This thread is being started to publically unveil the latest work of the WC Saga team. This time around, the release is a dual-cruiser pack.
This first ship is our final model of the
Tallahassee-class, the Confed heavy cruiser from Wing Commander 3. The decision to construct a new model was made after the revelation that our previous versions were infected by an incurable case of C.F.S. (Chronic Fanboy Syndrome).
This gun-heavy warship is designed for slug-fests with other cruisers and planetary bombardment. Weaponry is 4 Anti-Matter Turrets, 8 Laser Turrets, six torpedo tubes, and a capship missile launcher. Length is 530 meters and displacement is approximately 18,200 tons.
Credit goes to Michael “Lynx” Lechner for the original model and textures. Anton “Tolwyn” Romanyuk did the final texture correction and technical assistance. The final texture adjustment and additional details was done by Michael “Starman” Pretli. The ship was a ***** to bring online, it was so bug-ridden that it took us literally months to finish.
This second ship is a “fill in the gaps” design. Like the
Jutland-class carrier, this ship wasn’t seen in the games but was mentioned very very breifly in the novels. It was basically up to the artist to design the blueprints of the ship, but something that involved lots of research so it wouldn’t turn out to be a dissapointment.
This ship is the
Savannah-class light cruiser, a ship that is fan designed but has its roots in WC canon. These vessels are supposed to be the light cruisers that were in service with the Confed Navy during the 2669 era, and then were sold to the Republic of the Landerich. The existance of these ships are founded in the WC novels. One is the TCS
Andromache, which later becomes the FRLS
Themistocles in the False Colors novel; another ship of this class would eventually become the FRLS
Xenophon.
Ship designation is LCA, which going by the WC Bible means “Light Cruiser Armored”. The Armored means “equipped with phase shields” The weaponry is designed for raider purposes. Weaponry is 3 Anti-Matter Turrets, 6 Laser Turrets, 2 IFF missile launchers, and a capship missile launcher. Length is an even 500 meters and displacement is approximately 15,000 tons (opposed to 530 and 18,200 for a heavy cruiser).
You might notice that this looks very similar to the
Tallahassee-class cruiser, and that is deliberate. There are two main reasons, 1) the design blueprints was supposed to be conservative and “in tune” with the ship building philosophy of that era and 2) this is the smaller light cruiser counterpart to the
Tallahassees, and is better for fast raiding. The name “
Savannah” was picked because it is a US Southern city that was in tune to the word “Tallahassee”- also a southern city. It’s the yin to its yang. We have some screenshots for comparison.
Yours truly did the concept art and passed it to Lynx, who did the final model and textures. Starman converted it in-game.
We will ease off on releasing models of capital ships for now. The WC Saga Team will now move towards showing off the remodeled WC3 fighters. Afterall, Wing Commander is a
fighter combat game.
BTW, Credits for research and writing this topic and history
are going to Psych, our technical advisor. I just copied this post.
