News Archive 2009

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.31.12

Wing Commander Saga team and MindCrusher Studios are proud to announce the exciting release of our first German audio book, which is loosely based on the first chapter of the Wing Commander Saga Prologue fiction.

This MCS production is read by Marco Ansing, Alessandro Alioto, Sara Kelly-Husain, Jan Boysen, Ralf "Searge" Pappers, Tabitha Hammer and Sven Matthias. These actors will also be the voice acting power behind the upcoming German version of the Wing Commander Saga Prologue. A musical score by Edward Bradshaw, Tim Janssenss and Dennis Schuster adds atmosphere to this lavish production. A great deal of care and time has been spent creating an audio book which elaborates upon the story of Wing Commander Saga. Get the MP3 file here and enjoy the story.... if you can understand German, that is. 

-Tolwyn

Wing Commander Saga Prologue - Kapitel 1 is licenced under Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Germany Licence.

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.04.12

For this week's update, we would like to share a sneak peek into the visual style of the art that will be featured in the Wing Commander Saga manual. These blueprints were prepared by our junior member Flanker and are designed to have a crisp, clean, technical appearance, much as you would expect to find in a Jane's manual, while also having a slight hint of World War 2 artwork in homage to the historical time period upon which Wing Commander is based. Check out the sketches below!

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.25.11

Here's our latest all-important shameless plug. You can now follow Saga on Twitter at http://twitter.com/admiraltolwyn. We are using our feed to provide quick updates on the work Saga's team is doing. Our tweets will highlight official announcements and will pointing out items of particular relevance to the project's progress.

At any rate, tweet us if you have anything important to say. Even if you don't, please tweet us, we need love. ;) If you have any questions, just add a comment below.

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.20.11

Ever since the Wing Commander Saga project has been announced, there was a certain Kilrathi warship that a lot of Wing Commander fans have been literally waiting years to see. And now, that wait is over. Today, we are proud to show our version of the Kilrathi’s infamous dreadnought – the H’varkann-class.

Several of these vessels were seen in various Wing Commander 3 cutscenes. One of them, KIS H’varkann, served as Prince Thrakhath’s flagship. Another ship of the class, the KIS Vorgath, made an appearance in the False Colors novel.  

Efforts have been conducted to great lengths to make the ship large enough to live up to the size described in various game sources, but small enough in a way that is most efficient to the game design, gameplay, graphics requirements, and frame rate.

The massive and intimidating H’varkann-class dreadnought is the largest and deadliest warship in the Kilrathi fleet. Its array of heavy beam cannons and missile batteries can lay waste to entire enemy fleets, and its fighter complement is equal to that of several heavy carriers. In addition, its super heavy shielding and armor makes this battlewagon virtually invulnerable to any attack. It is no surprise that dreadnoughts are used as flagships for Kilrathi sector fleet admirals as well as Prince Thrakhath himself.

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.23.10

In an attempt to represent the scale and drama of the Terran Kilrathi conflict, Wing Commander Saga will feature a huge cast of characters.

For the sheer number of pilots you will interact with when you play Saga, we need to have at least 50 generic pilots, each of which will have a unique voice and personalized lines. We want these lines to be varied and individual, so we have decided to open up a way for us to tap into your many talents to help us create this part of Saga.

Each generic pilot has a set of lines they need to speak. The general theme of each line can be found here. We would invite all of you who wish to write up lines that fit each of these categories. You can submit as many sets of these generic lines as you can.

Feel free to write variations on the theme and to be creative, so long as you do not stray so far from the theme that it becomes confusing.

If we end up using your lines, you will be included in the credits for Wing Commander Saga. So, let the creative juices roll and send us your submissions!

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.18.10

Part of our development work lately has focused on code changes that will allow us to offer new and improved feature. For this poll, we would like to know which new feature you are looking forward to the most.

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.12.10

In a sensational move, guys from Firebrand Radio have somehow managed to secure exclusive access for a lengthy chinwag with our very own Keldor, to chat about all things regarding Wing Commander Saga. An mp3 of the interview is available for free on the FB Radio website! The full version of the chitchat should be ready in a couple of weeks, so stay tuned!

As for our esteemed leader (in other words 'me'), he was sadly unavailable for the interview, as he was holed up at Saga HQ, rumoured to be coming up with proof as to why Michael Schumacher deserves a drive in 2010.

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.03.10

This week, the Saga team will like to show off another lost concept art that was found in the official "Making of Wing Commander 3" CD-ROM.

For simplicity's sake, we intend this to be the same class of Kilrathi light carriers mentioned in the Victory Streak manual and the escort carriers mentioned in the False Colors novel. Due to the fact that there is no official class name, the Saga team has decided (for the time being) to call it the Dubav-class (a reference after one of the carriers in the False Colors novel).

This Kilrathi light carrier is specifically designed to operate behind enemy lines for prolonged periods of time. This fast, sleek, self-sufficient escort carrier is equipped with a half wing of fighters and bombers to attack Terran convoys and a loadout of Marine shuttles and bombardment missiles to mount terror raids against Confederation homeworlds and colonies. Notoriously elusive, Dubav-class carriers form the core of many Kilrathi Recon-in-Force fleets, and are normally encountered away from the main front. 

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.19.09

Welcome to the latest news update. This week, we're taking a look at game design methodology.

On the game design front, we're adhering to the philosophical ideals we established in Prologue - if it isn't fun, it's getting cut. This sounds like a pretty obvious methodology, but trust me, as we learned in Prologue, it's not as cut and dried as it seems. A lot of features get momentum behind them, and the more momentum they get, the harder it becomes to cut them. In the end, though, you have to do what's best for the game, even if it means cutting out your favorite feature which is always painful to do.

Still, I love this time of the project. We're making steady progress, but we're still exploring ideas. Best of all, we're still incredibly flexible, which is going to be critical in the next couple of months as we start getting feedback from our testers. Honestly, that's one of the things I'm most excited about. We want to make the game you all want to play; after all, we're making it for you.

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.10.09

For today's update we would like to showcase our final version of the Kilrathi Bhantkara-class heavy carrier. These mainstay fleet carriers are the backbone of the Kilrathi Navy. Massive and heavily armored, these carriers utilize its full wing of fighters, bombers, and support craft to the utmost against the Confederation Navy. Any major attack, fleet action, or campaign will most likely be launched from one of these carriers. Even though it only has mediocre shielding and armament, these carriers are almost always seen in large battlegroups with four to six supporting capital ships. In addition, these carriers outnumber their Terran counterparts by a wide margin.

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.27.08

It's been a while since our last status update, but that doesn't mean that nothing has been going on. In fact we've been working very hard and I think it's about time we brought you up to date with all the changes that have been added to the engine recently.

As most of you know, we are using the FS2 Open engine. Unfortunately, The current official version of FS2 Open (3.6.10) doesn't have all the features that Saga requires. For this reason it seems very likely that we'll be waiting until the 3.6.11 build is out before releasing Saga. This isn't really a problem, since it seems that official release of FS Open will be released in a few months time.

FS Open 3.1.1 will allow for the following features:

1. Support for more cutscenes - The game will now be capable of playing cutscenes before or in place of briefings, debriefings, etc. We know that Saga will use this to some degree. Whether we'll ever be crazy enough to drop text based briefings completely and go for only cutscenes before and after each mission is another matter. It would be a lot more work, but it is possible now.
2. Balancing changes - AI can now use glide (a.k.a. Shelton Slides), both to attack you and to break out of circle fights. Until now only human players could use glide. Javelin HS missile will finally function as in the original games. Issuing a disarm/disable order will no longer result in a capital ship being protected (e.g. ignored by other friendly units). The last issue gave us a lot of grief during the last few months, so it is nice to see this one finally fixed.
3. Turret changes - A whole variety of changes have been added via subsystem flags to allow weapons to act more like those in the original games. These include making turrets return to rest positions when not in use (no more turrets sticking out at unsightly right angles) and having them prioritize enemy craft better rather than just shooting at closest enemy in range. This will make capital ships much smarter and deadlier allies and foes.
4. Voice code improvements -Changes to the built-in messages system mean that the cap on the maximum number of messages in a mission was removed! Each pilot can now have an unique message for each option! In addition AI pilots will now occasionally say something after their own kills or if you're doing very well. These changes increase the amount of voice acting we'll need for the game but it should be worth it, and will give a voice chatter environment much more like Wing Commander.
5. HUD changes -Changes to the HUD system include but are not limited to wire frame target view, multicolored radar blips, new callsign feature, and custom gauges.
6. Fiction viewer -Our fiction viewer has long been crippled by a serious problem that would result in large amounts of text being cut off. This issue has been finally been dealt with.
7. Code optimization -Various profiling changes have been made to catch memory bottlenecks, therefore the game should run 5-10 FPS faster now.
8. Auto-aim - Now the Excalibur's weapons will be able to use auto-aiming, just like in WC3.
   
9. Something - ...

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.14.08

This week, we like to showcase the final variant of the infamous Fralthi II-class heavy cruiser. Besides the newest texture features, recent developments in game engine design has enabled us to put the heavy turrets on the hull, exactly the way the original model was from Wing Commander 3.

This heavy cruiser is one of the most powerful capital ships in the Kilrathi war chest. Surprisingly fast and maneuverable for its size, the Fralthi II-class is armed to the proverbial teeth with more heavy-hitting weaponry and stronger armor than any frontline Kilrathi warship short of a battleship or dreadnought. Mostly assigned to large battle groups in support of a heavy carrier, no starbase, colony, or warship is safe when this starship is on an attack approach. In addition, its respectable fighter compliment can be used almost as effectively as a light carrier.  

Next up... Kilrathi carriers!

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.20.07

As we get closer to the release of Wing Commander Saga, we are continuing our policy of releasing new information about our upcoming game every few weeks to continue to keep you up to date on the project's progress. Today we would like to share some new screenshots, that are all enviromental in nature. You will note our visual style for the space background has evolved since the original Prologue release. You'll be seeing more of our new nebulas/planets as we continue pushing out media. These shots are just an appetizer.

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.10.07

For today's update we would like to showcase a Kilrathi warship that was cut from Wing Commander 3. The concept art of this ship was found in the "Making of WC3" CD-ROM that Origin released with its first official WC3 guide. 

 

As mentioned in the artwork, this is a Kilrathi cruiser. But it's very different from the notorious Fralthi II-class cruiser from WC3, so it's assumed as a different ship class. The reasons we decided to classify this warship as a light cruiser is because not only does it fills in the gaps for a light cruiser (the Fralthi II is a heavy cruiser), the existence of a Kilrathi light cruiser is also confirmed through Page 49 of the Wing Commander 3 novel.

There is no official classname to this, and until one can be confirmed, ConFleet Intel has codenamed this warship the Fralath-class, as the name (like all the other Kilrathi cruiser names) is a derivative of the original term Fralthi.  

The Kilrathi developed this light cruiser to counter the Terran's superiority in fighter technology. Bristling with hordes of anti-fighter guns, these cruisers are normally found in defense of larger Kilrathi assets but are more then capable to serving as a raider or flagship for smaller fleet units. A Terran pilot's worst nightmare, a single Fra'lath-class cruiser can literally lay waste to entire formations of fighters and bombers.  

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.28.06

For today's update we would like to showcase our final version of the Kilrathi Ralarrad-class light destroyer.

One of the most prevalent Kilrathi warships found on the front lines, the Ralarrad-class light destroyer is a maneuverable multi-purpose vessel that is equally competent in picket duties, fleet escort, and strike missions. Carrying a token fighter complement, the light destroyer is a mainstay workhorse of the Kilrathi war machine, wielding the energy weapons to effectively engage in anti-aircraft duties as well as the missile strike capability to pose a serious threat to larger Terran capital ships. 

 

-Tolwyn

FROM: Captain Sphynx, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.08.06

As a part of our development process, the visual style of Wing Commander Saga continues to evolve. One of our design goals is to give attention to each detail, creating a high quality visual, audio, game play, and dramatic experience. In this design philosophy details matter. This week, we would like to showcase our new Confed missiles.

 

Saga team member limdaepl brought his creative talent to the task of updating the look of our missiles. We are trying to be faithful to the original design of the Wing Commander missiles while bringing them into the artistic style of Saga. Check out the results in these screenshots.

-Sphynx

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.01.06 

This week we are pleased to welcome a new staff member to the Wing Commander Saga team! Flanker is a recent graduate with a bachelor degree in Communications and Multimedia Design, and he is also a practicing concept artist. He has joined the Wing Commander Saga Development team as our new 2D artist. He will play an important role in helping us design interface elements, illustrations, and weapon effects.

Flanker is already actively involved in the sci-fi community as an artist and we look forward to his future contributions to our project. We are confident that he will help bring our vision for Saga into reality.

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.30.05 

What would Wing Commander be without its music? This week, we would like to know which Wing Commander soundtrack is your favorite.

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.22.05 

Welcome to the latest Saga news update! This week, we are very pleased to announce that the highly skilled composer Jeff Ball has signed on to work on the music production and sound design for Wing Commander Saga. Jeff's unique range of work and talent will bring the soundtrack for Saga to a new level.

About the composer

Jeff composes dramatic and feature-enhancing music for games, film, and television. Being self-taught compositionally, he has developed a powerful sixth sense for the deep, visceral communication of music and thus makes a valuable contribution of fresh ideas and initiatives that are aligned with established themes.

To find out more about Jeff's work please visit his website at jeffballmusic.com.

Soundtrack Sample

We decided to share an excerpt from the soundtrack. As you listen to the ambient theme just imagine launching from a Confederation carrier. We feel confident the final soundtrack will reflects the epic scope of the game while giving the players a subtle sense of its grandness.

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.14.05

For this week, the Saga team is proud to announce a vessel that a lot of Wing Commander 3 fans have been looking forward to see. It was a vessel that was long in the making, there were several variants and revisions to make sure that it was up to our standards. And now, we're finally ready to showcase ... the Kilrathi's Ralaxath-class destroyer.

The Kilrathi's newest and most advanced destroyer, the Ralaxath-class closes the gap created by technologically superior Terran capships. This "heavy destroyer leader" combines superior maneuverability and acceleration with enhanced firepower and armor. Initial reports show these ships serving as individual flagships for destroyer squadrons and smaller flotillas to totally replacing Ralarrad-class vessels in the traditional fleet escort role. A serious threat to capships and fighters alike, Confed pilots are warned to approach this warship with all due caution. 

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.01.05

Welcome to the latest news update! This week, we'll cover a few different topics, including space environments, our work flow process, and feature creep.

Last week we got all nebula backgrounds done, and they came out very well. The in-game visual experience is now amazing. Each star system has it's own backdrop, giving each one an individual flair. Take a look at our latest screenshots for a few examples. These are from multiple environments, and you'll be seeing more as we continue pushing out media. So, basically, you can consider those shots an appetizer.

Regarding our work flow process, there's a multi-disciplined group that meets (usually twice a week) to review where we currently are and to make plans for where they are going. Any of you aspiring modders out there, be prepared; design is all about meetings, it seems. In this case, the meetings are well worth the time, though. Everyone is all on the same page, and we find that running our creative process this way is both more effective and more efficient.

We are also working hard together to avoid "feature creep." Feature creep, for the readers out there who are unfamiliar with the term, is a software development term that basically means that a project keeps getting delayed because features keep getting added to the product. Now, given that definition, it may sound like avoiding feature creep would be a relatively easy task. The problem is, feature creep can be both subtle and seductive - especially when you're working on your own project. There's an intense desire to keep adding elements to your product. Some of these elements are small, but they add up - that's the subtly. Also, many of the features we want to add are really great ideas, so it's hard to let those great ideas go. Honestly, sometimes you don't let an idea go because it is just too cool - that's the seduction.

At any rate, it's always better to go for depth rather than breadth, meaning you should pick your core gameplay features and polish, polish, polish until you die of exhaustion. It ends up being much more fun for the game player, and that's the audience we need to please.

-Tolwyn

 

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.13.04

For this week's update, the Wing Commander Saga team would like to share three pictures of our final rendition of the Kilrathi Dukara-class troop transport. While it is lightly armed and vulnerable to fighter attack, each ship can carry a legion of Kilrathi Marines and their equipment. It is also atmospheric capable, deploying assault shuttles and other dropships from a small landing bay. HQ has deemed trooper transports a high priority target; each one destroyed is one thousand less Kilrathi Marines for our own Marines to face in combat.

-Tolwyn

 

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.01.04

This week, we would like to highlight the work of our team member limdaepl. He has been responsible for the design of our Kilrathi missiles. In Wing Commander Saga, missiles are a major threat. A single missile hit is enough to bring a light fighter to its knees. We wanted our Kilrathi missiles to reflect the aggresive and psychologically intimidating design philosophy displayed in the Wing Commander 3 games. The following pictures illustrate how we have tried to capture that feel in the way we portray Kilrathi missiles.

-Tolwyn

FROM: Captain KeldorKatarn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.27.03

Hello folks,

We have come a long way since last year, and we are enhanced the project more and more. Currently we are working on our space backgrounds, skyboxes and cutscenes. We are making good progress but we are always looking for more diversity and new ideas and we could use the additional help if you are:

• 2D artists capable of creating stunningly beautiful space backgrounds, nebulas and that sort of thing.
• CGI artists capable of helping us with our cutscenes and experience in creating 3d movie sequences at high quality.

Candidates have to be able to work well with other people and eager to achieve a high quality standard with their work.

Here is your chance to show some of your work to the rest of the world once Wing Commander Saga will be released. We expect to receive a similar degree of attention by our audience as our prologue demo had already achieved.

So take your chance to become a team-member of the Wing Commander Saga Team. We are looking forward to hear from you soon.

Contact us with some examples of your work.

-KeldorKatarn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.21.03

For today's update we would like to showcase our final version of the Kilrathi Sha'Kar-class transport. With its cheap and modular design, the Sha’kar-class transport can be configured to carry anything important to the Kilrathi war machine, including armaments, fuel, general supplies and personnel. Slow, under-armed, under-armored and susceptible to attack by even the lightest Terran fighter, these cannon fodder transports rely on fighters or other capships for protection.

-Tolwyn

FROM: Captain Sphynx, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.18.03

The Wing Commander Universe is vast, and the story of Saga will take you through many systems you became familiar with through the Wing Commander games. For this week's poll, we would like to learn about which systems you would be most interested in visiting.

-Sphynx

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.02.03

Before I go to much into this week's update, I want to talk about the team working on this project. These guys are the most dedicated and talented guys I've ever worked with. They're putting in ridiculous hours right now as we make the final push towards our Alpha. I feel like the effort is really paying off, too. In my opinion, the game is really starting to look and play great. Many times as I'm playing through our current build preparing feedback, looking for issues, or generally doing any of the other hundred things I do in the game while not actually "playing" it, I find myself slipping into "gamer" mode, simply enjoying the experience. This team is busting everything they've got, and I can see that it's really making a difference. I feel that the final product will be great.

And now, the moment you’ve been waiting for far too long. It’s time to introduce our Kilrathi capital ships. Scooby Doo from the team explains the process:

"Like everything in game development, designing capital ships is always more difficult than it sounds. As a team, we had a long discussion regarding the overall look we wanted to create for our ships. We went through every available concept art from finished Wing Commander games and also from the art associated with the unreleased Wing Commander games. We found the artwork by Feng Zhu were particularly helpful.

We tried to really understand the meaning and philosophy behind Kilrathi ship design. In the end, we walked away with a good idea of the approach we were going to take.

We started with the basics. We took a simple yellowish base metal texture, and we started evolving it from there.One of the first additions we made was dirt patches. To be honest, these were actually designed to help facilitate another effect we were experimenting with. We ended up cutting that particular effect, but we used dirt effect here because it just felt right to us.

Next we began playing with armor plating. We actually have a good foundation in there now. We wrote a simple Photoshop script that creates armor plates in a matter of seconds (thus saving us a lot of time).

Normal maps came into the picture a little after that. This is one of my personal favorites. Basically, normal maps are used to greatly enhance the appearance of our low poly models without using more polygons. This technique allows us to create highly detailed, impressive models with very small impact on performance, allowing Saga to look and play great on a wide variety of machines."

As our first demonstration of the results of our work in this area, we would like to introduce our version of the Kamrani.

The Kilrathi’s obsession with hit-and-run strikes and wolfpack tactics is manifested in their most recent corvette model. Its combination of offensive anti-ship missiles and high speed enables these corvettes to attack Confederation convoys before they have adequate time to muster a counterattack. Even though the Kamrani is lightly armored, this corvette is well protected against fighters with it's multiple turret configuration.

Take a look at this Kilrathi killing machine below.

In our future updates we plan to release some information on the story, talk a little bit about our characters, and introduce the player's nemeses! Stay tuned!

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.20.02

We mentioned in a previous update that all the missions for Episodes 1-6 are gameplay complete. I've personally played through each mission, and I am very excited with the results. In refining the missions, our team has taken a new approach to the mission design. We are conceptualizing the missions in smaller sections (e.g. individual nav points) while planning out the overall mission experience. We have focused on testing and reworking each smaller segment until it's fun. We, as designers, want to ensure that the entire experience is going to be great, and we think our new strategy is really paying off.

We are also knee deep in the production of space environments. We have a lot of pots on the stove right now, so to speak. We are playing with reintroducing some of the features we trimmed out of the Prologue, along with several new ideas that are already proving pretty promising. We may say more about those in future updates. I will say the entire team is really psyched right now about the way things are coming together. We think that the energy and synergy we are finding right now will really show in the final product. To give you just a small taste, take a peek at the following screen shots.

-Tolwyn

FROM: Captain Sphynx, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.05.02

Wing Commander Saga was featured in an article in PC Gameplay, a Belgian gaming magazine. We would like to thank Spoon for sharing this article with us and for providing an English translation. The following is a loose translation of the article.

"WC3 was a milestone, not just for the space sim-genre but also in the way games were being presented. More then 10 years before mass effect, it allowed gamers to enjoy a interactive cinematic sci-fi story with real characters. After the excellent WC4 and very enjoyable Prophecy, the franchise came to a halt. EA released the 360 live arcade game WC arena and there were some rumours about a new next-gen WC being in production but for now it doesn't seem like there will be a new can of cat food to be opened any time soon. Fortunately there is the team behind WC Saga, a standalone Freespace2-mod which will tell a story parallel to that of WC3. The campaign will contain 35 missions, a dozend characters and a involving plot. There will also be a multiplayer part. "

 

(The text on the screen states, "Just like in WC3, you'll be able to land in hangers of capital ships.")

-Sphynx

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.30.01

Exciting times are ahead for Saga. The mission programming is barreling towards the finish line and preproduction for CGI cutscenes is gearing up. Making CGI cutscenes is a time consuming endeavour. Each of our environments has to be painstakingly crafted, explosion and lighting effects take precise adjustments, and each frame must be scrutinized. All of our CGI scenes are in early stages, so they don't represent the quality of the final product yet, but feel free to take a look at a few screenshots of Vega Prime from one of our CGI cutscenes.

-Tolwyn

FROM: Captain Sphynx, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.19.01

Thanks to all who participated in our last poll. It seems Colonel Blair is a very popular guy. I suppose that's not surprising, considering the amount of time we've spent playing games from his perspective.

For this week's poll, we are interested in knowing which of the prologue missions was your favorite.

-Sphynx

FROM: Captain Sphynx, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2009.07.01

As we start the new year, we would like to thank everyone who voted for our website during this year's competition at the CIC. We hope our efforts to keep you up to date on the progress of our project are helpful, and we are committed to continuing to keep you informed throughout the development process. 

We have decided to release the intro and outro cutscenes from our prologue for download. The versions we are providing a higher resolution than the ones found in the game, so they are worth your time to download and enjoy.

Stay tuned for more updates!

-Sphynx