That’s right! Few minor TWGS changes have been made in this one. Global admin changes and an attempt to fix problems with the log file. For the actual game (TWv3)…a mail file fix has been made this time around and also changes to the timing of cloak failures! Click here to get the official update from EIS.

The time limit bug seems to have hit again.Someone CBY’d before extern (which occurs at midnight EST) with 5 minutes of game play time left in the day…he came back 10 minutes after extern was done running and his daily time limit had NOT reset. He still had 5 minutes or less left to play for all of today. The time should have reset after extern.

Thought this was fixed??

Anyway, John Pritchett will be notified (we don’t have caps but I can explain it just as good as caps can show), I just wanted to let everyone know who ran/played a daily time-limited game…this could very well be a concern that arises if the problem is still around for the USO (since it is a time-limited game).

this link is really old or you can still buy the TW module for MBBS by High Velocity from DataSafe Publications (I don’t know why…). I remember buying programs from these guys back in the day of my BBS. Just thought this was interesting!

The GodFather of Trade Wars himself has made a dupe catcher so advanced, it is mind boggling. When I was a sysop at Intergate, I thought Andrew’s dupe catching tools were pretty cool. And then I go and read the following message Eleq posted in Egroups , or should I say, YahooGroups (more on that later).

I have created a new dupe catching program that is outrageously lethal to those who cheat.

It can catch dupes over a wide variety of IP addresses. Even if the cheating user logs in from different IP addresses for each of his dupes, he can still be caught! The dupe catcher employs up to 15 different techniques to identify potential abusers.

Using the logs from Fusion, it tracks and analyzes massive amounts of data to look for known duper patterns that I’ve identified over my years of being a sysop and player. I choose not to reveal exactly how this is being done, but it would be extremely difficult to avoid it. To give you an idea…the code is extremely optimized, but it still takes a AMD Duron 650 up to 30 mins to analyze and process all the data from the logs.

The first run of the new program identified a large (and disheartening) number of dupes that could of never of been traced using IP alone. Right now, they are not being deleted, but only blocked until they can contact me and explain their situation.

EleqTriziT
Sys Admin – The Stardock BBS

I’m very very impressed on this, Eleq. A very nice job. Andrew would be so proud

Yes, EISOnline is down. So this means you’ll have to wait a little longer to get your TWGS registration codes. Deal with it.

Of course, if everyone were playing Lunar: Eternal Blue, you wouldn’t have to wait for reg codes.

John Pritchett and I had a discussion going on how to improve TWGS performance even more. My theory was the hard drives may be playing a big role in overall system speed, he disagreed. So I setup a RAM drive (meaning an emulated hard drive that is based ENTIRELY in memory), to see if it helped. The purpose was to eliminate the slow access time of the hard drive from the equation. To my surprise, a system with a RAM drive was SLOWER! This is completely opposite to any other benchmark ever seen with a RAM drive v.s. Hard drive. All this means is that the TWGS simply doesn’t access the hard drive often enough for it to play a significant role in performance. Windows already does a great job of caching things in memory, making a RAM drive irrelevant. Look at the results..

NO Ramdrive
————–
1 players running colos – 1.36 minutes
2 players running colos – 2.22 minutes
3 players running colos – 4.40 minutes

With Ramdrive
—————
1 players running colos – 1.32 minutes
2 players running colos – 2.27 minutes
3 players running colos – 4.44 minutes

-=[TWGS Update]=-
The port problem in version .37 has been fixed. Version .38 is now released! Check the TWGS Updates page for downloads, information, and links!**TWLEAGUE UPDATE**
A new server has been approved for League use! Intergate operated by Aitvo is welcomed into the family of League certified servers!

Haunted Halloween Tournament Update!
An 8th team has signed up for the tournament! “Dystopia” consisting of Shallow (CEO), Ace Dekker, Belgarion, Desilence, Severian, and Talon Kaarde are now on the list! Check out the Haunted Halloween Tournament page for more information on the game!

The newest version of TWGS has been released (v1.01.36)…check the TWGS Updates page for downloads and information from EIS. As new bugs and problems are found I will try to keep up with them and add those to the page.

The TWGS Updates page is now up. I’ve also contacted John Pritchett of EIS and got his approval to be an official mirror for the new releases of TWGS beginning with v1.01.36. My updates page is basically what you will find on the EIS site, except that I’ll try to keep up with new bugs and problems and keep those updated on the page also. I am going to begin work on the TRADEWARS.WS TWGS page. It will contain the game settings, etc. of all of the games that the server will have when it launches. I have found a couple of temporary hosting solutions for the server for right now and it shouldn’t be long until it goes online.

The Strategy section of the site will be offline for the time being while I write the material that will be presented.

The rest of the menu options (Server List, Sysop Donations, File Vault, and About Us) should be finished by the end of the night or tomorrow sometime. Keep checking back.

Will people ever learn to keep their bleedin’ arguments out of eGroups? If you are subscribed to the TW2002 eGroup, you’ll know what I’m talkin’ about. It seems that those that started the whole flame war have dropped out and it has moved on to new contestants and become something completely off-subject (as usual) <SIGH> It will never end…oh well, it’s kinda fun to watch <G>. Amazingly, no one has tried to (unsuccessfully) unsubcribe from the group, which happens just about everytime a flame war begins. Get those filters ready…you’re gonna need ’em!

Graz “I’m not a dupe…no really!” Hoppa recently announced something:

Furthermore, when will people learn that rediculous amount of ram make no diffrence in performance? Granted, Ultima 9 might actually be playable with that much ram, but I’m more interested who in their right mind actually gives out $700 dollars worth of ram when only $120 is needed at most.

 Interview with John Pritchett Part 2 now up

Part 2 of my interview with John is up. We talk about the Pokemon inspired sequel to Tradewars and find out how John gets his vitality in the morning. It’s also proven to whiten your teeth! Read part 1 if you haven’t.

The interview will be archived in the Articles section.