<FONT face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color=#ffff00>LoneStar's Tunnel Finder - Version 1.0For TWX 2.03, 2.04b
This script will scan your TWX Dbase and save results to a Text-file. At the start it does a Z.T.M. check (which can be skipped by pressing Z). At any point during its operation you can press 'Q' to quit.
It's designed to be run Offline. But if started while connected it'll turn off messages and turn them on again upon completion. The reason for this is the pretty ANSI graphics I've created to indicate that something's actually going on –after all, it's all about the Eye-Candy.
With a 20,000 Universe, and a complete Z.T.M. check, the script requires about 10 minutes to run. Im hopeful though, that with the immanent release of TWX 2.04 Final, the 10 minutes will be cut down drastically -barring any unforeseeable syntax changes.
The Results of the script...
I'm not real good at explaining this type of stuff, so here goes... Three columns are listed in the Text file: Sector, Hops from Terra, and Frequency
Sector, and Hops-from-Terra, are self explanatory. Frequency is the number of times the Sector appears in a Plotted Course-Path. A 1 (one) combined with a high 'Hops-from-Terra' value is an excellent indicator that the Sector is far from a Major Space Lane (a.k.a. High Traffic area); it could also mean that the Sector in question is part of a long tunnel ending in a Dead-end.
Without delving into the Art of Base-Hiding too much... Dead-ends and/or bubbles are places to be avoided in a real game with serious competition. Using the results of this script will provide you with a list of ideal hiding spots... and at the same time, ideal hunting targets.
This script is 100% original. If nothing else, enjoy the eye candy.
Lone

Forgot to mention it's at http://www.grimytrader.com/index.cfm
 

I don't suppose you'd believe that I whipped up a test script for comparison purposes, and 2.04_Final takes 2.5 seconds on my PC from start to finish?

And as a further reference, I modded it to test from Stardock, Terra, Rylos, and Alpha, and the time was still under 16 seconds. Expect a 4X increase in time for a 10k, and a 16X increase for a 20K.

So LoneStar, you owe me one

+EP+

2.5 seconds? My tunnel funder takes less than that now and I'm not even using the new BFS stuff. Hmm.

It isn't the tunnel finder that is time consuming, it's weighting sectors according to how frequently they appear in plots. In the past, you had to do this either by writing a custom BFS routine, creating a 2-dimensional path array, and then incrementing through it adding weight to sectors as they appear... or by the even slower method of getCourse plots.

So any takers to script and benchmark either of these methods in 2.04_Beta for all courses from Stardock, Terra, Rylos, and AC? I bet it's a real long time.

LoneStar, check your PMs.

+EP+

LS,

Can you something in to keep the connection alive, the script takes so long to run that I have been disconnected 2 times while it was running

Cern