Hi! I've read on the Cabal that the max course length should be reduced to prevent scripters from gaining a major advantage over non-scripters. I assume this information is a bit dated since most people probably script, but I was wondering about the course length anyway.

Does changing it BEFORE big bang differ from changing it afterwards? Does it really inhibit scripting?

The max course length in big bang limits the number of hops required to reach any sector in the universe. With the default setting of 45, you will never have to travel more than 45 hops to reach your destination. Big Bang will add additional warps to shorten destinations that are over 45 hops.

Changing the max course length in TEDIT only effects the coarse plotter. You will receive a "Path not Found" error if your destination is further away than the max course length setting. For example... if you are trying to colonize a planet that is further than the max setting, you won't be able to warp directly from your planet to sector 1. You will have to find a sector that is about half way between and make two jumps to get there. Since scripters use local databases and coarse plotters, a properly written script can easily calculate the best sector to use. I have no idea how a non-scripter would achieve this, so I completely disagree with the cabal's recommendation.

Cool! Do you ever mess with the Max course length?

Thanks!

Not personally, but last years Haunted Halloween Tournament edit has a Max Course length of 20 in tedit with the default 45 in big-bang. I hosted the game, but the edit was designed by Space Ghost.

Keep in mind that a non-scripter doesn't have a chance in a public tournament, and you have two sets of scripts.

1. Public scripts like mom-bot, zed-bot, and hundreds of scripts that were released to the public.

2. Private scripts, that have been fully debugged and perform more efficiently than public scripts.

Some retiring players released their private scripts to the public when they quit playing, but these scripts are not well documented, and very few know how to use them. Some scripts remain completely secret to this day, and even the concepts behind how they work are considered secret.

If you are using public scripts, they have most likely NOT been designed to work with a max course length that has been set shorter in tedit than it was in big-bang. All of the major perma-corps have functional scripts though.

Dude, you are answering my questions with surgical precision, and also including related data! Thank you! Will you answer ALL my questions? Lol!

Nope

I don't know ALL the answers!