Upgraded to 2.15 - 12/22/11

http://www.classictw.com/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=32607 - JP tells us why the fast turn around from 2.14

Only 4 more days until the Christmas Break game opens!  Enjoy the Holiday Weekend!

Merry Christmas Twarriors!

Upgraded to 2.14 - 12/17/11

The server will be coming down today for a upgrade to 2.14

TWGS v2 Revision History

FYI - Cabin Fever Tournament mode game coming Feb, 2012 - corp size will be 6, get your teams together!

Happy Holidays!

Christmas Break Reset

Game B will be reset on Monday, Dec. 26th. 7pm EST.

Cruncherstw.dyndns.org port 23

Classic edit, 750 turns, 4 day turn bank, gold bubbles.

At player requests, I'm going to run standard ferrengi rather than gold ferrengi. They will still have the gold homeworld, which no one has been able to cap yet.

While the kids are playing with their new toys, here's a fresh bang for the adults to enjoy.

Merry Christmas!

Lobby Game Reset

Fresh new universe to tinker around in.

Game B is ready for a reset, deciding when since a lot of people are busy with the holidays.  I was thinking about after Christmas and before New Years.

Drop me an e-mail and let me know what you want.

Cruncherstw@gmail.com

Black Friday Special!

Opens 12 Noon, Black Friday (Nov. 25th)

cruncherstw.dyndns.org:23

While the family is out shopping, sleep until the crack of noon and enjoy some TW before they return!

Classic 5k Universe, 800 turns, Gold Bubbles, 2 day bank & Beefie Ferrengi

Tweaking the delay settings a little, and each game gets a little more difficult, fewer ports, less delays.  Going back & forth with the Gold bubbles.

This time Emulation is set to 14.4 down, 1 Mps up

Planets on 2 sec delay

Crime on 2ms delay

Photon Blast on 1 sec delay

Ship delay on constant 250ms (No delay)

First Annual Cabin Fever Tournament - Begins Feb 2012!

This tournament will be for new and returning players.  I'll have nearly the same delay settings as I have on the rest of my games, to encourge players at the keys, and discourage heavy aggressive script users.

As always, all scripts will be possible, some of the delays will take the edge off the most deadly of them.

Settings will be as close to Classic BOTE as we can remember.  As with the rest of my games it will be set to MBBS battle mode with Mega Rob off.  Afterall, during the first BOTE in '98 Mega Rob was not public knowledge.

This will be a turn and time limit game as well with Tournament mode on, death limit to be determined, probably 8 - 10.

Teams of up to 6 players are welcome!  You've got over two months to plan and practice, time to knock the rust off your old TW skills!

Stay tuned for details!

BOTE 2011

BOTE = Battle Of The Elite

This was the first international Trade Wars Tournament played in 1998

This year Runaway Proton is hosting this game  telnet://runawayproton.dyndns.org/ V1.03 Games

Check here for more information:  Official BOTE 2011 Thread
Start date is 12/1/2011 - Get your teams together! 

If a team from Cruncher's TWGS wants to enter, I'll be more than happy to sponsor you, and if you have room, maybe even play with you. 

Upgraded to 2.13 - 10/24/11

Quick bug fix. 

MBBS Mode - Mega Rob off - Swath still Mega Robs

With the addition of the turn Mega Rob off in MBBS mode toggle, Swath could use a new setting to match.  I discovered that in my own game, I like to play pre-Mega Rob bug games and prefer MBBS mode.

So, I'm playing solo red.  Swath does recognize MBBS rob/steal settings but if a port has more than 3M, rather that rob 21%, it goes for the mega rob.  Which will result in a bust every time.

So, just be aware, if you do play in MBBS mode with mega rob off, you will have to manually calculate your robs until you get the port down under 3M then you'll be able to use Swath again to complete the robs.

I have sent Stein an e-mail asking for this one adjustment in Swath.

Upgraded to 2.12 - 10/23/11

You can view the change-logs at http://www.eisonline.com/

As always, please report any bugs you may encounter.

Happy Trading!

Equilibrium to open 10/22 - 7pm EST

Equilibrium is an original edit created by Mongoose.  The menus are up, we are working on making his game description file into ascii with the title banner the way he wants to desplay it, but everything else looks good now.

Should anyone else like to guest game-op, please contact me at cruncherstw@gmail.com. 

Upgrade to 2.11

The files have been examined, and we don't know what caused the server to lock up before. 

So, I installed 2.11 yesterday afternoon and all seems fine.  Please report any bugs you find to John Pritchett

Rolled back to 2.10

Don't know what happened yet, but no one was able to enter the game today.  2.11 must need a bit more work. 

Sorry about the down time, next time I upgrade I'll check it before I leave for work or wait til I get home.

Thanks for the fast report Kilson!

Updated to 2.11 today

Let us know if you find anything unusal, report to http://www.classictw.com/%20TWGS%20forum

I'm also going to request that everyone who may be interested in playing or returning to the game some time this winter, just log on to game P and say "Hey!"

You  don't have to play right now, just log in under your most "known" gaming handle and let everyone know you may want to return now that the game has some settings that make it more like what we used to play in the '90's.

telnet to cruncherstw.dyndny.org port 23

Lobby Game Reset

Fresh new universe if you like a short & sweet game.  All planets L5 in one day. 

This is basically so you can get a feel for my pace settings.  Planet movement is slowed to 5s, I'm starting to think that may be too slow.  You tell me...

We do want to have some delay to hinder pdrop scripts, but not so much that building and planet trading become too slow.

Door/Multiplayer Limited Access Game - Opens tonight 7PM EST

For those who want to have the universe all to themselves, and the social aspect of Multiplayer, here's your game!

05:00 AM - 7:00 PM - Single Player Mode
7:00 PM - 11:55 PM - Mulit Player Mode
11:55 PM - 05:00 AM - Closed for Extern & Sleeping

[Edit] After some thought, I decided to keep this game closed over-night. It's definitely geared towards players on EST. If I get requests, I'll bang another for PST, or AUSI/KIWI-Land time.]

The game is 5k sectors, 1200 turns, 2 day turn bank
Gold Bubbles
Edited Ferrengi HomeWorld
Enjoy!

Lobby Game Reset

Today I increased the start up holds and cash.  All planets upgrade to L5 in one day - come pre-loaded with product necessary for upgrade.

Beat and abuse this game, try your scripts, see if you can planet drop or run from one.  ;)

Upgrade to 2.10 complete

Also it seems this Noob sysop made a mistake with the Ferrengi in game B.  Seems we now have two sets of Ferrengi - your every-day, run of the mill type, and the more aggressive Gold Ferrengi.

One race, and I don't know which one has the supper planet that I doubt anyone will be able to invade until much later on in the game. 

As always - If you see anything strange, report it to EIS TWGS Beta Forum

Thanks Mongoose for reporting the Ferrengi vs Ferrengi behavior.

Lobby Game is delay setting template for all games

These are the settings from the game menu:

Game type        : Open                 Game time           : 01:48:05 PM

Time per day     : 360 Min              Turns per day       : 5000

Planetary Trade %: 100%                 Steal from BUY port : Yes

Initial fighters : 2500                 Clear Busts Every   : 1 Days

Initial credits  : 300                  Last Bust Clear     : Today

Initial holds    : 20                   Multiple Photon fire: No

Sectors in game  : 5000                 Display StarDock    : Yes

Start with planet: Yes                  Classic Ferrengi    : Yes

Production Rate  : 50% / Day            Max Regen per Visit : 100%

High Scores Mode : At EXTERN            Startup Log Delay   : 1 hour

Tournament Mode  : Off                  Invincible Ferrengal: Yes

Delays

Ship Attack/Move : Constant (250 ms)    Planet Move    : Constant (5 s)

Other Attack     : None                 Rob/Steal      : Constant (2 s)

Photon Launch    : None                 Photon Blast   : Constant (1 s)

Ship IG          : None                 Planetary IG   : None

Dock/Depart      : None                 Land/Takeoff   : None

Drop/Take Mines  : None                 Drop/Take Figs : None

Planet Transport : None                 Ship Transport : None

EtherProbe Move  : None                 GenTorp Launch : None

IO Emulation

Input Bandwidth  : 56K modem

Output Bandwidth : 1 Mps Broadband

Latency          : 150 ms                

Planets take a full 5 seconds to move!  Planets in the Lobby game will level up to L5 in one day so you can give this a try, let me know how it feels to you.  

Photons give you a warning a full second before you loose your turns - time to get out of the way!  

Input emulation is 56k Modem - faster than (most) people can type, and we're hoping this slows burst macros.  (AFK Trigger Scripts)  Output is 1Mps - the fastest setting available.  Ships are locked into a delay of 250ms - you'll barely notice any delay here at all.

So these games will have ships that move faster than planets!  Imagine that concept!  :)  Low turn and time limits, blocks on viewing in-game activity from the game menu.  

Enjoy!               

Down for update

The game will be down for just a few minutes this afternoon to update to the latest 2.08 release.

If you see anything out of the ordinary (bug) please report it to the EIS Beta Forum

Game B - Opens 9/2/11 at 8pm EST

I've just closed the game for reset.  Enjoy!

(I don't beleive Ferrengal will be taken that easily this time.)  ;)

Game B to reset Friday, Sept. 2nd.

Congratulations Jaguar!  Invaded Ferrengal in under 3 weeks!
I'll give you more of a challenge next game  :)

Game B - Classic 5k, 750 turns, 4 day port regen, 4 day turn bank - The "Working Man's" game.

All games will be stock or nearly stock with a classic feel. My goal is to offer games for Real Players at the keys!

All games MBBS Mode with Mega Rob OFF!  Early '90's feel.

Aliens anyone?

The next release of TWGS has changed some of the behavior aliens exhibit.  So we can now set some to only attack per alignment, or set them to attack everything in site.  There's also going to be a change in how they behave on one-to-one combat.

http://www.classictw.com/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=32132

If you'd like to play the beta to see how these behaviors effect game play, please join us at telnet://classictw.com:23

Reset Lobby Game

I was working on the intro & desc screens today.  I also decided to make the Lobby game a bit more "useful".  This game now has new player planets and all citadels go to L5 in 0 days.  This will give you the opportunity to really give the settings a try to see what this game can do now.

If you're new or returning to the game, I think you'll find that this game feels more like it did in the 90's, without the dial-up lag!  Use this area to warm-up and test your helpers and scripts.  This game will be reset frequently - I'm thinking every Friday morning for a fresh universe.

All games here are turn & time limit.

The Lobby is NOT to play - but to warm-up and test

Back to School Special!

I plan on opening a new game mid September just in time for back to school!  :)

Get your teams together and warm-up in the Lobby! 

Sorry for down time last night...

MicroBlaster discovered a bug on the server.  Not with game play but with how he retrieves game stats for his web site.  JP did a remote access session last night and fixed the bug!  :)

Sorry for any inconvenience this down time caused.  But I must say it really is a pleasure to get this type of support from JP.  www.eisonline.com

Thank You!

New Ansi Intro Screen

It's up now, looks good with Swath but not so good with Zoc. 

The curser isn't where I'd like it to end up, so still some learning and fine tuning on my part.  I'll mess with it some more to see if I can come up with an original design.  This is the default intro.ans file with a few edits.

Learning how to edit ANSI for the intro screen

Teaching old dogs new tricks is so much fun!  Hehehe...

Bare with me, and thank's so much to the group at http://www.classictw.com/ MicroBlaster, Master Blaster, T0yman & Thrawn have all been great helps.

Hopefully soon I'll have something interesting for you all to see when you log in next.  I will have to take the server down momentarily to make the update, and I'll natuarlly try to find a time when no one's on playing.

Game B

Duh.. set the timer to open the game at a certain hour, and it did make it active but it was closed, until now.

Come on in!  5k universe, 750 turns, 4 day port regen, 4 day turn bank - the working man's TW!

Game B - Opens today at 11:30 AM EST

This is if the open game timer works, if not then I'll open it when I get back this afternoon.

telnet://cruncherstw.dyndns.org/

Coming soon - Maybe this weekend..

Another classic style game, 5k universe, 750 turns, 4 day port regen and 4 day turn bank.  Mega rob off, pace settings the same as the Lobby game.

This game will open as soon as a friend of mine is ready, this is the "working man's" game.

Working the kinks out

Just noticed tonight I had the ports on default 5% regen, bumped that up to 50% in both games.

Also noticed the date and time was off on the server... oops... fixed now. 

Let me know if anyone else notices anything goofy with these games - Thanks!

Two Games Open

Game A - Lobby is for hanging out, checking settings etc.

Game P - Cruncher's Private Game - currently open and I am playing there.  If you don't mind playing the sysop, come on in and join us.  I never understood why sysops don't play their own games, or maybe they do and we don't know it.  Reguardless, if you know and trust me, this won't be an issue.  If you don't then there's the Lobby for now.  As more players gather I'll add more games, but always with the same feel.

"TW for Humans at the Keys!"  :)

Coming soon a 5k universe 750 turn game with a 3 day turn bank for an old friend of mine, goes by the handle Derf.

We're LIVE!

Oh how exciting!  Thanks to MicroBlaster for lending a hand and fixing my IP addresses in the router, we're LIVE!

cruncherstw.dyndns.org  port 23

Right now we have just the Lobby open.  This is to come and visit, try some of the newer settings, and I do want feedback!  Once we get things the way we like them, then I'll open some games to play for real.

In the mean time, come on in and sit a spell, run some turns.  You won't soon run out with 6 hour time limit and 5k turns daily (no turn banks).

Emulation is set at 56k Modem input, 1Mps output
Planets move slower than ships!  Imagine that!  :)
Photons are on, 10 seconds with a 1k ms delay - that can be increased.

Most everything else is stock MBBS with mega rob turned off.
Ferrengi have a fully loaded H, so be careful!

As long as this "feels" good to everyone, this will be the basis for the rest of the games here.  I do plan on varying universes, turns, time, and Gold edits.

We're getting closer...

Brad helped me get the DNS setup today.  The address for the game server is cruncherstw.dnydns.org:23  Now if it only it worked!  LOL 

I know it has something to do with my network settings.  And FYI, I have registered for college, starting back again this fall for an Associates in Computer Information Technology.  It bugs me not know knowing how to set this up, and I want to learn programing.

We're never too old to learn.  The more I know, the more I know I don't know.  And a friend of mine who has two masters in education didn't start college until the age of 65.  She's 80 now and nearly has her doctorate completed.  Now that's inspiration!

The Server is home!

Now I just need to find the time and the help to set-up the network and get the domain setup.  Hopefully by the weekend I'll have someting we can play around on.

Not the OS...

Now I understand it's not the OS but the MB that's having trouble reading 2 hard drives for the raid.  He just has to remember how he set this up before.

In the mean time, I'm creating some custom games for the server.  The only games you'll see on this server are games designed for humans at the keys.  One constant theme will be low turn, time limit games here.

Rule #2

I've had a couple of people ask me about rule #2.  For new players or older returning players who are not familiar with the way heavy script players play, I'd like to explain.

When I first came back after a 8 year leave, there basically weren't many time limit games.  Most games have players logged on 24/7 running AFK attack or defensive scripts.  I was told by today's players that those who use scripts to monitor the game from the menu via the High Score list totally dominate the time limit games as well because their scripts monitor the game activity via scores, corp changes, ship changes and alert them with an audible sound to come to the keys and play the game.  Organized teams can monitor the game 24/7 using players in different time zones.  There "was" no way to stop this behavior.

Today's updated Trade Wars allow sysops to limit the refresh of the High Score list from outside the game.  We can limit it to once, twice or 24 times daily.  The "intended" function of the Menu High Score list is to give players an idea of the game in progress and not to serve as a real-time monitoring portal available to only those few who have the scripts capable of doing this.

OS not cooperating...

WinXP is not playing well with the raid drives... maybe after the holiday weekend.  Tomorrow we spend time in the river.  :)

OS is being installed today

Won't be long now :) 

Server is being formatted today

My son assures me this is the DOD format - wiped clean, no way to recover any data.  :) 

Ordered more ram for it yesterday as well.  Well, actually the new ram is for my workstation, the workstation ram is getting recycled into the server.

Welcome TWarriors!

I've played this game, studied this game, enjoyed the company of real people who also play this game... some would call an addiction. I prefer to call it a hobby.   I began playing in 1994 on a local dial-up bbs, 9600 baud modem, 486 with 8megs of ram...  Bing, bong... bing, bong... I kind'a miss this sound. :)

Over the year's I've guest game-op'd on various servers and the time is right to put up a server of my own now. It will be interesting to see how this goes, there may be more public servers than players today.

But, I have a feeling there are a few who may enjoy playing this game with closer to classic type settings, with low turns and time limits. The challenge has been with the automation or highly scripted play that's enjoyed by some players. It's my goal to provide a place where players can come and enjoy a casual game of TradeWars and the company of like minded players.

The new network and file server is up and running at the office.  My old office server was turned off and unplugged today.  Soon it will be formatted and ready to go. 

While the new TWGS will give us some interesting settings to play with, but there are still no settings that will guarantee that aggressive script play cannot be used.  The games here will always be low turn, time limit games.  I have some thoughts as to how to setup games casual/competitive players will enjoy.  But, when it comes down to it, the only way to ensure like minded players get to enjoy the game, we may have to close the games once they're 2 weeks old.  After two weeks its difficult for most to join an active game in progress, so we'll close the game, no new additions allowed after the game is closed.

If there's enough interest, I can open a new game every month, keep it open to the public for 2 weeks, then close that one.  So, at the very least, you'll have to wait 2 weeks to get into a new game. 

I have Zero tolerance for rule breakers - break a rule and you're outta here!
#1 rule - NO using planets as weapons!  Get caught pdropping and you're out!
#2 rule - NO sitting at the menu prompt gleaning information from the High Scores list - refresh will be limited.
#3 rule - NO bug use!
#4 rule - NO buy downs of any sort!

The games here will NOT be easy, no truces, NO SD next to fed space, NO Fed safe sectors beyond 1 - 10.  Scripting is allowed as in trading, hauling and colonizing.  PvP attacks cannot be stopped, so be careful when your enemy is online.  Sometimes games will have photons on, some will have mega rob off - TWGS mode with MBBS battle odds and 32k ports.  And some games will have Gold Aliens running around grid busting.  I hope to keep the games unique, interesting and closer to classic style.

I hope you enjoy!  Stay tuned for the latest news on the new game server.