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Welcome to my fifth public report as a Science Officer, on time on account of me going on leave tomorrow. (Even mad scientist need a break now and then… Nabooan Beaches here I come! ;))

Science Office News:

1. As mentioned, I'll be on leave for the weekend - starting after I've sent in this report. During this time my CA, Admiral Darkhill, will be taking care of things. Its just for a short bit… and w/o a TIE Corps database I doubt anyone would notice anyway :-/
2. Not much else to report this week, as mostly we've been working on our running projects, for example texturing a bunch of craft already in the works for way too long - and texturing is a slow process. I've included a picture of one of these craft, the M/FRT the Luggage, to illustrate what I mean. It's been used for years and featured in over 15 battles and even more free missions already but up to now didn't have its own model (the regular FRT was used). Expect the patch for XvT/BoP (and probably TIE'95 as well) by next week - and the same goes for the Hyperion and Tritian Fighters for X-Wing Alliance. These were modelled by AD Darkhill for the Dark Brotherhood, but also never textured.

Science Office Status:

CA:SCO: Admiral Darkhill is currently working on a new patch installer for X-Wing Alliance (which should evolve into a format for all games) and a new asteroid patch for TIE Disk.

SCOA: Because of being busy in RL and on texturing this again has slipped through. The SCOA will be decided upon the moment I get back from leave.

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.

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. Same reasons as the SCOA no major updates this week.

XWA Patch installer: Providing a simpler way to install patches to varied slots in all windows operating systems via an actual program instead of the current batch files. Should make it easier to install patches besides each other and to see which replace what. In research stage mostly, which is what the SCOA is mostly needed for.

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 77% done). Currently working on a XvT/BoP/TIE95 version of the M/FRT the Luggage and Super Star Destroyer.

Project Segway – SCO section: SCO section: Still on hold for more pressing matters, though work has started on a private player fighter for early in the game. Have been modelling and texturing several new XWA craft too, like the Tritian Interceptor, the Alvaakian Sith Fighter and Hyperion.

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. *Pokes 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 used to be online as well: you could reach them on the TC database... but since CT was so great to delete that site I'll make sure all SCO reports will be available on the SCO site after the weekend.

Until next time, good luck and have fun!