I am writing a TW Gizmo database that will take a formula and figure things out. I am prototyping it in Access 2000. I already got the formulas for stealing and robbing coded.

No product is planned yet to sell, just something I am developing. Someone gave me a formula and I want to keep it secret between me and that person. I might release some code using public formulas, but keep the secret formulas between myself and the creator of it.

I am trying to figure out how to calculate a megarob. As I understand it, the port has 11% more than it says it does in MBBS mode. Also only 3.5M to 6.5M can be robbed. Please let me know if I got any facts wrong.

There used to be a program that could calculate fig and shield prices, anyone know the formula on that?

I've gotten the rob and steal formulas from tw-cabal already. Any other public formulas I should be made aware of?

Thanks.

"secret formulas"
heh

It is a scientific approach to Tradewars. Figuring things out using formulas. Someone gave me their profitable ship formula and I plugged it into an Access database using a table of ship edit stats to figure out the most profitable ships in an edit. A real time saver. Before that I just took max holds over tpw, but that is not the most accurate way to figure things out.

Besides a 1 tpw ship with no twarp, may take more turns getting to the ports than a 3 tpw twarp ship if figs at laid out at the ports. Just twarp there and start trading. Plus the 1 tpw ship will hit someone else's grid figs and could be captured if someone is running an attack script to twarp in when someone hits a sector fig.

I am sure that many corps have figured out the best ships to use this way using a formula of their own.

It is easier to let a program figure this out for us, than get a calculator and do it ourselves.

creditsonport = creditsshown % .9

% is division, drop the remainder.

Thanks, any other formulas I should know about?

Like how fig and shield prices are based on each day?

How combat odds are calculated to capture a ship?

How to figure out the best price a port will sell? I'd really like to figure out how to get 5 exp each time.

How colonist regen will populate Terra each day. So I can figure out the best times to colonize in a busy and competitive game.

How to figure out what are the best ports to trade at? Each port has some sort of value that determines how much they will buy or sell for each cargo hold. How do I determine that value?

Thanks.

I have to agree with Typh00n.

lol

Heh Orion you can tell people who gave ya the ship forumula, hehehe, I'm kinda proud of it. I had been the first person to figure out the ports way back when, too, what're they're calling the MCIC now, and wrote telemate scripts that always got the absolute possible maximum amount of money from self-built ports because they were all the same. Although the amounts they paid varied by day of week, the script took that into consideration too. We averaged nearly 5k more per 250 holds of equip than any other script out there, and trust me, it made a HUGE difference. If I recall correctly, we got around 45,700 per load, but's been awhile, i remember the first offer was 48,200-something odd on the best day of the week, anyway formulas and such are very important, especially in low-turn games where every single tiny % can actually matter.

We need to hook up for that colonizing formula that Doctor Who and Didaskalos taught me, I finally understand it all now, and being able to quantify that into a static formula and just plug in the variables would be a great help in the future. =) How many runs to do per ore buy, etc. based on location and holds; it would need to calulate all the reasonable ships to find the best one, etc.

I'm still looking forward to playing a game with you soon, Orion_Blastar. =)

galaxi

Orion - most if not all of those formulas are available if you just take a little time to search for them. If you can't find them, do some testing and figure it out.

I have searched for them, tons of Tradewars pages out there, some with good info and some with outdated info. TW-Cabal seems to be the best, but doesn't have all the formulas I need. Did you know that some TW pages still talk about TW2002 1.X games? Heh... almost as funny as some dial-up BBSes that still run TW2002 1.X and never bothered to upgrade.

I am prototyping the TWGizmo in MS Access, when I get my confidence back I'll try and port it to Visual BASIC 6.0 and make a stand alone program that is easy to use. Haven't decided to charge for it, ask for donations, or make it open source yet. Thing is many players either don't know these formulas, or don't know how to use a calculator to figure them out. The TWGizmo will figure it out for them. I got one game that we are training someone to play red in a MBBS game, and this person doesn't understand how to calc the credits to megarob. A TWGizmo would help, or using a megarob script would also help.

If anyone knows formulas for Tradewars listed on a web page, please post them here. Google turns up mostly TW pages that I cannot use. The search continues.

Galaxi, we have to get those formulas figured out, and I have to get this database to you sometime. I'll let you know via ICQ when I get some free-time. College work has been running me ragged and I haven't had much time for TW.

Search these forums. I normally am pretty open to any questions about this game, but you're asking for forums that are available to stick into something that you're thinking about charging people to use.

Well I am being honest about it, I might charge for the program. Then again I might not. If I charge for it I can afford that TWGS registration with TW2002 and TWGold codes. If I don't I am just another hungry programmer giving people a free product and getting nothing in return for it.

I'll search for the formulas. Time is one thing I do not have a lot of and I must manage it wisely.

On a side note, Earth has already contacted me to convert the formulas I have to C/C++ code for inclusion into the ATTAC Calc program. I wouldn't give him Galaxi's formula, but maybe the rob, steal, and megarob formulas. I assume I would not get anything for it, save credit for writing the C/C++ formulas.

I can share then C/C++ formulas to anyone who writes a TW Helper if it helps to improve the game for some people. That is if I ever get around to writing them.

If I were to charge for the TWGizmo, I wouldn't charge as much as the Telnet TWHelpers. I was thinking of more like $5USD. I've seen a lot of newbies who couldn't afford to register scripts or TWHelpers for $25 or $30 each and maybe this would help them figure out how to play red or other parts of Tradewars. It would not take any money away from EIS. but rather would help get more of an interest in the game for newbies. It would not have Telnet features, but might be able to import TWX or CIM files if I get it more advanced. Then I could do sector searches and paired ports, evil ports, megarob port pairs, etc. All data will be in an Access database for faster searches. The more newbies that get into the game this way, the more need for TWGS servers to support them, which in turn means more money for EIS. So shutting out developers from formulas just because they want to charge for a program doesn't make sense to me in the long run. That is just my view of it.

You have any problems with Access (Coding in VBA) just let me know. I can help

Thanks for the offer, I am quite good but a bit rusty. I haven't programmed in VB or Access VBA for almost a year and lost my confidence. I am trying to build it back up.

So far I have the following functions coded in VB functions:

Amount of credits to rob, amount of holds to steal, how much to megarob, holds to furb a ship with to get holds back, alignment change for losing figs on enemy figs, exp gain for losing figs on enemy figs, figs needed to capture an alien.

If I get my coding skills back, I can learn REXX or TWX later and script for them. First I must learn the formulas used in TW before writing scripts. TWGizmo will be an offline helper without telnet access, but can be used as a calculator in the game to figure things out before taking an action. Once I verify that the functions work in VB/VBA code I will re-write them in C/C++ code to be shared with other TW Helper programs like ATTAC, SWATH, etc.

I hope that it gets more interest in the game, I may even make a web page about TW formulas to help other people write programs or spreadsheets to figure things out. If it helps get more people interested in the game, it will definately help the TW community and EIS and related companies that make TW Helpers. Despite what people may think, this is a good thing not a bad thing.