Anyone remember the days where Trade Wars was played WITHOUT macros or scripts? Everything was done at keys.

Yeah, you noobs don't even realize Trade Wars was once played that way.

Ahh, the old days.

I would question the existence of said days. Even when dialing into a middle school BBS I could still cut and paste command strings from a .txt document into the terminal screen. If a snot nosed punk could think it up, I'm sure the rest of the world wasn't too far behind

sometime before i invented ztm.

btw - j buffer? i've been away for a while - i'll have to see what that is about...

Laff. Earliest I remember is the early 1990s, but we had telix and telemate macros back then too. I even had a script that would PPT 2 ports for me. But I did once play around w/ a few term programs on 8088s, even they had macro capability to some degree.



Same diff, just works better on a planet prompt. The Z buffer doesn't work on the planet prompt for obvious reasons.

qqm3144^Maz999^Mfz1^Mcdx29^Mqlcp3144^Ms

hmmm.. maybe that needs a J too...

lift move, killfig, xport, pwarp

is the "az" a typo?

eh, just buffering on the z if there's no fig to attack
is designed as a solo pgridder of sorts....

.. and why would I use jy in the following?

cpy3144* qm3144* jy* aty20000* aty20000*sdsh

               / Promethius / Enigma / Wolfen /

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

nah..I mean using the j to buffer on if we don't make it back to planet

q q m3144^M a z 999^M f z 1^M c d x 29^M q l j c p 3144^M s

like that? so if i get photoned..and can't xport to ship 29..and land, it'll just try to photon 3144 and will do a quick scan and end at command prompt.

Not sure about your J use prom? That getting off mine/qcannon prompt after photon/move?

and aty20000^M ?? using t instead of z?

What I meant was, shouldn't the z go before the a in order to buffer properly?

ya know.. I guess I never thought of it, but you're right Omar, the z should be before the a to buffer properly, per Dny's mac tutorial.

Yet, it still is functional, m 3144 ^M moves into target sector,

a = attack fig if sector fig(s) are present, if none, it'll just say "Nobody here to attack"
z = buffers the 999 so i don't go flying off to sector 999
^M = either sends the attack on the poor sector figgie, or says No..to Instructions? (Y/N)
One place I didn't put one is where I xported to ship 29, should probably add one there.
So confusing, but still functional? Or am I missing something, this is a game show after all...

Still curious why you'd send a jy above, Prom?

But what if there is someone there to attack?



You also need to account for armids.

k, I have a tendency to forget clearing voids during mothing, so I fire a torp and don't go anywhere because of the void.. the jy sends me on my way - there is a disadvantage, but it doesn't really matter at that point. I use aty as my attack string start.

               / Promethius / Enigma / Wolfen /

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

hehe, put the Z before the a... yea. The reason you don't put it after... what if there is no fig but someone is sitting there? You don't want to get stuck at the attack prompt do ya? =)

Also you might want to put a zn after the qq, just to prompt synch in wierd cases.

The reason for putting a z before the 1 in the figlay is to avoid warping out if the enemy's figs are dampened. To that end you also want to buffer the cd too, otherwise you'll get stuck at the date prompt. Could be bad if someone is powering up against you.

Something like...



Would be safer.



I know you said it was to enter avoids, but a y* works just as well there. The J would jet any fuel you had, which could really suck. My first thought about your j use was exactly that reason, since you're powering up you might want whatever they have in their holds.

I don't like really like the t buffer thing, personally. It's not fedsafe. Think about if you try that in fed and zyrain is sitting there. You'll get the "Are you nutzo!?" prompt, then enter will clear that, then you'll be sitting at the powerup Y/N prompt. While you sit there, they laugh and power up at you. In that "oh crap!" moment you hammer the macro again and again... you might get unstuck if you hit it again, enough, but by then you're probably dead.



Nod. And cannon blasts and avoids.

....scrambling back to the drawing board..

Thanks for the feedback and tuneup!


Great topic, mobby!