Announcing Wing Commander Pioneer (August 11, 2005)

ChrisReid

ChrisReid

Super Soaker Collector / Administrator
We have an exciting brand new fan project to announce today! Wing Commander Pioneer should be making lots of headlines in the coming months, and here is the first look. It's being created by a talented team of experienced Wing Commander fans. Howard Day, Brad McKinstry and Michael Ward are responsible for the art. Eric Blondin is the team's character artist and Joel VanEenwyk is working on programming.

It’s Privateer set in the WC1 timeframe. We’ve tried to use art references from the original WC when we created the look for the game. The game will be completely first-person (with a possibility of a few cutscenes here and there – launching, landing and the like). We’ve got the majority of the ships finished, and we need to still do environmental, base and object artwork (cargo and the like).

The Hunchback is your starter ship – it’s the Pioneer equivalent to a Tarsus. The Tarsus is also available to purchase, but it’s more of a high-range ship – equivalent to the demon from Priv. You can also take a look at the normal/spec/glow maps in action, and take a look around the Hunchback’s 360 real-time cockpit (shot 5 below).

Oh, and the reason none of those ships have guns/weapons is because all those objects are going to be interchangeable and individually destroyable. So you can blow the guns off a Jalthi. Nothing but little smoking stumps would remain.
Click to expand...











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Original update published on August 11, 2005
 
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Well, Brad knows what I think...:) FREAKING AWESOME! I was wondering when it would be announced but after seeing it I'm glad you timed it with the Birthday. I wish you all the best of luck in this cause I know it's going to be fantastic. If I can help out in anyway, I'd definitely be glad to lend my assistance. Otherwise...hail to you!
 
The engine is a new one - not Vision or Vegastrike - and is much closer to being next/current gen quality. We basically want to do all the graphical effects we can get away with - lots. :p
Maj Striker, we may be looking for help soon - it depends on how much time everyone wants to spend on this.
Spiritplumber:
Now you know I'm not talking outta my ass. ;p
Anyhow, there are quite a lot more images on the temporary page...
http://www.hedfiles.net/wcpioneer/
 
Nope - I think we've got it handled at this point. Believe me, if spots open up, we'll be sure to announce to everyone!
Thanks for the offer, though!
 
Nice Mod

I looked over the screenshots and I think your ships are bar none the best in the community. Nothing against others, I think they all are of utmost quality.

If anyone looked through all the shots on their temp site, I think u all will be excited about being able to transfer "your mom" as cargo. But if it was me she would be in the cockpit with me. :cool:

Keep up the good work guys!
 
Heh. You might ask what I'm doing shipping your mom with a bunch of aphrodisaics. Bit of an in-joke there, guys. I honestly ran out of ideas of what to make... :p
Thanks from the art team! We all worked pretty hard on these - everyone got their hands pretty dirty.
 
I figured it was kind of an inside joke, and Im outside :p but it was still a kick to see that in the cargo manifold. Maybe Im the first to notice :confused: :rolleyes:

anyway Im off to play more standoff :)
 
Howard Day said:
The engine is a new one - not Vision or Vegastrike - and is much closer to being next/current gen quality. We basically want to do all the graphical effects we can get away with - lots. :p
Maj Striker, we may be looking for help soon - it depends on how much time everyone wants to spend on this.
Spiritplumber:
Now you know I'm not talking outta my ass. ;p
Anyhow, there are quite a lot more images on the temporary page...
http://www.hedfiles.net/wcpioneer/
Click to expand...

So you guys using opengl? Is the source code going to be put up?
 
if you choose to go on as a mercenary or a pirate, can you also fly fighters?
any tie-ins to known events in the timeline?
and what system specs are you aiming for?
 
hmm, since my mod is aiming for a similar timeframe, i have a few questions about the ships you use, especially the valiant, granius and falcon caught my eye there. are they original, or canon? and what class are they? looks like the val is a destroyer or cruiser to me... the graanius could be a corvette and the falcon...a frigate, maybe?
and the minotaur...loks like the predecessor of the broadsword...

apart from that, i can only agree with striker: this looks friggin awesome!!!
 
They're actual ships. The Granicus-class Medium Corvette, Valiant-class Destroyer and Falcon-class Light Corvette appear in Fleet Action. THe Minotaur-class Fighter appears in Action Stations.
 
oops. i forgot about there already being a minotaur. heheh, that is supposed to be a straight civilian craft, its the orion of this game. Looks like we'll have to change the name.

The reason for all of the pre-war vintage stuff is that this is set in the Landreich. Wildcats, Hurricanes, Granicus's, Valiants, Falcons, etc...is what you'll mainly run across in so far as military forces go.

If you go mercenary, you can buy the Fighter (civvie ship, our equivalent to the Centurion) Merchants can nab the Hauler, everyone starts with the Hunchback (our Tarsus) Mercenarys can also pick up a Minotaur (which will be named something else soon) as well, and then for whoever wants it...the Tarsus will be available too. That's all there will be for player flyable ships.

As far as I know the engine is using OpenGL, i can't remember what Joel said he was going to use. But yes, it is a completely 100%, from the ground up new engine. We decided that for our project aims, that was the best way to go. It's been an absolute blast working on this project. Thank you all for your kind compliments!

forgot to mention this too, eddie you asked about the source code being put up. the plan is to pretty much keep things closed. We've discussed a little bit about maybe opening up, but overall the plan gravitates more towards keeping everything in house right now, and possible permanently. Nothings definate there, but right now there are no plans for releasing any of the work.
 
Yup. A Raider Corvette to be more specific. Its always paired up with Vralthis (raider fighters). Cheap, expendable, dangerous only in large numbers, that sort of the thing. The Viking is, i guess, our Kamekh. It'll be no push over, thats for sure.
 
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