With the TradeWars Academy project still in it's development, we wanted to share one of our projects with the players. The intent of TradeWars Academy is to give new players a glimpse into the game. The focus for us is to teach the dynamics, and hopefully provide information needed to learn and understand each dynamic available. With creating various tutorials, and more under development right now, we have also produced an introduction video. You can view the video at the TradeWars Academy site:

http://www.outpost-4.com/tw_academy/ind ... on=content &task=view&id=43

There are two locations of this: Outpost-4 TradeWars Academy, and Darkstarbase. I wish to thank Darkstar for hosting a copy and being a part of the Academy as well.

I am currently working on more videos, each one focusing more on the specific aspects closely. These will be on topics such as the ships, planets, trading, gridding/combat, and more.

We hope that this will help new players get a good look at the game, and want to play.

Thank you for your hard work, trying to keep this game alive. Most "kids" nowdays I fear are more interested in the graphical games, than the old game we love. I hope it lives forever.
Not only do you run the academy site, you're also very helpful to those of us getting started as hosts. I thank you many times over for that, and someday hope I can "pay it forward".

Looks good Thrawn, as always.
You Canadians know how to make everything rock.

Thanks. I could not have done it without my US counterpart, and the support of all the players and people over the years.

Outpost-4 TradeWars Academy has completed another phase of the site. The guides that have been online from TWCabal have been placed for reference and study. Per Traitors request, I have listed the author. Content has remained exact, with the exception of any URL links (ex: scripts in some guides) which were altered to direct any files or requests from our location.

At 2300 PST, Outpost-4 BBS has integrated with the TradeWars Academy, providing additional support for TradeWars and the Academy project. Not only does the BBS link to OP4 TWGS SVR1, it also will begin hosting smaller games off the BBS directly. This means that OP4 BBS will be running a few DOS versions of this game. The concept was to provide the game to those that are unfamiliar with helper programs, and would like to get a grasp or glimps of the game dynamics via telnet. These games will be kept small, with no edits installed to keep it as close to a learning environment as possible.

On 01-Jan-06, TradeWars Academy will be ready to serve requests for game slots on the OCS TWGS. We will have it set up so a player (student/instructor) can make their request and the ScoreKeeper will set the game up for them. Currently we have 19 slots available, as the first 5 are reserved for myself.

The OCSBot is completed, and I wish to thank Promethius for his time and efforts. I know he probably is getting tired of hearing me thank him, but I could not have done this phase without his help. The OCSBot is available on the OCS server for players in each game. I have studied this script, and have now begun a second phase called TactBot. Working the same concept as the OCSBot, this bot will provide players with tactical information (ex: base building, playing blue, playing red, etc). It is designed to give the basic foundation for learning, with hopes a player can take this info and expand it to formulate their own ideas and play strategy.

We have received a lot of hits off our TradeWars Intro video, and are now looking at creating some more with the hopes of drawing in a good solid player base for the TW Community.

We will also be looking to post a request regarding players wanting to be instructors on the OCS Server. Our goal was to match a veteran to someone relatively new so they could learn and develope into veterans themselves and repeat the cycle. We do have 3 different scenarios on the OCS server we are designing, and will post this info on our site.

I'd like to thank all of those that have given me ideas, suggestions, took time out of their lives to help. Whether it was making a post, answering an e-mail, or writing a script, we could not have done this and be ready on target without you all.

Nice work. What'd you do for the videos? I've considered using camstudio/camtasia for things like this... but haven't.

Would be kindof cool to record something like a ptorp or pdrop or something using public scripts, might teach people stuff.

I've used camtasia to make vids like that, but Thrawn used a different program.

Well I use Wink, or I use Camtasia (per Oso's suggestion). I work with the video in Flash 8 to fine tune it and add special features, like music and such.

The next batch of videos I am on will be focusing on specific dynamics, such as an attack, trading, and others. Don't want to spoil it

And I am working on a video that shows all the sites in the TW Community. I'll be going around to all the SysOp's to ask permission and get a banner from them, or I may just do a screen snap of their site. Either way, I know Vulcan and Vid Kid so far said to include them.

I wonder if you're going to post a video of you doing a ZTM.
Boy. That would put me right to sleep...
GRIN

Lol. Well one of the design ideas was to have the helper log into a game, then run a ZTM, but the video would not show the entire ZTM, just a part of it. Then it would go to a different function, like viewing the data file a ZTM produces, etc. It would also show a CIM, port search, bubble search, etc.

Besides, watching a video on the entire ZTM is like us here watching the fireplace our cable company plays during Christmas time. I want to draw people into the game, not put them in a deep sleep.

The next phase of TradeWars Academy is to draw in the other sites and SysOps. What I am wanting to do is visit each site and get a screen capture of their banner, which will be added to the video I am working on. Not all sites had an e-mail address to contact, so I am hoping most SysOps visit these forums.

I will be making my rounds today from the list of servers off The StarDock. If you have a TradeWars site, and it's not listed at StarDock, and if you want your banner in our video, please let me know. I have contacted a few sites and have their permission (Vid Kid, Vulcan, Darkstar), and I'm hoping others are willing to be included. I will attempt to contact each SysOp first before we include them in the video.

I will also have the banner from TradeWars (EIS), SWATH, TWXProxy. Earth, if you see this post, may we also include ATTAC? I'd like to have the helpers included in this project as well. The captures will show the banner, as well as the website URL for those not knowing them. This will hopefully draw in people to other sites in the community.

I will post once this is completed and available to view.

I have visited various sites and have taken screen captures of their website with banner. The sites I have so far are as follows:

* TradeWars Portal
* The StarDock
* Alien Base
* Arctic TradeWars
* Black Sun
* Darkstarbase
* Ice9
* Kirath's TWGS
* Memphis TW
* Moon Base Alpha TWGS
* Outpost-4 TradeWars
* Outpost-4 TradeWars Academy
* Rylos 7
* theReverend.org
* TW2002.silliman.net
* TW3003.com
* TW Flagship
* Ultimate TradeWars
* EIS Online
* SWATH
* TW-ATTAC
* Grimy Trader
* Script Wars (Wotok's site)
* Zentock's Lair

I could not access the following as of 0945 PST:

* Vulcan's Forge
* Vid Kid

If you could let me know when the site will be up, I'd appreciate it. If you have a site not listed, or know of a site, please let me know and I'll get it added. If you do not want your site in the video, please let me know and I will remove it.

I am beginning the rough draft of the video this afternoon. I will post when it's completed.

Using the previous post with the sites I found, I have completed the TW Sites video I spoke about. I managed to get every site I listed in the video with a screen snap of their site. It lists their link as well, which users can click at any time in the video. You can view the video at the following link:

http://www.outpost-4.com/tw_academy/videos

This link also houses any other videos we create. I will post the second site link as soon as I get a chance.