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Star*Soldier Gloss: Page 23
This is the Star*Soldier gloss for the fifth systems page:
CONCEPT: See the previous post!
REFERENCES-
"T'Kirsa" - T'kirsa is the 'other' Firekkan system introduced in the Wing Commander Universe map. This bio, which represents Arena's "Bearpit" mode, was cut down from the original demo version of the manual. My reasoning was that the Bearpit was the least 'Wing Commander' game mode, as fun as it is - so if I could come up with a reasonable backstory for it, I could do anything.
- "Firekkan Planetary Alliance" - The name for the Firekkan political group, also from the Universe Map. Presumably this is the Firekkan government formed after they left the Confederation in Fleet Action.
- "Roman coliseums and Kilrathi war-halls" - The whole idea is to connect this strange, strange space station to both reality and the reality of Wing Commander. That's another reason I made it Firekkan: it seems unlikely that humans in the 28th century would have built a massive bloodsport stadium -- but someone else might have.
- "Viewing galleries" - A feature of the mode itself, where up to 14 other players fly around the outer circle while battle happens in the center.
- "Kika'li" - The especially alcoholic drink introduced in Freedom Flight.
- "Last of the Megacarriers" - This is a reformatting of the various Midway explanations I worked on. You will see that various possible explanations for the change in appearance are included.
- "TCS Port Broughton" - The name comes from a list of the Midway-class ships created by Captain Johnny back in 1997-98. I did manage to include the whole list in an article added late in the process, as I knew it was one of those things Wing Commander fans had always wanted made part of the 'canon'. The name comes from a city in Australia.
- "CVX-10" - The original Midway was CVX-1. There was much discussion over the years as to what the 'X' meant. Basically, was it a new type of designation (a la CVS, CVE, CVA, etc.) or did it mean 'prototype' as with modern aircraft (ie, XF-22). Although the Midway was the class leader it clearly wasn't a prototype, so I've kept the designation for every ship in the class.
- "Flight IIA Midway-class" - Here's one possible (simple) explanation for the altered appearance. I don't know if 'Flight IIA' is a common name for an uprated version of a ship or not; I took it from the US Navy's Flight IIA Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.
- "2686" - The novels give a five year producton time for new fleet carriers and we know from the ICIS manual that the Midway and the Mistral Sea enter service within a year of eachother.
- "McAuliffe" - Site of the McAuliffe Ambush, introduced in Claw Marks and the focus of Action Stations.
- "B'shriss" - Where Iceman died, as mentioned in Wing Commander Prophecy's dialogue.
- "Silenos" - The system where you choose to defect or stay with the Confederation in Wing Commander IV.
- "Sirius" - A system nuked by the Kilrathi in Fleet Action; also the penultimate series in Secret Ops.
- "Fiddler's Green" - A system mentioned by Angel in Wing Commander II; it was one of several human colonies attacked by the Kilrathi at one point in the game.
- "Reid" - The Wing Commander Universe map's shout-out to Chris Reid. The interesting thing here, though, is how far Reid is into the heart of the Confederation, which tells you something about the scope of the Nephilim War.
- "fluid space" - One concept they talked about for Strike Team was that space would be different across the wormhole. It would have helped make the game play and feel differently... so I referenced that here, hoping to put into your heads elaborate space coral colonies and schools of space fish fighters. Imagine a place where the shiny Nephilim fighters look natural.
- "modified to fight effectively" - Second explanation, to suggest why it looks different and is covered by those 'awful' towers.
- "Sirius wormhole" - Not a typo, this is a wormhole in Sirius rather than Proxima (the one seen at the end of Secret Ops).
- "Charybdis" - The quasar from the Wing Commander movie, which was the central point of many, many mysterious jump lines.
- "secondary theater" - A slight jab at the TCS Concordia.
- "TCSN" - I know, everyone else just says TCN, I'm sorry.
- "18th Fleet" - Highest fleet number seen yet!
- "Yelkin II" - Ah! This is one of the Wing Commander Armada sector map systems. I was trying to connect those great eleven maps to somewhere in the 'familiar' Wing Commander universe (Firekka).
- "burning in space" - Heh.
- "Tiamat battlegroups" - The Tiamat was the ultimate bad guy capital ship in Wing Commander Prophecy and apparently the Port Broughton went up against several of them.
- "intell" - Strange spelling of intel used in Victory Streak, presumably to avoid using the same name as the chip manufacturer?
- "new cruisers" - Oooh.
- "Krakatoa" - This has to be a Vesuvius-class ship (in fact, the name comes from an unpublished bio Captain Johnny did on that class).
- "history will not forget" - Somebody watched Generations. Ugh.
- "Commodore C. Strevell" - That's Blonde from the CIC team. Also, I feel that the Commodore rank is woefully underused.
- "four years later" - Suggests that the Nephilim War (or - some war) was still going on in 2698.
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Update published on September 4, 2008. View all news from that day.
Wing Commander CIC - Visit the front page
Official news, fan projects and topics of particular interest to Wing Commander fans.
- Some Ship Viewer Sample Shots Shown
- 2012-05-24 -- BoH_Havoc is continuing to move forward with his online ship viewer based on feedback he's received so far. Here are some new prototype images with the TCS Concordia rendered in the program. Pretty neat!
- Destroyer Destined for Guard Duty
- 2012-05-23 -- Kevin Caccamo's Ralari has taken a huge leap since the last time we saw it. The model has been plated with nice metallic textures that don't overdo the look. Running lights, windows, powered engines and intake glow all add significantly to the presentation here too.
- GOG Talks Space Sims
- 2012-05-22 -- centaurianmudpig spotted a new PlaySF interview with the folks at GOG.com. They discuss the state of the space combat genre and the possibility of releasing expansion packs for Wing Commander games.
- Enigma Mod Measures Out Confed Fleet
- 2012-05-21 -- Here's a new Confed showcase of capships for the Enigma 2666 mod. Each ship's length and scale is still subject to some potential tweaking to sync better with fighters, but the current lineup is displayed below. The TCS Concordia is very far along the design path, as is the Gilgamesh.
- "Sir, if we spot this Fralthi, should we engage?"
- 2012-05-20 -- Now we go from Fralthra to Fralthi WIP images. CMDBob's latest design is a classic Kilrathi light carrier/cruiser. His model has real clean lines and an animated WC1-style set of textures.
- Fearsome Fralthra Filling In Fast
- 2012-05-19 -- Red Baron has started to texture Cybot's Fralthra, and it's quickly turning into quite a work of art. The color scheme already does a great job of evoking Wing Commander 2. He's also scaled a Jalkehi as a point of reference and imagined what the entire fighter complement of the ship might look like.
- Wing Commander Saga Download Reminder
- 2012-05-18 -- If you haven't yet downloaded the long-awaited fan game, now is as good a time as any to get your hands on a copy! The Windows installer weighs in at a hefty 3.4 gigabytes, so we recommend some kind of download manager that can resume paused or failed transfers.
- New RPG Kicks Off
- 2012-05-17 -- The TCS Phoenix has launched and the game has begun in the Wing Commander: From the Ashes forum-based RPG. Some of the first characters have already been defined, and action in the Pentonville System is now in motion. There is also an out-of-character area where new players can ask questions and get situated before they begin role playing.
- Vega Sector Reinforcements Inbound
- 2012-05-16 -- Here's a preview of new designs that Klavs is working to bring to the Shapeways model factory. If all goes according to plan, this foursome may be available in a future bundle pack together. It's an interesting assortment of ships - Rapier, Super Wing Commander Rapier, Scimitar and Dralthi - and they all look fantastic!
- Academy Just Two Weeks Away!
- 2012-05-15 -- Wingnuts now have less than 14 days to prepare for the release of Wing Commander Academy on DVD! All thirteen episodes of the television series will be available in this set starting on May 29, 2012. Barnes & Noble and Deep Discount have some of the lowest prices, and there's still time to order from Amazon.
- Scimitar Prepares to Slice Up a Dralthi
- 2012-05-15 -- And to further get you in the Academy mood, here's another beautiful NinjaLA sketch. The CF-105 Scimitar was the workhorse of the cadets flying off the Tiger's Claw, and soon you'll get to watch them again in the new high quality release!
- Exotic Designs Hit the Spacelanes
- 2012-05-14 -- ScoobyDoo has put together several more concept renders inspired by a variety of sources. The first is a medium size capship with fighter-carrying ability, and it's followed by a beefier looking take on the Bearcat. The last design is a more unique idea that mixes Wing Commander elements with a Freespace ship.
- Fleets Increase Presence in Enigma
- 2012-05-13 -- Here's a big update for the Enigma 2666 mod. A handful of new pictures show off where the game is at today. Four different capship classes are pictured near a large Confed base, and all the fighters sport updated textures.
- Echo Sector Reopens
- 2012-05-13 -- The world's biggest website dedicated to the Crusader series, Echo Sector, has gotten a big revamp. New features include a streamlined menu interface and increased security. Not all of the links work yet, but more features will come online soon.
- Va ka Garga ka naru ha Garga
- 2012-05-12 -- NinjaLA has sketched a new fearsome Kilrathi. With his latest warrior, Ninja has done a good job of introducing menacing facial features, and this sinister look goes beyond just drawing a humanoid tiger. The armor is inspired by the classic WC2 style with a WC Movie headpiece.
- Kilrathi Destroyer Continues to Take Shape
- 2012-05-11 -- Kevin Caccamo is once again working on a Ralari model. Since we last saw the ship, additional detail has been added to the window areas and secondary structure. It appears to conform to the Claw Marks schematic quite well.
- Wing Commander Stories From The Fatman
- 2012-05-10 -- In recent weeks, Armchair Arcade has been conducting a series of interviews with famous videogame composer George Sanger. The newest issue talks about his and Dave Govett's work on the soundtrack for the original Wing Commander. Well worth a listen!
- Super Rapier Models Ready To Go
- 2012-05-09 -- Klavs has completed design and prototyping of another physical model. His Super Wing Commander Rapier is now available for fellow Wingnuts in 1/600 scale from Shapeways. The image below reveals that, although tiny, the ship packs some incredible detail - very distinctive hull markings and guns!
- WC Saga Soundtrack Released
- 2012-05-08 -- The WC Saga team has released the soundtrack to their Freespace mod. They are also working on a spinoff album based on George Oldziey's tunes from Wing Commander 3. You can grab the Darkest Dawn OST here (187 meg zip).
- Garriott DVD Drops May 15
- 2012-05-08 -- Richard Garriott's Man on a Mission documentary will be released on DVD next Tuesday! This charming film captures Lord British's successful dream to become the world's first second-generation astronaut. Most reviews have been quite positive and the documentary has come highly recommended.
- Paradigm Deployed to Enigma Sector
- 2012-05-07
- New WC Ship Viewer In Development
- 2012-05-06 -- BOC_Havoc has put together a very sharp 3D ship viewer. The program is still in the prototype stages, but you can try out the current build here. The unity web player plugin is needed to see the model.
- Still Worthy of an Honorable Mention
- 2012-05-05 -- There aren't as many gaming sites name dropping Wing Commander as there were a decade ago, but they still pop up all over if you look. Here's a couple from just this week: HotHardware ran a feature on gaming clichés. The story decries the linear nature of modern games that screech to a halt if any losing conditions are met.
- Warren Spector Revisits Origin Memories
- 2012-05-05 -- Yet another Wing Commander mention this week came from an interview with Warren Spector. Metro.co.
- A Trip to the WC Universe is Right
- 2012-05-04 -- PlaySF magazine has put together a wacky article on Wing Commander and Christopher Blair. From the perspective of an inter-dimensional time traveler, the author jumps back in time to the year AD 2700 within the Wing Commander universe. Once there, he encounters James Taggart and the TCS Midway.
- Everything's Ship Shape!
- 2012-05-03 -- In recent days WCPedia contributor Iceblade has worked on finalizing a layout for the ship articles on the project. After experimenting with the Broadsword article, and creating a great layout in the process, he's started to implement that layout across the Confederation fighters category. Currently, the F-36 Hornet article is the most complete.
- HUDdle Up and Check Out New Cockpit Displays
- 2012-05-02 -- Aginor is working on a new Wing Commander mod, and this game will be played from the Kilrathi perspective. Although there won't be full dashboard cockpit graphics, each ship will have a unique heads up display. Most games use the same targeting crosshairs and reticle for all ships, but here are some examples of how Wing Commander 4 differentiated its craft.
- Don't Miss an Infoburst!
- 2012-05-02 -- Are you linked up to get the latest Wing Commander news right as it happens? In addition to the main website and CIC Forums, dedicated Wingnuts can follow the CIC on various social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and with RSS to stay in the loop as news breaks. In addition to hot stories, followers also see occasional special features and behind-the-scenes updates.
- Glance at Mod's Gwynedd Mission
- 2012-05-01 -- Here's some new shots from the Enigma 2666 mod that show off a fighter launch, autopilot fly-by and ship size comparison. Sharp players will quickly recognize the familiar Broadsword/Ferret pairing from the Fralthra Strike at the beginning of WC2 - a very fun mission, if you can keep the Broadswords alive! Here I used the Confederation Class from Klavs and the converted Broadsword from Standoff.
- Rapier Prepped for Production
- 2012-04-30 -- Klavs has finished his Super Wing Commander Rapier, and the result is gorgeous. These ships are now off to a trial at Shapeways 'rapid prototyping' lab. If the design pans out, small physical resin copies may be available to order soon.
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