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 Warp between games? 
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Unread post Warp between games?
Has there been any previous effort to enable warping between games? I imagine it working by providing a construct in a sector that would allow a ship and everything on it to be transferred from one game to another, potentially opening up new gameplay options (pvp or builder games or "quadrants", for example).

Most likely, this would involve a series of tedits, but it could be automated. Just wanted to see if this has been attempted before I go further down this path. Thanks in advance.


Sat Nov 24, 2012 11:20 am
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Unread post Re: Warp between games?
mrdon wrote:
Has there been any previous effort to enable warping between games? I imagine it working by providing a construct in a sector that would allow a ship and everything on it to be transferred from one game to another, potentially opening up new gameplay options (pvp or builder games or "quadrants", for example).

Most likely, this would involve a series of tedits, but it could be automated. Just wanted to see if this has been attempted before I go further down this path. Thanks in advance.


We have the ability to traverse between Game A, B, C, and D. This allows us to have various games form a larger "universe". All player info is transferred into each game using a series of server-side scripts and one player-side script that we developed. There are specific sectors in each game that act as a "gateway" to travel to the next game.

For example, I activate the player-side script in the "gateway" sector, input the code for the next universe to go to (one code assigned for each game slot universe). The script then logs me out and I wait for a minute (timer shows on screen), the server-side script takes the info and updates my account for that game "universe" I am going to, my player script reaches the end of the timer and logs me into that game slot and I can continue on. Does the same in any direction, as long as I input the correct code and the game exists.

It allows us to expand our game and we can go from one slot to another in any ship or planet. Credits, everything transfer over. Is quite the extensive project, but we have had fun with it. Even made some computer-player scripts that control computer players so they too can traverse back and forth.


Sat Nov 24, 2012 12:34 pm
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Unread post Re: Warp between games?
That's really cool. Is your server open to the public now?

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Sat Nov 24, 2012 1:17 pm
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Unread post Re: Warp between games?
Wowzers.

I think you guys are really onto something there... this could be the shot in the arm that TradeWars needs..

If you need a tester, please let me know.

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Sat Nov 24, 2012 7:08 pm
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Unread post Re: Warp between games?
Great Daala, that sounds perfect. Are you planning to release the scripts in any way? One idea I've been playing with is returning TW back to its casual gaming roots via async gameplay for a mobile client, but in order to do so, return games back to one gamer at a game. Having the ability to support multiple games at once would help address multiple people playing at once as well as allowing pvp areas for those into that.


Sun Nov 25, 2012 2:35 am
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Unread post Re: Warp between games?
Are these server side scripts upgraded for v2? There are quite a few tedit prompt changes in version 2 that would probably render many older server side scripts ineffective. It would be important to know this unless they are running version 1.03


Sun Nov 25, 2012 4:18 am
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Unread post Re: Warp between games?
Quote:
Is your server open to the public now?


Currently the server is private only while we work on this project. It has been a large development and we have had to put it on the back burner a few times since we have other priorities to work on (developing games and software apps). Eventually we would like to reopen to the public.

Quote:
I think you guys are really onto something there... this could be the shot in the arm that TradeWars needs..


That was our thinking. We had installed our old version when we ran a BBS in the 90's with the addons we purchased. Since we had addons like the BORG or Klingons, there was no need to do anything except create the races in the Alien Manager (Gold side) with the ships, etc. We came up with a few ideas from other addons we had and began to write the computer player scripts to play certain roles. One of them was a "supply merchant" who travels the universe- you can buy product and figs from the merchant. Another was a "tow truck" where the ship would warp to your location and tow you if required for a fee. Another was a "seed" ship which would create planets in random sectors and stock those planets so you could at least create a citadel (idea taken from StarGate Universe). So many possibilities to come up with.

Quote:
Are you planning to release the scripts in any way?


That was something we were discussing during the initial design phase. There are two issues we are debating- whether to release free, and if we plan to make available for both v1.03 and v2. Timing is also the issue. We do not release until all the bugs are worked out. We code, we test, find an issue, fix, test again. It is very time consuming, particularly when my husband is suddenly called away. When we began the "computer players" and their specific roles, we had to plan for any possible outcome. For example, what if the human player decided to attack, what if they ran out of product or items, where to set their main travel route apart from using the MSL's all the time. As you can imagine, it takes a lot on a large development like this and we want it to be as close to bug free as possible.

Quote:
Are these server side scripts upgraded for v2? There are quite a few tedit prompt changes in version 2 that would probably render many older server side scripts ineffective. It would be important to know this unless they are running version 1.03


The project was started on v1.03 and almost all the issues are worked out. One of the problems we have encountered was a scenario where the player barricades the "gateway" sector(s) between the games. We had created a "computer" player based off our original OCS Bot that would patrol the sector(s) where the gates exist and clear them. Of course we also have to test to ensure it responds properly if attacked. Right now it will call for reinforcements (there are currently 4 patrol ships total) so hopefully that will be sufficient. At that point, we required 8 server-side scripts and connections to pull it all off (4 for patrol ships, 1 for supply, 1 for tow truck, 1 for seed ship, and 1 to handle the TEDIT side for account synchronization, messages, etc) and only one player-side script required to use the "traversing" from game to game.

We have made notes on what has been changed between the versions. The player-side script only needed two lines of code changed to be compatible. The server-side scripts required more, given a few prompts changed and the admin access side had some alterations as well. As we progress in ironing out any last issues with v1, we had been discussing if we want to expand and port into v2. Again, this also requires time and the project tends to get put on hold as we work on our R/L developments that make our income. You can imagine how little time exists when a lot of the time it is only myself coding when my husband is out on deployments, factor in running the house, kids, and having our business to run (I do all the model making, textures, etc) for company media assets.


Sun Nov 25, 2012 11:04 am
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Unread post Re: Warp between games?
Thank you Daala for the update. I am looking forward to the day you can open this to the public. I can't wait to play it.

I'm in my first year CIT classes to learn programming. I can now just begin to realize and appreciate how much work goes into programming. It sure is fun when it works, but a bear to chase down a bug.

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BOTE 1998 Champs: Team Fament
HHT 2015 Champs: Cloud09
Big Game 2016 Champs: Draft team
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Classic Style Games Here:
telnet://crunchers-twgs.com:2002

Web page from 1990's: https://web.archive.org/web/20170103155645/http://tradewars.fament.com/Cruncher/tradewar.htm
Blog with current server info: http://cruncherstw.blogspot.com
Discord: https://discord.gg/4dja5Z8
E-mail: Cruncherstw@gmail.com
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Sun Nov 25, 2012 8:22 pm
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Unread post Re: Warp between games?
This is current possible with Botlink as well, keep up the good work you two :-) I look forward to seeing your implementation of this feature.

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Sun Nov 25, 2012 10:39 pm
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Unread post Re: Warp between games?
Quote:
This is current possible with Botlink as well


We have not really looked deep into Botlink. I know there are some notes that were taken, but for now we want to get this completed before we look at Botlink.


Mon Nov 26, 2012 11:06 pm
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Unread post Re: Warp between games?
The Mad Hatter's Universe Expander did this, 15-20 years ago, if memory serves. I have emailed him this thread, I hope he still uses the addr that I sent it to.

EDIT: Hatter got the email, he is traveling and will post later.


Tue Nov 27, 2012 10:16 am
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Unread post Re: Warp between games?
mrdon wrote:
Has there been any previous effort to enable warping between games? I imagine it working by providing a construct in a sector that would allow a ship and everything on it to be transferred from one game to another, potentially opening up new gameplay options (pvp or builder games or "quadrants", for example).

Most likely, this would involve a series of tedits, but it could be automated. Just wanted to see if this has been attempted before I go further down this path. Thanks in advance.


As Kav posted, I was travelling, which is why I'm only responding now.

Back when V1.03 was current I wrote a program called the Universe Expander which linked up to 20 universes together. Effectively it was a front end like the TWGS Game Server, which used some fairly basic routines to drop you into the Universe you were actually in.

For any universe you weren't in, it wrote your location as in the Citadel on Terra (you didn't know there was one - did you), so that your ship and person couldn't be destroyed, but your current score/alignment showed up in all universes in the "CLV".

The Universe Expander also included an Intra-Universal Stardock, where you could buy various things, visit the Ferrengi Embassy, and meet Captain Zyrain (who was an incredibly beautiful worman).

Due to the arrival of V2, which never came out of Beta, I stopped development on the Universe Expander. I did have an Alpha version for V2, the source code for which is long since lost, which allowed a Sysop to run 20 x 5000 sector games. Can you imagine playing Halloween Havoc or Battle of the Elite with 20 Stardocks, and 20 Federation Spaces? Be a lot harder to block people away from Stardock, and a lot harder to map everything, even with today's cashing systems.

I also had an experimental BBS warp program, which would allow you to jump between games on different BBS systems. Work also stopped when the 2.0 series of Tradewars came out. It worked differently, in that if your ship is in the Citadel in Sector 1, and you enter the game, you lift off. To prevent that from happening, I had to zero out the player record in the first game.

Needless to say, that had an unfortuneate effect on planets, fighters, corporations, etc. I had a couple of ideas on how to handle those issues, but never went ahead with them.

I did suggest to JP at one point that he might want to build an expander setup into TWGS. The biggest problem with the game now is that if you don't get into it on the first day, you'll never catch up. Having an additional 95,000 or more sectors would give latecomers a fighting chance.

Wayne

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Tue Dec 04, 2012 7:58 am
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Unread post Re: Warp between games?
Daala wrote:
mrdon wrote:
Has there been any previous effort to enable warping between games? I imagine it working by providing a construct in a sector that would allow a ship and everything on it to be transferred from one game to another, potentially opening up new gameplay options (pvp or builder games or "quadrants", for example).

Most likely, this would involve a series of tedits, but it could be automated. Just wanted to see if this has been attempted before I go further down this path. Thanks in advance.


We have the ability to traverse between Game A, B, C, and D. This allows us to have various games form a larger "universe". All player info is transferred into each game using a series of server-side scripts and one player-side script that we developed. There are specific sectors in each game that act as a "gateway" to travel to the next game.

For example, I activate the player-side script in the "gateway" sector, input the code for the next universe to go to (one code assigned for each game slot universe). The script then logs me out and I wait for a minute (timer shows on screen), the server-side script takes the info and updates my account for that game "universe" I am going to, my player script reaches the end of the timer and logs me into that game slot and I can continue on. Does the same in any direction, as long as I input the correct code and the game exists.

It allows us to expand our game and we can go from one slot to another in any ship or planet. Credits, everything transfer over. Is quite the extensive project, but we have had fun with it. Even made some computer-player scripts that control computer players so they too can traverse back and forth.


Only 4 games? That kind of kills the main reason for doing something like this, which is to even the playing field a bit by allowing weaker players to hide from the killer players.

Considering how cheap storage is now, why not up it to 20 games? What really matters is the number of Stardocks/Fed Spaces, not the total number of sectors.

What hex editor are you using?

Wayne

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Tue Dec 04, 2012 8:02 am
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Unread post Re: Warp between games?
Could you script a way to limit where traders go based on alignment or exp? I always thought it would be cool to have "area's" of space where pirates aren't able to visit, and vise versa for fed safe.

Or if your experience is too low it's "too" dangerous for you too visit there...I think having multiuniverse game is the way this game is going to stick around. I would play a game like that, something with more of a theme.

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Tue Dec 04, 2012 9:44 am
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Unread post Re: Warp between games?
mob wrote:
Or if your experience is too low it's "too" dangerous for you too visit there...I think having multiuniverse game is the way this game is going to stick around. I would play a game like that, something with more of a theme.


Something like EVE (ie: Jump Gates), but considerably less boring.

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-= QUANTUM Computing 101: 15 = 3 x 5 ... 48% of the time.
-= There are 10 types of people in the world: Those that understand Binary and those who do not
-= If Oil is made from Dinosaurs, and Plastic is made from Oil... are plastic Dinosaurs made from real Dinosaurs?
-= I like to keep my friends and my enemies rich, and wait to see which is which - Tony Stark (R.I.P.)


Tue Dec 04, 2012 10:24 am
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