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Welcome to my seventeenth public report as a Science Officer, incredibly late... (Sorry, was busy in RL, building ships, patches and such :) ...but that means I got plenty to report:

Science Office News:

1. Biggest news I can't tell you much about, which is frustrating... because its really cool and great looking - but also classified till TAC does his part: AD Darkhill finished his "Uber Project"! *huggles Den* Don't worry: It'll be released to the club very soon and with a bit of luck I'll be able to tell you everything in next week's report.
2. The SCO site has gotten a new php database news page curtsy of FA Leeson, which means I'm finally able to post all SCO news there as well! *huggles Leeson* The php database version of the File Archive is practically ready as well (its up, just needs admin functions).
3. Lots of patching news again, as the XvT/BoP/TIE95 Ship Patch project is in its finalizing phases. A fairly chronological layout of what has been released:
   • Standalone Transport Patches for XvT/BoP/TIE95: Due to AD Den Darkhill's efforts I've just released 3 separate patches to make Transports and Shuttles flyable in TIE95, XvT and BoP. The TIE95 version is an update for the existing "Shuttlefly" patch and the XvT and BoP ones do give a completely new experience.
   • TIE Phantom: (Mk.1, from "Rebel Assault") for X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter has been released to the patch archive. It uses "Custom Fighter Slot 1".
   • TIE Shuttle: Has been released for XvT (Slot #11). The TIE Shuttle was used to ferry over CPT Needa in ESB.
   • TIE Boarder: Has been released for XvT (Slot #10). This Boarding Craft was supposed to be in ANH.
   • Spectre Missile Boat: The model has been fully updated in all patches, the Fleet Manual and Order of Battle so it resembles what it should look like more.
   • Imperial Troop Transport: Has been OPTed, tested and released for XvT (Slot #31).
     "The "Imperial Troop Transport" is one of the older and by far the largest of the Telgorn Corporation's line of ships and was commissioned at the dawn of the Empire as what was actually a small "corvette" or armed freighter. The principle behind the craft was that it could land up to 100 troops or their armoured equipment from space and also offer support on the ground - functioning as a armoured personnel carrier itself. (Apparently one intercepted and destroyed a Jawa Crawler that had been carrying the Death Star plans a few days before the Battle Yavin)
     While very successful in its assigned task of landing troops and equipment the ITTR proved to be under armed when in space and too large as a surface vehicle - which lead to the smaller Telgorn Transports line, all of which are reactions to experiences with the ITTR. In the Empire these transports quickly ended up replacing the ITTR and finally it was replaced by Cygnus' Landing Craft.".
   • Interceptor Enforcement Ship: Has been OPTed, tested and released for TIE95 (T/F slot) and XvT (Slot#10).
     "The Interceptor Series is a design which dates back to the Old Republic and started with a fairly simple combat air speeder for atmospheric defence of ground targets (the mk.1). As such they became fairly popular with law enforcement agencies, which however boosted its possibilities to be able to pursue criminals into space. Something which MandalMotors improved upon with the next version. (The mk.2).
     With the start of the Clone Wars they were upgraded to become fully functional star fighters (the mk.3) before the design was left entirely in favour of its successor, the Pursuer Enforcement Craft - which was designed as a star fighter from the start."
   • Pursuer Enforcement Ship: Has been released for TIE95 (T/B Slot) and XvT (Slot #11) and XWA, as a replacement patch for the original which adds EH specific textures.
   • Preybird Fighter: Has been released for TIE95 (T/F Slot) and XvT (Slot#10). Is in XWA already.
   • TIE95 patches: We've gotten reports about particular TIE95 craft (the T/Ph and M/GUN for example) behaving strangely. this is because their roll is lower then that of the T/B and apparently TIE can't handle that. All have been updated to fix the rolling-bug they might have had if their roll rating was lower then 50. All should fly fine now.
   • XvT patches: Some have been updated to make them install better side by side.
   • BoP patches: Bug fixing the T-V patch (slot#11) now, hoping to release quite some after that. (all the ones released lately for TIE and XvT too.)
   • XWA patches: Yes, yes, these WILL be released... one day ;)
4. Our starshatter mod project has suffered a setback because the change of policy by its creator. Apparently there will be no more new beta versions released till the full game comes out, with a demo. At the moment it looks like the full game will be not-free, but the demo will be... Making it such that the possibilities of out mod are currently in limbo about what will be cut out of the game to make the demo. Advantage is that it means the full release of the game will be soon, and that we will in fact have a mod for it about the same time - which would be a near first in history. (usually a mod comes at least a year after the original game)
5. I've added a new, recreational, project which involves Mutant Ewoks and Experiments, I hope you'll like it. >:) (Disclaimer: Its not real, we do not condone "cruelty to animals" ;)) http://www.minos.net/~sco/project/ewoks
6. I'll be removing the SCO site mirror on the gimmie.tudelft.nl server because I'll be moving away from there very soon. (A reason why you'll see a bit less of me on IRC.). Anyone that has ideas on where we could have a mirror, please contact me.
7. Additionally it'd like to add the following which might not be fun: DO NOT contact people outside the EH as representative of the EH if you're not. We have a strong indication that the change of policy in the star shatter team was brought on by EHers whining to them. If any EHer is to contact such parties like game creators, or people like Troy Dangerfield (mission editor maker) - let it be the science office, the tactical office or anyone else that actually knows what they're talking about. It's a good chance that our star shatter mod is now in trouble because of people making trouble outside normal procedure - and if i find out that it is, you can be sure I'll complain to the proper authorities about those people.

Science Office Status:

CA:SCO: Admiral Darkhill has finished the Windows version of the "Uber Project" (and has the DOS version near ready) and the transport patches for TIE95, XvT and BoP. Its simply incredible was Den has been doing... expect a big medal to be recced very soon. :)

SCOA: LC Shadd has probably overworked himself on the star shatter project and being WC at the same time... as such he's taking a few weeks off.

SCOA: LT Kweeky has been running and updating the IRCbot in #sco - our channel.

Site: The Science Office site can be found at http://sco.minos.net or via the redirect http://scienceoffice.isCool.net. FA Leeson has added a php news page and is in progress of adding a php file archive. The staff page has been updated to include some pictures of all the staff members, lots of updates done to the patch archive of course, plus some to the FM and OoB - and added the Mutant Ewok Project site. :)

Science Office Projects:

Star Wars - Imperium: The project's goal is to modify the Starshatter game into a viable new platform for primarily the TIE Corps and Infiltrator Wing, perhaps branching out to other SGs as well. This week the project was officially started and got immediately pulled "into the century of the fruitbat" manually by LC Shadd, who's been making excellent progress.

XvT/BoP/TIE95 Ship patches: This project's goal is to add all the original and Order of Battle craft that are still "missing" from these games, like the SSD in TIE and XvT, the Medium Transport in all etc. This project is drawing closer and closer to its end for especially TIE and XvT: started on BoP and made the needed BHE modules to do so.

Uber Projec: Finished! Yay!

Finishing up:

I think that's it - If I've forgotten anything or if you have comments, suggestions or corrections, let me know via email or look us up at #sco. Don't forget that all the projects are described in more detail on the SCO site.

(use only mindb_ender@hotmail.com for official SCO mails.) or ICQ (9706474). Preferably do not mail large files to me, but DCC them via IRC – I’m practically always online at #sco, #emperor’s_hammer and #tiecorps using the nick MindB_ndr (or variations.)
 
All my SCO reports are available online as well: you can reach them on the SCO site: http://www.minos.net/~sco/reports/index.html. They are posted on the TC database as well.

Until next time, good luck and have fun!