quote:

TWGS is EIS' "flagship" product at this time, and it's likely that any games written in the forseeable future will be written specifically for TWGS.

Lisa M. Wilson
aka Rave
uhndagrowhn bbs

uhndagrowhn bbs
telnet://uhndagrowhn.merseine.nu


Feh. Don't see why they charge for TWGS - it's just a Visual Basic shell for a slightly modified v3.09.

Maybe I'll grab the TW2002 v2 source and see what I can do with it ;p

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Feh. Don't see why they charge for TWGS - it's just a Visual Basic shell for a slightly modified v3.09.

Maybe I'll grab the TW2002 v2 source and see what I can do with it ;p


if ya dont like TWGS, dont buy it... and try complaining to the ppl who own TWGS, not to ppl who could care less whether you are too cheap to buy it or not... IMHO the software is worth the money they charge... its stable, it performs every function needed, and it allows as many players as your connection can support play TW.


Daemon
Memphis TW BBS
ICQ# 99772936


High Competition and High Risk - Just the place to relax

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Lets begin! imho, some things in TW2002 are just wrong and need to be fixed, or at least optional.

1) Extern: extern is legacy. It was originally used for maintenance and AI stuff in the old single player doors version of TW. TW2002 has evolved to be a real time / multi player game and the events of TW should occur in real time too. The fact that strategies are devised around extern is bad too! This means players have to log in at midnight to insure nothing will happen to their assets! I enjoy TW, but I do not enjoy logging in at midnight to make sure nothing happens. Not everyone can dedicate 24/7 of their time to TW.


Extern still performs a few functions in the real time/multiplayer game that TW has evolved into. Its when the Feds' meter maids come around and make sure everyone's following the letter of the law. If a player is around StarDock with many ships, it doesn't matter to the meter maid if the player is playing or not, just that the player isn't abandoning his/her ships when the meter maid is there. IMHO, the Feds are just mimicking the idiosynchrocies of any beaurocracy. Does a real meter maid have your car towed if you are parked illegally BUT you are about to get into your car?

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2) Zero Turn mapping: back in the day when I discovered this and wrote a program to map the universe, I thought I was the coolest kid on the block. However ztm makes a 5000 sector universe seem very small. I don't know if removing the course plotting (the display of the course plot) is a viable option or not. I don't even know if we'll ever be able to stop ztm, but I'd be interested to hear what every one thinks?

Am personally not a fan of ZTM, tho I will use it from time to time, so I won't be sad to see it go in v4.
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3) Mixed alignment corps: mixed alignment corps throw off the balance of the game. You get the best of both worlds. I can go into great detail of the game balance and the advantages of being good or evil, but I'm sure everyone here knows this.

I have no problems with mixed alignment corps. Its what the game has evolved into, and is now standard gameplay. I would actually like to see the interactions between corps be a bit more complicated, allowing things such as temporary truces and alliances that can be seen by everyone in the game.
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4) Photons?: I'm all for photons. What I would like to see is some sort of admin function for creating a photon schedule. way back when, it was common to leave photons off during the first couple weeks of a new game and then turn them up higher as the game age progressed. This could at least be an option:) Admins can still leave them on the entire game.

SysOps can and do configure this by using TEDIT. no need for a scheduler...
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5) Game details: You can view the number of fighters and planets in the game. Why? I can understand if a player wants to start playing he would check this information to see if its possible to get a good game, but isnt game age enough? In large games this information is not as useful assessing your enemy, but your average (aged) game only has a couple contenders making it pretty easy to asses your enemies.

the information on the V-screen is general information available for everyone in the game, and favors no one. Why change it?
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6) CIM/Port Reports: What is the point of the CIM? except to interface with helpers? The game should not tailor to helpers else the game play might ends up tarnished. This also means I disagree with port reports. This point is very minor in my book. game play isnt really tarnished, except for cim hunting.

I dislike CIM hunting, but just drop toll figs under the ports I'm working if I'm worried someone is CIM hunting... Wont miss that if it goes, too. But CIM data is extremely useful, and will not play v4 ever if it is taken out completely. I do not miss my notepad full of ppt and xxB-xxB locations...

There ya go, Post, a polite response to your polite message


Daemon
Memphis TW BBS
ICQ# 99772936


High Competition and High Risk - Just the place to relax

You can never please everybody when designing or upkeeping software. Seeing how many people still play Tradewars 2002 10 years after the first release, must be a sign that it isn't all that bad. I remember before version 1.03d. It has come a very long way, and I still enjoying playing it.

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if ya dont like TWGS, dont buy it... and try complaining to the ppl who own TWGS, not to ppl who could care less whether you are too cheap to buy it or not... IMHO the software is worth the money they charge... its stable, it performs every function needed, and it allows as many players as your connection can support play TW.



Sorry, guess I should have mentioned I think people who pay for TWGS have their heads up their @$$es. That makes it a better statement, since it now includes more people. gj me.

Anyway, a BBS, which is free, does all the things you mentioned above. Charging something for the shell that is TWGS would be fine, but 45 dollars?! I mean, get real!

Hmmm... *ponders a freeware TWGS*

Maybe this weekend.

quote:
quote:

if ya dont like TWGS, dont buy it... and try complaining to the ppl who own TWGS, not to ppl who could care less whether you are too cheap to buy it or not... IMHO the software is worth the money they charge... its stable, it performs every function needed, and it allows as many players as your connection can support play TW.



Sorry, guess I should have mentioned I think people who pay for TWGS have their heads up their @$$es. That makes it a better statement, since it now includes more people. gj me.

Anyway, a BBS, which is free, does all the things you mentioned above. Charging something for the shell that is TWGS would be fine, but 45 dollars?! I mean, get real!

Hmmm... *ponders a freeware TWGS*

Maybe this weekend.


Most players will not play on a lame Butt BBS front end ..
Most TWGS servers that are popular do not have BBS front ends .. Do not run other games .. and as such prove to be a much better system for running tw2002 games .. I would also appreciate not seeing your nick log into a TWGS game .. after all the TWGS ops have their heads up their Butt's according to you .. also .. quit using this forum because I'm sure that some of the twgs money goes into paying for this space.. also do not email JP because he really cant have a email without a TWGS ..
also
I think that many of us feel that you have your head up your Butt ..



<<Doctor Who>>

Besides which, I want to know where the hell he is getting a free BBS package. I haven't ever been able to locate one of those, and so he's paying either way, unless he cracks it.

Seems to me like Dr. Who is right... you do have your head up your Butt. Seems to me like you need to go turn your computer in and never get another one because we wouldn't want you to have to pay for software ever again, and therefore have your head up your Butt.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean the world's not out to get you.

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Besides which, I want to know where the hell he is getting a free BBS package. I haven't ever been able to locate one of those, and so he's paying either way, unless he cracks it.


Synchronet BBS at http://www.synchro.net/ is a free BBS package and a pretty decent one.

Lisa M. Wilson
aka Rave

FUsion BBS is free right now, and it kicks Butt of any win or dos based bbs for stability and open-ness...

Col Sanders

"Jedi do not concern me" -The Sith

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FUsion BBS is free right now, and it kicks Butt of any win or dos based bbs for stability and open-ness...


Umm... not.

Fusion is good, but it seemed to have died in its infancy. It's bulky, cantankerous and a pain in the butt to set up and use. Customizing is a pain in the butt as well. Wildcat, Worldgroups, SBBS, or even MBBS v2 from the DOS days would be on my list of BBS packages to use before I relied on Fusion.

When it becomes easier to setup, run and manage, I'll reconsider my position.

Lisa M. Wilson
aka Rave

I dunno if its even available, but PheonixBBS is the only one I've seen connected to twgs without a problem either with "locked" nodes under heavy twgs load, significantly messing with the timing of packets to/from twgs, or buffer problems between BBS and the twgs.

Dr. Bad

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I dunno if its even available, but PheonixBBS is the only one I've seen connected to twgs without a problem either with "locked" nodes under heavy twgs load, significantly messing with the timing of packets to/from twgs, or buffer problems between BBS and the twgs.

Dr. Bad


Yea but GenmaC isnt saying use a TWGS .. he's saying use a non TWGS server .. and to be honest I've not played on a system that doenst have a BBS problem that ends up screwing with your games ..



<<Doctor Who>>

quote:
quote:
Besides which, I want to know where the hell he is getting a free BBS package. I haven't ever been able to locate one of those, and so he's paying either way, unless he cracks it.


Synchronet BBS at http://www.synchro.net/ is a free BBS package and a pretty decent one.

Lisa M. Wilson
aka Rave


Yeah, I use Synchronet. I've had zero problems running it through Synchronet as a door (besides a little slowdown when more than 7 people are on at one time, but that's due to my slow 100mhz comp with only 32megs of RAM). TWGS is fine if you don't know how to run a BBS, and you don't have the time to learn, and you've got 45 dollars you'd like to throw away on a shell.

Also, if I wanted to, I could make my whole BBS revolve around trade wars - once the user logs in, all they have to do is press T to enter Trade Wars, and if I was that big a TW fan, I could have made it so that it looks just like TWGS with about 3 minutes of working on the menus.

So, if you meet the following requirements, I guess you should get TWGS:

* You can't run bigbang.exe and/or tedit.exe without the TWGS buttons to guide you

* You want multiple games on the same server but don't know how to make your computer copy things (dang those pesky computer commands)

* Editing text files is one of those things you never got around to learning

* Unzipping files and then running an executable (a BBS server) is far too much of a hassle

* The word 'node' causes your brain to shut down

* You think a batch file involves some kind of recipe

* You have a money tree in your backyard

Those of you who don't meet the above requirements might want to consider a BBS system instead. You can easily replicate the TWGS look for your players if you so desire, and you can use that $45 to buy some food, or maybe some BBS games for your new BBS system.

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Yea but GenmaC isnt saying use a TWGS .. he's saying use a non TWGS server .. and to be honest I've not played on a system that doenst have a BBS problem that ends up screwing with your games ..


I've never seen a BBS that screwed up a Trade Wars game, seeing as Trade Wars is a BBS game to start with.

lol. I didn't even think of that option... isn't the most "recent" tw door version quite a bit behind the twgs version, and therefore so full of bugs its not funny?

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Yea but GenmaC isnt saying use a TWGS .. he's saying use a non TWGS server ..

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I dunno if its even available, but PheonixBBS is the only one I've seen connected to twgs without a problem either with "locked" nodes under heavy twgs load, significantly messing with the timing of packets to/from twgs, or buffer problems between BBS and the twgs.


That would be Naz' BBS package, right? I think it's either OS/2 or *nix based. If it's OS/2 based, I'd definitely be "keen" on giving it a spin.

/me loves OS/2 Warp.

Lisa M. Wilson
aka Rave