So I've been gone the better part of 6month's due to school and a new position in cyber defense. The challenge is to summarize the changes and challenges to scripters/prior version veterans that 2.07(Beta) may present in 1 Paragraph.

Were we successful in "equalizing" the game for non-scripters?

Did we get the surge of players some players expected?

Is 2.07(Beta) all that and a cup of tea?

1 Paragraph(3-4 sentences) or less, shortest summary wins, keep it on topic... K GO

No. No. It has some nice features for sysops.

He said the shortest answer wins, so:

no, no, meh.

Maybe

Just starting, to trickle back. This fall winter season will tell the tale.

My server's only been up since Aug. 1st. give them a few months to find it!

I still think TradeWars has a future, and the new TWGS is a step in the right direction.

This isn't an entry in the challenge, but just a response to those who are disappointed in how this is going.

It's a process. There is a goal to all of this. A player explosion isn't really the goal, though sure, it would be nice. I don't see it happening.

First goal, fix bugs and add a long list of features my customers have been asking for over the years. Done.

Second goal, add features to allow gameops to better control their games, based primarily on what ops like V'Ger are doing to provide alternative games that require an unnecessarily high level of monitoring to control. Just started that part.

Third goal, provide tools to open the game up to more 3rd party customization so the game will keep people's interest for another 25 years. I have a plan, but not yet implemented.

As far as I'm concerned, no real effort has been made yet to even announce that this new version is available. It's not ready. This summer-release is intended to allow me to work through bugs and hopefully prepare the game better for the uninitiated by enabling gameops to provide less cut-throat games, as well as giving those gameops time to create such games. I hope to see a bit more attention in the fall, and I just hope the game is ready for it, because if people come in and run into "gridlock" and #SD# in 30 seconds, they'll just bounce.

That seems to be a major problem that i am noticing.. If you pod someone, they give up. more than often it seems that the first kill wins.. which is tough from either perspective (the podder or the poddee).. i have absolutely no idea what might help this situation but i have noticed it a lot on my server. I tend to very quickly wind up with 1 active player/corp in each game.

Now this part sounds VERY interesting.

In most MMORPGs new players start out in a fairly safe area of the game designed for beginners.
Would it be possiable to make fedspace bigger, so that players can do a little trading in a safe environment before they head out into the more dangerious areas?

Yeh some do. Some people are pansy's. You can't fix lazy and weak. The same people won't play WoW or EVE either, they probably don't play much of anything competitive.

LOL, I could have a field day with people trading in a "safe" fedspace. If you give people the expectations of safety in a competitive game, they're going to be very sorely disappointed.

Would it be so bad to give players a grace period during which to play in a protected mode, ending either after a given time, after the player reaches certain milestones in the game, or chooses to give up PvP protection in order to engage other players in combat?

Thats a truce mode.. and perhaps that will help.. but i wont run a truce that i have to enforce... too many people are willing to break the truce which puts me at odds with them.. so a truce needs to be game enforced.. i look forward to the changes you make for a truce mode in twgs.

No, we've asked for exactly that... truce mode. And it would be very nice to have a truce mode, perhaps one that automatically ends after X days or something. Just don't half-a&& it and go with a "protected area" where ports can be blown and planets hazzed. If you're going to do a truce mode, make it explicit.

There definitely will be a truce mode. But I see that as being significantly different from an ongoing PvP mode. A truce mode governs everyone for a specified period, during which they are restricted in the kinds of aggressive actions they can take, and after the truce ends, it's anything goes. This is a frequently requested feature and I'm very interested in doing it.

But what I'm saying is that there might be another way to use these truce rules, but more on a player-by-player bases, to provide PvP restrictions. Regardless of how long a game has been running, a new player could be given a period of PvP protection in which to build up some assets and prepare for the competition. After the player reaches a certain strength, this PvP protection would automatically end. Or, if a player decides he wants to attack another player, he could voluntarily give up PvP protection at any time. Another option would be to make PvP time limited, so maybe it lasts for one week or something. Or any combination of these three. I could see a game in which players who don't want to attack or be attacked are playing their own building games while those who want to engage in PvP are battling each other.

Having implemented truce mode, I think all of the same rules could be applied to a more general PvP mode. Truce mode would really just be a specific kind of PvP mode where all players have PvP protection for a specified period, after which no player has PvP protection.

Gee, this thread got way off topic. You guys were talking about how disappointing my new version is. Carry on... ;)