Star*Soldier Continuity & Reference Breakdown

[Dundradal]

Since we've all had a little time to soak up Star*Soldier I figured we'd might as well get to work seeing what has happened since SO. So to start just some of my own observations.



Ship Classes (that are now known/confirmed/new)

WC4 Black Lance transport - Evansville
WC3 Confed transport - Clarkson
WC Armada Confed transport- Belleau Wood
WC3 Confed destroyer - Southhampton
WC3 Confed cruiser - Tallhassee
WC3 Confed light carrier - Yorktown

WC Armada Kilrathi transport - Jakhari
WC4 Kilrathi transport - Dukara
WC3 Kilrathi transport - Sha'kar
WC3/P Kilrathi corvette - Kamrani
WC3 Kilrathi light destroyer - Ralarrad
WC3 heavy destroyer - Ralaxath

TCS Tarawa type CVE - Wake (nod to Standoff)

Other that I noticed were Texas class battleships from the 2630s. So that could be a class name for some of the battleships that were at the McAuliffe Ambush. Also the Harrier class CVE. The only other CVEs that came to mind were the TCS Eagle from HotT and the mentions of newer CVEs in FA.

Midway Class MegaCarriers Status

I put (?) after most of these because I think we can only definitively know about the ones that Chandra knows for sure. The destruction of the the Sirius wormhole apparently stranded at least the TCS Port Broughton and Bataan in alien territory for sure. The others are either the also lost in alien space, destroyed or still defending Confed space.

TCS Midway - Active (?)
TCS Mistral Sea - Lost
TCS Tafanda Bay - Active(?)
TCS Coral Sea - Active(?)
TCS Jutland - Lost
TCS Ptoloman's Rift - Active(?)
TCS Enyo III - Active(?)
TCS Bataan - Lost in alien territory
TCS Tripoli - Possibly lost but no news to author
TCS Port Broughton - Active as space habitat


Ok next....

[Bandit LOAF]

I thought I'd go through this thing and pick out references one page at a time... I'm starting with the index, since we already talked about the cover and the Douglas Aerospace advertisement when the first scans showed up.

Page One - Index

* "Sudden Death" is the mercenary magazine included in Chris Roberts' Strike Commander. It is similar in its basic nature to Star*Soldier.

* "Vol. XLVII" is 47, which (by my fuzzy math) puts Star*Soldier's debut in 2654 - the year of the original Wing Commander. 47 is also the number that Star Trek writers try to hide somewhere in every episode.

* Masthead Artwork - the ships are a Midway-class Heavy Carrier (WCP, WCSO, WCA) and a Murphy-class Destroyer (WCSO). Both of these ships were designed by artist Sean Murphy... and, in a possible visual pun, both of them feature the same famous 'mast' (the 'Murphy bridge').

* "Joan's Fighting Spacecraft" - the Wing Commander equivalent of Jane's has appeared in several previous manuals, including Claw Marks, the Wing Commander II manual and the Terran Confederation Handbook.

* "Epsilon Sector" - the Epsilon Sector is a region of space shown on the Wing Commander Universe map. It's an amalgamation of the Antares Sector (SM2) and the Deneb Sector (SM, SO2) and a number other locations.

* "Antares Quadrant" - Antares is the setting of Secret Missions 2: Crusade.

* "Dralthi" - Probably the most famous Kilrathi fighter. Dralthi have appeared in almost every Wing Commander game (major exceptions being WC2 and Privateer 2).

* "Paktahn" - The Kilrathi bomber first seen in Wing Commander 3.

* "hotly contested" - from a line of dialogue in Wing Commander III. Blair says "Locanda’s always been hotly contested".

* "Port Broughton" - Port Broughton is one of the ten Midway-class carriers established internally by Origin but never published in a canonical source (until now).

* "Fighter and Pilot" - a play on 'Car and Driver', a popular car magazine.

* "TNC wire" - Terran News Channel, the holo-news channel seen in Wing Commander III and IV.

* "ReadyNet" - This is an obscure one! ReadyNet is a service mentioned on the cover of one of the manuals for Wing Commander IV PSX. That booklet shows the login screen for ReadyNet. The 'keyword' portion seems like a joke about how commercials would advertise how to access their services via AOL.

* "Gar's Emporium" - Gars is from the novel Action Stations, a space station hidden on the rim of a black hole that sells goods to both sides.

* "The Rondell Corporation" - One of the corporations that was fighting during the Lynn Murphy series in Privateer. Rondell was the group you flew for.

* The document being offered in 'hard copy' and 'e-text' editions echoes the original Claw Marks, which offers the same announcement - the Kilrathi language edition is new, though (amazingly, Star*Soldier actually *is* offered in hard-copy and e-text editions, too... I don't think EA has actually done one in Kilrathi, though)!

General note: for those who haven't caught up on their ship identificaiton, the fighter in the inset is a Rapier II Blade.

[Ijuin]

Originally Posted by Dundradal

Other that I noticed were Texas class battleships from the 2630s. So that could be a class name for some of the battleships that were at the McAuliffe Ambush.

Perhaps the name was meant as a joke on the 1930s Iowa class battleships?

[Master Katarn]

I noticed this on p. 49 under the year 2680:

Rein Ertrobs releases the fourth book in
his wildly popular series of fantasy novels
set within the Darkening universe. The
book, entitled Lev’s Pact, forces the publisher
to restructure its flat-scan transmit
hub in order to accommodate the over
one billion requests.

Does this mean that Privateer 2 is fictional in the context of the Wing Commander universe? Like how System Shock was referenced as a holovid in the WCIII manual. However, I'm pretty sure the old Privateer 2 FAQ on Origin's website stated that Privateer 2 did take place in the Wing Commander universe. Plus, Rein Ertrobs seems to be an anagram of Erin Roberts.

[ChrisReid]

Originally Posted by Master Katarn

Does this mean that Privateer 2 is fictional in the context of the Wing Commander universe? Like how System Shock was referenced as a holovid in the WCIII manual.

It seems unlikely. Privateer 2 still takes place in Arena's future. Meanwhile, there are many references to the Tri-System and its distinctive aspects throughout the rest of Arena's manual. For example, check out the sixth bullet point in the classified ads page: http://www.wcnews.com/newestshots/full/starsoldier8.jpg Isaac is one of the three P2 systems, and Titan Alloys and Pleasure Borgs are the commodities from the game. The same blurb also says that region of space is 3 to 5 years away from your main Confederation areas. Also see the references to the Maddox family's Kraven Lasers on the same page.

[Iceman16]

the Editor-in-Chief is good old Gash Dekker from WC4 and WCP.

in the Best of the Best at the bottom of page 9, Simon "McGoo" Leduke is a wingman card in the wc ccg, Doomsday is of course the guy with the face tattoos from WC1 SO2 (I think its SO2, never played it) WC2 and some of the novels, theres a slew of pilots from the TCS Midway in WCP on there, Kevin "Lone Wolf" Tolwyn is listed at 463 (and theres a picture of him on page 11 under the 'Up & Coming' section, alsong with Doomsday.

also on page 11, theres a pic of a Halsey class stations which is the same as Perry in Privateer, and it aludes to the destruction of Perry by saying 'Farragut is the only example of its type to survive the Nephilim War.'

Another Steltek artifact was found in Antares Quadrant in 2691, which lead the most massive fleet of the Aligned Peoples to the area to retreive it.

thats about all I got for now, I got home about an hour ago from work and Im tired, but this manual is just too damn good to not read.

[Death]

Originally Posted by Ijuin

Perhaps the name was meant as a joke on the 1930s Iowa class battleships?

Nitpick: the Iowa itself didn't have its keel laid down until mid-1940. The USS Texas (BB-35) was one of the New York class, keel laid in 1911.

Also, given Forstchen's heavy use of history as a basis for much of his work, that he'd give "Texas" to a WC battleship from before the kat war that later played a role after the war kicked off isn't surprising (though the Texas served in the Atlantic in WW2, in contrast to the general "Pacific WW2" analogy that forms the basis of much of WC).

As for the original subject of this thread, I just got off of work a bit ago, my mind's still partly shut down.

[Bandit LOAF]

Perhaps the name was meant as a joke on the 1930s Iowa class battleships?

Or just a reference to the birthplace of Wing Commander.

Does this mean that Privateer 2 is fictional in the context of the Wing Commander universe? Like how System Shock was referenced as a holovid in the WCIII manual. However, I'm pretty sure the old Privateer 2 FAQ on Origin's website stated that Privateer 2 did take place in the Wing Commander universe.

As others have already noted, the Tri-System is mentioned as being a real thing at several other points in this manual. This joke, along with several of the other 2680/2681 points, is actually from Origin's Privateer Online Second Attempt timeline and are presumably a tribute to that project (http://wcnews.com/news/update/7049).

[Death]

Page 2 breakdown

This might be incomplete, but it should give a good running start to anyone wanting to plug in any holes in my known-crappy memory. Also, where I mention that I'm guessing, I mean just that: I'm not sure, and am not trying to present my comments as definitive. This also is on my own, supplemented by checking the CIC. I didn't hassle LOAF on IRC about the details.

Anyway, on to the page...

-----

As noted before, Gash Dekker, S*S's Editor-in-Chief, is from WC4 and WCP, with the picture from (I believe) one of the comm videos in Prophecy.

Now, the letters, by subject name:

Glory to Sivar

Reference to the Kilrathi civil war first mentioned (IIRC) in the WC4 novelization. In the reply from the magazine, "takhar" is Kilrathi for "brother of equal rank", used (I believe) as an honorific. The information about the former Empire issuing as many privateer licenses (presumably akin to the Letters of Marque from the days of wooden sailing ships) as all other star nations combined may be a further reference to the kat CW, though that's admittedly a somewhat iffy supposition, at best.

Tiger's Claws

Reference to the WC movie, whose script used, in various versions, both the possessive version and the plural one, until the finalized script used (wrongly) the plural version. Also, IMO, a mildly veiled reference to obnoxious asshole fans who all freaked out about the possessive/plural thing.

Asher Lawson is our own Frosty, apparently writing (in the 28th century) from New Constantinople, or at least based there.

Picking up the Peace

Not sure about what the CCSP is (though it may be referenced later in the manual, I don't recall offhand), but Dan Sumner is our own Vinman, apparently serving with the Exploratory Service in Avalon sector.

Tip of the Lance

"J. Bielawa" is our own LeHah, serving as part of Tolwyn's Black Lance forces, who went under the squadron designation of 212th in the novelization of WC4. Confed is, apparently, a bunch of cheap bastards, only offering a 20Kcr bounty for BL personnel.

Fish in the Water

Adressing an old fan question about torpedoes, asked by a forumite, though I don't recall which one off the top of my head (possibly referring to Delance, whose first name is Octavio), writing from Texas University, presumably a reference to Origin's location. References the McAuliffe Ambush first mentioned (real world publishing timeline) in Claw Marks, then featured as the focus of Action Stations, as well as the newer version of phase shielding introduced in WC2. The Proton bombs used as part of "modern torpedoes" is referring to a weapon first mentioned in regards to the Kilrathi bombardment, around 2655 or so, of Mylon II, the homeworld of Jacob "Hawk" Manley, that resulted in the death of Hawk's family (the year guesstimate being from it happening when he was away at flight school, as mentioned in WCP).

Never Forget

"VN Day" is presumably the celebration of the formal end of the war against the Nephilim, from the context of the rest of the letter, as well as from both the historical VE and VJ Days (end of WW2 in Europe and the Pacific, respectively) and VK Day, end of the war with the Kilrathi. Not sure who Cheryl Johnson is (perhaps referring to blondehyphenone [aka Mrs. ace], whose first name is Cheryl), but we know she served aboard the TCS Eisen (tribute to Jason Bernard, who played Capt. William Eisen in WC3 and WC4), during most of the Nephilim war, whose end date is established to be .222 (.236 is Confederation Day), though the year is unknown (though probably not too far in the past, as of Arena's 2701).

Letter of the Month

Dundradal already covered the ships pictured, but he didn't touch on the matter of the letter's author, namely our own Cpl Hades.

[Dundradal]

We'll have to go through as well to find all our fellow community members noted in here as well. It almost certainly looks like EA went through the CIC fan directory to grab some people's names. I forgot that resource even existed, I don't think I've updated my profile since I uploaded it, as that picture of me is when I was 15 or so. It is great though to see so many community members get recognition in this way.

[ChrisReid]

Originally Posted by Death

Adressing an old fan question about torpedoes, asked by a forumite, though I don't recall which one off the top of my head (possibly referring to Delance, whose first name is Octavio)

That would make sense. It's not really a common name in the US (or Canada) otherwise.

Originally Posted by Death

"VN Day" is presumably the celebration of the formal end of the war against the Nephilim... established to be .222 (.236 is Confederation Day), though the year is unknown.

.222 is certainly a great day to celebrate!

[GreyViper]

Sandman is another long-time Privateer. He is known throughout the
galaxy as the man who foiled General Drakas’ plan to rebuild the old
Empire with Steltek technology.

Wasnt this part of the canceled Privateer 3 script?

2672
A rare Steltek weapon is discovered on
Challenger. As the conflict in the border
worlds heats up, Joe Turner and Marc
Lassiter race against time to stop Phillip
Rickman’s crime syndicate from aquiring
it. In the process the pair involve themselves
in a Church of Man plot to destroy
Perry Naval Base and an SRA scheme to
reappropriate munitions from the Gemini
Sector fleet for Admiral Tolwyn’s black
ops division.

Any idea where this came from?

[Quarto]

Originally Posted by GreyViper

Any idea where this came from?

I can't be bothered checking to make sure, but I believe it's from the Privateer TV series proposal.

[Bandit LOAF]

Wasnt this part of the canceled Privateer 3 script?

Yes, it was.

Any idea where this came from?

That was Chris Roberts' Privateer 2 / Privateer TV show concept.

As noted before, Gash Dekker, S*S's Editor-in-Chief, is from WC4 and WCP, with the picture from (I believe) one of the comm videos in Prophecy.

I think it's actually cropped from the winning endgame, when Dekker appears on Blair's PDA (he wears a helmet there).

Asher Lawson is our own Frosty, apparently writing (in the 28th century) from New Constantinople, or at least based there.

But wait! It's not nconstantinople.gemini.government... it's *nn*constantinople.gemini.government. Is there a 'New New Constantinople' now, possibly another result of the Nephilim invasion that apparently destroyed Perry?

Not sure about what the CCSP is (though it may be referenced later in the manual, I don't recall offhand),

The CCSP was the "Confederation Citizen Subsidy Program", a mechanism created for Privateer Online (Second Attempt). It was the political body responsible resettling the Gemini and newly discovered Hope Sectors after the Nephilim War. Hope Sector makes its first canonical appearance here, too!

'Goons' sounds like a SomethingAwful reference, too - where Dan Sumner is (was) a moderator of some sort.

"J. Bielawa" is our own LeHah, serving as part of Tolwyn's Black Lance forces, who went under the squadron designation of 212th in the novelization of WC4. Confed is, apparently, a bunch of cheap bastards, only offering a 20Kcr bounty for BL personnel.

This is probably also a joke about the Digital Anvil space games - apparently the derogatory term for Tolwyn's men is 'Lancers' (like StarLancer and FreeLancer).

Adressing an old fan question about torpedoes, asked by a forumite, though I don't recall which one off the top of my head (possibly referring to Delance, whose first name is Octavio), writing from Texas University, presumably a reference to Origin's location. References the McAuliffe Ambush first mentioned (real world publishing timeline) in Claw Marks, then featured as the focus of Action Stations, as well as the newer version of phase shielding introduced in WC2. The Proton bombs used as part of "modern torpedoes" is referring to a weapon first mentioned in regards to the Kilrathi bombardment, around 2655 or so, of Mylon II, the homeworld of Jacob "Hawk" Manley, that resulted in the death of Hawk's family (the year guesstimate being from it happening when he was away at flight school, as mentioned in WCP).

I don't think this is a real name - it's too weird. Gourami are a kind of tropical fish... I have four of them as pets!

The 'civilian grade Proton bombs' is probably actually referring to the Proton Torpedoes you could purchase in the original Privateer - basically high powered dumb fire missiles that required a special 'torpedo launcher'.

The University of Texas (at Austin) turned out a large percentage of the guys who worked at Origin in the 80s and 90s (including Richard Garriott). It's also where I went to school!

"VN Day" is presumably the celebration of the formal end of the war against the Nephilim, from the context of the rest of the letter, as well as from both the historical VE and VJ Days (end of WW2 in Europe and the Pacific, respectively) and VK Day, end of the war with the Kilrathi. Not sure who Cheryl Johnson is (perhaps referring to blondehyphenone [aka Mrs. ace], whose first name is Cheryl), but we know she served aboard the TCS Eisen (tribute to Jason Bernard, who played Capt. William Eisen in WC3 and WC4), during most of the Nephilim war, whose end date is established to be .222 (.236 is Confederation Day), though the year is unknown (though probably not too far in the past, as of Arena's 2701).

A few things to note here - .222 is actually the CIC Birthday... and CV-74 is the designation we gave the Eisen when we made Navy-style TCS Eisen hats.

[Ghost]

Originally Posted by Dundradal

We'll have to go through as well to find all our fellow community members noted in here as well. It almost certainly looks like EA went through the CIC fan directory to grab some people's names. I forgot that resource even existed, I don't think I've updated my profile since I uploaded it, as that picture of me is when I was 15 or so. It is great though to see so many community members get recognition in this way.

I think that isn't the fan directory but the forums list, i'm not in the fan directory, and unless stated otherwise i'm D(iego).Bortman

[Houkiboshi]

"Tyra Hunter is a Kilrathi War veteran who won the Medal of Valor and three Distinguished
Service Crosses serving with the 82nd Marine Spacecraft Wing. She later
made a name for herself as a mercenary operating between Felicity and New Damascus."

The TCMC does have pilots of some sort... Even if they aren't fighter pilots...

Also, Casy made it to Col.

"The most famous battlecruiser of all was unquestionably the TCS Lawrence, which rescued the TCS
Midway after Zhrtx’s Doublecross. Her sudden arrival at the height of the battle prompted Colonel
Casey himself to exclaim that she was “the ugliest, most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”"

Also again... A "Kilrathi Midway"???

Another thing... "F-10 Merlin: Glory over Peron"... Nice

Again... We have the confed flag in page 33

Another one... "you certainly won’t find a holographic viewscope or a Merlin computer here."

The Merlin is from the movie, right?

"gas system
is no longer standard, following recent studies
showing that prolonged exposure causes
fur loss." As an old general would say... Wow, just wow... hehehe


Page 38... "Android nudity" hehehehehehe

[Bandit LOAF]

I think that isn't the fan directory but the forums list, i'm not in the fan directory, and unless stated otherwise i'm D(iego).Bortman

I don't know - maybe that's Duncan Bortman.

[Ghost]

Hehe could be, but he doesn't post in the forum...yet

[Ghost]

Things i found:

Page 58: Interview with the Vampire
Lt. Col Jean Talvert! Great, Stiletto made it to Lt. Colonel ( WCP):P

Page 57: Classifieds
-1) Filho@circe.government (mention to edfilho?)
-3) mention to Andre Sommers? (it was Andrew?, can't remember)
-6)Jetlag...jbiermann@... (Jetlag anyone?)
-7)Governor Murphy? Is Lynn Murphy from Priv?
-8) creid@.... our resident SubCrid!! Cris Reid.
-15) Dr. Monkhouse from Priv, now residing in Oxford Univ.
-16) CASEY TAKES CHARGE!!! (about Petracca who wants more money for the voiceover in WCSO, this reference is great
-29)Rburns@...our resident forumer RBurns?!!
-30)mmahadeen@... the guy who did the music for UE

[Delance]

Originally Posted by Ghost

Filho@circe.government (mention to edfilho?)

I think it is.

-8) creid@.... our resident SubCrid!! Cris Reid.

Chris by definition can't be a SubCrid.

I wonder if creid@ has ever been to the Reid system.

[Ghost]

Indeed, ahhhhh...i remember TC

[Death]

Originally Posted by Ghost

-8) creid@.... our resident SubCrid!! Cris Reid.

As per the LMG heirarchy (see my sig for link), ChrisReid is the UberCrid.

If you want a SubCrid reference, check page 3.

[Ghost]

Well, Chris,TC..Iran, Irak.
Thanks

[RogueBanshee]

Originally Posted by Houkiboshi

Another thing... "F-10 Merlin: Glory over Peron"... Nice



Another one... "you certainly won’t find a holographic viewscope or a Merlin computer here."

The Merlin is from the movie, right?

I think it was mentioned in the movie novel as the fighter model Blair's father was flying when he was killed but you never actually see one.

[LeHah]

Originally Posted by RogueBanshee

I think it was mentioned in the movie novel as the fighter model Blair's father was flying when he was killed

Merlin was Blair's little hologram buddy, like an interactive, holographic PDA. He was suppose to be the comic relief for the movie but they had to cut the idea out due to budgetary reasons (though he's left intact in the novelization). Merlin was given a much lesser role as the starfighter computer AI, voiced by Mark Hamill.

[ChrisReid]

Originally Posted by Delance

I wonder if creid@ has ever been to the Reid system.

Tough to say. It's been a rough trip ever since the Hardwicke Supernova (page 3).

[HammerHead]

Originally Posted by Houkiboshi

Another thing... "F-10 Merlin: Glory over Peron"... Nice

This line is given in the description of the guy who wrote the Dralthi article - E. Vieito, Spaceflight Historian -

A definite reference to Mr. Standoff - Eder Vieito...

[Kilrathikiller]

Its great to see that EA is giving the Wing Commander
community some credit here. With out us ,Chris, Bandit and so forth
Wing Commander might not be trying to make this come back.

Its EA's little way of giving back.

[Ricochet]

This is pretty awesome. I'm really glad that you guys made it into the official WC world

[Eder]

Originally Posted by HammerHead

This line is given in the description of the guy who wrote the Dralthi article - E. Vieito, Spaceflight Historian -

A definite reference to Mr. Standoff - Eder Vieito...

Maybe they're taking a jab at the fact that Standoff has no Dralthis.

[Mekt-Hakkikt]

Some small things I wanted to ask or I noticed:

- It seems like N'Tanya (now Natanya) has left the Kilrathi Assembly of Clans (from the WCU map) and is now part of the UBW (page 22 of the manual). When they say "N'Tanya was one of the first star systems to break away from the Kilrathi Empire"- do they reference to the events in SO1? Or a later breakaway from the Assembly (post 2681)? But since it says "Empire", I guess they mean the events in SO 1.

- Is the Hope sector an entirely new sector from Arena? Because I seem to remember it being mentioned before but I can't remember where...

- For the English native speaker: page 47, timeline entry 2669.322, second paragraph: "Following his death, an overwhelming percentage of Kilrathi survivors, commit Zu'kara..."
Now does is simply mean that a lot Kilrathi did commit suicide or that the majority of the Kilrathi did it? I was rather shocked when I read that. Poor misunderstood Kilrathi, near to extinction! And then all the racism and mistreatment! :sad:

- Nephilim ships: the silhouettes on page 33 show three unkwown Nephilim ships, right? Two fighters/bombers (above the Moray and below the Lamprey) and one support craft (in the middle).
The Hydra-class cruiser is shown twice, in different positions - or should we take it as a new class as well?
From the entry on the Dralthi Rhino,( p. 10) we know that a new ship class is "Puffer-class". From the looks, I'd say it's the fighter/bomber below the Lamprey, but who knows.

[Quarto]

Originally Posted by Mekt-Hakkikt

- For the English native speaker: page 47, timeline entry 2669.322, second paragraph: "Following his death, an overwhelming percentage of Kilrathi survivors, commit Zu'kara..."
Now does is simply mean that a lot Kilrathi did commit suicide or that the majority of the Kilrathi did it? I was rather shocked when I read that. Poor misunderstood Kilrathi, near to extinction! And then all the racism and mistreatment!

I would say "overwhelming" does imply a majority in this case. It can be interpreted in various ways, though - I'm sure that if they were to establish in a future product that it was, for example, 25%, we'd all still agree that when a quarter of an entire race kills itself, that's pretty overwhelming. Still, it sounds like they mean most of the race - otherwise, the way the Kilrathi were treated subsequently probably wouldn't be possible.

[Mekt-Hakkikt]

That'd be pretty heavy. They'd be like the Hari - damn copycats.

On the other hand, if so many Kilrathi killed themselves, there should be plenty of room for them, yet they talk a lot about misplaced Kilrathi and reservations.

[Drakon]

Just out of curiosity, how do you guys think the Assembly would hold itself together with so many dead? I know it's just quick speculation, but looking at a map it doesn't take much to put together that controling that much space may well be impossible with a quarter of the original population (which some of it in reservations as well). Think the lines are just drawn as a formaility despite newly-developed Confed supremacy, or are there sufficient Kilrathi forces to actually defend all that space in your opinions? Now that I think about it, I can't remember if Star*Soldier elaborates on the subject... *goes back to check*

[HammerHead]

They are Kats!

they are born SIX at a time!

if they won't have so many dead, they'd have to start worrying about to many living...

[Bandit LOAF]

- It seems like N'Tanya (now Natanya) has left the Kilrathi Assembly of Clans (from the WCU map) and is now part of the UBW (page 22 of the manual). When they say "N'Tanya was one of the first star systems to break away from the Kilrathi Empire"- do they reference to the events in SO1? Or a later breakaway from the Assembly (post 2681)? But since it says "Empire", I guess they mean the events in SO 1.

I think you're right here - this is referring to Special Operations 1.

- Is the Hope sector an entirely new sector from Arena? Because I seem to remember it being mentioned before but I can't remember where...

Hope Sector was one of two sectors in which Privateer Online (2nd Attempt) was to take place. It was a newly discovered sector being settled around the time of Arena.

- For the English native speaker: page 47, timeline entry 2669.322, second paragraph: "Following his death, an overwhelming percentage of Kilrathi survivors, commit Zu'kara..."
Now does is simply mean that a lot Kilrathi did commit suicide or that the majority of the Kilrathi did it? I was rather shocked when I read that. Poor misunderstood Kilrathi, near to extinction! And then all the racism and mistreatment! :sad:

This background was actually created for Wing Commander IV, to help explain what Melek's convoy was doing. These entries appear in Origin's 1995 Wing Commander Bible timeline.

... it also helps to explain why the casualty figure on the Kilrathi side during the war was *so high*.

- Nephilim ships: the silhouettes on page 33 show three unkwown Nephilim ships, right? Two fighters/bombers (above the Moray and below the Lamprey) and one support craft (in the middle).The Hydra-class cruiser is shown twice, in different positions - or should we take it as a new class as well? From the entry on the Dralthi Rhino,( p. 10) we know that a new ship class is "Puffer-class". From the looks, I'd say it's the fighter/bomber below the Lamprey, but who knows.

The double-Hydra is a gentle dig at Wing Commander Prophecy Gold, which reuses art of the Hydra as the "Marlin" on the inside-box-flap.

The spikey fighter is probably a Puffer-class ship - after all, the Nephilim ships are generally named (by Confed) after marine life they resemble.

Just out of curiosity, how do you guys think the Assembly would hold itself together with so many dead? I know it's just quick speculation, but looking at a map it doesn't take much to put together that controling that much space may well be impossible with a quarter of the original population (which some of it in reservations as well). Think the lines are just drawn as a formaility despite newly-developed Confed supremacy, or are there sufficient Kilrathi forces to actually defend all that space in your opinions? Now that I think about it, I can't remember if Star*Soldier elaborates on the subject... *goes back to check*

Well, we don't really know how the assembly holds up ordinarily. As best we can tell from all the post-war sources, the former Empire is a mess of interconnecting Civil Wars. the Assembly of Clans is just the political group that Confed has decided is in charge.

[Mekt-Hakkikt]

Originally Posted by Bandit LOAF

I think you're right here - this is referring to Special Operations 1.

Then we only need to find out when N'Tanya switched to the UBW. It's interesting, but the universe in 2701 really seems like falling apart. More systems leaving the Confederation, systems leaving the UBW, declaring independance. The Nephilim invasion sure did a lot of trouble.
Although, the timeline offers a lot of example of civil unrest within the TC, even during the war.

Originally Posted by Bandit LOAF

Hope Sector was one of two sectors in which Privateer Online (2nd Attempt) was to take place. It was a newly discovered sector being settled around the time of Arena.

Ahhh, thanks. What about the Pleiades Sector mentioned on the timeline entry "2645-2653"? Is he from POL too? Though he wouldn't really be newly discovered then.

Originally Posted by Bandit LOAF

This background was actually created for Wing Commander IV, to help explain what Melek's convoy was doing. These entries appear in Origin's 1995 Wing Commander Bible timeline.

... it also helps to explain why the casualty figure on the Kilrathi side during the war was *so high*.

Oh, ok. Just read the bible again, a lot of the things there are in the timeline now.

So, would you say that overwhelming percentage really does mean the majority?

Originally Posted by Bandit LOAF

The double-Hydra is a gentle dig at Wing Commander Prophecy Gold, which reuses art of the Hydra as the "Marlin" on the inside-box-flap.

Ok. I remember that image, it's pretty.

Originally Posted by Bandit LOAF

The spikey fighter is probably a Puffer-class ship - after all, the Nephilim ships are generally named (by Confed) after marine life they resemble.

Guess so too.

Originally Posted by Bandit LOAF

Well, we don't really know how the assembly holds up ordinarily. As best we can tell from all the post-war sources, the former Empire is a mess of interconnecting Civil Wars. the Assembly of Clans is just the political group that Confed has decided is in charge.

I guess the former Empire is even more falling apart than the TC, what with the Murragh Empire, Qarg fiefdom, the Anchorage system in the hand of that torturer...

Even more questions - it's great to have new things to discuss!

The entry 2649.189, about that planned invasion of Kilrah - what happenend to it? Or is it the attack that led to Custer's Carnival?

2669.221: what is that entry all about? I found it in the Bible as well but has it any further bearing than being an anecdote? My first thought was a nod to the WCATV episode "The most delicate instrument".

2669.242: the liberation of Cabrea: isn't it also in one of the TCN newsflash, cut from WC3?

I also thought it interesting that apparently Melek wasn't the first choice as a representative but M'ragrakath nar Hhallas was until his fatal accident.

And a maybe dumb question but who assassinated M'ragrakath? First I thought a Kilrathi, thinking him a traitor or so. But if it was a Kilrathi, why should the TC do an "effort to ease tensions"? That phrase, so I thought, would be more fitting if a human (oder Confederation citizen) had killed M'ragrakath.

[AD]

Originally Posted by Mekt-Hakkikt

Oh, ok. Just read the bible again, a lot of the things there are in the timeline now.

So, would you say that overwhelming percentage really does mean the majority?

I would err on the side of caution here. I don't think we can really read into that statement as "a majority of kilrathi commited suicide."

It simply means a very great number. It's a significant portion of the population though.

[Bandit LOAF]

Ahhh, thanks. What about the Pleiades Sector mentioned on the timeline entry "2645-2653"? Is he from POL too? Though he wouldn't really be newly discovered then.

That's an obscure one! The Pleiades Sector is where Wing Commander Academy (TV) takes place... according to the WCATV series bible. Adding it to the canon renders my own map of the Landreich Sector incorrect...

So, would you say that overwhelming percentage really does mean the majority?

Completely up to future interpretation. More importantly, I think it suggests that the Kilrathi are significantly different from humans - especially in how their lifecycles work.

The entry 2649.189, about that planned invasion of Kilrah - what happenend to it? Or is it the attack that led to Custer's Carnival?

I think that's right, it leads to Custer's Carnival which then halts Confed's advance. That actual entry comes from the Super Famicom version of Wing Commander I's manual.

2669.221: what is that entry all about? I found it in the Bible as well but has it any further bearing than being an anecdote? My first thought was a nod to the WCATV episode "The most delicate instrument".

2669.242: the liberation of Cabrea: isn't it also in one of the TCN newsflash, cut from WC3?

Both of these events are from WC3 newsbriefs.

And a maybe dumb question but who assassinated M'ragrakath? First I thought a Kilrathi, thinking him a traitor or so. But if it was a Kilrathi, why should the TC do an "effort to ease tensions"? That phrase, so I thought, would be more fitting if a human (oder Confederation citizen) had killed M'ragrakath.

Not a dumb question, but also not one we can answer. Like a lot of things in this manual, it's designed for future storytellers to fill in details...

[Mekt-Hakkikt]

Thanks a lot.

They referenced so many things, it's great. The all new stuff is the Nephilim part, I guess.

[X_FIREFALCON]

Yeah, hopping onboard this thread a week late or so, but figured I'd chime in with a few things that made me contemplate things:

The obvious - characters like Maniac and Bear lived to the "present" (ads for both on the 15th page .pdf). Of course there's the Grayson Burrows Wanted poster at the tail-end as well, but thanks to the top dogs here at the CIC, we knew about that one even before we had access to the manual, so no great big revelation there.

One of the more interesting little tidbits I came across was far more subtle, though. In the lengthy pilot kill list (10th page of .pdf specifically) - second column, 2/3rds of the way down - Jennifer "Phoenix" Blair. Might just be a common name in the Wing Commander universe, but as Blair is listed on the Encyclopedia link off the CIC as having no close relatives, and in light of the history of Blair's character at one point being considered to use the callsign "Phoenix" before they went with "Maverick," and the short timeframe between the events of Prophecy and Arena, I find it a curious thing to speculate about. Wife maybe? And if that's the case, does that mean Blair survived? Or is this just one of those little nuggets they threw in there just as a little wink to the WC community over the whole "Phoenix" / "Maverick" thing from back when?

(Also, WC-unrelated random little tidbit that always seemed funny to my quirky little brain: Mark Hamill did voice-over work for two brothers in the game Starsiege, one of which went by the callsign "Phoenix"....the poor guy just cannot get away from that bird, can he?)

- Falc

[Mekt-Hakkikt]

I don't know if somebody has already posted this and I missed it or if everybody already did by himself but I did translate the Kilrathi signs of the "Gar's Emporium"-ad.

It says:

FAB CHEAP OMG COOL NO MUCH BUCK

[Dundradal]

We've kind of let this thread slack a little bit. Still have quite a few pages to breakdown here guys.

[PaulTheWolf]

Originally Posted by Dundradal

Midway Class MegaCarriers Status

I put (?) after most of these because I think we can only definitively know about the ones that Chandra knows for sure. The destruction of the the Sirius wormhole apparently stranded at least the TCS Port Broughton and Bataan in alien territory for sure. The others are either the also lost in alien space, destroyed or still defending Confed space.

TCS Midway - Active (?)
TCS Mistral Sea - Lost
TCS Tafanda Bay - Active(?)
TCS Coral Sea - Active(?)
TCS Jutland - Lost
TCS Ptoloman's Rift - Active(?)
TCS Enyo III - Active(?)
TCS Bataan - Lost in alien territory
TCS Tripoli - Possibly lost but no news to author
TCS Port Broughton - Active as space habitat

That's a Star Wars reference.

The Tafanda Bay is an Ithorian Herdship.

Reference:http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Tafanda_Bay

[Mekt-Hakkikt]

Nice spotting that.

[JasonRocZ]

I know this thread is a little older (Last year) But I read on page 50 that also it seems the Old Confederation has been dissolved or restructured, by a line that reads as follows "On the opposite bulkhead a sloppy coat of grey matte barely obscures the nine-pointed star of the New Confederation." Any thoughts?

[Bandit LOAF]

There are several references to the 'New Confederation' in the manual - it seems to have been a short-lived local government, unrelated to whatever is going on at the homeworlds.

Two references from the travel article:

"The Port Broughton has done everything from fighting last ditch battles against the Nephilim to serving as the capital of Admiral Vanhecke’s New Confederation (see inset: Last of the Megacarriers)."

"For a time it formed the center of a seven system alliance known as the “New Confederation”. Like the political alliances it came to represent, the carrier fell into disrepair without support from the core worlds."

[JasonRocZ]

Hmm interesting....I didn't catch those parts

[Magamo]

From the ad for the Arrow Eclipse, opposite the table of contents, on pdf pg 2.

Just under the cockpit view shots, which look like they're modified from Armada (Though it's been a while since I've looked around in an arrow in Armada. I'll rectify that later some time)

"*2654 Starfighter Magazine, 10Best, Best light fighter - Mario Brito"

That is Mario "HCl" Brito, if I am not mistaken, yes?

[Bandit LOAF]

You are correct! There are several such references to prominent fan project developers -- but none is so deserving as HCl!

The cockpit shots are, indeed, from Armada -- that's the only game where there's a "rear" view which shows the Arrow's seat.