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Welcome to my thirtieth public report as a Science Officer, kinda on time... (Needed to finish 'just that') ...but that doesn't mean there is a lack of news:

Science Office News:

1. Thanks to AD Darkhill I'm proud to present the release of VERSION 2 of the big "Emperor's Hammer Ship Patches". (EHSP) for TIE Fighter 95, X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter and Balance of Power. AD Darkhill coded .exe based installers for the patches which make installation on all Windows systems a lot easier. I took the opportunity to fix some bugs in the earlier versions and add even more goodies. For now these are the latest versions of the EHSPs - I highly advise to download and install them for EH flying. A layout of changes, between brackets the platform(s) it has been made to:
   • Ship Patch Installer (TIE, XvT, BoP): Easy to use utility that allows you to just unzip the patch, click the installer, confirm your folder location and install. Un-installation is just as easy.
   • Satelite Type 2 (TIE, XvT, BoP): Already in all these games, but now has its own model.
   • Nav Buoy Type 2 (TIE, XvT, BoP): Already in all these games, but now has its own model.
   • Probe Capsule (TIE, XvT, BoP): Already in TIE, but now has its own model. In XvT and BoP it is added in a way that fixes the bug in earlier versions of the EHSPs where this craft replaced all buoys.
   • Corellian Transport (XvT, BoP): Fixes bug that kept CORTs from firing their lasers in XvT and BoP.
   • Melees (XvT): Thirteen new melees to allow the use of the added fighters (T/D, MIS and B-W) in multi play. Offers the Basic Furball, the Basic Furball for two 4 Man Teams and the Basic Furball for four 2 Man Teams in Deep Space, Asteroids or Mines plus four more classic engagements with fleets.
2. The EHSP 2.0 require you to have a fresh install of the games, with NO other patches installed then the official Lucas Arts update for XvT!!! (So also NOT the isdlasers patch for TIE95, forget that completely.) They work on all Windows Operating Systems from '98 on (untested on '95) and do not affect your compatibility.
3. Make sure you have the latest version of the EHSP installed, especially when attempting multiplay. These patches are large, but a "1 time download". You can keep them installed permanently. No further versions are planned at this stage, they even are prepared to be compatible with the EH Patch Manager when that is released.
4. The future EH Patch Manager, new battles, old XvT and BoP battles using the former T/D, MIS or B-W patches and future loose craft patches may require you to have the EHSP installed.
5. Lucas Arts has released the demo (160Meg) of "SWotL 2: Secret Weapons over Normandy" at http://www.lucasarts.com/products/normandy/index.html. This new game by the same creators as the X-Wing Series (Totally Games) includes the TIE Fighter and the X-Wing and looks to be very easy to modify to a Star Wars atmospheric flier... however, while I could probably pull it off within a month or so... my PC isn't strong enough to play it *starts crying*. It is a fairly safe bet that they will make a Star Wars version of it themselves though - especially if we all go out and buy this non-SW game. ;)

Science Office Status:

CA:SCO: Admiral Darkhill has created the exe versions of the EHSP, tested them, bug fixed them and flew an EHSP-XvT Melee with me.

SCOA: CM Tim has been experimenting with making mods of Freespace 2 and Starshatter.

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 and the reports section on 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.

Grand Project: The EH Patch Manager Project is going along smoothly once again. This week it already spawned the new installers for the EHSP.

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

Until next time, good luck and have fun!