One Week Left - Get Your Votes In

Since there's so many great choices in this year's annual Web Site & Fan Project of the Year award contest, some fans might have held back on their votes to contemplate the decision. With just one week left in the year, now's the time to start thinking about which nominees to settle on. If you haven't cast your ballot yet, head over to the voting page and help pick the winners!

Fan Project of the Year Nominees
• Das Erwachen grew in 2007 with the completion of its second fan novel. In addition to coming up with this exciting story, the team behind it has conducted parties to read selected passages and has had success with printing collectable copies of the books.
• Flight Commander was upgraded to version 1.5 in 2007. New features continue to be added to this flexible Wing Commander modding engine, so it's more powerful than ever. The project has been so successful that it's spawned its own annual contest to recognize some of the best FC mods in work.
• Privateer Ascii Sector is an innovative project that takes all the excitement of Privateer and translates it into two-dimensional ascii characters. The game capitalizes on its unique environment to add new features to the Privateer mix and quickly went from announcement to playable game in 2007.
• Privateer Gemini Gold works hard to recreate the original Privateer experience as authentically as possible. A new version was released this year that adds upgraded ship models, graphical tweaks and many bug fixes.
• Queeg's Wing IV Movie quickly went from idea to three-hour production in early 2007, thanks to Queeg's experience making the Wing Commander III version in 2006. Downloads of the film generated over a terabyte of traffic in just the first week!
• Standoff is one of the most popular and long-running projects. It's a mod to 1998's Wing Commander Secret Ops and continues to impress fans with its attention to classic detail and continued expansion of the Vision Engine. Episode 4 was released this year.
• WC4 Homeworld 2 Mod's graphics are top notch and AI is getting better. This project was a surprise hit in 2006 and won last year's award. The mod received continued tweaks and upgrades throughout 2007.
• WC Saga's Prologue was released of New Year's Eve 2006 to kick off a year of activity. They have continued to release test material for their upcoming full game and have fostered the creation of fan-made missions as well.
• Wing Commander TacOps is an exciting tabletop/board game ruleset that debuted in 2007. As the year's gone by, additional markers and aids have been made to help fans play on their own. The rules continue to be refined and Wingnuts are currently testing out ways to play the game online as well.

Web Site of the Year Nominees
• gulikoza's page is the home of the dxmci patch for the Wing Commander 4 DVD version. Not content to sit back after giving fans the ability to play WC4 DVD without its original hardware decoder board, gulikoza continues to tweak the patch and provide additional help to fans who might encounter unique problems. He's also experimenting with DOSBox tweaks.
• HCl's Wing Commander Editing Site is the home to some of the most exotic and amazing patches, tweaks and tools for Wing Commander games. After ten years of unbelievable breakthroughs, HCl continues to dig deeper into his code and create new advancements.
• Jetlag's WC CCG Site gives many fans a look at part of the series they might have missed. Even those lucky enough to pick up a few boxes of cards on eBay have a ways to go before they can complete their set. Jetlag's easy-to-navigate site lets everyone look up the stats or artwork that they need, and it even provides high resolution scans of each card.
• Pericles' Paper Inside is the home on the web for an expert 3D paper artist. His physical sci-fi ship models are very impressive. Although he also builds ships for other franchises, most of his work revolves around Wing Commander.
• WC Saga's website is frequently updated with news, sound samples, polls and concept art relating to the WC Saga game. It's also the main download portal for the Saga Prologue and test missions that have been released.
• Wedge's Wing Commander is a huge reference site organized by Wing Commander game. It has a ton of original content and also links to other resources on the web. The site received a big overhaul in 2007 and moved to a new domain.

Annual CIC Contest Kicks Off

There's just two weeks left in the year, so it's time again to conduct our annual Web Site and Fan Project of the Year Awards. Reading through the list of nominees really makes you realize how amazing 2007 was. It's easy to point to all the official franchise activity over the past year, but the fan activity has been just as impressive. Just look at all the great undertakings this time around. These weren't all the projects and sites that did something in 2007, but this is a good sampling of some of the most active and useful. All others have 2008 to aspire to! The CIC has set up a special voting page to conduct the vote. Each Wing Commander fan can select one option for Web Site of the Year and one for Fan Project of the Year. Good luck to all the nominees!

Fan Project of the Year Nominees
• Das Erwachen grew in 2007 with the completion of its second fan novel. In addition to coming up with this exciting story, the team behind it has conducted parties to read selected passages and has had success with printing collectable copies of the books.
• Flight Commander was upgraded to version 1.5 in 2007. New features continue to be added to this flexible Wing Commander modding engine, so it's more powerful than ever. The project has been so successful that it's spawned its own annual contest to recognize some of the best FC mods in work.
• Privateer Ascii Sector is an innovative project that takes all the excitement of Privateer and translates it into two-dimensional ascii characters. The game capitalizes on its unique environment to add new features to the Privateer mix and quickly went from announcement to playable game in 2007.
• Privateer Gemini Gold works hard to recreate the original Privateer experience as authentically as possible. A new version was released this year that adds upgraded ship models, graphical tweaks and many bug fixes.
• Queeg's Wing IV Movie quickly went from idea to three-hour production in early 2007, thanks to Queeg's experience making the Wing Commander III version in 2006. Downloads of the film generated over a terabyte of traffic in just the first week!
• Standoff is one of the most popular and long-running projects. It's a mod to 1998's Wing Commander Secret Ops and continues to impress fans with its attention to classic detail and continued expansion of the Vision Engine. Episode 4 was released this year.
• WC4 Homeworld 2 Mod's graphics are top notch and AI is getting better. This project was a surprise hit in 2006 and won last year's award. The mod received continued tweaks and upgrades throughout 2007.
• WC Saga's Prologue was released of New Year's Eve 2006 to kick off a year of activity. They have continued to release test material for their upcoming full game and have fostered the creation of fan-made missions as well.
• Wing Commander TacOps is an exciting tabletop/board game ruleset that debuted in 2007. As the year's gone by, additional markers and aids have been made to help fans play on their own. The rules continue to be refined and Wingnuts are currently testing out ways to play the game online as well.

Web Site of the Year Nominees
• gulikoza's page is the home of the dxmci patch for the Wing Commander 4 DVD version. Not content to sit back after giving fans the ability to play WC4 DVD without its original hardware decoder board, gulikoza continues to tweak the patch and provide additional help to fans who might encounter unique problems. He's also experimenting with DOSBox tweaks.
• HCl's Wing Commander Editing Site is the home to some of the most exotic and amazing patches, tweaks and tools for Wing Commander games. After ten years of unbelievable breakthroughs, HCl continues to dig deeper into his code and create new advancements.
• Jetlag's WC CCG Site gives many fans a look at part of the series they might have missed. Even those lucky enough to pick up a few boxes of cards on eBay have a ways to go before they can complete their set. Jetlag's easy-to-navigate site lets everyone look up the stats or artwork that they need, and it even provides high resolution scans of each card.
• Pericles' Paper Inside is the home on the web for an expert 3D paper artist. His physical sci-fi ship models are very impressive. Although he also builds ships for other franchises, most of his work revolves around Wing Commander.
• WC Saga's website is frequently updated with news, sound samples, polls and concept art relating to the WC Saga game. It's also the main download portal for the Saga Prologue and test missions that have been released.
• Wedge's Wing Commander is a huge reference site organized by Wing Commander game. It has a ton of original content and also links to other resources on the web. The site received a big overhaul in 2007 and moved to a new domain.

Last Call For Nominees

The annual CIC year-end contests is about to begin, so now is the last chance for everyone to submit their nominations. Voting will begin soon for Wing Commander Fan Project & Web Site of the Year. Previous winners are listed below. In addition to all the official releases and that came in 2007, the year was full of fan activity, so there's plenty to recognize this time around.

After you email away your nominees, head over to Crius.net and also vote for Flight Commander Mod of the Year. Three colorful and exciting projects are in the running.

Nominate Favorite Fan Project For Annual Vote

The year is going by fast, and it's already almost December. That means it's time for fans to nominate their favorite Wing Commander undertakings for the CIC's annual contest. Voting for Fan Project & Web Site of the Year takes place next month, but first we need contenders. Email in your suggestions for 2007 nominees. HCl's Editing Site, Wedge's Wing Commander, the WC4 Homeworld Mod and Das Erwachen won the contest in 2006, and now's your chance to help set up the competition for the Wing Commander web sites, game mods or original projects that helped make 2007 an incredible year.

Homeworld Again

Here's one we haven't heard from in a while: Aaron has released a new working version of his WC4 Homeworld 2 mod! Here are the instructions: "Please note this is a complete new release, with AI and all 3 races and icons and various balancing fixes and bug fixes. Please delete the older version before proceeding to play this or they might clash. There is NO installer this time. I am not including release notes. There is a simple readme file." You can download the beta here (101 mb ZIP).

Axius of Evil

An Early Glimpse At Kilrathi Vengeance

New Ships Commissioned In Homeworld Engine

Hi everyone, Happy New Year! I only just got back from vacation a few hours ago and fired up the machine and perhaps found the best present I received this year waiting for me on the CIC front page. Thank you to all who voted for the mod as the fan project of the year. It's been amazing fun for me to put this together, and it's been the fans' support and interest that has made me work at this mod with such continuous enthusiasm. Thanks to all who have helped in the growth and development of the mod to date. Thanks to all CIC staff for making this site the WC playground that it is and allowing us to enjoy Wing Commander in new and truly unique ways.

Congratulations Contest Winners!

Now that 2006 is over, another annual CIC contest has come to an end. We've tabulated the votes and determined the winners for Web Site & Fan Project of the Year. The final tallies were even closer than usual, which means that a number of projects all contributed to the community in a big way. Although only a few can win, we appreciate all the people who were active over the past year and helped entertain thousands of Wing Commander fans with their creations. Good luck in 2007!

The Web Site of the Year winner is.. HCl's Wing Commander Editing Site! Over the last year, HCl added multiplayer and integrated high res videos to Prophecy. He also improved the patch he made that lets players take Armada online and assisted with fan projects such as Standoff.

The runner up for Wing Commander Web Site of the Year is.. Wedge's Wing Commander! Both of this year's winners tied for third place in 2005, but fans used Wedge's resource site more than ever in 2006. His streamlined site is packed with useful information and provides quick links for further research.

The winner for Fan Project of the Year is.. the WC4 Homeworld 2 Mod! Aaron Thomas put together this project at breakneck speed with beautiful results. Fans lined up to download a surprisingly complete test release only a few months after the project was first announced.

The runner up for Fan Project of the Year is.. the Das Erwachen (The Awakening) Fan Novel/CCG! Deacan, Hudson and team worked hard in 2006 to share his full-length Privateer 2-inspired story with the world. They are also hard at work on a customizable card game based on the universe created in his novel. Fans of Book 1 have a big year to look forward to: Book 2 - Stille (Silence) is being edited now and due for printing in the next few months!

Although we only do this once a year, everybody has an opportunity to contribute something each day. Thanks again to all of the many fans who worked hard to make 2006 such a great year.

Annual Awards Vote Ends Soon

Time is running out to vote in CIC's annual Web Site & Fan Project of the Year awards contest. If you have not done so already, email your votes as soon as possible. The competition is still very close. Here are the nominees one more time!

Fan Project of the Year Nominees
• Das Erwachen (The Awakening) Fan Novel/CCG: This is Privateer II's tenth anniversary, and Deacon is celebrating in style -- with an entire fan novel and customizable card game available online!
• Flight Commander: Flight Commander is a Prophecy-style game engine created by EddieB that allows fans to build their own missions and scenarios!
• HCl's Prophecy Multiplayer/High Res/DVD video patch: As always, HCl has done the impossible -- added an entire multiplayer mode to Wing Commander Prophecy. It's something that even Origin believed impossible, and that has changed the way Wing Commander fans play their favorite game.
• Holding The Line: Holding the Line is a massive fan fiction serial which has been ongoing for several years -- well eclipsing the Wing Commander Aces fan club which spawned it.
• WC4 Homeworld 2 Mod: The Homemworld 2 mod took everyone by surprise -- Aaron Thomas has created entire Confederate, Border World and Black Lance factions that can already be played using the game's multiplayer!
• Wing Commander: Against All Odds RPG: AAO is a message board/IRC-based role playing game that has really taken off this year! AAO players frequent irc.wcnews.com for their various adventures.
• Wing Commander Pioneer: Pioneer is a ground-up Privateer-style game being developed by veteran artist Howard Day. No gameplay yet, but it certainly looks impressive!

Web Site of the Year Nominees
• Das Erwachen (The Awakening): Thanks to the graphic expertise of Hudson, The Awakening sorts an impressive Privateer II-themed website to go with its neat book and CCG.
• HCl's Wing Commander Editing Site: HCl's site may not be the prettiest in the universe... but it can't be beat in terms of true content. If you're interested in editing any Wing Commander game, it's a good bet you'll find what you're looking for here.
• Holding The Line: HTL isn't just a big story -- it has an excellent and tasteful reference site, too.
• Standoff: Standoff was project of the year last year... and this year their website is up for an award instead. Everyone is anxiously awaiting Episode 4... and this is the place to find out the latest!
• Wedge's Wing Commander: Wedge has put together an amazing collection of Wing Commander odds and ends, including complete scripts for every game!
• Wing Commander Saga: The Wing Commander Saga mod for Freespace 2 features a big, flashy website styled after Wing Commander IV's computer interfaces!
• Wing Commander: The Wasteland Incident: Wasteland is a mod for Wing Commander Secret Ops.

Project & Site of the Year Voting!

Your nominations are in, and it's time to vote! Every year we award a single fan project and web site a prestigious 'Best of the Year' award... and the winners are selected by the Wing Commander community. A list of projects and sites nominated can be found below. Please choose one from each category and submit it to us here! You have until the end of the year to vote... the winners will be announced in January!

Fan Project of the Year Nominees
• Das Erwachen (The Awakening) Fan Novel/CCG: This is Privateer II's tenth anniversary, and Deacon is celebrating in style -- with an entire fan novel and customizable card game available online!
• Flight Commander: Flight Commander is a Prophecy-style game engine created by EddieB that allows fans to build their own missions and scenarios!
• HCl's Prophecy Multiplayer/High Res/DVD video patch: As always, HCl has done the impossible -- added an entire multiplayer mode to Wing Commander Prophecy. It's something that even Origin believed impossible, and that has changed the way Wing Commander fans play their favorite game.
• Holding The Line: Holding the Line is a massive fan fiction serial which has been ongoing for several years -- well eclipsing the Wing Commander Aces fan club which spawned it.
• WC4 Homeworld 2 Mod: The Homemworld 2 mod took everyone by surprise -- Aaron Thomas has created entire Confederate, Border World and Black Lance factions that can already be played using the game's multiplayer!
• Wing Commander: Against All Odds RPG: AAO is a message board/IRC-based role playing game that has really taken off this year! AAO players frequent irc.wcnews.com for their various adventures.
• Wing Commander Pioneer: Pioneer is a ground-up Privateer-style game being developed by veteran artist Howard Day. No gameplay yet, but it certainly looks impressive!

Web Site of the Year Nominees
• Das Erwachen (The Awakening): Thanks to the graphic expertise of Hudson, The Awakening sorts an impressive Privateer II-themed website to go with its neat book and CCG.
• HCl's Wing Commander Editing Site: HCl's site may not be the prettiest in the universe... but it can't be beat in terms of true content. If you're interested in editing any Wing Commander game, it's a good bet you'll find what you're looking for here.
• Holding The Line: HTL isn't just a big story -- it has an excellent and tasteful reference site, too.
• Standoff: Standoff was project of the year last year... and this year their website is up for an award instead. Everyone is anxiously awaiting Episode 4... and this is the place to find out the latest!
• Wedge's Wing Commander: Wedge has put together an amazing collection of Wing Commander odds and ends, including complete scripts for every game!
• Wing Commander Saga: The Wing Commander Saga mod for Freespace 2 features a big, flashy website styled after Wing Commander IV's computer interfaces!
• Wing Commander: The Wasteland Incident: Wasteland is a mod for Wing Commander Secret Ops.

Tip of the Lance

Homeworld Mod Gets Big Ships

Big Battles Await In Homeworld Mod

Fans have been playing the WC4 Homeworld 2 mod preview release quite a bit over the last week, and a whole bunch of new exciting screenshots have surfaced as a result. LeHah and Wildweasel snapped this set of images during a multiplayer game. They show off some of the most intense battles we've seen yet. The pictures are also in very high resolution, so all the beautiful detail is very clear. You don't just have to look at photos or read others' impressions however. The 114 meg preview pack can be downloaded here. Homeworld 2 is required, and it happens to be on sale at Amazon.com this week for $14.99.

Homeworld 2 Mod Preview Fixed

1. Execute the package to create the wca.rar file.
2. Move wca.rar to Homeworld 2's "data" subdirectory.
3. Create a shortcut to run Homeworld 2.
4. Right click on the shortcut and open up Properties. Change the Target to: "C:\Program Files\Sierra\Homeworld2\Bin\Release\Home world2.exe" -mod wca.rar (you may have to adjust this if the game is installed to a different directory)
5. Run the shortcut to start the mod.

WC4 Homeworld 2 Mod Preview Released

Aaron Thomas has released a package to give anxious fans an early look at the WC4 Homeworld 2 mod. This test demo is mainly intended to let people play around and marvel at all the amazing things that have been added to the engine. Be aware that artificial intelligence has not been implemented and things such as multiplayer connections may not work properly yet. Lots of new ships, sound effects and interface graphics are all ready for you though.

To give the preview a try, start by downloading the 114 meg pack here. Make sure Homeworld 2 is already installed and that the downloaded file makes its way to the \homeworld2\bin\release\ directory on your hard drive. Run the file to automatically install and load the mod. Visit the Crius thread about the project to provide feedback, get help or suggest an official name for the mod.

Alternate Paint Scheme Mocked Up In Homeworld

Here's a little treat. Everyone please note the pictures you see below have been made just for fun and to see what these ships look like in the HW2 engine. Since I had the models ready, I went ahead and just changed the textures. I am not working on a WC3 mod right now, no such plans until I finish the WC4 Mod.

Those Razrs Are Everywhere Now

Here's another new fighter for the WC4 Homeworld 2 mod. Black Lance players will be able to call on Razors flown by mercenaries when they need a quick and light force to stir up trouble. When more firepower is necessary, the mercs can take advantage of tougher Thunderbolts to get the job done.

The BL relied on the pirates to aggravate the tension in space, so they'll have both pirate ships on their side. The cloaking Arrow is available after research. The same goes for the stolen Bearcat design and the ultimate Dragon.

Every Game Needs A Little Wing Commander Boost

<jetlag> Did you see my Mario Kart emblem? It totally makes me go faster.

Fan Project Takes Scimitars Out For A Spin

After watching Wing Commander Academy, Aaron Thomas was inspired to add the Scimitar to his WC4 Homeworld 2 mod. The fighter will fill an important gap in the Border Worlds fleet, much as it did in the Wing Commander IV novelization. Although some shots show an engine glow behind the acceleration absorbers, this has been removed in the game itself. Don't mind the prices and minor details that you see in the menus either. They are currently placeholder values since build and research tables for the UBW faction are not yet complete.

I dunno what got into me today, but I got so pumped watching WC Academy (which I downloaded from CIC with my new net connection) that I went out and did this.