So what do you "Cruncher" call old school. All I remember from the Old School days (93/96) is 1 player online at a time with a 1 hour time limit. Low turns (250/500) and if you were lucky you got a mobile planet before some one found you since most of the time we played using 500 sectors. You could do this now but getting rid of scripts I honestly doubt is a possibility. But I would really like to see what your ideas are that can't be done today without using a little creative planning. Honor system will never happen, there just isn't much honor associated with this game

I don't think anyone is going to make a movement in the Old School Edit direction. I personally think there is a room for every kind of play. If by old school you mean no scripts at all, ummm yea that is never gonna happen. Unless the game is rewrote to not allow other front ends but where there is a will there is a way.

there IS a way to make a scriptless game, and ive posted it before. use the java tw like what ice-9 has, and fix it so thats the only way in(i think sing gave the method). ill find the relevant thread and post it here.

the difficulty comes in when you want some scripts but not others. it really is an 'all or none' situation... unless someone writes a 'javaswath'(that was SGs idea)

here is the topic linky- viewtopic.php?f=52&t=26896&hilit=java+swath

She hasn't said script less so much as certain scripts, Primarily dealing with offensive scripts but at the same time she doesn't like any of the current edits at any of the servers... so some scripts= good other scripts= Bad.

I agree on the truce mode if there was truly a way to enforce it, but right now just not really doable. JavaTWGS ? unless it is out of the box where you have to have their front end so it is locked to whatever type scripts are added colo, ppt etc... In order to move forward we need her to take about 30 minute put some thought into it and give some good hard setup info for setting this kind of game up.
Maybe set how many players can be in a game at the same time? I am interested what changes could be made to = what your calling old school.

the java front end is already done- it runs from a browser window. no installation, no fuss, but no scripts.

cruncher doesnt seem to know what she wants in specific- she seems to want a game that has the 'feel' of a game from 1998 without a clear idea of how to accomplish it. personally i think there isnt a way to do that... macros and scripts were in use then but with a speed limit imposed by connection speed. theres no real way to overcome everyone having highspeed access and the associated pandoras box of powerful programming tools that evolved from it.

i think there is a truce enforcer script already in use somewhere... ice-9 again perhaps

TW can be ran through a BBS that would not allow scripts or macros (but I could be wrong). The java front end that most run is linked to a game that is already running on telnet port to connect to the TWGS so others could link in. I know someone could set it up so that it may only be accessible from the front end (not sure).

I run a script on my sever that polices around dock and other specific sectors to keep figs to 1 toll, no haz and no planets. But I am trying to give Cruncher a place to explain what she means by Old School. I can't really get a good feel for what she is wanting. I would like to know there may already be a solution for what she is wanting, unfortunately I think it will be an empty game but without trying who knows. There are a lot more people out there than the 100 or so that come on the forum and voice their opinion.

I am really just trying to start a dialog and see if we figure something out without just saying I want 1998 again!

sing describes how to set it for java access only in the link i posted on page 2 think

The idea is thus:

Put up a java client. Code the java client, hardcode it to connect to the server.
Use a port that's random and weird. Never tell anyone of the port, never tell
anyone of the server.

Now, if you know WTF you're doing, you can drop to dos and arp -a that sucker
and pull out the port and server. Or a firewall, or anything. But it keeps out a
large bulk of people... well, until someone with basic networking skills tells
everyone.

Now after reading back thru this, I realize there is a way you could sorta do
stuff. If you have a script that sits as an observer and sends a private message
out every few minutes... and waits for a special reply, it could sorta police the
server. If it doesn't get the reply, it drops the user. And the java client would
know the reply, but other helpers wouldn't.

Now... even that's hackable. You can decompile java, find the appropriate reply
algo, and write a script to reply in-kind, but provided you kept changing the
base algorithm you could make it a sufficient PITA to keep scripters out.

OK, tonight in the builder's game someone whacking tolls figs got killed, and the player who did the killing is an old returning player, he just started back a few months ago. He's a good guy, a considerate player, but this is a war game and we want to play it as such. Old school means we build, we fight, we invade we don't want truces, and we don't want to play against automation. Put the AFK photon scripts on a shelf. If you want to fight us, get out from behind your shields, out of your citadel and let's fight. Time limits and low turns, moderate gold edits are cool, but nothing crazy like Sub-Zero or M002. Now, doesn’t that sound like fun?

Get in, run your turns, set your defenses, kill your enemy then log off until the next day and hope you haven’t been killed.

We did use helpers then, Twar, TWHelper, ATTACK, Swath only Swath has evolved. We need basic scripts or helpers for the mundane so the Java games booger talks about won’t last long. I did use the Java client when I first came back, but 1800 turns a day is a bit much for that, so I eventually got ZOC and now TWX and Mombot. If TWX had a planet negotiator I wouldn’t bother with mombot.

Basically to me “Old School” means we play the game Trade Wars, we don’t want to play against automation. We want to play all aspects of the game so in today’s framework something between the builder’s games and the everything goes bot-wars games would be a nice niche, but again you know we can’t count on playing this game on the honor system. Someone may start out playing this way, get pissed because they got killed and fire-up a pdrop scrip. Then we’re back to playing against automation not real people at the keys.

This is why JP is looking into what if anything he can do with the game to create an Old School mode.

I'm about 100% sure that JP's idea of "old school" has nothing in common with yours.

There's no way to prevent scripts and automation.

All you need do is look on the Beta Server and see my Old School Edit. The only difference is in a real game I wouldn't have so many aliens, and probably a shorter time limit, say 4 hours a day.

Oh yeah, and as many players as the server can handle! Seriously, though the games I played and enjoyed the most had 50 or more active players with at least 10 logged in at any one time, usually much more in the evenings.

When I started playing it was already a multi-player game. I didn't start back in the days of the single line games. I really do enjoy the social aspect.

You Should be playing Tradwars the board game addition.


That’s how everyone is playing it now.


This is why we say you’re a hypocrite


You do realize people are ACTUALY there and there real.

He is making YOU and basically only you, your own edit.

Actually, that is not how a lot of people are playing it now. there are 5 people in 2 corps in the game that I am in right now that haven't logged off for more than 24 hours TOTAL since this game was banged almost a month ago. Are you saying that these people can go weeks with no sleep at all? No trips to the grocery store, or going to work? They are not logging off, and are using AFK scripts to kill anyone who touches a toll fig. When I log off, I expect to lose some toll figs. I also understand that there is a good chance that if someone knows where I am, I am going to be attacked. Yet I still log off. I prefer to play against, and with, someone with the same expectations. Someone who actually plays the game, instead of playing for a little while, then letting their computer cover their backside while thay are off doing whatever. I would not want to eliminate any scripts. Gods know that I am entirely too lazy to type m1^mlt^mm20000^mlsnl^mq 100+ times in a session to do a colonist run. Just ain't happening. But if you are done playing for a while, or you're going to bed, LOG OFF. Yes, you will probably lose some toll figs. Yes, you stand a chance of being invaded. Yes, you might even log in after breakfast only to discover that you are now SD. So what? Welcome to TradeWars. You can either quit, or start again at midnight. I'm guessing that is mostly what Crusher means by "old school". And if that is her definition, then I agree 100%.

She wants to get in the game, build her base, run her turns, invade and kill her enemy, HOWEVER, her enemy isn't allowed to kill her? Is that what she said or did I misunderstand it?