I do think the base script set needs to be more accessible, as in, either directly part of the game or available in a free app that can be downloaded from EIS or any gameop's website.

I think competition is good. Even something as fundamental as PPT depends on the quality of the scripts -- as in haggling and knowing when to stop and move to the next pair.

you are right mongoose, and information such as is available at tw-cabal should be kep on THIS site; not as a piece of history, but as part of the game.

Hell, I bet traitor's whole archive of information could be added to the game as part of the help section, as that particular section could use with alot of the outside of the game knowledge that is out there. Might need a bit of a rewrite, to make it flow, but it could be done.

Same with the scripts, they should be much easier accessed than they are. I know where to look and it took me too long for most other's to lose interest.

I agree. That's why I've been trying to get more people involved in the official wiki.

Here is Traitor's TW-Cabal Site in PDF format. The file was created with his permission

http://helixtw.podzone.org/files/info/TW-Cabal_pdf.zip

H

Mongoose, have things improved with the wiki since I cleaned it out and locked it down?

Sil, you are not really a retread, they are players who left before the twixie pixies ran amok. My issue is that returnees from the late 90's and newbies get wasted by AFK reactive scripts and never come back.


As to age, I am probably the oldest left, but don't forget the adage "old age and cunning can triumph over youth and strength", grin.

I've been looking at this very closely for the last couple of years.

I was one who left when the reactive scripts started to become very popular around 2002. I didn't return until JP started development again, and now we have a few settings that discourage aggressive script use.

Since my return I've played the so called builders games, I played with Kav on the old HVS MBBS version - that was a riot! And now I've been playing with players who do write scripts to play.

IMHO - there is absolutely no way a player only using Swath can compete with anyone using TWX.

TWX is a very powerful tool, and I can see why it's so popular, with those who do script, that's the fun part for them now. They spend a large amount of time writing, testing and tweaking these scripts. In the game, the actions are mostly all scripted or botted. In BOTE 2011 my teammates wrote a script that would allow me to photon, transport, tow from up to 10 hops with a one second photon, to our Level 3 planet, and land safely. I had previouly thought this tactic was impossible. Then they wrote another script that allowed me to move the planet out before I was hit with a photon at the top of the hour. This is how we spent New Year's Eve. LOL

TWX players need to play with/against others who also use TWX.

We still need a toggle to turn TWX off for those players who don't script, and don't use TWX, and who only want to enjoy the game.

Folks, this is a 25 year old bbs text game, and yes, there are still people who want to play this game with "sticks and rocks" as Lone Star suggests. He may not understand it, but he needs to respect it. I'm not suggesting that Lone Star picks on noobs, but there are "script kiddies" who do.

BTW, the players I do play with who do use and write TWX scripts - we only play against others who do as well. (at least the games I've played with them.)

I've said it before, and I'll say it again:

There really needs to be an Official TradeWars Site, where people can obtain Scripts/Tools/Reference/Links/etc; and it *needs* to be blastered all over the place --Games menu, TradeWars 'Help', Stardock, EIS, etc, etc.

This isn't rocket science.

All scripts are aggressive. This is a war game.


The only way this will happen is if TWGS moves away from telnet. Thats the only way you will keep a scripter of any type (salt, swath, rexx or twx) from scripting around a 'switch'. If you think non-scripters are at a disadvantage now, add a switch to turn off scripting and see what happens.


At this point, you too, are a script kiddie.


People who want to play by hand don't play tournys. People who want to play by hand dont play 20k sector unlimited turn games.

Almost every server has a n00b/beginners game. You want to help? Get into one and show people what it takes to play TW now. When is the last time you spent hours in a game helping a n00b set up zoc/twx or swath/twx? When is the last time you corped with a n00b in a casual game and shared your new found experience with them? Someone did it for you, maybe its time to pay it forward?

H

I agree, rocket science it ain't. That sums up the problem with the newbies spending maybe one minute "trying it out". They get smoked, then Google 'tw2002' to learn how to play? I don't think so. They drive on. Same goes for the retreads. Sing has an excellent reintroduction for retreads. How do they find it? They don't even know that they should look.

There's no way that can be toggled. The server could request it, but the client would have to honor that request. It would be trivial to ignore it.

Aside from its speed, a script is indistinguishable from a human player. I can only see two solutions: impose artificial delays that are longer than human reaction times, thus making scripts and humans operate at the same speed; or develop some kind of heuristic script detector that boots players that play "too fast". The latter would be complicated, error-prone, and ultimately defeated when scripters figure out the limits and run just below them.

I haven't been on it much lately.

H,

TWX is different from the terminal program scripts because it's reactive scripts need the inbuilt TWX database for functionality, for the most part. It is a very simple matter to destroy the TWX data acquisition capability without affecting salt/rexx/twx/swath/etc scripts.

IMO, this would be a desirable toggle. There are very few of us capable of writing the type of reactive scripts that the pixies seem to delight in firing up if the database were not available and I think that those who are would not do so .

Yes, I am a script kiddie. I don't write them, I use the ones given to me.

The "Fun" is in writting the scripts. For players like myself, it's really no fun to play a scripted game. To sit and watch a script run my turns, or watch my teammates "bot" all of my turns, I may as well watch pain dry.

My current teammates, the Beverly Killbillies (a division of Boo, Inc.), respect my wishes for me to play my own turns. When in a high turn game, I let them bot most of my turns, I don't have time for all that, then I do my own thing, with or without scripts.

I know a lot of you who enjoy this type of play don't understand why "us" non-script writters just enjoy pounding on the keys ourselves, playing one game that spans weeks or months.

That's why we like low turn, time limit games. Like reading a good book, it unfolds over time. Not a Nascar race that is over in a matter of hours.

And yes, this is an aggressive "War" game, but IMHO planets should never be used as lethal weapons against non-TWX players. That's why on my server, planets and photons are on delays. It's a step.