We’ve got less than a year before the Assembly’s vote
Nazis infiltrating the government, redirecting funds without oversight, and provoking conflict with former allies… sorry, got distracted there. You’re here to hear about WCIV, not real-world drama!
As previously mentioned, we’ve reached a point where regular mission updates would get repetitive. Going forward, updates will focus on systems.
The Masa System
While work on terrain missions is still ongoing (and likely to continue throughout the project due to their complexity), we now have full support for the third system in the game: the Masa System.
Masa 1 introduced our first new challenge—docking a shuttle! The good news is that the same docking code appears to work for MIPs as well, so we can extend this functionality.
In Masa 2, we introduced a new ship: the Tallahassee. Defiance Industries has crafted both Confed and Border World variants. The Confed variant brings a splash of blue reminiscent of the Wing Commander 3 colour scheme, adding a nostalgic touch. We’ve also created a traditional version for purists (in case the pitchforks come out). We’d love to hear your thoughts on these designs.
Masa 2 also uncovered some bugs, including issues with flying in formation with more than two ships, as well as object placement and scripting problems. These are being addressed, but the update didn’t require any new features beyond that.
Masa 3 introduces the Intrepid, but model work is still on going (fortunately Masa 3 is still playable as we have the Intrepid set up to use the Lexington ala the demo).
We’ve successfully parsed all remaining missions and identified the last dozen commands that need implementation. Most of these are quite straightforward based on the missions in which they appear.
Release dates
While it’s still possible we’ll hit the February 12, 2026 target, we’re preparing for a slight delay to ensure we have enough time to polish the visuals. So we may be following in the original’s footsteps and delay the release to hit the 30th anniversary year, though possibly not the exact day.
We plan to have a closed beta by sometime close to the 30th anniversary of the original advertised release date (December 8th this year). The feedback from that build will help determine if we need to adjust our official release date.
While we intend to support mods and customizations post-launch, we’ve made the tough decision to focus on perfecting our vision for the remake initially. This means the launch version will not have classic visuals or an option to turn off cockpits, but these features will come soon after.
Good news everyone!
We’re thrilled to announce that AllTinker is joining us to help improve the AI. We will be sure to return the favour as we’re all excited for Confederation here.
Additionally, FilmCompos3r has been hard at work ensuring we have the right music. His original pieces, combined with orchestral arrangements, now provide the soundtrack the remake needs. He’s still hoping to add extra music for room transitions and added variety during gameplay. Check out the video featuring the extended version of Combat 3 (originally a 44-second loop).
Have you upgraded since WCP?
Remember the early days of Wing Commander? Players were constantly upgrading their hardware to maintain a decent framerate. For the remake, we’re aiming for visuals that match a roughly 2008-level of quality to align with FMV models. This means you won’t need an expensive GPU, but you may need a chunk of VRAM if we don’t add texture streaming support.
To help us decide if texture streaming should be prioritised let us know the lowest amount of VRAM you have on any PC you plan to play this remaster on (you may need to scroll to the bottom of the page for the poll).