In a nutshell, you just hit the nail with the hammer!

Good point hadn't looked at it from that point of view.

I know this will sound crazy but why haven't we discussed turning off fighits, limphits and armid messages? It could be a switch used in a n00b game and means you would have to spend more time updating your figs, limps and armids but would kill reactive scripts depending on those hits.

Is it too crippling? Would a player learning or relearning the game be too crippled? Would it be worth the trade off? Like a new player learning in unlimited turn games vs turn games. Could they even play in a normal game after learning inside such a crippled environment?

H

I seem to recall some discussion of adding a small delay to that. Perhaps scaling with the distance between the fig/mine and the owner.

It is very simple to render the TWX reactive attack scripts inoperable, without affecting anything else that TWX scripts can do. This would mean that newbees and retreads might return and stay - hell, who wants them, roll on TWX.

UGH, twixie pixies.

I think I need a signature line - I am a script writer and script user, or somesuch, I am not anti script, just anti killing baby seals.

That's a pretty big might. You want a flood of new players,
yet you pre-emptively insult their ability to learn how to play.
Sounds like you want a certain type of player...

So you're for dumbing down the game to the level of the weakest
player, right? Just to be clear.

I'm sure it would be simple to render the existing, public TWX reactive attacks scripts inoperable. But I do not believe it's possible to prevent script writers from working around any changes you might make. Break the public scripts, and script writers would enjoy even greater dominion at the expense of the players you're trying to help.

Swath is a work-horse. It still works on the old HVS MBBS version, everything except turbo-mode. Because HVS MBBS does not have "abort displays".

TWX is dbase driven for it's most dangerous scripts. HVS MBBS has a different structure, that's not compatable with TWX. Kav knows the details, I don't.

That's why disabling the portion of TWX that makes is too powerful will still leave in tact the "chore" type scripts. Most anything you can macro (keystroke) will still work. If your script relies on your fighter grid, or updated CIM reports to "pounce" on the enemy, that's what we want to do away with. The reaction scripts that work on the ms level, that no human is fast enough with eye-hand coordination to respond to. That is unless you slow it down so much that it's no longer enjoyable for anyone.

On a toggle! Not for every game.

Players who enjoy using TWX will still be able to use it in all it's glory in games that allow it. We just want to take the bite out of it, so to speak, for some games.

When you returned in 2004, that was around the time JP left. I left 2 years prior seeing the direction the game was taking. I didn't return until JP returned to development.

If you wanted to play during that time-period, you had to adapt or die, you did not have a choice. Today, we do have choices.

Yes, and I fail to see why so much drama continues. Make those choices, and be happy they are there. Seems like I keep hearing, "if I had just one more option".

               / Promethius / Enigma / Wolfen /

"A man who has no skills can be taught, a man who has no honor has nothing."

Crippling the game isn't the answer. The "builders games" on Ice-9 feel crippled to me, with the maxed ports in open space, 10k sectors partrolled fed space (play pen). Don't kill a toll fig there! Cracks me up that they will kill you for killing a single toll fig, but leave you alone for paying tolls. Just until they get tired of you, then the next toll you pay... is your last. But that's where players have gone, seeking a safe haven only to become guppies in the shark pond for anyone who wants some easy prey.

Don't poke the bear! LOL

Returning players are going to feel a lot of disorientation, that's why I run mainly stock games. Give them time to get their bearings again, re-learn the game at the basic level, forge some friendships then maybe try to take on the task of learning TWX.

The more I learn about TWX and what it's capable of accomplishing, the more I want that one more toggle to put an end to the aggressive reactive scripts.

So you raise your seal pups in captivity and when they
are released into the wild? Gulp. They get eaten most
horribly. When do they get their lessons in the real game?
What kind of friends will they meet in a game like this?

Go ahead and lure back some more seal puppies, I need
some new boots for next winter

Thank God for private servers.

I really think the only reason this argument continues is because people here just like to argue about stuff. It's such a moot point. If it's possible to do what Cruncher wants, it won't effect anyone who doesn't want to be effected. Those who are opposed to it just seem offended that someone doesn't like to play the way they like to play. And that's not a constructive dialog.

By the same token, the only point of starting this argument is to drum up controversy. For those who want to see this kind of change, I'm the only one you need to discuss it with. You don't need to seek the approval of anyone here. As an option, it's just between you and me. These discussions can be constructive in terms of analyzing the issue and figuring out what might or might not work, but too often they are not constructive. They degenerate into a shoving match about who's way to play is the RIGHT way. There is no RIGHT way. It's just a game. It's supposed to be fun. You can't tell people how to have fun. Either they do or they don't, and they won't stick around long enough to figure out HOW to have fun. There are too many other options today.

Only because TWX hasn't been made compatible with it. If HVS were popular enough, TWX would be fixed to work with it. If there were a TWGS toggle to break TWX, who knows. Maybe there wouldn't be enough sysops using it, and nobody would care enough to adapt TWX to the changes.

From what you know of the people who write and use the kinds of scripts that you and I both object to, do you think there are any with the skills to tinker with the internals of TWX?