I have been coding TWGS SysBot using C++, it basically is a program that utilizes the Admin window from remote access to the server. What is does is manages alien plts (regens them in random bubbles and can run scripts for upkeep), adds players, plts, ships, terra re-fill etc. It also manages the CIM for each game on the TWGS and does its work according to each CIM. Can also be configured for mult. games. All of which should be able to be triggered at certain times of the day and utilizes a Java Window for inputs from the SysOp of the board into the server. Soon, once the bugs are done, this BOT should be server safe to be implemented. I want to know if anyone has any ideas for improvement or any ideas. I am still troubleshooting this program and would like some feedback on whether or not I should make SysBot available, that is, if I make it available.

Just trying to make gameops' lives easier (like when they go on vacation, word to you Rowdog)

ExCOn

Thats a good idea, I can think of several suggestions. Although it might be best to concentrate on one thing at a time and ensure that portion is all bug-free before moving onto another area, i.e. finishing this random factor edition with the automated maintanence and then move on to an automated rebang edition were that portion of your build will create specific sectors for the GameOp, i.e. in-line, squared, tiered, squared w/ teir, mazed, etc.; also treasure adding, creating, and placing, global/random port upgrades, placement, classifications, onhand credits, MCIC values, etc. Basically just keep increasing the options for GameOps into a streamlined and automated process.

I think it would be a really good idea if you could work Xen and Orion w/ Rogue Galaxy. Maybe you could all work as a team and come up with a single utility that works in coordination with its self, rather then three seperate programs that all do relatively similar things. I think thats what happens on most projects people start, they are working on it by themselves start becoming over welmed by all the realized intricacies of it, other things come up in RL and their work is just set aside and forgotten about or a new verion of TW comes out making some of the functions of their program no longer work properly. I personally feel a team effort is needed for something like this, it would really show through in the end result, you consorted program. Hey, you could also probably stand to make some cash on having a registered version and as well you can each bask in the credit and acknowledgement equally. [;)]

I think all the working going into finding ways to improve TW lately is outstanding. It is deffinitely not going unnoticed and I for one look forward to the outcome.

Dude Seriously... why is it that you always read my mind Rexx, i mean come on, great minds think alike.

ExCon

Is it improving the game or morphing it into something different? I am not sure what uses this would actually provide but: Terra refill removes a part of the game - colo denial; adding players/planets/ ships - not sure what that is about or the alien planet regeneration (creating new alien planets after they have been capped?).

Not trying to trash what you are doing, but can you explain what exactly this would do to game play? I understand it is a utility for the gameOp, but since T-Edit during a game is somewhat frowned upon, how would this be different than manually T-editing a game?

               / Promethius / Enigma / Wolfen /

"A man who has no skills can be taught, a man who has no honor has nothing."

First off it would allow customized games that could be perfectly consistant or random, depending on the intention of the game edit. Do you realize how much work goes into creating a unique game? To have to do that over and over again, there is just no way! There is no way to manually manage even 1,000 sectors let alone 20,000. Creating the ability to edit a game in this manner would enable endless possibilites, with sectors, bubbles, you could make it so that every dead-end has a SBB port already there or you could make it so that no dead-end have any ports inside of them upto the gateway allowing the player to choose which port they want to have there, you could make a game that runs a NPC as a Fed that actually keeps the MSL's cleared, i.e. every 30-minutes it will warp into the MSL give you a 5-minute warning and then if you fail to comply it will destroy everything in the sector and tow you're ship and/or planet out side of the MSL.

For Terra, comeon, in an unlimited game a good script can bleed Terra of colo's in what less then 10-minutes? Unless that is the intention of the edit to make players battle for others assets without permitting them the ability to gain their own, what is so bad about keeping Terra replenished? Besides are we to believe there is only 100,000 people living in all of space?

Another feature that I can't wait for is finally creating a way to determine who is in the lead, who is winning the game, and a display that keeps that related info updated and available to players without the GameOp of each game having to update this info. Finally, a way to actually determine who is the winner of the game.

As well this could be used to patch bugs and include other features, i.e. I would like to be able to put a few billion credits into the bank and for it to earn some interest, also make ships more expensive, hold more holds. Additionally there is the aspect of creating a shipyard and a port that has defenses and offenses like a planet. What about being able to build you're own mini-StarDock or class-0 port? Maybe that could be built as the vacant class-9 port.

Somebody just mentioned about creating an option for photon immune ships, from the old Scorpion class ship, (except it would just deflect it without bouncing it back at the shooter.) Also creating NPC's you could hire to protect you and watch your grid for you, watch your home sectors, (even when you are logged off.) NPC's could move their sectors to protect them, they could max out ports, just as a real player would, etc. Creating counter-measures to launch during a retreat, the ability to cloak and move, (this would work similar to using a photon to spy on a sector.) The ability to send out fighters to adjacent sectors without actually moving from the current sector.
Imaging being able to store unmanned ships in your Citadels. There are just so many cool things that could be done to make each game unique and seem as if it alive. It would create the perspective that GameOps to give more personal attention to each single game. This to me would be much better then banging a specific edit and then that is it, once you learn the settings you know what to expect there are really no suprises except from what you receive from the other players. This would truly take each individual game to an entirely new level, which is really long past do in this reporter's opinion.

I think all the superscripter's are afraid of this, because they will have to rework their entire script library! hehee [;)]
Fear not! For change is to be admired and respected!

I am all to familiar with how difficult and time consuming it is to build a decent edit, but that is part of the challenge of creation. Many games have unbalanced edits - either weighted heavily toward blues or reds (ships and cashing).

As for depleting Terra in 10 minutes - that would be something that the edit designer or gameOp decided upon by not starting out with sufficient colos. Colo denial is a viable strategic method to deny your opponent resources - ship buyouts are also a method that is used to keep someone out of the game. Fighting for resources is a part of the game.

Several of your options would require the game itself to accept the changes and return the proper messages. Hiring "NPCs" would have to have a method within the game to accept and monitor. The ability to edit sectors for specific port types and quantities of product would not affect the game engine. Clearing the MSLs could also be done, but it would not be good to be out doing planet trades or running a pdrop since someone could make you warp into a MSL (has been done just before extern and that level 6 becomes a level 2).

As for "superscripters" being afraid of change, I doubt it as they would respond quickly to the changes and the non-scripter would be sucking air waiting for those changes to be released.

I'm not saying that your ideas are necessarily good or bad, just that the game itself would have to be able to accept user input to accomplish many of them.

               / Promethius / Enigma / Wolfen /

"A man who has no skills can be taught, a man who has no honor has nothing."

Those things can be implemented through patches by running as an external gateway to and from the game itself, right? It would buffer and parse the data and then display it, subroute it, pass it onto TW, i.e. catching new key commands and hold them for processing and pass the rest to TW. Basically the way TWX works with SWATH, Windows, and TW. Literally talking to each other in a unilineal fashion.

You also brought up another point, excluding the ship limit; I adamantly feel that is the lamest thing! Ok worst case scenario I figure is: 2,000 total ships x 20,000 each ship = 40,000,000 credits. 5,000 turns per 500 ships, BAM! A full corp can close out a game within 4-days in a low turn. A single red can close the game out a game in about 20-minutes in an unlimited with a good run, (using a FedSafe blue to make the ship runs.) I hate those cheesy little, disty Butt strategies! If you don't want to play then don't, but locking down a game just so that you "win" using those tactics. The worst! [:(!]

So if I understand you correctly, you would need to run a front-end before any data ever gets to the TWGS to catch the commands and modify the datafiles, or most likely create additional ones. Whenever a player uses one of the new commands that the TWGS would not accept, then the front-end would catch the command and respond appropriately with messages and actions. Why not just write a new game instead of creating hacks to modify the game play that was developed? It would be more profitable provided the game did not breach the copyright.

As far as strategies, that is a topic for a different thread.

Back to ExCon's original post; How do you (ExCon) see the application you are developing being used?

               / Promethius / Enigma / Wolfen /

"A man who has no skills can be taught, a man who has no honor has nothing."

I know the answer to that one, that's easy! [:P] Because then you would no longer be playing TradeWars 2002. Which, generally speaking is afterall the point and purpose of creating a utility or MOD for any program that one enjoys using. Cases in point, remember the TW Mall the universe expander, the Q-continuum mod. Those programs added some much needed pizazz to the game.

DAMMIT! Rexx, you told them my ideas before i could... lol dude man, you are so on the project if you want. Anyway, to everyones questions, yes it is sort of a mod and yes I am trying to improve or at least create a sort of Alien AI that is challenging to players. I mean seriously, players play to kill players, not work with eachother to kill off ferrengi. I wanted to create a SysOp utility that will make their SysOp duties automated. Sure, the program will have all of the current SysOp scripts available to us now but it will also have more. Like scripts that are triggered at EXTERN, some causing alien owned and yes, Federation Owned plts to move around to different locations, thus making it more difficult to find rogue plts and moving ones. Since I am piloting SysBot in Game D at Exiles Haven, ppl have become quite fond of SysBot and its ability to manage my alien plts. Considering the plts are prize plts to be found, only these "Utopia-Class" plts are avail to the player via capping and not Gen-torp. If ppl want to experience the pilot game of SysBot (It is being banged tommorrow at Exiles Haven, game G) then they can. I initially created it to make my life easier as a well involved GameOp, but since I go to College and have a GF, i cant be at the console moving plts myself.

This program was designed to be the ULTIMATE SysOp/GameOp tool. Something that can change the face of Trade Wars by changing the aliens, alien worlds, having triggers for certain times of day, utilizing the CIM, a Bot-like Observer Acct, recording the daily logs (from the SysOp/Admin window), the clv and other applications to create a system read-out of the game. for instance, this read-out can be posted at the closing of a game and will show EVERYTHING that has happened within the game. Players can then know htere scores etc and who beat who. Its more detailed that way.

Furthermore, sure its probably unethical to mess with a game via T-Edit, but come on, this is SysBot, something that is automated and ran by scripts, triggers, macros and is user friendly. this program is designed to use T-edit to make a game more enjoyable for its players. I think, if one were to use SysBot, they should say like on the game name that its being used, and players shouldnt fear it either.

However, it is true, like Rexx suggested, I need help coding, and creating this project, doing it by myself as it seems it somewhat tedious since i have a life. In the end, I would like to create a registered and unregistered versions given to the public. I know this may and possibly will change Trade Wars forever, but seriously, it needs a facelift in some aspects, like my suggestion of Photon Feedback, that option needs to be in T-EDIT, I am drooling over it. Seriously, we need that option.

ExCon

If oyu have any more questions or ideas, or help i am VERY open. Keep it coming.

It sounds as if you want aliens more involved in the game and possibly distract players from attacking each other. The "reverse photon" sounds as if you have been hit one too many times by someone firing at you.

I wish you well in you endeavor, but I do hope the gameOps will post that their games are being mainpulated by the bot. Since this appears to be a utility geared toward games with aliens, it will be good for people who are not ready to take on live players.

               / Promethius / Enigma / Wolfen /

"A man who has no skills can be taught, a man who has no honor has nothing."

Good Point, but its also a mode of balance in the game. For instance, the edits that I have created were a bit unbalanced. Strong ships and VERY strong plts. I made those strong plts to not be avail. by gen torp and just alien ones, since palyers cant make htem, how will they get them? So i insert them via SysBot, players can then get the prize plts they want.

Yes, all Ops that use the utility must say that their game is being manipulated by it. As far as taking focus off of other players, no not really, I want there to be a balance between aliens and players. It just seemed aliens were not involved enuf. Now they can be.

Btw, as far as the p-torp feedback goes, I want that option to change a little of the strategy within the game. If and when the option if avail. I will show you. >) Anyway, thx for your guys' support.

anything else? anyone willing to contribute or maybe help on the project?

ExCon

Sure I would like to assist with it, I am no programmer though. Although I have made a cool little bootup password protection program back in 97' using Basic for my friends computer that he use to keep at work to keep others from messing with it. I also use to make scripts back in the early 90's for BBS SysOp's. Currently I a familiar with only TWX, cause' TWX totally rocks! I have also just started messing with ANSI codes.

Hey, though regarding the photon feedback; you could use a virtual ANSI screen that would replace the outgoing from TW, such as Traitor has done using to change the scanning display in one of his current TWX scripts. i.e. you could add an option for photon resistance in the ship editor and include a routine to prevent TW from detecting the attackers launch by holding that input and then just have it dislay an outgoing message such as: (to offensive) Photon launch unsucessful the Snuggle Class Vessel "My Ship Rocks" is equipped with a photon dampening lock! (to the defensive) Photon incoming, damping lock engaged... Photon hit narrowly avoided, ships dampening ability maintained at 90%. (Also I was just thinking that it might me cool to put a percentage that is reduced by each dampening incident from 100% down to say 25% afterwhich there is a high probability that that it will no longer substain from a photon hit, until the damage has been repaired by the new Ship Repair Facility or SRF.)

Another idea would be including that ability to prevent shipboard photon detonations if a users ship has higher then say 95% of the ships total shielding level and the ship has more then 1,000 shields at the time of impact, (and is equipped with photons) and happens to run into mines, NavHaz, or offensive figs, i.e. the heavy shields on the ship would buffer the impact and prevent the photons from exploding causing damage to their owner. That would be a nice addition!

Good man, someone plz give that man a medal, seriously. I would want to put that into action, dude yo. LOL

ExCon

Man alive! There is just so many possibilites and as well this would be something that permits the GameOp do enable or disable most of the auxiliary functions, right. So nothing would be set in stone, if a GameOp does not like an option they could simply prevent it from being used, etc. etc. Thereby, allowing games to maintain the flavor and preference of their creator. That would truly make it a much prized necessity.