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Welcome to my ninth public report as a Science Officer, fairly on time *cough* because we wanted to get some things ready for this report but it seems they'll be running out a bit… (So we have been trying our newest SCOtch a bit much…;))

Science Office News:

1. Main news is that Admiral Darkhill finally decided he wanted an assistant anyway and selected Major Shadd. I hereby like to welcome back Major Shadd to the Science Office - he was SCOA already before. We've handed him the complementary Igor© Hunchback and crooked eyes that come with the job already;)
2. I've been making the Jedifighter OPT for XWA - it will probably be ready this week. Although this fighter is completely outside our timeline, and as such not really high-priority, the Alvaak fighter is based on it and I thought I might as well finish this craft first. A screenshot is attached. From this I'll continue the craft for Clan Alvaak (Which looks like a more vicious, updated jedifighter), after texturing that next up would be the new fighter for Avenger Squadron.
3. Updates on especially the T/D and MIS patches for XvT and BoP are still in process - they have highest priority for us at the moment, but end of semester tests have been keeping us up a bit.
4. For reference I'll like to point everyone to a very helpful site on the creation of TIE and XvT cockpits using tieedit 1.28. Creating cockpits is pretty easy and quite the skill that's still needed in the Emperor's Hammer. Learn how to make them at http://www.geocities.com/hal1234_2000/tutorial.html. If you want to learn how to make craft themselves, try http://opting.isfun.net. [/shameless plug]
5. Still: Keep an eye on this spot - there will be a little competition in this report the moment the TIE Corps database is fully functioning again (I hope that'll be next week). :)

Science Office Status:

CA:SCO: Admiral Darkhill had a lot of schoolwork and as such hasn't don to much this week. Is working on our various patches however, and selected his assistant.

SCOA: Our new Assistant is Major Shadd, he'll be mostly assisting AD Darkhill on the new patch system/installer we're working on and informing us of new patching developments outside the Emperor's Hammer.

Site: The Science Office site can be found at http://sco.minos.net or via the redirect http://scienceoffice.isCool.net. No major updates this week.

Science Office Projects:

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). M/FRT the Luggage has been completed, working on XWA craft at the moment.

XWA Ship patches: Primarily the plan is to clear out the backlog of craft arranged by earlier SCO’s and such, like the Trithan Interceptor (Kermee), the Hyperion (Den), the Alvaakian Craft (me) and the new fighter for Avenger Squadron (AES). The Trithan Interceptor and Hyperion are now ready, working on the Alvaakian Fighter – which should be done this week.

XWA Enemy Ship Packs: The plan is to create several multi-ship patches that install 5 different enemy craft of a particular theme at once on the same 5 slots for each pack. The first pack is that based on the “Genko System” (2 fighters, a transport a capital ship and a platform.). Modelling is 80% done, texturing 25%. Further texturing is on hold for the Ship patches projects to clear but can be finished shortly after that.

Emperor’s Hammer AGI Games: Khadgar has started on a beginners guide to AGI/SCI which should greatly help along this project to make it possible to create EH games in the style of "Space Quest", "Kings Quest" or "Leisure Suit Larry". *pokes Khadgar to get a move on;)* There are various guides online already however - anyone interested in joining this project is advised to check out http://www.adventurecollective.com/articles/feature-agi-1.htm which has a good guide on the coding part (Anyone that can do php/asp can do this… its pretty simple.) http://web.archive.org/web/19990129050822/http://www.ozemail.com.au/~mozmccoy/ and the sites of the AGIStudio Editor, which includes guides as well: http://www.agidev.com/ and http://members.ozemail.com.au/~ptrkelly/agi/agistudio.html.

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 are available online as well: you can reach them on the SCO site: http://www.minos.net/~sco/reports/index.html. The moment the TC database is back online they will be posted there as well. I'm going to do that next:)

Until next time, good luck and have fun!