A lot of stuff has been going on lately with JP and EIS as some of you might have surmised from the lack of recent updates to TWGS/TW2002.

JP has taken a job with Realm Interactive in Phoenix, Arizona, to assist in the development of Trade Wars: Dark Millenium. He will be departing at the end of the month. For the time being Trade Wars 2002/TWGS development has been put on hold. It is hoped that after getting settled in down in Phoenix that he'll have the time and opportunity to continue moving TWGS/TW towards a final release sometime around Release .60.

This is -not- the end of development for Trade Wars. JP only intends on working with Realm until the completion of the TW:DM project, at which time he will return to his own work on TWGS/TW. There are already some ideas on the table for a next-generation remake of the game for sometime down the road. Part of the purpose for his teaming up with Realm is to be able to bring some big-game experience back home with him when he returns.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via email. I should be available 24/7 on ICQ after the 12th as well.

Lisa M. Cutler
aka Rave
EIS Product Support

quote:
A lot of stuff has been going on lately with JP and EIS as some of you might have surmised from the lack of recent updates to TWGS/TW2002.

JP has taken a job with Realm Interactive in Phoenix, Arizona, to assist in the development of Trade Wars: Dark Millenium. He will be departing at the end of the month. For the time being Trade Wars 2002/TWGS development has been put on hold. It is hoped that after getting settled in down in Phoenix that he'll have the time and opportunity to continue moving TWGS/TW towards a final release sometime around Release .60.

This is -not- the end of development for Trade Wars. JP only intends on working with Realm until the completion of the TW:DM project, at which time he will return to his own work on TWGS/TW. There are already some ideas on the table for a next-generation remake of the game for sometime down the road. Part of the purpose for his teaming up with Realm is to be able to bring some big-game experience back home with him when he returns.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via email. I should be available 24/7 on ICQ after the 12th as well.

Lisa M. Cutler
aka Rave
EIS Product Support


You said months ago that .56 was almost ready for release. Is there any hope of at least that coming out soon?

"A lot of stuff has been going on lately with JP and EIS as some of you might have surmised from the lack of recent updates to TWGS/TW2002."

Ya think? I asked about this very thing not long ago and got the push off answer. "Gee I wonder why that forum was visible to all users." No one ever did explain why the TeamEIS folder has been inactive for over a year. How long have you known about this situation that you are just now telling the rest of us about? Don't expect me or anyone else to believe that "those in the know" just got wind of this now.

"JP has taken a job with Realm Interactive in Phoenix, Arizona, to assist in the development of Trade Wars: Dark Millenium. He will be departing at the end of the month. For the time being Trade Wars 2002/TWGS development has been put on hold."

Big surprise there. I would argue that it's been on hold since about February or so when the last bug fix came out, but that's just me.

"This is -not- the end of development for Trade Wars. JP only intends on working with Realm until the completion of the TW:DM project, at which time he will return to his own work on TWGS/TW."

Well, no offense to JP, but I sure hope it doesn't take him as long to complete work on this new project as it has taken to complete TWv3. Oh wait... TWv3 isn't complete yet. Doesn't say much to assure the masses Rave.

"There are already some ideas on the table for a next-generation remake of the game for sometime down the road."

Will this be before or after I'm claiming social security checks and breathing through a tube? I'm serious. First you tell us that TWv3 is in active developement. Then you tell us that coding has begun on a new Tradewars (v4, presumably, since you didn't elaborate... I wonder why). Now you tell us that v3 is going to cease (temporarily according to you). By default this means development for v4 has moved BEYOND the back burner to someplace I'd prefer to call wishful thinking. I sincerely wish you people would get your bloody story straight. I've put my confidence in EIS, dropped my coin on registration fees and downloaded every single update. I've reported bugs, emailed suggestions and TRIED to maintain the belief that development, while apparently halted, was still ongoing. You assured us all of just as much, when in fact, the opposite has turned out to be true. I don't expect much from EIS in return for my reg. fee, but I think honesty is a fair expectation.

I cannot accept that you just now found out about this. Even if you did, there must have been some kind of speculation or "possibility" that you knew about well before now. Instead of telling us the truth, that something like this might happen in the future, you waste your time spewing out 8 page ravings in the Smack Talk forum about how you're the greatest player that god ever graced the TW universe with. Newsflash: We don't all come here to find out how great you are. I doubt many people even care in the slightest. The fact that you don't put your money where your mouth is does more than enough to prove that you're all talk. Same goes for your position within EIS. All talk, no results to back it up. "v3 is in development" Yet no updates, about to go out of developement. "v4 is coming" now officially a pipe dream. See the similarity?










Sigs are for poseurs and wanna-be's.

Continued from above:

Whatever confidence I had left in EIS is now shattered thanks to you. If JP spent as much time fixing bugs as you've spent spewing out your self agrandizing, know-it-all garbage in the Smack Talk forum, he could have coded an entire new TW by this time, much less put out a recent update. The only question I have for you, Rave, is whether you plan on refunding the registration fees of all the people who registered their product under the false impression (imparted by YOU) that it was still being developed and would continue to be until a final revision was produced.


Sigs are for poseurs and wanna-be's.

quote:
Ya think? I asked about this very thing not long ago and got the push off answer. "Gee I wonder why that forum was visible to all users." No one ever did explain why the TeamEIS folder has been inactive for over a year. How long have you known about this situation that you are just now telling the rest of us about? Don't expect me or anyone else to believe that "those in the know" just got wind of this now.


Two days, actually. Three as of today. Until I knew for sure whether JP had been offered (and accepted) the job with Realm it seemed somewhat pointless to begin discussing it publicly. The day after it was confirmed, I posted the news.

quote:
Big surprise there. I would argue that it's been on hold since about February or so when the last bug fix came out, but that's just me.


A lot of work has been done on .56 since the last release. The aliens have gotten smarter and far harder to exploit (new credit on hand limitations, new behavior to prevent trapping massive numbers of them for capture value on edited ships, etc.) I think sysops and players alike who use the gold alien features will appreciate some of the changes made to make them more difficult opponents.

A lot of the coding work for the completely rewritten Alien AI system has already been implemented in .56. This took a bit of time and effort on JP's part. It won't be active in .56 when it's released, but development of the AI system will probably carry over in Revision .57.

quote:
Well, no offense to JP, but I sure hope it doesn't take him as long to complete work on this new project as it has taken to complete TWv3. Oh wait... TWv3 isn't complete yet. Doesn't say much to assure the masses Rave.


What isn't complete with v3? There's only one piece of the puzzle missing from what was promised by Martech Software when v3 was released... the Alien AI system. If anything, v3 is by far more complete than it was ever intended to be. John has continued to add important sysop features over the development course of v3, in addition to bug fixes.

quote:
Will this be before or after I'm claiming social security checks and breathing through a tube? I'm serious. First you tell us that TWv3 is in active developement. Then you tell us that coding has begun on a new Tradewars (v4, presumably, since you didn't elaborate... I wonder why). Now you tell us that v3 is going to cease (temporarily according to you). By default this means development for v4 has moved BEYOND the back burner to someplace I'd prefer to call wishful thinking. I sincerely wish you people would get your bloody story straight. I've put my confidence in EIS, dropped my coin on registration fees and downloaded every single update. I've reported bugs, emailed suggestions and TRIED to maintain the belief that development, while apparently halted, was still ongoing. You assured us all of just as much, when in fact, the opposite has turned out to be true. I don't expect much from EIS in return for my reg. fee, but I think honesty is a fair expectation.


Who said anything about development being halted? I'm guessing you didn't fully read my original post, so let me repost one sentence from the second paragraph. I'll even highlight it so it stands out a bit better this time around. It is hoped that after getting settled in down in Phoenix that he'll have the time and opportunity to continue moving TWGS/TW towards a final release sometime around Release .60.

The meaning of this is exactly what it says. TW development isn't ending. It's going to continue. There has never been any doubts about whether or not v3 will be completed. It needs to be and it will.

quote:
I cannot accept that you just now found out about this. Even if you did, there must have been some kind of speculation or "possibility" that you knew about well before now. Instead of telling us the truth, that something like this might happen in the future,


I certainly don't need you to accept anything. No matter what I say you've already made up your mind that you know the future of development for Trade Wars, despite my words to the contrary.

quote:
you waste your time spewing out 8 page ravings in the Smack Talk forum about how you're the greatest player that god ever graced the TW universe with. Newsflash: We don't all come here to find out how great you are. I doubt many people even care in the slightest.


If you don't care who claims to be the best, or you don't care about all the wonderful Smack Talk, then how do you know that I'm claiming to be the best? Newsflash: If you don't come here to find out how great I am (or any other player that claims the same thing), and if you're not in the slightest bit interested in smack talk, don't read the smack talk forum! Quite frankly, you can take jabs at me all day long... that doesn't bother me.

quote:
The fact that you don't put your money where your mouth is does more than enough to prove that you're all talk.


I'm the first one to admit that. Before you start stating the obvious I suggest you do some reading up. If you want to make me look bad, try using something that I don't readily admit to every other day or so.

quote:
Same goes for your position within EIS. All talk, no results to back it up. "v3 is in development" Yet no updates, about to go out of developement. "v4 is coming" now officially a pipe dream. See the similarity?
[/quote]

Let me once more repeat myself. Watch carefully, and read my fingertips... It is hoped that after getting settled in down in Phoenix that he'll have the time and opportunity to continue moving TWGS/TW towards a final release sometime around Release .60. v3 is not about to go out of development. It's going to continue to be developed. The original schedule I was hoping we'd be able to follow has been thrown out of whack the last two months, but nonetheless, development will continue.

Lisa M. Cutler
aka Rave
EIS Product Support

Edited by - Rave on August 11 2002 8:12:06 PM

quote:
Whatever confidence I had left in EIS is now shattered thanks to you. If JP spent as much time fixing bugs as you've spent spewing out your self agrandizing, know-it-all garbage in the Smack Talk forum, he could have coded an entire new TW by this time, much less put out a recent update. The only question I have for you, Rave, is whether you plan on refunding the registration fees of all the people who registered their product under the false impression (imparted by YOU) that it was still being developed and would continue to be until a final revision was produced.


Again, re-read my post. If you still have problems with this, please feel free to contact me via ICQ or email and we'll discuss it.

Lisa M. Cutler
aka Rave
EIS Product Support

quote:
You said months ago that .56 was almost ready for release. Is there any hope of at least that coming out soon?


I wish I could give a specific date of when .56 will be finished and released. But every time I give an anticipated date or time frame, it gets pushed further back.

I wouldn't expect it this month. Maybe towards the end of September. I just don't know at this point, and it's going to be hard to tell until after JP gets down to Phoenix and finds out how much time he is going to have to work on it. Once he gets to working on it, it shouldn't take too long.

Lisa M. Cutler
aka Rave
EIS Product Support

Nice try Rave. Your response is nothing but spin and double talk. I would like to simply illustrate this point with a few choice quotes and let the others decide themselves. Observe:

"What isn't complete with v3? There's only one piece of the puzzle missing from what was promised by Martech Software when v3 was released... the Alien AI system. If anything, v3 is by far more complete than it was ever intended to be."

But then you contradict with:

"There has never been any doubts about whether or not v3 will be completed. It needs to be and it will."

One implies that it's already more complete than it was intended to be, the other hints clearly that it isn't yet but will be. Make up your mind please.

Another example:

Rave: "Who said anything about development being halted? I'm guessing you didn't fully read my original post"
Uhm.. you did so say that. Right here:
Rave too: "For the time being Trade Wars 2002/TWGS development has been put on hold." That sure looks like ceased to me.

For the record, I acknowledged the possibility of development at a later date. I quote "Now you tell us that v3 is going to cease (temporarily according to you)." Perhaps you failed to read MY original post. I may have no faith in your suggestion that the development will resume, but I acknowledged your words none the less.

Also look here:

"It is hoped that after getting settled in down in Phoenix that he'll have the time and opportunity to continue moving TWGS/TW towards a final release sometime around Release .60."

But then you contradict with this:

The original schedule I was hoping we'd be able to follow has been thrown out of whack the last two months, but nonetheless, development will continue."

One says "might" one says "will" again, I say, make up your mind.


Last but not least let me offer this for the readers:

"I wish I could give a specific date of when .56 will be finished and released. But every time I give an anticipated date or time frame, it gets pushed further back."

This is just what I said before. All talk, no results. Stop contradicting yourself, and stop with the spin and double talk. Make up your mind, and get your story straight.

You may be able to lead some readers / users around here by the nose with this kind of drivel, but I am not one of them. You're unreliable and so is everything you try and spoon feed to the forum about where TWGS/TWv3 is going. Some product support.




Sigs are for poseurs and wanna-be's.

quote:
Nice try Rave. Your response is nothing but spin and double talk. I would like to simply illustrate this point with a few choice quotes and let the others decide themselves. Observe:


You can pick apart my sentences all you want wanderer. The bottom line is that v3 already has had more work done with it, to give both sysops and players as much flexibility as possible, than was ever intended. The Alien AI system isn't in place yet, but that's really all that remains left to do, aside from some cosmetic and minor game play bug fixes.

quote:
One implies that it's already more complete than it was intended to be, the other hints clearly that it isn't yet but will be. Make up your mind please.


My mind is made up. Again, if you wish to tear apart my sentences and read more into them that is there, that's your perorgative. The short and sweet: v3 is far beyond what it was ever meant to be. John's reputation in regards to EIS is beyond reproach, and his dedication to the game equally so. He is following through with promises made by Martech, such as free upgrades, and despite the amount of time it has taken to even partially rebuild the original AI system intended for v3 door versions, he's done so...

There was a time that I suggested that the Alien AI system be completely scrapped for v3, simply because it would keep TWGS/TW in beta far longer that what I considered worthwhile. I'm dedicated to Trade Wars development, but believe that time could be better spent on a complete rewrite of the game than trying to make decade-old legacy code work under the conditions it's used under today. The result of that conversation was his work beginning to rebuild the AI module code to work under TWGS. He wasn't going to call v3 truly finished without the features Martech promised years ago.

quote:
Rave: "Who said anything about development being halted? I'm guessing you didn't fully read my original post"
Uhm.. you did so say that. Right here:
Rave too: "For the time being Trade Wars 2002/TWGS development has been put on hold." That sure looks like ceased to me.


My bad. Definitely not a prime choice of phrasing there. I should have expected responses such as yours (they are somewhat typical within the Trade Wars community) and thought it out a bit better. But then, I'm sure someone, somewhere would find something wrong with that as well.

quote:
For the record, I acknowledged the possibility of development at a later date. I quote "Now you tell us that v3 is going to cease (temporarily according to you)." Perhaps you failed to read MY original post. I may have no faith in your suggestion that the development will resume, but I acknowledged your words none the less.


Duly noted. I'm not sure what exactly it is that you have against me, and you not having faith in me personally doesn't leave much of an impact on me. To question EIS/JP's devotion to the game however, is extremely insulting to me as he has done far more in the last two years with TW than Gary Martin ever did with it... and Martin created the game as we know it today.

I don't know how much you know about the development of TW, but I can assure you that it is in far better hands than it was with its creator. If you want to discuss a lack of updates, compare the past two years of JP's development work with Martech's record. They completely dumped development of Trade Wars with v1.03 even though it was technically unplayable due to massive bugs. And they dumped it for something like two years.

quote:
Also look here:

"It is hoped that after getting settled in down in Phoenix that he'll have the time and opportunity to continue moving TWGS/TW towards a final release sometime around Release .60."

But then you contradict with this:

The original schedule I was hoping we'd be able to follow has been thrown out of whack the last two months, but nonetheless, development will continue."

One says "might" one says "will" again, I say, make up your mind.


I'm not going to spend too much time trying to word my posts so that they're perfectly clear and concise. Just like I won't take the time to make sure I'm 110% politically correct. It's a waste of time. If you can't get a general sense of the post with a quick read, if you have to tear each sentence apart looking for hidden meanings, then you have issues completely unrelated to Trade Wars.

Let me clarify my two remarks in very simple terms so you'll understand.

The original schedule we were trying to meet for putting out a final release (Revision .60) is pretty much shot.

Development will continue towards a final release sometime around revision .60.

quote:
Last but not least let me offer this for the readers:

"I wish I could give a specific date of when .56 will be finished and released. But every time I give an anticipated date or time frame, it gets pushed further back."

This is just what I said before. All talk, no results. Stop contradicting yourself, and stop with the spin and double talk. Make up your mind, and get your story straight.


Well, that's just the facts of life. Not everything goes according to plan. This is one reason I didn't even consider saying anything about JP's employment with Realm until I knew for sure. Just about when I feel comfortable saying one thing, the situation gets all turned around and everything changes. Sometimes, I admit, it is my fault. Other times, things come up that are beyond John or I's control.

quote:
You may be able to lead some readers / users around here by the nose with this kind of drivel, but I am not one of them. You're unreliable and so is everything you try and spoon feed to the forum about where TWGS/TWv3 is going. Some product support.


I don't feel the need to lead anyone around by the nose. I do my best to provide support for those who ask for it, and I do my best to provide information regarding the development of TW. If tomorrow you have a problem with TWGS and need technical support, I'll be the first person to provide it, and I'll provide it to the best of my ability, regardless of your apparent dislike for me.

Lisa M. Cutler
aka Rave
EIS Product Support

quote:
I don't feel the need to lead anyone around by the nose. I do my best to provide support for those who ask for it, and I do my best to provide information regarding the development of TW.
Lisa M. Cutler
aka Rave
EIS Product Support


Rave you can lead me around by the nose
I happy for all the work already put into TWGS , even if it stopped all developemnt today.
It is in 100% better shape then it has ever been
With the one exception (plug) I'de like to see uncapturable ships like the way scout mauraders was .. no pod .. no cap .. (end of plug)

If that and death limit were fixed (plug) 10 = 10 .. NO BULL about it !

Great work .. but lets keep this in the SMACK forum ..
cause I dont go there anyways

Vid Kid
SysOp/GameOp
[url="telnet://vidsworld.no-ip.org:2002"]Vids World[/url]
And
[url="telnet://63.229.27.108:23"]Psychic Realm[/url]