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Welcome to my thirty-ninth public report as a Science Officer, less then a week after the last one? (Oh my gawd! Something must be wrong?!). Still got stuff to report though:

Science Office News:

1. The Imperial Alliance ("IA" our free game based on the Free Space 2 engine) Project is heading on, but with no major news this week.
2. Instead I got some new patches out and have updated some others. A layout of what has been done recently:
   • Enforcer Picket Ship: "A medium star ship often employed for border patrol. Based on the Interdictor, these well armed picket ships carry up to six TIE Fighter squadrons." Currently in use by the Corporate Division Picket Fleet but might get wider spread usage. Released for TIE95, XvT, BoP and XWA.
   • Shadow Y-Wing: "Heavy Assault Covert Fighter/Bomber, for attacking enemy capital ships. Features include stealth armour coating which absorbs part of visible spectrum reducing visibility and improved weaponry, load out and engines." Now also released for XWA.
   • (Modular) Task Force Cruiser: Now also released for XWA - details are in my last report.
   • M/FRT the Luggage: My private hunk of junk, now also released for XWA.
   • Eclipse Super Star Destroyer Mk.2: XWA patch has been updated to current SCO standards so it will install better with other patches.
   • Tritian Interceptor XWA patch has been updated to current SCO standards so it will install better with other patches. It also has been debugged and will now also manoeuvre. (Limited use for the Hammer to Anvil series of battles by COL Sauron.)
3. If you have problems running EHBL, SCO Patches or Imperial Alliance go to http://ortho.minos.net and there you can see if your problem already has a solution or you can ask for more help. If a bug only shows up on one or a few battles it is not EHBL based, please report such bugs where you always have: the compendium.
4. We are still looking for squadron patches for Imperial Alliance. I'm asking all unit commanders to send in the uniform patch of their squadron, wing, house, clan, whatever you want. Please do keep in mind that there's a difference between a squadron patch and a squadron banner and that this is not only for the TIE Corps.

Science Office Status:

CA:SCO: Admiral Darkhill has been doing adjustments and testing to the IA HUD and has been helping out people at ortho.

SCOA: CM Tim has been working on new models for the warheads in IA so they actually look like the graphics displayed in the TIE Fighter hangar and has been working on bug fixes for the shields.

Site: The Science Office site can be found at http://sco.minos.net or via the redirect http://scienceoffice.isCool.net. The mirror can be found at http://www.gimmie.tudelft.nl/homes/blok10b/ender/sco. No major updates.

Science Office Projects:

Imperial Alliance: With the release of the freely available source code of FS2, we have started on making a Star Wars game out of it. We can freely distribute a finished game as long as we have all our own data files (graphics, sounds, models etc). About all craft from X-Wing have been added and most of the interface has been replaced. We're currently replacing the HUD.

XvT/BoP/TIE95 Ship patches: This project's goal was 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. All the "missing" craft have been added to the EHSPs. New release this week is from the OoB: the Enforcer Picket Ship.

XWA Ship patches: Primarily the plan is to clear out the backlog of craft arranged by earlier SCO's and such. The Task Force Cruiser, Enforcer Picket Ship, M/FRT the Luggage and Shadow Y-Wing have been released. The ESSD mk.II and Tritian Interceptor have been updated.

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 #science_office. 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 #science_office, #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 but they are on the TIE Corps site, CS reports, as well.

Until next time, good luck and have fun!