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Welcome to my forty-fourth public report as a Science Officer, (immediately after #43, because I apparently forgot to mail that one *g*). Onwards to the news:

Science Office News:

1. The big hype in the TIE Corps is "Free Worlds" at the moment, the Free Lancer mod that uses XWAU models to recreate a Star Wars spacesim/RPG not unlike what "Jump to Lightspeed" probably will be. Free Worlds requires you to own Free Lancer and to log on to one of the game servers to play. There you can set up a EH tag nick and start playing. More information you can receive on our new Free Worlds discussion forum at http://www.ehnet.org/mb/viewforum.php?f=118&sid=9e0551fef896ec1f69dcd3510af60477
2. We have also secured file mirror rights to the mod, which means that even if they go off-line we can continue playing it. The URL to the mirror will be published on the TC site and the FWs forum the moment I have uploaded it. Our own game server is also in the works, as currently there are diverse problems with the rules of Engagement on the existing servers.
3. As far as the Science Office goes this means that Free Worlds is an official platform, however this needs to be confirmed by higher authorities as well. How the game will be managed and integrated into the fleet will be researched by a team including Marcus Caine and Priyum Patel. Because of the trading and buying it might even be a good idea to move it to the CD.
4. On the topic of the Corporate Division: Core Squadron, its elite squadron of test pilots, has been activated. After applications were taken by the PREX, LC Mark was picked as its first CEO-CMDR. He has command experience and experience in working with FS2 and IA. For now Core Squadron will focus on testing Imperial Alliance and the occasional SCO patch.
5. We need this because the current testing "system" for IA has delivered zero results so far. Additionally LC Mark is very knowledgeable about IA mission creation and MP which means the Squadron's input in Imperial Alliance will be more then just testing. If you want to help out testing IA or join Core, contact LC Mark. He will be contacting everyone who has already signed up for IA testing ASAP.
6. On the topic of Imperial Alliance there have been several very nice breakthroughs. Firstly the newest version of "FSO" (3.61) has been released, which means we now have Multi Player possibilities, amongst others. Also it looks as if we will be able to add custom cockpits (like the X-Wing series have) per craft. All pretty exciting stuff for us, but I'm afraid you will have to wait and see.:)
7. But to "hear"... Den Darkhill released new .exe versions to the IA forums, which add not only additional HUD changes, but also uses the "text to speach" function of Windows XP (available to other windows version as a separate download from Micro Soft). This means that written lines in briefings and radio messages are translated into computerized spoken text - which will save on a lot of recording custom sounds... though that still is a possibility if a mission creator wants to use it.

Science Office Status:

CA:SCO: Admiral Darkhill has been working on a newer version of our IA .exe's. Which now add MP and text2speach and are generally REALLY FUNKY.

SCOA: CPT Tim has been helping out Den with his exploits and has managed to update a few more craft models so they have cooler engine glows and working docking ports.

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. Fleet Manual has been added to.

Science Office Projects:

Imperial Alliance: With the release of the freely available source code of FS2, we have started on making a Star Wars game out of it. We can freely distribute a finished game as long as we have all our own data files (graphics, sounds, models etc). About all craft from X-Wing have been added and most of the interface has been replaced. We're currently making adjustments to the craft models and integrating Multi Player (!). Text to Speech has been added to briefings and radio messages.

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!