Trade Wars was a BBS game created in the 1980s. It was a
text based game with the flavor of Star Trek. Players
began with a ship, a number of fighters and credits,
and spent their time trading, creating and populating
planets, fighting with machine characters and each other.
The elements of the game were wise trading, fighting
other characters, and amassing military and economic
wealth.
When the Internet became commercially available, many people from all over the world
started "telneting" to play in competitions.
'Helper' programs were created, which, as usual, became more
and more obstreperous, so often the game played itself
while you made a sandwich.
With the advent new games, full of sound and graphics excitement,
Tradewars fell into a "used to play" category for some,
a "never heard of it" for others.
Trade Wars, however is going through a current renaissance.
If you've never played it, or haven't played for a while,
I thought a bit of advice might be useful.
I'm only going to deal with the "Trade" aspects,
leaving "War" for others.
The first thing to do is not join an old game,
unless there are no or only one other player on it.
Timing is everything in Tradewars .
An average
player who comes on first will beat an excellent
player who comes on a day later.
There is no way to "catch up" if the average player
knows and follows the tips.
The point of the game is to trade, gain credits, buy
a Genesis torpedo, create a planet, populate it, build
a citadel, upgrade the citadel, so you have a safe
place to spend the night.
Clearly, the first player who knows what s/he is about will
be racing to find a safe sector, create a planet, and
begin ferrying colonists. Unless turns are severely
limited, that player should log off with a planet and a
citadel under construction.
In the classic game there are usually five thousand sectors,
and about five hundred turns. As one begins with a Merchant
Cruiser which takes three turns to move from one sector to
the next, the idea is to trade for a Merchant Freighter which
takes two turns to move to a sector.
As many of the games are not classic, one must investigate
what the ship specifications are.
By typing "?" from the main menu one sees various options.
By typing "C" one engages the ship computer to get more.
Ship specifications are in the computer at option "C".
Make sure you read them, because many of the newer games
are tweaked by the Sysop.
In the Classic game, however, the Merchant Freighter was the
key. It was cheaper than the Cruiser and took less turns to warp.
One would find the Star Dock, (pressing V from the Main menu).
In the classic game, the coordinates of the Star Dock was always
given. In some games, the Star Dock is hidden, which makes for a
totally different game.
When one knows where the Star Dock is, the first turns
are used to travel there with the default option.
One can travel "express" (e) meaning no stops, or "single"
(s) meaning a stop in each sector, or the default, meaning
only stopping where there is a trading port.
As one usually begins from Earth, (unless given a free
planet) the travel to the Star Dock is in the Federal
Space lane. One can not deploy fighters in the space lane.
It is safe space, so flying blind is not a problem.
By using the default option, one stops at trading posts
along the way, buying and selling commodities.
The trading ports are of various natures, from SSS,
which means it sells fuel, organics and equipment,
to BBB, meaning it buys all three.
A player buys and sells as one goes, the Dock itself
Buys everything.
When one reaches the Dock, to preserve one's fighters,
move to an adjacent sector which is unexplored, presses
'f' releasing all the fighters, then returns to the Dock
with none.
Sells the cargo at the Dock, then presses the "S" option
to land in the Space Port, the "S" again to go to the
shipyard, (all of these options are spelled out for you
in the game by pressing "?").
Trade the Cruiser for a Freighter, and with the
excess credits, goes to "H", hardware, and buy a
Density Scanner.
This is crucial, as without a scanner you are flying
blind. With a Density you can tell what is around you,
100 usually means a trading post, "5" usually means
a fighter, 600 would be a planet, etc.
Of course, with a Density, there is no way of knowing
if 600 is a planet or 120 fighters, but at least, unlike
the journey from Earth to the Star Dock, one wouldn't be
entirely blind.
As one moves back to Earth, trading, one looks for
a Sector where there is only 1 way in takes no more
than twenty turns to reach Earth.
As the number of connecting routes are revealed by the
Density Scanner it proves what a necessary purchase
it is.
