News Archive 2010

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2010.13.08

2nd Lieutenant David "Sandman" Markham's training took a cruel twist when his training carrier, the TCS Wellington, was ambushed and destroyed by the Kilrathi while cruising in a supposedly safe system. Unlike most of his fellow trainees and trainers, Sandman has survived to fight another day. But the days ahead are dark and foreboding.

The fight Markham has been prematurely plunged into is growing more desperate by the day. The Kilrathi are advancing on every front. Confed fleets are being forced to retreat in disarray. Terran losses are mounting catastrophically. System by system, the Kilrathi are pressing closer to the heart of the Confederation, hungry for the kill and the thrill of ultimate victory. Hope has run thin, and the total extinction of the human race seems all but inevitable.

Victory and survival for humanity can only be bought at a terrible cost. Gather your wingmen and your courage and prepare to play your part in humanity's desperate gambit as you face the Kilrathi foe. It is a time where even average men must reach inside themselves and become heroes. Answer the call. Face the enemy. Make your mark as the Confederation faces its darkest dawn.

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2010.11.08

To recap our last poll of favorite Kilrathi capital ship from Wing Commander 3, our WC fans picked the Fralthi II-class Heavy Cruiser to be numero uno, closely followed by the menacing Hvar'kann-class Dreadnought! The lost Origin-concept art of the Fralath-class cruiser made a respectable third place.

For this poll, we're going back into the old school, before Wing Commander 3 game out. We like to ask the fans to vote on their favorite Terran Confederation capital ship from Wing Commanders 1 and 2!

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2010.24.07

A full length Wing Commander Saga trailer is about to be released. In fact, we are just finalizing the music for it. Rather than just keep everyone waiting, we thought we would share a short teaser of material that didn't make it into our official trailer. Click here, watch, and enjoy! There is more to come soon.

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2010.16.07

The Wing Commander Saga team is happy to announce the launch of the project's new website. As development of Saga enters its final stages, we felt that our main hub needed to be revamped to make it more accessible and to allow for a greater connection between developers and fans.

One of the new features of our new website is integration with social network sites. We are also updating media integration from our site, providing sharper image quality, the ability to watch videos online at our site, gravatar integration and a new download system that will enhance the distribution of our existing releases and the upcoming release of the completed project. We have also given our database a major upgrade. It has a large quantity of new and expanded information about Saga.

All of this will help to provide a website that is more informative, entertaining, and up to date. We wanted to launch this new site to have it up and running in preparation for our upcoming beta test. You heard us right, we said beta test, and it's coming soon. Browse our new site, leave us your comments, and stay tuned for exciting developments in the near future.

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2010.24.06

For this update, we like to show off a vessel that wasn’t seen in the games but mentioned in the novels: the Confederation troopship. We’ve read about Marine troopships in novels such as End Run, False Colors, and Price of Freedom, but we’ve never had a chance to see what they actually look like.

We intended our vessel to be the same class of the troopship mentioned in the Price of Freedom novel. In the novel, the Pelileu-class assault transport TCS Louis B. Puller deployed the Marines that “rescued” Tuesday Brody from the Border Worlds in the Tyr System. As the sharp eye can see, our concept of this ship is a larger derivative of WC Armada’s Belleau Wood-class transport.

One of the largest troop carriers in service, the Pelileu-class embarks a regiment of over two thousand Marines and a battalion of combat vehicles including assault skimmers, hover tanks, and artillery walkers. They are all deployed to battle by the troopship's own complement of shuttles, dropships, and landing craft. Lastly, it has enough supplies and equipment for its Marines to participate in sustained combat operations for up to 30 days. A planetary assault force would consist of multiple troopships working together, but they require proper escort when deploying for operations.

-Tolwyn

FROM: Commodore Katarn, CICCONFEDFLT
TO: 1st Lt Bryan "Viper" Swift
DATE: 2010.09.06

1st Lt Bryan "Viper" Swift, currently listed as M.I.A., you are hereby requested and required to contact fleet headquarters as soon as possible.

If you are reading this, Viper, give us a call.

-Cdre Katarn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2010.02.06

This week, the Saga Team would like to show off another vessel: the Confed frigate. This ship is accounted to have various lengths and sizes depending on the game source material and novels. For simplicity’s sake, our frigate is the 2669 variant of the post-War frigates seen in service with the Confederation and Border Worlds Fleets during Wing Commander 4.

The Caernaven-class frigate is an ubiquitous escort vessel widely seem among both the front and rear lines. The Swiss army knife of the Terran fleet, it is configurable and adaptable for any mission at hand. Not only is it fast and nimble, its laser batteries, missile launchers, and rocket pods serve as effective deterrence against Kilrathi fighters and light raiders. From assuming a traditional convoy escort role to system patrol duty, this venerable warship still performs whatever role it is assigned with the quiet dignity of a seasoned soldier.

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2010.23.05

For today's update we would like to showcase our final version of the Confederation Southampton-class destroyer. It is the smallest capital ship with true offensive capabilities in the Confed fleet and serves as a mainstay warship in the Terran Navy. These versatile and multi-purpose vessels can be found as part of larger battle groups or in destroyer squadrons or alone, competent in both a standup fight with other hard-hitting warships or assisting in anti-aircraft duties. Very well shielded and armored for its size, they are capable of engaging in ship-to-ship combat with either its powerful energy weapons or its array of missile batteries. In addition, these fast and maneuverable warships can run down any capship in the Kilrathi arsenal.

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2010.08.05

Have you missed us? We're sorry for the long hiatus in our updates. We have been continuing to work on development since our last update, and now we bring you are latest, albeit belated, development update for Wing Commander Saga. This week we would like to talk a little bit about how our texture style for Confederation warships has evolved as the game development has progressed.

We knew from the moment on when we redesigned our Kilrathi warships that we were going to need to do the same for the Confed counterparts to maintain coherence in our visual style. In early concepts we wanted to stay away from a traditional military look, so we started off with a worn down metal texture. We were still learning the tech at that point, so we weren't solid on what could and could not be pulled off easily so we went with something a little on the safe side.

We went forward with this concept, getting it modeled, skinned, and in game. But, as often happens, we can’t often see existing problems until you get an asset in the game. We realized that the worn down look wasn't working. So we made some adjustments and variations to the base map which made a marked improvement. In a twist irony, as time went by and the texture work began to get more fleshed out, the product became more and more military looking (which we were originally avoiding).

At that point in time we also added sophisticated armor plating. We actually had a good foundation to build upon thanks to the work done on the Kilrathi textures. We wrote a simple Photoshop script that creates armor plates in a matter of minutes (thus saving us a lot of time).

Finally, we added specular, glow, and normal maps. Normal maps are 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.

This is a great example of not knowing until we needed to know it. In developing a project like Saga, assets are going to have to change as the game evolves, grows, and changes. As such, any assets we made at the beginning often times just don't quite fit when we get to the end. So we have to keep ourselves flexible. After all, in the end, it's about what's best for the game and the player.

Our next big big focus, now that the assets for the first part of the game are finalized, is to start preparations for the closed beta test. That’s right, we said beta test. This is a big milestone for us. Once these preparations are complete, we will put a beta test application form online.

Now that we're closing in on the end, we are hoping to be able to update our website more regularly. In the near future we plan to do some updates on the story and talk a little bit about our characters; so as the development winds down we'll be talking less and less about the process and more and more about the game itself.

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2010.25.02

Our old poll asked which new feature you are looking forward to the most. "Widescreen support" won our tally, "high res cutscenes" and "better AI" came in second and third.

Since Wing Commander Saga takes place during the Wing Commander 3 timeline, you can bet there are a lot familiar vessels along the way. That's where our poll this week comes in. There are a lot of possibilities: Bhantkara-class, Dubav-class, Dukara-class, Fralath-class, Fralthi II-class, Hvar'kann-class, Kamrani-class, Ralarrad-class, Ralaxath-class, Sha'kar-class. Vote now and then hit the 'Write comment' link to tell the world how you decided.

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2010.10.02

We would like to thank everyone who voted for our website during this year's competition at the Wing Commander 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.

 

For this week's update we would like to showcase our rendition of the Kilrathi supply base. These bases are scattered throughout the war zone and serve as staging points for Kilrathi capital ships to conduct repairs, and rearm themselves, and replenish their supplies. They have docking facilities to accommodate a single capital ship and a hangar bay that accommodates a small squadron of fighters. While they are not as powerful as larger Kilrathi starbases, the logistical support and refuge they supply for Kilrathi forces make them both a threat and an important target in the Confederation's war efforts.

 

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2010.14.01

Welcome to the latest Saga news update! We are excited to ring in 2010 and are looking forward to a great year. This week we would like to share six pictures of our rendition of the intro sequence. Please bear in mind, that the CGI scenes are not final yet, so they don't represent the quality of the final product. You'll be seeing more of our cutscenes as we continue pushing out media. These pictures are just an appetizer.

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2010.05.01

Here's yet another all-important shameless plug. You can now follow Saga on Facebook. We are using our Facebook profile to provide quick updates on the work Saga's team is doing and will also use it to release some exclusive content. If you have any questions, just add a comment and we promise to read what you have to say.

-Tolwyn