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General
  
New
Features
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Integrated chat |
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"Who's Playing" |
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Real-time messaging |
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Global messaging |
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NavPoints |
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Quick-stats |
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"Backtrack" key |
Updated
Features
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Interactive
Combat |
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Cooperative play |
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Real-time ship movement |
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Independent Alien,
Ferrengi, and Feds |
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Turn recovery every
hour |
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Daily taxation |
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Real-time stats |
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"New Mail" notification |
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Stabilized planet and port updates |
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Works with DOS & MBBS helpers |
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Interactive
Combat
Attacking
a player is no longer a simple matter of entering a sector and engaging.
Tracking down and cornering an unwilling opponent is no easy task!
Your intended victim will receive notification of a potential threat when
your ship enters the sector, and when you power up your weapons.
Since each ship has a different attacking rate, a faster ship will have
time to escape before a slower ship can engage. With a Holoscanner,
you may be able to track your fleeing prey. Without one, well, it's
a large universe...
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Cooperative
Play
Cooperative
play has reached a new level. Interact with fellow corporate members
discussing strategies on the Sub-space Radio. Exchange resources
such as fighters, shields, and mines. Launch a large scale assault
on an enemy base, or call for backup when your base is attacked.
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Real-time
Ship Movement
| Time
has more meaning in the Trade Wars universe now that the game is interactive.
In previous versions, ship movement was instantaneous and only limited
by turn consumption. In version 3, each ship has a movement rate
determined by it's size, power, and other factors. These rates can
be modified by the SysOp (cut to 1/4, 1/2, or even doubled), but the relative
speed of the ships will be the same.
The movement rate also
effects the attack speed of a ship, since any attack is delayed by the
amount of time it takes your ship to travel to an adjacent sector.
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Independent
Alien, Ferrengi, and Feds
In previous
versions of Trade Wars, the other occupants of the universe existed only
in a player's "snap-shot" of the game. They were driven entirely
by the actions of that player, and were only visible to that player.
In version 3, they become an integral part of the universe, visible to
and interacting with all players in the game. Furthermore, their
movement and activities are not dependent on any player's actions.
You will see them moving freely into and out of your sector, or perhaps
even attacking you or another trader.
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Hourly
Turn Recovery
Previously,
turns were granted on a daily basis, and you needed to exit the game and
reenter in order to receive them. Now, you will recover spent turns
every hour. You will receive notification of the recovered turns,
with no need to exit and reenter the game.
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Daily
Taxation
You still
can't escape the Federation tax collectors, but at least there's some relief.
Taxes will be collected only once for each day you enter the game.
Previous versions had a nasty habit of collecting the full tax rate each
time you entered the game, which made "dropped carriers" quite expensive.
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Real-time
Game Stats 
The DOS
versions of Trade Wars have always given real-time statistics for the "View
Game Status" command, but the MBBS version has only given a daily update.
This version, while more like the MBBS version in many ways, retains the
preferable real-time statistics display. Now you'll see immediate
changes in such things as deployed fighters, active Aliens, etc., and won't
have to worry about the accuracy of the report.
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"New
Mail" Notification
You don't
have to worry about missing an important piece of correspondence.
The GMS will notify you immediately when a new piece of mail has been logged
to your account.
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Stabilized
Planet and Port Updates
Changes
in these processes have improved the accuracy of high-frequency updates.
For example, when a port is accessed frequently over a short period of
time, earlier versions of Trade Wars would lose or gain resources in an
uncharacteristic manner. The results over a long period of time could
be quite noticeable as, for instance, a significant gain in port product,
or an overly large loss of colonists to natural disasters. The new
approach, while a bit more "fuzzy" over short periods, results in greater
long-term accuracy.
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Compatible
With Popular Helpers
Our goal
in developing version 3 has been to maintain compatibility with DOS helpers
while adding compatibility with MBBS helpers. This has often meant
that apparently "buggy" behavior has been left in, and often recreated
in newly written code, to maintain this compatibility. Helpers are
an important part of the Trade Wars experience, and it is our intention
that the most popular helpers be compatible with the new version.
Any problems that have been overlooked can be brought to the attention
of Martech Software, Inc. for future revisions.
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SysOp
New
Features
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Auto v2
to v3 data conversion |
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Fossil driver support |
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Modify real-time move
delays for all player ships |
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Self-cleaning real-time
message file |
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Online system status
report |
Updated
Features
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TEDIT and
EXTERN run concurrently with Trade Wars sessions |
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Separate message and
mail files |
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Alien, Ferrengi, and
Fed processing distributed |
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Some player activities limited to once daily |
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Improved TEDIT prompting |
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Various code optimizations |
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