Learn About Privateer’s Deleted Rufueler Truck (February 23, 2024)

[ChrisReid]

You made it to the weekend! Time to repair, rearm and refuel. To help ease you out of the workweek, here's a brief primer on the Refueler. No, not the Condor Refueling Shuttle, but that's a good guess! We're going all the way back to the Privateer Refueler truck that was cut from the final version of the game. It appears in a variety of prerelease screenshots and even several images on the back of the box. LOAF did a bunch of research on it last year, and here's the scoop:

Privateer was originally intended to include an animated refueler and loader at nearly every hangar which would interact with your landed spacecraft. The animations were cut from the game and the refueler removed entirely. The 3D model for the Refueler has been discovered marked inactive in PAD.3DS in the WC3D archive.

It does appear in a screenshot used in print advertising and then three times on the box of the game itself. The Refueler also appears in a number of other screenshots of pre-release builds of the game. Refueler is the term used in the game's development material; it does not have a canonical name.

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Original update published on February 23, 2024

 

[Darkmage]

The insane level and attention to detail are why these games remain iconic 30+ years later. They created worlds that seemed to be bigger than what was presented to the player.