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Welcome to my fourth public report as a Science Officer, which - typically - is a day late on account of doing Science Office-like things. (We encountered some serious ethical dilemma's on our "Major Mark Cloning Project" and are considering termination... >;))

Science Office News:

1. Thanks to the help of FA Kermalius I was able to fully update the Fleet Manual to its former glory: including pictures of the craft and a lot more covered topics. I've also created a redirect for the Fleet Manual and Order of Battle at minos.net to make linking easier. These URLs are planned to be permanent - so you can definitely use them for reference. For the fleet manual its http://www.minos.net/~sco/fleet-manual/ and for the Order of Battle http://www.minos.net/~sco/fleet-manual/app-orderofbattle.html or via the Science Office site of course.
2. Behold Admiral Darkhill's latest invention: The TIE Strings Editor - which allows you to edit the strings.dat file of TIE'95 and TIECD without the length restriction of before. This makes it a lot easier/better to manually install craft patches into these games and is one of the most user friendly patching utilities around. It is available from the SCO site's File Archive or by direct link to http://www.gimmie.tudelft.nl/homes/blok10b/ender/engineering/craftedit/tie/TIEStrings.zip
3. Den has also updated the TIE'95 ISD lasers patch considerably, so now it works together with the other Science Office patches and has a nice file browser function so you can run it from any location. It is available from the SCO site's File Archive or by direct link to http://www.gimmie.tudelft.nl/homes/blok10b/ender/engineering/craftpatch/tie/ISD_Laser_Patch.exe and fixes the bug of ISDs not firing normally in TIE'95.
4. As a side note I would like to mention that the Science Office in general does not make any craft. Asking the Science Office to "do a craft" for you is like asking the Tactical Office to build a complex battle for you. The Science Office approves, corrects and distributes Emperor's Hammer patches, programs and craft - the making of these is, just like with missions, up to the members of this fleet. My CA and I are very busy already on many projects, including a lot of craft we decided (as fleet members, not as the Science Office) to make for others, like the Tritian Interceptor, the Hyperion, the Sith Fighter and a new craft for Avenger Squadron (seeing how the T/Sh has "bounced".)
5. Learning how to make craft yourself is at the moment faster then asking us to do it for you and can be a lot of fun to expand your missions with. Take the OPTing course at its new redirect URL of http://opting.isfun.net/.

Science Office Status:

CA:SCO: Admiral Darkhill latest invention, the easy to use TIE95/CD strings.dat has been released, as has the fully updated version of the ISD Lasers patch for TIE95. Is currently working on, amongst others, a new patch installer for X-Wing Alliance.

SCOA: I guess I have to apologize to those that have applied for this position, as we still haven't taken a decision on it yet. I promise it will be taken before my next report - so don't worry. For everyone who would like the job and hasn't applied yet: We are still 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: 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 this week to minos.net completely, with a mirror on gimmie.tudelft.nl for all the downloads. Recently updated are the Fleet Manual and Order of Battle, which not only have been linked from minos.net but also have been updated to their status of before the site crash.

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 near the stage of going in for approval… At least I finished the craft I needed to bribe the Internet Officer with to set up the database for me - but he's picky about textures and is a very busy man as well (ok… it might help if I just sent them the files they need as well);)

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 75% done). Recently finished are the TIE Raptor, TIE Shuttle, TIE Boarder and TIE Transport - currently working on a XvT/BoP/TIE95 version of the M/FRT the Luggage.

Project Segway – SCO section: Still on hold for more pressing matters, though work has started on a private player fighter for early in the game.

Emperor’s Hammer AGI Games: 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". In principle these games are so small in download that they compare to XvT or XWA battles in size. If you want to help out making these games (storyline, graphics, coding…) please do contact me. (And everyone poke CrazyR2 and Khadgar to write that IWATS course on the subject ;) )

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 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!