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Welcome to my second public report as a Science Officer, which - again - is a few days late on account of doing Science Office-like things. (Though the project to extract caffeine from Gungans has made some giant leaps.;))

Science Office News:

The Science Office is proud to present AD Darkhill's latest invention: The X-Wing Alliance Briefing Launcher! What it basically does is allow mission creators to add custom sounds (in .wav format) to the briefings of their missions, something which wasn't available before and which was one of the few things Lucasarts missions for XWA still had over those by the Emperor's Hammer. Get the patch from the files section of the Science Office site, or via a direct link at http://www.gimmie.tudelft.nl/homes/blok10b/ender/engineering/craftpatch/xwa/BriefingLauncher.zip.

Because of continued questions from members about the requirements for submitted OPTs (and even a submission that got rejected) I'd hereby like to point towards the OPTing course for now - it covers most of the questions on the subject. I am working on a Science Manual that covers these things in a more direct manner. Do take the OPT Course, it will become a requirement on OPT submissions the moment the Manual is ready. Get to the OPT course from the courses section of the Training Office site or via a direct link at http://www.gimmie.tudelft.nl/homes/blok10b/ender/iwats/.

Science Office Status:

CA:SCO: Admiral Darkhill has been rewarded a Gold Star of the Empire (GS) for his more then excellent work on amongst others the new X-Wing Alliance Briefing Launcher. HE has already started on his next project, to achieve the same with TIE Fighter.

SCOA: We are looking for somebody that can go through the various text files that are edited for patches and correlate which line goes with which slot. Other duties would include help in creating patches for the new system until the patch creator is done. Being able to model would be appreciated and being able to texture would be nice as well, though not required - proven experience is. This SCOA will be working on patching under AD Darkhill, as such send applications to both darkhill@ehnet.org and mindb_ender@hotmail.com.

Site: The Science Office site can be found at http://sco.minos.net or via the redirect http://scienceoffice.isCool.net. Direct linking to site components is currently not advised as its still under construction and will move soon. It did however already get the Site of the Week Award from the IO. (hurray!;))

Science Office Projects:

New Site: What still needs to be done is mostly php work: the File and Patch archives have been designed to become a compendium much like the Battle Centre: with mirrors for the files, data on each patch, ratings, reviews and bug reports. Updates are being prepared mostly invisibly at the moment, but the new File Archive and Patch Archive have been designed/htmlized, the Fleet Manual and Order of Battle are being worked on at the moment.

TIE'95 Custom Sounds: Based on the groundwork done for the XWA Briefing Launcher, CA:SCO Darkhill has started a new project to achieve the same for TIE'95, but also covering the mission messages. In principle the most basic form of the patch already works - it is being refined to be an actual launcher that's a lot more user friendly.

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 While pretty far already (about 70% done). This week the most work went into creating a workable ship/patchlist for all three of the games.

Project Segway – SCO section: This project's goal is to create a total Imperial/EH conversion of XWA. For the SCO section this means the addition of all the "missing" craft, plus additional features like EH-FG colours on all existing craft and additional craft and astronomical objects. This project is well under way as well, but currently on hold because of more pressing matters..

Other projects are being considered, or even under way: A Science Manual with all the procedures of the SCO - including requirements on craft/patch submission. Other "on the side" project I'm working on are the "Emperor's Hammer Galaxy Race" game (details not to be disclosed till some copyrights matters are covered) and the "Emperor's Hammer AGI Games" project - with the goal to make at least one AGI adventure game, in the style of the old Sierra Classics like "Leisure Suit Larry", "Space Quest" or "Police Quest". If you got any experience in creating such games, please contact me.

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.

(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 online as well: you can reach them on the TC database. http://www.ehtiecorps.org/reports/default.asp?commandstaffid=10

Until next time, good luck and have fun!