Development / 2005–2012

Comms Archive

The road to The Darkest Dawn. 179 development reports, field notes, and transmissions.

2012

Mission Editor Released 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… There is No Sound in Space, But There is Music in Wing Commander! 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… First Patch Now Available 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. Accolades Pour in for Darkest Dawn 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… Wing Commander Saga saw 50k downloads in 24 hours 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… The Darkest Dawn is Cleared for Launch 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,… "Let's Play" - Khan's Darkest Dawn Continues... “Hello, good sir!” Clarification in Response to Recent Media Stories 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… Preview & Interview - Gnome's Darkest Dawn In a sensational move, Konstantinos Dimopoulos from Gnome’s Lair has somehow managed to secure somewhat exclusive access to the finished version of Wing… You are cleared to launch, Wing Commander. 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… A Look Inside WC Saga’s Beta Testing (Part 4) 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… Campaign With a Twist People are wondering how the Saga campaign is going to act. Well, here it is without giving much away. "Let's Play" - Khan's Darkest Dawn 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… A Look Inside WC Saga’s Beta Testing (Part 3) 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… The Darkest Dawn is Almost Upon Us 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… There is indeed a light at the end of the tunnel! 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…

2011

A Look Inside WC Saga’s Beta Testing (Part 2) Hello fellow fans! I am back again with another Beta Testing update. This time I will be mentioning some of the progress made to date as well as talking about… Proper Widescreen Support I think it’s about time we brought you up to date with one of the changes that have been added to the engine recently: proper widescreen support. This means,… A Look Inside WC Saga’s Beta Testing (Part 1) Tolywn is hard at work coordinating the next stages of the Wing Commander Saga development so I thought I would give him a break from writing the latest news… New Teaser available Earlier this week, we announced on Twitter that a new teaser will be released very soon, which happens to be today. So, without further ado, we are happy to… New Media available With the game getting ready to launch soon, we are working hard on ironing out remaining issues, so that you will get the game that you want and deserve. Meet the voices behind some of the characters in Wing Commander Saga! FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION Saga has 11000 Lines of Dialogue At the heart of fancy space combat action is always a good conversation - last week we got the voice over work done, and it came out fantastic. Wing Commander… Latest beta update Last month, we announced that the next phase of the beta test is about to start. Since then, we’ve been overwhelmed by the number of requests we’ve received to… Saga Stats In its current state, Saga has the following Apply for Phase Two We anticipate the next phase of the beta will begin sometime next week. All players who had access to the first phase will retain access. To participate, fill… Beta Tweaks FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION We're getting close... FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION A few words... FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION Beta Enhancements FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION Beta Screenshots First off, we’re hard at work on Wing Commander Saga, going through all the beta feedback we’ve received to make adjustments to the design. We are very excited… Know Your Shipmates: Confed Capital Ships - Entry 8: Lexington FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION Closed-Beta Roundup FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION We are beta! FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION Know Your Shipmates: Prologue Characters – Entry 3 FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION Know Your Shipmates: Main Characters – Entry 2: Kettle FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION Know Your Shipmates: Confed Capital Ships - Entry 7: Savannah FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION Apply for the Closed Beta Test! Our team is seriously considering starting a beta test at the beginning of February. There is a caveat, though; the number of beta testers will be limited.… Know Your Shipmates: Characters – Entry 1: Sandman FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION

2010

Happy New Year from Wing Commander Saga! Happy New Year everyone! The Wing Commander Saga staff would like to thank all of you for your support throughout the year. We know that we can never express… Saga Showcases it’s German Version FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION DATE: 2010.27.12 Merry Christmas from Wing Commander Saga! Happy Holidays to all of our site visitors! We hope your holiday season will be joyous and meaningful. We will see you all on the flip side with the new year. Interview on the Red Carpet In a sensational move, guys from GameOverCast have somehow managed to secure exclusive access for a lengthy chinwag with our very own Andreas Schmitt, to chat… Know Your Shipmates: Confed Capital Ships - Entry 6: Yorktown For this update, we like to show our final variant of the Yorktown-class carrier. This venerable light carrier was first seen in Wing Commander 3, where the… Know Your Shipmates: Confed Capital Ships - Entry 5: Tallahassee For this update, the Saga team is proud to show the final version of the Terran heavy cruiser. The Tallahassee-class is a vessel that has been a staple in the… Trailer Released! FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION DATE: 2010.13.08 New Poll 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… Teaser Released! FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION DATE: 2010.24.07 Wing Commander Saga HQ gets an upgrade! 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… Know Your Shipmates: Confed Capital Ships - Entry 4: Pelileu 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… Viper missing in action 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. Know Your Shipmates: Confed Capital Ships - Entry 3: Caernaven 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… Know Your Shipmates: Confed Capital Ships - Entry 2: Southampton 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… Know Your Shipmates: Confed Capital Ships - Entry 1: Clarkson 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… New Poll 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… Know Thy Enemy: Kilrathi Supply Base 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… Voicing It A new opportunity has arisen for you to help out the Wing Commander Saga team. We are currently looking for a highly motivated person to fill in as a voice… Intro CGI Preview 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… Facebook us! 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… New Poll Our last poll asked which fighter from the Prologue is your favorite. The Hellcat V won by a slim margin. The Thunderbolt VII finished in a close second place

2009

German Audiobook released! 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… The Art of War 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… Tweet Commander Saga 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… Know Thy Enemy: Kilrathi Capital Ships - Entry 11: Hvar`kann 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… Be a part of creating Wing Commander Saga! In an attempt to represent the scale and drama of the Terran Kilrathi conflict, Wing Commander Saga will feature a huge cast of characters. New Poll 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… Interview on the Red Carpet 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… Know Thy Enemy: Kilrathi Capital Ships - Entry 10: Dubav 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. More dull stuff Welcome to the latest news update. This week, we’re taking a look at game design methodology. Know Thy Enemy: Kilrathi Capital Ships - Entry 9: Bhantkara 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… Code the Code 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… Know Thy Enemy: Kilrathi Capital Ships - Entry 8: Fralthi 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… Picture Album: Planets 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… Know Thy Enemy: Kilrathi Capital Ships - Entry 7: Fralath 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… Know Thy Enemy: Kilrathi Capital Ships - Entry 6: Ralarrad For today’s update we would like to showcase our final version of the Kilrathi Ralarrad-class light destroyer. Check your six! 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,… Flanker Joins Development Team 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… New Poll What would Wing Commander be without its music? This week, we would like to know which Wing Commander soundtrack is your favorite. Sample soundtrack 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… Know Thy Enemy: Kilrathi Capital Ships - Entry 5: Ralaxath 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… State of the Nebula 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. Know Thy Enemy: Kilrathi Capital Ships - Entry 4: Dukara 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.… Know Thy Enemy: Kilrathi Capital Ships - Entry 3: Missiles 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… Talent Hunt Hello folks, Know Thy Enemy: Kilrathi Capital Ships - Entry 2: Sha'Kar 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… New Poll 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… Know Thy Enemy: Kilrathi Capital Ships - Entry 1: Kamrani 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… Space Backgrounds Preview 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… Saga in PC Gameplay 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… Hermes CGI Preview 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… Favorite Prologue Mission 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… Prologue CGI Released! 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…

2008

Merry Christmas The Wing Commander Saga team wishes all of you a merry Christmas. We would like to thank all of you for your supports throughout the year, and we know that we… Annual CIC Contest Kicks Off This has been a very productive year for the Wing Commander community! Many great fan projects have been produced some high quality releases this year. We are… Designing Textures 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… Using Fiction Viewer to Expand the Story For this week’s update, we would like to focus on one of the lesser-known featuress of Wing Commander Saga, namely the fiction viewer. We haven’t said a lot… New Poll Since Wing Commander Saga takes place during the events of Wing Commander 3 and will take the player through some of the most pivotal events of the Terran… Gameplay Complete Greetings to all. We would like to give you some great news about the development of Wing Commander Saga. Pirates Grab Texture Upgrade Too This week, we would like to display some more of our revisioned fighter textures. As we mentioned with our Confederation fighters, we believe our new textures… Download Mirrors Every large project has to face the problem of distribution and Wing Commander Saga is no different. Recently our list of download mirrors had to be shortened… German Voice Work Complete It’s an exciting time for our fans in Germany and Austria as Mind Crusher Studios have completed voiceover work for the German version of Wing Commander Saga.… New Poll Our old poll asked which Kilrathi ace in WC III is your favorite. Thrakhath won our tally, Stalker and Fireclaw came in second and third. Voice Acting Hello folks, Fighters Grab Texture Upgrade Good morning! Scripted Drama It’s been a while since our last website update - sorry about that, but here it is. The latest and greatest: Kilrathi Aces: Your Favorite Our last poll asked which type of mission is your favorite to fly. ‘Strike’ missions blew away the competition coming in with 65.7% of the vote. ‘Patrol’ came… Prologue Patch for Mac OS X Released! Today we released the very first patch for the MacOS X version of Wing Commander Saga: Prologue. The new version features extensive improvements for ATI card… Dark Hunter Fills Wallpaper Gap For this week’s update, we would like to share some creative fan work inspired by Wing Commander Saga. Dark Hunter, one of our fan’s at WingCenter, has created… Excalibur For this week’s update, we would like to show you our latest work on the most advanced fighter available in Wing Commander Saga: the Excalibur. This model was… New Poll The Image Recognition missile blew away the competition in our last poll as a favorite secondary weapon, coming in with 40% of the vote. The Friend or Foe came… ConFleet Intelligence Scout One of the most well-known Terran vessels encountered in WC2 is the civilian Free Trader, which in some cases, is much more then meets the eye. One of these… Server Woes As some of you may have noticed, we are experiencing quite a few problems with our server. We won’t bore you with all the gory details of what has happened,… German version For this week’s update, we want to let you know that we are currently working on producing a German version of Wing Commander Saga. We know many of our fans… What Happened To The Last Starfighters? For this week’s update, we wanted to share with you an article that has recently been published about several fan-made space flight simulations, including Wing… Cockpits redux For this week’s update, the Wing Commander Saga team would like to give you a sneak preview of the Longbow cockpit. Although cockpits weren’t included in the… New Poll Being a good shot with primary weapons is essential, but a good pilot also knows when to bring out the bigger guns, so to speak. Place a vote for your favorite… Fan Project of the Year! The Wing Commander Saga team would like to thank everyone who voted in the CIC’s annual Fan Project of the Year contest. This has been a productive year for…

2007

Happy New Year Happy New Year everyone! The Wing Commander Saga staff would like to thank the thousands and thousands of dedicated Wing Commander fans who downloaded the… Merry Christmas The Wing Commander Saga team wishes all of you a merry Christmas. Annual CIC Contest Kicks Off This has been a very productive year for the Wing Commander community! Many great fan projects have been produced some high quality releases this year. Our… New Fan-Made Mission For this week’s update, we would like to feature some of the work of one of our newer team members, Talon. Talon has reproduced the Rapier as it appeared in… Saga Prologue Multiplayer Upgrade Coming Soon! This week, we would like to announce that we will soon be releasing a significant upgrade to the Wing Commander Saga Prologue. This upgrade will include a new… Wing Commander IV Tech Demo For this week’s update, the WC Saga team would like to highlight our WC4 mission branching demo. Mission branching will be a part of the WC Saga main campaign.… New Soundtrack Sample For this week’s update, we would like to share a musical track from Saga’s second composer, Tim Janssen. This song features a dramatic and high-energy score… New Poll For this week, we are featuring a new poll to get a feel for the primary weapon of choice of our pilots out there. Concordia Redux Previously, we showed you the renders of the TCS Concordia. Now, Klavs has created a new image to show off how the Concordia’s cavernous fighter bay looks -… Concordia Again Hi there, Adam “Klavs” Burch here, checking in! War on the rocks To continue the theme of our last update on the Kilrathi asteroid fighter, Lars has created a stunning render featuring the asteroid fighter. Check it out. A rock and a hard place For this week’s update, we would like to share our rendition of one of Wing Commander’s most unique ships: the Kilrathi asteroid fighter. It’s clever blend of… Progress Update Hi everyone, Squadron Patches The Wing Commander Saga main campaign will provide the player with the opportunity to fly as a part of several different squadrons, just like the original Wing… Concordia is gone Today we are honored to premier Klavs’ rendered image of the wrecked hull of the TCS Concordia lying half submerged in the waters off the Mistral Coast.… Sabre For this weeks update, we would like to round off our presentation of Wing Commander 2 Confed fighter models created by Klavs and highlight his rendition of… Talent Hunt: CGI Artist In order to finish off our project, we are currently looking for a CGI artist who is capable of creating animations at the same quality level as the Prologue… Autopilot The WC Saga team is excited to announce a new Source Code Project development: the FS2 SCP now has a genuine autopilot feature, complete with fly-by… Paktahn For today’s update we would like to showcase our final version of the Kilrathi Paktahn bomber. The Kilrathi Paktahn is similar to the Confederation Longbow by… Mod the Mod The Wing Commander Saga team has been very impressed by community modders who have been putting together their own custom missions. We’d like to encourage as… Awards The original Wing Commander added to the immersive feeling it created by allowing the player to earn medals through exceptional performance in missions. As a… Update your bookmarks You may recall that our old website was hosted at www.scifi3d.org. Our subscription to that site is about to expire, so make sure to update your bookmarks to… New Poll Our new poll asks which fighter in Wing Commander Saga: Prologue is your favorite. Each fighter has its own merits, and it’s a tough choice. You could also… Server Troubles About a week ago one of 1blu servers, which is based in Berlin, died and took with it the Wing Commander Saga website. They say trouble comes in pairs and it… Engine Plans Due to some major updates in the Freespace 2 source code project with the upcomming release of version 3.6.10, we have plans to incorporate many of the newly… New Saga Rapier! We’re making steady progress, and it’s unbelievable watching everything coming together. With our last big review of the game, we picked up some real solid… Relaunch! For this week’s update, we have a lot of things to share! First off, the Wing Commander Saga team has revamped it’s website. Our web page has been completely… Ingame Cutscenes! FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION DATE: 2007.27.04 New Saga Artist and Saga Ferret! Since the release of the WC Saga prologue, several talented new people have joined the Saga team to help us make the full campaign. Today, we would like to… Relive the Glory Days with New Autopilot Feature The Wing Commander Saga team is happy to announce a breakthrough. We have finally found a way to implement Wing Commander-style autopilot sequences in Saga.… Saga Mission Editor Released! Several people have expressed an interest in a mission editor for Wing Commander Saga. As a response to that interest, we encourage those who want to create… Labels, Press, and Progress For our update this week, we have several things we would like to share with you. First, we are happy to provide you with a DVD case cover that we have created… Linux, new screenshots, and visual setting recommendations! OK, that’s a fairly ecletic list of things to address, but here it is nonetheless. Wing Commander Saga now hiring! Hello folks, Prologue Download Mirrors Wing Commander Saga: Prologue is distributed on several download servers on the Internet. Using a nearby server will probably speed up your download, and also… Prologue for Mac OS X Released! There it is: Mac OS X version of the Wing Commander Saga Prologue is now available for download! If you experience any problems, please notify us immediately.

2006

Prologue Released! Greetings, fellow Wing Commander fans! Merry Christmas The Wing Commander Saga team wishes all of you a merry Christmas. Exploring the uncharted... In this update, the Wing Commander Saga team would like to showcase one of our new starfields. In keeping with the tradition of Wing Commander, we have tried… New Wallpaper The Wing Commander Saga team has released a new wallpaper available which features Saga’s new logo. We're Beta! It’ve been two hectic weeks: we’ve shifted entirely to bug fixing and preparing to launch this thing. We had a team-wide play through of the entire game.… The Sign Up for the WC Saga Beta Test is over! FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION Apply for the Closed Beta Test! Our team is seriously considering starting a beta test at the beginning of November. There is a caveat, though; the number of beta teaters will be limited.… The voice recording is done Things are really cooking here. At this point, we’re trying to iron out the last few design wrinkles that have reared their heads in the last few weeks.… The Man Behind the Machine One of the areas in which Wing Commander excels is in its ability to bring to personalize its epoch stuggle, which it accomplished in part by giving a face, a… Intel Update FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION In-Game Cloaking Previously, we showed you the renders of our exciting new feature: cloaking. Now, we’re able to show you the actual in-game footage of a cloaking Strakha. Now… Cloaking FROM: Commodore Starman, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION DATE: 2006.01.08 Bloodfang FROM: Captain Sphynx, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION An article featuring Wing Commander Saga FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION DATE: 2006.27.06 Soundtrack FROM: Captain Sphynx, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION DATE: 2006.09.06 Pre-rendered cut scenes FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION DATE: 2006.20.05 Assault shuttle upgrade FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION DATE: 2006.28.04 Progress report FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION DATE: 2006.12.03 They strike from the shadows FROM: Rear Admiral Tolwyn, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION DATE: 2006.09.03 Thanks for voting for us for the WC Fan Site of the Year! The Wing Commander Saga team wishes to extend our thanks to all of you who voted for our website this year! There were some other very strong contenders for…

2005