy social media accounts in search of wealthy American husbands.

I also found her on a Czech translation of a romance novel by... Jude DEVERAUX! Which is pretty on-the-nose, IYKYK.

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Destro has a new update on what to expect in the future for the Wing Loader program. He added preliminary support for WC4, Prophecy and Secret Ops towards the end of last year, but there's still plenty to do for the earlier games in the series. Now that in-game speech is working in WC1, I might be most excited about what is happening with WC3. He's made some major breakthroughs regarding the ability to add ODVS' enhanced video footage. There's even the potential to add back in scenes like news clips and the Hobbes explanation that are only included in the console ports. It's all exciting stuff! You can download the latest version here.

I've got a few things planned for a new release. Currently I'm working on some memory fixes, better camera code to fix some jumpy issues I've seen online:

• A few changes to the scripting to make reading it easier.
• Added in Imgui support and making preferences so users

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We're rounding out the third week of Origin composer George Oldziey's campaign to create a new album of Wing Commander music. The current tally is very nearly at $17,000. That's enough to ensure the project moves forward, which is great! As we previously reported, George has already scheduled time with the orchestra in Europe to record in August. However, it would be amazing if the live choral addition were added in as well. For that, we would need about $5,000 additional over what's been contributed so far. I still think it's very doable with all of your help! You can learn more about the project and pledge for a copy of the music when it's released here.

Here's a sample of reorchestrated WC4 track that George has already recreated on paper. The sound you hear is a digital recreation below, so the final result with live musicians will be even better!