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Welcome to my fiftyeth public report as a Science Officer, habitually late (uhm... no idea why - No Excuses!). Onwards to the news:

Science Office News:

1. From the folks living down (or up, depending how you're looking at the Sov) in the labratory: Happy New Year! Hope you'll all have a good one.:)
2. A big congratulations to CA:SCO Den Darkhill who has been promoted to Fleet Admiral and to SCOA Timmay (who received a Gold Star) and myself (who received a MoH). Also thanks and congrats of course to our new Fleet Commander, GA Astatine!
3. I've launched a competition for the TC, DB and IW: "Casino Imperiale". First, the Competition Format in short:
   • I have written two (longer) pieces of fiction introducing the storyline of a battle I made in three platforms (TIE, XvT and XWA)
   • Pilots can fly the battle(s) for High Scores and for the squadron average
   • Besides a submitted pilotfile they also submit a short _fictional_ report about what they went through on the mission
   • For those that cannot fly the battle(s), and for those that can, there is also a full fiction competition
   Big awards to be won, for example TCCOMs Own for the winning TC Wing. Check the site at http://sco.emperorshammer.net/casino
   A note to WC's and COMs: the Wings' scores will be averaged over all members that are in the wing to determine the TCCOM's Own - but if someone participates in the fiction section, but not in the flying, his lack of score in the flying will not be deducted. This is about participation: only people that don't participate at all (or fly negative scores) can drag your average down.
4. After 8 years of fairly good service the gimmie.tudelft.nl server has gone down for ever… meaning the SCO mirror is gone there. However, thanks to GA Astatine I've been able to replace it with the new site at http://sco.emperorshammer.net - which still is somewhat bugged cause of database components, but does have all the files fo you may minos.net be down. The mirror will be updated to more or a complete SCO mirror.
5. Imperial Alliance is still continueing, with me doing a bunch of missions, Tim some more craft. Been working on the design for an Imperial Alliance site that will basically look like its datapad and will have all the details on the game, screenshots (very soon: the VERY cool techroom Zethy has modelled) and later on: the downloads.
6. Den has added the very cool feature of "PODs": these include the special features you already know like the decoy beam, SLAMs and such - but also new ones like an actual cloaking device, and a solid fuel booster rocket (that makes every fighter really fast for a bit). To be able to catch cloaked or decoyed craft anyway he has also added the "Phoenix Missile" - which is a self-acquiring heatseeking missile. (Watch it though… if its target gets destroyed before it hits, it will re-acquire a new target.. which may be you or your wingmen…)
7. I've also been working on finishing cockpits (for TIE Rebel Fighters, R-4, T-W, shuttles and transports) and new datapads for the EHSP 3.0 versions of TIE, XvT and BoP, these should be about done this month. To try these out, I've also been making some missions that use them, which got me making the Phalanx Gunboat cockpit as well >:)
8. The TIE Praetor OPT has been updated to be less of a straight T/A with paint on it. It is still the same craft… the OPT now just looks more like "the craft has always looked". Changes mostly include texture updates and a new hull. Wings and cockpit are practically the same.

Science Office Status:

CA:SCO: Fleet Admiral Darkhill adjusted the exe's to include the PODs and other changes. He was promoted to FA!

SCOA: CPT Tim has been UV mapping more craft (like the ISD) and warheads for Imperial Alliance. Received a GS!

Site: The Science Office site can be found at http://sco.minos.net or via the redirect http://scienceoffice.isCool.net. The mirror has been moved to http://sco.emperorshammer.net. Updated the TIE Praetor entries to the Fleet Manual.

Command Staff Objectives:

Continued patch development and platform resource: The TIE Praetor has been updated and released, EHSP 3.0 versions are under development.

Get a release candidate version of Imperial Alliance released: We're now 1 screen and a few tidbits away from a "stand alone beta", one that doesn't need FS2 anymore.

Upgrade and add to the Fleet Manual: The TIE Praetor has been updated, a new description text for it by Darkfin Saris will be added asap.

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. Working on getting to 100% replacement of the data fles so we can start distributing a beta that doesn't require FS2.

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 #sco. 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 #sco, #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!