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Welcome to the sixty-fourth public report since I became Science Officer, actually quite on time again… (Thanks to FA Den :)) Onwards to the news:

Science Office News:

1. I'm kinda back on the web. Apparently I had picked up a virus of sorts that first blocked my internet, then a week later my soundcard and then another week later Windows starting up at all. Installed Windows 2000 and a virus checker on another harddisk and seem to have fixed it, though 2K is giving me some trouble (it wont install my soundcard drivers or see most of my 300GB harddisk)... so I may try to fix that later today and mess everything up again *g*
2. The newest version of the Order of Battle has been timely approved by the Fleet Commander and Executive Officer and is available at http://sco.emperorshammer.net/fleet-manual/app-orderofbattle.html. The full graphical version and text-only versions have been updated... as I lack some simple utilities like Winzip at the moment the Off-line viewable version has not been compiled yet. A lay-out on what has been done: General:
   • Craft icon links updated: Clicking on a craft icon will get you to it’s Fleet Manual entry (if available)
   • Unit links updated: URLs of the Dark Brotherhood and Corporate Division sites have been updated. Clicking on a unit’s name will get you to its roster entry (if available)
   TIE Corps:
   • The Squadrons of Wing VII have been renamed according to the roster.
   • The Squadrons of Wing XVI have been renamed and changed in craft types according to the roster.
   • The Recon Officer ship “Doomsday-Class Corvette Phantom” in the Relentless Battlegroup now has a craft icon showing what it actually looks like (instead of a M/CRV)
   • (DB) the FRG “Cookieplanet” has been renamed to “Angelus Morte”
   • The squadrons of the ISD Warrior (Wing XII) have been assigned fighters and squadron objectives by the Flight Officer.
   Directorate:
   • This fleet has basically been completely redone by “selling off” the ships and getting others of about equal value.
   • The result is that every system now is protected by a platform reinforced by various types of starships to cover threats from either other starships or fighters. Personally I feel the DIR did quite a good job, its far more realistic now - and more varied.
   Corporate Division:
   • This fleet has been entirely redone to reflect the changes in the CD over the past time. It basically represents all the corporations it has now.
   • As an extra some of the default factories of the CD have been adjusted to fit the operations of their corporations more. As such the Casino platform for the Gambling Authority and a Comm Relay for the Radio Station.
   Craft of closed Subgroups have been moved back “in to the fold of the fleet”. Basically they have fallen back into the main part of the Fleet. When we ever feel the need to get any out of the mothballs we can always reassign them:
   • The Star Galleon Ivanhoe (the former BHG flagship) is now a fairly unremarkable escort ship of the SSSD Sovereign.
   • The VSD Stalwart (the former HCI flagship) has been moved back to its old position within the TCBGs. I marked it down as for the JAG for now.
   • The bulk of the Infiltrator Wing has been moved to a new, unused (non-roster, like the ISD Kawolski), task force in the TC for the time being. I have reassigned some craft types and squadron names to avoid doubles within the TC and have more variation.
   • The part of the IW formerly known as the “Karana System Defence Force” has been moved onto the Directorate Order of Battle - or that System would be undermanned.

Science Office Status:

CA:SCO: Fleet Admiral Darkhill has stood in for me for the past few weeks and continued development of Imperial Alliance. He da man:)

SCOA: CPT Timmay is back and fixing craft models.

Site: The Science Office site can be found at http://sco.emperorshammer.net - which includes the Fleet Manual at http://sco.emperorshammer.net/fleet-manual. 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: Focussed on Imperial Alliance.

Get a release candidate version of Imperial Alliance released: Beta phase running, upgrading resolutions, checking Multi Player.

Upgrade and add to the Fleet Manual: The Order of Battle has been updated.

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, the IES, the T/Prot, the T/Sn and the PHX. Currently on hold.

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!