                    What's New in POWER MACROS

     If you've never used POWER MACROS before, you are in for a
treat.  If you have been using the shareware version, this
version is a complete overhaul, and this file should give you
added incentive to register, NOW.

      Okay, here's what's new in the Shareware Version 2.9:

                    Additional Macros

     1) Planetary Shield Buyer -- For those of you who build
level 5 citadels and load them up with shields, this macro does
it automatically -- the shield-buying, that is.  The macro
computes the number of credits needed, gets the money from the
treasury, goes to the specified class 0 port, buys the shields,
then comes back and transfers them to the shield generator.

     2) TWVIEW Sector Scan Only -- Like the Port Scan and
Fighter Scan macros, this one captures only the Sector CIM
report and updates the TWVIEW Data file.

                        New Features

     1) Menus -- First and most noticeably, I have rearranged
the macros on the keys and created menus.  This allows me to
offer more macros and take up less keys, and to get all the
macros on the F1-F10 function keys for those of you with XTs.
The added inconvenience should be a minor problem, if any.

     2) Macro Configuration Menu -- Now the Configuration
Routine employs a menu, so you can change one or a couple of
settings without having to run through the whole Routine.  The
Menu also contains the InitShip and Toggle Litter Mode
routines, and an option to run the entire Configuration
Routine.

    3) New Litter Mode Options -- The Configuration File now
has settings for Default Litter Mode on or off, and Litter
Every Sector mode on or off.

    4) Macro Configuration setting for Capture Files -- Now you
can config the macros to keep an open capture file during a
game session.  The Game Initialization Routine opens the
capture file for the current game, and all macros that use
different capture files reopen the default file upon closing.

    5) Hog Mode -- If you have a ship with more than
150 holds, the Haggler routines haggle less aggressively when
selling, to avoid getting thrown out of ports too often.
Totally automatic, you need do nothing.

    6) Ferrengi Interrupt Option -- The Paired Port Hagglers,
the TransWarp Trader, and the Steal/Trade Macro all pause and
prompt you to continue or quit when a Ferrengi hassles you.

__FIXES__

     The Equipment-Organics Paired Port Haggler and the
Planetary Shield Buyer have been fixed for Shareware 2.9.  They
were both buggy in Shareware 2.5.

               WHAT'S NEW IN REGISTERED VERSION 3

     In addition to the new macros and features in this
shareware package, the Registered Version 3 has the following
improvements and additions:

     1) The Planetary Shield Buyer uses TransWarp.

     2) Planet Tender -- If you have lots of planets and get
tired of landing on them to switch colonists over and pick up
the fighters, this macro does it for you.  Run it once a day in
each sector where you have planets, and it will pick up the
fighters from planets without at least a level 2 citadel, and
make sure that all production groups have 1000 groups of
colonists or less.  If the planet has more than 3000, the macro
will move the excess to a planet in the same sector you
specify, or will jettison them.

     3) Safe AutoWarp -- This alternative to the game's
AutoWarp allows you to safely AutoWarp from here to there.  The
macro density scans each sector on the path before moving, and
prompts you if the density is high enough to pose a potential
threat to your safety.  Like the game's AutoWarp, you can
select Express Mode or Regular Mode.  In Regular Mode, you have
all the options of the game's AutoWarp, plus more.  You can use
the Single Port Haggler, the Automatic Credit-Drainer, or post
a toll fighter.

     4) View/Edit Bust List -- This macro allows you to view
your Bust List, and to update it if you get the macros during a
current game, or if you have a power outage or something.  The
Bust List shows the port sector # and safe return date for each
port in which you've been busted.

     5) View/Edit Rob Log -- See below for Rob Logging.  This
macro lets you view the file made by the Rob Logging feature.

     6) TWAssist Capture File -- This macro makes the capture
file for use with the TWAssist database utility.  I modified a
macro originally written by Casey Stemp, released into the
public domain, and included in the distribution archive for
TWAssist.  Thank Casey for saving me some work.  I may include
further support for TWAssist in the future.

     7) View/Edit Recon File -- See below for Recon Feature.
This macro lets you view the file made by the Recon Feature,
and possibly modify the file for use as a Custom Probe List.

                        New Features

    1) Planet Trader -- The Planet Trader Macro will now trade
with a port in another sector.  You can use TransWarp or
regular space to travel from planet to port and back, and if
you use TransWarp, you can get the fuel from any planet or
port.

    2) Rob Logging -- The Automatic Credit Drainer now keeps a
log of its activity.  Every time you use the macro, it writes
the results to a separate Rob Log, listing the port number, the
amount robbed, whether you got busted, and if so, the amount of
money left.  It also records the date.  Some of you had this
feature in Version 2, but it wrote to the NotePad file.  I
personally found that unsatisfactory because of the clutter, so
I moved it to its own file.

    3) Macro Configuration Setting for TWarp Fighter -- Now you
can select Offensive, Defensive or Toll fighters.

    4) Custom Probe List -- This feature allows you to make
your own text file of sectors into which to shoot ether probes.
Useful for hunting down enemies by using the TWVIEW OFFLINE.EXE
Dead End Analysis feature.  The macro shoots the probes and
screen captures the results (especially useful for playing at
14.4!).

    5) Recon Mode -- The Ether Probe Launcher now has a Recon
Mode Feature.  This feature creates a recon file and writes to
it the sector locations of planets, Ferrengi, traders and
aliens.  You can use this file to find targets to attack, or
even as a Custom Probe List.  Also, if a probe goes past Rylos,
Alpha Centauri or Ferrengal, the macro asks if you want it to
write the location to the NotePad.

    6) New Game Init Feature -- This feature activates if the
game asks you what name you wish to use.  It asks if you want
to purge any files with the prefix entered for this game.  If
you select "Purge," the macro deletes all files in the Trade
Wars directory with that prefix.  You can also select "Keep
.CFG File," which purges all files except the Macro
Configuration File.  You can also continue without purging.
This feature is especially for when the sysop rerolls a game.

    7) Standard Name Feature -- Part of the New Game Init
Feature, this feature will automatically enter a player and
ship name if you happen to use the same names on all your
boards, and you enter those names into the COMMO.SET file.
If you do not desire to use this feature, do nothing.  It will
only activate if the specified changes are made to the
COMMO.SET file.

    8) PreGame User Macro -- If you set a variable in the
COMMO.SET file, the game initialization routine will call a
user-defined macro at the end of the initialization.

                              Fixes

     I have fixed several minor things, and totally reworked
the interior workings of the major routines.  I actually
chopped about 10k of code from the existing macros before I
started adding new features and macros.   The existing code is
thus tighter and more efficient, and opened up new
possibilities.
     The TransWarp Trader -- When thrown out of a port, this
macro used to buy a full load of fuel, effectively killing the
macro.  That is fixed.
     Also, The TW Trader uses NonAggressive Haggling Mode when
purchasing fuel, to avoid getting thrown out for trying to buy
fuel.  The Trader uses your selected Aggressiveness Mode for
transacting in the organics and equipment.
     InterPlanetary Colonist and Material Shifters -- These had
a couple of problems, they have been fixed.

     Other things, I fixed the Initialization routine, which
sometimes gave an error when it couldn't find the file or tried
to read past the end; now it runs the configuration routine.
     The .SET file now splits the Trade Wars Path variable into
two, TWDRIVE and TWDIR, for those of you who uses drives other
than C:.
     The Turns Counter had a quirk or two.  I fixed those,
although I can't remember what they were.
     There was more, all of it little.  Basically, anything
that has happened to me or been brought to my attention is
fixed.

                  WHAT WAS NEW IN VERSION 2

                    Additional Macros

    1) TransWarp Colonizer: For those of you with TransWarp
capable ships, particularly the StarShip, this beauty will move
colonists from Terra to your home planets, or from planets in
any other sector to any other sector.  Fuel can come from the
destination planet, another planet in the destination sector,
a port in the destination sector, or a port or planet in a
sector near the destination sector.  There also is now a
TransWarp Material Shifter along the same lines.

    2) Keep-Fuel Single Port Haggler: This macro allows you to
keep a supply of fuel ore for your TransWarp drive and to trade
actively with the remaining holds.  Particularly useful for
exploring with a StarShip.

    3) Macro Configuration Routine: Now you can control how
many times the trading and steal macros loop.  You can pre-set
a specific number of loops, or select Auto Mode.  Also, you can
select ANSI or non-ANSI mode, Haggling Aggressiveness Selection
for those of you who want to stay in FedSpace as long as
possible but still shoot for top dollar, the number of holds to
reserve for fuel ore when using the Keep-Fuel Haggler, and the
number of turns remaining at which to stop macro execution, so
you don't run out of turns because you forgot to turn the
macros off.

    4) Planet Trader: Tired of getting ripped off by the
Planetary Trade Agreement?  This macro will either buy or sell
any commodity between a port and a planet in the same sector.
Great for starting those citadels, or for cashing in on the
planetary production, at top dollar.

    5) Port Scan Only: Allows you to update just the port
report for your TWVIEW data file.

    6) Ether Probing: Takes a CIM sector report and plots
courses to the unexploreds, giving you a second after each to
decide whether to shoot a probe.  Shoots the probes, and when
you run out the macro will buy more if you are at StarDock and
want to keep shooting.  Semi-automatic.

    7) Photon Launcher: This macro replaces the Automatic
Planet Invader, which was a big, problem-filled dinosaur.  This
one simply shoots a photon missile into a selected destination
sector then enters the sector.  You can do the rest.

    8) NotePad: Now you have a NotePad file for each game you
play.  Allows you to enter notes into a text file.  Also the
Ether Probing Macro writes the last sector probed in this file
so you know where to start tomorrow.

                   New Features in Old Macros

    1) Paired Port Traders:  Exciting: There is now an
automatic mode, where the macro runs untended until the port is
whipped, or you reach the minimum turns level set in the
Configuration Routine.  When the port quantities drop, or when
your Profit-Per-Loop drops to 1/2 what it was on the first
loop, the macro quits.

      Also, Haggling Aggressiveness.  You can select 1 for
maximum aggressiveness and Experience Point gain, or 0 for
maximum profit while avoiding Experience Points.

      Also, the ability to start in either port.  Got
organics in your holds when you pull up to the
equipment-selling port?  No sweat.

     2) Bust Control for Evil Players: Whenever you get busted
in a port using one of the stealing macros, the macro records
the port and the date it will be safe to return (leap years
factored in through 2004) in a data file for each game in which
you play.  Every day when you log in to the game, the date is
updated, and the data file purged of newly-safe ports.  EVERY
time you use one of the stealing OR trading macros, it checks
the list, and if you have been busted in that port in the last
two weeks, it won't port.  No more keeping track or getting
busted at the same port twice!

     3) An automatic mode for the 5xp Steal Loop.  The macro
will continue until you get busted, or hit the minimum number
of turns set in the Configuration Routine.

     4) A vastly improved InterPlanetary Colonist Shifter.
You can now move colonists through regular space between
planets in different sectors.  No, it's not a TransWarp
Colonizer, but it comes in handy.  This macro was included in
the shareware Version 1.9 package.  Also, the InterPlanetary
Material Shifter will be improved along the same lines.

     5) The TransWarp Trader also now has the automatic mode,
just like the Paired Port Hagglers.

     6) The TWVIEW macros have been improved considerably.
First, the Data File prefix for the current game pops up in the
Input Box automatically.  Second, you have the option of
Automatic CONVERT Operation.  If you select Automatic in the
Macro Configuration Routine, the macros will automatically
operate CONVERT.EXE and create or update your data files.

     7) For those of you who have to keep a close eye out for
Zyrain and his cronies, the "Look for Zyrain" routine has been
upgraded.  Now it checks for a density over 400 in your
destination sector (or over 1000 in sector 1), and stops the
macro if that density reading occurs.  You no longer have to
wait 2 seconds.

     Other minor fixes and changes will be installed as needed
or as I think of them.  The Turn Counter I know needs little
fixes and they will be completed.

     The Planet Invader has been 86ed.  It was just a monster,
full of problems, and not worth the disk space.  If you have
grown to enjoy it, sorry, but you can keep version 1.1 around
and load it in just when you need that macro.  It only works if
you have a planet scanner, which means StarShip.  I installed
the Photon Launcher in its place.  Like one local user said,
better leave something for the players to do.  The idea of the
macros is to automate the data processing and money-making
routines so the players can concentrate on the combat and
strategy.

                          Conclusion

     Other minor fixes and changes will be installed as needed
or as I think of them, or as they are suggested to me.

     If you think of any changes, fixes or additions, please
make sure to get them to me as soon as possible.  I am always
open to bug reports and suggestions, and most suggestions
eventually find their way into code.  I hope to always make
these macros as useful and helpful as possible.  The best way
for you to do so is to log on to Trade Wars Only! BBS at
1-804-979-9568, running a USRobotics 14.4 HST, and to leave
Feedback to GameMaster.

    Registration is $15.  If you want a floppy disk, include $5
for shipping and handling.  See REGISTER.FRM.
