Moving On (May 14, 2024)

[ChrisReid]

After any dismal event, it's hard to shake off, pick yourself up again and continue. It doesn't feel right to just go on about your lives. The silver lining has been that it's nice to hear your thoughts about Klavs though, so please keep that coming. We're also always on Discord for anyone that would like to talk. Without trying to lean too hard into an obvious cliche, I also know that you all would want us to continue reporting Wing Commander news even if you weren't here to read it, so that's what we'll do.

I thought a simple and engaging news post today would be this terrific graphic that LOAF recently extracted. It's the targeting VDU images for Wing Commander. But there's a few mixed in that you may not have seen before!

The Wing Commander III target images! Do you know which three don't appear in the final game?

If you think you know which three don't appear in-game, hit the Comments link to let us know.

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Original update published on May 14, 2024

 

[Sylvester]

My guesses:

1. The empty freighter chassis (bottom row, third from left)
2. The shuttle (third row, first on left)
3. The frigate (third row, far right)

 

[Aeronautico]

The shuttle, the Confed frigate (Third row, far right) , and the Kilrathi transport (Called "Dukara" by WC Saga), fifth row.

Shame that we had to wait for Wing Commander IV for these ships to properly appear in-game, and we never do get to encounter a Dukara in WCIII or WCIV. It was always that little random ship flying with Thrakhath's vessel in every cutscene.

I know the Confed Frigate, or the Caernaven, should have made it into WCIII, and I'm disappointed that it did not. Such an underrated ship. Doesn't look to be the most powerful ship but I'm obsessed with new ship designs whenever they present themselves. And I would have liked to see a LOT more of the human fleet in WCIII.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

Shame that we had to wait for Wing Commander IV for these ships to properly appear in-game, and we never do get to encounter a Dukara in WCIII or WCIV. It was always that little random ship flying with Thrakhath's vessel in every cutscene.

I know the Confed Frigate, or the Caernaven, should have made it into WCIII, and I'm disappointed that it did not. Such an underrated ship. Doesn't look to be the most powerful ship but I'm obsessed with new ship designs whenever they present themselves. And I would have liked to see a LOT more of the human fleet in WCIII.

These were both cut because they were bugged; the triangle ship was intended to be the common freighter and the 'spindle' one we see in the final game was supposed to be the tanker (exclusive to the refuel the Behemoth mission). There were clipping issues with the triangle ship and it was quickly substituted. It DOES show up in the 3DO port, though, where it returns to its original intent as the freighter in many missions!

The frigate and the shuttle were intended for the mission where Paladin arrives. The frigate got swapped for a destroyed named frigate because of issues with the missile turret. (Also why the missile tank was cut from ground missions.)

 

[ChrisReid]

Following up with this nice clarifying image LOAF made in case anyone isn't clear on the answers:

It’s these three! The shuttle and the triangular Kilrathi transport only appear in cutscenes; the Confed frigate was completely dropped. Frigate and shuttle were both cut from the Alcor series (Paladin would’ve arrived in engine during Alcor 1). Killed late due to the missile turret bug. Transport was clipping issues, they doubled up the much rarer tanker design instead.