Category: TLF

The Last Frontier

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SST sites

One of the reasons I wanted to start this site was the slow disappearance of all things SST related.

If you do a web search on the terms SST / TLR / StarshipTraders / IOResort most of the entries returned are links from Web Game directories. After weeding through all these you may (if you’re lucky) find a link to something like The Wog’s old website or similiar.

The only other available sources of content are the two (three?) yahoo groups dedicated to these games… however, due to a lack of moderators, these groups only seem to be an endless source of spam.

So what can we do about this, what are our options?
1) Create new fansites! – Easy to do, however they never seem to last.
2) Get some blogs going – Even easier to do, go to blogger.com, wordpress.com, live.com and start writing. Blogs don’t have to have a single author/owner, and most can be imported into other blogs if something better comes along.
3) Share information and links – If you’ve got some info, get it posted somewhere!

I did some Web trawling earlier, and found an interesting players guide written by EMPNEFSI about two years ago. The original guide can be found here, but I’ve archived a copy here as well.

The trawling also turned up some blogs… World of Starship Traders, and a couple of old Vet’s appear to have started blogs. One of these vets appears to have had a Nimrod problem as well!

If you know of any fansites I don’t have listed, let me know… If you have any (constructive) ideas for this site, feel free to pass them on.

Speaking of ideas… I’m considering writing a Bunker Buster plugin for TLF. The idea is that a random bunker location will be revealed once a week… what happens to the bunker then is anyones guess. To be fair, all bunkers will be included, no Team or player favourism. No details of who the bunker belongs to, or the strength of the defences will be revealed by the plugin. Readers will be able to submit new bunker locations. 😀

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TLR/TLF/SpaceTyrant game client

I’ve been promising this for awhile now. A few players have been running the client on window systems. One on Windows 2000 and another on XP. There’s a link at the bottom of this article, to download the client. Nothing fancy like the installer for Art’s client and not much eye candy either. I’m more interested in what you can do with client than how it looks. Also, it’s not nearly as automated as some of the other players clients/bots, except for score collecting which I occasionally do. I’ve retired my bots more than 2 years ago. You’ll need to unzip the files into whatever directory you wish to play from and do a full install of mono from the Novell website http://www.mono-project.com/Downloads. Just select the appropriate stable release for the OS you’re running. Works on any OS, as long as you’re running Windows 2000 or above, or a Linux distribution on which you can install mono 😉

Once the client and mono are installed, on windows start the mono dos box and switch to the directory where you’ve unzipped the client files. Type “mono GameClient.exe” to run, and that’s it. No instructions are included to run client. Anyone out there care to write a client manual? For Linux, consult your distribution’s help for how to run mono.

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Online graphs problem

Something strange is happening over at ELF… the number of logged in users is jumping all over the place which makes the graphs look very strange.

I’ve done a quick workaround with the graphs, so they look a little saner.

Sane Graph
Sane graph
Crazy Graph
Crazy graph

I’ve sent Dragelet an email about the strange figures, as I think it’s something that should be investigated.

If (and when) the figures come good, I’ll restore the ELF data from a backup, which will remove the bogus data…

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Silence of the Trolls

I really have to check my email more often… here’s another message that was blocked by the anti spam plugins.

author: mister e
email: elnimrod AT gmail DOT com
url: http://www.kry-cant-handle-the-truth.au
comment: kry is blocking my proxies IPs. i can't post anymore. what does
blocking proxies do for you anyway KRY? is it that important that you have to
spy on who i am and gather information on me? you just have to have that. not
wanting you to spy on me has nothing to do with balls. or does it drive you mad
that you just cant stop me from voicing the facts that contradict this 
propaganda without resorting to this pathetic anti-proxy excuse. you probably
use that and other means to censor all those who aren't in love with you. are
you afraid the truth will get out? i'm not as brainwashed as everyone else is
here.

i'm just hoping i'm on a proxy he hasnt found to block yet. 

Nims

Hmm… how should I respond to such well constructed accusations?

1) I’m not blocking any proxies… the anti spam measures I’ve implemented apparently has the ability to block known ‘OPEN’ proxies from being able to submit posts. Excellent! Looks like I’ll have to double the monetary contribution to both of those plugins!
2) I’m not stopping anyone’s voice… I’ve posted up any valid comments I’ve found which have been blocked. The thing is, this will probably be the last time I do this for you, as there’s very little validity to anything you’re posting. If you’re not grown up enough to play by other people’s rules, I suggest you refrain from interacting with those people who do.
3) Nothing you do drives me mad… doesn’t that just piss you off? 😀
4) You have yet to provide any substantial facts…
5) Thanks for signing this comment… Now everyone will know who my troll has been.

Ok, now to clarify some of the rules for this site…

I hate spam, so there are anti-spam plugins running… if these plugins happen to block the occasional legitimate comment, that’s unfortunate. If these plugins stop comments from people who insist on using known ‘OPEN’ proxies, tough!

If you’re unable to submit a comment directly to this site, and you’re reluctant to email me directly, leave me a message on the TLF message board, I may (or may not) post it here on your behalf.

If there’s any content on here that you object to, let me know and I’ll consider removing or editing the content. (This does depend on who the Author was)

I’m running this site to help promote the game(s) I like to play. If you don’t like the game, don’t visit this site!

Okay, the troll has now been fed and mocked, let’s all go and have some fun! 😀

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TLF-20070619 Rankings

Update time.

A couple of items to report:
*Confirmed sightings of returning vets (ILLQO, SHADOW & VENOM)
*One of the score bug infected ships refuses to stay dead, and has been seen jumping from team to team.
*Player Rankings have change just a little bit… 3 extra NET ships are now in the top 10.

Cheers,
KRY

______Player_Name_______ ____Title+Level____Team  Rank Ship __Score__ _Region_
RAGEAGAINSTTHEMACHINE     (in hospital)     [NET]   1* Cor 4261589206 1600001s
BIKINI COMMANDO          King of the Breasts[NET]   2* HFr 1487817137  200001s
BLAH                     What - Me Worry?   [TCW]   3* HFr 1445188323  480001s
PRIME MOVER              OPTIMUS            [NET]   4* HFr 1443825885 1560001s
LIQUOR                   Dont even know her![NET]   5* HFr 1440159717  400001s
JUME                     Who May?           [TCW]   6* HFr 1417235355       1s
DRAGELET                 Fake Retired Too   [TCW]   7* HFr 1410229225  880001s
TAR                      Nicotine           [TCW]   8* HFr 1370258303  480001s
DOCTORZ                  Retired +1         [DOC]   9* HFr 1361702801  400001s
AXE1                     +9/11 Memorial+    [NET]  10* HFr 1340801090  760001s


______________Team_Name________________  Abbrev.  Rank   Score (1000s)
Netrek                                    [NET]      1      40921144
Blood Money                               [B.M]      2      40753404
The Void's Devourers                      [TVD]      3      35237446
Mercantile Partners Empire                [MPE]      4      33421115
The Commonwealth                          [TCW]      5      33349931
Pages: 1 2
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The shame list

Sorry, can’t help myself today…

Here’s an extract of the Underground News…
25 ships logging in & out… in the space of 16 minutes… 3 teams involved & 4 indies…
One of them is from the infamous BOMBO list…

No finger pointing today, I’ll let people come to their own conclusions.

However, I think Anvil being in the UN was just bad timing…

Continue reading “The shame list”

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TLR/TLF Hotel/Galaxy Structures

When I first started playing starship traders, there was an active yahoo group with much advice and other interesting postings. Among those post, and which I was fortunate enough to have saved, (somewhere along the way, the posts just got deleted) a post explained the structures of the galaxies. I’ve updated the content and used for training new captains and just recently added the equivalent hotel structures for resort worlds in the last resort.

Continue reading “TLR/TLF Hotel/Galaxy Structures”

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TLF-20070521 Rankings

The scores have changed a bit in the last 3 weeks…

Drag’s attack was of course mainly focused on Team KRY (no surprises there), so of course my meagre little team suffered a drastic team score drop.

Good news: It looks like Drag has officially retired.
Bad news: A recently discovered scoring bug has left one of his ships with an almost impossible score to beat.
Good news: Drag is gone
Bad news: KC has taken over the vast TCW empire…
Good news: KC will of course obey the ship limit and only run 16 ships (Yeah right!) Drag has retired!
Bad news: Mir = DBD (unconfirmed and unfounded Sorry Mir, couldn’t help myself!)
Good news: Thousands of farm planets have been uncovered! and Drag has retired!

Cheers,
KRY

Did I mention Drag has retired?

______Player_Name_______ ____Title+Level____Team  Rank Ship __Score__ _Region_
RAGEAGAINSTTHEMACHINE    +Overlord+         [NET]   1* Cor 4151305190  200001s
DARKFURY                  (in hospital)     [MPE]   2* SFr 4068435063 1120001s
BLAH                     What - Me Worry?   [TCW]   3* HFr 1445188323  480001s
LIQUOR                   Dont even know her![NET]   4* HFr 1435834497  400001s
JUME                     Who May?           [TCW]   5* HFr 1417235355       1s
DRAGELET                 Fake Retired Too   [TCW]   6* HFr 1410229225  880001s
TAR                      Nicotine           [TCW]   7* HFr 1370258303  480001s
DOCTORZ                  Retired +1         [DOC]   8* HFr 1361500850 1760001s
BIKINI COMMANDO          King of the Breasts[NET]   9* HLi 1355679295  200001s
WHITE WIZARD             Emperor+7          [WWS]  10* HFr 1329048650  880001s


______________Team_Name________________  Abbrev.  Rank   Score (1000s)
Blood Money                               [B.M]      1      40298317
The Commonwealth                          [TCW]      2      35873486
The Void's Devourers                      [TVD]      3      35237686
Netrek                                    [NET]      4      27596605
The Varangian Guard                       [TVG]      5      27131920
Pages: 1 2
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TLF’s future?

A new bug has appeared in TLF, which under certain conditions causes a scoring glitch. The end result is that a ship’s score can jump dramatically upwards.

The last time a bug like this was exploited, ST intervened and disabled ships who had been profiteering from the exploit… however I have a few other suggestions.

  1. Reset TLF – New ships for everyone
    Pro – Evens the playing field, and won’t scare off new players
    Con – TLF code is no longer maintained by Ray, bugs & exploits would still exist
  2. Retire TLF – Switch it off, players can go to ELF or TLR
    Pro – No more bugs & exploits.
    Con – No more endless game, forces Resort format onto players
  3. Replace TLF – Start a new endless game using the TLR server (without resorts)
    Pro – TLR code IS maintained, known bugs & exploits have been fixed
    Con – TLR settings aren’t as compatible (but could be fixed)

    4.  
    Finally, a decent idea for a poll!

    My vote is going to be to replace TLF… everybody would get to start fresh, new allies, new enemies, fewer bugs!

    If we do this right, we might attract some new players, and maybe even get some vets back!

    What should happen to TLF?
    View Results
    It’s also time to face a basic truth about TLF…

    Practically everyone is cheating in one form or another

    Here’s how people are cheating (and some of the justifications)
    Players running other players ships. (They retired | I’m only bunkering fuel for my teammates | extortion | password stealing | password sharing | team ships)
    Running over the ship limit. (Everyone else does it | I want more than 16 ships)

    I’m guilty of both…
    – the ROBOTTT ships were supplied to me, Q was recruiting me and didn’t want to wait for me to try and get another 9 ships through EU.
    – I have two scout ships, that takes me over the limit.

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