My server had been down for a while and I finally started looking for a new one when I decided to e-mail the Sysop, who got fixed the problem, and he has been talking to me about getting back into the game.

At some point I need to tell him that you do not play in games that you host. He is asking me how to draw players to his server and I do not have any idea.

Regarding him getting back into playing, I suggested SWATH and TWX-Proxy, although he does not seem ready to pay for the former. I know that you can play it for free, with limitations, but is there something better than a trial version of SWATH?

twx and ZOC

Have him get a copy of the TW2002 Starter Pack

I do play on my own server, in a game clearly marked. At first I was just going to use this as my personal testing game, but I left it open to the public and players came. I play mostly passive in my game and let the new players practice invading my stuff. LOL

As for getting new players, first determine what's going to set you apart from all the other public servers. What types of games are you going to offer? Then get listed with Micro and Jumpgate. Post game bangs here in the right forum.

I also have a Facebook page, blog, twitter, google plus all just for my game server, and I usually post news on the blog and just broadcast it from there to the other sites. (Marketing is a hobby).

Don't set your expectations too high, as the player base is very small right now.

I agree with Cruncher, as long as the game is very clearly marked, and it is not a competitive game. I don't normally play on my own server, but I am currently playing in a Blasters practice game. Most of the active public hosts are also willing to bang private games that you can invite your friends to, all you have to do is ask.

I use swath for my terminal, but I also use putty. Putty got me killed last monthly challenge though, because a right click is a paste instead of a pop-up context menu.

I linked that to him in an e-mail, so I will tell him that ZOC is in there. He is asking if it is time to re-bang the game. I asked if that meant that I won.

I showed those aliens who was boss!

[not really]

I do not have a problem playing against the Sysop.

By the way, dropping nine more planets than comfortably fit in a sector resulted in a collision in the daily news, but no discernible Nav Haz.

Disappointing...

I am just worried that I would spend even more time in a new game.

Heh. I guess that I have my suggestion! Turn and time limits!

Thanks for your feedback, guys!

I just did it again in a practice game, fortunately there was no grid down yet. There is an optional setting to fix it though:



I will be making that my default setting from now on

While waiting for my SWATH reg code I was looking into some other helper terminals as well. One that I found wasn't horrible was Kokua. TWX is pretty much the only option out there (that I could find) to do the actual workhorse stuff but I gotta say the preloaded scripts on it were pretty terrible.

Are there any new scriptpacks out there available to TWX? I tried getting some from the Grimy Trader but I haven't received an account activation code in my mail despite trying a couple times to register for his website.

I find that the default haggle script crashes - A LOT - and that the world trade PPT will trade at empty ports despite fiddling with all the settings.

If you liked Kokua, allow me to shamelessly plug my own helper that was inspired by Kokua. It's not much more than a terminal yet, because although the scripting API is mostly complete, there aren't very many public scripts for it. But it's a Darn nice terminal, if I do say so.

http://chalcodes.com/wiki/index.php?title=Weapon_M

I'll take a look.

Just as a point of inquiry, does anybody know what's up with Grimy Trader? Does anybody have a TWX scriptpack I can download? Just ran the haggle that comes default and it is atrocious.

I am d/l'ing Weapon M now...

Looking forward to seeing how it works Mongoose.

Grimy Trader was down for a LONG time... When if came back up, I applied for an account and never received the validation email. If you have an existing account, the site seems to be working (so I have heard anyway).

I highly recommend Helix's starter pack:
http://www.tw2002.info/twstartup.php

There are also a lot of scripts at NavHaz:
http://www.navhaz.com/

Thanks Helix

For a haggle script specifically, you can find mine in this thread:
http://www.classictw.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=33962

Every planet over the sector limit adds a 10% chance to collide two.
The nav haz may have been cleaned by extern....


Some interesting discussions:
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=24210&p=215779&hilit=overloading#p215779

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=21650&p=185469&hilit=overloading#p185469

I never figured out the mechanics of the overload, heard many theories, X overload per sector, or overload Y sectors to cause a collision in a different sector.

That was HVS, might be down to a science now.

Best defense we had way back, was that if your base was reported on overload in the log before L4, gtorp dozens of planets in the sector.