There has been so much talk on how to change TWGS to make it harder for scripters and get the server to be safe for new players and have the old feel of play.

As I pointed out to Cruncher last night , I believe the best way would be to have
the ability of node control in a turn/time game ... but not exclusively just turns
games ... time is a must or someone could occupy that node and lock the game down.

I think if a game were set to 3 or 4 node and corp size set to 4 and time limit
maybe to 2 hours , then no single corp could get unfair advantage or go on killing spree.

But let me be clear as for any other changes .. None cept maybe the fix for the planet and xport list (server spiking) and fighter drop/kill that throw people out of the game
issue. and maybe the unlim having a photon penalty. Nothing else is really needed.

How is that for a suggestion.
my 2¢

This can be already accomplished by using a BBS and the DOS version of TradeWars. For example, configuration of nodes are done via the node configuration in TEDIT, and even though the BBS is configured to allow more nodes than that, only 5 can get access based on TradeWars configuration. Anyone outside of the 5 that are in will be told they can't access the door as it is full.

If you don't want a BBS to handle this with configuring the TradeWars nodes, then I would think the 4 node version of TWGS could also handle this. The only thing needed would be the ability to control the nodes the same way as it is done in the node editor when using a BBS and the DOS version of TradeWars.

Seems the editor on Swamp is different from the one I spent so much time on yesterday on classictw.

So the settings I came up with there aren't the same as what I ended up using on the game that I just opened on Swamp.

As far as I know, this may be the first public game utilizing some of the new delay edits. Overall speed rating is 90% and the ship delay setting feels a lot smoother, not as constrictive as the 1/4 or 1/3 delay settings. This ship delay is set at constant 250 ms and feels good.

I did set planet delay to 500ms like on classictw, where we could avoid a pdrop or adjasent photon if using a script to kill the figs, but still getting hit if trying to manually kill a fig. So, that's why I say this game is NOT for newbies, they can still get pdropped. And with 3 alien races, that should keep the grid down.

Overall muliplyer on classic I had set to 5x to achieve what I was after, and with that overall speed rating was 92%. Now the muliplier is at 2x with overall speed rating of 90%, so not quiet certain what's different. So, we'll just have to wait and see how this minor change works out.

Should be interesting, and at the very least something new to "play" with.

Dude, you know how easy it is to get past a pdrop?

They aren't that big of a deal. Jeeze...

For you, yes.. for us, no.

And dudette if you please!

No, this isn't something that's subjective. They
aren't difficult to deal with, period. You could learn
how in just a few nights of practice.

You are making this harder than it is. Pdrops are
not a big deal. Learn to lawnmow, learn to scan as
you move and not hit enemy fighters. Nothing hard
at all.

Thrawn , what I am saying and I believe this can not be done by BBS settings ...

I want to run 5 to 10 games , one of them set to 4 node 2 hour/day 4 man corp max.

3 or more games unlim nodes and various settings as well as edits.

So how is this done without multiple machines.
And as a side note .. Most BBS software is not free.

So without the BBS involved , only TWGS .. and node control ...
I can see how just the few TWGS fixes as promised .. and a feature added to control nodes/game , this old school feel that some are trying to accomplish can be done.

This is all with respect to scripters that can hose up any setting giving that much more power then they have today.

The whole idea is to some how fix TWGS so that old school play can be done even if
someone is using scripts.
Seems because of returning players and todays learning curve is steep , there
has to be a way to fix it so they survive throughout a game or two to learn.

Imagine the settings as I said ... how could/would you try to dominate ?
And how do you think SysOp would bang next game to prevent that ?

So you see , for what I suggest .. this would be the only way I can see to fix things without the need for rewrite of TWGS and make it web based so scripts would be mostly eliminated.

This has been thought through for the benifit of new returning players and the programer of this fine product TWGS.
I for one don't think J.P. is making tons of cash from this product and should only
have to complete the beta so he can move on to a new project and hopefully
some financial gains in the upcoming New Year .

my 2¢

i dont think he is really trying to make any money at all with TWGS. if he was trying to make money from TW id think he would write a tradewars like app for facebook, the dreaded 'game in a box'. which oddly enough could give a very 'old school' feel, an 80s feel even.

At the moment there is no way to do node restrictions
at the game level. That would be a nice feature. To
accompany that, we would need a per-login time limit
too.

However, if you want, you could install virtualbox, use
bridge mode, and set this up at the server level. You
would need to use a separate port, but you could run
this type of game if you wanted. That's not what you're
looking for, but it would work as a stopgap until
per-game node limits are implemented.

I thought you might had been leading to having X number of nodes (connections) per game, but was not sure. You are correct, current BBS software will not provide this. Having a node control option (specify # connections allowed to game = X, where 0 is unlimited connections) or something along those lines would be a handy feature.

This could be done with twgs beta as it function now. It would be a bit of work to configed as mentioned above in Worldgroup BBS. Unfortunaly you would probably need to run 2 twgs game servers running.
Game 1 standard play, runs on rlogin port ### the second twgs runs on a differnt rlogin port or telnet port. Maybee it is possible to run game slots on separate ports but I have not seen a way in twgs beta to do this.

The sysop would configure a "user key" "TWGS game 2" part of the acounting system, the "TWGS game2" key would allow for a time limit setting (per call max and or per day max) and controll who has access to game2. All the sysop would do then is add the key to any user who whishes to play the second game thats limited. You can also configure separate keys for gameops.
This wouldnt take much more than one hour for a Worldgroup Sysop to configure.

You can still get worldgroup from elwynor.com, I belive its under 100 bucks for 16 user. Syncronet is free and I understand uses a similar account config. Wildcat/Mustang has started back up and I believe it is free also. I dont know if Sync or Wildcat have the telnet/rlogin outbound options like worldgroup does. Don't forget about the possibilities with Gameserv also (gameserv.ca) it may have some Free functions you can use for this idea.

Another little known feature of Worldgroup is concecrated commands that make it easier to automate login scripts. You can join multiple commands in a single <cr> ie
-G-Game Menu
-T-Tradewars Menu
-J-Twgs Game
so login then hit GTJ <cr> and boom your in twgs game lobby

Hope that helps you.