I got some questions here...

It says WoD is a stand alone, does this mean its not required to have Freespace 2 installed if I want to play WoD?

Yup! Just install through Knossos or download the archive file and extract it to somewhere neat on your hard drive.

What is Knossos exactly?

Knossos is a new generation of launcher and installer for FreeSpace Open, the engine that powers Wings of Dawn. While it's designed primarily for mods of FreeSpace 2, you DO NOT need a copy of FreeSpace 2 to play standalone games such as Wings of Dawn.

Is Linux & Mac supported?

Sort of! I personally don't have any knowledge about Linux and Mac operating systems (and consequently don't have any machines to test with) but there are builds for Linux, and OSX at a later time. I just can't provide any direct support for this.

My computer isn't too great and its running the game slow all the time. Any suggestions?

You can try turning shadows off and disabling deferred lighting in the launcher. In Knossos it will be under 'FSO Settings' under 'Details', and in the standalone launcher (for manual installs), it will be in the 'Flags' tab.

The weakest hardware it was tested with was a laptop with an i7-2670QM with a GT555M video card (7 years old at the time of release)

How does the difficulty in WoD differ from Freespace 2?

In Freespace 2, the missions remain the same regardless of difficulty. The difficulty setting just affects how much extra damage the player can endure and how fast his weapon energy and afterburners recharge.

In WoD, from medium difficulty onward, the numbers for the player remain the same but the amount of enemies that get spawned will increase. So if you are a veteran Freespace 2 player who normally plays on medium difficulty, it might be worth playing WoD on Hard or maybe even Insane!

Can I use WoD assets for my own mod/campaign/idea?

You can, assuming its being used for non commerical purposes.

I would appreciate it if you could drop me a PM if you intend on using any of WoD's stuff though.

Take note that I don't own the rights to any of the music, some of the sounds and some of the ship models that are being used. Refer to the credits for more details on that.

How wholesome and family friendly is WoD?

Aside from some mild swearing and the occasional fantasy violence, not bad! Well, there is some naughty and possibly lewd pictures hidden away somewhere in the game, but we're not saying!

I found this version of Wings of Dawn that looks a whole lot cruder but much more complete. What's up with that?

Is this an upgrade to the older version of Wings of Dawn?

How does this tie in with the previous version of Wings of Dawn?

Wings of Dawn was my first ever attempt at making a game/universe/immersive storytelling experience, and it was a huge learning experience but I wasn't actually planning on continuing the story. So when it came time for a sequel, all the game stats needed to be rebalanced and the ending events didn't actually leave a lot of fun room for an exciting story. So I figured while I'm redoing half of the game anyway, why not just restart altogether and restart from a semi-blank state?

This "new" version of Wings of Dawn is a rebuild of the old one. Same characters, same setting, new story, new action and new fun!