Back when I was young and stupid .... Well not so long ago.... Well yea maybe 2 minutes ago I thought most everyone used Rammars TWarp Gridder. I played in a few big games/tourney's and everyone said that was a must have.

My question is ... Is this still a must have? I have to say that for an unlim game it is rather worthless as it must have a ztm. A ztm for a 20K universe takes like 3-4 hours when you could be out cashing/ppt'ng or even killing.

I can understand getting a ztm after you run your turns and such (if in turns game) but in unlim game I once made a mistake of logging on to a new game and trying to get a ztm done... by the time I had a good ztm; game was locked
down.

Now days I'm a little more wiser I'll only run a ztm if I am alseep and in a fairly safe location but am trying different scripts/methods for playing and am finding the need for a ztm (in unlims) to be fairly useless. Yes I will admit that there are certain scripts that require ztm's but there are also some very good "replacements" that do not require a ztm.

Gridding is only one aspect of needing a ztm that I can think of and some very bright scripters have written fairly good gridding scripts that do not require a ztm.

Guess I am getting off the subject so will close by asking the community what scripts they use for gridding not trying to track anyones usage pattern or anything .... Never Mind let me ask this question ... Does your grid script need a ZTM?

To avoid a flamewar/pi**ing contest one word answer

A) Yes ...
B) No ...
C) Depends.... (sorry this is more than 1 word) on the edits.

And while I have your attention
How much stuff can you send to the server in one "cycle" aka macro burst?
For gridding I can think of sending the required keystrokes to hit fig destroy fig lay your own and get the hell out of dodge before being notified that your fig was killed. Can it be done or have I been smoking some weird rope?

Thanks for listening.

My grid script doesn't have to have a full ztm.  It helps if you have at least 5% explored and figged, but mine will run say 200 paths at a time without having a lot explored or ztm'd

Rammers Twarp is a nice script and as some nice option, but now with the faster foton scripts out their your not going to get very far using it, most grid scripts are private, and are from what I experienced very hard to come by at least for a good one.

oh and edit for the last question.

It depends on what the server is set up for, it could have 10 max commands or 30, each server has a different set up, so you need to see what the max commands are for each game.

Gridding scripts are completely "seat of the pants" technology. They also have a huge impact on the game's outcome. So most gridding scripts out there are private. Shared only w/ people you can explain things to. Ie: If you just tried to run my unlim gridder you'd get yourself killed... it's too complicated to use without a mini-lesson in gridding technique. It does not require a full ztm, but does need some warps... either thru probing, exploration, or a partial ztm.

Ram's twarp gridder does not work well in unlims if the enemy is pdropping. It's mostly a turns script. It works pretty well tho, even still, in a turns game. Just don't grid with turns you can't afford to lose.

Not all gridding scripts require a ztm. An unlim gridder doesn't really need one, but a good turns gridder does. Even a passive gridder that can just walk thru the universe would benefit from the addition of a ztm-based course correction. You could make a turns script that didn't require a ztm but that would be horribly inefficient. Do that in a low turns game and you can expect to lose quite quickly.

In an unlim there's little reason to ztm your first day. If anything you can run a 1-pass ZTM just to get some adjacents, but you don't need a full map.

Thanks sing that is what I had come to the conclusion also.

I have been fortunate to be using a public script that seems to work sufficiently for my needs but wanted to try and expand my knowledge/scripting ability to find out how the good ones worked.

Find somebody who has one, and see if you can get it off them, or at least get some help in writing one for yourself.

I did run Rammar's unfigged gridder in an unlim game. I had a decent ping though, and the poor guy couldn't pdrop me.

I am a big fan of the Rammar's planet gridder though.

if you are looking for something specific, someone might be able to help you out..
basically, from what i've experienced, writing a public gridder is a pain in the Butt.
most private gridders are written for personal use, ie: if it went public, the author would get 100 icq's an hour saying "omg it's broke" or "how do i do this" or "you should add on this" or "how come i can't do that" etc...
And people don't want that