The original request was just making a set amount of SS channel for corps only we just pulled a number of 1 - 100 since to see 100 corps currently is not going to happen. I guess in the future anything is possible
By setting 1 - 100 to be linked to the corp your on, the only open ones would be 101 and up. Scripts would not have to be modified since those are currently being used anyway.

So you manually select your channel, then the scripts work from the channel. I figured the scripts were setting the channels, changing them occasionally to avoid being eavesdropped on.

mombot will set a random ss on start up but we change it manually to the shared corp channel. After that any well written script that needs to send on SS will verify it by checking cn4

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Yea when we join a game we select the SS we all agree on. What were asking is that if your on Corp #1, your SS is defaulted to SS Channel #1. If you opted to want something else your choices would be 101 and up since 1-100 are reserved for corps.

Ok, good to know.

The only scripts that select ss channels automatically are the scripts that try to prevent sub space crawlers from gaining access to the corps SS channel. If this change is implemented, those scripts wouldn't even be of any use.

I would suggest setting the number of secure channels equal to the maximum players allowed in the game. Scripters could then pull that variable from the game information.

BTW, I think subspace crawl is probably a tactic that could be detected and reported in the logs if an op wants to declare it off limits. How hard is it to tell the difference between someone who uses one Subspace channel for awhile, then switches to another, vs a script that's switching channels frequently and not actually sending anything over the channel?

And if TW can detect it, why can't it just handle abuses automatically? Maybe lock you into an ss channel if you're switching too often. Or even lock you out of subspace for the day if you're caught abusing it. Subspace crawling is very different from normal use, right? Anybody willing to try that?

I know Singularity shot down some similar suggestions before, but really, what would be wrong with forcing you to stick to one subspace channel for 5 minutes, or maybe charging you a turn for every time you switch the channel? Or even 1/100th of your max turns so even with high turn games, you can't abuse it. Or what about only allowing you to switch channels 100 times per day? Does anyone need to switch channels more than 100 times per day? For a corp of 5, that's 500 channel searches out of 65K. Not very effective. And with that last option, you can switch as quickly as you need, you just can't switch too many times.

These kinds of changes are far less impactive than going to a secure subspace channel or even increasing the number of channels. I'd prefer to do the minimum possible to resolve the issue.

I don't remember shooting those down. But...

A turn cost wouldn't stop ppl, and a 5 minute window
would help but still not fix the problem entirely. Then
there's the question about what to do with ppl that
have no turns, are they just not allowed to change
their SS? I could see a 100x per day working, but it
could also cause problems if someone fubars up a
macro.

Another way would be to just impose a delay between
switching channels. You get the first for free, each
change after that imposes a growing delay that would
increase with the number of switches. That way you
could still change your chan as much as you want, but
changing it 100x would take a lot more time than just
changing it once. If the delay was imposed on the SS
change, and not after, it wouldn't impede play either.

Basically a little SS change count that resets daily or
something.

I swear you shot that idea down with some reasonable counterpoint. I must be thinking of some other debate. Yeah, I think a growing delay would be good also. That's what I do when someone attempts to hack a corp password.

Seems your not doing enough coding if you want to try to track SS changing to a log and put delays into it also , instead of the simpler fix of reserve channels 1 to 100 for said corp #.

As was posted earlier .. this would eliminate crawlers or switchers and even the need for encrypting .

I'd like or challenge Moose or whomever said they could code one ..
Take any .cts script and encode its output .. remember you cant change said .cts , just its output ...

I as a scripter .. don't know how you would do it or if it could even be done.

The only reason I even brought up the asking of SS to corp change .. was for those who don't have what us scripters have now .. I'm just trying to help others ..
Like many of the newer features in Swath .. I suggested them and they were added .. I have more , so when Stein gets back with me , we may finish up on the latest beta and you may like that too.

just my 2¢

My opinion on the result of game changes to improve ss security is unchanged. It will further facilitate botting. Botting is one of the tactics (not a major one) that results in most retreads quitting in short order. Any change that benefits botting is a bad idea.

I know that I could easily write a SALT script which would encrypt ss, and decipher incoming. I dont think I could blank out the encrypted incoming, but that shouldnt matter, plain english appears underneath, different color maybe. Same key to send as now even - hit ' , type message in plain english, hit <enter> and encrypted text is sent instead of english.

I cant speak to twx, what I know of it could be written on the back of a matchbook with a crayon, but the method I have in mind aint rocket science and I would be surprised if it could not be coded in twx, unless twx does not support dos shell commands or DDE.

First .. this I have been talking about has nothing to do with bots or
controlling of bots .. its something to protect those with other peoples scripts that can not be changed.

And as for other peoples scripts that are compiled and YOU can not change .. encrypting the out put .. it next to impossible.

But lets see if in the future how you feel when a team finds and uses your sub-space channel to locate and do damage to your stuff ....

Remember one little key in TWGS that was added years ago .. it is a great little key "/" this one key if seen from someone elses consul can do more damage then any other.
I'm not saying to remove it. Its a great help to the game ... the real problem is that scripts can be used at all regardless of the language they are written in.

The only problem is for those that can not fix scripts written by others. They are at the mercy of those that write. I'm sorry for asking for help for them , lets just kill them off and drive them away or force them to play on private servers.
I don't think that will help Trade Wars in the long run...
This fix helps them more then it helps me.

I have ZERO problem with opponents using any tactic against me that the game software permits.