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Welcome to my fifty-seventh public report as a Science Officer, completely on time again... OMG!. Onwards to the news:

Science Office News:

1. I've added another custom cockpit to patches for X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter and Balance of Power. Patches updated are the Tactical Gunboat and the Imperial Shuttle Pod. TIE Fighter 95 versions should be up shortly... plus the release of the craft the "shuttle deluxe" cockpit was actually made for: the Mu-2 Shuttle for all platforms.
2. We failed registration for #vsd_sinister twice already, but we will not give up! The case is that we need supporters that will actually stay in the channel and chat there as well, last times we used too many people that are rarely seen in SCO or TAC channels. If you think you can help us, don't hesitate to mail me or the TAC with your cservice nick.
3. The progress on Imperial Alliance has seen its ups and downs... we messed up the MP connecting procedure, fixed it again, and broke it again trying to determine what caused it to be broken in the first place... However we're full of confidence that we'll be able to release a new MP based beta in the next week... Once I figure out how to upgrade all the missions to the current standards and actually go by all our 40 or so missions.
4. AD Den Darkhill has basically started a development log on the IA site news, which he spices up with screenshots... A good thing to keep track of if you're interested in the game.
5. Following that, the pilot management screen in the barracks section of the game has been completely redone/redesigned - leaving just 7 screens we need to create new renderings/designs for (out of... many). Soon after those are done we'll probably go over to the next phase, the demo game.
6. I cannot texture any OPTs because ACEDXF requires "paletized textures" in Open GL and apparently my new ATI card doesn't support that. The solution is that I'll be rebuilding my old PC this week... new craft releases like the Jedi Fighter should follow shortly (Though I guess calling the Jedi Fighter "new" is somewhat ironic :P).

Science Office Status:

CA:SCO: Fleet Admiral Darkhill has worked hard to fix bugs in especially the MP section of Imperial Alliance.

SCOA: CPT Timmay has been bumming on the beach and getting drunk with all the wrong friends.

Site: The Science Office site can be found at http://sco.emperorshammer.net and http://sco.minos.net. The Imperial Alliance site is located at http://ia.emperorshammer.net - which includes the ImpED site/course at http://ia.emperorshammer.net/imped.

Command Staff Objectives:

Continued patch development and platform resource: Created and added custom cockpits for the M/GUN and ISP-6.

Get a release candidate version of Imperial Alliance released: Updating some MP code and missions.

Upgrade and add to the Fleet Manual: On hold till I get time/help to fix the database.

Science Office Projects:

Cockpit Project: With most craft now working and updated for TIE95, XvT and BoP I have started on adding custom cockpits to them. These should make it clearer to the player that he's actually is flying a different craft (instead of just seeing a GUN or T/D cockpit). The craft inside the EHSP are all provided for now, loose patches that have been processed already are: the Plt/F, the V-W, the S/Y-W, the TOS, the M/GUN, the ISP-6, the T/Pr and the PHX.

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). Most other projects are currently on hold while we get this thing done some more.

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 #vsd_sinister. Don't forget that all the projects are described in more detail on the SCO site.

Use only endermbind@gmail.com for official SCO mails. I’m practically always online at #vsd_sinister, #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!