Requesting Clearance to Land

The new front page poll asks about your favorite type of landing. A lot of people have fond memories of the first time they figured out how to land in the front of the Tiger's Claw. Everyone also had fun the first time they zoomed through the first fly-through bay on the Victory. And with Gothri pounding their rear armor and electronics popping across your cockpit, who can forget the relief of getting pulled into an automatic landing zone?

Our annual New Years poll shows that more Wingnuts feel 'great' about 2010 and fewer predict the year will be 'poor', but there is also greater uncertainty compared to 2009. I think people who voted for the first option will be proven right as the year unfolds!

Command & Conquer 4 Open Beta Begins

Command & Conquer 4 allows C&C fans to finally experience the epic conclusion to one of gaming's most beloved and longest-running series, the 15-year Tiberium saga. Kane. GDI. Nod. Tiberium. How will it end? Find out in Command & Conquer 4, told through persistent player progression, trademark live-action cinematics, and a multitude of innovations to the classic fast and fluid Command & Conquer gameplay.

To get in the Command & Conquer 4 Public Beta, all you have to do is visit our Gamespot Beta Page here right now, and follow these simple steps:

If you are not logged in, you are prompted to log in to your free GameSpot account, or register for one. Once you are logged in, you will see registration fields already populated for you, based on your GS profile. Just hit Submit.

The page now includes new information, including your key (the URL), and instructions on what to do.

If Gamespot is temporarily out of keys, DO NOT WORRY, you will be placed on a short waitlist if necessary. You do not need to re-register. Once Gamespot releases more keys, you will be assigned a key in the order you joined the waitlist. Your own key is displayed on the page, as well as sent to you by email.

We will be monitoring our server load as we are still in Beta phase, however, Gamespot will be issuing thousands of keys periodically. In the event you are placed on the waitlist, do not fear, we will be activating users daily and quickly.

So get in the public beta action Commander and join in on the 5v5 multiplayer mayhem. Provide the development team feedback, let your voice be heard, and help the team make C&C4 the game you want it to be.

If you're ready for Command & Conquer 4, then be sure to PRE-ORDER and gain access to our exclusive prequel bonus mission "Night Moves", the official C&C 4 soundtrack, and a personal autographed headshot of the Messiah, Kane!

Download Recap

Despite chewing through well over a terabyte of traffic so far, we have a lot of upload allowance to spare for the month of January. We have plenty of entertaining files that you may have missed in the past. We recommend a download manager to help the large files along. Below are just a few of our favorites. More can be found in our Files and Music sections.

WC1 Blueprints (42 MB) Music Video Roundup (300 MB) High Quality Get Away Video (124 MB) Behind The Scenes of WC4 (120 MB) Prophecy DVD enhancement pack (2.2 GB) Computer Chronicles TV Interviews (100 MB) WC VHS Trailer (37 MB) WC4 Movie Project Sample (80 MB) Queeg's WC3 and WC4 movie project (2.7 GB) Wing Commander: Standoff (270 MB) Wing Commander: Unknown Enemy (74 MB) Wing Commander scripts, design layouts & sketches (550 MB) Rare Wing Commander music albums (360 MB) Academy TV (2.6 GB) Making Of Wing Commander 3 (350 MB) Missing scenes from Wing Commander 3 (65 MB) High Quality Privateer 2 Cinematics (700 MB) Wing Commander Saga CGI trailer (67 MB) Wing Commander Saga preview trailer (29 MB) Expanded Secret Ops Guide (9 MB)

Gamerlimit Reunites With an Old Friend

When it was released in 1994, Heart of the Tiger was dubbed “the world’s first interactive movie”. While most gamers would scoff at such a claim today, by all accounts it was very much what the media hyped it to be. With a 10-minute intro clip, and no main menu, players knew straight away what they were in for.

...

One of the reasons that the Wing Commander series was so successful was for exactly that reason: the storyline. Every game played out like a movie, even more so in the third and fourth instalments, and gamers were able to feel a true sense of connection to the protagonist, Blair.

That's One Mean Freighter

Though the sketch names this ship a "freighter" and the concept also talks about a cargo pod, I think that according to the cockpit size this is more a heavy fighter/bomber. More like a raider as the Sorthak with its own jump drive (could fit into the massive hull) and enough weapons to make big damage. Below the cockpit are the torpedo tubes, while the wings store the antifighter missiles.

I'm still not happy with some detail and some proportions, I had especially big problems with the wings, since currently left and right are the same (also I think the hand drawn perspective in the concept art is not fully correct), so theoretically the wing should be OK. It looks good this way, but maybe more asymetric wings would also be neat. Here are the images.

I found this baby here I made a few months back in a final attempt to going back to modeling. But I think it would be a shame to waste the model file and the time I put into it, so I decided to upload it here, maybe someone can use it in a mod or something. Sorry it's not textured, but creating texture files is not really my strength. Hope you like it.

Keep Looking Up!

The ENEMY can appear ANY TIME and ANYWHERE!

Learn these planes and watch the skies!

Fighter Models Measured Twice & Cut Once

Let me start with a bit of background: I'm a long time model builder. I started off with plastic kits and I've since progressed to scratch-building my own designs from balsa wood. My collection includes five WC ships (which I'm quite proud of, I might add :) ). Building something from scratch as opposed to using a model kit obviously means you have to draw your own plans to work from. This involved hours of taking measurements from the game manuals, and even from in-game screenshots to get the look right.

New Wilson Movie Coming Soon

I just finished acting in a Norwegian movie called "Yohan - The Child Wanderer." It's being produced, directed, and acted by Norwegian actors, in Norwegian, with the beginning and ending set in the U.S., with a few American actors, including myself and Kris Kristofferson, who is Swedish, but got over his Norway-Sweden resentments to act as "Old Yohan." Why did I do this? Hey, who wouldn't want to be in "Yohan - The Child Wanderer" with Norwegian people? Besides, I'm big in Norway. Well, physically large, I mean, and they seem to like great big white people there, because they have lots of them. And easy to assemble furniture. I had better photos, but I liked this one that went wrong. Lit in the right way, Kris looks like a painting from the 17th century.

Love from Wilson World,
Tom

New Kat Ship's an Asymmetrical Beauty

Here's the one Kilrathi ship that I had planned to be used as a flyable ship at one point. It's a medium/heavy fighter that I dubbed the "Darthek" - 4 Lasers, 2 Neutron. Packs a punch, but it's rather hard to fly. In the right hands it's a hard hitting ship...

The Vaktoth that I had done will be used, but not flyable (by the player).

Genre-ation Ex

Remember Wing Commander? X-Wing and Tie Fighter? Day of the Tentacle? Homeworld? All huge games, and all part of genres that now barely exist.

Standoff's Ending Easter Egg Exposed

Whoa! I'm impressed, that was fast. :)

When creating this message, we made sure to provide a few "Rosetta stones" - the first sentence repeating the subject line, the "hahahahaha" bit, the "on my blood and name" phrase repeated from the letter in the KSaga manual, and finally, the Prince's name. There was plenty to go on - but even so, I didn't expect anyone to decrypt it that quickly. Well done!

Incidentally, since the fiction is stored as text files, this little easter egg required quite a bit of effort on our part - apart from creating the Kilrathi font, we also got Pete to create a basic encryption mechanism, to prevent people from taking the easy route and extrating the original text from the TRE file.

But now... you may ask - did we make up all those Kilrathi letters? No, we didn't - all we did was rescale them a bit from the source material. These are genuine Kilrathi letters as created by Origin. And, as always, you have Captain Johnny to thank - because an image of the Kilrathi alphabet was tucked away in the font-related materials on the WCP and SO backup disks. We're pretty fortunate that nobody ever looks at such dull things as fonts, because it meant we could use it for this easter egg . Now that our message has been decoded, though, I'm attaching the image with the original Kilrathi alphabet.

So... who's gonna drop by the Kilrathi language thread and work out what the Tomes of Sivar on the WCP intro screenshot really say? :)

Prelude to Darkness Keeps Fans in the Loop

Well this week was really busy! First off last week Part 7 got put up and I took a few days off animating to put my feet up. So as soon as Monday struck this week I was back into it. And so far it’s going pretty well, currently scene 19 is being animated and I’m about a minute in to the entire part. Scene 19 concerns the dropships launching and how dangerous the launch process can be.

One exciting (if you can call it that) thing that happened was in fact just this morning when I had put together a shot and upon saving was told by my animating program that the file was corrupted – oh my god I said! This two hours of work putting this shot together is now down the tube – so after visiting a few forums to see if there was any light at the end of this tunnel I was soon to discover that in fact this program has a secret autosave folder, for this very problem, and praise the lord I found my shot still very up to date and ready to go. God bless backup files.

Some of you may have noticed that Frontier now has a Facebook page with modest number of fans. I’m really amazed it had any at all – and I thank all of you who are fans for you support, because without I’d probably not bother doing this, so thank you again all who are onboard there. It means a lot to see you took the time to become a fan.

Adventurous Wing Commander Review

Also you may note this particular game is NOT an adventure game... heh heh.. hey it is my channel so there!! Seriously though, WC, WC2 and WC3 are all land mark games in computer gaming history that have left their footprints on all games that have ever come after them. While I still intend to focus in adventure games (my fav type of game) it would be criminal of me to talk about the FMV adventure games with out mentioning WC franchise. Then after i tracked it down and started playing it.. I just feel in love with it again and simple couldn't stop. I have always thought that adventure games stand the test of time as they are purly story driven and stories never die, but WC1 and 2 have shown me that action orientated games can have a retro appeal long after there game engines have been immeasurably improved. I suppose it dose help that wc1-3 has such an epic and awesome story.

Well I hope you like it and I will be back soon with my next review (I tend to do them in 2's) and this one will be a classic adventure game again...

Collateral Damage Developer Interviewed

Q: Right now it still seems like the project has mainly produced a collection of models, but you've mentioned getting all the basic ships done before New Years. Are you pretty much there?

A: I am pretty much there. There are a few that still need to be implemented into the Vision Engine - mainly just the capital ships. All the fighters are in the Vision Engine and are complete at the moment. The ship audio is all set. Also, gun sounds, afterburn, etc. The capital ships that need to be implemented are the Coral Sea, the Revenge, the Warrax (inserted as corvette), Ralaxath, Nephilim Palmeri warship (I haven't shown this one), and Earwig (has to be finished and implemented). Each and every fighter has been imported into the Vision Engine that you have seen me post up in the forums.

Q: Is there a story or a script far along (rather than just a premise)?

A: As I've been working on the models, I've also been working on the story. For roughly the past month, the story and character development for ALL the characters as mentioned earlier are about 90% finished. I'd really like for a few people to see it once I really have a good feeling about them, so as not to conflict with any facts, etc.

Q: Are there missions or mission plans? You've demonstrated that you can make ships, but what is the plan to do all the rest?

A: I'm currently on Mission 10 (10 good path, 10 bad path) of a 20+ mission campaign as far as the design concept is concerned. I've been designing the missions so far as fail and success, but have not touched any "Vision Engine mission scripting" as of yet. But I have read up on them and have been researching actually how Standoff scripts the missions that they have designed.

Thank you for your help and there are definitely plans to do all the rest! It's just been a very slooooooow process! bwahaha...

Win Big in Ascii Sector 0.6.3

- Fixed bug with passenger list carrying over if you exit a game and immediately start a new game.
- Fixed bug that allowed you to switch positions with hostile characters when on board a ship.
- Fixed bug that allowed NPCs to shoot at an adjacent enemy in a smoke cloud.
- Fixed bug with selling hidden compartments on Bellamy.
- Fixed bug with guild missions to Bellamy.
- Fixed bug with NPCs running away from you on a base if you have a hostile character on board your ship.
- Fixed bug that caused stuff on your ship to be moved around if you scooped up an ejected pilot while walking about your ship.
- Fixed bug that allowed shooting through the outer walls of a space station.
- Fixed bug that allowed you to aim through two diagonal impassable tiles.
- Fixed bug with cargo boxes not being removed from your cargo hold if you complete a "deliver to ship" mission while walking around on your ship.
- Fixed bug with tiles that had a cargo box in them not being walkable after you transfer or jetisson the cargo.
- Fixed bug with secondary objective not marked as completed after completing a "convoy" mission.
- Fixed bug with entering your ship from below by holding down the left and up arrow keys.
- Fixed bugs with missile lock status.
- Fixed various bugs with items on the ground that occured when there were more than 255 items in play.
- Fixed bug that made it impossible to send orders to your wingman.
- Fixed bug when buying large amounts of cargo for deliver cargo missions.
- Fixed bug with being unable to transfer a captive to a Dralthi.
- Fixed bug that caused the Turret AI to be a bit too "shy" when there are multiple hostiles in its line of fire.
- Fixed bug with smoke and explosion from grenades passing through walls of docking tube.
- Added the Lucky Lady casino ship at Nav 2 in the Adavene system.
- You can now switch positions with NPCs in Combate Mode just like you can when not in Combat Mode (also, NPCs can now switch positions with each other as well).

Watch Fatman's Geeky Show

I've got a great Nerd Treat for y'all! If you are too smart to be cool and too cool to be a nerd, you are a Scientiste. That's what Circuit Girl and I call you. That, and our friend. And we've been working on creating a community that's worthy of your attention and participation.

Famous Ubergeek Chick Jeri Ellsworth and I have been playing, having fun, making prototypes, discussing creativity, making music, and webcasting the whole thing as The Fat Man and Circuit Girl. So check it out... get on the forums and geek out with us, and enjoy!!!!

WCPedia Reaches 1,000 Articles!

Today I spent several hours working on WC1 mission entries (7 more fully completed with only 5.75 left to go but the articles are already laid out). In the process of doing that the 1,000th WCPedia article was created being the Kappa Wing mission in Hubble's Star.

There's probably another 3 hours of WC1 mission entries left. After I finish those I've created a a project list for myself that I plan to follow in the coming months. Despite my lack of free time, this project is something I've really wanted to see move forward and I will continue to work in the coming months to make sure it does. I'm especially looking for a USG text helper. Even if you don't own the USG but want to help PM me and we can discuss it.

Thanks to all those who have contributed to so far to the project.

For those who are interested here are some stats about the project:

Wing Commander Encyclopedia statistics

There are 2,126 total pages in the database. This includes "talk" pages, pages about Wing Commander Encyclopedia, minimal "stub" pages, redirects, and others that probably do not qualify as content pages. Excluding those, there are 1,004 pages that are probably legitimate content pages.

603 files have been uploaded.

There have been a total of 997,554 page views, and 6,557 page edits since Wing Commander Encyclopedia was setup. That comes to 3.08 average edits per page, and 152.14 views per edit.

WC Invasion 2.0 Released!

...and so it came to pass that v2.0 was released, and with it came a plethora of additional units for the player to construct to destoy his enemy with. But was that the end of the Invasion or could there be more??

Well in short. Maps, props, a third side........

Anyway. With the mod seeming to rely on the stock maps, I delved into map making itself and after some initial hiccups and quite a bit of help, I managed to get my first test map done (this was released with v2.0). While this current version was being constructed, I felt it necessary to find something which I could use as a props. With thanks to a member of WCNews forum I have around 16 models which will be converted and used on various skirmish maps. Almost all these will need some sort of poly reduction or rebuilding done to them as they are a bit high poly for my mods needs. I'll be posting some pics of these at a later time. There's also a definite need to get the third side up and running but I'm still undecided as to which it will be (the Nephillim are still prime candidate, with the Border Worlds a close second), and I'll also be looking at the various other sides which appear in the WC games. If I'm able to get a working GC for this version then I will be attempting to include several of these sides as well, albeit as unplayable factions (this is solely due to limited fighter and/or capital ship classes).

Anyway, thats about it for the time being. I'll bring another update as soon as possible.

Massive Network Announced for Mass Effect 2

Preview WC Saga Introduction

Welcome to the latest Saga news update! We are excited to ring in 2010 and are looking forward to a great year. This week we would like to share six pictures of our rendition of the intro sequence. Please bear in mind that the CGI scenes are not final yet, so they don't represent the quality of the final product. You'll be seeing more of our cutscenes as we continue pushing out media. These pictures are just an appetizer.

Star Trek Online Warps In Next Month

I finally got on last night, though I'm still having issues with it this morning... Played for a bit. It's nice and smooth in space combat, but it's glithy as hell on a base with other players running around. I think it's just lag though since turning the graphic effects down doesn't seem to smooth it out significantly. As a result, areas loaded with Human controled characters are painful. There's some neat options at HQ but it was almost impossible to move.

That said, space combat was actually pretty good and some of the missions were nice. Though I did run into at least one where I need some extra Human players since I was outgunned and outnumbered. And the "Away missions" are a suitable diversion. Not sure how they will play out over the long run. Third Person shooter play (of sorts) is not as fluid as I would like. But the various customizing options of your bridge crew and away team are nice.

Standoff Secrets Waiting to be Discovered

Thanks to everyone who voted for us in the Fan Project of the Year contest! ... By the way, 2009 was the last year that we were eligible - for sure, we'll be releasing a patch or two during 2010, but hopefully the CIC will not allow us to be nominated again - or if they do, hopefully you guys will have the good sense to vote for a project that's actually active. ... But, here's an interesting bit of info for all those of you that sit on the sidelines and cheer us fan project folks on - by far the most motivating award we ever got was the one we received in the 2006 competition... where we won nothing at all, and indeed, weren't even nominated for anything. Ouch - that really pushes you to make better progress the next year.

Now, moving on to the actual subject of this thread. Sometimes, as we approach a release, we actually have time to add one or two easter eggs into the game. Usually, these are just silly things - click on something, and get a weird sound or voiceover. Episode 5, however, featured an easter egg that, I believe, might actually be more interesting to some people than the rest of the game. Amazingly enough, while Iceblade hinted at finding this easter egg just two days after the initial release... nobody else ever found it (or, at least, nobody ever posted about it). ... I was reminded about it recently by that Kilrathi language thread - but decided not to post about it while the voting was still going on (...and nearly forgot about it again, in the process).

So, here's the challenge - there's a few easter eggs in the final Standoff release, can you find the one I'm talking about, near the end of the game? It's not, let me assure you, gibberish - so the second challege is, can you decrypt it? Plus, a bonus question - can you identify the song clip in the background and who's playing it?

Just one detail - when you find the easter egg, please post about how to find it (and show a screenshot) in this thread before you get to work on decrypting it. Looking for easter eggs is enjoyable, but in this particular case, it's the decryption that's gonna be the real fun, so don't forget to share! (besides, there's no reward for being the first - and you may need help decrypting :) )

Space Shuttles for Sale

The lower price is based on NASA’s estimate of the cost for transporting a shuttle from Kennedy Space Center to a major airport, and for displaying it indoors in a climate-controlled building. The travel cost may vary based on location. NASA has moved up the delivery date to the latter half of 2011, instead of 2012.

Potential customers have until Feb. 19 to put in a request.

Congratulations Contest Winners!

Wingnuts around the world have spoken, and they've chosen their winners for the 2009 Fan Project and Web Site of the Year! Each one of the nominees has contributed significantly to the WC community, and we'd like to thank everyone who helped share their enjoyment of the series over the last twelve months. Without further delay, here are the what the fans chose...

The 2009 Fan Project of the Year is Wing Commander Standoff! After nearly a decade of steady development and releases, the final chapter of this excellent Secret Ops mod was released. The team behind the game has continued to push technical boundaries with the addition of cutscenes, new graphical effects and online scoreboards. After Episode 5's launch, the developers have continued to provide support and clean up bugs as they're found.

The runner up for Fan Project of the Year is Privateer Gemini Gold. This multiplatform Privateer remake released a major upgrade in 2009 that added voiceovers to Righteous Fire, high resolution base graphics, new cockpit displays, impressive asteroid fields, bug fixes and more. Even the instruction manual was overhauled.

The 2009 Web Site of the Year is WC Saga! The team behind Saga keeps their fans in the loop with regular status updates, contribution requests, picture releases and special features. And they've already started on their 2010 updates as they push towards a full release.

The first of two co-runners up for Web Site of the Year is Wing Commander Standoff. The project site was completely redone to coincide with the launch of their final chapter. Everything was reorganized for easier reading and quick access.

The other runner up is Paper Commander. After some brief downtime, the site came back with a booming triple pack in December. Although not the only source of Wing Commander paper models, Paper Commander has produced the most and some of the most beautiful paper reproductions to date.

Congratulations to the winners! And thanks to all Wing Commander fans who do their part every day to keep everyone excited and engaged!

Buy 3, Get 1 Free from EA on XBLA

Electronic Arts has a winter sale in effect right now. Buy three pieces of select downloadable content for XBox Live Arcade by January 31, 2010, and receive 800 microsoft points for free! Wing Commander Arena isn't on the list of titles that get you free points, but many other games are. On the rare chance you have an XBox and don't have Arena, this is your opportunity to get a free Wing Commander game! Check out the full lineup here.

Purchase any three (3) or more eligible pieces of content via the Xbox Live Marketplace between December 25, 2009 and January 31st, 2010 and receive 800 Microsoft Points.

*Limit one (1) rebate per person. To qualify for your gift, you must buy three (3) eligible games or game add-ons from Xbox LIVE Arcade using your Xbox LIVE account, by January 31, 2010 11:59 EST. The free Points will be automatically deposited into your Xbox LIVE account after the end of the promotion period. Please allow 6-8 weeks for delivery. Offer available only to legal residents, age 13+, of the 50 United States (includes D.C.), while supplies last, is non-transferable, not redeemable for cash, and cannot be combined with any other rebate or offer. Taxes, if any, are the sole responsibility of the recipient.

Game Culture Interviews Mark Hamill

Game Culture recently interviewed Mark Hamill regarding his recent work in the game Darksiders. Invariably, Wing Commander worked its way into the conversation:

Can you talk about your involvement in videogames over the years?

The first one that I really worked on that made an impression on me was Wing Commander because we did live action and I was so fascinated. (Game designer) Chris Roberts sat me down and talked to me about the idea of this game. It was almost like an interactive movie. It’s very schizophrenic to me because there were different outcomes for every situation depending on the player. It’s such a leap of faith in terms of putting your performance in the hands of the director and the writers in a way you never would in live action.

What was it like working with Malcolm McDowell in the Wing Commander games?

Malcolm McDowell is so funny. He just makes me laugh all the time and he’s just wicked mean the way he tries to make you break during takes and so forth. You’ll be doing your close-up and he’s off camera mouthing anything just to get you to laugh. I’d look him straight in the chin because I knew if I looked him in his eyes it would make me laugh.

Read the whole interview here.

Conceptual Firekkan Ship Becomes Paper Model

Haven't done the canopy or the detailing, and the underside and tail-bit aren't there, but you can actually start to picture the Firekkan Fighter in its upcoming glory.

It's overhanging the keyboard tray because the nose does curve downward... putting the nose-tip on the surface would mean having to find something to tilt/angle the wings back a bit (would have made for an odd pic).

Frontier Prelude to Darkness Chapter 7 Released

Hey Everyone, Part 7 is here - the story continues at a bit faster pace as the invasion group has arrived at Toyr'Diablo, thus there's finally a bit more action in this one! I hope you all like it.

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5
• Part 6
• Part 7 - New!

Paradigm Set to Destroy Bugs

Check it out :) It's hard to decipher where the bridge is... what a strange design.

Last Call for Votes!

More X3 Mod Shots

Win By Losing

Since the game isn’t dependent on victory, the goal of winning out the war is subverted to the goal of simply surviving long enough to see it through. This difference is the axis upon which the emotionality and depth of the game can turn in unexpected directions. As long as I come back alive, I have to face the consequences of my performance. Those consequences build up over time. Fail a few times and the missions turn more defensive. A few more, and I’m scrabbling to turn the tide of the war. String enough failures together, and now I’m covering a hasty retreat from the sector– alone, if my would-have-been wingman already bought it in a furball a few missions back.

...

If failure adds to the quantity of gameplay, it also adds new qualities to the characters. In the ship’s lounge, my crew mates reflect on their experiences of the war. I see different aspects of the same characters emerge as victory nears or defeat looms. The lounge becomes a profoundly affecting place upon discovering an vacant seat where a wingman would have sat, had he or she not died in a prior mission. Since wingmen can usually die only when they fly with me, the emptiness becomes personally significant: I know the cost of my failure, but I am rewarded with a richer emotional experience.

...

Origin got these lifelike qualities right with Wing Commander. It is a game I love to come back to, and I play as much to lose as to win.

Economic Slump Hits EA

Revised fiscal year 2010 expectations are primarily the result of weakness for EA and the overall packaged goods sector in Europe in December, and a product mix shift to lower margin distribution products in the December quarter, primarily in North America.

Paper Gratha Ready to Fly (on Blocks)

Heresey War Developers Interviewed

SSC: Heresy War's gameplay is centered around a branching story line of missions. Can you explain how this works and can a player actually go down a path that results in a negative outcome?

DBS: We have three types of actions that will impact the single player campaigns (including the ones created by the community): show stoppers , major and minor events.

Show stoppers are the kind of action that prevents you from advancing the story, such as the player dying, losing your base or things like that.

Major events are what branch the campaign into different mission paths. For example let's say you HAVE to destroy an enemy ship, but somehow it escapes into hyperspace. Instead of proceeding to the next mission of the campaign, another mission (or missions) will be launched which will take you on a chase to catch that ship.

Minor events are actually one of the things that we're especially proud of, because they can change the gameplay of from inside the campaign missions. An example would be you rescuing a transport ship in a mission, which was not mission critical. However, after some missions, when you are in a really bad situation, a squadron of friendly ships appears and saves you from your doom. That squadron was made out of the pilots transported by the ship that you previously rescued. If you wouldn't have rescued the ship, the mission would've gotten really difficult.

Invasion Rolling Out New Ships

Well heres the Kilrathi line up. All but one will be available only from the space bouy when captured. There is also a small carrier from the level 1 starbase to compliment the Ralarrad Destroyer. The starbases have also been upgraded with a heavy selection of weapons so they aren't quite so easy to take out. The only unit not pictured here is the Kilrathi specialised unit. I am thinking about the COMCON from the movie but only have a single image, so a creative spark might be required. Anyway, the snakier that I pictured earlier has also had a name change so without further to do. Heres the latest batch of images:

Pictured: Dreadnought MK II, Kamekha Class Light Carrier, Rakshaalar Class Light Carrier, Shaalkhar Class Heavy Cruiser, Shivier Class Heavy Fleet Carrier and Ratooth Class Light Fighter.

WCCD Gets Revenge With Tri-System Ship

I mean remember when all those pirates in Priv 1 were flying around those Talons... Who knows how old those things were, right? So it's definitely plausible to see some Tri-System fighters zoomin' around. Anyways here's some prelim screenshots..

...

The Vendetta is the primary light fighter of the Kindred. They are often used to escort the heavier, more valuable Blade-class fighters during Kindred operations. Because the Kindred does not field a medium fighter of any sort, Vendetta are often used in roles that traditionally require a higher classification of ship. Because of the threat now faced by the Kindred, the military offers a double bounty for destroying Vendettas.

Meet Admiral Tolwyn

On January 12th at 6 p.m., Malcolm McDowell will be signing Halloween II (unrated DVD/Blu Ray). For this special event, Malcolm will be charging $10 to get the first DVD purchased here signed; he will be charging $25 to sign other items (if you order multiple DVDs online, we will adjust the charge accordingly). If you are planning on attending this special signing, you must come to the store prior to the event and pick up a number for your place in line.

Dark Delicacies
4213 W. Burbank
Burbank, CA 91505

New Freddie '24' Shots

Sources said Prinze is joining the cast of the Fox series "24" as a regular, playing Cole Ortiz, a recently returned Marine who runs CTU Field Ops and wants to follow in the footsteps of Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland).

Discuss Kilrathi Language

Known Phrases

"Ek'rah skabak erg Thrak'Kilrah maks Rag'nith."
For the glory of Kilrah, the Emperor and the Empire.

"Kir'kha n'ikh rakh k'har, Sharhi nar Hhallas."
I, Sharhi of Hhallas, swear to avenge my honor.

"H'as aiy'hra n'hakh ri'kahri krikajj, nai korekh sha'yi."
Beyond the eyes of my enemy, I shall prepare for the day of his destruction.

"Ja'lra rash'nakh h'rai?"
Why are you consorting with a human?

Don't Forget to Vote

WC Saga German Audio Book Released

This MCS production is read by Marco Ansing, Alessandro Alioto, Sara Kelly-Husain, Jan Boysen, Ralf "Searge" Pappers, Tabitha Hammer and Sven Matthias. These actors will also be the voice acting power behind the upcoming German version of the Wing Commander Saga Prologue. A musical score by Edward Bradshaw, Tim Janssenss and Dennis Schuster adds atmosphere to this lavish production. A great deal of care and time has been spent creating an audio book which elaborates upon the story of Wing Commander Saga. Get the MP3 file and enjoy the story.... if you can understand German, that is.

Happy Birthday Spirit!

Paper Commander Triple Pack Released

Péricles has released a well-rounded trio of new paper models at Paper Commander. The Epee, Dorkathi and Talon are all available to build now! Each zip package contains Adobe Reader PDF files and Pepakura models. The Epee includes an attracting mounting stand, the large Dorkathi is one of the easiest oversize models to build and the Talons come in three flavors: Church of Man, Pirate and Gemini Sector Militia. Have fun!

• Epee (715 k zip)
• Dorkathi (3.7 meg zip)
• Talon (920 k zip)

After you construct these three, try out some of these other fantastic paper designs!

Curious about Chronicles of the Claw?

I had started writing this a couple years ago, but I had to stop when I went to college and ROTC. I'm thinking about starting it up again and I was interested in your feedback on the part I've already written. The story is attached as two Word files to this post. The pages are set up like you were reading a paperback. Comments welcome and Merry Christmas!

...

“One second Maverick, I’ll be right there.” The other Dralthi was on Knight’s tail, but that was by Khumalo’s own design. He pulled up into a half loop, flipped over and quickly dropped his Porcupine Mine. The Dralthi followed him into the maneuver, right into the waiting surprise. It promptly exploded upon contact, leaving Knight free to assist Blair.

Maverick continued to do snap rolls, pulling hard away from incoming Kilrathi fire. Whenever he had attempted to come around and fire on one of the Dralthi, the other started following him from the opposite direction. “Can’t shake em…”

“I got you covered buddy.” Knight replied, loosing a Spiculum IV Image Recognition missile from the undercarriage of his Raptor. The Spiculum was tuned to the image of one of the hostile Dralthi, and it bore in on the Kilrathi craft. The Dralthi attempted an evasive, which gave Maverick the room to pull out of the laser fire. The missile sailed wide of the Dralthi, which had a much sharper turning radius.

Glad You Made it Back in One Piece

This fighter pilot came a little close during his last run. His mechanic will have a few choice words with him. It is not a specifically existing fighter in the Wing Commander universe.. just something that looks a bit pieced together. It was done with Pigma Micron art pens and 'ultra bright' copy paper. This was the last drawing of the year for 2009. I felt like it should be something fitting for 'another successful run.' Happy 2010 everybody.

Lighting a Candle

Thank you for your concern. My former manager, Cathryn Jaymes (who handled me for 18 years) has been struggling with multiple tumors. The doctors did brain surgery on Cathryn a couple of months ago. But she has other tumors in her body that they can't get to. She has suffered through a lot of pain. We thought she was "passing on" yesterday. Could be anytime now. At least she's in a deep sleep. Cathryn took me on when I only had a few credits. She always believed in me. Sometimes more than I believed in myself. I owe her a lot. I just wanted to let you know about her, because if I don't, well, if we don't talk about people, remember people, it's like they were never there. Cathryn was always there for me. I love her very much. Just want to put that out there. Aloha to you all.

Vote Here!

Fan Projects of the Year
• 
  Ascii Sector continues to receive constant incremental upgrades, bug fixes and new features. The game got new systems, achievements, player ship interiors and ship-to-ship boarding in 2009. Fans are eagerly awaiting the new casino ship in 2010.
• Collateral Damage has rounded out its assortment of ships. This mod to Secret Ops gets its inspiration from both Prophecy's Nephilim and Arena's rugged designs. JasonRocZ is currently seeking fan input to refine the mod and give the game good direction.
• The Community Replay concluded its run this year. In addition to motivating people to play the entire series, DaveO's replay produced a very thorough picture and video archive.
• Flight Commander's mission editor was improved and the game's AI got better formation flying down. Exciting new features are in the works for next year.
• Gemini Gold's latest version is full of new features. Righteous Fire's campaign got voiceovers, the base graphics were upgraded to high resolution, certain spaceflight textures are sharper and many bugs were fixed.
• Howard Day's Models continue to impress. The Broadsword and Scimitar were some of the most fantastic ships made this year, and his dashing paint schemes were based on community requests.
• Invasion released two stable and playable betas this year. New ships are still being added to its existing armada as the next release nears.
• Standoff released its final chapter after more than eight years in production! Not content to just finish the story, older chapters were tweaked and the entire game got a graphical boost. The game's simulator scoreboards were also expanded with achievements and new online missions.
• WC Saga got a handful of scary Kilrathi ships with improved graphics and a bunch of beautiful backgrounds. The mod is working to wrap its voice acting as it goes into the new year.

Web Sites of the Year
• 
  Invasion's site regularly receives status updates and new screenshot postings. Its moddb cross-pollination also helps bring new fans into the fold.
• Paper Commander started 2009 with updates and instructions on how to build the Venture corvette and closed out the year with a triple release of the Epee, Talon and Dorkathi.
• Standoff got an all-new website built from the ground up to coincide with the release of Episode 5. The new design is fast, slick and provides tons of information on the ships, characters and tie-in material for the game.
• WC Saga's site keeps its fans informed with frequent news posts, updated screenshots and downloads. The project also got a twitter feed this year.
• Wedge's Wing Commander site stands as a great resource for Wingnuts looking for information on the various games. Its straightforward organization pulls together relevant resources in neat sections.
• Wing Center is a major hub for German Wing Commander fans. Their news collection and reporting efforts help spread the fandom to a major segment of Europe. The site has been regularly updated throughout the year on a wide variety of topics.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to Wingnuts everywhere! By now most time zones have reached 2010, and what an exciting milestone that is. By some counts, this puts the CIC into its third operating decade (the 1990s, the 2000s and now the 2010s). When the CIC staff started reporting Wing Commander news in the mid '90s, the 21st Century was far away and well out of mind. In 2001, we paid off the wcnews.com domain through 2010, which seemed unimaginably far off then, and now it's here!

Each year we continue to be impressed by the continued dedication of Wing Commander fans around the world. Every day some two thousand fans still visit the site, and hundreds of Wingnuts still actively participate in fan projects, forum discussions and more. You all provide the material that goes into our daily front page updates, and we are fast-approaching our 10,000th news post. Each one represents an hour or two of our time, but they often share dozens or hundreds of hours of yours.

It's this constant dedication that proves there is support for more Wing Commander products, and recent releases like Wing Commander 4 on the Playstation Network wouldn't happen if you weren't here. Thanks for all the creativity and time so many of you have donated in 2009, and we're looking forward to an even bigger and better 2010 and beyond!

Gauge the Future

The first of the year is also time when we take a reading of Wing Commander fans' confidence in the year ahead. What surprises are in store for 2010? Quite a few fan projects will continue to evolve and be released, and we are just nine months away from the Wing Commander series' 20th birthday!

Our last poll asked what the first thing was that happens after a mission. Checking the killboard and saving the game were neck and neck, followed closely by talking to other characters.