I have completed and tested my radspace module, and it seems to be working exactly as intended. Every night is checks through each sector in the universe, determines how many fighters are in the sector, and reduces that number by 5%(rounded down). This is sort of an "anti-gridding" mod, and I have not yet applied it to any of the live games on my server. I do intend to bang a subzero game with the radspace mod, and will certainly announce it when I do.

I accomplish this by means of a PERL script that logs into the admin console and makes the appropriate changes. However, I want to additionally post an announcement each night, something along the lines of "Severe radiation anomalies have caused degredation of fighters in space by 5%". I can't seem to find a way to do that through the admin console. So I will have to script in a chunk of code to log into the game as a player, and have that player post the announcement. The problem is, I don't want a player just floating around for no reason other than that. I know there exists something called an "observer account", but I have no idea what that means.

any one of you code gurus like to point me in the right direction? Any ideas on how to best generate this message through my perl script?

Talk to toyman, He has a script that does what you have described.

The log file is just a text file w/ a few color codes in it. It's in \game\TWzz\twopeng.dat where TWzz is the game
number of the particular game you want to write to. Figure out the color codes, open the file, append what you want,
close it, be done.

Singularity, you rock! I know all the ansi color and escape codes already, so a simple append should do the trick. Even easier than I imagined! Thanks!

Mybey this is the newb in me, but why would someone want to play in a game where there grid was going to be torn down by the server every night? Its tough enough to maintain a grid when you are playing against other people. Laff. I put figs out cause I want them out.

Just wondering.

(this question is asked out of serious curiousity, not to start an argument. )

There are a good number of people out there who do not like the idea of grids. This is especially true of old-school players who do not utilize the most advanced scripts. It sucks to join a game in-progress and not be able to move anywhere without running into fighters in every sector.

My script does not eliminate grids, but rather increases the expense of doing so. It also increases the expense of defending sectors, as well as extending the lifespan of unlimited-turn games. This is functionality not currently available in the game.

Certainly no one is forced to implement it, or even play a game that implements it. But it does add an additional challenge to overcome for those willing to give it a try. I should have a subzero banged for this by Friday assuming the coding for the daily announcement goes as easily as I think it will.

Ok may I ask one question.
What happens when your script by some random chance unfigs my base?
I know I would be ROYALLY pissed if I fused a ship returning to my base.
IMHO this is a very unwise idea.
You are going to open up a very large can of worms.

Need more details... 5% rounded down would be what for single figs?
1 - 0.05 = 0.95 rounded down means 0?

<sarcasm mode on>
After thinking about this some more please implement this in a game with aliens....
It would be so fitting to beef up the alien home sectors and have this script undo your efforts.
<sarcasm mode off/>

Here is where and why a script like this is being used and is usefull.
If you are playing in a game where the RULE is you or your corp can only fig 500 sectors, the script runs at extern and cleans up your grid if you broke the rule and had more than 500 sectors figged. If you are real unlucky, and you broke the rule, the script might take out one of your gate sectors, its random. If you don't like the sysops rules or idea of how an edit should be, just go somewhere else and play, don't complain about something just cause you don't understand it or you think it's stupid.

Funny idea with the aliens.

the formula for fighter removal is

$fighters = int($fighters * (1 - ($deterioration/100)));

Where $fighters is the current number of fighters in the sector, and $deterioration is the percentage to destroy, in this case $deterioration = 5.

So yes, 1 fighter would become 0 fighters. It pays no attention to fighters on planets or on ships, just those in space. Additionally, you are correct that if you let those 5%'s pile up too long you could certainly fuse a ship. Just like you would if someone drove by and killed them.

100 fighters would burn down in around 30 days. 1000 would last around 70. The cost of maintaining a standard grid would be increased by 100 times if you dropped 100 per sector instead of 1.

I hope you didnt take my comment as complaning. I was curious what the purpose was, and my question was awnsered. Thank you for that.

My bad, sorry, your question was not a complaint.

You might want to consider a mod to your script to skip sectors containing planets. That would prevent alien home world sectors and players bases from losing defenses. I suppose someone could still grid and drop planets everywhere but it would be costly.

Scrats idea might be a work around but also could be easily manipulated. I like the "idea"...just not sure how I will like it in practice. Just an opinion btw not a complaint. I see a lot of pro's and cons to this mod. Let me know when you bang a game with it riv. I have a great ping on your server and would love to try it out.

Nod, this idea has been used in a few games. If you look back at the recommendations I made to JP
last year, this was one of them. A game enforced "fig decay rate."

Not all games will be this way, so naturally if you don't like the setting then don't play in that game.
But it would certainly change the way a lot of ppl play the game. It would make finding bases much
easier, as there'd be nothing to stop probing. It would make CIM-based filtering much more valuable.
It would take a lot out of grid combat, and would be an excellent addition to non-aggressive games.

In games where there is aggression, well, you'd need to balance fig production and planet times to
match the probe rate or everyone will get invaded as figs decay. This could lead to more clever grid
techniques such as laying higher fig counts in high traffic areas, or trying to predict common probe
routes and fig those. Scripts would be developed to grid around dock several layers deep w/ 100
figs each, etc, etc. Still, it could be interesting.

For people that want to secure their grid against this, the answer is easy: Put more than 1 fig down
per sector. If you have a sector worth defending, put 100 or 1000 figs down. Interestingly, this
could affect the way bases are defended in long games. Most people put a lot of figs down at their
base, this would increase the importance of cannons and ore.

To that end, one slight modification may be in order. Have a configurable maximum and a mimimum
loss per sector. It wouldn't be bad to have a min of 1 fig and a max of 1000, for instance, since base
builders might not want 5% of their 100m sector figs to die every day.

But that is not what this script does.... it will remove all single figs and decrease your amount by 5%.

Believe me I don't quite understand why people were/are concerned about running into figs. There is a
reason people fig everything... It WORKS, and until someone comes up with something else that works
as well as a good grid we might as well just call this trade hugs (with apologies to Willow).

Other easier things to think of... double/triple the price of figs, make the ships that can carry figs expensive.

Or baby sit the game and use t-edit to solve disputes.

If you can't tell I am being an a--hole.
This is like the government lowering the road 12" because road signs are too short.