What type of things would one want to concider when building a better gridder than whats publicly available? Is it just all down to speed of the gridder? Having used all the public ones I'm very fond of Sing's attack retreat macro used in U-Grid. Woult that be terribly inefficent to have a gridder that attack retreats, twarps somewhere else comes back and surrounds or mows to the other location? Is a 2 ship gridder really the best form of active scripted gridding and why? What type of data do I want to precache in a array outside of figs? Going back to parameters; it would be useful to build a array of parameters for find fuel no?

Retreat mode like that is very fast and hard to hit w/ a direct photon, but it'll just lead to ppl building a photon to target it specifically. I've already got one originally built to hit surround gridders... so I can't imagine it'd be hard for others to pick up. I know Oz had a pdrop for it, so the concept is hardly new.

Anyway, Ram's gridder has a surrounds mode. W/ the right choice of sectors you'd effectively get the same thing. It's not terribly inefficient tho considering how hard it is to direct torp (getting torped is pretty inefficient, turn-wise atleast).

For mowing, well, don't mow. That's trivial to catch. Chain length filters, anticipation or just regular torping and a little luck.

2 ship gridding is not the best form of active gridding. It's hard to direct torp, but it's easy to beat w/ a little bit of creativity. Heck, just adjacent plock, drop, and cap the ship. Free money! Or use a timer, figure out the avg time between hits, and run a timed, looped holotorper. Planet gridding is the best form of active gridding, altho it's also the most turn expensive.

What kind of data to precache? Depends on your imagination. Figs, limps, armids, various sector types, whatever you can think of.

You don't need to use parms for fuel. TWXproxy already gives you a PORT.FUEL, why duplicate it?

heh heh
I like this subject...
Public ones, can't say I've tried em all.. the old days I used Rammers stuff, Rider had a cool planet gridder I modded a bit, but never finished the way I wanted it to work...
depneding on ur opp. surround gridding will get u killed fast...
Lawnmower is a sure death trap.
More than 2 sectors in a row is dangerous...
Ones that warp adj, warp in do what they want and warp out in the same mac are the safest... BUT your pick up limps.. so where ever ur gridding from should be well protected... Also if a turn game... it sucks...lol
Sing has one of the best private ones I've seen and very hard to hit... His public version might be the best one around, haven't tried it, nor have I tried the mombot gridder that LS let out... Sing made me scared of his scripts..lol.. he talked about backdoors once, and making evil scripts...
Me I still use my own, cause I can mod it if needed... but mine sucks for a turn game...

The best way to grid with a high percentage of NOT get torped or pdropped will consist of the following factors.

1) You must have decent connection speed (ping) compared to your opponent.

2) Only use jump points with your limpets and armids, OR use a planet, BUT try to lay limpets and if they are not yours, DON'T SURROUND. Of course you can visually tell if there are enemy armids there.

3) You can use surrounds, if the current sector is cleared of enemy mines, and never hit more than 3 adjacent sectors on one surround.

4) Have the script clean if there's a chance of picking up a limpet.

5) As Sing said, NEVER use a direct path or mow especially on dead ends. That will get you a pod very quickly.

So what in your opinion is the best form of gridding? Pgridding,two ship,attack retreat,surround,short charges, etc..

That all depends on the circumstances. If you have a lot of ore on a big planet and can afford to use it, sure planet grids along with surrounds is great. If you have some ore to use but not enough to planet grid, use a twarp grid but be carefull of limpets or mines in your jump sector. If you don't have a planet or enough ore, you'll have to buy gas from ports to do random surrounds, or you'll have to strait line grid. Personally I seldom strait line grid and would rather use a passive gridder and just grid unfigged sectors.

Don't think in terms of best or worst. Think in terms of the situation, and know thy enemy. Combine knowledge of the enemy's ability with the situation you're in and test it. Refine as needed.

MAke sure it does not do what my unexplored sector gridder does.
It goes in order. That is a sure death trap.
Keep it random