Do the warnings from the "old days" of the game about only carrying photons when you plan to use them still apply now?

It seems I have run into fighters, been attacked while carrying them and as long as I had enough shields and fighters to protect my ship I was ok.

You're just lucky. It almost seems random. I had to be attacjked several times before the "P" popped me, lol. It still happens. I am living proof.

Really? I thought it happend every time you hit an offensive fig. Now mine explosions are random, and the photon only takes your turns away if the armid detonates. I guess someone will have to test this. BTW shields on your ship don't matter.

If you are playing in an Unlimited game then you only get stopped for 1 minute for each second of the photon's duration. (ie 5 sec photons stop you for 5 minutes) But this only applies to player vs player activity. All the rest of the time the game just ignores the photon duration/penalty. ie run into a fig, mine detonation, alien attack, you just lose the photon.

In the new twgs there are settings to govern what happens....

That's the way it's always been with the exception of a 1 second photon in an unlimited turn game didn't disable the player at all. Anything higher than 1 second duration would disable the player for that amount of minutes.
Example: 2 second photon duration stopped the player for 2 minutes. Self torp didn't disable a player in an unlimited turn game at all no matter what the photon duration was.

The things that detonate a photon on your ship are:
Offensive enemy figs
Enemy armid mines that detonate and damage your ship
Space debris that damages your ship.
Carbonite reaction from blowing an enemy ship
Quasar cannon blasts.

Basically anything that does damage to your ship, with the exception of another player attacking you, will detonate a photon on your ship.

Now some of these things could be different in the beta, but that's something you'll have to ask JP.

Looks like we need more information to help you. What server & game are you playing?

I'll have to double check to see if this setting is visable from the * menu prompt.

There is a new setting in the beta that a sysop can set so that photons DO NOT take player turns, but will freeze them for the duration of the photon wave.

I think the replies are getting off track...

I am not refering to being attacked by a photon or the after effects...

I am refering to the days when you were carrying a photon in your ship and you would hit the slightest obstacle, be it navhaz, 1 offensive fighter, being attacked by anyone, etc... would set off the photon you were carrying and you would suffer the same as though someone launched it at you. So all the documentation and advice I remember seeing advised to NOT carry photons unless you were enroute to launch them at a target.

It seems that in current versions, I have carried photons, run into deployed fighters, been "jumped" by Ferrengi, etc... and the photon I was carrying did not detonate.

So did something change somewhere along the way that it is now "safer" to carry a photon than it was in the past?

If it did, it's something that changed in one of the later beta releases. I wouldn't think that would be a designed change. It may be something that was caused by some of the other changes that were made. I'd inform JP of this because this would definatly be a bug you would think.

Before I call it a bug, I'd like to know the where the game was and to check the settings.

General Editor <G> Option < ; > Photons Disable Players Yes/No

I do understand what he's saying about the photon blowing up on yourself, but unless we know the Server, game, version and settings we're only speculating.

I just ran a test on 2.10 1 Offensive Fig w/Photons on the ship.
Fighter Attack!
Combat computer reports damages of 0 battle points!
Accidental Photon Missile Blast!

One of your Photon Missiles was detonated from that previous blast!
The Mains are down! Your ship won't be able to move for a while!

Your ship's shields absorb most of their attack!

250 mines in sector
ÛÛÛÛ 125 space mine(s) detonate near you!
The console reports damages of 1534 battle points!
Accidental Photon Missile Blast!

One of your Photon Missiles was detonated from that previous blast!
The Mains are down! Your ship won't be able to move for a while!

Both results = 0 turns!
Of course if mines don't go off you don't lose turns.

This proves it works in a controlled test. We need Spectre to at the very least tell JP where he's playing so this can be checked out.

I can understand if someone does not want to disclose where they're playing.

I never listened to the warnings back then and still don't today. Carrying a torp has saved me a few times, you just have to be careful what you run into.

               / Promethius / Enigma / Wolfen /

"A man who has no skills can be taught, a man who has no honor has nothing."

It was quite mixed.

If you launched a photon into sector 1234, with a 5 second wave, and then warped into 1234 with a photon in your ship less than 5 secs later, tough luck, it exploded and turns gone for the day.

On the other hand, shields would keep you safe from navhaz or offs if you had a photon aboard and enough shields to keep safe (no amount of figs would).

It's possible the new setting isn't working properly with self-detonated Photons. I'll make a note to look at it.

Without playing a "REAL" game.... (not sure what it matters) but from all the testing I did it looks as if it is working fine. I can test other scenarios with photons but it sure looks like it works as if it always has. When someone list a problem it would be helpful to at a minimum give a TWGS version of the server that it is being reported on.