peter says:
August 28, 2009 at 4:21 pm

Its stuff like this that got me turned off of this and other games. I used to play this game almost religiously back in the day. However once the scripts started showing up it just took the fun out of the game, I stopped playing it, and more or less forgot about it. – peter
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Cruncher says:
December 29, 2011 at 6:57 pm

Good news! I understand the distaste many have for the highly scripted games. JP began working on the game again 2 years ago. It’s now up to 2.16 and there have been delay options added so sysops can offer games more suited for Players at the Keys! Gives you a chance to get in and play without needing anything but basic scripts.

Check it out, I run classic style games with delay settings that take the “sting” out of aggressive attack scripts, and I do enforce turn and time limits. It’s OK to come enjoy the game as it once was in the ’90′s again.

telnet://Cruncherstw.dyndns.org port 23
http://cruncherstw.blogspot.com/
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ellisgl says:
August 28, 2009 at 4:46 pm

I used to play B.R.E. (Barrens Realm Elite) and L.O.R.D (Legend of the Red Dragon).. And others like the Barney door game thing..
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strider_mt2k says:
August 28, 2009 at 7:49 pm

I used to love logging on and playing tradewars 2002!

I have such fond memories.

7Mhz turbo XT, dialup modem, and Qmodem pro for dos

good times
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Stunmonkey says:
August 28, 2009 at 11:43 pm

I love old BBS door games. There was one on the old WWIV boards where you controlled skeletons, elementals, etc. i can’t remember the name of it, but that game seriously rocked. truly fun stuff.

FPS games more or less all seem the same – smoother now, higher frame rates, but its still essentially the same gameplay as doom or duke nukem 3d of Darn near twenty years ago. play any genre of game that long and the life just goes completely out of it.
when do we get some games with real playability back?

I’m gonna go fire up the amiga emulator again.
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unsupported says:
August 31, 2009 at 4:26 am

OMG! I wonder if they still have the feature/bug/exploit where you can rack up gold. I remember I had an entire notebook filled with port and pricing information… those were the days, until a member of my so-called alliance pillaged all of my schtuff.
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bfrosty says:
September 1, 2009 at 8:18 am

Tradewars 2002 is one of my best younger-days memories in gaming. Running an evil corporation, taking part in a couple tournament games with hundreds of players, bringing an intradictor cruiser loaded out with 100,000 fighters down on a well developed planet bubble, it was good times.

Nowadays it’s virtually unplayable. Get into any TW2002 game that has banged more then 3 days ago and try to get started, you’ll run almost immediately into some script kiddy who’s already got stardock (the only place you can buy ships) blocked and blows you to hell before you can get out of your original merchant cruiser. This kills the playerbase and the end-result is lack of competition and fun.

Even if they don’t have stardock blocked (some games disallow this), there is nothing stopping them from dropping defensive or offensive fighters everywhere in large numbers, and the end-result is exactly the same. The second you run into a stack of these he’s already been informed and his script has him sitting in your sector blowing you to hell inside of half a second.

Game Over, it’s not really fun anymore.
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Astrochimp says:
January 13, 2012 at 8:54 pm

There are plenty of public scripts – you don’t have to write your own. It’s just part of the game now. Instead of moving back and forth between two ports twenty times, now you fire up a script to do it for you.

Running scripts is just part of the game now. In my opinion, it makes it more fun because there’s more strategy and less tedium.

There is a steep learning curve in figuring out how to set up the helpers and learning which script does what, but in my opinion it’s worth it.

Don’t let these others discourage you – they haven’t really tried. There’s no point in trying to join an unlimited-turns game a few days after bigbang – that’s too late. Either find a turns game, or if you want to join an unlim, join a truce unlim, and join it shortly after bigbang. There’s a site called ultimatetw.com (telnet port 23) that rebangs unlimited-turns games several times a week. However, if you’re just getting back into it I suggest joining one of the ‘friendly’ games until you get your trade wars legs.
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bbser says:
September 2, 2009 at 6:37 am

I used to love this game! I had a BBS running on my Amiga 500. Then there was a huge sale on fighters or something. I stocked up, kicked Butt, and some of the players accused me of cheating. I distinctly remember one of the them saying I should be “strung up by the nuts and dropped on [my] head repeatedly”. I have since adopted that phrase and use it every chance I get, so it was worth it.
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Parrothead says:
January 23, 2010 at 3:15 pm

This is the best game on the internet. Period.
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Sumdood says:
July 16, 2010 at 1:23 pm

The game StunMonkey is talking about was Mutants….i think…anyway…TW isnt what it used to be..Its all about he who has the best scripts…They like the unlimited time and high turn counts these days…Not fun anymore..
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Not_a_Hacker says:
November 29, 2011 at 9:31 pm

I believe the game Stunmonkey refers to may be MajorMUD. That or other MultiUser Dungeon‘s ruled the day in BBS door play.

Anyway, TW2002 is nowadays all about writing the best script and executing it in the fastest time, which kind of defeats the purpose of the game IMHO. Like many here above have mentioned, no fun. They should have disabled scripts somwhow and only allowed manual play, then it may be worth playing again.
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Comet says:
December 29, 2011 at 6:25 pm

Game is still around everyone! Go to Cruncher’s TWGS and log in there. She has some games formulated towards anti scripting and what not. Most of the games have the pauses of old ship settings even a 56k modem feel. I suggest you check it out. I don’t have the twgs right off hand but do a search for Cruncher’s TWPage and you’ll find it. Good luck

Thank God for private servers.

It's just a game. It's supposed to be fun. You can't tell people how to have fun.

Used Qmodem or Telix and I had scripts written back then. Just not as powerful. My enjoyment is creating the automation.

The balance between the 2 is not easy to find. If you find a way to disable TWX, I will just use the exact same script in SWATH (They have all been released publicly), or will learn REXX and program them for ZOC.

This is the key statement right here. Cruncher wants to go back to the days where "scripts" didn't really exist. Most things were macro and done by hand. Unfortunately for her the game has evolved beyond that. The only way you will see something like that is if a group of people get together and agree to have a game like that. That is her fun and that is how she runs her server. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this because she enjoys that and people that visit her server enjoy that as well. If you don't like it, don't go to her server.

Fun for me is creating the ultimate script that can do what I need lightning fast, and without error. I have been playing since 1991 (or somewhere around there). Used Qmodem or Telix and I had scripts written back then. Just not as powerful. My enjoyment is creating the automation.

The balance between the 2 is not easy to find. If you find a way to disable TWX, I will just use the exact same script in SWATH (They have all been released publicly), or will learn REXX and program them for ZOC. All in all there is no way to eliminate the "reactive scripts" you can only limit their effectiveness.

New and Returning players are different. Returning players know the game. Understand how the game operates and know the ins and outs. They may need a week or so for re-learn what they forgot, but the knowledge is there. New players on the other hand need both the safe game, and the "i just got my *ss handed to me" game. This way they can learn the ins and outs of the game in a slow environment, but in the hostile environment they learn to be cautious and play smart.

I think people misunderstand, we want to prevent reactive scripts as a toggle.

Who is this 'we' you speak of?

H

I am still wondering why anyone needs to consider "breaking" these scripts in the first place.

If you want to play on Cruncher's server, then you won't be using any scripts in the first place.

Personally, I believe that JP has other things that are more important and beneficial to the game than to worry about things like this. He has only a finite amount of time he can spend working on this.

At the very least, Kav and I and the hundreds of e-mails that JP gets.

I hear this kind of thing consistently in my personal messages.

At the very least, Kav and I and the hundreds of e-mails that JP gets.

Kav, is that true, you want a toggle in TWGS that disables twx?

Something just occurred to me that I don't think you've considered. Modifying the text output in the way you suggest would probably involve many changes in many places in the TW code. In other words, it would be at least as complicated, if not more so, than the supposedly difficult changes that would be required to make TWX work with it.

For context, I have an interest in killing TWX reactive scripting, too... by writing an even more powerful helper with far more robust data collection and scripting capability. A "nuclear option", mutually assured destruction, that will completely ruin unlims for everyone.