What IS the state at this point? Is there a working codebase? Is there even interest if it were revived? Are there any active servers?

Is there any progress on this? Is there even any interest or active community? I can't seem to find any servers active or played. If a version came out, what would it require to be competitive and draw players?

There are plenty of servers, not enough players..

You can find the freshest games here:
http://microblaster.net/BigBang.aspx

We maintain a few tournament games each year, the next one will be the end of October called the HHT - Haunted Halloween Tournament.

To play in a tournament, I have to be, reasonably speaking, "non sucky". To do that, I need to practice for the first time in 10 years :P

I'm still holding out hope that JP will get back to TradeWars when work slows down on the AAA title he's involved with. Also, I'm quitting my job on Thursday, and TradeWars stuff is around #5 on my list of personal projects. Not sure if I'd rather revisit my helper, come up with my own version of the game, or both.

All for new helpers.... but my concern about new versions of the game is that it will delude what little we have left. v1 vs v2 is an example of that. I know this is what many for you programmers are wanting to do just to keep it moving forward since JP is awol but like I said before in the tread a new version with updated code would not be trade wars anymore.

sk

True. But a version without all the bugs and baggage might bring back old players and appeal to new players. Some programming teachers advocate games as a teaching tool. TW and TW-like games have the potential to teach so much, from basic programming skills to graph theory. One of the aims of my helper what that it could be used as a teaching tool. Whether I rewrite my helper or write a whole new game, that will be one of my goals.

A version borrowing the benefit of a couple decades of new design experience and specific hindsight is not blasphemy. I'd hope the goal is to revive a community and push a project with a bit more protection against exploitation and pure "whoever started first wins"-ness. I mean, wandering into a game where 12 days in it's unplayable due to all the ports being nuked and every sector being filled with fighters may be "trade wars", but it's not something enjoyable or worth replicating.

There are holes. Innovating and experimenting to fill those holes isn't necessarily a bad thing.

That's kinda like saying the HVS version isn't TradeWars. We need a less buggy version, but I would not support anything that isn't approved by JP.

You have until now til the end of Oct. to knock the rust off, get to it!

I agree. There have been many "spin-offs" over the years, maybe the most popular is probably Eve, but it's not TW, just another sci-fi genre game.

[quote="Micro"][quote="Star Killer"]All for new helpers.... but my concern about new versions of the game is that it will delude what little we have left. v1 vs v2 is an example of that. I know this is what many for you programmers are wanting to do just to keep it moving forward since JP is awol but like I said before in the tread a new version with updated code would not be trade wars anymore.

sk[/quote]
That's kinda like saying the HVS version isn't TradeWars. We need a less buggy version, but I would not support anything that isn't approved by JP.[/quote]

I'm a little perplexed by this attitude in several places. From what I can tell, the active community is less than 25 people. The patriarch has moved on. I realize I'm late in the action and thus kind of beside the point, but would complete insolvency really trump a new, "different" product?

It's a bit bigger than 25, but yes it is small. I enjoy playing the games I once played in my youth. Lately I have been having a blast playing Super Mario 64 World on my Raspberry Pi.

There are thousands of "different" products for you to choose from. None of the are "TradeWars 2002". None of them ever will be.

What's your point?

To be fair, you just popped in at the beginning of summer when games die down and people enjoy getting outdoors. Games are very active in the winter months, after the holidays. Stick with it and you should be not so suckie by then.

As for games 12 days old being unplayable... dude, you ain't seen nothing yet, they can get locked down in a matter of hours! You need to adjust your strategies for all sorts of situations. There's only so much a host can do with settings and rules.