Deviant Artist Conjures Up Thunderbolt Blueprints Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Artist HandofManos posted this stylish rendition of a Thunderbolt blueprint on DeviantArt. It's a slick five-view line art over a hexagon background. Check out his other awesome WC illustrations here.

An old design, or better said a blueprint of an already designed ship. The Thunderbolt as seen in Wing Commander III and IV.

A Terran heavy fighter its heavy ordnance made it even a threat to capital ships thanks to its capability to carry a torpedo. Even so it is less agile compared to the Hellcat or Arrow fighters

New 'Sport Inbound to Vega Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

WC Vega has some new cargo capacity with the addition of the Drayman class transport to their fleet. The ship was constructed with a pair of pill bottles, some foam and lots of creativity. It's impressive how quickly this came together after their Tiger's Claw model. A new chapter of the Vega story has also been released, and they promise we'll get a peek at a Scimitar next week! You can catch up on all the Wing Commander film project adventures from Mike Peters and his students at their website here.
We don’t make Drayman because they are easy … yes, we do! What’s fun about the Drayman ‘Sport: In a game where cats are the enemy, isn’t it fun that our transports look like mice! I wonder if that was intentional.

This fellow is the transport Edmund Fitzgerald (it’s Motown week) sent to Venice to rescue some stranded pilots in episodes 2 and 3. The night before the mission, someone-Ratbert-painted a mouse nose and whiskers on the bow. The captain was not amused. I wanted to see what a Drayman Trojan Mouse would look like.

WC RPG: Just the Factions Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

It's the final week for the WC RPG's Kickstarter project. They're attempting to gather the funds to commission Origin artist Denis Loubet to make a new Kilrathi portrait. The campaign is quite a ways from its goal, so if this is something you can get behind, the days remaining are limited.


Meanwhile, capi continues to make furious progress on the factions that will exist in the next module of the RPG itself, Elegy of Sivar. He's built additional backstory for the corporations that exist in the Epsilon Sector where the action takes place. These are largely companies like shipbuilders or other military contractors that will play a role in the game. Additional work was also done on groups like pirates and paramilitary orgs. Soon capi will be going back to the storyline a bit to make sure everything is in sync with all of the extra content that's come together recently.

This week is the final week for the Kickstarter. We're not quite down to the eleventh hour on the campaign yet but it is rapidly approaching, and I do plan on sending reminders about it throughout the week on CIC, RSI, Twitter and Facebook. I am still hopeful the campaign will be like most Kickstarters I've seen, with activity picking up in the last few days (or hours).

My Plan for this week is to divert from work on Elegy to work on the proofreading for Aginor's "Hand of Sivar" Saga campaign; I've been putting this off for over a month at this point and it needs to be done so that Aginor's work on the final bit of the campaign can progress. I'll probably get back to work on the Elegy campaign story in Chapter Two. I've got two unfinished pieces of business with Chapter Seven - some actual text for 7.0 and a few craft images to build for 7.2 - which I may try to work on as well.

Homeworld WC Mod Gets Even Bigger Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

L.I.F. has big news for players of his WC mod for Homeworld Remastered. He's figured out how to remove the size limitation on ships, which will significantly boost the scale of his majestic fleets! While the supersized Kilrathi Dreadnought is now theoretically possible, he's taken his first stab at big ships with the TCS Lexington heavy carrier featured in Armada (pictured to the right).
Powered by the free market and the paying mod initiative (just kidding, that mod will never, ever, ever be paying, screw that idiocy), I hereby announce great news! I've found a way to bypass the size limitation for the models, and while I'm still tinkering with it, the first results are clear: IT WORKS!

I've got a fully functional model of the Lexington heavy carrier ingame. I still have to get the textures and everything else, but the roadblock has just been demolished. Which means that I can confidently say that the Kilrathi Dreadnought and all the Confed Fleet are now within reach, though with a lot of work needed. But they are possible!

Discover what is probably the biggest model to have been integrated in Homeworld 2. Not the most beautiful or the most outwards-detailed, but a massive model with a superb interior hangar with more than 81 k faces where everyone else was limited to 65535. I took some random textures I had for other units because the test was just to see if it would work at all without a CTD.

Additional modeling support is also coming from Lc4Hunter, who made some impressive progress on a WC mod for X3 a few years back. A promo reel for that project is below, which should give fans an idea of his talent!

Which Way Back to Base? Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

The new poll asks which game had the best nav map. Although maps are often a mundane afterthought in most games, they were a critical component in the Wing Commander series. in WC1 and WC2, the game had an incredible sense of freedom thanks to the ability to reroute a patrol around an asteroid field or head straight home after a particularly tough encounter. Academy brought customization to the next level with the ability to make entire missions in an interface that was very similar to the familiar nav console. Then Armada went and made an entire engrossing strategy game out of tiny ship icons and jump lines. WC3 and WC4 may have had the least used map, and this may have translated into some lost escorts in the next game because Prophecy and Secret Ops had a very useful feature where pilots could see which object an enemy was targeting and even lock onto it from within the map itself. In Privateer, pilots had to earn the money to buy their maps before they could explore outside the quadrant, and the 3D map in Privateer 2 made route plotting quite an ordeal. Finally, the adventures of the customizable card game played out right on top of the nav point layout you built yourself, which may have made it the most exciting map of all!
The old poll asked what the best fighter was for quick and nimble operations. Not surprisingly, the Arrow took the lead on this one. The Ferret just barely beat out the Vampire for second place.

Relive Blair's Story in Seven Minutes Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Szych has put together a tribute video to the Wing Commander series. He hits the highlights of WC1 through 4 as well as Prophecy in one composite package. While the clip is jam packed with different scenes, it's not just a music video with random edits - he does a good job of trying to cover many of the major plots points in a fun nostalgic trip. Good for weekend watching!
Thanks to Deathsnake for catching this one.

Flat Universe on Mission Design Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

The Maslas Brothers have again taken to the forums to answer questions from fans, this time focusing on map design. The playing field in Flat Universe is made up of distinct scenes or maps, interconnected through jump points. Each map can have any number of hotspots, such as space stations or asteroid fields, and missions may span multiple maps. You can grab the latest playable alpha version from the project website and keep track of development news through twitter.

Well lets see... Maps and Mission Design

Our game is build in a similar way to the open universe of Privateer. We have a group of interconnected systems each one being a scene (that's a map). Each system has no boundaries but it has some static points of interest (e.g. jump points, asteroid fields, mine fields, star bases, refueling depots). Each jump point connects on scene with the other. One of the things we currently build is the NAV/Goals/Jump system. Of course the system won't be fully operational if we won't also finish with the auto-pilot system.

When everything is ready if you have any jump capable ship in any mission you can simple go to the jump point, hit j and there you go to the next system. That's the purpose of, at the moment useless free-flight mode: to test intersystem flights or just have fun jumping around....

Now mission design. In our mission design concept the designer can use either the static nav/jump points, add custom nav points or any mix of the two. Additionally a mission is not limited in any system. You can design a simple mission at the edge of a system or a complex mission that spans all the systems in the game. There is no limit. Now through the editor/config files you can add any objects you like (fighters, cap ships, asteroid/mine fields, whatever) in any system, mark mission specific options/goals to these objects, fill in briefings/debriefings and link to the next mission(s) in the campaign and you are done.

Finally the open source mission editor it is not a bad idea. We would design the text/XML/whatever config file and build the mission editor on that.

New WC Saga Tools Released To Assist Pilots Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Luke has created two more useful tools to help both players and modders of WC Saga. WCS Base Extract is a utility that unpacks Saga files as a first step towards creating new missions in the game. Mouse Trap improves control for pilots who fly with a mouse. Further background info and complete instructions are available through the forums linked below.
WCS Base Auto Extract (Download)

Do you want to change something at mod level or do you plan to create your own WCS missions or campaign or do you simply want a look behind the scenes? Then WCS Base Extract is a good start to first unpack all WCS content very easy and very fast. It supports the original VP's with the officially WCS patch 1.1.0.7822.

WCS Mouse Trap (Download)

You want to play WCS in window mode and you fly with mouse, but you irritated about lost mouse focus during gameplay? WCS Mouse Trap solves this problem simple and comfortable.

WC Film Project Energizes Next Generation of Gamers Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Mike Peters is a high school teacher and a huge Wing Commander fan. For an exciting summer project, he's working with his students to put together a fun film series. They've already started on the story, which will center on Colonel Halcyon and Commodore/Admiral Tolwyn prior to the events of WC1. A model Tiger's Claw has also come together very quickly in the past week or so. Based on how fast it was assembled, they should be able to build the rest of their planned fleet in no time! We're looking forward to seeing what they come up with next. You can follow the development of their project, Wing Commander Vega, at their new blog here.
I need to make another one. She looks pretty beat up. Maybe this will be the Claw from the third season, after it’s been around the Kilrathi block a few times. Just from the things I learned from the problems I had making this one, I can make another that looks 100 times better. For example, spray paint eats through foam like xenomorph blood eats through a starship bulkhead? I nearly lost the entire flight deck. (That’s why there’s paper over it in the above pics.) After a plaster reconstruction, she was ready to receive flights again.

You get the idea, but with a gal this pretty, it’s hard to stop taking pictures. (Said in an Old-Timey Sea Dog accent!)

My film degree is 15 years old, from the days when 3D rendering was a distant dream-right up there with flying cars. When I was little, my wish-job was to work for Hasbro and write for G.I.Joe. That didn’t happen, but building this Tiger’s Claw has made me realize how much fun making my own toys IS! It is fun, but a lot of waiting. Wait for the plaster to dry. Wait for the paint to dry. Anyway, here are some stills of the Tiger’s Claw at the shipyards.

Wing Commander Added to Origin Humble Bundle Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Last week's leak about the Origin Humble Bundle has been officially announced! The baseline bundle with Dragon Age, Peggle, Dead Space 2, Medal of Honor and C&C Generals is available at any price, but gamers who pay more than the average unlock eight additional titles, including Wing Commander 3&4, Sim City 2000 and Ultima 7. The average is currently just $4.93. Then your entire purchase price goes to charity! Grab the bundle here.
We are seven days into the Humble Origin Bundle 2, and are already blown away by the amazing generosity from the gaming community all over the Globe. So far, gamers have picked up 395,000 bundles, and raised $1.9 million for charity! You're all amazing, and together we're well on our way to raising a ton of money for Girls Who Code, The V-Foundation, and buildOn.

As amazing as the first week has been, we’re not done yet. It’s time to sweeten the deal: As of today, we’ve added four more games to the Humble Origin Bundle 2, bringing the bundle up to 13 awesome games! To see the full bundle (and to get one for yourself!), head on over to humblebundle.com.

New to the bundle are the space sim epics Wing Commander III and IV, the legendary city-builder SimCity 2000, and the classic Richard Garriott RPG Ultima VII. If you previously purchased the beat the average tier of Humble Origin Bundle 2, these titles are automatically yours at no additional cost!

It's Hip To Be Square Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

We haven't heard much on Ron B's WC strategy game lately, but he's back now with an update. The biggest change is that the hex-based space grids have been turned into squares to streamline development. Other aspects of the project have been coming along well, so he actually expects to be able to share a playable test release soon. The new screenshots below show off the game in its current form. It seems to be shaping up nicely!
Some screenshots just to show the progress. More coming soon. I'm very excited to get your reactions!

New Utility Boosts Prophecy & Secret Ops Framerate Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

gr1mre4per has put together a neat new upgrade patch for Wing Commander Prophecy & Secret Ops. There are patches that upgrade the video to DVD quality, enable OpenGL graphics support and even add multiplayer, but the game is still locked at 32 frames per second. grim's patch updates the Prophecy or Secret Ops executable to run at any custom refresh rate, although 60 seems to work the best and provides nice and smooth motion. wcnut reports that it functions on a Mac with a wine wrapper, and it should also be compatible with Standoff or Unknown Enemy. Grab the patch (90 k zip) and test it out for yourself, and let everyone know how it works at the CIC Forums!
For a short time I've been teaching my self some coding with C++. Using HCl's fantastic site as a source of information, I made myself a few little tools. Although some of these were previously available, I wanted to make my own as a kind of 'proof I can' type thing. I made myself an IFF compiler/decompiler for any IFF file and a TRE/PAK un'pak-er' for Privateer. I've also extracted almost all of Prophecy's ship models, all detail levels, including many some people may have never seen (or may have, I'm a little out-of-date here). I'll create a separate thread for that soon.

But the one I want to give out now is a Frame Rate booster for Prophecy. By default, Prophecy runs at a fixed 32 Frames Per Second. I wanted to see if I could change it to increase it. Now I have, I put this tool together to make it easy for everyone to do. The advantage is that space flight looks and feels a lot smoother.

The tool has some pre-set levels and a custom level (limited between 15 and 1000). In most situations, 60 is enough as by default the game runs with Vertical Sync enabled, which synchronises to the monitor refresh rate, which is usually 60 Hz, so maximum 60 FPS possible.

It is possible to force V-SYNC off in most graphics drivers. This allows much higher frame rates. But this does start introducing some problems when the frame rate gets above 100. Some animations, such as shields, will happen quicker, sometimes to the point you don't even see them. Also COMMS can sometimes stutter. My personal favourite is asteroids will rotate stupidly fast. But for the most part, there are no adverse effects in game play and V-SYNC is better left on for the smoothest results.

I have tested the tool with Prophecy and both the web-downloaded and Prophecy Gold Secret Ops versions (they are slightly different) and it works on all of them. It should also work on Standoff, UE and other mods, but this is untested. I am also not sure if it will affect the multiplayer enhancement.

I hope you enjoy it.

Rapier + Ninja = Boulder Blaster Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Wojo is well known as an aficionado of the WC Movie's Rapier I fighter. Recently he was shocked to see one Lego's latest toys, the Ninjago Boulder Blaster. It's a cylindrical fighter with a big rotary cannon for a nose. There are also smallish downward facing wings below the cockpit and raised horizontal stabilizers in the rear. The resemblance is uncanny - it almost looks more like a Rapier than the time a Wingnut made a Rapier out of Legos!
Just saw this on a tv ad... sat bolt upright!

New Preview Features Wing Commander Star Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Many of you have already seen it, but a hot new video is exploding across the internet. Wing Commander's Malcolm McDowell has been made the new spokesman for Lunchables Uploaded, but he's not a great fit. His hilarious new commercial is below.
Thanks to Whistler for the tip. Oh yeah, Christopher Blair narrates a new Star Wars trailer that just came out too.

WC Skin Pack Jazzes Up Modern Jets Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Cannon Song has put together a nifty skin pack for Vector Thrust, a new flight sim based around today's fighter jet designs. Rather than import Wing Commander models though, he's reimagined the paint schemes of six craft based on their WC equivalents. Looks closely and you'll see this was accomplished very creatively! The "Confed" jets below sport the right colors, stripes, checker patterns on the Hellcat and even teeth in the case of the Arrow and Thunderbolt-inspired designs. On the Kilrathi side, the "Gratha" borrows from a design with a similarly raised forward fuselage, while the Jalkehi has larger forward-swept wings protruding from the aft. The Dralthi is also medium size red-tipped bird. There are future plans to redecorate even more fighters and maybe even capships. Special WC-themed voice packs may also be possible. Vector Thrust owners can grab the skins here.
Hello! I'm a long-time fan of the WC series- and the site, and I thought you guys might be interested in a project I'm working on for the game Vector Thrust on Steam.

It's called "Wings of Victory," and it's my own personal attempt to inject a bit of the Wing Commander universe into the game. My first release for the project, a pack of reskinned aircraft in Kilrathi- and Confederation-inspired liveries, is already available on ModDB, and I plan to add things such as custom voice-acted voice packs for AI pilots and even a fully voice-acted mission to the project fairly soon.

I know it's not a traditional project, but it's been a really exciting experiment for me, and I hope to bring players of the game a nice taste of Origin-flavored nostalgia with what's planned!

Thank you!

Sincerely,
CannonSong

F-27 Arrow V: "The Arrow? Man, they were about a dime-a-dozen, cheaply-built, had next to no armor or shields... best ship I ever flew! Shoulda seen the look on a Kat pilot's face when you kept on their fuzzy butt in one of those things- the mix of sheer confusion and growing terror almost made the war worthwhile... almost."
-Lt. Eric "Scrappy" Salinger, TCS Wisconsin

HF-66 Thunderbolt VII: "The 'Thud,' we called it. That's the sound one of 'em makes when it slams into some poor SOB in a first-gen Dralthi. I tell ya, we probably set the squadron record for ramming kills in those things- the fact that it could carry a metric crapload of ordnance was just icing on the cake."
-Maj. Johnathan "Johnny" Johnson, TCS Paris

Hellcat V: "Some people say that being a jack-of-all-trades is a bad thing, that you have to be good at one or two things, or else you're just pissin' in the wind. Those sorts of people must not have been assigned Hellcats. The 'Cat would do everything you wanted it to, and it never made a peep in complaint. And, well, it could do a whole hell of a lot!"
-Cpt. Alissa McKay, TCS Resolute (Fmr.)

Gratha: "The Gratha. There were many commanders who did not favor it. It looked too... 'Human' for them, too symmetrical. They did not favor its maintenance requirements or its heavy armament, thinking such things would make a warrior complacent, weak. Those sorts of commanders were fools."
-Kursi nar Hhallas, Former Kilrathi Ace

Jalkehi: "Heavily favored by commerce raiders and rebels, its long range and ample room for provisions allow the Jalkehi to operate for long periods without support. Heavily armed, and in the hands of a skilled pilot, absolutely deadly."
-Terran Confederation Intelligence Report 32775

Dralthi: "The maintenance chief said they had found the wreckage of a Dralthi. He asked if I would like for them to restore it, so that I could fly it. I responded by breaking his jaw. ...I had assumed he was insulting me."
-Lt. Kolya "Killer Kat" nar Phoenix (Formerly Kalles nar Kur'u'tak,) TCS Guardian of Sol, describing an altercation on the flight deck.

Wing Commander Joining Origin Humble Bundle Soon Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Electronic Arts is participating in a new Humble Bundle sale for charity. For those unfamiliar with this event, players can name their price for a set of games that would otherwise retail for $134. They can then determine how to split the proceeds among three designated organizations. New games are normally added to the deal over a two-week period. However, a post on the Korean EA Origin page has leaked out some of the upcoming games. This include classics Wing Commander 3 & 4 as well as Ultima 7 and Sim City 2000. WC3 was already given away on the house last year, but it's very exciting to think about the hundreds of thousands of incoming new owners of the special DVD edition of WC4! Stay tuned and we'll let you know when the WC additions become official.

A Simple, Yet Beautiful, Dralthi Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

NinjaLA's latest sketch is a really well drawn Dralthi medium fighter. The dynamic engine and laser cannon effects are a good complement to the space frame colored in with pencil-style filler. And everything contrasts well with that twilight blue background, including the darker bit where the Dralthi almost casts a shadow on the night sky. Nice job!
One for my Wing Commander friends.. day 3 of the every-day-in-April draw-a-thon!

Three's a Crowd, Twenty-Eight's a WC RPG Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Elegy of Sivar continues to make progress on a couple different fronts. capi spent the beginning of April working on the reputation system for the complex RPG, which is a big deal for a module that will have 28 different factions in it. He's spent quite a bit of time recently firming up the descriptions for these groups and filling out their backstories to make them varied and interesting. The project's Kickstarter has plateaued a bit. If you'd like to help the project commission Origin senior artist Denis Loubet to do a new piece of Kilrathi cover art, you can help donate here.
Much like last week, my Plan for this week is to keep going in Chapter 6.0 working on faction profiles. From Bartok through the end of the chapter, I've got eighteen profiles left to compose and review (and I know some of the ones in the paramilitary group section are fairly well developed right now). I'm thinking this effort will take a few weeks at best to finish up. On the plus side, this is the last chunk of Chapter Six that remains to be finished, so once it's done I can call another chapter of the campaign complete.

Sivar's Hand Story Coming Together Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Aginor is nearly complete writing the fiction for his Sivar's Hand mod. The plot portions will be merged with a campaign that has about ten varied missions. More is possible later, but the plan is to keep the size manageable so that it has a better shot at being completed. Lars has also finalized the main working hall that will serve as the nerve center for gameflow sequences. There are also plans to integrate the project with the Saga Plus enhancements to take advantage of the latest user experience upgrades in the Freespace engine.
Chapter 11 is finished, more or less. I will make another pass though, it is far from perfect yet. I will start with chapter 12 this week, which is going to be the final chapter, after the last mission.

As of now there are 11 missions in the Sivar's Hand campaign:
M-01 to M-10 with an additional mission M-06a. I know it doesn't sound much, and I guess y'all will be able to play through it rather quickly, but those missions are a lot of work if you don't want them to be repetitive. M06a was added after the other ones were done, because I had
- an idea for a mission a bit different than others
- a nice bit of story to tell, so I could add-in another chapter after it

When I am not working on something else for the mod (sometimes I don't have more than half an hour of time so I can't really write on the story or do real work on the missions) and I have the time for it I am going to make a concept (mainly some notes and playing around a bit in FRED) of another mission I would like to add between M-08 and M-09. If the mission idea I have turns out to not be fun I will ditch it and add the story bits to the chapter before. If it turns out to be fun, I will add the mission and its own (small) story chapter.

Also I will try to finally install a WCS+ dev build and try out all those cool features.

That's it for now. :)

CIG's April 1st Update Angling for Wing Commander Ships Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

In addition to their 2654 Around the Verse episode, Roberts Space Industries also put together several silly ship options for April Fools day last week. The new 'Pisces' ship featured an unprecedented 10 variants including the Pisces Rapier II and Pisces Dralthi which look quite familiar! The Kilrathi ship comes from Howard Day and the Confed fighter is one of Klavs'. The hangar was also filled with schools of floating fish!
There is perhaps no single fish that is more symbolic of the Empire of Kilrah than the bat-finned Dralthi fighter. A string of early successes combined with a distinct silouette permanently imprinted the Dralthi in the minds of its human opponents. This psychological impact was furthered by the fighter's huge production run - it was the most commonly encountered fighter in the Vega Sector theater of operations.

The Rapier II replaced the aging CF-117 in 2654 and immediately made an impact: Dragon, Bandit, Maverick, Maniac, Prankster... a disproportionate number of the war’s top twenty aces served with Rapier II squadrons. The Blade is the modern version of that famed fish, updated by fire through its service against the Nephilim.

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WC Saga Plus Adds to Extensive Changelog Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

The WC Saga Plus upgrade continues to make great strides. The list of improvements is much too long to quote, but overall improvements have just been made to the menu interface, moddability and crash prevention. Luke is also additional enhancements in work now to upgrade the heads up display, pilot profiles and mouse control. You can find a full summary of what the project entails (translated from German) here.

New Digital Paintings Illustrate Planetside Ops Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Klavs spotted a couple very slick digital tablet paintings from HandofManos. The first is a CF-105 Scimitar sitting on the tarmac. It's followed by a Rapier II taking off from a planet. Both have a really pleasing visual style with a great mix of subdued background settings and wonderful detail layered in where it matters. Let him know what you think and maybe he'll make more!
The CF-105 Scimitar is a medium fighter featured in the Wing Commander franchise. This unit is undergoing regular maintenance at a Landreich military facility.

A Rapier II taking off on a sortie. This would be a system defense unit since it launches from the surface of a planet.

Descent Prequel Down to the Wire Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

It's the final day in a push to bring back the Descent franchise via Kickstarter. Descent Underground is being led by Eric Peterson and a handful of other developers with histories working on Wing Commander and Star Citizen. They've accumulated $500,000 in backing so far, but they have just one day to make it to $600,000 and receive any funding at all. You can see what they're working on and contribute here.

Rarely Played Secret Missions Put Through Their Paces Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

The development of delMar and UnnamedCharacter's Secret Missions "1.5" campaign DOS port continues at a steady clip. There have been a couple minor releases to fix crashing bugs and add a new splash screen. A video of the Dralthi in action is included below. Fans have also been intensively playtesting the game and generating bug reports for the team to fix. Interested players can grab the missions and find full instructions here.

Kilrathi Join the Fray in Homeworld Remastered Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Version 2.0 of the WC4 Mod for Homeworld Remastered has been released! The biggest addition is the Kilrathi faction joining Confed, the Black Lance and Border Worlds. L.I.F. has implemented many different kat ships and special abilities, although opposing Kilrathi AI doesn't yet work. It's fully playable in local skirmishes or in the test multiplayer environment though. Future updates will get the AI working as well as visually upgrade the look of their ships. You can grab the mod here.
A total conversion mod for the Wing Commander universe taking place in the timeframe of Wing Commander III and IV. The mod is, as the original games, heavily centered around fighter and bomber warfare, while keeping a healthy importance to capital ships. Play as the Terran Confederation, the Union of Border Worlds, the Black Lances or the Kilrathi Empire.

This is the version 2.0 of the mod for Homeworld Remastered. All four factions are playable in addition to the vanilla ones. You can play both against the AI in local or in the beta multiplayer with people having this mod, by using the command line "-mpbeta -mod WC4FC_Remastered.big" in your Homeworld Remastered shortcut (found by Soulsavant).

The Kilrathi Empire has a massive selection of fighters and capital ships, with a few sneaky tricks up its sleeve. Asteroid fighters without any visible icons to see them from afar, long-range antiship missiles on many capital ships, advanced heavy fighters, electronic warfare crafts, heavy escort corvettes and frigates... The kitties are angry, and it shows!

WCDX Enhances Mouse Support and More Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Another week, another solid update to the WCDX patch! Stinger has released version 1.2 beta 4 to further help players running Kilrathi Saga on modern machines. This upgrade helps improve mouse control in WC1 as well as mouse cursor confinement when the game is running full screened. It's also easier to switch to full screen mode via the maximize button. Additionally, some crashes when minimizing the game have been resolved. For a future update, Stinger is currently investigating whether cockpit damage fully functions in KS. Players can grab WCDX for themselves here!

New WC Album's Digital Tracks Coming Together Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

It's been a little while since we've heard from George Oldziey, but rest assured that he's still hard at work on the final version of the album that the Wing Commander community funded last year. Backers already have access to the live reorchestrations, but George is also working on a handful of supplemental digital reorchestrations. Once these are finished, the physical album can start to get wrapped up. Here's the details:
Greetings all. I'm sorry that it's been so long since my last update, and also that it's taking a bit longer to complete the project. First of all, I've had nothing but glowing comments about the orchestral mixes, and it warms my heart that the reaction has been so positive!

I am still in the process of creating new, sample based arrangements for the remaining 15 minutes of music for the project. It's been a crazy busy start of 2015 for me, so I'm a bit behind. But when I do A/B comparisons between the original versions and what I have so far I think you'll be very pleased when I get them out there. I will, again, release the digital files of the new pieces first, then release the CD after that. I'll definitely keep you posted!

All the best!

George

GOG Improves Wing Commander's Virtual Shelf Display Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

On the subject of digital storefronts, GOG has implemented the unbundling initiative that they announced last month. Wing Commanders 1&2 have been segregated so that each has its own icon and launcher. They've also correctly split Prophecy and Secret Ops into two standalone games! The changes just affect how you can download titles and display them in your library. Each of these duos still retain their original $5.99 combined price point and bonus features. Check out the new cover art below. They did a pretty good job digging up the original images for games like Space Quest 1-3... slightly less so for the Wing Commanders, but we'll take what we can get!

Taste the Rainbow Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Our post on Wednesday asked people to report on which color Broadswords people saw, but the image displayed varied based on each visitor's IP address. A few people have asked to see what all the possibilities looked like. Note that none of the five choices matched the actual bomber flown in Privateer (it's the dark blue one displayed last!). The variants were actually tinted for us by Klavs - surely one of his most challenging projects yet!

Around the Verse a Few More Times Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Roberts Space Industries put together this special edition of the web show Around the Verse for April Fools this year. "Episode 2654" teases the ongoing development of Star Citizen in the year 2055 with numerous aquatic additions planned. Don't miss LOAF at age 74!

The Great Debate: Broadsword Color Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

This year's viral phenomenon over whether a dress in odd light was either blue and black or white and gold has rekindled the age-old question: what color is the Broadsword in Privateer? Most Wingnuts clearly recall that the bomber was mostly green in WC2, but it has a less memorable look when flown in Gemini. Fans have long debated what color highlights cover the wingtips and forward fuselage. Now is your chance to answer this question once and for all! What color do you see? Let your fellow Wingnuts know at the CIC Forums!

Akkbar Acquires Descent's Dice Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Our longtime friend Dan Akkbar Hardwicke is back on the scene with a new a business venture. He's leveraged his considerable street cred in the online space sim community to secure a sweet deal with the makers of the defunct Freespace Tactics board game. For just dollars on the penny, he's purchased 20,000 bulk sets of Freespace dice. Asked whether or not this was a wise investment, Hardwick replied, "I mean, they exist, so why wouldn't people buy them?" If he's right, fans of the series will soon be able to accurately reenact the exciting adventures of Alpha 1 with a handful of colorful blocks.

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