View unanswered posts | View active topics It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 3:23 am



Reply to topic  [ 6 posts ] 
 Classic (internal) Ferrengi 
Author Message
Chief Warrant Officer

Joined: Sun Apr 17, 2005 2:00 am
Posts: 194
Location: USA
Unread post Classic (internal) Ferrengi
My comprehensive Internal Ferrengi Encyclopedia! Yay!

1) Sleep Mode is always on
All Internal Ferrengi ships (and Internal Alien Traders) stop moving when there are no players logged into the game. Obviously this also means that the Ferrengi do *not* deploy new sector figs throughout the universe.

Even if players are not logged into the game, the Ferrengi home sector will continue to produce sector figs every Extern and Ferrengal will continue producing products/figs like any other planet.

2) Settings
There are three settings I've found to control Internal Alien Traders, and five for Internal Ferrengi.

A) Pre-bang, you can turn the Internal Alien Traders and/or the Internal Ferrengi on or off.

B) There's another pre-bang setting that allows you to hide Ferrengal in a bubble (assuming bubbles are activated.) Note that this setting *only* applies to the *Internal* Ferrengal and not the Gold Ferrengal!

C) Post-bang, you can control the Ferrengi's Regeneration rate in tedit, General Settings, page G. More on this later because it can be confusing.

D) Movement rate for Internal Alien Traders and Internal Ferrengi can be controlled in tedit, General Settings, page H. Note: the LOWER the number, the faster they move because the number controls how often the game checks to see if it will allow movement. I usually set the Ferrengi to the default Gold value: 1 per 4 cycles. I'll usually leave the Alien Trader movement rate alone.

E) Editing the individual Ferrengi can be done by hitting "F" in tedit. You then select 1-40. Regardless of which one you select, you can still scroll through all of them. Most of the settings should be pretty self-explanatory. The last setting "Operating Mode" simply distinguishes between "looking for a fight" and "fighting."

Note that the Internal Alien Traders can also be edited by hitting "A" in tedit.
You can easily put an Alien Trader in an ISS with 30K figs, 1K shields, 250 holds, -32K alignment, and 999,999,999 credits. And yes, this allegation has been carefully tested.

3) Ferrengi ships
First, let me say that Internal Alien Trader ships spawn at a rate of one per day, starting on day one and ending with fifty Alien Traders on day fifty. Presumably, they spawn in the same stock ships that the Gold Alien Traders spawn in. These include the Merchant Cruiser, Scout Marauder, Missile Frigate, Battleship, Colonial Transport, CargoTran, and Merchant Freighter. It appears that Internal Alien Traders can spawn anywhere in the universe. My guess is that they have multiple sectors for spawning and re-spawn at the nearest one when destroyed.

Ok, back to the Ferrengi! There are a maximum of forty Internal Ferrengi ships that spawn in the game: twenty Assault Traders, ten Battle Cruisers, and ten Dreadnoughts. These ships spawn one at a time every three days according to the following schedule:

Day three: first Assault Trader spawns.
Day sixty: last Assault Trader spawns.

Day sixty-three: first Battle Cruiser spawns.
Day ninety: last Battle Cruiser spawns.

Day ninety-three: first Dreadnought spawns.
Day one hundred and twenty: last Dreadnought spawns.

Each of these ships spawn in the Ferrengi home sector and equip figs from the sector figs. There seems to be a minimum amount of figs per ship that they'll spawn with related to the age of the game but I haven't tried to determine the pattern yet. Something interesting I noticed is that when a Ferrengi ship spawns and takes the last sector fig, some more sector figs will re-spawn immediately (8000+, which is also the starting sector figs on day zero.)

The first ship spawns with 180 figs and 12 shields on day three. At day nine the Ferrengi ship(s) have 600 figs and 40 shields. At day thirty they have 1800 figs and 120 shields. It obviously follows a pattern, but I didn't nail it down.

Internal Ferrengi ships initially spawn at extern but re-spawn immediately after being destroyed if there are enough home sector figs. If there aren't enough home sector figs to re-spawn a destroyed ship then it won't re-spawn.

Finally, it's possible to "force spawn" a Ferrengi from menu "F" in tedit. However, force-spawning seems to be glitched:

I created a test game and on day zero I put 1M Ferrengi sector figs in their home sector and force-spawned all of the ships. The results were completely disappointing. The Ferrengi ships just sat there and didn't even pick up any figs. They were also unresponsive. After removing the sector figs, I entered their home sector (with 40 Ferrengi) and not one of them attempted to interact with me. I captured the first ship just to see if I could provoke a reaction and nothing happened (except that I captured a ship.) Next, I set the game to 120 days and restored the 1M sector figs. This caused all of the Ferrengi to start moving and interacting, but none of the ships picked up figs until they had been destroyed and re-spawned naturally. If I had tested it long enough, I suspect that they might have picked up figs after a while. I'm sure they're programmed to check for figs eventually.

The total number of sector figs required to max out all Ferrengi ships at once is 290K.

So just put 290K+ sector figs in the Ferrengi home sector and set the age of the game to 120 days if you want all of the Internal Ferrengi at bang! Lol!

4) Movement
Internal Alien Traders avoid sectors with figs, planets, and/or Armid mines. They do not activate Limpet mines.

Internal Ferrengi will enter any sector they please, regardless of what is in it.
When entering a sector, they ignore sector figs above 7500. At or below this number, they will attempt to destroy the existing sector figs and deploy their own. Armid mines will destroy them, but an individual Ferrengi can be destroyed an unlimited number of times per day (assuming that there are enough home sector figs to draw from.) They ignore planets completely, including the infamous planet #2 (whether they own it or not.) Internal Ferrengi will also not activate Limpet mines.

Let me give you an example! Let's say you have 7501 Offensive Sector Figs deployed in your home sector and have several well-fortified planets guarding it. And you also have 250 Armid mines deployed. And, OOPS!
You didn't make the tactical decision to take control of the Ferrengi home sector and this game is so old that the Ferrengi home sector figs are currently 50M and quickly growing...! Well, that's when this obnoxious Internal Ferrengi decides that you have too many mines deployed and will proceed to decimate your mines faster than a complete arsenal of Mine Disrupters!

Internal Ferrengi will normally deploy sector figs in seemingly random spots throughout the universe as they move around. They tend to deploy figs in sequential sectors, so it's a good idea to scan the surrounding sectors if you encounter their sector figs. The sector figs that are deployed throughout the universe are either Defensive or Toll. Please note that this is DIFFERENT from the Gold aliens that seem to deploy Offensive or Defensive figs. At some point Internal Ferrengi ships will return to their home sector to replenish fighters.

Internal Ferrengi *can* enter FedSpace, and of course the bribed Feds will always ignore them.

5) Encounters
Density Scan Values
Internal Alien Trader: 40
Internal Ferrengi Assault Trader: 40
Internal Ferrengi Battle Cruiser: 100 (same as a port)
Internal Ferrengi Dreadnought: *DOES NOT SHOW UP ON A DENSITY SCAN!*
Player in a Dreadnought: 40 (your alien physiology is incompatible, hooman!)

Internal Alien Trader and Internal Ferrengi ships can be engaged and captured/destroyed just like any other. Never surrender! Lol! Seriously, surrendering sometimes destroys you without a fight so it's better to stick to "fight or flight!"

I don't think it's possible to interact with an Internal Alien Trader enough to surrender. I believe you're limited to initiating an attack and then the alien immediately flees. And they don't trade at ports, either. The only real use for Internal Alien Traders is for gaining or losing alignment and experience.

Internal Ferrengi do *not* have FedSpace protection and can be attacked anywhere in the universe without retaliation from the Feds. Internal Alien Traders have the same criteria as players to qualify for Fedspace protection:
a) zero or positive alignment
b) experience less than 1000
c) figs < 100

6) Gold PLUS Internal in the SAME GAME!?!?!?!
If you have Gold and Internal Alien Traders in the same game, and you encounter both in the same sector, you will see the Internal Alien Trader listed FIRST. If you have ANSI enabled, the word "Aliens" will be brown. The Gold Alien Trader will be listed SECOND, and the word "Alien Tr" will be yellow.

If you have Gold and Internal Ferrengi in the same game, and you encounter both in the same sector, you will see the Internal Ferrengi listed FIRST. If you have ANSI enabled, the word "Ferrengi" will be brown. The Gold Ferrengi will be listed SECOND, and the word "Ferrengi" will be yellow.

7) Grudges
I don't have any solid info on Grudges, but I've read many articles about it so I assume the info is out there. Each Ferrengi has three slots for grudges, for a total of ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY grudges! That's a lot of hate! Lol!

It seems that I remember reading somewhere that grudges can be INHERITED from deleted players!? But that might have been fixed somewhere along the line...?

According to the TWGS settings for Gold Ferrengi Grudges, they only activate if more than one Gold Ferrengi are in a sector when you attack them. In other words: the Gold Grudge requires a "witness" to the attack to activate. I don't know if Internal Grudges works this way or not.

8 ) Home Sector
Note: Changing a sector name to "The Ferrengi Empire" does *not* create an additional home sector! Too bad... But wouldn't that be confusing to the players if you did it anyway? *ESPECIALLY* if you dropped a beacon and figs there! ;-)

As I mentioned earlier, the starting sector figs for Ferrengi on day zero are (approx) 8000. It always seems to be slightly more. After bang, sector figs generate at extern or if, at any time, a Ferrengi ship takes the last home sector fig.

Sector figs are generated at a rate of 10 x (number of days that the game has been running.) So if your game has been running for 100 days, then at Extern on THAT day, there were 1000 Ferrengi home sector figs produced. The next day would be 1010 figs. Of course, this is assuming that they were able to produce them (ie: you haven't taken control of the Ferrengi home sector.)

I've modified the "Ferrengi Regeneration Percentage" in tedit, page G but it doesn't seem to have any affect. In fact, no matter how silly I change the settings: 100M sector figs and 20% default regen, they still produce 10 x (number of days that the game has been running) sector figs. 100M sector figs is far more than is allowed on day zero at 20% default regen, so the sector should NOT produce more. And yet it does the next day at the standard rate of 10 x (number of days that the game has been running.)

At the beginning of the game, the Ferrengi home sector figs are Offensive. If the sector figs are *completely* removed (destroyed by players or taken by Ferrengi ships,) then respawning figs will be Defensive.

As a sysop and fan of Internal Ferrengi... If you want to have 1M Ferrengi figs on day zero, the best place to put them is the sector. And keep them Offensive.

To prevent new Ferrengi fighters from spawning in the home sector, there must be non-Ferrengi sector figs deployed there. These figs can be rogue or owned by any player, or even SysOp-edited to be "Pirate," "Federation," etc. As long as the sector fighters are *not* Ferrengi, then the Ferrengi will not spawn new figs (besides the planet, if applicable.) If the home sector is left without sector figs, then the Ferrengi will continue spawning new sector figs at the next extern.

9) Ferrengal
Ferrengal starts with precisely 2,520 colonists (3M) and 10,000 figs (more like 11-12.) Ferrengal can be edited just like any other planet. It can be made indestructable in tedit, General Settings, page H. This just means that Atomic Detonators won't work on it. The Internal Ferrengi will ignore all planets, including this one. Once the planet is captured, the Internal Ferrengi will never create planetary figs anywhere for the rest of the game. The reason that's important is because it affects the total number of Ferrengi figs, and SHOULD affect the Ferrengi Regeneration Rate in tedit, page G.

Fighters on Ferrengal are basically useless since they're not a threat until a player attempts to land. Supposedly, this would also inhibit the "Ferrengi Regeneration Rate" in tedit, page G. But I haven't found any evidence to support this. So whatever you do, put 2520 cols on Ferrengal into Fuel Ore production and then convert it to a volcanic. And then add 1M planetary figs (and leave the Military Reaction level alone for laughs, or lower it at your discretion.)

10) Max Ferrengi Figs/Ferrengi Regen
Both of these refer to the Ferrengi figs in the game (ship, sector, and planet.) Max Ferrengi is simply the max number the game will allow. Ferrengi Regen (the setting you can control) determines how fast they reach maximum. There is no easy way to determine the maximum number, since neither tedit nor the game shows it. Also, this number increases by a similarly unknown amount every day. You'll just have to count them manually. If your Regen is set to 100%, this makes it easier to determine the maximum number. Good luck! Lol! BTW: I've noticed that the Ferrengi Regen Rate increases by 50 per day (modified by the percentage you assign) if that tells you anything.

Finally, I'm not sure if the number of sectors in the game determines how many Ferrengi the game generates (ie: does a 30K-sector game allow more Ferrengi than a 1K-sector game?) If I modify it I'll usually set the Ferrengi Regen rate to 1% for 1K universes, 5% for 5K, 30% for 30K, etc. The Ferrengi Regen rate *can* be reduced to zero. And, surprisingly, this DOES affect their regen rate! ie: it turns off! This means that the Ferrengi in your game are the last you'll ever see! So just always set it to 100% and your players will let you know if it worked!

Note: I think "Max Ferrengi" is glitched because I banged a game and edited them to have 1M sector figs on day zero and they *still* produced new sector figs on day 1, 2, etc. See? I *FORGOT* about this note when I entered it a few years prior to 10/27/21!

More updates as I figure them out.

_________________
The New Order
66.26.112.116:2002

MicroBlaster:
http://www.microblaster.net/ServerDetai ... erverid=66

One day, the entire Tradewars 2002 fanbase will tremble at the mere mention of "Lionmane." Too bad it's not my name!?!?! -Krovach


Last edited by Lionmane on Wed Oct 27, 2021 6:43 pm, edited 134 times in total.



Tue Jul 11, 2017 2:37 pm
Profile
Chief Warrant Officer

Joined: Sun Apr 17, 2005 2:00 am
Posts: 194
Location: USA
Unread post Re: Classic (internal) Ferrengi
Please delete.

_________________
The New Order
66.26.112.116:2002

MicroBlaster:
http://www.microblaster.net/ServerDetai ... erverid=66

One day, the entire Tradewars 2002 fanbase will tremble at the mere mention of "Lionmane." Too bad it's not my name!?!?! -Krovach


Last edited by Lionmane on Wed Jan 03, 2018 2:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.



Thu Jul 13, 2017 11:00 pm
Profile
Chief Warrant Officer

Joined: Sun Apr 17, 2005 2:00 am
Posts: 194
Location: USA
Unread post Re: Classic (internal) Ferrengi
Please delete.

_________________
The New Order
66.26.112.116:2002

MicroBlaster:
http://www.microblaster.net/ServerDetai ... erverid=66

One day, the entire Tradewars 2002 fanbase will tremble at the mere mention of "Lionmane." Too bad it's not my name!?!?! -Krovach


Last edited by Lionmane on Wed Jan 03, 2018 2:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.



Sun Jul 23, 2017 12:17 pm
Profile
Chief Warrant Officer

Joined: Sun Apr 17, 2005 2:00 am
Posts: 194
Location: USA
Unread post Re: Classic (internal) Ferrengi
Please delete

_________________
The New Order
66.26.112.116:2002

MicroBlaster:
http://www.microblaster.net/ServerDetai ... erverid=66

One day, the entire Tradewars 2002 fanbase will tremble at the mere mention of "Lionmane." Too bad it's not my name!?!?! -Krovach


Last edited by Lionmane on Wed Jan 03, 2018 2:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.



Sun Jul 30, 2017 10:58 am
Profile
Chief Warrant Officer

Joined: Sun Apr 17, 2005 2:00 am
Posts: 194
Location: USA
Unread post Re: Classic (internal) Ferrengi
Please delete

_________________
The New Order
66.26.112.116:2002

MicroBlaster:
http://www.microblaster.net/ServerDetai ... erverid=66

One day, the entire Tradewars 2002 fanbase will tremble at the mere mention of "Lionmane." Too bad it's not my name!?!?! -Krovach


Last edited by Lionmane on Wed Jan 03, 2018 2:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.



Mon Jan 01, 2018 5:55 pm
Profile
Chief Warrant Officer

Joined: Sun Apr 17, 2005 2:00 am
Posts: 194
Location: USA
Unread post Re: Classic (internal) Ferrengi
Please delete.

_________________
The New Order
66.26.112.116:2002

MicroBlaster:
http://www.microblaster.net/ServerDetai ... erverid=66

One day, the entire Tradewars 2002 fanbase will tremble at the mere mention of "Lionmane." Too bad it's not my name!?!?! -Krovach


Mon Jan 01, 2018 7:14 pm
Profile
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Reply to topic   [ 6 posts ] 

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group.
Designed by STSoftware.