Squadron News
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- Lots of big news this week, so let's take it one step at a time. We'll start with the current status of our competitions. First, our comp with Sigma Squadron : I still haven't heard anything back from CPT Koriel, so there has been no official battle change yet. I'm going to try e-mailing him again, because it's been almost 5 days now, and the deadline is this Thursday!
Secondly, the Sovereign Squadron League : The deadline is also this Thursday, and while the mission may be a complete pain in the butt, we all still need to attempt to fly it. Here is what's happening, as I understand it.
FREE-TIE # 216, "Indaro's Little Adventure", tries to make use of the TIE Phantom. The mission was originally created to be used with the TIE Phantom Mark II Patch, version 2.0 of the TIE Phantom patch, basically. This version works with all editions of TIE (Disk/CD/95). However, for some reason, the TIE Phantom Mark II was retired for all FREE-TIEs after FREE-TIE # 200. As a result, FREE-TIE # 216 was changed so that you have to use the TIE Phantom Patch version 1.0. This was done by changing the player's playable craft to the TIE Bomber, because the T/B is the craft that is changed by the first version of the TIE Phantom Patch. Originally, the mission had made use of the TIE Interceptor, which was the craft that was changed by the 2.0 patch.
Still with me? Here's where things get messy. The 1.0 TIE Phantom, which the Tactical Office has said must be used for all FREE-TIEs after number 200, has only been tested to work on TIE 95. Will it work on TIE Disk and TIE CD? I don't know, maybe -- but the fact remains that the Science Office site says that this patch is for TIE 95 only. That's great for people who own TIE 95, but anyone with regular TIE CD or the original disk version will be stuck flying a TIE Bomber, because they cannot use the patch which this mission was designed to run with. Now that seems like a pretty big problem to me, so anyone who has TIE CD or Disk should log onto EH.NET and submit a bug report for TC-TIE # 216, and basically let everyone know that anyone with TIE 95 is going to have a HUGE advantage over a pilot with TIE CD or TIE Disk when this mission has to be flown. MAJ Brandon has already done so (good work, Brandon), so get your own bug report in there if this is a problem for you as well.
- Also, don't forget that the whole reason we are trying to get a new battle to be flown for our Sigma competition is because several of you have reported that the battle will crash to the desktop, and you cannot complete it. Oddly, there have been no bug reports for TC-TIE # 202 at EH.NET yet. Come on guys, if you can't finish it, get a bug report posted with all the info you can provide so that any problems with the battle can be fixed. Besides, it doesn't look too good for us when we're trying to get a battle change, and claiming that we can't finish the battle, but then no one has posted a bug report.
- The EH Advance Guard reported this week that a formal alliance has been reached with the Rebel Squadrons. Among many of the new possibilities that this opens up is the chance at direct competitions with a Rebel Squadrons. It's been far to long since the EH has seen anything like this (in my opinion), so I'm going to start looking into a possible competition with the Rebs. I'm attaching the .DOC file of the written terms of the alliance, as prepared by the Advance Guard. It's pretty dry reading, but check it out if you want to see the "legal-ese" of the situation.
- FA Brad has resigned from his position as the Security Officer, amid a storm of controversy. This is probably going to be one of those things that you might want to know about, so you can read his resignation at EH.ORG, along with the response of the Fleet Commander.
- Two more IWATS courses for Brandon this week, this time it's IIC/1 and SM/3! Nice work, Brandon.
- LC Todbringer released the official results for CR#1 of the SSL, you'll find them all attached in .XLS format.
- This just in from the Tactical Office :
"New rule about pilot file naming
It is rule already onboard few ship, but I am going to make it TC
wide. All pilot files' names must consist your PIN. Especially when
flying
for HSs. I give you 1 month to learn this rule. On may 1st, all HS BSFs
without PIN in plt file will be rejected.
We all want to make our lifes easier. That's why I set this rule. It
will
grealy increase speed of HS processing. Ultimately you can use the
following format (most welcommed): TIE-TC 001 - 3203 Mike.zip, so in
other words its BattleID battlenumber (if lower than 100, then add 0s) -
PIN nickname.zip. Anyone using this (DarkEagle already does) will get
cookie from TAC."
So what this means is that on May 1st, all pilot file submissions must be renamed to include your TC PIN Number. And while you're at it, be sure to give them a name that tells everyone what battle you flew, like "SomeGuy TC-TIE# 5".
- We had quite a few high scores set by MAJ Brandon this week, including FREE-TIEs # 7, 11, 13, and 37 -- not to mention a new battle high score for CAB-TIE # 1. Excellent work, Brandon!
Squadron Orders
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- Fly FREE-TIE # 216 for CR#2 of the SSL! Yes, even if you have to fly a TIE Bomber. Remember, any score you can get for us is better than a zero! Right now I only have ONE submission (from MAJ Brandon ... he's been busy this week). I plan to fly the mission sometime in the next few days, but that's still only going to bring us up to two. I'm attaching version 1.0 of the TIE Phantom patch to this report for everyone who has TIE95, as well as the mission itself. Let's get flying!
- Without hearing anything from Sigma, I have to assume that our competition is still running with the same battle, so everyone should attempt to fly TC-TIE # 202, "A Wormhole Too Far". I have exactly zerooooooo submissions on this right now, so if Sigma doesn't agree to the battle change, this is going to be a slaughter. You guessed it, the battle is attached.
Activity Reports (03.30.03 -- 04.07.03)
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CMDR/COL Sasquatch
No Activity (Bah!)
FM/GN Compton
No Activity
FM/LC Ixion Deathbringer
No Activity
---
FL/COL Brian
No Activity
FM/LCM Ernest Penfold
04.02.03 - Completed TC-TIE # 166
04.02.03 - Completed TC-TIE # 167
04.02.03 - Completed TC-TIE # 42
04.02.03 - Completed TC-TIE # 75
04.02.03 - Completed TC-TIE # 78
04.02.03 - Completed TC-TIE # 82
FM/MAJ Manijak
No Activity
---
FL/CPT Night Grue
No Activity
FM/LC Todbringer
04.06.03 - Completed FCHG-XWA # 1
04.07.03 - Completed FCHG-XWA # 2
FM/MAJ Brandon
03.31.03 - Completed IWATS Course : Squadron Management 3
04.03.03 - Completed IWATS Course : Imperial Internet Communications 1
04.03.03 - Completed FREE-TIE # 216 for CR#2 of the SSL
Misc
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- A few comedic links for your enjoyment ...
First, everyone should check this out. It's an oldie, but a goodie. If you've seen this one already, then move on to the next link. If you haven't seen this before, it's well worth your time :
Death Star to Install New DayCare Center
http://www.theonion.com/onion2918/daycare.html
Next, remember all those Fanta Shokata commercials that were circulating through the email list this week? I've taken the liberty of archiving them here for you. As far as I know, these links should still be valid :
"Stop Staring at the Inquisitor's Breasts" (Thanks to GN Compton) :
http://www.fanta.dk/showmovie.asp?mid=47AF3777-BB06-448A-9905-EEC83A6D863D
"Manesh is Looking at Us" (A VA Joe Creation) :
http://www.fanta.dk/showmovie.asp?mid=9C2C41B9-B95A-43D8-9024-789FBB8E0348
And finally,
"Sas Gets Really Drunk and Insists that He is Sexy" (courtesy of VA Joe) :
http://www.fanta.dk/showmovie.asp?mid=82C091E3-9E52-44D8-B1CE-30ECF85AFC4C
It should be noted that these situations were painstakingly researched by the authors, so what you're seeing is as close to reality as possible. No Fanta Shokata's were harmed during the making of these commercials.
And lastly, I ended up watching some of the flash animations at www.HomeStarRunner.com , and I think these three should get honorable mentions. Each of these is a scenario in which the character Strong Bad, who looks like a miniature Mexican wrestler, is answering an actual email that was sent to the website. Enjoy!
The 'Englilsh' Paper
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail64.html
Japanese Cartoons
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail57.html
And finally, my personal favorite :
Trogdor, The Burninator
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail58.html
(I've been having trouble with these links for some reason, and I'm not sure if it's the site itself or just my crappy internet connection. If any of these last three links won't load properly or won't work, just try back later. I think they're updating the site today or something.)
OKAY, that should just about do it for this week. Until next time gentlemen -- fly high and watch your six!
CMDR/COL Sasquatch / Omega / SSSD Sovereign
[GS] [BSx4] [PCx12] [ISMx10] [MoT-GH] [IS-BW-GR] [CoL] [CoB] [LoAx2] [OV-4E]
[IWATS] [CBX] [GFX] [IIC/1] [M/1] [SM/1] [TM] [TT]
T/G 'Silhouette II'
Omega Squadron -- Sentinels of the Fleet Commander
"We Bring Death!"
Shameless Omega Squadron Merchandise - http://www.cafeshops.com/omegasquadron