Bandit LOAF

Bandit LOAF

Long Live the Confederation!
Mac has followed up his Excalibur work with some new renders of the entire Confederation fleet! He's posted the first one widely and others are available on his Patreon. Sounds worthwhile!





Omar over on the Patreon requested some renders of the Terran Confederation Fleet based on what I did for the Excalibur video, and I was like "Bruh, say no more".

So here's the first. The rest are on the Patreon but I'll upload them here soon enough. (post)
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Original update published on July 23, 2026
 
Impressive render! The ships of the WC3/WC4 era are the ones closest to me.

I do kind of miss the Durango, though. And the carrier in the top right, that's not a Concordia or a Yorktown, what is that?
 
Aeronautico said:
Impressive render! The ships of the WC3/WC4 era are the ones closest to me.

I do kind of miss the Durango, though. And the carrier in the top right, that's not a Concordia or a Yorktown, what is that?
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That carrier looks a lot like the TCS Lexington from Wing Commander IV, just with the tower on the opposite side of the model so I guess it's a variant of the Concordia-class?

I am still endlessly impressed with the design of the Jutland-class; I grew to love it so much while playing WC Saga!
 
Aeronautico said:
Impressive render! The ships of the WC3/WC4 era are the ones closest to me.

I do kind of miss the Durango, though. And the carrier in the top right, that's not a Concordia or a Yorktown, what is that?
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It's one of the carriers the WCSAGA team created, I think it's the Harrier Class IIRC.
 
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Huh, I don't recall seeing the Harrier-class in the Tech Room in my WCSaga playthroughs. I've had issues with Freespace-engine games not unlocking ships in there as they were encountered in game, but usually that was in the base game and not FSOpen ports.
 
I named that one for Star*Soldier! It's the purpose-built escort carrier that appears in the Wing Commander III novel--the class of the TCS Eagle (see, birds).
 
Also, I have to ask has the Last Line of Defense crew been active at all lately? Anyone ever revisit their destroyer design seen here? Because this design really speaks to me.
 

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kingmakeress said:
Great work, really out of Wing Commander III 🔥 🔥
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I know, and I'm wondering why we haven't seen more of it. Or if there's more designs like this we haven't been treated to. What this team designed for this mod really deserves more acknowledgement.
 
It's from the Wing Commander III novel. The only description is: "A ship took form on the viewscreen, slightly larger than Victory but similar in configuration. It was one of the latest models of escort carrier, but its sleek, modem lines were marred by battle damage."

So you can see how they took the Yorktown-class design and adapted it.
 
It's an interesting thing to consider! In a fan project, designs are praised for their familiarity. A battleship that looks like the Wing Commander III destroyer, an escort carrier that looks like the Victory and so on. In a professional game, it's the exact opposite: any of these would be seen as cheap reuses (as we see with the response to the Lexington in WC4!). And then the reverse is also true; where the pro product needs to have new and different ships, a fan project will get shit for having stuff that's too new or too different! Makes for different challenges and creative budgets depending on what you're doing.
 
Exactly, a fan project has limited resources plus it seeks to give more of the game. On the contrary, new game installments have to be and at the same time not to be the same as the old ones. For instance, seeing Rapier.II in WC2 gave a touch of familiarity (coupled with reasonable in-game lore).
 
The F-44A Rapier was brand new in the first game as the Claw took part in the test flights and it replaced the Scimitar as the frontline Medium Fighter.

The G/H Model you fly in Wing Commander 2 had seen ten years worth of wartime changes to the design. Particle Cannons to replace the Neutron Guns, stronger shield generators, and changes to the spaceframe including additional armor

By Wing Commander 3 it could still hold it's own against the Dralthi IV but it would be relying more on it's maneuverability and the skill of the pilot as the Dralthi IVs have stronger shields and armor.
 
Star Rider said:
By Wing Commander 3 it could still hold it's own against the Dralthi IV but it would be relying more on it's maneuverability and the skill of the pilot as the Dralthi IVs have stronger shields and armor.
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Indeed, this is why the surviving ones have been relegated to InSys duties.
 
They continued to build new models of Rapiers, we just didn't fly then in Wing Commander III. Confed is not constantly changing its fighters, we're just seeing different theaters operating different types. We see new Rapiers thirty years later in Arena!
 
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