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Welcome to my twelfth public report as a Science Officer, once again late (bad SCO *slaps own hand*), for which my apologies. Not as much news this report, as we're in the middle of a few projects:

Science Office News:

1. I'd like to start with thanking the Fleet Commander and the Executive Officer for promoting me to FA, it was quite unexpected - a nice surprise :)
2. I've updated the Order of Battle to include the new names for the Corporate Division Picket Fleet, after these were decided in a competition there.
3. Because of all sorts of festivities there hasn't been happening THAT much in the Science Office, but we still managed to release the TIE Vanguard and B-Wing for XvT. Both come with EH-specific fully changing flight group colours and work together, and with the T/D and MIS patches. We'll be updating all the other XvT and BoP patches to be able to get installed together as well, only because of the limited amount of flyable craft slots, there can be only 2 custom fighters installed besides the B-W, MIS and T/D (which have their own slots). All the elite and rare fighters will be moving to the same slot as the Vanguard for example, "tienew2", so will not be able to be present in the same mission at the same time.
4. I've made a new version of the "fly rebel craft" patch for TIECD and Disc. This patch will be released later this evening and lets you fly the X, A, B, Y-Wings, R41, Z95. Apparently this also lets you fly several transports, the corvettes and even the ISD. Mission creators using TIECD are requested not to use these options: not only does it suck badly to fly these... TIE95 won't allow it. But if you just want to try it out once - go ahead of course.
5. Because of the numerous questions about this matter I'd like to explain how the XPinstaller works. (I didn't know either by the way, sorry to those I might have misinformed.) XP Batch Installer v0.1: "Simple utility that will allow Windows XP users get around XP's limited DOS shell support to install EH custom craft on their computers. Unzip XPInstaller to your \EHPatch folder. Usage: XPInstaller (Note: The *.bat extension must be included or the program will not be able to find the batch file.)
6. As a side matter, but no less important, I'd like to again point out that if you mail the SCO about a patch or craft and we talk nice and politely to you about it - this doesn't automatically mean its SCO approved... especially if the SCO specifically says its not. The next that pulls this stunt will be explaining his actions to the SO and HCI. We already have a TIE Shadow problem because of this and I'm not willing to get more of such situations. Rule of thumb on patches is: If you cannot download it from the SCO Site, you cannot use it.
7. On that same note I'd like to remind you all that the only person who can commission new ships in this fleet is the Fleet Commander. Any ships you think you might have but that you cannot find on the Order of Battle (save for BHG and CD private transports and freighters) do not exist for Emperor's Hammer purposes. However, if you are sure that there has been a mistake, or that your ship should be on the OoB because it was approved once - please do contact me, and we'll see what we can do.
8. Also, please do keep in mind that to change your unit's fighters or ships you do need the approval of your SGCOM (or FO for the TC, and probably the BGCOM, COM and WC as well), the Science Officer, the Executive Officer and/or the Fleet Commander - and also in that order. There's a trend of command officers changing their unit's craft into what they like best - that's fine, but also do keep in mind that many members happen to like other things: Which means the next command officer changes them again… all the while disregarding the wishes of the members in those craft, who might happen to actually like them. Also please do keep variety in mind: a wing of just Missileboats might sound good to you - but its also extremely boring. And that's besides the fictional point of view that the Emperor's Hammer can hardly pay for that :P

Science Office Status:

CA:SCO: Admiral Darkhill has been rewarded a Commendation of Loyalty for his continued service to the Science Office and the fleet as a whole. Den is working on a new version of the XWA Briefing Launcher.

SCOA: LC Shadd seems to have moved to the reserves and we have lost contact. I hope he'll be back in the Office one day.

SCOA: LT Kweeky has been overworking himself on several IW (database) and Cd matters, so not much SCO stuff done.

Site: The Science Office site can be found at http://sco.minos.net or via the redirect http://scienceoffice.isCool.net. Some smaller updates done to the OoB and patch archive.

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. The TIE Vanguard for XvT was released right after the last report and the Luggage patch is near ready. Working on making the R41 and T-W flyable.

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.

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". I received a very nice beta version from Dweezil's AGI game, which has you flying a TIE Fighter - I hope it becomes a full game soon so you all can see the more varied options of the system. The EH total Conversion of "Larry" is nearly completed: about 90% of the views are done, and 50% of the pictures.

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, good luck and have fun!