Helix started a monthly thing, so what? Games have a decent turn out, and hopefully some of the newer folk are able to learn a thing or two. I mean the Corp size is set to '8', so what if you take on 3 noobies and loose? I would think that with your playing experience and skill-set, that I woul dbe hard pressed to find an Edit you know nothing about. Seriously?

I can't see how this game is helped when someone sleeps with their Trophy and refuses to play with anyone, anytime, unless the playing field is set to their exact specification. This is very Bobby Fischer like.. eventually no one will care about your historical Wins.

Taking on noobs wasn't the issue. We had already accepted that the corp size would be larger than 5. However, we said that the edit used had to be released 2 weeks in advance of any game we would play. Helix refused, so the best corp won't be participating. If no one cares about our history as an undefeated corp, then by all means they can keep beating up on noobs.

Well, I feel that this is tantamount to my creating a Perma Corp, and declaring a perfect Win/Lose record because I refuse to play, therefore my corp is actually the best. We could argue back and forth why my logic is flawed, but in the end games are not played and our wives are getting jealous of how tightly we hold onto our plastic trophies. in bed at night.

I'm not suggesting that you participate in the Monthly thing Helix started,.. but for the love of gawd, do something constructive and setup your own 'Training Camp' or whatever (yes, yes, I know about the 2014, 2015, 2016, thing).. There's plenty of Sandboxes around for everyone; does Ground Zero actively play any games? Why not take this fletzer guy under your wing and train him up (in a slow game) .... not telling you what to do, just somethings I would do if I had the time.

We haven't refused to play. What we have refused to do is let the likes of Helix decide what terms we play under. When Ground Zero plays a tournament, it will be under tournament style conditions. Period.

Question to anyone: When did it become standard procedure to release edits for tourney games before the game started?

I don't remember that happening but once back when I was playing - and that one time turned out to be a disaster. I believe it was an HHT where one guild took advantage of their rehearsed starting strat and blew SD on the first day leaving only them access to resources for 7 days while everyone else waited for SD to respawn.

Seems to me like you remove the skill of being able find the best way to play an edit away from the tourney if everyone knows what the strategy should be 2 weeks ahead of time. If you want to show your skills - jump into a game where nobody knows the edits and figure out the best way to play it before your enemies do.

Just wondering when/why that practice seems to be the norm now.

It started back when a few less then honorable sysops passed out the edit to specific people while others remained in the dark. It keeps the game fair and above board. Besides, it's not the exact seed that is passed out, but everyone knows in advance what the planets and ships are.

If you use any of the updated twa files for v1 or v2 you know what the planets and ships are since all of them have had makeansi run on them.

That's too bad, it removes a lot of good strategy from the game. You'd think with the age demographic in this game you'd have a more mature player base. I can understand now why it's so hard for new people and old players to get into the game.

I guess some people never grow up.

You have to have access to the TWA to run that script. ROFL

Every one of the download-able twa files on these 2 lists have had it run on it and exported.

v1.x Updated TWA FIles
v2.x Updated TWA FIles

For the old schoolers here is a list of download-able twa files in their original state
v1.x Original TWA Files

I agree... Part of the challenge is not knowing everything in advance.

It is fun that way.

Yeap, I like surprises. We all learn from our mistakes. I knew product came on planets last game, but didn't think the amounts available make that much of a difference in only one day. (Then we were just minutes short of getting a L4 first day.)

Just goes to show you, you can still teach an old dog new tricks in a 26/27 year old bbs game! LOL

However; it's not much fun when you have the challenge of learning the edit while others already know the edit. I wouldn't trust at least one KNOWN sysop from disclosing that information to specific people.

Got to love how Helix posts smack talk in "tournament discussion" and then edits the post or deletes it and Toyman doesn't have the sense to figure out what he's doing.