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Welcome to my eleventh public report as a Science Officer, insanely late (about 4 weeks)... for which my apologies. But it also means I've got lots of news, so lets get right to it:

Science Office News:

1. Stalker has released his 1.1 version of "Star Wars: Fleet Commander", a total conversion of "Star Trek: Armada II". It includes the Sovereign, Star Wars music, fighters and much more. The total conversion works on the Armada II demo already, so it?s completely free to use. A Emperor?s Hammer mirror of the full 1.1 version (53 MBs) is available at the Science Office site at http://www.minos.net/~sco/files/games/
2. This month also had the official release of "Star Wars: Project Andromeda" by Spearhawk, get it from http://www.minos.net/~sco/files/games/ as well. It?s a nice 3D graphics arcade shooter and looks most excellent. (3 MBs)
3. The new Order of Battle, has been made, approved by the Fleet Commander and released to http://www.minos.net/~sco/fleet-manual/app-orderofbattle.html. It?s available as a full graphics version, a text only version and a off-line viewable version. I?d like to thank all the SGCOMs for their cooperation on this one.
4. AD Den Darkhill updated the TIE Praetor patch for TIE Fighter '95. It now works better and together with the Rebel Ship patch. He also updated the TIE Defender and Missile Boat for XvT and BoP. They now can be both installed in either of the games. The patches have also split into a XvT and a BoP one. Thanks Den for all updates.
5. I have released a new craft for XWA, the Tritan Fighter of the Vepaal Empire. This is a "limited use" craft, only for use by Sauron in his battles that include this "Vepaal Empire". The craft and patch were made by Den, texturing by myself.
6. I have released a "new" craft for XvT, the B-Wing for the Infiltrator Wing. This is an "official" craft, free for use for all Emperor?s Hammers battles and even melees. It works together with the T/D and MIS patches and can also be used as an updated OPT for TIE95, XW95 and BoP because it features specialized EH, ASF and IW textures. The craft and patch were made by me, debugging by Den.
7. All XvT and BoP patch craft will be moved to the two slots between the T/D and the MIS, and all XvT patches will be split into XvT and BoP - like happened with the MIS and T/D. The related battles will be updated accordingly. Note: please do not try to install a BoP-only patch on XvT.
8. The Science Office has been working on AGI games mostly, as you can check out at http://www.minos.net/~sco/project/agi/ I've added screenshots, downloads and all that good stuff. COL Khadgar is working on finishing the Picture tutorial and planning to work on the View tutorial, I myself have been making my total conversion of Larry 1 and room templates based on the tie fighter rooms and such, so you''ll be able to have games that happen in that environment (and hook it up to a battle or whatever).
9. Kweeky got so interested by all this he joined up as SCOA! Again: welcome Kweeky:)
10. Both SCOA's have been promoted: Shadd to LC for his great work as Praetorian CMDR and Kweeky to LT for bribing the FO with chicken curry. Congratulations to both! :)
11. I've put up a preview version of the new fleet-manual concept at http://www.minos.net/~sco/fleet-manual/viewshipff6a.html It will include far more stats then the current version... and I like to hear comments, suggestion and such about it before it goes official
12. Because of the holidays, family etc... I'll be on leave for the next 2 days at the least. I?ll be leaving shortly after I write this and returning Friday. You all sit tight till then ok? ;)

Science Office Status:

CA:SCO: Admiral Darkhill has been updating and creating various patches and has been looking into the TIE Fighter battle*.lfd files to see if we can import larger bitmaps into it. (TFW resets it to small size.)

SCOA: LC Shadd has stepped down as Praetorian CMDR and has now assumed a full time SCOA role, he was also promoted!:)

SCOA: LT Kweeky has joined the Science Office, was promoted and has been working on adventure games, EH Radio and NWN modules.

Site: The Science Office site can be found at http://sco.minos.net or via the redirect http://scienceoffice.isCool.net. Some major updates this month: We got a new Fleet Order of Battle, a new Fleet Manual concept, the AGI projects page has been fully upgraded, I?ve fixed the file mirror and uploaded that, added more html etc...

Science Office Projects:

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. Several of these will be finished soon for my own TIE Fighter battle at least; these include the Bulk Cruiser, Assault Frigate and others. This month several patches were updated, and the B-W released. Coming up very soon is the TIE Vanguard for XvT and BoP, Den was flying it yesterday:)

XWA Ship patches: Primarily the plan is to clear out the backlog of craft arranged by earlier SCO's and such, like the Trithan Interceptor (Kermee), the Hyperion (Den), the Alvaakian Craft (me) and the new fighter for Avenger Squadron (AES). The Trithan Interceptor and Hyperion are now ready, working on the Jedi Fighter before I continue to the Alvaak Fighter, as that's based on it. This month the Trithan Interceptor was released.

Emperor’s Hammer AGI Games: Khadgar has made process on a beginners guide to AGI/SCI which should greatly help along this project to make it possible to create EH games in the style of "Space Quest", "Kings Quest" or "Leisure Suit Larry". The AGI Project page has gotten a major update which will hopefully make it easier for you all to get into this as well. AGI game creation is EASY: if you can make MSPaint quality pictures and HTML websites, you can basically do this too.

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. 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 #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, Merry Christmas!