News Archive 2012

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2012.11.12

Attention, wingnuts! There may have been no updates the past few months, but that doesn't mean that there's nothing going on. As of today, Wing Commander Saga has been nominated for the 3rd annual Indie of the Year award, a celebration of the best independent games released in 2012. We have ten days to aim for the top spot and we need your support more than ever! Tell your family and your friends to vote for your favorite project. Voting is simple: Just visit the IndieDB page, select the category "Futuristic Sim", click the vote button and you're done!

2012 Indie of the Year Awards via Indie DB

Again, we are very sorry for the sparse updates lately, but we all have underestimated real life responsibilities. Rest assured things are finally moving along on several fronts and that includes a Mac port! Today we are especially excited that programmer David is joining our ranks. David is part of the Visionaire Studio team and he can also boast work for a number of German video game publishers. We have always been on the look out for special people and in David we have an original thinker and someone who has a deep understanding of fundamental issues with porting games to Mac OS X and how to use that knowledge to create solid gaming experience. Release date of the Mac OS X port will be determined at a later date.

Wing Commander Saga Accolades Trailer

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2012.11.04

We have finally brought you Wing Commander Saga’s mission editor. Along with giving players the ability to create new missions for Wing Commander Saga, the kit comes with an autopilot template for the game. That’s right, you can now create missions that offer the flyby sequences that were a central part of the Wing Commander ethos, offering a much shorter wait time between nav points and also a cinematic flair that has always been a trademark of Wing Commander.

We have decided to make something special to help you get the hang of our tools. We have created a loose remake of the first two missions in Wing Commander 3. Our demo package features the original voice-overs of Mark Hamil, Jason Bernard, and the other classic WC3 actors who were highlighted in the first two missions. Briefing and launch sequences are also included. You can grab the package here. The process of creating those missions was documented and an early tutorial draft has been included.

What are you waiting for? Grab the tools, and start modding your wingnut heart out. For all your modding questions, please post on our forums.

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2012.05.04

As an extra for all of you, we’ve got just what you need if you can't get enough of the game - we have decided to release the music of Wing Commander Saga: The Darkest Dawn. This huge compilation of all-new music was created by our team of talented composers: Jeff Ball, Tim Janssens, Edward Bradshaw, Glyn R. Brown, Jeff Broadbent, and Peter Dmitriyev. As an added bonus, there are several deleted songs that are included in the archive. You know that's right.

We will also release a second album soon. It will be a collection of remastered Wing Commander 3 music, based on the originals composed by George Oldziey, whose electrifying soundtrack provided the inspiration for the original music created by our composers for Wing Commander Saga: The Darkest Dawn.

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2012.03.04

It really is an exciting time to be a wingnut. It’s been a ten days since the Saga's release and we wanted to share details on what we’re working on.

Our SDK is shaping up nicely. It should make the process of modding possible (at least for tech-savvy folks). We’re currently working on a mission creation tutorial and are hoping to see a number of Saga mods and tweaks once the SDK goes live.

Echoing what we stated on our forums, we’re evaluating your feedback and will address issues that are being reported in subsequent patches. As a matter of fact, the very first Saga update is now available. It fixes a number of small issues that have plagued gamers since launch.

After the break, check out the patch notes for 1.1.0.7822.

Patch Notes - March 27, 2011

• Addressed an issue that was causing launcher to not save sound device properly on some systems.
• Added tooltips for autopilot and glide usage.
• Fiction viewer font replaced.
• Alternative mouse steering is now available. You can choose between the WC and FS controls depending on your personal preference.
• Losing the TCS Aurora would block the game's progress. This has been addressed.

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2012.31.03

After ten years in development, Wing Commander Saga: The Darkest Dawn has been released! Wing Commander Saga is the product of a dedicated group of fans seeking to tell a compelling story and provide an electrifying gameplay experience in Chris Robert's iconic Wing Commander universe. It features 55 missions in two campaigns, over 70 cutscenes, over 11,000 lines of voice work produced by 60 voice actors, and a storyline that dovetails with the events of Wing Commander 3: The Heart of the Tiger. It has been released for the PC, with Mac and Linux version coming soon. And best of all, it is completely free!

So far, reception for Wing Commander Saga has been enthusiastic. We experienced about 50,000 downloads in the first 24 hours after the release of the game. Check out what some of the reviewers have to say about The Darkest Dawn:

"Terrific, and a stunning achievement." - Rock, Paper, Shotgun

"A fan-made game that's good enough to be worth paying for. It pays homage to its source material while improving on Wing Commander's classic gameplay and graphics." - HotHardware

"A worthy homage with a thrilling story." - PC Games Hardware

"A must have for nostalgic, old school gamers and space ship fans." - Gamestar

"Wing Commander is back." - 4Players

"You owe it to yourself to sample this labor of love." - ExtremeTech

"Relive the glory days of space flight sims. Highest Recommendation." - JustPressStart

"So much more than a simple fan remake. A polished, feature heavy, brilliantly designed behemoth of a game. Wing Commander Saga could have easily been a commercial release." - Gnome's Lair

But don't just take their word for it, come try Wing Commander Saga: The Darkest Dawn for yourself! Then, make sure to visit gog.com, where you can get copies of several of the original Wing Commander games from which Saga takes its inspiration.

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2012.24.03

Swarms of users rushed to download the game client at nineteen hundred hours. Our release was met with such extraordinary demand that our website was unavailable at first due to server flooding. These numbers are pretty remarkable, and a solid indication that space sims are still alive and well!

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2012.22.03

At long last, the day has finally arrived! It has been ten years to the day that the Wing Commander Saga project was officially founded. Through this time, Saga has evolved through a host of iterations, with sometimes frustrating twists and turns and several brick walls. However, we believe that Wing Commander Saga would not be what it is today without the lessons we have learned from each one of those experiences, and we are very excited to finally share the results with you.

On many occasions, we have referred to Wing Commander Saga: The Darkest Dawn as a labor of love. That is truly what it has been for us. Many years ago, Chris Roberts and his team at Origin ignited our imaginations with their innovative, blockbuster Wing Commander series. Our hope has always been that with Wing Commander Saga, we could recapture that excitement and magic to some degree and share it with all of you. Our ten year development process has certainly taught us even more respect for just how innovative and brilliant Chris Roberts and his team are. Our development of Wing Commander Saga: The Darkest Dawn is meant as an homage to them and what they achieved, and we would like to thank them and EA, who holds the intellectual property for Wing Commander. We would also like to thank all the sites who have generously offered to provide mirrors for Saga.

If Wing Commander Saga: The Darkest Dawn is your introduction to the Wing Commander universe, you owe it to yourself to try the source material that inspired us. Several of the original Wing Commander games are available at gog.com, so make sure to show your support for the actual creators of Wing Commander by going and purchasing some copies! You won't regret it. Especially make sure to pick up a copy of Wing Commander III, since the story of Wing Commander Saga: The Darkest Dawn was written to coincide with the events of that game.

Today we are only launching the PC vesion. The Linux and Mac versions will be available soon. We just need to port the launcher to OSX and Linux and run some tests.

For help troubleshooting known issues click here to visit our forums. We'd also love to here your thoughts about the game, so feel free to join us there!

So, without further ado, we are pleased to present you with Wing Commander Saga: The Darkest Dawn. It's humanity's most desperate hour, a desperate struggle for survival against impossible odds, and you've got a front row seat.

Update

This full release of Wing Commander Saga contains two campaigns. The first is an upgraded version of the original "Prologue" campaign. It has been upgraded with an expanded story, more characters in-game, Wing Commander style autopilot sequences (rather than the long, time accelerated autopilot sequences used in the original prologue) and updated graphics and game play. This five mission campaign set aboard the TCS Wellington teaches the player how to play Wing Commander Saga and sets the stage for the main campaign. You can select the prologue by going to the campaign room and highlighting the "Prologue" campaign. Even if you played the original prologue, we highly recommend you play the updated prologue to bring you up to speed with all the changes that have happened since the original release.

From there, you can go to the campaign room and select "The Darkest Dawn" campaign. This campaign will assume that you have learned everything that the "Prologue" campaign is designed to introduce you to. This is the all new, 50 mission campaign based on the TCS Hermes.

German Press Release

Download Patch 1.1.0.7782 MD5 Hash: 1cade73603e32259e996417b3d486ff8

wcsaga.com

Download MD5 Hash: 39c3cad2f35ecb2c10025cb66ca401ea

wcsaga.com

demonews.de
gamershell.com (optional torrent available)
chip.de
heise.de
atomicgamer.com
shacknews.com
wcnews.com
ausgamers.com
gameswelt.de
IndieDB (1.7GB links)
ngohq.com
freespacemods.net
mindcrushers.de
emumovies.com
eprison.de

Note: You can verify download integrity with our CRC check tool.

Launch Trailer

Watch on Youtube
Download

DVD Cover

Download

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2012.20.03

"Hello, good sir!"

That's the motto of Rurikhan's latest "let's play" video. As we continue to get closer to the release of Wing Commander Saga: The Darkest Dawn, a new gameplay video was released with new scenes not seen in any other preview videos. Even though ingame graphics may not be up to date, you still can’t deny that the action this game offers is amazing.

Rurikhan's video really highlights the intense space combat with some sprinklings of insane dogfights. Click on the thumbnail above to go to his YouTube channel and don't forget to watch his "other" let's play videos.

Wing Commander Saga is a free game and will be available this Thursday.

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2012.17.03

We would like to post an official correction about something that has been misreported about "Wing Commander Saga: The Darkest Dawn." We are not officially or unofficially sanctioned or endorsed by Chris Roberts, Origin, or EA. We are thankful to them for permitting us to make Saga- as manifested by them taking no action to shut us down but allowing us to develop it, just as they have done with other projects like Standoff and Privateer: Gemini Gold- but they have in no way, shape, or form sanctioned our project, nor have they done anything to make it official. They have not contacted us and we have not discussed it with them. Once again, we are thankful that they are permitting us to do this, but no endorsement of Saga by these entities should be implied from that fact.

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2012.16.03

In a sensational move, Konstantinos Dimopoulos from Gnome's Lair has somehow managed to secure somewhat exclusive access to the finished version of Wing Commander Saga. A lengthy preview is available on the Gnome's Lair website. A short chinwag with our very own Tolwyn about all things regarding Wing Commander Saga is also included.

As ever, feel free to leave us your thoughts and complaints in the comments below. Are you as excited as we are?

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2012.04.03

Wing Commander Saga: The Darkest Dawn has been in development for a decade. You have all been waiting for a long time, and so have we. The wait is finally over. The Wing Commander Saga team is happy to present you with the final Wing Commander Saga trailer! The trailer gives a preview of many of Saga's features, including a few that we have kept secret, but it also finally answers our most frequently asked question of "when is Saga's release date?" Check out the trailer and start the count down to launch!

Watch on Youtube
Download

-Tolwyn

FROM: Colonel IceFire, TCN ONI
DATE: 2012.03.03

With the final release date coming very soon, I thought it was time for a final beta testing update. WC: Saga is very much a finished product now with the last minor details being worked out.

Prologue Mission Testing

Many of you have played the WC: Saga Prologue and remember it well. Almost every detail of WC: Saga has changed since that time meaning that the Prologue campaign was looking a little out of date. No longer! Our beta testers have rewound the clock and are back on the TCS Wellington running through the updated Prologue campaign missions.

What Was Old Is New Again

The old missions have been given a new lease on life with updated autopilot sequences, the improved visuals of the final WC: Saga product, the tweaked AI, and some slightly updated story as a bonus. The new missions are an overall smoother experience and they lead naturally into the full campaign. Even if you are an experienced pilot, I think the introductory nature of the Prologue is worth the immersion into the atmosphere of the Wing Commander 3 timeline.

The kinds of bugs we’re running into right now:

• Minor spelling mistakes and typos. They always crop up no matter how perfect you may be. Spotted and corrected!
• Balancing has been corrected with the level of defensive fire from the Wellington during the last mission.

These are hardly show stopping issues, but we do want to see them corrected before release.

Spit Shine

We are nearly there and the testers are pulling out the last stops to what will hopefully be a near perfect release. Nothing is ever completely perfect but every effort is being made to make it that. Just today I was play testing the early campaign missions again and while there were always bugs, or missing voice overs, or other issues in earlier days, there is now a sense that this is complete and that it is nearly ready. Stay tuned for more news in the very near future!

-IceFire

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2012.02.03

People are wondering how the Saga campaign is going to act. Well, here it is without giving much away.

The Prologue includes 5 missions. It's 50% instruction training and 50% combat related to the main plot. The reason why it's not a full-blown fight campaign is because many people will not be familiar with the FS2 controls. That's why this prologue's main purpose is to get everyone up to speed.

You are shifted through several squadrons throughout "The Darkest Dawn" campaign, which consists of 50 missions. Each squadron flies a different fighter (and only that fighter type). Each squadron has their own wingmen and a squad leader. During missions you fly with these wingmen, and the squad leader too if he's on rotation to fly a combat mission. There is a Wing Commander in charge of the air wing, and on occassions you'll fly among him in combat.

Just as Wing Commander, you fly patrols in elements of two fighters. If you are sent in a mission fully knowing there is going to be a stiff enemy presence, you go in flights of four. In more than one case, you fly as an integrated part of a strike team.

You will start off flying the Hellcat, then the Arrow, then Thunderbolt, then Longbow. You'll fly the Excalibur last. Due to the set FS2 engine programming there's not much we can do in terms of branching

Expect cameos from several notorious Kilrathi Aces of that period. We can't say which for now, but I will say that we made damn sure not to contradict the timeline, events and systems the Victory participated in during the official path seen in the WC3 novel.

Your carrier is the TCS Hermes. It fights in the forefront of virtually every operation of the Vega Sector Fleet, whether it is losing or winning. Some operations were mentioned in the WC3 guide, novel, and game.

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2012.24.02

Big news today! We've teamed up with Rurikhan to bring you some "let's play" footage from the final beta. The video shows much of the progress we've made since the original Prologue release. There's a lot more polish, all assets were remade from scratch, and the gameplay is much much tighter. A huge credit needs to go to Rui Modesto (a.k.a. Rurikhan) for cranking with the crazy editing skills. The floor is yours, Rurikhan!

Now, in an awkward segue from the gameplay footage to the actual status of the game, we are working as hard as we can to bring you the game as soon as possible, but small changes are still popping up. Thankfully, at this point, these changes are usually pretty minor, but the sum total of all the changes really adds up and increases the quality of the game.

Till next time and if you liked the "let's play" video and would like to watch a few more episodes remember to "like" or "comment" and to subscribe to Rurikhan's channel at youtube.com/rurikain.

-Tolwyn

FROM: Colonel IceFire, TCN ONI
DATE: 2012.05.02

We're almost there! The beta testing has been a long process for the testers and for the team but we can all see the end of this very long road. With ten years of development behind some of the team members this is an incredible project coming to fruition.

Final Mission Testing

I have described in earlier reports that the beta testers have not had access to the entire campaign but rather we have tested the missions in the same order that players will experience when the project is complete. After 15 beta versions we have now arrived at a content complete beta test and testers are working hard beta testing the final missions.

Scale and Scope

I've talked about before how the scale of the missions in WC Saga has a huge amount of variation. You can expect small skirmishes with a half dozen spacecraft at once or huge engagements with over a hundred spacecraft in combat at once. Keeping the player relevant in the melee is important. So is making sure that the battle plays out the way it should, provided the player is doing their job correctly.

So we've been testing dozens of times to ensure that everything works the way it should. With large scal battles the complexity and potential for errors to appear increases so testers are making sure that these final missions live up to expectations.

Here's just a few of the bugs that we've been able to identify and eliminate:

• A Kilrathi raiding party arrives with several capital ships. In one instance two capital ships arrive on the same trigger and appear inside of each other. The triggers were changed and now they arrive separately. Much to the relief of the Kilrathi!
• In another mission the player receives a message to protect a Confed capital ship, however, if the ship is already lost the sound file is still played. Problem solved.
• A missing voice over causes a bug in the message line up resulting in some dialogue continuing over an autopilot sequence. Voice over files found and problem solved!

For All Mankind

There is a definite buzz and a sense that something special is really starting to come together as we test the final missions of the campaign where the story comes to its epic conclusion. More missions are green lit and problems are found and solved.

It takes many years of serious work and commitment to get to this point and there will be more time and serious work to come. I think it will be all worth it. Stay tuned for more updates in the near future!

-IceFire

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2012.29.01

We have reached an important milestone that has been a very long time in the making. All 50 of the missions in the main campaign are now finalized; The Darkest Dawn is now complete! We still have a bit of work ahead of us before Saga is ready to launch. We are currently working on significantly updating the missions of the prologue campaign (with updated game play, improved missions, refined dialogue, more characters in game, and a few other things to bring it up to par with the main campaign) which will be included as a small, introductory campaign in the full Saga package. We are going through our final rounds of beta tests, making sure everything is fully polished and as bug-free as possible for launch.

Keep your eyes open for a release date announcement soon!

-Tolwyn

FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2012.06.01

By the end of next week, we will have finalized 48 of the missions from the main campaign, leaving only the final two climactic missions. In addition, we are also remastering and upgrading the original prologue missions to be released as a second, brief campaign as a part of the full Saga package. Beside that, we are finishing working out a few issues with the code, and of course we will resolve any issues that come up as we finalize the missions. We are just as anxious to be finished with the project as you are for us to be finished, but we are making sure to be careful and not take shortcuts on these final missions as we come around the bend on the last stretch to the finish line. So, while we do not yet have an exact release date because we cannot foresee what issues may come up as we make these last missions and code refinements, we are confident in stating that in a matter of weeks, Saga should be ready for launch.

After ten years of work, the end is indeed near!

-Tolwyn