What's an ESK Anyway? Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

I *NEVER* do these, but what the hey! 1 like = 1 answer

The ESK rating for the Dart DF missile is... 11,000 ESK! What is ESK? The blueprints list it as the 'strength' rating for the missile and the numbers roughly correspond to the game's explosive force stat. In Secret Missions 2, Maniac proposes (suicidally) arming missiles with "a double load of ESK-5 explosives". So maybe its like TNT?
The max range of the Mass Driver Cannon is 3,000 mrrs... later listed as simply 3,000 kilometers! *plonk* *plonk* *plonk*
The ESK rating for the Pilum FF is... 9,500! Note also the Duck Dodgers reference on all the blueprint missile breakouts!
The velocity of the Dart DF is... 900 kilometers per second! That means you'll need afterburners to outrun one... or you can just move out of the way.
Oh, here's the rest of the answers!
  1. What is the ESK rating for the Dart DF missile? 11000
  2. What is the max range of the mass driver cannon? 3000
  3. What is the ESK rating for the Pilum FF missile? 9500
  4. What is the velocity of the Darf DF missile? 900
  5. What is the maximum range of a laser cannon? 4800
  6. How many cm of front armor on the Fralthi? 28
  7. The Tiger's Claw was launched in what year? 2644
  8. What is the weight of the Ralari? 18000
  9. How old is Maniac? 23
  10. What speed is safest in the asteroid fields? 250
  11. How many varieties of Terran trees have been transplanted? 7225
  12. How many kiloliters of Special does Goddard export? 75000
  13. How many square km is Conservation Forest? 12500
  14. What year was the neutron gun invented? 2618
  15. How many priestesses are in the Sivar Cult? 9500
  16. How many systems are used to find the Sivar-Eshrad planet? 25768
  17. In what year did Dr Kohl observe the Sivar-Eshrad? 2621
  18. How many warships arrived at the Sivar-Eshrad on Ghorah Khar? 3715
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LOAF

Video Shows Off Ultra Ultrawide Gameplay in WC4 Remastered Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Here's a really cool video of WC4 Remastered running at an impressive ultrawide 32:9 aspect ratio. We've known for a few years that the game would at least support 21:9, but this is a nice confirmation that the even wider 5120x1440 resolution will work. The example clip below might not scale up in the embedded version, so I'd recommend popping it out to a full YouTube screen for the entire effect. Also be sure it's running at at least 1440p so you can enjoy the game's beautiful graphics. If you haven't gotten a chance to give the updated WC4 Fan Remake for a spin yet, grab the demo here (900 meg exe).
Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom is probably the greatest example of the medium, with Hollywood budgets, real sets and an outstanding cast including Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, John Rhys-Davies and Tom Wilson; and unlike many other FMV titles, each benefits from outstanding direction; which leads to excellent performances worthy of any movie. https://wcrespace.com

Ultra wide is supported.

Gemini Sector Frontier Expands With Discovery of Test Bed System Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

If you've been following LOAF's Wing Commander Privateer exploration lately, you've read about how the game's code refers to a Test Bed System that the Origin developers used while making the game. It's not linked from anywhere in the Gemini Sector, but it's still a "real" place that exists since it's pictured in the manual. To our knowledge, no players have managed to find it, until now! Rylex has accomplished an amazing feat by hex editing his way on over. There's not actually a whole lot to do - enemies spawn, but there are no asteroids or landing bases. But it's pretty incredible to be able to fly around in a previously undiscovered star system after nearly three decades. You can read up on the process and jump to the Test Best System yourself with these instructions!
So as you might know, it's possible in Righteous Fire to fly directly to Eden from the beginning of the game. Just go to Rikel and use the hidden jump point that I mentioned before. You can land on Gaea Retro base, but you can't visit the temple.

But now the interesting thing: You can use the jump point back to Valhalla. But as the jump nav point 4 is not yet visible, you don't get to the position of the jump point but to the coordinates 0,0,0 right to the center of the map. And there is no jump point, so you can't get back. Now I've played with the sector data. Even though there are casts and sphere IDs, you can easily change a nav point target. Just use the sector number in the JUMPTYPEJUMP block and change it. The game seems to look in the target sector, if there is a jump point that leads to the sector you are coming from and puts you there. If the target sector has no connection to the sector you are coming from, then you get to coordinated 0,0,0 and no jump point is there.

That being said, I've tried out Perry Nav 1 and changed it to all 68 err.... 69 .... yes, 69 ... sectors as target. In the systems, that are connected to Perry, you get to the specified jump point. In the sectors, that are not connected you get to 0,0,0. So that means, there is no jump connection from Perry to another system. Even not to Rikel... there's just the text "JMPRIKE" ... even if you use the reserved Cast ID 4 for Rikel ... it does not work.

Anyway, I've changed Nav point 1 in Perry to target system ID hex 45 (=69) ... and oops... I've reached the TestBed. The image shows the modified GAME.GOG file opened with an hex editor. I changed "2f" to "45". The positions 24 and 1d underneath show other system target IDs. 45 = TestBed.

New Artistic Rendering Gives Map a Vintage Look Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Klavs has produced a new take on the venerable Wing Commander Movie universe map. About a year ago, he made an electrified version that really pops, and now he's got another novel recreation that looks like it was sketched on old paper. Both are based in the wonderful 275 megapixel corrected image photographed by LOAF and Thomas Hennessy and straightened by Jetlag. You can imagine this as some kind of Pilgrim artifact or even in-universe artistic interpretation. I also love that all the details like nebulas/galactic arms and Charybdis are there, although they look like they could be aged or degraded patches. Very cool!
Fidgeting with the star map today and I thought an ancient looking paper version might be cool!
Here's the older two versions I mentioned, so I don't miss a chance to repost them!

Lego Arrow Zooms In Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

John Nelson has another built another classy custom Lego fighter. Like his exquisite Longbow, this one also comes from Wing Commander 3. I like the bubble canopy and especially the lines of the aft fuselage. There's some forced scaling necessary for the gun pod, but that's a nice touch too.
While I gather parts to complete another project, here is the Arrow. This one is far from perfect. The canopy should be down further and the fuselage should end with a point and the back wings aren’t great but this is as close as it’s getting.

Plier (would) say, “The Arrow is a fine dog fighter that runs circles around anything in space but ConFed cheaped out on the missile racks. Give me the Banshee anyday.”

Happy Birthday Chris! Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Transmission Interrupted! I’m taking over your normal Wing Commander feed to wish a very happy birthday to CIC founder Chris Reid! Chris is the reason you’ve seen a new update in the space every single day for the past twenty years. Heck, most of the time you see my byline it’s because he’s taken the time to find something I was fooling with on Discord or Twitter. None of this site would be possible without Chris and he’s also one of the most thoughtful and competent people I’ve ever known. So in the greatest old IRC style, please put down your trouts and raise a virtual mug of Goddard Special to a real legend! Now, back to your regularly scheduled commlinks…
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LOAF

New Privateer Ship Discovered at Perry! Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Recently I extracted all of Privateer's gameflow screens (the planets and bases) and matched them to their correct palettes. 229 animations with over 5,000 frames! It's everything from flashing lights on the landing pad to the little cars that fly by on New Detroit. But behold my most exciting discovery: a never-before-seen ship! Thanks to the palette I knew it had to go, specifically, in the Perry Naval Base landing screen... but as far as I can tell it doesn't actually spawn there in the game. You can even see it says PNB (for "Perry Naval Base") on the side! This is about what it would've looked like, though it might've crossed the screen lower. Not such a bad day when you discover a new Wing Commander ship thirty years after it was made!
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LOAF

Iason Incident Remembered Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

On this day in 2629, the Odysseus-class long range exploratory vessel CS Iason was lost with all hands after encountering the Kilrathi destroyer K’rath’kan. It was the first official contact between the Terran Confederation and the Empire of Kilrah.
Following the Iason incident, Confed interdicted all non-military exploratory, trade and colonization activity beyond the Vega sector frontier. At the same time they began a coordinated covert scouting operation to determine the extent of Kilrathi dominion. By the end of '38, Confed analysts had determined that the Kilrathi sphere of influence was at least equal to, and possibly greater than, that of humanity. Four separate envoys (under heavy escort) were sent into Kilrathi space in an attempt to at least open up lines of communication, but all such efforts were met by armed aggression. (All four missions were able to retreat under fire back to Confed space.)
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LOAF

Exciting Discovery: Merlin's Holographic Emitter Update ID Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Here's a recent discovery of mine regarding the unused hologram character Merlin in the Wing Commander movie. The film was shot to include all his scenes and his deletion had a knock-on effect for nearly all other elements of the film.

Merlin was Blair's PPC (Personal Portable Computer), a futuristic version of a Siri-ChatGTP crossbred with a holographic avatar. He would banter with Blair, make observations, and be a bit of comic relief. Here are a few early concepts of what he might have looked like:

Blair also would discuss things with Merlin while in the cockpit of his Rapier. When the decision was made to remove the character, they changed some of Merlin's in-flight dialogue to be from the Rapier Computer. We often speculated about what Blair's PPC unit (holo emitter base) looked like. Surely we must be able to see Merlin's base somewhere in the final movie. At the time, the obvious conclusion felt like maybe Blair's Storm Navigator watch would be a cool way for him to carry around the PPC...
There's a couple problems though: most characters have watches so it's not something unique to Blair, and Maniac seems to have the same specific model as Blair. Second: the script required Blair to also speak with Merlin while wearing flight and Marine armor suits. Per the script, it's not entirely out of the question that it could be the watch, but it does make it less likely. Merlin does have an audio-only mode that was supposed to be used in most of the cockpit scenes. That brings us to the recent discovery: Merlin's hardware!

I was looking through some new-to-me footage and came across a few curious shots... a square device that seems mounted on Blair's armor! The center lights up with red bars in a roughly speech-like patern. This discovery led me to go back through the Bluray on a scavenger hunt.

Remarkably, Merlin's home had been inconspicuously under our noses the entire time. Blair is wearing this device in nearly the entire movie! The catch is that it's usually on his belt and gets cut out of the frame in any medium close-up. The first place the emitter is clearly visible is on the Diligent when Blair talks to Paladin in Paladin's quarters. You can also catch a brief unlcear glimpse of it under his jacket when he is getting out of the Rapier shortly after arriving on the Claw.
The PPC is clearly on Blair's belt again when the Claw makes the jump to the Ulysses Corridor, and again later we can see that it's attached to Blair's jacket or waistband on his flight suit.
Merlin originally played a key role is explaining why Blair leaves the Diligent during the comcon raid. We see there that Blair has attached the PPC to his arm! Since we never see it light up, it's easy to mistake it for just another part of his armor.
You can see Blair is wearing his PPC just before he goes on his flight to Sol near the end of the film, as well as when he's rescued and visits Tolwyn. It's also apparent when he makes his eventual return to the Claw.
While in some ways I think the Storm watch is cooler, it's great to finally put the pieces together regarding how this element of the film was intended. Lastly, I'll leave you with a brief clip of Merlin's audio mode in action. Enjoy!
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