I've lurked around these forums long enough to understand that a GameOp/SysOp manual still hasn't come to light. I registered for Gold Edition ages ago, but I keep my games closed and personal, just so that I can practice, troubleshoot, and learn scripting. I've been an open-game player on and off for well over a decade now, and I think I have a pretty good understanding of TWGS versus running games on a BBS (ie, WorldNet). I have 2 questions to put to GameOps:

(1) Is TWGS more often run as a stand-alone, or behind a BBS front door?

(2) Which is more registered, Gold Edition servers or standard servers?

I am willing to donate my time to creating a fairly concise manual for Trade Wars purchasers, but some input from the TW community would be helpful.

Paladyne

I beleive TWGS is used more as a stand alone application and I also beleive the majority of games are Gold enabled. And I agree, a nice TWGS Sysop/Gameop manual would be nice. Most items are self explanetory but there are a few things in there that nobody ever changes because someone said "dont worry about it, you dont need to change that" but there is really no REAL info on what it is or what it does. There are also a few things in the Gold editors that are confusing as hell until you sit for a few hours and figure out what they do and how they work. Like the spawning profiles for example, very confusing and hard to figure out for a new user. There are also no guidelines at all for the results of changes to some of these areas so you have to run the game and let it play out to see if it acts like you want it to and adjust from there. That makes setting up some games an EXTREMELY long procedure.

Boss, thank you for the input, and I agree that an information vacuum has been around for quite a while, and I've patiently waited for long enough. I'll put the screws to myself (grin) and get started with copying down all those help screens that pop up.

I think that, once I'm done, the reference should begin just after downloading the program, so that I can cover the registration process and the first BigBang.

But the depth of coverage has to include the Tedit screens and the Gold Editors as well, with examples of formula results. Basically, if someone reads this, they should be able to create excellent game ideas. That's my goal.