Who Killed Hannibal?
Pretty much
Kickstarter campaign has launched!
Pretty much
The build plan for the laser cannons is finished and ready for download! It contains two templates to prepare the wing so that the laser cannons can be retrofitted. The laser cannons are also very stable. Unfortunately I didn't have a carbon fiber tube anymore, that would have been even better. The Hornet also flies with laser cannons, rolls, loops and lands without damage!The Hornet is our contribution to the 2019 Flite Test Forum & Flite Fest Community Fantasy Aircraft Design & Build Challenge.
So the first round of playtesting is less than a month away. I've got a group of 6 people signed up to participate in it... and that means I'm motivated to get everything ready for it.I've finished compiling version .01a of the player handbook. This contains the basic rules for fighter vs fighter combat including the stats for missiles, and cannons, along with the rules for dealing full body collisions, clipping another ship and dealing with pilot stresses.
If anyone is interested or inclined I would appreciate getting some eyes that aren't my own reading through it and make sure everything makes sense and I covered everything I mention in the book.
Various news outlets are reporting that Electronic Arts has patched a major security flaw in its Origin gaming storefront/launcher program. Apparently it was possible to execute remote code, which is a scary issue, but has fortunately been resolved. Be sure to update your launcher to remove the vulnerability. The appropriately named Origin service, along with GOG, is one of the easiest ways to buy and play Wing Commander games on modern systems today.
The story brings to mind another famous Origin security threat. Back during the August 1998 launch of Wing Commander Secret Ops, reports began to immediately surface of infected files on one of the download mirrors. This began to spread to other sites hosting a copy. Within hours, fans rallied to identify the CIH virus and provide countermeasures to remove the bug. Origin posted this statement on the issue and ultimately the damage was fairly contained - but it made an already exciting night even more chaotic at the time!
The latest episode of ALL WINGS CONSIDERED is live now! All Wings Considered is the CIC's first ever streaming variety show which features news, conversation and gameplay relating to our favorite series. This week's Nav Points include:
Missed the stream? The replay will be available below once it has been processed by YouTube. You can subscribe to the AWC channel for future notifications here.
Hi all - we are working on the next MUP release: right now it will include the Hydra, Kraken, an updated Dula 7, the SO cruise liner and associated hulk, as well as the rest of the WCP starbases (Callisto, Confed Starbase, etc.). It will also incorporate the latest WCP Unlimited enhancements. No ETA yet but I'm going to see if we can get it out before the end of May. Watch this space.
Oh speaking of Bearcats...This is oddly one of my favorite Confed designs, it's clearly an evolution of the Hellcat but there's some definite Excalibur influence as well. Also on paper, it's actually quite a nice fighter; she's fast, nimble, and has better shields and armor than her big sister. About the only gripe are the lackluster guns. While working on this one I thought: "With the Excalibur they built a sword, with the Bearcat, they made a scalpel." Not sure why but that sums the F-104 up nicely in my mind.
And a fun little fiction sales brochure cover because... why not?
Soo... either the grocery store changed up the preservative on the shells or the dye crayons got cheap this year, so you can't really make out our Wing Commander themed easter eggs. At least these eggs don't shoot Steltek guns at you!
Happy 4/20! The following spacecraft have a maximum sustained speed of 420 kilometers per second.
The Maniac has become the poster child for social media support hell this month as he found himself locked out of his Instagram account. The saga began on or about April 1 when he got a new phone and was unable to log in. His password resets didn't work and he encountered some baffling "user not found" errors. And despite being an IG-verified celebrity with more than 150,000 followers, he couldn't reach a live support human to get him sorted out. So, he resorted to Twitter and various news outlets to get the word out. Apparently it worked, and as of last night, his account was reset so he could begin posting again.
Matthew Lillard is currently starring in NBC's Good Girls, so he's got plenty of promotion to catch up on! Social media platforms have long since moved beyond being frivolous sharing outlets and are a bonafide component of any professional marketing strategy, so something like this could be serious business. We're happy to see he's back up and running now!
Yo @instagram, I’m tellin’ everyone how you done me dirty!
— matthew lillard (@MatthewLillard) April 13, 2019
I’m nothing in the world, without pictures of me existing in the world.
Please make me real again insta... put me back in the world.... https://t.co/Jjkb3KSr9A
Thank u @karissabe for being my hero.
The latest episode of ALL WINGS CONSIDERED is live now! All Wings Considered is the CIC's first ever streaming variety show which features news, conversation and gameplay relating to our favorite series. This week's Nav Points include:
We encourage anyone interested to sign in to the Discord Live Chat to talk about Fleet Action... or ask questions live via Discord or YouTube during the show!
Missed the stream? The replay will be available below once it has been processed by YouTube. You can subscribe to the AWC channel for future notifications here.
The elder Garriott also served as one half of the first American father-son astronaut duo when Richard Garriott went to the International Space Station in 2008. And while we often refer to Richard as "Origin founder" in our news stories, Origin Systems was actually co-founded by Richard and Robert along with their father, Owen, and programmer Chuck Bueche. In various interviews, Richard credits being sent to a programming camp that Owen picked out as a major influence that set him on the path towards game development. In addition to this connection to the Wing Commander series, in a broader sense, we all continue to benefit from the advances in spaceflight, technology and engineering that he advocated for over many years. We're all better off thanks to you, sir.
Astronaut Owen Garriott was a good friend and an incredible astronaut. I have a great sadness as I learn of his passing today. Godspeed Owen. pic.twitter.com/rT56PQMwJV
— Buzz Aldrin (@TheRealBuzz) April 15, 2019
Thank you Scott! Dad had a great 88 orbits around the sun! https://t.co/MsPh8LZoSg
— Richard Garriott (@RichardGarriott) April 15, 2019
Join us Thursday, April 18 on or about 7 PM Eastern for another thrilling episode of All Wings Considered!
I had posted a design idea for the pilot console the other day. Well I spent a decent amount of time cutting and drilling and came up with a sort of prototype of the pilot console. It's not perfect, and still nowhere near what I envision when I try to market the game, but then again at this point I'm nowhere near that stage anyway. This is just for alpha testing of gameplay mechanics.The design is such that it's intended to allow you to track the information on each fighter at a glance. So no 'calculations' or references. Just counting... mostly. For most items on the pilot console, it's just a matter of how many pegs you have in that section. 2 pegs in missile slot 1 means you have 2 missiles in that slot.
The only sections that are different are the shields and hull points section. Because some ships have upwards of 50 shields or hull points, the console needs to be able to account for that range. But have 2 groups of 50 pegs would make it rather difficult to see what you have at a glance. So the idea here is that you have 2 columns of numbers, running 0-9. A peg in the first column represents the 10's, while a peg in the second column represents the 1's. So a peg in 1(10) and a peg in 2(1) under shields means the ship current has 12 shield points.
Like I said, it's not 'final' but for play testing purposes it works. When I get to a point of marketing this game, I'm hoping to make the pilot console a storage item as well. So you can store your ship model, base, pilot card, ship card, and pegs in the pilot console itself meaning you only have this one block to store rather then several items.
Starting over!
Comparative video between the famous 1978 series and the Origin Systems Space Game from 1990In 2007, Auran Games and Sierra published a Battlestar Galactica game for Xbox Live Arcade, and numerous reviews noted how close it was to Wing Commander Arena.
The latest episode of ALL WINGS CONSIDERED is live now! All Wings Considered is the CIC's first ever streaming variety show which features news, conversation and gameplay relating to our favorite series. Join us this week for an all-singing, all-dancing celebration of Privateer 2's starter Straith, the first missions of Special Operations 2 and a surprise jump to a universe so weird you're going to need to wear shades. Missed the stream? The replay will be available below once it has been processed by YouTube. You can subscribe to the AWC channel for future notifications here.
So I was looking over my stuff on lunch break the other day and realized that I hadn't done any WC3 skins for my Tbolt or Excalibur. I am pleased to say this has been rectified. I also did a few small tweaks to the normal maps to make a few things pop (pun intended) that wasn't as obvious before.As a side note: a few folks have asked if they can use my renders in their personal projects. My thoughts on that in general are that if I post it up here on the forums the community is perfectly welcome to them. Go forth and be creative! I only ask that if you do use my renders I get a nod somewhere in the credits is all.
As always fellow wing nuts - enjoy!
Join us Thursday, April 11 on or about 7 PM Eastern for another thrilling episode of All Wings Considered!
First mission reimagined with the help of Blender and Da Vinci ResolveYou can also find Dardael's extensive Italian WC retrospective here.
Beeman was writing in genre long before her stint in video games. She worked as a writer for the Jem and the Holograms animated series, and contributed to the realm of science fiction and fantasy as an author under the name Ellen Guon, even co-writing several books with another one of genre's best-known female authors: Mercedes Lackey. But her career in the games industry, which began back in the early '90s on the popular Wing Commander franchise and has since spanned over 40 different titles, is undoubtedly where she's had — and continues to have — the biggest impact on the next generation of rising female game developers, writers, and producers.
In Japan, theatrical movie releases have printed programs (sort of like a non-interactive @themoviebill.) After some hunting, I’ve found the one for Wing Commander!
The latest episode of ALL WINGS CONSIDERED is live now! All Wings Considered is the CIC's first ever streaming variety show which features news, conversation and gameplay relating to our favorite series. This week we're going to look at some of the ships from Super Wing Commander, play a little more Special Operations 1 and then have an in-depth conversation about the prologue and first chapter of Fleet Action! You can join in the Book Club chat via Discord during the show. Missed the stream? The replay will be available below once it has been processed by YouTube. You can subscribe to the AWC channel for future notifications here.
Mark Hamill – Wing Commander III: Heart of the TigerThanks to st3lt3k for the tip!Ten years after Return of the Jedi, “Luke Skywalker” Hamill made his onscreen video game debut in this science fiction epic from Origin Systems. Mixing interactive space battles with quaintly low-res cinematics, the game starred not just Hamill but Malcolm McDowell and John Rhys-Davies playing the almost identical roles of “British character actors wondering how they got here”. At the climax of the game, Hamill’s character, space hero Colonel Christopher Blair, must destroy the evil Kilrathi army by … flying his fighter craft along a fortified trench then delivering a bomb.
Join us Thursday, April 4 on or about 7 PM Eastern for another thrilling episode of All Wings Considered! We'll be reading the prologue and the first chapter of Wing Commander: Fleet Action and want YOU to be part of the discussion!
Follow or Contact Us