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WC Invasion Beta Released!
An initial test release is now available for WC Invasion, a mod for Star Wars Empire at War. Both capital ships and fighters are ready to play for both Confed and Kilrathi sides. The game requires an up-to-date copy of the Forces of Corruption expansion. Lots of work is still yet to be done, but this will give eager Wingnuts a taste of what the game is like so far in skirmish modes. Grab the mod here and visit Crius.net for any questions, comments or issues. Here's Major Payne with more information.
Since this project's inception all those months ago, I've spent many hours getting these ships in game and whilst they do lack the certain bleeps and whistles of the stock game, I'm hoping that this will all be worth it.
Firstly, all the planned models are in game and whilst the Kilrathi don't have the same quantity of ships as the Confederation, the side still has a diverse selection. Both sides generally have access to at least 3 classes of fighters and a minimum of 6 capital ship classes. Also each side has access to its own starbase. However, unlike the stock starbases the mods versions do not have the capability to increase in size/mass with each tech level upgrade. They also retain the same weapon count that they do for ALL tech upgrades (this means that the only reason for upgrading your starbase is to construct heavier capital ships and fighter classes). Secondly the following is completed and ready:
- Squadrons have been changed so that while you can purchase and construct each squadron as in the stock game (each squadron has between 2 and 5 fighters depending on fighter class), the squadrons actually act as individual fighters instead of a group or pair. There is of course, good and bad points to this: The good points are that this allows single fighters to be controlled instead of a group (good for scouting missions so you don't end up losing a whole group of fighters). The dogfight effect is better in this fashion as fighters will tend to attack which ever target they decide instead of having whole groups going after a single target. Unfortunately, the down side to this is the increased amount of icons when fighters are constructed or launched.
- Kilrathi Heroes. This seemed more of an afterthought than anything, and it's quite difficult to find portraits of well known Kilrathi royalty and other characters. As it is, I've got just three coloured portraits and as such these are the primary heroes. They are assigned the following: Hobbes, The Emperor and another member of royalty (Kilrathi Prince). Two of the capital ships assigned to these are versions of the buildable capitals. The third hero is a single unique unit which will be revealed when the mod is played.
- Merchant Spacedock. This structure has been changed to a much smaller structure. Its still capturable and gives access (currently) to only a handfull of ships for each side. In a later version of the mod this will be changed for advanced ships for both sides and there will be quite a selection available.
- Planet changes. Currently there is one additional planet. As the WC universe does feature a terran side it's only logical to include Earth. Thanks to Alberto Ghezzi for publically releasing a slightly altered future earth style texture. It shows the effects of several hundred years of global warming and is of high quality. This is seen in the currently build during the cinematic "gameplay" video during the main menu.
[ChrisReid]
[# 9411]
[Discuss]
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Update published on July 1, 2009. 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.
- Saga Beta Expands to Full Game
- 2012-02-08 -- There's a new look inside WC Saga's beta test. The team reports that there have been many iterations of the beta and they are now starting to test missions in the later portions of the game. There have also been issues with capship positioning and audio recently, but these bugs are being worked through.
- LOAF Fixes an Amiga
- 2012-02-07 -- With the addition of some recent finishing touches, LOAF has essentially completed Karga the Wing Commander Computer, and he's looking for new challenges. Although there are a few opportunities for Karga expansion later, the next great frontier lies with the Amiga. These teaser shots provide a glimpse into the adventure ahead, and LOAF sets the stage below.
- Wallpaper Honors the Escort Carriers
- 2012-02-06 -- This wallpaper isn't Wing Commander-related, but it was made by a talented Wing Commander fan. "Sunset Over The Bay" is Klavs's take on WW2 carrier aviation, and it's a pretty sweet scene!Hi guys, it's not strictly Wing Commander, but since it's WW2 History related I figured I could squeak by.
- "The sport jumped right on schedule. You covered her well."
- 2012-02-06 -- Tim Peel has followed up his Venice Assault with another classic scene from Wing Commander 1. In "Convoy," a squadron of Draymen are shepherded through space by a determined Exeter and some Hornets. This is the kind of thing people imagined in the original game when the autopilot cinematic played during an escort mission.
- Amazon's Academy Price Increased
- 2012-02-05 -- Amazon.com has slightly raised the presale price of the upcoming Wing Commander Academy series on DVD. It's now going for $22.
- Wing Commander Airing in Brazil
- 2012-02-05 -- The Wing Commander Movie will be showing twice in the next few days in Brazil via the Telecine network. In Portuguese, the film's title is A Batalha Final, which translate into "The Final Battle." Check it out on the TC Action channel on Feb 6 at 8:05 pm or Feb 8 at 12:20 pm.
- Classic Style Ship Viewer Built for WC3
- 2012-02-04 -- Farbourne has put together a neat app that compares the stats of Wing Commander 3 fighters. The numbers themselves are readily available, but the charm comes from the ability to pit two ships against each other. Each attribute is compared, and the fighter with the advantage in each category is highlighted.
- Fighter Tokens See Battle on the Table
- 2012-02-03 -- Progress continues to be made on Wing Commander TacOps Online. Avacar has implemented numerous bug fixes in the last several weeks and has big plans about the next phase of the game's development. After an upcoming flurry of coding is complete, the idea is to launch another beta test game that involves capital ships and their escorts.
- "And the last Kilrathi planet in the sector falls!"
- 2012-02-02 -- Tim Peel has put together another gorgeous scene with Howard Day's models. In this new image, he's beautifully recreated the Venice Assault from the end of the original Wing Commander. Flights of Hornets play escort as the Claw advances.
- Mission Accomplished!
- 2012-02-01 -- Origin founder Richard Garriott's mission to space has been well documented in the CIC news archives, but a whole lot more people are learning about the story thanks to the premiere of the Man on a Mission documentary about the trip. Rather than just a vanity film to commemorate his space tourism, the story has been highly-rated as an excellent adventure about a man realizing his dream to become the first second-generation astronaut. There are a handful of streaming options for fans who'd like to check it out, and theatrical premieres across the country are taking place now.
- Garriott Wins Release of First Sci-Fi Movie Actually Made in Space
- 2012-02-01 -- Man on a Mission wasn't the only movie recording during Garriott's time in space! In addition to gathering footage for the documentary, Richard also taped a short horror flick - the first science fiction film made in space! After years of lobbying NASA, Garriott has finally gotten approval to release Apogee of Fear, and distribution details should surface soon.
- From the Beginning, You Know the End...
- 2012-01-31 -- It's time for the start of a new poll, and this one's all about endings. Which game had your favorite conclusion? Are you more into the traditional blast-a-starbase final missions from the early '90s?
- Catching Up With Saga - GamePlay Complete!
- 2012-01-30 -- WC Saga hit an important milestone recently - it went gameplay complete, meaning that it's completely playable - but not yet perfected. The team is going back now to revamp their Prologue demo and continue bug hunting. Here's some new screenshots and their announcement: We have reached an important milestone that has been a very long time in the making.
- This Clawk Marks is Super
- 2012-01-29 -- One of the most fantastic websites on the entire Internet, Pix's Origin Adventures, has posted a nice high res scan of the game manual for the Super Famicom version of Wing Commander 1. This edition is more than simply Claw Marks translated into Japanese however, and the booklet gets tons of bonus art alongside reformatted text. Some drawings are brand new, and others are colorizations of art used in the English documentation.
- Prepare to Roll the Dice
- 2012-01-28 -- capi3101's been in the news lately for his tabletop tokens and Pen & Paper Armada, but the big project he's been working on for the last six months is an original Wing Commander RPG. Since last year, he's been steadily making progress on the game's character races, skills, equipment, ships, spaceflight and combat. capi estimates that the overall game is about two thirds written out, and more is completed each week.
- Orchestral Remix Strikes a Different Note
- 2012-01-27 -- Shiryu, who authored some hip Wing Commander Movie-themed techno tracks back in the day, has a new composition to share. Orchestral Wing Commander has a much more classical and decidedly mainstream tone than his first WC songs. He's synchronized the tunes to WC1's intro, briefing and launch below.
- 'Boxy, But Good' or 'Oh, Don't Mine Me'
- 2012-01-26 -- Cybot's back with another cool render of a Wing Commander Academy vessel. In addition to bringing back a fun variety of familiar designs, WCA also created a few of its own. This dedicated hospital ship is one of them, and it packs a lot of character for a rectangular box!
- LOAF on Sol: Exodus
- 2012-01-25 -- "Welcome to Sol Sector, Lieutenant!?" - Lieutenant Chris McCubbin, TCS ConcordiaSol: Exodus, the new space sim from Seamless Entertainment, will be available starting today on Steam for just $9.99.
- Contrasting Designs Added to Growing Fleet
- 2012-01-24 -- CMDBob has completed two new ships: the Dorkir transport and Arrow light fighter. Bob is using some new rendering techniques here, and the result delivers a great cross between animated and metallic texturing. You can check out more angles of these ships at the CIC Forums here.
- Congratulations Award Winners!
- 2012-01-23 -- The votes have been tallied, and we now have the winners of our 2011 Fan Project & Web Site of the Year awards! Many great nominees received a ton of votes, which speaks to how many great undertakings were pursued over the past year. Although only a few can win, we're still amazed at all the constant fan activity.
- Spacetime Studios Takes Time to Celebrate
- 2012-01-23 -- The good news continues for mobile developer Spacetime Studios. CEO Gary Gattis has posted a rollup that summarizes the company's accomplishments in 2011 and aspirations for the new year. Spacetime was founded in 2005 in Austin, Texas by a handful of game industry veterans, including several Wing Commander pros from Origin.
- This Gratha's Seen Some Action
- 2012-01-22 -- Zohrath has finished his Gratha model, ad the results are fantastic! The spaceframe had a very raptor-like feel to it, and the brown Kilrathi durasteel has some very fine wear and tear. Z's got more updates in the works, which we can't wait to see.
- BREAKING NEWS: Amazon Lists Wing Commander Academy!
- 2012-01-21 -- Amazon.com has finally posted a product page for Wing Commander Academy on DVD! This is a day we've been eagerly anticipating since the preliminary Canadian Amazon.
- Quick Awards Reminder
- 2012-01-21 -- If you still have not yet voted in the CIC's annual Fan Project & Web Site of the Year awards, today's your last chance! Hit the voting page to help pick the winners.
- Freddie Prinze Soldiers On
- 2012-01-20 -- Freddie Prinze Jr, who portrayed Christopher Blair in Chris Robert's Wing Commander feature film has lent his voice to the highly anticipated Mass Effect 3. Freddie plays a soldier character that coincidentaly bears the name of a classic Wing Commander locale: Jason Vega. He's not the first Wing Commander alumni to transition to the Mass Effect universe.
- Academy Comes to America
- 2012-01-19 -- There's good news and bad news tonight. The good news is that the Wing Commander Academy DVD set is now set for an American (rather than just Canadian) release. It should be available for preorder via Amazon and other retailers soon.
- Standoff Fan Patch Adds a Retro Touch
- 2012-01-18 -- danr put together a simple audio patch that takes the Prophecy/Secret Ops mass driver sound in Standoff and replaces it with the classic WC2 mass driver effect from the Kilrathi Saga. All of the original guns have a very distinctive sound and feel to them, so this little tweak adds a nice touch. Simply drop the contents of this file (35 k zip) into the Standoff folder and play.
- Massive Monolith Gets Modular Makeover
- 2012-01-17 -- Scooby Doo has put together a new Monolith concept. Aside from simply being a bigger sharper version of the design from Privateer 2, the ship has a new modular cargo system with a variety of customized transport sections. It can even carry fighters!
- Just Crusin' Along...
- 2012-01-16 -- CMDBob has put some of his numerous models to good use in a new wallpaper image. It features a Tallahassee being escorted behind a planet by several Rapiers. The setting is simple and even has a nice serene quality to it.
- Retro Gaming's the Rage
- 2012-01-16 -- If the Retrode just feels too stationary, the Retrobit RetroDuo Portable is for you! The device features the ability to play SNES games on its 3.5 inch LCD, plus it can also output video to your TV.
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