Glossary of TW Terms - The Cabal's Secret Hideout

Last Updated 05/02/2005. Updates and adds are marked with an '*' -Traitor

#SD#:: The condition where a player is #SHIP DESTROYED#. You want to avoid it.
Alignment:: This is the measure of how good or evil you are. Negative numbers means you are evil; a Red, and positive numbers indicate you are good; a Blue. Having an alignment of 0 means you are neutral. Note that you can enter the Underground as long as your alignment is less than 200.
Alpha Centauri:: See Class 0 ports
AMTRAK:: This advanced tactic is used to kill people who get towed from Fed Space after extern. The idea is to map all of the MSL's and completely surround them and Fed Space with figs, sort of encasing the MSL's and Fed in a bubble.
Attac:: A TW helper, see Helpers.
Backdoor:: A backdoor is any sector that has a one-way that connects to another sector. Backdoors can be found by voiding all the sectors that lead OUT of the sector, then try plotting a course to the target sector.
Black Hole:: Black Holes in TW are sectors that have one or more ways in, but no ways out. Usually created by the sysop. Once you enter one, you can't get your ship out.
Blind Warp:: Blind Warping is where you attempt to Transwarp or Bwarp to a sector without one of your figs. You risk fusing. See Fusing.
Blue:: A player with 1 or more alignment. A "good" player. See Commission.
Bubble:: A group of two or more sectors that can only be accessed through a single sector, called a gateway sector. Most players setup their planets in bubbles so that they only need to defend the gateway sector.
Bubble, Gold:: A gold bubble is created by the SysOp/GameOp using Gold extensions. Bubbles are a minimum of 100 sectors in size. Gold Bubbles often have 2+ ways in or out.
Bust Clearing:: Ports in TW only keep track of the last person who busted there. Clearing busts takes two reds. When the first red busts at a port, then the second red takes over until he busts. Then the first red is free to use that port again.
Bust Cloak, Cloak Busting:: The art of finding someone who is cloaked, and using a photon to de-cloak them. See AMTRAK
Busts, Busting:: Assuming you aren't exceeding your experience limit while robbing or stealing, your odds of busting are about 1 in 50. When you get busted stealing, you loose 10% of your experience, and a portion of your holds. When you get busted robbing, you loose 10% of your experience, and holds equal to 1% of the number of credits you tried to rob.
Bwarp:: Using the planet based transport pad to beam to another sector, similar to transwarping there.
CFS:: Short for Corporate Flag Ship.
CIM:: Computer Interrogation Mode. Can be accessed by pressing ^ at any prompt. Used to acquire information about things you've already explored, such as sectors and ports. Also used to build a map with ZTM.
Class 0 Ports:: Ports where you can buy figs, shields and holds. Terra has one, and there are two others, Rylos and Alpha Centauri. They are cleaned at extern just like normal Fedspace, but you CAN place figs, mines and planets in there.
Classic:: This refers to any game that is banged totally stock, with NO sysop changes. 1000 sectors, 250 turns per day, etc. Also refers to any game that has GOLD Mode disabled.
CN9:: The command for setting your abort display. Shorthand for Computer, persoNal Settings, Abort Display on Keys. For a good explanation, see tip #39.
COLT:: Short for Colonial Transport ship
Commission, Commish:: When a player wants to become blue (usually so they can use an ISS, or be fedsafe), they have to apply for a Commission. Any player with 1000+ alignment is considered to have a Commission.
Corbo:: Short for Corbomite.
D/RTR:: Buy-dump then Rob, Transport, Rob. This is a red money generating tactic. Requires at least one mobile planet, a few million startup cash, and two ships (usually a COLT and a Havoc).
Dead-end, Deds:: A sector with only one way in, and one way out.
Evil Pair:: A pair of ports that are within one hop of each other that both buy Equipment. Used by Reds to run SSM or other money making tactics.
Extern:: A lot of things happen at Extern. See Midnight too. Fedspace is cleared of Nav Haz. Empty ships in Fedspace are repo'd. Players are towed for Armament Violations. Busts clear. Port construction advances. Players and Corps timeout.
Fake Bust:: TW keeps track of where each player successfully steals or robs last. If you try to steal from the same port again you will always be busted. This is a fake bust because if you successfully steal somewhere else, you can come right back.
Farming, Planet Farming:: This is slang for planet creation and maintenance. Usually done by blues.
Fed:: Short for Fed Space. The sector with the Stardock, and sectors 1-10 are considered Fedspace.
Fedsafe:: Any condition where a player has zero or more alignment (i.e. a blue), and whose experience is 999 or less. Reds are NEVER fedsafe!
Flee Penalty:: When you are attacked by a non-corpie, your ship will attempt to flee if it's not destroyed. After version 3.11.54, a one turn penalty was added to help curb the gross profitability of SDF.
Furb:: A Merf with full holds used to refill a COLT to full holds. See Furbing.
Furbing:: When a red takes a bust in a COLT, the COLT looses holds. Furbing is when a fellow corpie (usually a blue) buys a merf (or Furb), makes it personal, fills it with full holds and tows it to the red.
Fusing:: When you attempt to transwarp your ship someplace that doesn't have one of your figs, or blind-warp to a non-empty sector, and you end up in a pod. This is known as Fusing.
Grid, Gridding:: This is short for your deployed fig grid. The more deployed figs you have out there, the harder it is for your enemies to find your bases.
GOLD Mode:: Enables the Trade Wars Gold Edition features that allow the sysop to make changes to ships, planets, aliens, make big 20k sector universes, and modify existing settings. Can be used in conjunction with MBBS mode.
Helper, Helpers:: Helpers are utility programs that players use to enhance their TW play. They often include scripts that automate common tasks, ZTM and data management utilities, and other bells and whistles. Common helpers include TWX Proxy, SWATH, Attac, and ZOC.
IG:: Interdictor generator found on level 6 planets. Sometimes called PIG.
ISS:: Short for Imperial Starship
Macro:: Macros are a (usually) short grouping of commands that are entered all at once as one packet that gets sent to the TWGS server.
Mafia:: See Underground.
Major Space Lanes, MSL's:: The MSL's are all of the sectors that are directly between Sector 1, and the Stardock, and the triangle between Stardock, Alpha Centauri, and Rylos. They get cleared every extern.
MBBS Mode:: This mode emulates the HVS release of TW for the Worldgroup/MBBS systems. Evil Stealing Factor is set to 70% and Evil Robbing Factor is set to 50%. Busts clear daily. Megga-Robbing is allowed.
MCIC:: Maximum Change In Cost. For a good explanation of what MCIC is, check out the Economy of Tradewars 2 on this site.
Megga-corp or Multi-corp:: Two or more corps that are working together. Usually they will have blues on one corp, and reds on the other.
Megga-Rob:: In MBBS Mode ONLY, if a port has 3.3 million credits to a maximum of 6.6 million, you can rob it all at once, with the same odds as a normal rob. No matter what your experience is!
Merf:: Short for Merchant Freighter ship.
Midnight:: A lot of things happen at midnight. See Extern too. Players that died the previous day are allowed back in. Hold, Fig, and Shield prices change at Class 0 and Class 9 ports. Players who log in after Midnight gain one point of Experience and one point of Alignment.
Mixed-corp:: A corp that has both Reds and Blues in them. There are a lot of things that you need to do in order to keep a mixed-corp running.
Moth, Mothing:: This tactic is used to drain enemy Q-cannons. Q-Cannons will fire at any enemy ship the second it enters your sectors, regardless of the number of Figs it's carrying.
MSL:: See Major Space Lanes
Nav Hazz:: Short for Navigational Hazard. Each 1% nav hazz will do 10 points of damage. The odds of hitting one are equal to the % that's there.
P-Drop:: The tactic where you sit in on a mobile planet (lv 6 is preferred) in the citadel, and wait for someone to run into one of your figs. You then warp the planet to that sector and attempt to kill them.
Photon, Photons:: Photons are offensive weapons that only certain ships can carry. They are used primarily to deny other traders turns, or for invasions. A planet will lose Military Reaction, Interdictor Generator, and Q-cannon fire ability if the planet has under 200 shields.
Planet Busting or P-Busting:: This is how reds gain experience quickly. The red buys some genesis torps and some atomic dets, and starts creating and destroying planets. Each cycle of creation and destruction will get you 75 exp.
Planet Trading:: Planet trading is where you take a mobile planet (LV 4 Cit or above) and park it under a buy port. Then you sell any goods that are on the planet to the port.
Pre-Lock:: Pre-lock is when you lock a tractor beam on a ship before combat begins. This allows you to tow the ship after combat.
Pwarp:: Using a planet's transport pad to warp to another sector. See P-Drop.
Red:: A player with -1 or less alignment. An "evil" player.
Rylos:: See Class 0 ports
SDF:: Steal-Dump-Flee. A red money making tactic.
SDT:: Steal-Dump-Transport. A red money making tactic.
Stock:: Refers to the default game settings with no sysop modifications.
Tax:: Taxation happens once per day when you first log in. The amount taxed is based on how much cash you're carrying.
Tunnel:: A series of sectors arranged in a line, usually with only one way in and one way out. See Bubble.
Underground:: The underground (also known as the Mafia) can be accessed from any port as long as your alignment is less than 200. You can buy and sell various illegal goods there.
ZTM:: Zero-Turn Mapping. A technique for mapping the entire universe without using any turns by using the Computer Interrogation Mode.