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2008.244 (August 31, 2008)

[# 3252 | 8/31/2008]

Sticks and Stones
Award-winning artist NinjaLA has put together two nice, even concept sketches. They're different takes on Kilrathi fighters - the first is based on the early Privateer Online artwork while the second is a stylized version of the Wing Commander movie's KF-100 Dralthi.

Star*Soldier Gloss: Page 19
This is the Star*Soldier gloss for the first systems page:

CONCEPT: This is a thickly veiled guide to Wing Commander Arena's different maps. Nine systems, nine maps -- coincidence? I think not! This was actually one of the sections that helped sell the project. The original version was a FODORS-style travel guide to distant planets, more focused on things like what the hotels were like at the Bearpit. When we transitioned to a magazine for mercenaries instead of a pilot's bookcase, we were left with what you see today. I will note that I had an awful lot of leeway here - the team chose the sector, but I got to pick which map went where and (in most cases) just what was going on.

REFERENCES-

• "D. Bortman" - Ghost from the Wing Commander community.
• "Firekkan Planetary Alliance" - The 'official' name for the no-longer-Confederate Firekkans, from the Wing Commander Universe map.
• "Circe" - The Circe System was where a mercenary war was going on in Wing Commander IV, so it seemed natural to include it here. This is the 'practice' map in the finished game, which is an asteroid field where players can try out different ships, weapons, etc. That's why the bio makes a point of it being an easy place for beginners.
• "Circe V, Circe VII" - Taken from Wing Commander IV.
• "Argent Sector" - The 'all Confed' part of space, from the Wing Commander Universe map.
• "2525" - If man is still alive...! I will note that most of the numbers here are made up to a useless extent. The settled dates are interesting, though, and they attempt to 'unwrench' some of the oddities the Wing Commander movie material added to the founding of the Confederation. In short: yes, the Pilgrims had a stranglehold on Sol and Vega... but humans were settling the rest of the galaxy anyway.
• "Ace Rating" - This is left over from the travel booklet, which was an "ACE GUIDE".
• "Analysis" - Most of this refers to the events of Wing Commander IV (conventional tanks are the tank mission, chemical bombs are the evacuation mission, etc.)
• "Kilrathi civil war quagmire" - Okay, listen up: this is the single Wing Commander story I have always wanted to tell... which is a pre-Wing Commander Prophecy Vietnam allegory, with the Confederation backing some particular faction in the Kilrathi civil war. You would start off as a Confederation observer flying missions against (some clan) and ultimately have to make a choice as to who you're fighting for.
• "Farragut Naval Base" - You may (must) have noticed that Wing Commander Arena features the famouar ball-and-stick Perry Naval Station in its menu (... and nowhere else). I wanted to acknowledge that here and, lucky me, I got to come up with some backstory for the impressive stations in the first place. The names (Farragut, Halsey) are US Naval officers (like Perry).
• "Terran Confederation" - This entry is also where we start getting into some interesting questions. Farragut is the last stronghold of the actual Terran Confederation. Why? Because one of the dictates I kept getting from the team was that the events of Arena were to be separate from galactic politics - the Confederation was back in Sol Sector mending fences, Epsilon would be revisited in the future. That's where the 'general withdraw order' comes from.
• "TCN" - Acronym for Terran Confederation Navy, used frequently since at least Wing Commander III.
• "built in the 2650s" - When the Gemini Sector was settled, according to the Privateer manual!
• "Only example of its type to survive the Nephilim War" - I don't know if anyone picked up on this line, but it's supposed to imply more bad news for the Gemini Sector.

2008.243 (August 30, 2008)

[# 3251 | 8/30/2008]

Birthday Trivia Answers
Wait, we forgot about the trivia! Here are the answers and winner for the CIC 10th Anniversary latecomers trivia. Congratulations to all who entered and we apologize for the delay:

Q1: What three models of Dralthi appear in Wing Commander Arena?
A1: Striker, Shank and Rhino.

Q2: What percent of people thin Redlime will be a Cybermage game?
A2: .72% (all of them LOAF)

Q3: What Wing Commander game has never appeared on an official soundtrack CD (multiple options)?
A3: Answers included Wing Commander Academy and Wing Commander Armada.

Q4: Name one type of Kilrathi fighter which had been planned for inclusion in Privateer 3.
A4: Answers included Dralthi V, Demon and Vaktoth.

Q5: What was the first fan project mentioned in the CIC's news?
A5: Answers included Unknown Enemy and Byydo's Wing Commander Prophecy balancing mod.

Star*Soldier Gloss: Page 18
This is the Star*Soldier gloss for the sixth pilots page:

CONCEPT: See the previous post!

REFERENCES-

• "Robert 'Twilight' Irving" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Ryan 'Zombie' Coolidge" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Flash" - Originally Jace Dillon from Wing Commander III.
• "Merrell" - Friend from high school.
• "Caleb 'Wyvern' Frost" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Tara 'Swan' Tomiko" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Calder" - TCS Victory pilot from the Wing Commander III novelization.
• "Levine" - Old girlfriend.
• "H'rissth" - System visited in Wing Commander Prophecy.
• "K'n'Khur" - Kilrah Sector, Kur'u-Pak Quadrant
• "Sihkag" - Noble clan introduced in Fleet Action.
• "Fabian" - Original Daoud People, from the Confederation Handbook KIA list.
• "McClellan" - Civil War general.
• "Dana 'Sunflower' Blankenship" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Billy 'Snake' Cane" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Poghath" - Clan introduced in the Wing Commander III novelization (Tarros nar Poghath).
• "Sparrow" - Originally a backgr
• "Fish" - Originally Bing Gordon, Wing Commander Prophecy pilot mentioned on Dallas' funeral plaque.
• "Keen" - Commander Keen!
• "Bhuk 'Bloodmist' nar Hhallas" - Paktahn ace from Wing Commander III.
• "Kilroy" - Originall Hermione Alexander from the Confederation Handbook KIA list.
• "Darren 'Mutant' Conrad" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Damon 'Nomad' Lane" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Blood Rain" - Dralthi IV squadron from the WC:CCG.
• "K'ssak" - Kilrah Sector, Kur'u-Pak Quadrant
• "Porq" - The other white meat.
• "Catastrophe" - I'm pretty sure I used this joke already...
• "Evian" - System from Wing Commander Armada's 'gauntlet' mode story.
• "Caracal" - Terran wild cat.
• "Vuwarg" - System mentioned in End Run.
• "David 'Royal' Edinburgh" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Righteous Vengeance" - Pakhtan squadron from the WC:CCG.
• "Trak'mar" - The "inhabited moon of Trak'mar" was mentioned in Voices of War.
• "Jotunheim" - System from Secret Missions 2.
• "Litespeed" - Wingman from Wing Commander Armada.
• "Johnston" - Civil War general.
• "Proailurus" - Terran wild cat.
• "Gorath" - System mentioned in the Wing Commander Academy manual.
• "Sabak Liegemen" - Darket squadron from the WC:CCG.
• "Trk'Pahn" - Kilrathi star system from the original Privateer.
• "Lion" - Terran wild cat.
• "K'za-Ha'duhm" - Kilrah Sector, Kur'u Caxki Quadrant
• "Kiranka" - Noble clan introduced in Fleet Action.
• "Lusterfur" - Vaktoth squadron from the WC:CCG.
• "Kher-za" - Kilrah Sector, Kur'u Caxki Quadrant
• "Tas Mahran" - Epsilon Sector, Sa'Kahn Quadrant
• "Rosty" - Originally a nickname for Dmitri Rostov , the TCS Victory's bartender from the Wing Commander III novelization.
• "Knight" - Originally Joseph Khumalo from Wing Commander I.
• "Charles 'Bishop' Karpiak" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Jay 'Lawyer' Fitzgerald" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Josh 'Jumpstart' Barnett" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Machairodus" - Terran wild cat.
• "Kulrag" - Clan from Wing Commander Academy (Drak nar Kulrag)
• "K'Mh'han" - Trk'Pahn Sector, H'hriss Quadrant
• "Knave" - Originally Tom Vale from the Wing Commander IV novelization.
• Whew, I hope I never have to do that again. Now I remember how the added pilots worked - we created these extra 'Up & Coming' bios because it was too much of a pain to resort the original list to add more to the start of the article. Thus, all of these characters also appear on the 'big' list above.
• "Bhuk 'Bloodmist' nar Hhallas" - This is an interesting bio. It confirms (or at least suggests) that Blair lost the defend-Blackmane mission from Wing Commander III (which is where Bloodmist first appears in that game). There's also a CCG card of Bloodmist... and in the Kilrathi Saga manual his clan is changed to 'Som'mers'. I chose to ignore that here, since it's kind of weird. Someone must have remembered Ralgha's hrai being dead from Freedom Flight and decided that meant the entire Hhallas clan... but we see plenty of other Hhallas characters in the meantime. His picture is the Wing Commander I Kilrathi VDU (note the change in colors compared to the two below it).
• "Blackmane Station" - The space station that you either defend or evacuate in Wing Commander III (canonically, it was being evacuated in the novel -- which just makes placing what missions happened when in terms of its destruction all the more interesting).
• "Canth 'Apeshredder' nar Kur'u'utak" - Apeshredder is my absolute favorite piece of WC:CCG artwork. He's just a big potato-shaped mound of striped cat. He's great. His picture is Hobbes' Wing Commander II VDU - I imagine he shredded some ape and took the helmet.
• "Najji 'Fireclaw' Ragitagha" - Fireclaw was the Darket ace from Wing Commander III, spoken of at several times in this commentary. Note the 'cheat'explanation - the story makes no sense. The image is a Wing Commander II pilot VDU (which is actually the same art as a WC1 pilot, in a slightly different palette).
• "War-hall... trophies" - A reference to a classic taunt from Privateer ("I shall mount your bones in my hall!"); additionally, 'trophies' were something that was originally going to be included in Arena (there would be a bar with your various in-game achievements mounted in it - the bar set is still in the game).
• "Kevin 'Lone WOlf' Tolwyn" - As most already know, Kevin is a main character from several Wing Commander novels, starting with End Run. His bio reflects that - we left him in 2673 as a Free Republic of the Landreich officer. Picture is a background character from Wing Commander II, with no editing - we were just lucky that there was one with Tolwyn's pencil moustache and Kevin's (sort of) red hair. Technically, this isn't the first time we've seen him... since the Wing Commander III novelization retcons that one of the people who arrives on the Victory with Tolwyn later in that game is his nephew.
• "Etienne 'Doomsday' Montclair - Doomsday was introduced way back in Secret Missions 2 (that's his actual picture from Wing Commander II). The bio refers to his main character point (which he lost in False Colors - no one noticed that) and touches on a bit of a problem. Because of his already-awkward Super Wing Commander/SegaCD bio, Doomsday would be 81 in 2701. I basically had to choose between having some familiar second-tier faces who were really really old for some reason or making up entirely new characters, and I went with the former. I'll point out how I try to explain this later.
• "Bombadier" - I love anything that ties Broadswords/Longbows/etc. to their World War II analogues.
• "Marcus 'Fish' Keen" - Marcus here isn't referring to anything at all. I needed someone who was completely new, in the end. His picture is another unused Wing Commander II background head.
• "Barracuda Corvettes" - The cool fish (FISH!) shaped alien warships from Wing Commander Prophecy.
• "Tyra Hunter..." - This bio is all elements taken from the first Privateer 3 design document - her military history, her specific medals, her Marine unit and the two planets. I will note that the Medal of Valor originally appeared in Wing Commander I, the Distinguished Service Cross came from Action Stations and the idea that there are Marine squadrons was originally from a WC:CCG promotional shirt. I also like that there's a planet called Felicity, even if I didn't name it myself.

2008.242 (August 29, 2008)

[# 3250 | 8/29/2008]

Early Excalibur
In addition to his work re-colorizing Homeworld's lighting, TonViper is also building a more efficient Excalibur 3D model -- it's simple and untextured at the moment, but it reminds me of years ago when the first fan-made 3D models were built as objects for particular aircraft simulator packages. The first view also reminds you how much the Excalibur and the Hellcat have in common in terms of design...

Star*Soldier Gloss: Page 17
This is the Star*Soldier gloss for the fifth pilots page:

CONCEPT: See the previous post!

REFERENCES-

• "Dakhath" - Kilrathi word meaning 'Deathstroke', from ace pilots Dakhath nar Sihkag (WC1) and Dakhath nar Caxki (WC3).
• "Kiranka" - The Emperor's clan, as introduced in Fleet Action.
• "Regina 'Snapshot' Ortwin" - WC:CCG pilot card.
• "Rory" - A Gilmore Girl.
• "Motown" - Originally Roosevelt Sullivan from the Confederation Handbook KIA list.
• "Sandoval" - Originally a fixer from Privateer.
• "Ocelot" - Terran wild cat.
• "Warhammer" - Star system from the Secret Missions SNES intro.
• "Ja'targk" - Clan introduced in the 3DO Claw Marks (Khajja nar Ja'targk).
• "Grist'ar'cogh" - Variation on Grist'ar'roc, the Kilrathi flagship from the Wing Commander movie novelization.
• "Fang of Death" - Darket squadron from the WC:CCG.
• "Shariha" - One of several Kilrathi systems which rebelled from the Empire in Special Operations 1.
• "Khajja 'The Machine' nar Ja'targk" - Kilrathi ace introduced in Wing Commander I.
• "John 'Wizard' Hefter" - WC:CCG pilot card.
• "Pseudaelurus" - Terran wil dcat.
• "H'hri Som" - Trk'Pahn Sector, H'hriss Quadrant
• "Caxki" - Noble clan, as introduced in Fleet Action.
• "Marker" - Originally Ted Markham from Special Operations 2.
• "Sivar's Glory" - The name of the Kilrathi carrier from the WC:CCG.
• "ko Lannis" - Alternate honorific and clan from False Colors (Naghrah ko Lannis).
• "Talker" - Originally Svetlana Ivanova from End Run.
• "B'shriss" - The system where Iceman was captured, from Wing Commander Prophecy.
• "Vorshaki" - A type of Kilrathi sword, from Pilgrim Stars.
• "Leatherhide" - Dralthi IV squadron from the WC:CCG.
• "Nova" - Originally a Tarawa pilot from End Run.
• "Shushu" - Originally Xiou Wilson from the Confederation Handbook KIA list.
• "Rockville" - Don't go back to Rockville!
• "Merdha" - A Kilrathi word for a particular tiny animal, from Freedom Flight.
• "Ta'hal" - Kilrathi clan introduced in False Colors (Julgar nar Ta'hal).
• "Textopher" - An old IRC joke: why do they call you 'Tex'? It's short for Textopher.
• "Dallas" - Originally characters' in Wing Commander II and Wing Commander Prophecy.
• "St. John" - From Ian St. JOhn, "Hunter" in the original Wing Commander.
• "Shiva" - Originally Chakra Yanklip in the Confederation Handbook KIA list.
• "Blazing Draptil" - Paktahn squadron from the WC:CCG.
• "K'njKuru" - Kilrah Sector, Kur'u-Pak Quadrant
• "Troubadour" - Originally a Thunderbolt pilot from the Wing Commander IV novelization.
• "Haise" - Astronaut Fred Haise.
• "Stephen 'Stardust' Nash" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Harghah 'Baron Qarg' nar Qarg" - New leader of the Qarg clan.
• "Hidden Dagger" - Strakha squadron from the WC:CCG.
• "ko" - Alternate honorific from False Colors.
• "Cephid 17" - Epsilon Sector, Sa'Khan Quadrant (in general, I like it when we see Kilrathi characters with 'conquered' names).
• "Bradley 'Dragon' Patrick" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Homotherium" - Terran wild cat.
• "K'hotan" - Epsilon Sector, Sa'Khan Quadrant
• "N'Tanya" - One of several Kilrathi systems which rebelled from the Empire in Special Operations 1.
• "K'n'Rek" - Vega Sector, Downing Quadrant
• "Capulet" - Originall Prem Krishu from the Confederation Handbook KIA list.
• "Rucker" - Friend from college.
• "George 'Giant' Booker - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Khar Takh" - Epsilon Sector, Antares Quadrant
• "Earl Jefferson" - Not a typo! This was one of those 'write your own story' bits (if you aren't following along in the manual, his name is Kilrathi red rather than Terran blue).
• "Puma" - Terran wild cat.
• "Marjakh 'Stalker' nar Kur'u'tak" - Kilrathi Strakha ace from Wing Commander III.
• "Theodore 'Caveman' Barber" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Kukubno 'Wise Hunter' nar Hhallas" - WC:CCG pilot card.
• "Ragitagha" - Noble clan introduced in Fleet Action.
• "Nimravidae" - Terran wild cat.
• "N'Dele" - Vega Sector, Downing Quadrant
• "Smilodon" - Terran wild cat.
• "Scarman" - Originally one of the pilots who is killed at the start of the Wing Commander IV novelization.
• "Dinofelis" - Terran wild cat.
• "Kabla Meth" - Kilrathi system used as a headquarters in Special Operations 2.
• "T'lon Meth" - Kilrah Sector, Kur'u-Pak Quadrant
• "Marc 'Pinpoint' Wright" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Enoch 'Clippy' Murkins" - The captain of the TCS Cerberus, from Secret Ops.
• "Megantereon" - Terran wil dcat.
• "N’Ryllis" - From Krahtagh nar NRyllis in the ICIS manual.
• "dai" - Alternate honorific from False Colors.
• "Ka" - One of the races conquered by the Kilrathi, listed in Fleet Action.
• "Sihkag" - Noble clan as introduced in Fleet Action.
• "Witch Hazel" - Originally Serene Sandalabra from the Confederation Handbook KIA list.
• "Lawson" - Frosty from WCNews.
• "Kur'u Som'Mers" - M'shrak Sector, Kur'u Som'Mers Quadrant
• "Dinictis" - Terran wild cat.
• "K'nag Rahl" - Epsilon Sector, Tr'L Rass Quadrant
• "Mark 'Mustang' Varrier" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt (/artist).
• "Fatima 'Cymbals' Haroud" - Pilot listed in the original Claw Marks' monthly awards section.
• "Timothy 'Bullet' Bell" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Neil 'Round Top' Chamberlain" - Confederation pilot from End Run and Fleet Action.
• "Danielle 'Sprite' McCumber" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "T'Agg A'Bren" - Kilrathi clan from the 'help/attack' Kilrathi missions in Wing Commander Prophecy.
• "Littlehawk" - Originally aTiger's Claw pilot killed in action, mentioned in Freedom Flight.
• "Toshira 'Ninja' Majumi" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Jakarta" - System which appears in Super Wing Commander's extra set of missions.
• "Asher" - Frosty from WCNews.
• "Cantrell" - Originally a Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt, mentioned in one of the losing endgames.
• "Trik'Tsek" - Trk'Pahn Sector, H'hriss Quadrant
• "Squadron" - I'm pretty sure this was a mistake when we were compiling the original list.
• "Trik'Kha" - Trk'Pahn Sector, H'hriss Quadrant
• "Dog" - Originally a Midway redshirt, mentioned on Dallas' funeral plaque.
• "Princess" - Originally CAG Patricia Drake from Wing Commander Prophecy.
• "Christopher 'Cowboy' Graf" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Tooner" - Originally Larry Dibbles from Claw Marks.
• "Roberts" - Series creator Chris Roberts / Privateer mastermind Erin Roberts.
• "Winterblast" - Vaktoth squadron from the WC:CCG.
• "Sutaghi" - Noble clan introduced in Fleet Action.
• "Wurp" - Wurp is a great name for a giant killer space cat.
• "Liege Lord" - Kilrathi class system introduced in Freedom Flight.
• "K'n T'qal" - Kilrah Sector, Kur'u Caxki Quadrant
• "Topdog" - Originally Melanie Maxwell from the Confederation Handbook KIA list.
• "Gavin" - Family member.
• "Beast" - Originally Helmut Jaeger from the Wing Commander III novelization.
• "Unchained Thunder" - Paktahn squadron from the WC:CCG
• "Ki'ra" - Noble clan introduced in Fleet Action.
• "Puma" - Terran wild cat.
• "K'cha Tsek" - Trk'Pahn Sector, H'hriss Quadrant
• "Kiranka" - Noble clan introduced in Fleet Action.
• "Kemo 'Kona' Maluaani" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Mandibles of DooM" - Dralthi IV squadron from the WC:CCG.
• "M'hriss" - Kilrah Sector, Kur'u Caxki Quadrant
• "Baron Ki'ra" - New leader of the Ki'ra clan.
• "Vengeful Pursuit" - Darket squadron from the WC:CCG.
• "Kevin 'Lone Wolf' Tolwyn" - Main character from the Wing Commander novels, introduced in End Run.
• "Canth 'Apeshredder' nar Kur'u'tak" - WC:CCG pilot card.
• "Smiting Pride" - Dralthi IV squadron from the WC:CCG.
• "Michael 'Zydeco' Williamson" - WC:CCG pilot card.
• "Giles" - College friend.
• " Midgard" - System first seen in The Secret Missions.
• "Fire-Eater" - Vaktoth squadron from the WC:CCG.
• "T'kon Meth" - Epsilon Sector, Sa'Kahn Quadrant
• "Y'rick" - Alas, poor Y'rick, I knew him well.
• "Saber-Tooth" - Terran wild cat.
• "T'set mehr" - Trk'Pahn Sector, H'hriss Quadrant
• "Haggin" - The 'decoy warrior' trick from Action Stations.
• "Bukrag" - System mentioned in End Run (target of Confederation raiders).
• "Unrelenting Warrior" - Strakha squadron from the WC:CCG.
• "Caxki" - Noble clan introduced in Fleet Action.
• "Blazing Death" - Vaktoth squadron from the WC:CCG.
• "K'n'Kir" - Kilrah Sector, Kur'u-Pak Quadrant
• "Otocolobus" - Terran wild cat.
• "B'osc'Au" - Trk'Pahn Sector, H'hriss Quadrant
• "Van Zandt" - Alt country musician Townes Van Zandt.
• "Kramm 'Deathfang' nar Caxki" - Vaktoth ace from Wing Commander III.
• "Morgan 'T-Bone' Crow" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Kabaka" - Kilrathi word for heroic death, from Fleet Action.
• "dai" - Alternate honorific from False Colors.
• "Eyoka" - Previously conquered race mentioned in Action Stations.
• "G'mar" - Star system seen in Wing Commander Prophecy.
• "Ghostwalker" - Vaktoth squadron from the WC:CCG.
• "Pasqual" - Star system seen in Wing Commander IV.
• "William 'Howdy' Van Horn" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Space Terror" - Dralthi IV squadron from the WC:CCG.
• "Qarg" - Noble clan introduced in Fleet Action.
• "Tr'L Rass" - Epsilon Sector, Tr'L Rass Quadrant
• "Redclaw" - Originally Baktosh nar Kiranka from Wing Commander I.
• "Margay" - Terran wild cat.
• "M'shren" - Kilrah Sector, Kur'u Caxki Quadrant
• "John 'Majestic' Guentzel" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt/designer.
• "Najji 'Fireclaw' Ragitagha" - Darket ace from Wing Commander III.
• "Ralagha" - Derived from Ralgha (Hobbes).
• "Hoplophoneus" - Terran wild cat.
• "Hhallas" - Kilrathi clan introduced in Freedom Flight.
• "Kilra'hra" - Kilrathi word for the lower class, from Freedom Flight.
• "Jubara" - System near Kilrah mentioned in End Run.
• "K'rissth" - Vega Sector, Roberts Quadrant
• "Alton 'Steel' Litich" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Brian 'Sultan' Sutton" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Honor Bearer" - Dralthi IV squadron from the WC:CCG.
• "Gorth" - Previously conquered race mentioned in Fleet Action.
• "Thrak'hra" - Kilrathi word for the noble class, from Freedom Flight.
• "Raghra 'Pride of the Hhallas' nar Hhallas - Another good 'make your own adventure' character. Is he related to Hobbes or Gharal? How?
• "Grant 'Rogue' McDaniel" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Koractu" - Kilrathi sword first mentioned in Pilgrim Stars.
• "Tr'p-Khar" - Kilrah Sector, Kur'U'Tak Quadrant
• "Serval" - Terran wild cat.
• "Jugara" - System near Kilrah mentioned in End Run.

2008.241 (August 28, 2008)

[# 3249 | 8/28/2008]

Good Old Game's Afoot!
Move over GameTap (what, they already did?) - there's a new challenger: Good Old Games is preparing to launch this month with a plan to sell classic PC games via online distribution. No word on anything great, yet -- the splash image at their site suggests the usual assortment of almost-public-domain bargains (FreeSpace, FreeSpace 2, etc.) Still, there's always hope. Videogamer says it best: "One series which I think would be a particularly great addition to the collection is the Wing Commander series (just me then?) - so please get to it chaps!" Hear, hear!
[LOAF] [# 8915] [Discuss (2 comments)]

Star*Soldier Gloss: Page 16
This is the Star*Soldier gloss for the fourth pilots page:

CONCEPT: See the previous post!

REFERENCES-

• "Bobcat" - A type of Earth wild cat.
• "laq" - Alternate honorific from False Colors.
• "Pak Ma'hran" - Kilrah Sector, Kur'u-Pak Quadrant.
• "Moof" - Originally Ernest Gibson from the Secret Ops fiction.
• "Gallagher" - Trelane, from the Wing Commander community.
• "Christopher 'Warlord' Dybbuk" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Randall 'Rattler' Russell" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Johnathan 'Ogre' Crane" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Cataclysm" - See, because he's a cat.
• "Etienne 'Doomsday' Montclaire" - Main character introduced in Secret Missions 2
• "Sutaghi" - Noble clan introduced in Fleet Action
• "Thrak’hmar" - Modification of Trak'hmar, a moon from Voices of War and a destroyer from the WC:CCG.
• "Thundering Anger" - Vaktoth squadron from the WC:CCG
• "Storm Bringer" - Paktahn squadron from the WC:CCG
• "Kilra'k Demon" - Darket squadron from the WC:CCG
• "Khodran 'The Fang' nar Jatargk" - Derived from Khajja "The Fang" nar Jatargk, Wing Commander I ace
• "Milford 'Bookworm' Wattley - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt
• "Brad" - This actuall was an in-joke: the IRC group has a running gag about how you tell everyone that 'Brad broke up with you' when you want to eat an entire unit of ice cream.
• "Fat Lady" - Originally Harlan Elliot from the Terran Confederation Handbook KIA list
• "Singer" - When the fat lady *sings*? Eh? Eh? Aw.
• "Kabaka Warrior" - Dralthi IV squadron from the WC:CCG
• "Gmarktu" - System near Kilrah mentioned in End Run
• "Wendy 'Redline' Akers" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt
• "Ranger" - Originally Mike "Ranger" Unknown from the Super Wing Commander introduction
• "Monkey Boy" - That's what they call us!
• "Tsahl" - A Kilrathi clan name from the Wing Commander III novelization (Vurrig nar Tsahl)
• "Baron Ragitagha" - A new head for one of the noble clans introduced in Fleet Action
• "M'nress" - Similar to M'ress, Star Trek: TAS' resident Kilrathzinticaitian. Also, similar in modification to those Babylon 5 Kilrathi words on the WCU map.
• "Steel Death" - Darket squadron from the WC:CCG
• "Caxki" - Noble clan introduced in Fleet Action
• "Bhurak 'Starkiller' nar Caxki" - Kilrathi ace from Wing Commander I
• "Lyndon" - Hey, hey, LBJ...
• "Kramm" - First name which originally belonged to Deathfang, an unused Wing Commander III ace.
• "Battle Brother" - Paktahn squadron from the WC:CCG.
• "Ralph" - Originally Farrell Malph from the Confederation Handbook KIA list. I also like that it no longer makes any sense with the name.
• "Clarkson" - Kelly again, maybe.
• "Fang" - Originally Khajja "The Fang" from Wing Commander I.
• "S'thran-Pak" - Epsilon Sector, Antares Quadrant
• "K'M'tlee" - Trk'Pahn Sector, H'hriss Quadrant
• "Lightning Strike" - Darket squadron from the WC:CCG
• "K'za T'qal" - Kilrah Sector, Kur'u Caxki Quadrant
• "Vengeance" - Originally Krulan nar Ragitagha from Wing Commander Academy.
• "Qarg" - Noble clan introduced in Fleet Action.
• "Wade 'Kingpin' Swanson" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt
• "Lane 'Viking' Boyd" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt
• "S.E. 'Broadway' Sarasin" - Pilot mentioned in the 'awards' blurb in Claw Marks.
• "David" - My father's name.
• "Cueball" - Originally Kendal Kendrick from the Confederation Handbook KIA list.
• "K'ta Mek" - Epsilon Sector, Antares Quadrant
• "Ice Wind" - Originally a (KIA) pilot onboard the Tarawa in End Run.
• "Vruskt 'Rogue' nar Sihkag" - WC:CCG pilot card
• "Dor-Chak" - Kilrathi word meaning striking bird and also a type of rifle. From the Confederation Handbook.
• "K'k-Tahn" - Epsilon Sector, Antares Quadrant
• "Oargth" - System mentioned in End Run.
• "Angela 'Veil' Hendrick" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt
• "Vanguard" - Originally a KIA pilot mentioned in a Wing Commander Prophecy losing endgame.
• "Ki'ra" - Noble clan introduced in Fleet Action.
• "Janguar" - Terran wild cat.
• "dai" - Alternate honorific introduced in False Colors.
• "Shata" - Race conquered by the Kilrathi early on, mentioned in Action Stations.
• "Nargrast" - Kilrathi word for one of their hells, also the name of a moon in False Colors.
• "Volles" - Kilrathi clan introduced in False Colors (Ghradhark nar Volles)
• "Nancy" - My mother's name.
• "Crossbones" - Originally Markham Colt from Special Operations 2.
• "Brands" - A college history teacher.
• "Yuri 'Warlock' Ivanchenkov" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt
• "Tiger" - Terran wild cat
• "Ragitagha" - Noble clan introduced in Fleet Action. Note the lack of 'nar'.
• "Star Pouncer" - Dralthi IV squadron from the WC:CCG
• "Savage Fury" - Vaktoth squadron from the WC:CCG
• "Strike King" - TCS Lexington pilot from the Wing Commander IV novelization.
• "Furfighter" - Dralthi IV squadron from the WC:CCG
• "vigrid" - System first introduced in The Secret Missions.
• "Laser Fang" - Dralthi IV squadron from the WC:CCG.
• "H'rekkah" - System first introduced in Wing Commander Prophecy.
• "Metailurini" - Terran wild cat.
• "Tal'q" - System first introduced in the ICIS Manual.
• "Khitz 'Skitz' nar Ki'ra" - WC:CCG pilot card.
• "Xenosmilu" - Terran wild cat.
• "Waxman" - One of the background pilots from the original Wing Commander.
• "Lawrence" - D.H. Lawrence (Sons and Lovers, Women in Love, etc.)
• "Slaveholder" - We were asked to remove some of the nastier Kilrathi bot names since the game was 'E for Everyone'... but not this one.
• "T'Rel Meh" - Epsilon Sector, Sa'Kahn Quadrant
• "Flame" - Originally a TCS Tarawa pilot from End Run (KIA)
• "Hillman" - Bob Hillman, rockin' folk musician.
• "Tiger" - Originally Tom Vale's wingman from the Wing Commander IV novelization.
• "Garriott" - After Richard and Robert Garriott, founders of Origin Systems.
• "Baron Kur'u'tak" - A new leader for one of the noble clans introduced in Fleet Action.
• "Khulragh" - Alternate spelling of Kulrag, a clan from Wing Commander Academy (used here as a first name!)
• "Sharm" - Kilrathi system where Paladin hid in Special Operations 1.
• "Bokoth" - Derived from Bokoth nar Kiranka, from the Wing Commander movie novelization.
• "Sivar's Honored Warrior" - Derived from a Vaktoth squadron from the WC:CCG (Sivar's Honored Hrai).
• "Baragh" - One of the systems near Kilrah in End Run.
• "Griffin" - Originally Hunter's rio at the start of Fleet Action.
• "Qhargha 'Baron Sihkag' nar Sihkag" - Uh oh, he shouldn't be there. That's an error.
• "Crimson Birha" - Darket squadron from the WC:CCG.
• "Terragon" - One of the star systems from Wing Commander Armada's "gauntlet" mode.
• "Kodkod" - Terran wild cat.
• "Som'mers" - Clan introduced in the Kilrathi Saga manual (Bhuk nar Som'mers) which clearly refers to the great Anthony Sommers, Wing Commander programmer.
• "Ski" - Originally "Ski" Glazowski, a technician from the Wing Commander III novelization.
• "Carter" - Doctor Carter, from ER!
• "Blood Most Noble" - Bloodfang squadron from the WC:CCG.
• "K'sK'taq" - Kilrah Sector, Kur'u-Pak Quadrant
• "Blooded Claw" - Dralthi IV squadron from the WC:CCG.
• "K'sthak" - Kilrah Sector, Kur'u-Pak Quadrant
• "Chris 'Falcon' Cummings" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Ingraya" - Kilrathi system mentioned in Action Stations.
• "Jack 'BoomBoom' Kabeli" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Gilkarg" - Derived from Gilkarg nar Kiranka, Thrakhath's father (named for the first time in the Kilrathi Saga manual).
• "Darkpride" - Vaktoth squadron from the WC:CCG.
• "Asgard" - System from the original Claw Marks Vega Sector map.
• "Morghan" - Kilrathi-ization of 'Morgan'.
• "Qarg" - I used Qarg a lot... probably because it was the least familiar noble clan before this game.
• "Downtown" - Originally 'Downtown' Ross from Wing Commander II.
• "Karl Frank" - A shout out to another alt.games.wing-commander poster.
• "Goblin" - Originally Kris "Goblin" Pelley, a Wing Commander Prophecy redshirts. One of the rare cases where I used the Prophecy callsign for a different character.
• "Todd 'Twitch' Gaffney" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Amanda 'Deadbolt' Carruthers" - WC:CCG pilot card.
• "Renata 'Comet' Drake" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Takhar" - Kilrathi word meaning brother of equal rank, introduced in Fleet Action.
• "B'shras 'Baron Caxki' nar Caxki" - A new leader for the Caxki clan.
• "Thylacosmilus" - Terran wild cat.
• "Spider" - Originally Spyder from Wing Commander Prophecy.
• "Cheryl" - Old girlfriend.
• "Big Duke" - Originally Big Duke Grecko from End Run (and other novels).
• "Turtle" - A redshirt from the original Wing Commander's dialogue.
• "Luke Gilmore" - Double Gilmore Girls reference.
• "Ivan 'Posse' Krotchevsky" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Striking-Bird" - Translation of 'Dor-Chak,' from the Confederation Handbook.
• "Andy 'Wiley' Brunk" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Kuklext 'Motley' Ragitagha" - WC:CCG pilot card.
• "Unrepentant Rage" - Sorthak squadron from the WC:CCG.
• "Kenny 'Hottman' Hott" - Instructor from the Secret Ops fiction.
• "Bhorgh" - Kilrathi-ization of 'Borg'.
• "Val" - Clan introduced in False Colors (Akhjer nar Val).
• "Capp" - Originally a Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt, mentioned in the 'bar scene'.
• "Barbe" - College professor.
• "Cheetah" - Terran wild cat.
• "Paghk" - The system deep in Kilrathi territory visited by the Tarawa in Fleet Action.
• "Lynx" - Terran wild cat.
• "Silent Doom" - Strakha squadron from the WC:CCG.
• "K'vt Tag" - Vukar Tag Sector, K'vt Tag Quadrant
• "Lisa" - Originally a Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt, mentioned in the 'bar scene'.
• "Deleon" - Alex Deleon, from 'Exo Squad'.
• "Grinder" - Originally Camilla Saint James, from the Confederation Handbook KIA list.
• "Chloe Catson" - After a *cat* named *Chloe*.
• "Lair Master" - Paktahn squadron from the WC:CCG.
• "Ghoran" - This was a clan created by the Privateer Online, 2nd Attempt world plans. A nar Ghoran character was supposed to be running the Kirankas for some reason.
• "Chris 'PRofessor' Rankin" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Monique 'Roulette' LeCroix" - Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt.
• "Schlitterbahn" - Originally Sinjean Brun from the Confederation Handbook KIA list.
• "Rostov" - Star system in Wing Commander I, one-armed bartender in the Wing Commander III novelization.
• "Jennifer 'Phoenix' Blair" - Make your own story, ladies and gentlemen... Jennifer Blair was Chris' aunt and Phoenix was his original 'concept' callsign for WC2.
• "Scarab" - Originally a Border Worlds pilot who dies in the Wing Commander IV novelization.
• "Goran-Pak" - Kilrah Sector, Kur'u-Pak Quadrant
• "K'Tkhur M'etrh'Kuru" - Kilrah Sector, Kur'u-Pak Quadrant
• "Furball" - Terran slang for Kilrathi.
• "Valgard" - Star system first seen in The Secret Missions.
• "David 'Pops' Williford" - TCS Midway redshirt.
• "Russ 'Rusty' Wilbury" - WC:CCG pilot card.
• "Zrank 'Longshot' nar Sihkag" - WC:CCG pilot card.
• "Marbak 'Baron Kiranka' nar Kiranka" - A new leader for the Kiranka clan! Or... well, make your own story.
• "Charlotte" - A family member.
• "Axxialla" - Originally Gabriella Carpentinu from the Confederation Handbook KIA list.
• "Randy 'Mule-Skinner' Skinner Jr." - Original R.A. "Mule-Skinner" Skinner from the original Claw Marks. Is this his son?
• "Silas" - A family member.
• "Barney" - Originally Morlock Barnes from Milk Run.
• "Dragster" - Originally Amhar Bagheer from the Confederation Handbook KIA list.
• "Harrison" - Astronaut Harrison Schmidt.
• "Lieutenant" - Originally Roosevelt Sullivan from the Confederation Handbook KIA list.
• "Radio" - Originally Lieutenant Rollins from Wing Commander III.
• "Nalga" - From Fleet Action, a terrifying animal from Draga.
• "Vharr" - Clan introduced in False Colors (Nrallos lan Vharr).

2008.240 (August 27, 2008)

[# 3248 | 8/27/2008]

You Can Go Homeworld Again
TonViper isn't letting sleeping mods lie -- he's working to add an amazing set of uprated shaders to Aaron Thomas' already-amazing Wing Commander 4 mod for Homeworld 2. Prepare yourself to be blown away by the initial results:

Star*Soldier Gloss: Page 15
This is the Star*Soldier gloss for the third pilots page:

CONCEPT: See the previous post!

REFERENCES-

• "Kur 'Human-Killer' nar Tr'k H'hra" - I chose to do a bio on Kur because I always wanted to know more about the Kilrathi aces in Wing Commander II. Three of them play a major role in the plot (Thrakhath, Khasra and Jazz)... but the other two are only mentioned after they show up (because WC2 had no Claw Marks-style manual) and then only briefly. His clan is new, my parallel to the Super Wing Commander manual - it's taken from one of the otherwise unmentioned systems on the Wing Commander Universe map. His picture is the Wing Commander II 'Drakhai/ace' VDU.
• "Right of Vengeance" - This might be from Star Trek.
• "Paktahn Tusk" - Kur flew Grikaths in Wing Commander II, so it makes sense that he'd still be a bomber pilot.
• "Grikath squadron was ambushed..." - His take on his encounter with Bluehair in Wing Commander II.
• "Heart of the Tiger" - Blair's Kilrathi nickname from Wing Commander III.
• "Nephilim invasion" - Wing Commander Prophecy forward.
• "human battlecruisers" - Ties the bio in to the Capital Ship mode in Arena.
• "Najjath 'Fireclaw's Avenger' Ragitagha" - When coming up with the 'callsign list' I included Fireclaw's Avenger, taken from a WC:CCG Darket squadron. I decided to give that a little backstory and make the character Fireclaw's son (Fireclaw is apparently still alive, so it's not clear what exactly he's avenging here or in the CCG). Note the lack of 'nar,' which sometimes (but not always) seems to be intentionally assosciated with Fireclaw's name. The VDU image is Kahl from Righteous Fire (sorry, Kahl fans).
• "aide-de-camp" - A new bit of pseudohistorical terminology to assosciate with the Kilrathi; to me, it conveys 19th century nobility going to war.
• "still flies occasionally" - Since I also had 'Fireclaw' on that list... I guess he ejected.
• "Darket Stalker" - Obviously, Fireclaw's son would also fly a Darket!
• "noble example... Sivarist terrorists" - We see Sivarist terrorists who have essentially become ordinary pirate raiders in Wing Commander Prophecy. Here we have these highly famed Kilrathi warriors who decided not to become guerilla fighters and go down that path after Kilrah fell, analagous to the various Southern military leaders who made that same choice after the American Civil War.
• "Skigha 'Atomic Claw' nar K'Cris" - Skigha is a new character. I had the callsign and thought it might develop into a good 'hook' story. K'Cris is a system whose name appears only in a version of the Wing Commander Universe map in the Confederation Handbook. Why? Who knows! The picture is the ordinary Wing Commander II Kilrathi pilot VDU.
• "Border Worlds weapons transport" - Something about the fact that the Border Worlds would be manufacturing Maces appeals to me... part of that 'they're not so innocent' crusade I have against them, I suppose.
• "Mace Tactical Nuclear Missiles" - A neat weapon introduced in Special Operations 2 and seen again (briefly) in Wing Commander IV. We'll revisit it somewhat in Wing Commander Arena...
• "Sivarist cells" - A combination of the Sivarist pirates seen in Wing Commander Prophecy and the terminology used in our present-day 'War on Terror'. I think it makes for a nice backstory, that crazed and desparate Kilrathi are blowing things up with Maces.
• "Circe System" - The 'help civilians' optional system from Wing Commander IV -- the joke being that in the game you have to choose Speradon to get Maces.
• "Paktahn Mauler" - Skigha's callsign, Atomic Claw, comes from a WC:CCG Paktahn squadron. Of course, that name was around before there was a Border Worlds or a Sivarist opposition... so they must not be related.
• "Highest bidder" - Isn't it good to see a Kilrathi privateer, for once? I always wondered if the Gothri and Dralthi and Paktahns in Privateer were part of a fleet or 'Vikings'.
• "Slorth 'Dark Inquisitor' laq Anchorage" - Slorth is a new character. Dark Inquisitor was another squadron from the WC:CCG (Strakhas) and it seemed like another interesting hook for building a new Kilrathi character. 'Thrakhath's personal torturer' seems like a good way of personally tying him into the previous mythology without interrupting too much. Think of Slorth as analagous to an unrepentant SS doctor. laq is one of the 'alternate' (and undefined) Kilrathi honorifics from False Colors and and Anchorage was a Kilrathi-held system seen in Super Wing Commander. The picture is one of the Imperial Guards from the Wing Commander II demo.
• "without honor is..." - A play on a speech from the first episode of Wing Commander Academy ("a man without honor... has no reason to live.")
• "kil" - The equivalent word to 'man' for a Kilrathi, introduced in False Colors.
• "Treaty of Torgo" - Treaty signed at the end of Wing Commander III, so-named in False Colors.
• "Anchorage System fief... return it" - My attempt to explain why the top secret Kilrathi system from Super Wing Commander was named after a human city. I also like the use of the term fief in relation to Kilrathi system ownership (I know it's a real concept, but I stole it from Dune).
• "Joor'rad" - Did I name the Emperor? Well: yes and no. I will admit that that is what I set out to do. It always bothered me when I would go to write a history or make a character list or somesuch that we didn't have that piece of information. On thinking about it, though, I realized that that may be the point: the lack of a name is consistent throughout so many pieces of media. Was it just a ball that got bigger as it went, or was there a conscious decision that he always be 'The Emperor'? If it's the latter than I genuinely feel bad about this. So, if you're as angry with me as I might be about this - maybe that's 2567 to 2569 and it refers to an earlier Emperor. In any event, the name derives from Joor'ath, an earlier Emperor mentioned in the Wing Commander III novelization.
• "Best of the Best" - I can't believe I have to do this. Well, let me explain: I had the list of all the callsigns that the game can generate, I had an unlimited-page manual I could fill out... why not provide that information to the fans? This was my solution: a huge, awkward chart. As with the other kill scores, the idea is that you can place yourself on this chart - it's something of a small game enhancer. The kill numbers were all randomly generated in Excel and many of the first and last names were random combos of otherwise unrelated decisions (ie, the first name may refer to something and the last name doesn't). The majority of the Kilrathi first names are made up (and let me tell you, that was tough) so needn't be explained. Finally, quite a few of the characters are from various Wing Commander games - as are even more of the callsigns (but few of the Kilrathi). Confused yet? Lets get to it...
• "Heartbreaker" - Pakhtan squadron from the WC:CCG.
• "Qual'lat" - Epsilon Sector, Sa'Kahn Quadrant.
• "Enslaver of Races" - Strakha squadron from the WC:CCG.
• "Misty" - Misty from Pokemon.
• "K'n'Bren" - Kilrah Sector, Kur'u-Pak Quadrant
• "Ardai" - Vega Sector, Roberts Quadrant. Appears on Claw Marks map. Mentioned in Wing Commander I dialogue.
• "Braxna 'Minx' nar Caxki" - WC:CCG crew card.
• "Ki'ra" - Noble clan introduced in Fleet Action.
• "K'n'Meth" - Vega Sector, Downing Quadrant
• "Night Prowler" - Dralthi IV squadron from the WC:CCG.
• "Helene" - The name of a former French teacher. She is also an exceptionally beautiful and mysterious woman, but that is another matter.... (name the reference!)
• "Cassipeia" - Originally "Helen Condon" from the Terran Confederation Handbook KIA list.
• "Jaguarundi" - A type of Earth wild cat.
• "dai" - Alternate honorific from False Colors.
• "Sorn" - A race conquered by the Kilrathi as listed in Fleet Action.
• "Simon 'McGoo' LeDuke" - WC:CCG pilot card.
• "Stuart" - Name of a childhood friend.
• "Jaeger" - Originally Helmut "Beast" Jaeger from the Wing Commander III novelization.
• "Maria 'La Dona' Alvarez" - Pilot mentioned in Claw Marks.
• "Max 'Max Max' Labeau" - Not a reference, but a fantastic callsign none the less. I'm pretty sure it was originally meant to be *Mad Max".
• "K'n'Hhra" - Kilrah Sector, Kur'u Caxki Quadrant
• "Carnival" - Originally "William Jefferson" from the Terran Confederation Handbook KIA list.
• "Couts" - Name of a friend.
• "Leopard" - A type of Earth wild cat.
• "H'hrass" - Kilrah Sector, Kur'u Caxki Quadrant. Appears in Wing Commander Prophecy.

2008.239 (August 26, 2008)

[# 3246 | 8/26/2008]

One More Won't Hurt
This week, the Victory moves into Alcor and Hyperion. The WC3 replay group will face a difficult choice as Hobbes makes a run for it. Also, don't miss the opportunity to fly drunk! It's a unique experience. Here are Lorien's notes from Loki and Alcor:

Most of the Victory is celebrating the test firing but there's one noticable exception. I find Hobbes stargazing in the Gunnery Deck. I imagine he's in two minds about the Behemoth and try to reassure him that he won't be alone after the war is done, but Hobbes disagrees with me. He seems torn up inside but I'm glad to know that my friendship has helped him get through.

Hobbes and I launch in Arrows to defend the Behemoth as we jump to the Kilrah system. We arrive to find the Behemoth intact but under attack by Paktahns. Hobbes and I afterburn to its assistance and keep the first wave from causing any damage. As we're finishing off the last bomber, however, any wing of Paktahns must have snuck in close and delivered their torpedoes to the weak spots on the Behemoth, destroying the Confederation's last hope. As the Behemoth detonates a new blip appears on my radar. It's Prince Thrakhath and he has a message for me. He relates Angel's last moments to me. Her capture and presentation before the Imperial Court and his eventual execution of her with his own claws. He then taunts me by challenging me to a duel, but Rollins informs me that the Victory will be jumping out of the system in 90 seconds. Torn between revenge and survival, I opt for both, launching the Arrow's entire formidable complement of missiles at Thrakhath before turning for the Victory. I'm gratified to hear the Prince's speech cut-off mid sentence as my missiles impact on his fighter and force him to eject. I just wish I could turn around and put some laser bolts into his ejection pod but I manage to make it to the Victory before the jump. At least I got some manner of revenge for Angel.

It's a very glum Admiral Tolwyn who leaves the Victory in Alcor. He transfers command back to Eisen but tells him that he thinks the Victory is a leaky ship. I turn away, worried that I know who the leak is but not wanting to let anything slip out to betray a shipmate. Eisen is at least covered in this disaster by not being command of the Victory at the time. Tolwyn departs from the flight deck with a warning that the fight is only going to get harder from here.

• Community Replay - General Discussion
• WC1 Week 1 - Enyo, McAuliffe, Gimle, Gateway, Cheng-du
• WC1 Week 2 - Brimstone, Dakota, Kurasawa, Rostov, Port Hedland, Hubble's Star
• WC1 Week 3 - Venice, Hell's Kitchen, Alternate Paths
• Secret Missions Week 1 - Goddard, Border Zone, Midgard
• Secret Missions Week 2 - Jotunheim, Bifrost
• Secret Missions Week 3 - Valgard, Vigrid
• SM2: Crusade Week 1 - Firekka
• SM2: Crusade Week 2 - Corsair, Near Firekka
• SM2: Crusade Week 3 - Corsair, Charon
• WC2 Week 1 - Gwenydd, Niven
• WC2 Week 2 - Niven, Ghorah Khar
• WC2 Week 3 - Novaya Kiev, Heaven's Gate
• WC2 Week 4 - Heaven's Gate, Tesla
• WC2 Week 5 - Enigma
• WC2 Week 6 - K'tithrak Mang
• SO1 Week 1 - Pembroke
• SO1 Week 2 - Rigel
• SO1 Week 3 - Ghorah Khar 1
• SO1 Week 4 - Ghorah Khar 2
• SO2 Week 1 - Canewdon 1
• SO2 Week 2 - Canewdon 2
• SO2 Week 3 - Canewdon 3
• SO2 Week 4 - Ayer's Rock
• WC3 Week 1 - Orsini
• WC3 Week 2 - Tamayo, Locanda
• WC3 Week 3 - Blackmane, Ariel/Delius
• WC3 Week 4 - Caliban, Torgo
• WC3 Week 5 - Loki, Alcor
• WC3 Week 6 - Freya, Hyperion

Star*Soldier Gloss: Page 14
This is the Star*Soldier gloss for the second pilots page:

CONCEPT: See the previous post!

REFERENCES-

• "Kyle 'Sandman' Travers" - Travers was the male replacement for Kyra Hunter(discussed on the previous page), The story discussed here (General Drakas, Steltek weapon, Nephilim relics) are all elements of his cancelled game.
• "Merc, Inc." - A 'Privateer Online' concept proposal. Merc, Inc. was the 'lesser' mercenary group which would provide cheap AI wingmen for the player.
• "Anthony 'Hard-Luck' Yee" - Here's a case where I pre-emptively pussed out with regards to artwork. Hard-Luck is one of the Wing Commander CCG redshirts and instead of using his card artwork (which I have to assume belongs to Mag Force 7 or the artist) I used a Wing Commander II background shot. Wouldn't it have been cool to see a CCG image in here, though? Oh well; at least it got a nice reference. The back story refers to the somewhat problematic theory that the 'extra' pilots in the CCG all flew off the Victory (confidential to fans who want a 'new' fighter design to play with - check out the background of 'Wizard's card...).
• "Jenna 'Havoc' Hathaway" - Hah! The Privateer pleasure planet bartender clone! I was originally just going to use her image and then... well, time makes fools of us all. The name comes from the absolutely horrible direct-to-video movie Havoc, starring Anne Hathaway.
• "Qhargha 'Baron Sihkag' nar nar Sihkag" - The Kilrathi pilots were more of a pain given the lack of surviving characters and third-tier players to borrow from. Furthermore, there aren't many 'unnamed' pieces of Kilrathi artwork... so I had to go with VDUs instead of talking heads. Still, I am pleased that they let me provide some background regarding the current state of the (former) Empire. When I did the list of AI names I included 'Baron {Clan}' for each of the noble clans, as it was a reference Wing fans could recognize (again, not so many familiar Kilrathi callsigns to borrow from). This let me explain what that meant (in all honesty I had no idea at the tmie). Qhargha is the clan leader of the Sihkag clan, lowest of the eight most noble from Fleet Action. He's a new character, apparently replacing Buktag'ka who held the position in that book. His image is the Kilrathi capital ship VDU from Wing Commander II.
• "Dakhath 'Deathstroke' nar Caxki" - Deathstroke was a Kilrathi ace from Wing Commander III (you can only encounter him in the 3DO version, though he's listed in all the manuals). This is my attempt to explain why he had a very similar name and biography as Dakhath "Deathstroke" nar Sihkag from the original Wing Commander (ie, shooting down ejected pilots).
• "Sihkag Warrior" - Dakhath nar Sihkag, from the original Wing Commander.
• "Vega Campaign" - That's Wing Commander I.

2008.238 (August 25, 2008)

[# 3245 | 8/25/2008]

Forstchen Destroys Earth... Again
Way back in June, 2006, former Wing Commander author Dr. William Forstchen announced that he was preparing to publish a modern apocalyptic novel called One Second After. It looks like that book is finally making its way out -- it now has an Amazon listing, a release date (March, 2009) and a description:

Overnight, the world's trains, planes, cars, trucks, phones, computers, power plants and electrical equipment come to a sudden screeching stop. Nor will they ever start up again. The world is in chaos, and everyone wants to know why. Some evangelicals believe the Rapture is at hand. Other fundamentalists see the Cloven Hoof of Satan in the catastrophe. UFO cultists preach the coming of intergalactic aliens. Secularists envisage a host of earthly enemies - Chinese communists, Islamic fanatics, eco-terrorists, and energy industry magnates. New Agers prophesize the dreaded Mayan apocalypse. Is it aliens from space or is it the apocalypse? Human violence or the wrath of an angry god?

Whatever the cause, the modern age has come to an end. Looting, food riots, and global insurrection are the order of the day, and the New Dark Ages are suddenly upon us.

Can this global anarchy be stopped? Can the End Time be reversed?

A small mountain village in the American South is humankind’s last best hope.

Star*Soldier Gloss: Page 13
This is the Star*Soldier gloss for the first pilots page:

CONCEPT: One thing Wing Commander games have always (well, often) had is a roster of particular 'ace' pilots. Even when it isn't printed in the manual, it's in the game (Rakti, Kur, etc.) It was a no-brainer when I was expanding the manual... except there wasn't anything like that in the game. There was a big list of names that it would randomly assign to an AI and nothing more. I picked a few pilots from the database and write six or eight bios... and was then contacted by the development team, who liked the idea and decided to 'lock' a handful of character names to particular ships. I had to double the number of bios I'd written, which was easy for Terran but no so comfortable for Kilrathi. My rare impact on how the game is actually played (this is also why these particular names show up so often - their spawn rate is a lot higher for whatever reason)!

Beyond that - I'm a Wing Commander fan and not a graphic artist, so one sort of tribute I wanted to include was to seamlessly (which is to say while ignoring the elephant in the room) include multiple Wing Commander styles in the manual. I wanted live actors and drawings and talking heads coexisting and for the booklet to act like there was absolutely no problem with them all appearing together. I think this section was especially well accepted by casual fans, since it's neat to see the talking heads again... (ahh! I'm hitting myself for not including a Super Wing Commander shot right now.)

Note that there is a surprising amount of gameplay in these pages - the callsigns all appear in the game, the kills all match up with the real in-game leaderboards... with some effort you can actually get to the top of this list (six or so people already have).

REFERENCES-

• "Kyra 'Raven' Hunter" - As you shall see, one of my secondary objectives with these pages was to 'make real' some of the great characters invented for cancelled projects. Kyra was the player character in the first Privateer 3 script, which was written when Tomb Raider was all the rage. She became 'Kyle Travers' (who we'll also meet) in later revisions. Also, let me note that I think 'retired mercenary' is a silly title. I just wanted to introduce some level of background in a very few words.
• "Amber 'Amazon' Elbereth" - Amazon was a Wing Commander Prophecy redshirt who, for some reason, was among the group transferred to the Cerberus for Secret Ops. She's the quintessential 'me too' character (... and also Amazon was there, and she outranked everyone, and was never mentioned again). I just wanted to give her a moment in the sun, which is also why she now appears some slots after Maniac and Blair on the all time pilot rankings (#18). The head artwork comes from Wing Commander II's set of "background" heads, which range from horrific to... this one (I am not the first person guilty of borrowing from this source - Special Operations did the same thing. Why do you think Bear is so weird looking?) The story here (Miwday, CIS, etc.) is taken directly from her games.
• "Navy Cross" - Remember when Wing Commander games had medals you could win? This is a reference to that - although this is the first time the real-life Navy Cross has been mentioned in Wing Commander (I had to look that up).
• "disproportionate number" - Here's a story! Earlier on in development I was asked for a list of callsigns used in Wing Commander. The idea was that they would be mixed with ordinary ones generated by the development team and used in the game as names for randomly spawned AI pilots. That way you would occasionally see a somewhat familiar Wing Commander name when playing through the gauntlet. I dug through the sources and especially the big sources of callsigns - the list of dead pilots in the Confederation Handbook, the Midway redshirt roster and so forth. Little did I know, at the time, that I would later have to name all the bots and provide all sorts of background for this world! Whoops. I gave most of the 'familiar' callsigns to new characters (especially the dead ones!) but kept the various Midway redshirts the same. This reference is a quick explanation of why you find so many familiar names (and I guess it makes sense, as the Midway pilots were fighting the bugs for the longest time...)
• "Don't let her looks fool you" - The joke is that a) this is exactly the kind of crap that every biography of a female character ever includes and b) the Wing Commander II heads are all hideous.
• "Joe 'Hollywood' Turner" - Joe was the 'hero' character in the short-lived Privateer television series concept. Most of the things in this biography also come from that concept: Marc Lassiter was the 'Privateer 2/3' hero who would have tamed up with Turner if that elaborate fusing of game and show had come about, Legion Inc. was their big opponent and the Black Lance crisis refers to the shows setting and hopes that it would cross over with WC4. The picture, again, is a leftover from Wing Commander II.
• "VK Day" - A favorite World War IIism of mine appears again. I believe this actually first appeared in False Colors.
• Bearpit" - Another attempt to tie the character to the game! Hollywood was my callsign, referencing something Aaron Allston once said about how the concept had 'gone Hollywood' after it left his hands, with scripts planned for things like a visit to a planet of barbarian women.
• "Dirk 'Stingray' Wright - Second (of two) references to a favorite also-ran from Wing Commander II. This is actually the first statement that Stingray survived the loss of the Concordia, so... there's that.
• "mentored by Blair himself" - Blair would probably disagree, although Stingray was certainly the young fool to his experienced veteran in Wing Commander II. Moreover, the story I wanted to imply here was that in 2701 *everyone* with any sort of connection to Blair is going to set themselves up as his best friend.
• "Third Warsaw" - This is taken from an American Civil War method of referring to multiple battles in the same place (ie, "Second Manassas"). Warsaw was the first planet Strontium-bombed by the Kilrathi in Fleet Action.
• "too old to keep fighting" - I know what you're thinking: shouldn't these characters be really old. Well... we'll talk about that later.
• "nose of his Rapier" - Two things: one, Stingray flew a Rapier in Wing Commander II... and two, I sincerely love the idea that kill/bomb/mission marks are painted on fighters as in World War II. They did this for the Wing Commander movie and it should have been expanded greatly.
• "Stingray is a cautious pilot" - What a difference a few decades of experience make!

2008.237 (August 24, 2008)

[# 3244 | 8/24/2008]

Vampires That Don't Suck!
Today we have an interesting tidbit for you. Since we know you've always wanted high-res versions of official Wing Commander artwork to use as your computer's desktop background, we have a downloadable pack of Vampire wallpapers. Just download the set here and pick your resolution from the provided images. This is the same splash image used in-game while missions are loading in Wing Commander: Secret Ops.

Just because, I threw something together from one of the original PSD source artwork files from Prophecy, so here's a Vampire wallpaper pack in as many standard resolutions that I could think of. Only the widescreen versions are slightly squashed so that I wouldn't have to cut off any of the ships. I also included a full resolution uncropped jpg of the image too for the curious.

Star*Soldier Gloss: Page 12
This is the Star*Soldier gloss for the eighth Joan's page:

CONCEPT: These were the ships I really got to build, since they were actually 'maps' in the game without most specifications. I just had to stick to the right number of turrets on the cruisers and the established history on the Midway. Note that the screenshots seen here were taken by the game's Producer in-game, since the team didn't have time to render new ones before we went to print.

REFERENCES-

• "Midway" - A Midway-class ship makes up the single player gauntlet map in Arena. I was so jazzed when I saw this for the first time. "The front, that looks like a Midway..." "It is!" One of those great happy moments, in my mind.
• "differ only visually" - The Producer was very concerned with explaining why this Midway looked 'different' from the one in Wing Commander Prophecy. I honestly believe the whole thing is my fault and that they put out that cool 'wallpaper' image of the ship early on because of how genuinely excited they saw I was to find it in the game. I felt, I still feel, terrible that some fans were so obnoxious about it. It's a cool treat for you guys, not the end of the world (I know the artist felt awful too). Anyway, I did go through great lenghts (as requested) to explain the appearance - this reference was only the start, and was more geared towards explaining why the specifications could be the same.
• "Confederation flagship" - I thought our previous home deserved some glory!
• "Length," "Mass," "YPR," "Velocity," "Acceleration," "Shields," "Fighter Complement" - These numbers all come straight from Wing Commander Prophecy.
• "Armor" - 2,000 cms was the most common 'component' armor strength in Prophecy.
• "Weapons" - The laser turrets and the IR missile launchers are from the official specifications (and they're what you find in the game). The heavy ion cannons are mentioned in Rachael's article in Waypoint! and the CapShip Missiles are seen in-game when the Midway is fighting the first Tiamat.
• "TSY Arcology" - TSY Arcology was the site which repaired the Midway in Secret Ops, location of some sort of intrigue involving a bombing that... didn't go anywhere?
• "Indomitable" - I'm so lucky in that I got to name and write the backstory for the coolest part of the game! I wanted a strong age-of-sail style name for the human ship. It was actually "Indefatigable" for quite a while until it was decided no one would know how to pronounce that.
• "battlecruiser" - Sean Penney was very concerned that the large ships be given a unique backstory in the Wing Commander universe, to separate them (and their lack of shields) from the sleaker capital ships we had seen before. I came up with the 'battlecruiser' background, most of which is actually presented later in the manual (which is why these descriptions might seem sparse - although they appear early, they were written later with knowledge of what a battlecruiser was already in my head).
• "The only ship capable of... with coordinated fighter support." -A direct explanation of how the CapShip mode is played.
• Specifications - These numbers were all mine. As you can see, they're designed to be similar but 'varied' between the two ships (just like their appearances). I will admit here and never again that I included, very late in the game, the large fighter complements for anyone who wanted to imagine them fighting a Star Wars Star Destroyer and winning...
• "Shields: None" - This was a requirement from the development team, who didn't want to confuse anyone given that the point of the ships was to blow up their components with your guns. It's a little weird, I'll admit...
• "Mk. V Plasma Cannon" - You see massive batteries firing from cruiser to cruiser in the game, I made them the apparent successor to the plasma cannon found on the Cerberus in Secret Ops.
• "Trojan IV Naval Yard" - The yard where, according to Claw Marks, the famed TCS Tiger's Claw was built.
• "Kiranka" - I wanted something similarly regal for the Kilrathi name... and what's more regal than the former Imperial clan?
• "Hari Fleet" - The appearance of similarly giant "battleships" in Fleet Action has always bothered me. Hunter identifies them when he's scanning the hidden Kilrathi fleet... and then they never appear again. Were they not finished in time for the invasion? What happened to them? Now you know!
• "basically a pound for pound..." - A nice way of saying that they're exactly the same.
• "Nokhtak Clan" - The clan of Murragh from False Colors. I liked the suggestion that they were tying themselves to the Imperial legacy in this manner (and that they still existed at all).

2008.236 (August 23, 2008)

[# 3243 | 8/23/2008]

The Darkening of FFmpeg
The latest update to the FFmpeg multimedia project adds TGV file playback support. FFmpeg is a video converter, decoding and stream capturing program that also forms the basis of a number of other freeware video utilites. TGV files are the format used in Privateer 2: The Darkening. Privateer 2 has some of the most stylish cutscenes of the Wing Commander series and included a remarkable lineup of actors. The Darkening starred, among others, Clive Owen, Jurgen Prochnow, Christopher Walken, David Warner and John Hurt.

Star*Soldier Gloss: Page 11
This is the Star*Soldier gloss for the seventh Joan's page:

CONCEPT: See the previous post!

REFERENCES-

• "General Wright" - Stingray from Wing Commander II. This is expanded in the pilot bios section. I always liked the fact that the Special Ops team realized that Stingrays real name wasn't ever said in WC2 and so developed reasons for both his first and last names to be stated in the addons. Very much the same geek culture that's behind Star*Soldier.
• ... and there's a lot to this story, too! It's patterned after the "Enyo Engagement" plan from the original Claw Marks and is, again, designed to expand the Nephilim War backstory through a small seed.
• "Ardai" - One of the original Wing Commander star systems, from the Vega Sector map included in Wing Commander I. It's referenced at least once in that game's dialogue, too.
• "Alliance" - This is an important point that people didn't pick up way back in 1994. There's a difference, in Voices of War and the WC3 material, between the Terran Confederation and the Terran Alliance. The former is the United States and the latter is the United Nations (in the World War II sense - the allies). The Alliance includes all sorts of unspecified smaller nations (Firekkans, Varni, etc.) who are also in the fight against the Kilrathi but who haven't signed on to Confed. I resurrected that group here to face off against the Nephilim and, obviously, added the Kilrathi to its ranks.
• "Ja'targk clan" - This clan was introduced in the Super Wing Commander version of Claw Marks, where Khajja the Fang's full name was listed for the first time.
• "tie up" - I used 'tie up' twice in one ship description. I know this isn't Shakespeare, but ick. Thanks for making me revisit this, jerks.
• "missile frigate" - References the oft-suggested idea that frigates in the Wing Commander universe have more specific roles than other ships of the line... and are so large because they carry things like munitions rather than energy weapons.
• "space superiority fighters" - Term comes from Wing Commander Prophecy's ICIS manual, which so-defines the Panther and the Vampire.
• "Paw DF," "Claw HS" - One last note before I forget: the 'Kilrathi' versions of the missiles come from Wing Commander Armada. The human names (Dart, Javelin, Spiculum) come from the original Claw Marks.

2008.235 (August 22, 2008)

[# 3242 | 8/22/2008]

Visita el Cuadrante Clarke
Maxi de Sokar has another neat classic Wing Commander review from the Spanish magazine MicroMania. Privateer got the center spot on Issue 67's cover. The four-page review inside is rich with screenshots and renders from the game. There are also a handful of neat sidebars that detail information about ships, locations and ship upgrades. It makes me want to fire up Privateer right now!

Es el corazon del atrincheramiento militar del Sector. En el se encuentra la base naval Perry custodiada y atacada por cientos de naves confederadas y Kilrathis. Los pirates, por lo tanto, son bastantes escasos.

Star*Soldier Gloss: Page 10
This is the Star*Soldier gloss for the sixth Joan's page:

CONCEPT: See the previous post!

REFERENCES-

• The magnitude of the whole thing hits me when I think about this page - I got to grow up and help tell the shared history of the Dralthi. It's unbelievable.
• "Two hundred years" - to jive with a reference to the KF-100 Dralthi's age in the Confederation Handbook.
• "ten major revisions" - In my opinion, this can mean either that there have been ten different Dralthi (KF-100 and I through IX) or eleven (KF-100, I through IX and something else). We'll see what future projects add to the history...
• The true story of how the Dralthi IX got its numeral:

  Me: The Dralthi should get a number. It was Dralthi IV in Wing Commander III and so forth.
  Them: Well, what's the highest one we've seen?
  Me: Dralthi VII.
  Them: Then this can be the Dralthi VIII.
  Me: Let's call it the Dralthi IX, to leave room just in case...
  Them: Eh.
  Me: The 'X' would look cool.
  Them: Sold.

• "spit-and-glue Dralthi IV models" - The previously unspecified Dralthi models seen in Wing Commander Prophecy.
• "Bloodhunters" - The Kilrathi pirate group from one of the Privateer Online concept pitches. I like that it ties that unused mythology to the Kilrathi pirates seen in Prophecy.
• "Hurricane II," "Predator" - Two of the fighter names from that same Privateer Online document. Note that I added the 'II' so that the Hurricane would jive with the old fighter seen in Action Stations.
• "Caxki Clan" - Another of the 'eight noble clans' (concept introduced in Fleet Action). Caxki is probably the most frequently referenced one... presumably because - and I'm serious - the X makes it look cool.
• Are you wondering why the Kilrathi would name their elite Dralthi model after a human animal? Keep wondering, Heart of the TIGER.
• "Puffer-class Ships" - Puffers! I wanted to suggest that there were all sorts of other Nephilim ships... but I also wanted to do a cool ship identification poster using Prophecy's graphic resources. You'll see how that pans out...

2008.234 (August 21, 2008)

[# 3235 | 8/21/2008]

Red Alert 3 Dials 867-5309
Electronic Arts has some interesting news -- Red Alert 3 will feature a large cast of 'name' actors rivaling that of Wing Commander III... which even includes one Wing Commander star (Tim Curry, Original Melek)! GameZine reports:

The most famous people in the cast include game veteran Tim Curry (Rocky Horror Picture Show, Congo), Kelly Hu (The Scorpion King, Sammo Hung's Martial Law), Jenny McCarthy (Scream 3, Playboy magazine) and George Takei (Star Trek, Prisoners of the Sun).

Other notable appearances will be made by Gemma Atkinson (Hollyoaks), Andrew Divoff (Lost), Ivana Milicevic (Casino Royale), Jonathan Pryce (Pirates of the Caribbean), JK Simmons (Law and Order, Juno), Autumn Reeser (The OC) and Peter Stormare (Prison Break, Armageddon).

Star*Soldier Gloss: Page 9
This is the Star*Soldier gloss for the fifth Joan's page:

CONCEPT: See the previous post!

REFERENCES-

• Note the shift from blue to red headers for the ship names, the color most assosciated with each faction.
• "Deuces" - This story comes from the rarely discussed second official guide to Wing Commander III, the "Authorized Combat Guide".
• "Blackfish-Type cloaking device" - The Confederation's visual cloak is named Blackfish in the Wing Commander Customizable Card Game (its counterpart is the Shroud sensor cloak).
• "Ki'ra Clan" - The idea that a particular clan builds a particular fighter design is new; Ki'ra was Baron Jukaga's clan from Fleet Action. They were the key competitor for the throne during the Terran/Kilrathi War (and before). This is to let everyone know that they're still out there, in some form (although Action Stations' introduction stated this nicely already, albeit with an odd misunderstanding of how Kilrathi names work.)
• "2668" - A new hard service entry date for the Darket! I chose 2668 because it was the earliest we had ever seen them - the Wing Commander IV novelization claims that Darket fought at the Battle of Earth.
• "Reduced Kilrathi Fleet" - Does this refer to the state of the Kilrathi fleet after their surrender to the Confederation... or the Kilrathi fleet after losses suffered against the Nephilim? It's left to your imagination on purpose.
• "Najji 'Fireclaw' nar Ragitagha" - Fireclaw was one of the Kilrathi aces in Wing Commander III... and in Arena! The idea that an ace can design his own 'improved' fighter actually comes from WC3, where the aces had fighters with superior guns/weapons and different textures.
• "Commerce Raiders" - Again, not something you can do in Arena... rather, something to fill out the universe.
• Note that the Stalker is three meters longer than the other Darket!

2008.233 (August 20, 2008)

[# 3241 | 8/20/2008]

Flight Commander 1.6 Progress Report
Eddieb is making good progress on the next iteration of Flight Commander. This impressive project strives to recreate a Wing Commander type experience in a package that is also easy to edit and create new fan projects with. While he is busy researching how to properly implement enemy AI, there have been plenty of other advancements made.

Yeah, 1.6 is coming along great, I've finished up some missile work, and ... I've implemented damage reports, and the damage model.

If you get shot up, your ship's performance starts to degrade. You lose missiles, you slow down, you can't afterburn. Your trusty repair system helps get you back on your feet.

While I was at it, I cleaned up the hud a little bit too.

Star*Soldier Gloss: Page 8
This is the Star*Soldier gloss for the fourth Joan's page:

CONCEPT: See the previous post!

REFERENCES-

• I love how some of the Broadswords cover up the text. The ships are all to scale and we had a heck of a time fitting them in correctly.
• "pre-war role as a heavy missile platform" - I forgot myself here. This refers to its pre-KILRATHI-war role as a heavy missile platform, an attempt to explain why Broadswords were around in 2632 well before anyone had any torpedoes.
• "military grade tractor beam" - An attempt to suggest that the weapons used by the military and the ones used by civilians are different, which is why the latter are so cheap in Privateer.
• "Camelot Industries" - Flash was a test pilot for Camelot Industries in the Wing Commander III novelization.
• "relegated to the surplus yards" - False Colors claims that the Confederation has retired the Broadsword design, so I needed a brief tie-it-to-the-Nephilim War explanation to
• Moreover, this is another 'what should have been' battle description. I want to attack a construction reef! It's also wish fulfillment - I know 'organic' can mean anything, but I really wanted to see Syd Mead's original concept of Nephlim warships that grow their own fighters.
• "militia Warpig squadron" - We see that the Confederation has an organized militia system starting in Privateer. My thought here is that they have been called up much like the modern National Guard.
• Note that the Broadsword Behemoth is five meters longer than the other two (and the classic design). This was, again, the Producer's suggestion.
• "Platolum" - The new type of armor discovered on Ghorah Khar in Victory Streak.

2008.232 (August 19, 2008)

[# 3240 | 8/19/2008]

Are there Nephilim in Privateer?
Chris Knudsen is always on the bug hunt in his impressive Ascii Sector game. The project tries to emulate the Privateer experience with (very) old-school graphics. He's constantly adding new features and refining various gameplay elements. Version 0.3.8.1 has been released, so head over and download the latest version to try out the latest changes.

- Fixed bug with the alphabetical sorting of movie files.
- Fixed bug with improving your Rifle Shooting skill from the shooting range on Manurhin in the Vichy system.
- Fixed bug that froze the game when landing on Novy Norilsk with an assassination mission there.
- Added new Quine for purchase in the equipment shop.
- You can now access your Quine while viewing a computer terminal.
- Did a whole bunch of stuff related to the upcoming quest scripting.

Next up is v0.4, which will allow for user written quest scripts, making it possible for players to create stories in the Ascii Sector universe for other players to play.

Star*Soldier Gloss: Page 7
This is the Star*Soldier gloss for the third Joan's page:

CONCEPT: See the previous post!

REFERENCES-

• "CF-117" - This is the confusingly named Rapier fighter from the Wing Commander movie. Apparently the Confederation put a 'Rapier II' into service mere months after we saw aging Rapier (I)s in combat. Go figure. Someday we'll be able to retcon the Pilgrim Stars retcon, too...
• "top twenty aces" - A theoretical list made famous in the Wing Commander Prophecy supporting materials by its claim that Blair and Maniac were only #11 and #14, respectively. The others were all pilots who flew earlier in the war when Kilrathi ships were less shielded. I took this as an opportunity to fill out that list a little.
• "Dragon" - A heroic Rapier II pilot who flew in the Vega Campaign, according to the Wing Commander Academy manual.
• "Bandit" - One thing I saw early on was people wondering where the reference to LOAF of the Wing Commander CIC was. Well, this is it. It's alternatively kind and obscure... because, let's face it, we've all seen "Lesnick" appear a bit too often in our Wing Commander errata. He's no Sommers!
• "Maverick" - Blair's wartime callsign. I referenced the reference with an ICIS manual reference. That's one for the Star*Soldier Gloss gloss.
• "Maniac" - Todd Marshall, who is referenced or appears in every 'main' Wing Commander game.
• "Prankster" - This isn't the last time you'll see this: as awful as it is, I find the idea that Carl "Prankster" LaFong (the character from the Wing Commander I & II Ultimate Strategy Guide) and Chris Blair are two different people hilarous.
• "Origin Aerospace" - One of the original in-jokes (no pun intended). 'Origin Aerospace,' complete with logo, was listed as the designed on the Wing Commander I blueprints... thus, seventeen years later, we recognize it as the company which designed the Hornet, Scimitar, Rapier II and Raptor.
• "updated by fire through its service against the Nephilim" - Let's just admit it: it feels strange that the Rapier is still around fighting the Nephilim a half-century on (and that they're still being built). I wanted, in these descriptions, to ease that awkward feeling somewhat.
• "Rapier II Vanguard" - See the previous entry. There is a lot going on in this short paragraph. Here goes...
• "Named for their exceptional service against the Nephilim" - Not the least of intentions is another attempt to ease the Rapier into the Nephilim War with an interesting battle story.
• "First strike through the gate" - Second, it is an attempt to describe a 'Strike Team'-like scenario, in honor of that cancelled game.
• "All sixteen Rapiers were shot down..." - Third, a slight reference to the Sorthak and Strakha flavor text from Victory Streak/Warbirds.
• "G#38KMSX-RED" - Fourth, it tries to make the Nephilim War feel 'big' and as though it was real to the setting now being presented. We should feel immediately that the reader of this magazine would know what that crazy system means in relation to however Nephilim space is formatted (for the record, I have no clue.)
• "129 to 1 kill ratio" - Fifth, an acknowledgement that the high kill scores and crazy odds faced routinely in Prophecy are the norm for fighting space insects.
• "often used as minelayers" - Finally, an attempt to give the fighter a normal role outside that which it has in Arena itself. Yes, this is a fun fighter to play with... and in the larger fiction the military uses them for creating minefields. It addes a little bit of life to the background world, I hope.
• "Rapier Cavalier" - After all that, I think I sort of wussed out on this description. This is simply the final point in building up the Cavalier as the single ship the player should most what to fly (ie, I was making it the reward ship - similar to how the original Rapier II and the Excalibur were presented in their respective fictions.)
• "true artist's ship" - References how Iceman described the Rapier II in the original Wing Commander.

2008.231 (August 18, 2008)

[# 3239 | 8/18/2008]

Loki VI is Peaceful!
This week the Wing Commander 3 community replay crew takes on the Loki and Alcor mission series. Last week Tolwyn revealed his plan for ending the war, and now players will have to protect the ill-fated Behemoth during its test run in the Loki system. Here are DaveO's notes from Caliban and Torgo:

I find Flint in gunnery control, and she says it must feel like an old time reunion with both the Admiral and Prince Thrakhath. Flint apologizes after seeing my reaction and realizes that she knows who I’m really thinking about after checking about my history. She correctly identifies Angel as my concern, and I ask her when she decided to look at pilot histories. She admits that this was her weapon when growing up, and that her research gave her an edge. She also knows about my frequent crossing of paths with the Admiral. I admit that it’s more of a confrontation where Tolwyn is concerned, and the Admiral makes it his goal to know the history of pilots he meets. Tolwyn has no quibbles about using rules and regulations, and Flint and I agree that he does not know the human heart as well as he could. I head down to the flight level, and see the Admiral in the briefing room along with Captain Eisen.

The Admiral explains that we’re here to rendezvous with ‘destiny’, and I find that this destiny is with a massive ship called the Behemoth. It’s a super ship with one function: destruction of planets with Kilrah as the obvious target. The Behemoth has not had the time to get fully operational, so it has been pressed into service earlier than expected. This is due to the successful war effort the Kilrathi have been making, so there is little choice in the matter. Either deploy the weapon now or risk the cats conquering Earth in six months or less. The defenses of the Behemoth are thin in certain areas due to the accelerated deployment so it will need extra protection against attack. Tolwyn receives a communication message during the briefing, and he tells us that the Kilrathi are attempting to spoil any attempt to use the Behemoth. I’m given orders to scramble all fighters, so it’s a magnum launch in an Arrow. Flint is along as my wingman, and I do get enough time to make my standard launch adjustments.

• Community Replay - General Discussion
• WC1 Week 1 - Enyo, McAuliffe, Gimle, Gateway, Cheng-du
• WC1 Week 2 - Brimstone, Dakota, Kurasawa, Rostov, Port Hedland, Hubble's Star
• WC1 Week 3 - Venice, Hell's Kitchen, Alternate Paths
• Secret Missions Week 1 - Goddard, Border Zone, Midgard
• Secret Missions Week 2 - Jotunheim, Bifrost
• Secret Missions Week 3 - Valgard, Vigrid
• SM2: Crusade Week 1 - Firekka
• SM2: Crusade Week 2 - Corsair, Near Firekka
• SM2: Crusade Week 3 - Corsair, Charon
• WC2 Week 1 - Gwenydd, Niven
• WC2 Week 2 - Niven, Ghorah Khar
• WC2 Week 3 - Novaya Kiev, Heaven's Gate
• WC2 Week 4 - Heaven's Gate, Tesla
• WC2 Week 5 - Enigma
• WC2 Week 6 - K'tithrak Mang
• SO1 Week 1 - Pembroke
• SO1 Week 2 - Rigel
• SO1 Week 3 - Ghorah Khar 1
• SO1 Week 4 - Ghorah Khar 2
• SO2 Week 1 - Canewdon 1
• SO2 Week 2 - Canewdon 2
• SO2 Week 3 - Canewdon 3
• SO2 Week 4 - Ayer's Rock
• WC3 Week 1 - Orsini
• WC3 Week 2 - Tamayo, Locanda
• WC3 Week 3 - Blackmane, Ariel/Delius
• WC3 Week 4 - Caliban, Torgo
• WC3 Week 5 - Loki, Alcor

Star*Soldier Gloss: Page 6
This is the Star*Soldier gloss for the second Joan's page:

CONCEPT: I didn't have much (if any) control over the specifications - most of them come directly from the game. I had some leeway with the length and mass, but since they're classic Wing Commander fighters... not much. Note the increasing mass as the ships become 'fatter' (more armored) - that's something the game's Producer remembered to include. I will admit that even though this was a 'virtual' manual, it suffers from the same problem as the Origin booklets did: since I couldn't play the game regularly during its final balancing and since the development team was so busy with more important things the specifications aren't always exactly right. The ship images are all from Arena screenshots -- with all sorts of bits of text and background photoshopped out!

Coming up with material here was actually something of a challenge. I wrote 'flavor' blurbs for these ships about four times - once for the game, once for the manual, once for a gaming site article and once for the EA Arcade site (most weren't used). I insisted on trying to include a different 'fact' each time, which is harder than it sounds. (I will also refer everyone who insists that Joan's doesn't have text descriptions to the Terran Confederation Handbook.)

REFERENCES-

"F-27" - This is probably the first piece of Wing Commander history I ever created. I helped develop some of the in-game flavor text and was asked for a designation for the Arrow to make it look like the other two Confederation ships (which already had F-44 and A-17). I came up with F-27 on the spot, leaving it early enough to predate most of the '2660s' Confederationf ighters. I will note that I also vetoed using movie-based 'KF-XXX' designations for the Kilrathi ships. The especially anal details should be reserved for manuals, not the part of the game everyone has to play.

Joan's Logo (Upper Left) - Looks like we didn't make them all orange. It does seem pretty close to the 'real thing'.

"Arrow V," "Douglas Aerospace" - See my notes on the inside cover for this history.

"last half century" - Refers to the Arrow's appearance in the pilot episode of Wing Commander Academy.

"Orbital Racing Competitions" - This was an 'expand the game' reference. My distant hope was that someone would pick it up and start racing fighters in Arena maps. As far as I know, no one has done this.

"CAG" - A slight reference to CAG Drake from Prophecy. Generally an acknowledgement of the term, which is less popular than 'Wing Commander'.

"Captured Kilrathi Technology," "Black Ops ship" - I happened to hear someone at Gaia explain how they wanted to suggest that the Arrow Eclipse was built with stolen Kilrathi technology by giving it a cloaking device and Kilrathi missiles (which is absolutely an awesome level of thought to put into the game on their part). I personally wanted to tie it to the cloaking Arrows in Wing Commander IV, but I had to make sure I respected that backstory as well.

"deployment of early model guardians" - This is another explanation for an 'annoying movie complaint'; obviously, the appearance of a "skipper missile" at the film's climax. For the record, I do realize that this makes absolutely no sense. "Arrow Guardian did it" can be Wing Commander's equivalent of "Wizard did it".

2008.230 (August 17, 2008)

[# 3236 | 8/17/2008]

Homeworld Mod Cleans Up Its Cruiser
Aaron Thomas continues to fix up his original models for the WC4 Homeworld 2 mod. These are the initial shots of his improved Tallahassee class cruiser.