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Welcome to my twenty-ninth public report as a Science Officer, very late once again... (Got lost making biiig patches) ...but that also means that again, there's a lot of news:

Science Office News:

1. Main news these weeks was the release of the big "Emperor's Hammer Ship Patches". (EHSP) for TIE Fighter 95, X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter and Balance of Power. The goal of these patches is to "finalize" these platforms and can basically be seen as extensions (Like "Defender of the Empire" and "imperial Pusuit" once were.). In short these patches make sure that all craft originally in TIE are now in XvT and BoP as well, and that those in BoP are added to TIE. Besides this another few goodies were added. A layout of added craft, between brackets the platform(s) it has been added to:
   • B-Wing (XvT): Well known advanced rebel bomber first seen in "Return of the Jedi". Replaces the former loose B-W patch for XvT, uses own slot #4 - flyable.
   • TIE Defender (XvT, BoP): Well known advanced imperial fighter first seen in "Defender of the Empire". Replaces the former loose T/D patches for XvT and BoP, uses own slot #9 - flyable.
   • Ship Yard (TIE): Common shipyard type first seen in "Balance of Power". Uses a new slot #10.
   • Repair Yard (TIE): Common shipyard type first seen in "Balance of Power". Uses a new slot #11.
   • Missileboat (XvT, BoP): Well known advanced imperial bomber first seen in "TIE Fighter Collectors CD-Rom". Replaces the former loose MIS patches for XvT and BoP, uses own slot #12 - flyable.
   • System Patrol Craft (XvT): Effective but not often used screening vessel first seen in "TIE Fighter". Uses own slot #19.
   • Scout Craft (XvT, BoP): Deep recon vessel first seen in "TIE Fighter". Uses own slot #20.
   • Container Transport (XvT): Large armed freighter first seen in "TIE Fighter". Uses own slot #35.
   • Medium Transport (TIE, XvT): Popular and common freighter first seen in "Empire Strikes Back". Features added Flight Group Colours (Red, Blue, Green) and uses own slot #36.
   • Modified Corvette (XvT): Well known upgrade to the regular corvette first seen in "TIE Fighter". Features added Flight Group Colours (Red, Yellow, Green) and uses own slot #41.
   • Modified Frigate (XvT): Well known upgrade to the regular frigate first seen in "TIE Fighter". Features added Flight Group Colours (EH, ASF, DB) and uses own slot #43.
   • Passenger Liner (Xvt, BoP): Popular civilian passenger craft first seen in "TIE Fighter". Uses own slot #44.
   • Carrack Cruiser (XvT, BoP): Well known screening vessel first seen in "TIE Fighter". Uses own slot #45.
   • Light Calamari Cruiser (XvT): Well known rebel light cruiser also known as "MC-40" which first appeared in "TIE Fighter". Features added Flight Group Colours (Red, Blue, Green) and uses own slot #50.
   • Super Star Destroyer (TIE): Large imperial destroyer type first seen in "Empire Strikes Back". Because of bugs in TIE Fighter 95 it does not have lasers so the ISD can have them. Replaces the "ISD Lasers Patch" for TIE and uses own slot #54.
   • Communications Array (TIE, XvT, BoP): Large deep space satellite system first seen in "X-Wing Alliance". Uses the newly activated space object slot #72.
   • Sensor Array (TIE, XvT, BoP): Large deep space espionage and astronomy satellite system first seen in "X-Wing Alliance". Uses the newly activated space object slot #73.
   • Astromech Droid (TIE, XvT, BoP): Very well known independent nav computer and ship repair droid first seen in "The Adventures of Luke Skywalker". Uses the newly activated space object slot #74.
   • Gun Emplacement (TIE, XvT): Heavy mine type first seen in "Balance of Power". Uses its own slot #78.
   • Large Gun Emplacement (TIE, XvT, BoP): Heavy mine type first seen in "X-Wing Alliance". Uses the newly activated space object slot #79.
   • Probe Capsule (XvT, BoP): Secondary probe backup also known as "Probe 2" as first seen in "TIE Fighter". Uses its own slot #81.
   • Laser Battery (TIE, XvT, BoP): Heavy mine type first seen in "X-Wing Alliance". Uses the newly activated space object slot #82.
   • Imperial Pilot (TIE, XvT, BoP): The man we all dread to be, an ejected imperial pilot as first seen in "Empire Strikes Back". Uses his own slot #85 and features his own briefing icon.
2. Because these craft use their own or previously unused slots the EHSP can be installed once and kept installed permanently. The current patches (Save for the BoP fighter patches) do not conflict with them either. Future patches will require you to have the EHSP installed because they fix several problems we had with patches before.
3. The XvT and BoP EHSP also update the games to have a more Emperor's Hammer feeling by adjusting the medal and rank names to EH ones. The XvT one also updates the graphics of the game to replace the X-W cursor to an imperial pilot's glove as in XWA, medal, rank and position graphics to those used in the TIE Corps and spinning imperial logo's to spinning EH ones.
4. The EHSP require you to have a fresh install of the games, with no other patches installed then the official Lucas Arts update for XvT. In XP you might have to have a completely empty /EHPatch folder upon install, other XP support is in the readme.txt of the patches.
5. At the moment the EHSP are the old type .bat patches as introduced by FA Kermee but AD Darkhill is working on making them full .exe patches which will solve any problem related to Windows XP or unzipping correctly. The moment these version are ready they will be uploaded. You are advised to always have the latest version of the patches installed - especially when using them for multiplay XvT or BoP. New versions are announced on the TC and SCO news pages.
6. Because of the release of the XvT EHSP battle XvT-TC#28 has been unlocked again. This battle was locked before because of a non-SCO patch was required to fly it.
7. I have added the History of the Science Office to the SCO staff page.
8. The TIE 95 patch for the a-9b has been updated to fix a bug reported by Khaen.
9. Gunman pointed out a nice new Free Lancer Star Wars mod that is being built at http://www.lancersreactor.com/t/ (http://www.free-worlds.com/ for its home site) - might be a good thing to keep your eyes on.

Science Office Status:

CA:SCO: Admiral Darkhill has been working on the exe versions of the EHSP.

SCOA: CM Tim has been experimenting with making mods of Freespace 2 and Starshatter and created the CTRNS, SCT, LINER and CRKC OPTs for the EHSP.

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. Updates have been made to the patch archive, Fleet Manual and staff page. Updates WILL be done to the reports section both on the SCO site and the TC database.

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. Project is nearing completion with the release of the EHSP for TIE, XvT and BoP. Coming up still are several star ship patches and platforms.

Project Cueball: This project's goal is to add more and larger astronomical objects to XWA, perhaps even to scale of planets. Name is derived from the fact that you don't actually need a Death Star if you can dump 30 kilometres of rock at Mach 30 on a planet as well. Beta OPT is very impressive and functional... expect it in XWA soon.

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: http://www.minos.net/~sco/reports/index.html but they are on the TIE Corps site, CS reports, as well.

Until next time, good luck and have fun!