There are many great Tradewars helpers on the market and by all means
check them out. This software was developed due to pure addiction to
Tradewars and having to much time on my hands. I also developed it was because of frustration with other helper software on the market.
It was developed on a MBBS (Multiplayer) system and used by Corp members
exclusively. (hehehe Little did they know they were active Beta testers)
My main goal in developing the software, was for our corp to each
win a 28.8 modem in a Tradewar contest. Happy to say we are all
proud owners of new 28.8 modems :)
Ok enough blabbering, here is what it offers...
- The first major difference is this is a complete Terminal software
package and can be used for your normal BBS activities like
uploading and downloading. This requires no other Terminal package
like some other Helpers that frustrated me with
"Not enough Memory Bla bla bla".
- Visual Graphical mapping of the Galaxy showing port pairs,
dead ends, One way warps, etc.
- Automatic Port pair trading. ( Yeah Yeah I Know they all do that but
check it out. It is different)
- CIM reports generate a Port pair listing that displays them by (Equipment <-> Organics) , (Equipment <-> Fuel), (Organics <-> Fuel) and lists them in order of distance if you wish. (Saves you mega turns)
- Automatic Attack or Auto Ship Capture that will track your opponent placing toll fighters along the way and ruthessely following and attacking. It will usually lead them into a one warp sector and
keep attacking until a ship capture. Capture is great when someone is loaded with Corbomite and you prefer not to become Space fragments.
- Quick Escape from those attackers.
- Photon missle launcher and mover. Fires a Photon and enters the sector as quickly as possible before the wave duration expires.
- Mine disruptions. Will fire mine disrupters until either you run out of them or you have destroyed all their mines.
- Dead end Sector mapper that shows sectors that are tunnels. It maps tunnels that also contain non sequential sectors. For example...
-------------------------------------------------------------
Sector : 1346
Depth : 6
Distance From Terra: 11 Hops
(BBS) (BSB) (BBS) (BSB) (BBS)
1346 -> 3105 -> 4670 -> 2432 -> 459 -> 226
|
1746
(BBS)
-------------------------------------------------------------
- Automatic Transwarp drive protection. Never blind warp again. This has saved me and corp members many ships. I used to type to fast or someone removed our home sector ship and I would turn a loaded ISS into space fragments.
- Auto Colonizer using Twarp drive, Transporter or Non Twarp.
- Resource mover to move Colonists, Resources, or Shields between planets via Twarp drive, Transporter or Non Twarp. Even allows you to use the fuel from the planet you are stripping to save your ore.
- Other Planet scripts include a Resource Seller/Purchaser, Planet negotiator, and an automatic Shield purchaser.
- Evil feature include an automatic Rob based on your experiance and a customized multiplier. It uses the CIM data seen below to prevent you from robbing a port twice on the same day.
Evil features also include a Sell/Steal trading sequence.
- All Sectors are logged into a database and the program displays your last action beside the port information for that sector.
Sector : 2106 in uncharted space (TODAY 12:22 Robbed!)
Sector : 709 in Anzu-Eagle (JUN 12/95 BUSTED!)
Sector : 4396 in Charlemagne (unexplored) (TODAY 12:55 TRADED)
This information is used to prevent you from robbing a sector twice on the same day.
- An Automatic explorer will take a Scout or any other ship with a Density scanner and unmanned will start traveling Unexplored sector to unexplored sector methodically. It will log any strange desinties or anomolies into a text file that you can edit later. Used to map the galaxy, to find players hideways and to locate Dead end tunnels. You can also set it up to trade as you explore.
- Allows for multiple games for you multipersonalities or people that like to play more than one BBS. Each player you create will have its own setup, phone number, port pairs and CIM database. And there is a provision to merge CIM data with other players.
For you Multinode MajorBBS users we have some very nice features.
- Channel scanning will help you locate other corps private channels. Based on your input it will change channels and listen in on any chatting while you continue to go about your business.
- Chat while trading, or for that matter while you run any of the macros. TWAR allows you to communicate and work at the same time. It reserves the bottom two lines to display incomming messages while the macros are running. An up down arrow key allows you to cycle through the last 10 messages. It will also distinguish between Fed link and Corp link messages both visually and audibly.
To send a message you just type it while the macro is running and press enter. It will tramnsmit as soon as the "Command" prompt is available.
If you happened to miss any incomming messages, no problem since all Fed link and Corp chatter are saved to seperate logs that can be reviewed later.
- Since we added Channel scanning we had to also add Private Corp link data encryption to protect ourselves from others finding our corp channel. (This has happened and can greatly affect the game if someone listens in on your corporate chatter) Now all corp messages can be encrypted and will only show up as gibberish to others monitoring the channel.
Hmmmm what have I forgotten.....
Oh yes! Online help is worth mentioning.
This program has an extensive help system that is always available using F1. It is broken up into subjects and has cross referencing to allow exploring of topics easily. Use the
I have documented the program within the F1 help so you won't find help for features in this document.
Just run TWAR.EXE and after any annoying vanity screens just press F1 and explore, or for you non manual readers just press "ALT D" to dial and start wreaking Havok.
- 286 and up but a 386 or 486 is prefered due to their speed and memory management. 286 to me is a four letter word :)
- As much memory as you can make available. TWAR is designed to run in protected mode. Protected mode is a way of using all the available memory for use in TWAR instead of the old 640K barrier. Progams like DOOM, or Windows use this technique. If you are able to to run these programs then no Problemo running TWAR.EXE. This means is you should be running it under say DOS 4.0 and up. It will take advantage of all your XMS memory, and the 640K below 1 meg.
- Hard Disk (Need I say More)
- A high speed Fifo uart would be dandy but not neccesary. Most high speed Internal modems have them but Externals may require a new Serial board. One such Uart is called the 16550. This uart has a built in buffer that will receive say 15 characters before it triggers an interrupt. This lets the PC do other things while the Modem characters are arriving.
This is great if you plan to run above 9600 baud since without it you will overrun the UART. (See Uart Overruns in F1-Help)
The program has almost all features working but will stop after a preset number of passes and then will nudge you into purchasing a registered version. Some features like Attack will only function up to 5000 experience points. Other features will be shut off completely so that registered users will have an advantage over non registered users.
I toiled over how to handle the shareware and seem to have felt most comfortable with this setup. I would like to have you register to help determine the interest in the program and assist in buying diapers :)
I tried to keep the cost competitive and followed the lead of the writers of Tw2002 and require you to only purchase the 1st version. From that point on you are automatically registered for any updates that follow.
I run a small BBS and will allow users to download the latest releases and for support questions and suggestions. You can also try it out playing Tw2002 at this site.
TWAR Support BBS
The orderform is called ORDER.TXT and can be printed, filled out and
To print you can type
COPY ORDER.TXT > PRN
from the dos prompt. (Providing your printer is attached & Functioning)
ONLINE ORDERING
Compuserve Members can now order online in the Shareware Registration
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
- EGA or VGA for the Graphical maps. (I still can't locate an old CGA to test yet. It may work)
REGISTRATION
Getting A Copy of TWAR
These updates will function for all versions of Tw2002 Version 2. Updates can be downloaded from your favorite BBS or you can call my personal BBS.
(905) 683-6838
(Area Code Toronto, Canada Area)
24 Hours a Day
mailed.
forum SWREG. Just type GO SWREG and use the search parameter "TWAR"