Following up on his BG3 success, EleqTrizi'T has announced his intention to run BOTE '04. Battle Of The Elite teams are structured differently from the bring-your-own-team and draft-style games that dominate the TW-universe. Each year, invitations are sent to well-known TWGS SysOps who are then responsible for selecting, in whatever manner they please, a team to represent their server in the game. Although the game rules stipulate that the winning team host the next match, since 2000, for a variety of reasons, BOTE has been run by MacAhan at Fament BBS [telnet link]. Last year, Blue Adept/TimboRulz's Star Endeavors perma won the day, but BA's TWGS ("The Game BBS") has since gone offline, leaving the TW-community in need of a host. EleqTrizi'T has thus volunteered his system, which ran quite well during BG3, for BOTE '04.

In just 3 days, I will be relocating to the University of Missouri- Rolla for the fall semester. While I will be adequately wired (with no long distance charges, courtesy of these people), it is probable that I will be too busy to contribute too much to the world of TW, and I won't be playing in any games for awhile. Despite this, love me or hate me, I have every intention of maintaining this website. Since I will be rather busy, feel free to drop me a line if you think I've missed something.

At 11 AM CDT today, Team Timborulz formally conceded Big Game 3.1 to Team Kemper3, finally bringing an end to this troubled tournament. Unlike the previous bang, there have been no major disputes or allegations of cheating in this round. Most surprisingly, this bang has gone "without a hitch."

Team Timborulz never recovered from the fatal blows dealt to it on Day 1. Team K3 had a one-day— or more— lead on cashing and planet development throughout the game and was able to maintain exclusive control over all L4+ planets, despite the large universe which should have prevented just that. Team K3 could not have done this without dedication, support of newbie red players, and (of all things) CIM data. In the first few days of the game, when Team Timbo's grid was spread very thinly and sufficient cash had accumulated, Jhereg was able to explore 100% of the universe using ether probes. This is something I would not have thought to do, but it has proved invaluable. Using "vanished ports" data, Team K3 was able to locate (and target for gridding) all enemy-held xxB ports— which are vital for SDT. Using this data (and some good analysis scripts), Team K3 was able to effectively deprive Timborulz's team of cash by taking away their SDT areas and, on occasion, setting up deep-space ambushes on vulnerable reds. CIM data also proved itself useful for locating enemy citadels. Without CIM ports data, this game could have potentially lasted much, much, longer.

I do not know why Team Timborulz had such a bad start. As they so painfully demonstrated to us on occasion, they had many top-notch players on their team and were able to effectively wield what resources they had. It is my best guess that, combined with an unusually-high number of no-shows and chance encounters with Team K3 during day 1 PPTing, there was some sort of breakdown or failure in communication and coordination. Team Timborulz also faced a breakdown of another kind as the game progressed. According to Sir Lancelot, aka Master Gridder, "Nobody would listen... and people wouldn't run their turns" (ICQ, 8:58 PM CDT). Continuous setbacks placed Team Timbo's morale at an extreme low, compounding on their existing disadvantages.

A big thanks to everyone who stuck with it, despite the flames, to play this round. Regardless of the outcome, everyone involved— most importantly, the newbies— certainly learned something from the experience.

There is one final item I have for your perusal. I have decided to continue the HHT Tradition of making our corp's strategy and planning materials available to the general public at the conclusion of the game. For BG3 I opted to use YaBB's perl-driven forums. Online forums have the advantage of being more editable than static HTML, more collaborative than email and more permanent than IMs, and they were especially useful for pre-game planning. The Team Xide forums from the first bang are here, and the Team K3 forums for this bang are here. I have enabled guest access to allow anyone to view the forums. If the link doesn't work, try again later: my machine has been having hardware problems and is crashing randomly. You're welcome. You're welcome. You're welcome.

The purpose of the ICQ virus I warned you about on July 16th has become known. An anonymous source reported that an intruder had acquired his online banking password and attempted to steal $7,000 of his hard-earned cash. Subsequent scans via Housecall detected the "dancing santa" trojan on his computer. I think it is probable, since no other viruses were found on his machine, that the function of this virus is to intercept passwords to financial services.

Although 128-256 bit SSL prevents thieves from intercepting your password once it leaves your computer's network interface, encryption is a moot point if your computer has been compromised. Passwords (and other information) can be intercepted by keylogging software, which records which keys you press, or by program hacks which intercept the data after you have entered it into your web browser but before the system encrypts it.

Infection by mass-mailed (or mass-ICQed) trojans is easy to prevent. Viruses will masquerade as one of your friends (or, in the case of mail viruses, a friend-of-a-friend) to gain your trust. To prove that it is not really your friend, simply attempt to engage the sender in conversation before opening the file. If they do not respond in an intelligent manner or if they do not know what you're talking about, then it is more than likely that the file is a virus. This particular defense requires absolutely no technical expertise.

There are some of you who do not seem to care whether or not your system is secure. Be warned, you might take a hit in the wallet if you fail to take computer security seriously.

It is times like this, when yet another tournament has gone down in flames and people are quitting by the corp-load, that make a person wonder why they are devoting so many hours of their limited life-span to this game. I too have asked myself that question, and have come up with an interesting answer— which is certainly not representative of all T-Warriors, but interesting nonetheless.

I started playing TradeWars on a competitive basis about 5 years ago. In those 5 years, I have developed a total of two websites, with a third as-yet-unreleased, which have required me to expand my knowledge of web-based technologies such as HTML, CSS, and XML/RSS (our feed is here BTW). These are things I might not have done were it not for TradeWars' motivation. More recently, I have experimented with web languages such as Perl (regexps, anyone?), PHP and have learned SQL database programming on the side. These systems are used heavily in the professional world. While my current skills with these tools probably won't get me a job anywhere, I suspect I am at least "halfway there," and these gives me an advantage over other future prospective employees. Again, TradeWars— which will probably see the result of this work before too long— was my primary motivation for learning all of these languages. It seems that perhaps I'll be able to take some of my SDT earnings to the real bank after all.

You have probably all heard the saying: "If life gives you lemons, make lemonade." My own spin on the saying isn't quite as catchy: "If life limits your TW time, make a TW bot." Rather than simply admit defeat in the face of teams with 24x7 human coverage, I have worked from a disadvantage to remain competitive. Indeed, debugging those 16,035 lines of code, plus the helper it runs on (which isn't even mine), has required a nearly endless supply of patience and resolve. Looking back, I can remember the hundreds of pods and scores of defeats that it took to get me where I am today— and, arguably, I'm not all that good. TradeWars, as I am sure others can attest to, has demanded an insane level of persistence from myself. I can't help but wonder whether TW has molded me into the most stubborn person I know.

TW hasn't been entirely without its downsides, however. I cannot say that I have much of a life besides school and TW. But I have met 65 people, and know some of them quite well, because of my TradeWars contacts. I am never at a loss for someone to talk to, and I have met a higher percentage of people I think are worth knowing in the TW world than in meatspace.

Were you to ask me if it has all been worth it, my response would be: definitely.

Big Game 3 has generated what is quite possibly the largest flamewar in TW history, rivaling even that of the miserable failure and subsequent fiasco that was USO4. I have attempted to dig through the flames and construct a simplified, non-verbose, version of events for those of you who do not wish to read the posts themselves. First, however, full disclosure: I am on Xide's BG3 team. For what it is worth, I give you, the reader, my word that, to the best of my knowledge which is based on IM conversations with Xide and the rest of my teammates, our team was unaware of Big12ozHOG's rule violations until the log evidence was presented. Big12ozHOG acted alone and without the support of the team. Xide, myself, and the rest of the Team Xide fully support the punitive actions taken against Big12ozHOG.

Follows is a timeline of events I have constructed based on TWGS.org messages. I have made best effort to ensure its correctness, and any omission is strictly a blunder on my part. Because I am endeavoring to be brief, I cannot possibly include every single argument and nuance. All times are in the CDT zone.

1. 2004-07-12 3:25 AM: TimboRulz makes the first public accusation of SubSpace sniffing against Xide's team after Big12ozHOG was caught listening in on Timbo's SS channel.
2. 2004-07-12 3:33 AM: Big12ozHOG rebukes TimboRulz's accusations, citing an inadvertent leak as how he came in possession of Timbo's SS. The game rules did not clarify the situation since they only ban SS sniffers and not actual listening. The SS sniffer ban was the only part of the 3-pronged "gentleman's agreement" that could not be enforced using standard TWGS logging.
3. 2004-07-12 9:17 AM: After demands for more information, <<Doctor Who>> posts a message showing all players who posted SubSpace-like numbers on FedComm. According to the capture, FearMe posted "10069," which was later revealed as Timbo's original SS channel. Based on the latest information, this was probably Big12ozHOG trying to establish plausible deniability.
4. 2004-07-12 1:43 PM: Nazwes Chaiwind admits that he may have tricked FearMe into disclosing his team's SS channel number. Later, it is shown that this is not the case.
5. 2004-07-12 2:42 PM:At this point, there is some confusion as to how Big12ozHOG could have reacquired Timbo's SS channel. <<Doctor Who>> discloses that he made the error of giving the new subspace channel "in-band" on the old channel. While this was a silly mistake, the latest information suggests that Big12ozHOG would have acquired the new channel regardless.
6. 2004-07-12 6:23 PM: A power outage takes the TWGS offline. EleqTrizi'T was promptly notified of the failure.
7. 2004-07-12 8:00 PM: The TWGS reopens on schedule.
8. 2004-07-13 8:59 PM: TimboRulz withdraws his team from the gentleman's agreement, citing Xide's "abuse" of his team's SS channel as his reason.
9. 2004-07-14: The flamewar continues throughout the day, unabated, without any new information coming to light.
10. 2004-07-15 9:36 PM: Res Judicata (of TimboRulz's team) posts a message which accuses the other two teams of listening (yet again) to their corp's SubSpace channel. One hour later, TimboRulz echoes Res' complaint, but neither of them provide much in the way of details.
11. 2004-07-15 10:21 PM: Intrepid hints at deaths inflicted on TimboRulz's team.
12. 2004-07-15 11:05 PM: WooF and Angus, both members of Team TimboRulz, post their resignation msesages within minutes of each other. TimboRulz gives notice of Traitor's resignation.
13. 2004-07-15 11:25 PM: Kemper3 reports that he had received and used information accidentally leaked from Timbo's team. However, he denies knowing how his team acquired Timbo's SS channel.
14. 2004-07-16 12:55 AM: Stating his disgruntlement with the various accusations that were levelled against him, LokI resigned from the game (Xide's team) and took his entire perma with him.
15. 2004-07-16: Despite multiple accusations back and forth, the source of the leak was not discovered today.
16. 2004-07-16 5:29 AM: Xide extends an official apology to Timbo's team for his team's use of leaked data.
17. 2004-07-16 6:04 AM: Big12ozHOG tells his side of the story in a message where he comes to the defense of LokI and the rest of Team Xide. He confirms that TimboRulz's team had an information leak "from [an] undisclosed source" and takes the opportunity to formally resign. Based on the latest information, Big12ozHOG's source was actually the unwitting FearMe, who used a standard password that Hog knew.
18. 2004-07-16 10:29 AM: Per the request of Space Ghost, who is also a player on TimbRulz's team, the game is shut down. Space Ghost abstains from commenting publicly on the shutdown at this time because he is busy at work.
19. 2004-07-16 1:29 PM: EleqTrizi'T decides to override Space Ghost's decision and assume administrative control of the game.
20. 2004-07-16 2:01 PM: As a result of all of the quitting, EleqTrizi'T decides to take a poll of all players who wish to continue. He sets a deadline of 3 PM CDT.
21. 2004-07-16 3:00 PM: Reportedly, EleqTrizi'T was able to talk to only 4 people at his 3 PM deadline.
22. 2004-07-16 3:10 PM: EleqTrizi'T declares that the game is over due to lack of interest.
23. 2004-07-16 4:11 PM: Reversing his earlier decision, EleqTrizi'T decides to push back the deadline for the game continuation vote to 8 PM CDT on the grounds that he might not have heard from everyone.
24. 2004-07-16 8:09 PM: The TWGS does not come online as scheduled. EleqTrizi'T reports a power supply and hard drive failure.
25. 2004-07-16: The Captains each report their status. At 8:16 PM, Xide stated his willingness to continue with the game and suggests on behalf of his team that the remaining Team TimboRulz and Team Xide players could merge. At 10:08 PM, TimboRulz also cites pressure from his team to continue playing. Cherokee, on the other hand, reports that he has no desire to continue.
26. 2004-07-17 12:00 AM: EleqTrizi'T is able to restore The StarDock server to full operating capacity— by turning the hard drive on its side. Some time later, however, he reported that the game files for Big Game 3 had been lost, permanently bringing an end to the game. Discussion of a possible rebang begins in earnest.
27. 2004-07-17 12:18 AM: Space Ghost bans Big12ozHOG from the tournament. He also reports that Cherokee's team will either be taken over by a new leader (probably Kemper3) or split and divided up between the other two teams.
28. 2004-07-17 11:51 PM: Space Ghost suggests that the game be rebanged.
29. 2004-07-17 8:50 PM: Space Ghost justifies his ban of Big12ozHOG on the grounds that he logged in to FearME's account in violation of The StarDock's rules. He presents log evidence to prove it. In an ICQ message to me, EleqTrizi'T independently verified SG's claims. It seems probable that this was the source of TimboRulz's information leak.
30. 2004-07-17 11:15 PM: Xide changes his mind and declares, for personal reasons, that he will not participate in the game in the event of a rebang.
31. 2004-07-18 10:44 PM: In an ICQ message to me, Space Ghost confirmed that, by popular demand, a rebang will occur. He states that the current plan is to assimilate all Team Xide members and anyone else who wishes to participate into Kemper3 and Blue Adept's existing teams.
32. 2004-07-19 2:41 PM: The rebang date is set for 8 PM CDT this Friday, July 23rd. Team Xide has been split amongst Team Kemper3 (formerly Team CK) and Team TimboRulz. For a full team listing, follow those links.

It is my opinion that the most insightful post of the entire flamewar came from someone who didn't participate heavily. Kavanagh called the flamewar "a prime example of the futility of unpoliceable rules," and I am inclined to agree (26633). Hundreds and hundreds of messages were generated debating something that could not be proved or disproved: the use of a SubSpace scanner. If SysOps and team leaders restricted themselves only to enforceable rules, the scale of these debates might be vastly reduced because it would be possible to know in fact whether the accused party is guilty as charged.

Finally, this is my policy on revisions to the above timeline: If you feel I have misrepresented you or your team, please get in touch with me via the contact form on this website (and be polite about it). I will not respond to any posts to TWGS.org or any other public forum concerning this timeline. It may be a few days— or never— before I make the changes you request.

Changelog:

1. Saturday, July 17, 2004 10:01:23 PM
   • Added item "2004-07-17 8:50 PM"
2. Sunday, July 18, 2004 10:35:02 PM
   • Revised items "2004-07-17 12:00 AM" and "2004-07-17 11:51 PM" to account for the loss of the game files.
   • Revised the introduction paragraph in light of the discovery of Big12ozHOG's illegal actions.
3. Monday, July 19, 2004 12:07:02 AM
   • Revised items "2004-07-12 9:17 AM", "2004-07-12 1:43 PM", "2004-07-12 2:42 PM", "2004-07-16", and "2004-07-16 6:04 AM" in light of the discovery of Big12ozHOG's illegal actions. These items were modified to help prevent misinformation.
   • Added item "2004-07-17 11:15 PM"
4. Monday, July 19, 2004 8:14:32 AM
   • Added item "2004-07-19 2:41 PM"
5. Tuesday, July 21, 2004 3:46:19 PM
   • Revised item "2004-07-16 10:29 AM" based on new info from SG

An ICQ virus has been spreading like wildfire among the ranks of TradeWars players. A total of 6 virus messages from different senders have become known to me since I first saw the virus on Wednesday at 6:41 PM. The virus is attempting to spread by sending the following message:

funny Santa :) (use arrows to move)
http://www.salsa-lol.com/flash/03-sobersanta.exe

WARNING: THE LINK ABOVE IS TO A LIVE VIRUS! Do not download it!

The emoticon/smiley used in the message is apparently random.

When I first received the message, I immediately suspected a virus was at work and conducted a careful investigation which suggested that the file was indeed a virus. My initial suspicions were confirmed when the person I received the message from denied sending it. Today, 5 new virus messages from different users were reported. Worse, I am not certain if the virus messages actually originate from the user that ICQ says the message is from— there is some doubt as to the integrity of the ICQ protocol.

Symptoms of the infection may include being disconnected from the ICQ server "because another client has logged on with this ICQ number" (or something to that effect) or strange Rate Limit Exceeded messages.

At this time, no information is available on what this virus does or how to remove it. For your information, the most common uses of viruses include DDoS attacks, web and email anonymizers, and serving copyrighted files (Warez). If you believe you are infected, you can prevent the virus from spreading or using your internet connection with an application-layer firewall like ZoneAlarm.

The past few weeks have, overall, been mostly quiet in the world of TradeWars as competitors gear up for Big Game 3, which is scheduled to begin less than 21 hours from now. EleqTrizi'T will be hosting the match on The Stardock [telnet link]. The bloodbath starts tomorrow at 7/9/2004 9:00:00 PM CDT.

Over the past several days, heh [2], our principal enemy in our latest corporate game, has come to a slow but steady demise. Last Sunday, an extern mistake on their part (planet overload) led to the death of 2 of their members and the capture of 5 of their planets and 50M credits in cash. Later that same day, in the evening, strategic gridding revealed the location of C2's primary base, which was promptly invaded (offline). Three planets were captured without incident. As of extern on Monday, C2 was able to (through the use of a player who was still alive) re-enter the game and announce their intention to continue.

However, it appears that C2 changed their collective minds about the game later on in the day. Shortly before extern on Tuesday, feral was killed in a Scout over Terra. Soon thereafter, Promethius was killed in a Scout after being immobilized with a pwarp photon attack. Less than 15 minutes later, strategic gridding, based on their known base location preferences, had located their last remaining sector. It was invaded around Tuesday's extern and captured, along with 17M of cash, without incident. Early Tuesday morning, feral returned with a concession notice and announced the existence of a single remaining C2 warpable (which was later captured). A log of the past several days is available here.

To their credit, Corp 2 was badly outmatched against a better-organized opponent. They had personnel reliability problems and were facing superior scripting technology (namely, photon prediction). This was by no means a fair fight between combatants of equal skill. Corp 2 has fought to the best of their abilities, and they should be recognized for that.

Our original challenger, Slim Shady and his team, did not put forth a serious effort to win this game.

Participating Players

Corp 1 - 1st Fugitives From Fate	Corp 2 - 2nd heh	Corp 3 - 3rd Estimated Prophet
Cbs228 Father Cajone zep River Rat Steel Magnolia	Iron Ranger feral Promethius severian -=Mythrandir=-	spyhunter Jack Straw

Bowing to the wishes of the pro-Res faction, Space Ghost has announced that he intends to redraft BG3 with three teams instead of two. Blue Adept (Timborulz) will be Captain of the third team and will be required to include Res Judicata on his team.

As a result of these changes, any planning and contacting of personnel each captain has done thus far is now null and void. In addition, each team will now have fewer experienced players available to help manage newbies since the same set of experienced players must be distributed across 3 teams instead of 2. As Xide mentions, the game start may also be delayed while new web software is developed and the team redraft and exchange process completes.

Update: Wednesday, June 16, 2004 8:39:22 PM

Space Ghost has informed me that the decision to redraft the game was also the result of Blue Adept's desire to be a Captain and the registration problems that have been plaguing Jerry's web portal. Considering the enemity between Res's friends and enemies, it is likely that, regardless of what was decided, there will be a mass exodus of players unhappy with the new situation. SG has attempted to placate as many people as possible with his decision.

Xide announced the results of the draft for Big Game 3 in these two messages. At this time, the BG3 website has not been updated. Several Fugitives members are playing in this round, including:

• Team X
  • Cbs228
  • Father Cajone
  • LokI
  • River Rat
  • Alexio (retired)
  • Speedy (retired)
• Team CK
  • Steel Magnolia (retired)

Presently, the game is scheduled to begin some time on July 2nd.

Update: Monday, June 14, 2004 12:46:32 PM

Speedy is on Team X, not Team CK. My fault.

Unexpectedly, Bone Collector has announced the creation of a new sub-corp, which is currently being dubbed "Damage Unlimited II," for the purposes of training, support of the original DU team and (much to the delight of DU's veteran hunters) farming work. They have also added Timborulz (Blue Adept), of Star Endeavors [broken link!] fame, as the CEO of all turn-based games. Already there are rumblings of a match between the new-and-improved DU against <<Doctor Who>>'s top-voted team, the Space Tyrants. I am not quite sure what to make of this new team, but with these top players working together they may prove themselves to be an even more formidable foe than ever before.

Yesterday, our team started its first corporate game since the disastrous USO4 on the Damage Unlimited server. The games page has been updated with this information. The same team that you see listed on that page took victory against a team of Slim Shady, spyhunter, et. al in the game's previous iteration. The losers have challenged us to a rematch, and we have accepted the challenge. Can our team repeat its success? Stay tuned for the outcome.

This evening, River Rat received an ICQ from Nautica's account notifying him that Nautica, aka James T. Kirk and known in r/l as Brandon Swensen, had died in a car accident, along with the other occupant of his vehicle, on March 16, 2004. Substantial checking has produced this article in the St. Petersburg Times (Tampa Bay) which confirms his death. Brandon is survived by a wife and two children. The article also mentions that Brandon had significant legal problems prior to his death, including two counts of domestic battery. From another article in the Times,

He married Jessica Marie Carpenter, 21, in June 2002 in Pasco County, according to a Florida marriage license.

"We ended up liking each other, and every day it got better and better," Carpenter said in a telephone interview. She said they met in Land O'lakes and shared two children, a 1-year-old son and a 3- month-old daughter who look exactly like him.

"He was one of the sweetest people I've ever been with," Carpenter said. "He's not a criminal."

(St. Petersburg Times, 3/18/04).

Not much TradeWars related information is available. He has a user account at EISOnline and The StarDock, but has never posted anything to either forum. He has made posts to Yahoo E-Groups and Ship Destroyed. I do not know him personally, but I can say that he will be missed.

For some time now, Space Ghost has been attempting to set up another Big Game-style tournament after the success of his HHT 2003 tournament. With the usual host of Big Games out of the picture, another SysOp has stepped forward.

EleqTrizi'T has announced his intention to run a Big Game draft-style tournament on his server starting around July 2nd. The new StarDock [telnet] is a 3 GHz workstation with 1 GB of RAM, so it is almost certainly up to the task. Captains have not yet been selected, but if this thread is any indication, SG might have trouble finding them.

Update: Tuesday, May 25, 2004 10:40 PM

Apparently, SG has not had any trouble finding captains. As he announced in an ICQ message, Big Game 3 will be a standoff between Xide and Cherokee. A sign up page is now available here.

I announced previously, based on information from EIS, that TradeWars v3.12.0 was in "closed beta" and not publicly downloadable. This is not the case however— EIS is merely having trouble updating the TWGS Beta page and have posted the file on the EIS forums instead.

SysOps who wish to download the file can do so here (direct link).

For years, to stay competitive meant maintaining 24x7x365 uptime or braving a time-limited game, where one night of bad luck can instantly bring your winning team to its knees. The Lost Trader's Tavern has become the first server to limit not only how long you can play but when you can play as well. The server will now only be open from 10:00 PM to 11:00 PM ET. This will allow teams who do not have a bot-so-sophisticated-it-could-almost-pass-the-Turing-test to compete on a level playing field with those who do. The outcome of these games will be decided less and less by connection failures, script inadequacy and offline invasions, and more and more by tactics and planning.

Cherokee has been considering this interesting experiment for some time, and I am pleased someone has finally implemented it. Unfortunately, for those whose schedules restrict them to a different time interval, such as night-shift workers or those living in other longitudes, this server is no longer a good place to play.

EIS has officially released a beta of TWGS v3.12.0 for testing by selected sysops. The changes are mostly minor in nature, and most of the fixes are geared towards "concurrency" issues that can result from two (or more) players attempting to use a single resource simultaneously (i.e. ship transports). This is a good thing to fix since, in theory, a plethora of strange things can occur if all of the connection threads are not properly synchronized.

EIS writes, "v3.12 is considered the final release of v3 and feature sets are now complete" (News, 5/14/04). Barring any serious bugs, the development of v3, which has been over four years in the making, will come to an end in the near future. For better or worse, JP will move on to v4. Whether or not v3 will survive depends on how many bugs remain in it and what sort of changes are planned for v4. For those of you who plan on migrating to v4 games, you are in for interesting times. Your knowledge of the new game will be minimal, helpers nonexistent but rapidly under construction, and the result will be the biggest "arms race" in the game of TradeWars.

ElderProphet has started a blog detailing a new haggle script he is working on that will allow you to "not miss out on a single credit" (ElderProphet, 5/6/04).

According to the page, the script works by first determining the port's MCIC value, a property available via TEDIT but hidden from (direct) view. ElderProphet is not the first person to use MCIC values in haggle calculations— Cherokee was one of the first to release his research publicly. However, as stated, his researched formulas only apply to planet haggles.

Presently, ElderProphet is working on optimizing the time it takes to determine the port's MCIC value. Once that is complete, a TWX script will be released. If released, it will become the next must-have script for maximum moneymaking.

Tomorrow at noon EDT, Cherokee will be running the TWChess v2 edits on his server. He has chosen to allow up to 4 duplicate accounts (dupes) per real person, on teams of 4, with mega corping NOT allowed (edit: see below). For those interested, there is still plenty of space left to sign up. Be warned, according to the Who's Playing page there is a team consisting entirely of prestone dupes and a team consisting entirely of <<Doctor Who>> dupes.

Some players may be scared away by the prospects of fighting an entire team consisting solely of the TradeWars über-elite, who have plenty of time on their hands and often have round-the-clock human coverage of the game. However, it is important to recognize that such teams exist in games that forbid duping. Some time ago, I posted an article about unenforceable rules in which I demonstrated that the traditional No Account Sharing restriction can be beaten through the use of proxy programs. Recently, I have seen this trend emerge among the ranks of T-Warriors. Experienced players with time on their hands have begun to run their teammates' turns as well as their own; the SysOp none-the-wiser. This begs the question: What is the cause of this pseudo-duping?

This is not just a matter of the experienced controlling the inexperienced. In all cases I have seen, the accounts being pseudo-duped were owned by people perfectly capable of playing without such intervention. In my discussions with other players, I have found a single common complaint surrounding TradeWars: It takes a lot of time to run your turns. TW requires so much time that a common reason for not playing (which I have had to use myself) is the lack of free time. Pseudo-duping allows those with little time to participate without negatively impacting the team due to their lack of time. Thus, it is quite possible (but not certain) that this is the primary cause of the pseudo-duping problem.

Exactly how much time does it take to play TradeWars? Consider a game I played in recently that had 1500 turns/day and a 1 turn/warp Scout Marauder. As with any game, a grid is of vital importance. For maximum efficiency and safety, it was necessary to use a 2-man planet gridder. The process is slow, however, and you can't expect to move any faster than (on average) 15 seconds/sector. With the above givens and assuming that a holo-scan is conducted every move, the total time required to grid all turns is about 3.1 hours. That is 3.1 hours of baby-sitting a process that requires constant attention but minimal interaction— akin to watching paint dry. Very few people have the time and patience to carry out such a task. Our team, which lost due to lack of time, certainly didn't.

In order to make TradeWars accessible to a greater number of people, some changes to the way the game works are in order. One player suggested that turns could regenerate on a weekly basis instead of a daily basis, giving players greater flexibility to run their turns at the time that is most convenient for them. An interim solution, which does not require changes to the game architecture, is to simply lower the number of turns allocated per day. This would have the secondary effect of making games last longer, which may or may not be a good thing.

If the amount of time required to run turns is lowered, then TradeWars can be played by more people. As players of a game whose participation seems to be dropping each year, making the game more accessible should be a priority of ours. While making the game more accessible won't eliminate pseudo-duping, it may remove some of the necessity of it.

Update: Friday, April 30, 2004 7:17:33 PM

My profuse apologies to Cherokee, whom I misquoted badly. TW Chess does not allow megacorping.

Recently, players have been driven to a frenzy on TWGS.org over allegations of bug use. Father Cajone, Fugitives member, reported that Big12ozhog, who was part of the winning team of USO4, used a bug in a TW 3.11.55 game to photon and decloak traders in the StarDock sector, who were subsequently killed. The bug, which works by the use of multiple traders, allows someone to shoot photon missiles into fedspace in violation of the game design. Hog subsequently complained that <<Doctor Who>> used the well-known atmospheric q-cannon pod bug on his team first.

The events, which occurred on Black Sun TWGS in the Trader's Shootout game, prompted Vader to ban both Big12ozhog and <<Doctor Who>>. The game was subsequently closed since its outcome had been influenced unduly. A massive controversy has been ignited over who acted properly, who acted improperly, and what should have been done about the situation. Due to its depth and my severe lack of time, I cannot even begin to address this controversy here.

These events have brought back memories of both the inherent bugginess of TW 3 and what could be done about it. As I see it, we have three possible solutions to the problem of game bugs.

1. Legalize: We could stop treating game bugs as "bugs" and attempt to play the game with bug use permitted. Flaws in the TWGS would become publicized and treated just like regular game features (albeit unintended ones). This would put an end to the secrecy around bugs and the "elitist monopoly" on their use. Gameplay styles would adapt to the existence of bugs, not the other way around. By allowing bug use, Ops would no longer find themselves responsible for enforcing a rule that is difficult to police. For those of you who laugh at the concept: Remember that the "mega rob" feature present in MBBS mode is actually an adaptation of an HVS MBBS bug. However, this solution brings with it several problems.
   • Consensus: If bug use information is released to the public, there would most likely be an increase in the number of traders using bugs (duh). While this would not be a problem on systems that allowed bug use, it would almost certainly become a problem (for the less ethically inclined) on systems which refused to allow bug use. SysOps who are not interested in legalizing bug use, lacking the proper enforcement tools, may find themselves swamped with rule violations and forced to revise their policies.
   • Playability: As I mentioned above, gameplay style would be forced to adapt to game bugs. However, in situations such as with the fedspace photon bug, it may be difficult— even impossible— to adapt current tactics to the bug. As others have commented on, there may well be bugs in TW 3.11.x that, if released, would make the game utterly unplayable. If these bugs are released and their usage is allowed, problems would certainly result. If a SysOp wanted to have anything other than a free-for-all on all known bugs, appropriate policing methods would have to be developed.
2. Enforce: At present, Ops do not have the tools with which to actively identify bug users. As I have proposed on several occasions, a server-side proxy could detect this and other rule violations automatically. While this would do much to discourage bug use, there are also problems with this solution.
   • Accuracy: A bug tracking system would need to have a near-100% accuracy in catching every offense, every time, with no false-positives. Fortunately, since the TradeWars environment is somewhat limited (with respect to what kind of text can appear), this kind of accuracy should be possible to achieve if the developers do their job properly.
   • Openness: Rule enforcement software, given the extreme trust we must place in it, must be developed in an entirely open and audit-able manner. I will never trust a closed-source program to reliably, without bias or ill-motivation on the part of its author, report violations which would be used to determine the outcome of the game.
   • Consensus: In order to comply with Openness, the bugs policed by this system must be public knowledge. This creates a problem for SysOps who do not want to run this (hypothetical) rule enforcer software, since the list of bugs policed could be, with some effort, reverse-engineered into a list of bugs, ripe and ready for use on systems without the rule software installed.
3. Wait For Updates: In most circumstances, the best possible thing that can be done about bugs is what we have been pressing for all along: eliminate them! Had Black Sun been running release 61, in which both the atmospheric q-cannon pod bug and the fedspace photon bug are fixed, I would not be writing this article. SysOps have been cautious (and rightly so) in applying the latest cutting/bleeding edge releases, and many systems still run the buggy but otherwise stable v55. In time, the problem of bugs may simply fix itself as long as EIS releases patches at regular intervals to correct known bugs. However, this solution is dependent entirely on JP's continued support and development of TW 3. It may become necessary to resort to one of the solutions above.

If the above is to be believed, there is no perfect solution to our bug infestation. While it is unlikely that a consensus will ever be reached on how to best solve the problem of game bugs, that does not imply that we should not attempt one. I think that the TWGS community, as a whole, needs to come up with an agreeable solution to this dilemma. Otherwise, it is likely that controversies like this one will occur repetitively.

I never would have imagined when I opened this site that EIS would release new versions faster than I would release new posts. Yet, here they are with revision 61— upgrade if you dare.

I apologize for the lack of updates, but there seems to have been a shortage of decent news recently. If you feel there is something I have missed, please don't hesitate to contact me.

EIS software posted an update to the TWGS software yesterday, releasing version 3.11.59. Unfortunately, the server problems that have plagued their forums for some time have continued. Some users reported problems, including HTTP 502 errors (which are usually indicative of a service overload), while attempting to download the update. In response, Naz has posted a mirror of the file on TWGS.org.

An EIS representative notes that this release "is just a quick fix revision to fix some particularly nasty bugs from .58" (EIS Forums, 4/3/04). It seems, from the past and current release notes, that EIS's new message handling features are somewhat buggy, which indicates poor testing and quality control. I would like to encourage SysOps to apply future patches and updates with caution, lest they prove more buggy than their old version.

Updated: Sunday, April 4, 2004 10:05:16 PM

The wrong file was posted to the EIS website. v59 has been re-released as v60. Get it here.

This addition of Google ads is the third trial that I've made to banneradvertise on twgs.org. The other two times were with different adnetworks, the first time, the ads were removed after being online for lessthan 48 hours because of their high bandwidth use, their interference withnavigation, and their total lack of relevance.

The second time, I left them on for considerably longer. They weregraphical, but with no popups. However, after a few months, they wereremoved because there just wasn't enough benefit having them there.

The Google Ads are still in their trial period because:

1. I was not aware of interference with navigation. There are nopop-ups, pop-unders, or "cute little flash buy-me cartoons".
2. On other forums where I use Google ads, the ads shown are usuallyrelevant to the messages being displayed.
3. Google ads are not bandwidth intensive. They are text-based. Theyconsist of four text links that change each time a different page isdisplayed. I don't consider them to be an annoyance on any sites thatI visit which use them.

Google ads will have their fair trial run on twgs.org, but they won'tremain the long banner at the top for long, now that I'm aware of themcausing navigation problems for people.

Your email is the first complaint I've received so far about the Googleads. Now that I know about Timberwolf's complaint as well, and that itnow requires extra scrolling, I do agree that that is creating a problemwith navigation, and the ad format will be changed to something lessproblematic once I've got my current outstanding schoolwork done (thiscoming week is my last week of classes).

Also, a message to all TW players: if you have a problem with anything ontwgs.org, make sure that I know about it. This is not accomplished bypublicly bitching about your problems on web sites that I don't normallyhave time to read (cough cough Timberwolf).

Nazwes Chaiwind

Nazwes Chaiwind has added a Google AdWord banner to the top of TWGS.org. No formal announcement or explanation for the change has been given. This is an interesting move for Naz, who first opened the forums as an alternative to the advert-besieged Yahoo forums, which have been rendered next to inoperable by profiteering marketers with their increasingly invasive, user-unfriendly, messages. The banner stands in contrast to the login message, which reads: "Welcome to twgs.org, your annoyance-free Trade Wars forum!" (3/26/04, emph. added). Apparently, Naz is not making enough money off of his T-shirts.

Credit for this article must be given where it is due: Timberwolf was the first to pick up on this. I use Mozilla Firefox with the AdBlock package-- consequently, I don't see any of it.

To no-one's surprise, the reverend has announced that USO4 is officially over. As expected, the Space Tyrants have mopped up all remaining resistance after the first night's fiasco. News of the win has yet to be posted to the USO official website.

Liquid Chaos has informed me via email that the TWArchive is being relocated to a faster server. The site will be offline for the duration of the move. Be sure to visit it here when it comes online again.

Due to a budget crunch, Timberwolf was forced to take his news site off the air. Now, love him or hate him, he's back again on ISP-provided webspace. Wolf is not the first person to make an unexpected return from a lengthy absence, nor is it likely that he'll be the last. I once wrote that "It is eminently difficult to simply walk away from a game like TradeWars" (7/8/03). Its truth has been proven, repetitively and consistently, ever since then. Looking back on the number of people who have made their returns, and departures, it seems to me that you can never really leave this game. TradeWars is for life.

Perhaps the "OT" designation I gave to my previous post on security was rather undeserved. EIS has announced that a version of W32.Beagle.J has begun sending emails "From" management *at* eisonline . com. It is important to note that EIS is not the source of the virus. Ironically, the virus disguises itself as an anti-virus patch. Most likely, the virus is being mass-mailed by an infected TradeWars player who has the above EIS address in their mail client's addressbook.

In the absence of any sincere effort by some to keep their machines safe, I would like to recommend that TWGS SysOps conduct periodic nmap (or equivalent) scans of all connected users.

I say again, don't open email attachments! As a side note, emails originating from me will always be cryptographically signed to prevent header forging.

It is difficult to determine which situation is more laughable: Is <<Doctor Who>> just joking, or is he really serious when he says he intends to sue users of automatic photon scripts? If indeed such a scenario comes to pass, I know of a certain website (with a history of inadvertently DDoSing networks) who would be very interested in the story. Bring on the lawyers, Doc, I'll just rent a bulletproof server in China for all of my TW scripts. :)

In other news today, Cbs228 filed for patent protection on "any device used to respond to events automatically in any text-based multiplayer game."

In what Mana Knight has jokingly termed a "hostile takeover" bid, TradeWars.org is merging with The StarDock. Both sites have an extensive TradeWars history, listing news in their archives as far back as January 2000. Mana Knight's sense of humor will be assimilated into The StarDock in the very near future, and I expect that the end result will be a new, impressive, site for TW players to enjoy. For further details, read EleqTrizi'T's post.

It is not often I make an offtopic post, but news has been slow lately and I feel this is something everyone needs to hear... badly.

The average user might not be too concerned with keeping their machine current on the scores of patches from their OS vendor. They might not have a firewall on or even a basic Antivirus package. They may think that no-one has an interest in their machine, or they're not online enough to get attacked. I want to dispel these myths right away.

According to Dr Peter Tippett, chief technologist at security specialist Trusecure, every internet address in the world is attacked in some form by a human being 40 or 50 times every day. But that's not all - every address is also hit five or 10 times every minute by an automated, computer-based attack (IT Week, emp. added).

This means that if you're on the internet, you are going to get hit with an automatic attack... even if you're just a dialup user. If you're system is unpatched then it is only a matter of time until something gets in there (like the Midas guy, I guarantee it) and installs things like:

• An open SMTP server for spam relaying, eating up all your bandwidth and CPU cycles, and making your ISP pull the plug on you faster than you can say "Buy illegal narcotics here."
• A SOCKS or other proxy for anonymous web browsing as you. Don't ask what they're looking at, you probably don't want to know.
• RLogin services and other "backdoor" programs for remote shell access complete with root/system privileges.
• Programs to DDoS a website, eating up all your bandwidth and most of your CPU cycles in the process.
• Dialers to call 900 numbers or a foreign country, racking up charges on your phone bill at an insane rate.
• Keystroke recorders to intercept all of the passwords and credit card numbers that you type in, regardless of whether or not the connection is via SSL (for credit cards) or employs digest authentication (for passwords).
• Having the virus sent free of charge to all your friends and buddies, masquerading as one of your friends.

In other words: ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO THEM.

If you do not patch your system, you are begging for any and all of the above to hit you. You risk getting your internet disconnected, and you risk credit card/financial information fraud. If you're too lazy to patch, do the world-at-large a favor: unplug your machine and don't come back.

Furthermore, for maximum security, I recommend:

• A/V software... and update it.
• AdAware or Spybot S & D to catch what your A/V isn't programmed to.
• Firewall software with all inbound ports from the internet blocked (with exceptions for your servers)... preferably one with IDS and/or SPI. Application-layer firewalls are probably a good idea, but you don't really need one. Remember, NetBios and Windows File Sharing are things that should never be internet accessible.
• Optional: Security scans via websites or a more comprehensive program such as nessus (for both *nix and Windows, especially if you run a server of any sort). If you want me to scan you, just ask.
• Don't use IE or Outlook [Express]. Use Firebird or Mozilla and install the AdBlocker package. It makes the internet look a whole lot less cluttered and you'll wonder why you ever used IE.
• Never open an email attachment from any source. Most viruses will masquerade as someone you know. Do not trust the text contained in the "From" field-- it is not verified. If receive an attachment unexpectedly, email the "sender" and ask for confirmation before you do anything with it. Be a human virus scanner and don't open executables. Viruses propogate faster than your anti-virus updates, so don't count on that to save you.

Patch now or get yelled at by your tech friend later (and it could be me) when you have 600+ pieces of spyware, mail relayers, and backdoor programs installed on your system. Secure yourself or get "0wned and r00t3d by a l33t haxor." The choice is yours.

Cherokee has posted the results of the 2003 TradeWars Awards at The Lost Trader's Tavern. Congratulations to Fugitives member Father Cajone, who won the Best Sportsmanship award. A big thanks goes to Cherokee for devoting his time and bandwidth into hosting the awards. Worthy of mention here is the latest addition to the Hall of Fame: The former Coastgames TWGS, which closed down in early December. For those of you who didn't win this year: There is always 2004.

Almost as if making up for lost time, EIS has released version 58. The new release includes a welcome fix for the non-interactive prompts: SysOps can now choose to deactivate this strange new "feature" via TEDIT. Reversing its apparently scripting-hostile stance, EIS has also added an extended ascii character to assist scripts in determining the current prompt.

In the hours and days following the bizarre conclusion of USO (at least for most of us), the TWGS.org forum erupted into a series of flame messages. Nonetheless, for those of you who do not want to take the time to wade through the various USO threads, I do feel that two messages are worthy of attention here.

In message 23190, the reverend (the USO GameOp) posted his reaction to what happened. He writes, "it was not until after the TWA file had been available for a few days that i learned about the plan to blow dock. of course i could not do anything at that point but watch and wait." With the edits already finalized, Rev could not make changes without appearing to deliberately undermine Xide's strategy. Conversely, by refusing to change the edits Rev ensured an early end to the game, much to the disappointment of many. Whatever decision Rev made was certain to provoke an outcry from one side or the other. Rev expresses his sincere regrets for what transpired two nights ago.

Tournament SysOps have frequently had to make decisions like this. In BOTE 2003, Macahan's decision to reinsert a player who was deleted by a bug was met with similar strife.

Xide reveals in message 23208 that his decisive start was far from easy. As I suspected, Xide "had 3-4 practice sessions of the whole routine" and put a lot of effort into his start. In this game, it is usually the most dedicated who win. Xide's team appears to have been the most dedicated. His original plan called for a dock kill within 30 minutes, not 90. Problems encountered during the execution of the plan delayed Corp 1's move.

While many teams, including Bone Collector's, Timborulz's, and my own, outright refuse to kill dock as part of our playing strategy, the fact of the matter is that there is no rule against doing so. In order to prevent this type of behavior in the future, there must either be a formal rule against dock killing, changes to the game structure to prevent dock killing (i.e. a new release from EIS), or a stronger StarDock to discourage dock killing.

At 12:38:34 AM EST, this is what the USO Stardock sector looked like:

Command [TL=00:00:00]:[5012] (?=Help)? : D  
<Re-Display>

Sector  : 5012 in The Federation. 
Beacon  : FedSpace, FedLaw Enforced
Ports   :  <=-DANGER-=>  Scanners indicate massive debris and heavy
                       radiation due to recent destruction of the 
                       StarPort that occupied this sector. Safety 
                       officer advises immediate retreat from sector. 
Observer: Ambassador rev, w/ Massive Fighter Escort,
           aboard The U.S.S. . (Martin Ind Consular Vessel)
Federals: Captain Zyrain, w/ 75,000 ftrs, 
           in The U.S.S. Intrepid (Martin Ind Federation StarShip)  
Traders : Civilian Father Cajone [4], w/ 0 ftrs,
           in Egg (Sverdlov Speedy Cruiser)
          Civilian Lance [6], w/ 2 ftrs,
           in heh (Axis Industries FC-FURB)
          Corporal traitor [6], w/ 99 ftrs,
           in The Usurper (BK BananoTran) 
          Civilian fearme [3], w/ 40 ftrs,  
           in Starter (4 Dragons Ltd Speedy Cruiser)
          Sergeant Major Shyenkur [7], w/ 99 ftrs,  
           in Newbie (Martel Matra Speedy Cruiser)  
          Civilian Prophet [4], w/ 0 ftrs,  
           in ... (4 Dragons Ltd FC-FURB) 
          Sergeant Major Jasper [8], w/ 387 ftrs, 
           in Train Wreck (BK BananoTran) 
          Sergeant Major Black Fox [3], w/ 290 ftrs,
           in Home (AldenShrike Speedy Cruiser)
          Sergeant Major Ranger One [9], w/ 47 ftrs,
           in Two (Dzerhinsky FC-FURB)  
          Gunnery Sergeant Xide [1], w/ 22,303 ftrs,
           in . (Puppet Masters Manufacture Rawhead Rex)
          Civilian Alani [7], w/ 93 ftrs, 
           in y (Bofors Speedy Cruiser)
          Sergeant Major arucard [7], w/ 61 ftrs, 
           in ship (Antarian Speedy Cruiser)
          Civilian Kemper3 [9], w/ 20 ftrs,
           in . (Sverdlov FC-FURB)  
          Gunnery Sergeant Jhereg [3], w/ 1,200 ftrs, 
           in Starter (4 Dragons Ltd Speedy Cruiser)
          Civilian prestone [2], w/ 51 ftrs,
           in a (Murene Elec'Tric'Mule)
          Sergeant Major Deimos [7], w/ 11 ftrs,
           in . (BK BananoTran)
          Sergeant Major Krimsonblade [3], w/ 575 ftrs,
           in Doh (IonStream Speedy Cruiser)
          Civilian Kasey [3], w/ 70 ftrs, 
           in Jones (Martel Matra Speedy Cruiser) 
          Civilian White Knight [4], w/ 0 ftrs,
           in Ship B (QuadStar FC-FURB)
          Sergeant River Rat [4], w/ 0 ftrs,
           in [F3SS] Xfer (Seeschlange FC-FURB)
          Sergeant Major Underlord [7], w/ 49 ftrs,
           in The Merchant Marines (Murene Elec'Tric'Mule)  
          Sergeant Major Blue Adept [9], w/ 19 ftrs,
           in The Late Marines (Pescador Elec'Tric'Mule)
          Civilian Phoe6e [9], w/ 95 ftrs,  
           in zoom (Martin Ind FC-FURB)
          Civilian Elderprophet [6], w/ 83 ftrs,
           in Merchant Marines (QuadStar Speedy Cruiser)
          Sergeant Major dpblues [8], w/ 186 ftrs,  
           in tran (BK BananoTran)  
Ships   : YAWN [Owned by] LokI, w/ 81 ftrs,
           (Pescador Elec'Tric'Mule)
          ... [Owned by] Fugitives From Fate [4], w/ 0 ftrs,
           (QuadStar FC-FURB) 
          BluesMobile [Owned by] GeNoCiDe [8], w/ 114 ftrs,
           (Animoso Elec'Tric'Mule)
          The Merchant Marines [Owned by] Suicide Kings [6], w/ 99 ftrs,
           (Bitubo Elec'Tric'Mule)  
          . [Owned by] Damage Unlimited [2], w/ 9 ftrs,
           (QuadStar Elec'Tric'Mule)
          Cash 1 [Owned by] Phoenix Rising [3], w/ 127 ftrs,
           (IonStream Elec'Tric'Mule) 
          . [Owned by] Space Tyrants [1], w/ 0 ftrs,
           (Puppet Masters Manufacture Rawhead Rex)
          . [Owned by] Busted Flush [7], w/ 50 ftrs,
           (High Velocity Ltd FC-FURB)  
          . [Owned by] Space Tyrants [1], w/ 0 ftrs,
           (Bitubo Gravedigr Body Bag)  
          . [Owned by] Xide, w/ 0 ftrs,
           (Seeschlange FC-FURB)
          . [Owned by] Space Tyrants [1], w/ 0 ftrs,
           (Yokotosaki Gravedigr Body Bag)  
          Tran [Owned by] Star Endeavors [9], w/ 0 ftrs,
           (BK BananoTran)  
          . [Owned by] Space Tyrants [1], w/ 0 ftrs,
           (Sverdlov CK-ORION)  
          . [Owned by] Space Tyrants [1], w/ 0 ftrs,
           (Bofors CK-ORION)
          . [Owned by] Space Tyrants [1], w/ 0 ftrs,
           (Talos CK-ORION)
          . [Owned by] Space Tyrants [1], w/ 0 ftrs,
           (4 Dragons Ltd Peacemaker ISS) 
          . [Owned by] Space Tyrants [1], w/ 0 ftrs,
           (Puppet Masters Manufacture Rawhead Rex)
          . [Owned by] Space Tyrants [1], w/ 0 ftrs,
           (Rouge Nation Prestone Frigate)  
          . [Owned by] Space Tyrants [1], w/ 0 ftrs,
           (Antarian Gravedigr Body Bag)
          . [Owned by] Space Tyrants [1], w/ 0 ftrs,
           (Mainstay Ltd Gravedigr Body Bag)
Warps to Sector(s) :  (3995) - (4741) - (6902) - (7139) - 7296 - (8259)

Command [TL=00:00:00]:[5012] (?=Help)? : C  
<Computer>  

<Computer activated>

Computer command [TL=00:00:00]:[5012] (?=Help)? T 

00:38:34 AM Sun Feb 21, 2016


Computer command [TL=00:00:00]:[5012] (?=Help)? Q

The above is the handiwork of Corp 1: Xide, Cherokee, Tweety, <<Doctor Who>>, Didaskalos, and big12ozHog.

How did the StarDock get blown within the first 1.5 hours? The answer is the aged game which allowed reds to gain massive experience points-- 50 per first port on every port-- and start cashing. Corp 1 was the fastest off of the starting block; they must have practiced this extensively or were otherwise prepared. Within 2 hours, C1 had accumulated 60k+ figs, several Rawhead Rexs (BattleShip edit), and plenty of gtorps for planets. If you were looking for a long game, this wasn't it.

The Fugitives team has voted unanimously: We hereby concede the game. After careful evaluation, we have found that our chances of winning are precisely nil, and we do not want to drag a one night game to 60 days.

C1's tactics have been ruled a fair and valid use of the edits, and I personally agree despite the overall lameness of the situation-- we, and I mean all other players in general, should have been better prepared for this. We have seen an excellent showing from the Space Tyrants, and I am not embarrassed to lose to them... much. Corp 1 will always go down in history as the fastest Major winners.

On edits in general, Fugitives player Prophet remarked, "the best tourneys in the past have always been stock... bote 1, wtc 01, uso 1... wtc 2001 was... see a trend here?." Several other players agreed with this assessment, including myself. Something that may seem small (game age) can actually have a large effect if tinkered with. This is not the first tournament to experience early dock blowing (think back to Lethal Lotto). Hopefully, if precautions are taken, it will be the last.

Fugitives From Fate was the last corp to sign up for USO, submitting our entry a mere 15 minutes before the deadline. Nonetheless, we are locked and loaded to begin a new game. Prepare yourself for 60 days of invasions and evasions, of combat on the field of honor; defeat and victory intertwined. Grab a can of carbonated caffeine and prepare for some big bangs after The Big Bang at 10:00:00 PM tonight.

For the occasion, please welcome aboard River Rat and White Knight as Associate Members for USO4. Also participating are Father Cajone, Zep, Prophet, and myself, of course. See our current games page for more information.

Before USO starts, be sure to head over to TLTT and vote in the TWAwards. Voting will begin at 7 PM EST.

EIS released TradeWars version 3.11.57 today. The new release fixes the FedSpace photon bug, the time synchronization bug, the login penalty bug, and a few other things as well.

Despite the vociferous protest of many, further changes to the in-game messaging system have been made that decrease its overall effectiveness. Messages are now queued whenever a player enters a "non-interactive" prompt and are only sent after the player leaves that prompt. This is a potentially dangerous modification, since messages such as "F#$&! Help, the base is being invaded!" are ones that people need to receive immediately. It is interesting to note that this is being pushed as a new "feature" and not as a bugfix. Fortunately, the release notes seem to indicate that this behavior can be disabled in TEDIT. Ops are encouraged to disable this new behavior if possible.

Without further ado, I present my answers to Vader's interview questions below.

How and when did you get started in Tradewars?

My first experience with TradeWars was on a local dialup BBS with MacComCenter and a 38.8k modem, much to the annoyance of my parents, who didn't want me tying up the phone line. I joined the game after being asked to do so by a friend at school (who never was and never will be a serious player). I was not a very good player at the time and did not know anyone who was, and thus I eventually dropped it. When I joined, the internet was just getting started while the dialup BBS's were dying off in droves-- The BBS closed down not long after I first got there.

Fast forward a few years to 1999. I accidentally discovered that TradeWars had made the leap from dialup terminals to telnet. This time, however, I made an effort to get my hands on some effective strategies and learn how to play properly. My first tcp/ip game was a 20k sector/20k turn/no photons game at Frogland BBS. Me and heyyou tried for months to fend off The Founder, but we were ultimately unsuccessful.

Who has been your major influence/influencers in the game?

Although neither heyyou nor The Founder are active players nowadays, I'm think I'm ready for that rematch ;) Founder beat my newbie-self into a pulp on numerous occasions, and when I thought it couldn't get any worse he kept the attacks coming. I hated every minute of it, but I learned a few things too.

I sit here today wondering what has become of my Think Different team of mac users. My former teammates, Mad Maxx, Caliban, and Madill, have totally left the game with the exception of the occasional email.

The Reverend has given me some sound scripting advice over the years. When I need some advice and don't know where to turn, I know he'll be there.

Hats off to all of the members of Fugitives From Fate and the others who have corped with us: I know that each of you strive to do your very best.

Who do you normally corp with?

Most of the people I corp with are Fugitives members. There are some others who are not on that list but are worth mentioning: Alexio, banano, Sir Lancelot, Mythrandir, River Rat, and White Knight.

How did you come up with your TW handle and what does it mean?

My TW handle is my internet handle in general. When the internet was first getting started, my parents got an AOL account (I'd never use AOL today, of course). I wanted my own screenname, and I was typing various permutations of my name until I found a screenname that wasn't already taken: "Cbs" (My initials: Colin B. Stagner) and "228" (The day I signed up: February 28). I continue to use the name Cbs228 to this day, mostly out of the desire to be known only by one name instead of many. But maybe I'll think of something better... Right Phoe6e? ;-)

Who have been your favorite people to play with over the years? why?

Of all of my corpies, I have known Father Cajone and zep the longest. Father Cajone makes a reliable (though non-combative) blue, and zep is equally skilled at red. We've had some good times, some not so good times, and some just plain boring times over the years in more games than I can count.

As enemies, I respect Blue Adept, <<Doctor Who>>, Prestone, and Kemper3 for their skill. Any one of these people will give you a sound threshing.

Are there any individuals you would like to play with but never had the opportunity?

I would enjoy being able to "pick the brains" of the Star Endeavors perma since I seem to be a horrible strategist. I can do anything in TW, but figuring out when to do it seems to be the greatest puzzle of all. The Star Endeavors has some of the best strategists I have ever seen, and they will probably continue their killing spree for quite some time.

Any Major games you have won? when and with whom?

The only Major I have won (not for lack of trying, mind you) was the hotly-contested WTC 2002. The GoodGuys sent in a mega corp under the expectation that others would do the same. No other mega corps materialized, however, and the game was easily won. It was absolutely no fun since all I did was sit in a protected bubble and push my AutoSDT button once a day.

What programs/helpers are part of your TW arsenal?

During my first game at Frogland I took an interest in scripting, haven been planet dropped by The Founder more times than I could count. I immediately hit a wall, of course, since the sum total of helpers and scripts for the MacOS was (at that time) nil, and my existing telnet client had the script capability of a large concrete block. I spent hours crawling the internet until I found a telnet client that was sufficiently scriptable. From there I proceeded to (over the course of a year or so) build basic evil scripts, colonizers, and an Adjacent Photon bot that had an alarm function and auto reconnect, which I used on my newly-rolled DSL line in earnest.

A few months and several games later, I ended up connecting with two other mac users, Caliban and Dark Rider (neither of whom are active today), in a game against Peacemaker and his team, "The Dark." UPDATE (2/17/04): I previously indicated that it was Kemper3's team. While Kemper did participate, Peacemaker was the CEO. Thank you for the information, Kemper. END UPDATE. Once more I found myself outmatched by new strategies such as pwarp photon, and once more I adapted. My original client was not intended for TradeWars, and AppleScript can't handle the data processing for advanced CIM functions quickly enough to be effective.

In 2002 I started using Dark Rider's helper, TWScripter v3. I ported over all of my old scripts and spent the summer in a caffeine-induced coding frenzy in a dead game at a no-name server. The result of all of this effort was the beginnings of some of my more advanced scripts, including AutoSDT (A "one touch" evil solution that is compatible with Rev's) and BotScript, which I consider to be one of the most advanced AFK defense bots ever used.

Where are the main servers you play now?

This is a redundant question. See below.

Which servers are your favorite to play and why?

Some of my favorite servers-- Frogland, Hardcoded, and Coastgames-- are gone today. It's too bad that they're gone, but there are plenty of others.

Some of my current favorites include: The Game BBS, Alienbase, The Lost Trader's Tavern, and (my favorite test server) Terra. These servers have excellent uptime, low latency, and an Op I can trust.

Any advice you could give to a newer player just entering TW?

Be ready to die. Then be ready to die some more. Although this has a tendency to make people miserable, it is both standard and effective to teach people by killing them. That being said, however, if you're dying repeatedly in the same way then something's not going right. If a person who kills you refuses to give you any infor