http://web.archive.org/web/20040914010300/http://pages.videotron.com/sst/
Starship Traders Resource Site
Your source for TLR and TLF
Last Frontier Galaxy List
Sector Type Name Size
1 Gal. (G) Reason 1000
1001 Gal. (DC) Monsoon 1000
2001 Gal. (S) Void View 2000
4001 Gal. (OC) Scutum 4000
8001 Gal. (S) Goldfinger 8000
16001 Gal. (HC) Diego Garcia 16000
32001 Gal. (C) The Visitation 16000
48001 Gal. (G) Kyoto 16000
64001 Gal. (5/1) Almach 16000
80001 Gal. (DC) Bilhartha 16000
96001 Gal. (S) Paradox Point 16000
112001 Gal. (5/1) Grus 4000
116001 Gal. (CN) Absalom 4000
120001 Gal. (UC) New Betal 8000
128001 Gal. (6/1) Beanstalk 16000
144001 Gal. (CN) Key To Time 8000
152001 Gal. (UC) King's Demons 8000
160001 Gal. (S) Taygete 16000
176001 Gal. (HC) Zibo 16000
192001 Gal. (C) Colony in Space 16000
208001 Gal. (G) America 16000
224001 Gal. (5/1) Shallow Dreams 16000
240001 Gal. (DC) Lupus 16000
256001 Gal. (S) Encyclopedia 16000
272001 Gal. (UC) Roadbug 8000
280001 Gal. (5/1) Pontus 300
280301 Gal. (4/1) The Rock 200
280501 Gal. (OC) Nunki 100
280601 Gal. (5/1) Velodrome 300
280901 Gal. (6/1) Aqaba 100
281001 Gal. (6/1) Sopchoppy 1000
282001 Gal. (1H) Far Star 2000
284001 Gal. (S) Downhill 2000
286001 Gal. (CN) Invasion of Time 2000
288001 Gal. (6/1) Kamchaka 16000
304001 Gal. (5/1) Grower 4000
308001 Gal. (4/1) Guatamaia 4000
312001 Gal. (CN) Iguana 8000
320001 Gal. (S) Pavo 16000
336001 Gal. (O) Lateral Skip 8000
344001 Gal. (DC) Des Plaines 4000
348001 Gal. (CN) Plural Suns 4000
352001 Gal. (C) Einstein Station 16000
368001 Gal. (G) Massacre 8000
376001 Gal. (5/1) Crater 4000
380001 Gal. (4/1) Mariner 4000
384001 Gal. (5/1) Shikoku 8000
392001 Gal. (5/1) Manihiki 4000
396001 Gal. (S) Yokote 4000
400001 Gal. (DC) Hand of Fear 16000
416001 Gal. (S) Bostonia 16000
432001 Gal. (6/1) Nair al Zaurak 16000
448001 Gal. (CN) Turkey Roost 8000
456001 Gal. (UC) Appaloosa 8000
464001 Gal. (S) Sphinx 8000
472001 Gal. (DN) Kuji 4000
476001 Gal. (6/1) Kalgan 4000
480001 Gal. (HC) Sabik 16000
496001 Gal. (C) Glo-in-the-night 16000
512001 Gal. (G) Arcturus 8000
520001 Gal. (5/1) Cepheid 8000
528001 Gal. (DC) Carnival 8000
536001 Gal. (S) Harmony 8000
544001 Gal. (CN) Deadly Assassin 4000
548001 Gal. (QC) Diamond 4000
552001 Gal. (UC) Toadstar 8000
560001 Gal. (6/1) Wanthagi 16000
576001 Gal. (CN) Kiffa Australis 16000
592001 Gal. (S) Oxycon 16000
608001 Gal. (HC) Indus 16000
624001 Gal. (C) Prime 16000
640001 Gal. (G) Apalachicola 16000
656001 Gal. (5/1) Toroid 4000
660001 Gal. (S) Near Miss 4000
664001 Gal. (5/1) Kultis 8000
672001 Gal. (DC) Nyssa 16000
688001 Gal. (S) State of Decay 16000
704001 Gal. (6/1) Leisure Hive 16000
720001 Gal. (CN) The Tide 16000
736001 Gal. (S) Kanna Vi 16000
752001 Gal. (HC) Deneb 16000
768001 Gal. (C) Eritrea 16000
784001 Gal. (G) Cygnus 16000
800001 Gal. (5/1) Afroon 8000
808001 Gal. (CN) Scarne 4000
812001 Gal. (OC) Dorsai 1000
813001 Gal. (DC) Stones of Blood 1000
814001 Gal. (R) Maximegalon 2000
816001 Gal. (DC) Pitcairn 16000
832001 Gal. (S) Leo Minor 16000
848001 Gal. (6/1) Sculptor 16000
864001 Gal. (CN) Koschei 16000
880001 Gal. (S) Ochlockonee 16000
896001 Gal. (HC) Eessahallat 16000
912001 Gal. (C) Bajaja 16000
928001 Gal. (G) Murrumbidgee 16000
944001 Gal. (5/1) Dolphin Station 16000
960001 Gal. (DC) Blunderbuss 8000
968001 Gal. (B) Brno 4000
972001 Gal. (5/1) Markab 4000
976001 Gal. (S) Yalta 16000
992001 Gal. (DN) Robot 2000
994001 Gal. (1H) Four Moons 2000
996001 Gal. (5/1) Ark in Space 4000
1000001 Gal. (S) Levant 4000
1004001 Gal. (4/1) Schmidt 4000
1008001 Gal. (UC) Microscopium 8000
1016001 Gal. (6/1) SiriusCybernetix 8000
1024001 Gal. (CN) Murwillumbah 16000
1040001 Gal. (S) Menkar 16000
1056001 Gal. (HC) Wight 16000
1072001 Gal. (C) Gajonka 16000
1088001 Gal. (G) Hercules 8000
1096001 Gal. (4/1) Althena 4000
1100001 Gal. (DN) Maia 2000
1102001 Gal. (R) Challenger 2000
1104001 Gal. (5/1) Kununurra 16000
1120001 Gal. (DC) The Daemons 16000
1136001 Gal. (S) Omen 8000
1144001 Gal. (UC) Skiiq 8000
1152001 Gal. (6/1) Adorable 16000
1168001 Gal. (CN) Convergent Plane 16000
1184001 Gal. (S) Iwaki 4000
1188001 Gal. (5/1) Frontier 4000
1192001 Gal. (DC) Monster Peladon 1000
1193001 Gal. (B) Ventura 1000
1194001 Gal. (BC) Myakka 2000
1196001 Gal. (QC) Starrigger 4000
1200001 Gal. (S) Reed Creek 16000
1216001 Gal. (HC) Jewels of Vapor 16000
1232001 Gal. (C) Molina 16000
1248001 Gal. (G) Sylvester's 16000
1264001 Gal. (5/1) New Earth 16000
1280001 Gal. (DC) Ark 16000
1296001 Gal. (S) Woollahra 8000
1304001 Gal. (C) Nightmare Eden 4000
1308001 Gal. (S) Ceepaq 1000
1309001 Gal. (OC) Smugglers 1000
1310001 Gal. (6/1) Homecoming 2000
1312001 Gal. (UC) Terror of Autons 8000
1320001 Gal. (6/1) Nakamura 4000
1324001 Gal. (DN) Broomburg 4000
1328001 Gal. (6/1) Z Beeblebrox 16000
1344001 Gal. (CN) Asgard 16000
1360001 Gal. (S) Newton 16000
1376001 Gal. (S) Paradise 4000
1380001 Gal. (CN) Aquarius 1000
1381001 Gal. (SC) Warip 1000
1382001 Gal. (S) Sargas Alpha 2000
1384001 Gal. (O) Matsumoto 8000
1392001 Gal. (C) Kermadec 8000
1400001 Gal. (DN) Keeper of Traken 4000
1404001 Gal. (6/1) Yin 2000
1406001 Gal. (OC) Divvi 2000
1408001 Gal. (6/1) Perm 4000
1412001 Gal. (C) Caves Androzani 2000
1414001 Gal. (R) Speakeasy 2000
1416001 Gal. (B) Eddore 2000
1418001 Gal. (DN) Anacreon 2000
1420001 Gal. (B) Centaurus A 2000
1422001 Gal. (R) Eadrax 2000
1424001 Gal. (G) Wetumpka 8000
1432001 Gal. (5/1) Alnilam 8000
1440001 Gal. (DC) Outer Fringes 8000
1448001 Gal. (CN) An Experiment 4000
1452001 Gal. (B) Substratum 4000
1456001 Gal. (S) Typane 16000
1472001 Gal. (UC) Trabeen 8000
1480001 Gal. (6/1) Inferno 8000
1488001 Gal. (CN) World of Daleks 16000
1504001 Gal. (S) Palegar 16000
1520001 Gal. (HC) Iota Centauri 16000
1536001 Gal. (C) Iapergh 16000
1552001 Gal. (G) Masque of Mandra 8000
1560001 Gal. (5/1) Canopus 8000
1568001 Gal. (DC) Moselle 16000
1584001 Gal. (S) Woomera 16000
1600001 Gal. (6/1) Explorer 16000
1616001 Gal. (CN) Arc of Infinity 16000
1632001 Gal. (S) Core 16000
1648001 Gal. (S) Claws of Axos 4000
1652001 Gal. (CN) Niamey 4000
1656001 Gal. (S) Divergence 4000
1660001 Gal. (1H) Paramatta 4000
1664001 Gal. (O) Curse of Orange 8000
1672001 Gal. (B) Piazzi 500
1672501 Gal. (B) Bora Bora 200
1672701 Gal. (1H) Cunnamulla 50
1672751 Gal. (5/1) Ruins of Empire 250
1673001 Gal. (CN) Santa Claus 1000
1674001 Gal. (B) Space Talons 2000
1676001 Gal. (S) Macaw 4000
1680001 Gal. (C) Memento 8000
1688001 Gal. (G) Roar of the Wild 8000
1696001 Gal. (5/1) Frogstar 8000
1704001 Gal. (4/1) Delta Velorum 2000
1706001 Gal. (S) Paraburdoo 2000
1708001 Gal. (4/1) Cor Caroli 4000
1712001 Gal. (DC) Celebes 8000
1720001 Gal. (S) Polaris 8000
1728001 Gal. (6/1) Capella 16000
1744001 Gal. (CN) Kakrafoon 16000
1760001 Gal. (S) Castrovalva 16000
1776001 Gal. (HC) Chase 16000
1792001 Gal. (C) Quexifar 16000
1808001 Gal. (G) Yukon 16000
1824001 Gal. (5/1) Ichetucknee 16000
1840001 Gal. (DC) Bermuda 16000
1856001 Gal. (S) Mirfak 8000
1864001 Gal. (C) Genoa 1000
1865001 Gal. (S) Origami 1000
1866001 Gal. (B) Aachen 1000
1867001 Gal. (4/1) Todos Santos 1000
1868001 Gal. (4/1) Destiny of Ours 4000
1872001 Gal. (S) Goondiwindi 4000
1876001 Gal. (B) Betelgeuse 4000
1880001 Gal. (G) Time-Flight 500
1880501 Gal. (C) Baal Kara 200
1880701 Gal. (4/1) Genesis II 50
1880751 Gal. (4/1) Nordic Founding 250
1881001 Gal. (G) Rotterdam 1000
1882001 Gal. (4/1) Atwerp 2000
1884001 Gal. (5/1) Siamese Alien 4000
1888001 Gal. (6/1) Baotoa 16000
1904001 Gal. (CN) Golgafrincham 16000
1920001 Gal. (S) Risky Operation 16000
1936001 Gal. (HC) General Products 16000
1952001 Gal. (C) Underworld 8000
1960001 Gal. (G) Magrathea 8000
1968001 Gal. (5/1) Sky of Blue 16000
1984001 Gal. (DC) Amber Sky 8000
1992001 Gal. (S) Ambassadors 8000
There are 232 galaxies listed in this table.
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Internet Archive: Starship Traders Resource Site (Bestark's Website)
From: http://web.archive.org/web/20040914010300/http://pages.videotron.com/sst/ :
Starship Traders Resource Site
Your source for TLR and TLF
For those who play starship traders, you may know me by my ship name Bestark. I've been playing the game for about three years now. To make a long story short, I created a client to make it easier to play the game, and a bot to make it easier to trade my ships. This site was built to provide resources for those playing the game and to provide information for those people wishing to write their own client or bot. Below is a screenshot of the very first version of my SST client.
The client has come a long way in the past 3 years. Version shown is the first test version written at the end of August 2002. I managed to find the source code recently and compile it to take this screenshot.
Starship Traders Resource Site
Your source for TLR and TLF
For those who play starship traders, you may know me by my ship name Bestark. I've been playing the game for about three years now. To make a long story short, I created a client to make it easier to play the game, and a bot to make it easier to trade my ships. This site was built to provide resources for those playing the game and to provide information for those people wishing to write their own client or bot. Below is a screenshot of the very first version of my SST client.
The client has come a long way in the past 3 years. Version shown is the first test version written at the end of August 2002. I managed to find the source code recently and compile it to take this screenshot.
The Last Frontier
Galaxy map
Starbase Construction
The Last Resort
Starbase Construction
Client/Bot Development
Easybot
Linux client
Mono/.NET Client
TLR client
Space Tyrant
Windows client
SST
The client has come a long way in the past 3 years. Version shown is the first test version written at the end of August 2002. I managed to find the source code recently and compile it to take this screenshot.
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Starship Traders CONFIGME File
From: http://librenix.com/sst/CONFIGME :
Instructions for the configuration of SST don't yet exist!
You should be able to figure some of it out, however, by
logging in as the Sysadmin account, typing Q (for quit)
followed by C (for communications menu) and playing
around with the numeric options presented there.
Meanwhile, until some proper documentation is written,
here's the short form: A clue for each option in the
Sysadmin menu:
0) list a file intended to give gameops an overview of
monitoring and policing a game.
1) edit user (player) accounts
o Enter an access level, ie. 40, to list all active players
within this game who are at access level 40.
o Enter a player name (completely) in order to edit that
player's account
o enter ALL to list all active players in that game
2) Configure timelimits. Timelimits for all access levels
are set to 4 hours per day, the maximum. For admin
accounts with an access level over a certain threshold,
the daily timelimit is not enforced, only the session
timelimit. Note that admin accounts should not play
in the games as they have certain advantages!
3) Control the access levels. This command lets you set the
access level necessary to access any command. For example,
annoying players might have their access level lowered below
the level needed to send messages. If BOTs (automated
'players') become a problem on your system, you might raise
the level needed to use telnet mode (it's much easier to
write a BOT for telnet mode than WWW mode) above 60 so that
only trusted players who you explicitly raise to level 61 or
above can use telnet.
4) This is a big one: it lets you control lots of miscellaneous
parameters.
0] the 0 submenu lets you change the IP address that the
game uses, necessary if you move your system to a new IP
address.
the 0 option also lets you change the maximum number of
players given concurrent access to your system. This
requires a file in the main game directory that is
8 bytes long containing the number of players on your
system. I use a script to scan once per minute, count
the number of players logged in, write out the number,
then move it to the name 'copies' in the game directory.
I plan to provide an example script soon.
1] Web user percent of maximum concurrent copies. Again,
this option doesn't do anything without the file mentioned
above. When that file is present, this limits the percent
of total users that can be on using web mode. It isn't
really very useful. I leave it at 90% so I can always
get in using telnet mode in an emergency.
2] Logging options. By default, SST creates no logfiles.
However, you can create summary logs by setting this
option to '1'. Options '2' and '3' are for debugging
and are ordinarily not used. The logfiles created by
options 2 and 3 can be enormous. Use only in emergencies!
4] New users initial home game: This controls where newly
registered players start out. You can set it to the
number of any valid game, but normally, leave it at '*'.
The '*' setting lets you control whether new players go
into either the newest reset game or a random game, or
to divide them between the two options, as described
below in option 6].
5] assign games to ladder tournament levels:
SST will run as an ongoing, open-ended, tournament.
Assign a block of games to level 1 (ie. games 0-24,
not all of which need to be active games) and assign
a promotion percentage. Then, players who end a game
in that top (promotion percentage you assigned) will
automatically get promoted to the next level game.
Note that this ladder only includes the 'home' games
and doesn't include any optional games, outside the
games defined in this option. In the default
configuration, games 0-174 are reserved for the
tournament mode. Just configure game 25 to have an
active game in the second level, set a promotion
percentage on game 0, and you'll be underway. I
recommend that you synchronize the beginning and
ending dates and times of all the games in the
tournament!
6] assign newbies to random versus recent games:
This option lets you pick a percentage from 0 to 100
of new players to assign randomly across all level 1
games, as defined in 5] above. Option 4] has to have
newbie home game set to '*' for this to work, of course,
as discussed in 4] above. For example, if you had
one level 1 (newbie level) game and it started to get
too crowded, you might setup game 001 as well. Then,
if you set this option to 50%, half of all newbies would
be assigned to the newest game (001) and the other half
would be randomly assigned to either 000 or 001, resulting
in 75% of new players going to the newly opened game.
8] as your user file starts to fill up (somewhere around
45000 accounts) old, inactive players will be purged to
make way for new players. You can prevent anyone from
being purged this way by setting thier access level to
this auto-purge threshold or above. If you don't want
anyone who ever achieves the title of +Starship Master+
to be purged, set this limit to 60.
9] time limit exemption level: This lets you prevent admins
from using up their daily allotment of time and being
unable to get back into the system. No one with an access
level at this threshold or above should actually play in
the games, as they have an advantage. However, you might
set up a special, admin-only game, where normal users
won't be able to play, for admins to take out their
frustrations.
L] player density setting: this lets you control how fast
game maps expand, as new players enter. If you set it
at 10, each game will expand by 4000 sectors for every
(approximately) 10 active players there. Note that,
for each individual game, you can override this system-
wide setting to have special games expand faster or
slower than others.
M] mapsize to build new games: This setting controls how
big new games that you create can be. Note that every
10,000 sectors consumes approximately one megabyte of
disk space, so a 256,000 sector game's map file will be
about 25 megabytes in size.
I] set IP logging: this option lets you limit how many
different accounts can play from a single IP address.
It doesn't solve the problem of some players running
more accounts than allowed, but it helps. The game
is currently configured to allow no more than eight
accounts from any one IP address if this setting is on
so if your policy is to allow fewer accounts than that
per player, IP logging shouldn't cause many problems
and will probably inconvenience cheaters significantly.
I plan to make this more configurable in the future.
J] initial javascript settings for new players: This
controls the initial javascript settings each new
account starts with. You can set it to alert them
when a page or their session times out, and you can
cause it to put the cursor in the text box automatically.
Note that each player can configure these settings for
their own account; this just lets you control it until
they figure out how.
*] Admit no new players: This option lets you turn off the
acceptance of new accounts, and, after that, to turn
admission of new accounts back on again. If you want
to strictly limit the players in your system, for
example, until a game end, you can simply turn off new
accounts for the duration of the game.
5) set up a game, turn off a game, change a game name:
1] message base size in 64-byte blocks: Set this number to
non-zero to activate a new game. Set it back to zero to
deactivate an existing game. I set all my games to 2048
blocks, to build a message base of a total of 128K in
size. When the message base fills up, it starts to
recycle old messages, so it doesn't grow or move around
on the disk.
2] Message size limit in 64-byte blocks: I keep this at 64.
If you use a very small message base for easier policing
and less room for flamewars, you might also want to lower
this maximum size of a single message.
3] Gameboard access level: In addition to a player's home
game, they can also play in any game that has an access
level equal or lower than their own, assuming they also
have access to the Jump command, controlled by 3) above.
I run several 'open' games that allow players from all
of the tournament games to play together. I also have
games with access levels of 50 and 60 to allow veterans
and +Starship Masters+ exclusively to play in them.
4] You should name any special game so that people can
easily identify it when they use the Jump command. My
Level 60 game is named "Master Game -- Come on in!".
That invitation can only be seen by players who have
attained the title of +Starship Master+, of course, since
it correlates with Level 60.
6) gameboard statistics: this simply tells you how many
players have access to each game. A game with fewer than
about five players won't show up at all in this list.
7) list logfile: this lets you list the logfile remotely, if
you have enabled logging in 4) 2] above. If your logs are
very large, you can search for a particular string with the
/ command, but otherwise this command will not be a substitute
for any better way to examine your logfile.
9) configure a game that is already set up: This option lets
you control the tunable settings of a particular game. To
configure a game, you must first Jump to that gameboard,
unless you are already there (as is the case with a brand new
system with only a single game 000). This one lets you:
G] Adjust the 'gamecycle', the period of time (in days) that
ports and planets can accumulate inventory. The lower this
setting, the faster they fill up, the quicker their prices
recover from trading (or a game restart), and the lower the
total inventories become. I keep mine at around 7 days.
This option also lets you set a game's starttime back to
3am, system time. Since the enddate is controlled by the
startdate, it also will move back to 3am, resulting in the
game resetting in the wee hours of the morning when the game
finally completes. I set all my games to start/end at 3am.
Once set to 3am, the game will always remain with a 3am
start and reset time.
Bypass the 3 am option and you'll get the option to move the
start date back or foward by one hour or one day. This is
useful to synchronize a new game with some older games. Note
that, once synchonized, it is no longer the 'newest' game
for purposes of assigning newbies disproportionately, so I
set any new game an hour newer than the older ones until its
population catches up with the older ones.
E] Enddate: This should more properly be called 'game duration'.
Enter 70 for a ten-week-long game.
A] Daily fuel (antimatter): This controls how much fuel each
ship is issued and, therefore, how much they can move around
within the game. I have most of my games set between 360,000
and 480,000 grams of antimatter per day per ship.
B] Basecost: The price, in microbots, of a level 1 starbase.
This setting can dramatically change strategies and tactics
within a game. Very cheap starbases has far more of an effect
than very expensive starbases. Left alone, it will stay in
a nice middle range.
W] Wargame: Turn this on and all military activity will be prevented
until the game midpoint. No attacking, no starbases, not even
any defensive fighters. Come midpoint, however, and things get
interesting fast as people generally have built up huge arsenals
by then. The wargame option also works quite well in conjunction
with team-only games -- games that *require* you to be in a team
by midpoint in order to continue playing. Without the Wargame
option on, non-team players can damage a team prior to the
midpoint, resulting in a compromised game. I always use the
wargame option in my team-only games.
N] No telnet: Turn this option on to make a game usable from web
browsers only. This prevents telnet users from entering the
game, including the Sysadmin.
I] Inherit: Set this to any number from 0 to 25 to allow players
to inherit a percentage of the reputation points of the players
whose ships they destroy. For example, set it to 20 to allow
players to take twenty percent of a victim ship's reputation
points when they destroy the ship. Note that this setting has
no effect on how many reputations points a player lose when
their ship is destroyed; they always lose 25%. Set Inherit
to 0 to disable the capturing of reputation points.
S] Signcost: not very useful since it only controls the price of
a graffiti beacon. I generally ignore it and let it randomly
fluctuate around a very cheap price.
H] Startholds: This controls the amount of holds each new player
starts the game with, as well as the minimum and maximum holds
a ship can contain. The minimum is one half this value; the
maximum is double the value.
Z] Mapsize: this lets you manually expand the map, in case you
might ever want to. Caution: don't ever reduce the size of
a map once players are in it. They can lose resources that are
in the newly off-limits areas. Even a ship might be up there,
so you can really screw up a game trying to shrink a universe!
This option also lets you set a map to be reused in subsequent
games. In such a case, all the careful movement of planets
and ports, all the mapping and secret knowlege of galaxies is
not lost when the game resets.
R] Edit sector record: this lets you manually edit a sector of
a game universe. Normally, you wouldn't do that, but if you
are setting up a very 'special' game with a few very rich
planet/port combinations, you can. You can also link different
galaxies together with one-way or two-way connections.
I rarely use this one.
P] Move planets: There was a time when planets and ports were
immobile. You can bring back those days with this option and...
O] Move ports: You can turn off player's ability to move ports
with this option.
T] Team size: set the maximum and minimum team sizes with this
option. 'Normal' games have a minimum of 0 and a maximum of
5-20 ships. You can also set up a no-team game by setting the
maximum team size to 0. By setting the minimum team size to
non-zero, however, you can create a very different game. This
is the team-only game, discussed above in the Wargame discussion.
In a team-only game, only the team rankings matter, so players
are allowed to exchange fighters, and pool their resources in
the building of starbases. Don't be alarmed if, in a team-only
game, a single player suddenly has a huge score. It only means
that player has taken control of one or more large team
starbases and maybe collected some team fighters as well.
L] Live battle delay: this controls how many second elapse before
an attacked player can regain control of their ship. I have it
set to 4 seconds, the minimum. Under slow conditions, such as
a very busy server on an ISDN line, a higher setting might be
more appropriate.
X] Xmit log: this lets you log radio messages to the logfile.
I put it in so that I could monitor the type of questions asked
in the newbie games and try to preemptively fix any parts of
the game that caused confusion. It didn't help much, but it
did clue me in to a couple of things that were stupidly designed.
You may or may not have a use for it.
M] Port productivity multiplyer: This lets you increase the amount
of goods all the ports in the universe create. Each unit you
raise this number adds 10% more productivity over the base
amount of each port. By setting this very high, you can create
a very rich universe, which if physically small, might create
an interesting play environment. I've only used this to
salvage games that I initially configured as too small.
C] Create bunkers: This lets you disable bunkers entirely or
limit their size to any level up to 50. Around 25 is a nice
level that is in balance with other default game features.
However, raising this toward the upper limit of 50 will change
the game quite a bit since bunkers quickly become the optimum
defensive mechanism in such a scenario.
V] Override map expansion: this option lets you exempt a game from
the system-wide setting of player density in 4) L] as discussed
above. Games with lots of newbies get this setting raised at
my site; conversely, the expert-level games get a lower setting
so that the map expands larger with fewer players.
There are a number of files that you might want to customize.
Under the main game directory, the files ending with the
extension .html and .txt may contain site-specific information
and links. In particular, change linklist.html so that it
points back to your system and not starshiptraders.com!
linklist.txt also should be changed to refer to your system
and you might want to remove the references to the starship
traders mailing lists there.
hello.html, newlead2.html, and newlead.html are the files that
show up on the login page. Those files are optional -- you might
even like the look of the login page with those files removed.
More likely, though, you'll want to customize some text, and
maybe put a banner or something in there.
Also, you'll want to change the text in welcome.txt to issue
a welcome to your own site.
pagetimeout.html and webtimeout.html also contain links back
to starshiptraders.com. Change those links to point to your
system.
In general, it's best to examine all of the .txt and .html files
in the main game directory and modify them as needed. Make
sure to back them up before you start!
Note that almost all of these .html files, with the notable
exception of pagetimeout.html, are only partial html pages.
The game generates the headers and footers for most pages so
don't add html, /html, body, and /body tags to those pages!
Also, some pages may get their carriage returns converted into
html <br> tags. I'll be trying to fix this so that more pages
behave properly, but, for now, change carefully and note the
effect your changes have. And keep the originals handy to
replace one that behaves incorrectly until you can fix it.
Starship Traders 2.1 README File
From: http://librenix.com/sst/README.2 :
Starship Traders(tm) is Copyright 2001, Ray Yeargin
Disclaimer & License:
Starship Traders is free for non-commercial use. As such, it
comes with no warranty, guarantee, and barely any documentation.
Further, we accept no responsibility for any problems that may
result from your use of, or your inability to use this software.
Also, always remember -- and remind your players when needed --
that it's only a GAME! If it ruins your life don't call me; you
run it and play it at your own risk...
Starship Traders (hereafter referred to as 'SST') is distributed
in a tarball named, appropriately enough, sst.tar. The sst.tar
file contains Linux PC binaries (the only architecture that SST
supports) and a shell script named install.sh. To install SST,
download sst.tar and follow these steps.
tar -xvf sst.tar # unpack the tarball
cd sst-210 # go to the software directory
./install.sh # run the installation script
You will then be asked a few questions. First, you must
select a permanent directory to contain the SST files...
/sst # if the directory already exists,
# you must have write permissions there.
# if the directory doesn't exist,
# you must have write permissions to its parent directory
You then must supply TCP ports for the web, client, and telnet modes
for the server to accept connections. If in doubt here, just choose
the defaults...
2323 # Telnet port
80 # WWW port
666 # client port
Next, you need to select a user id and a group id for the files. Those
id's should already exist at this point. Again, if in doubt choose the
defaults. The nobody account exists on almost all modern machines...
nobody # user id 'nobody'
nobody # group 'nobody'
You will then be presented with the proposed changes to your
/etc/services and your /etc/xinetd.d files. You will have the
choice of making the changes manually or letting the installation
script append them and reset the xinetd daemon. If you choose
to run the root steps automatically, you will be asked for the
root password (unless you're already root, of course).
You will then be prompted for the IP address of the computer.
Type it in, complete with dots.
199.44.248.254 # My IP address! Use your own!
Next, you'll be asked to choose an initial size of your game
universe. It can be any size from 2000 sectors up to
2,000,000 sectors. Note that a 2,000,000 sector map requires
200 megabytes of disk space just for the map -- but will
support a few thousand players. Choose the default or larger
if you are unsure. Since the game opens additional sections of
the map as more players enter, it is generally safer to select
a larger map than you need than to try to guess an exact size.
On an old Pentium I tested, a 40,000 sector universe was built
in 10 seconds, an 80,000 sector game in 30 seconds, and a
256,000 sector universe took over 40 minutes! If your machine
is old and slow, has little memory, or a very slow disk, keep
that in mind when you select the universe size.
80000 # an 15 megabyte, 80,000 sector game should
# work adequately even on a 32 MB Pentium 133
Next, you'll need to select a name and password for the SST
sysadmin account. Choose a name and password that you won't
forget and a password that won't be guessed by anyone else!
sysadmin # I use sysadmin
topsecret # I don't use this password and you shouldn't either!
topsecret # Enter it twice for confidence
You'll then have to log in using that same account:
sysadmin
topsecret
The software will then automatically configure a game. You'll see
the phrase 'Running game initialization....' followed by a telnet
text mode display of a random sector in your new game.
Congratulations! Your system is now listening for telnet and WWW
connections to your new game. You can install additional games and
further configure the existing one by following the instructions in
the CONFIG.ME file...
Download: Linux 3D Client for Starship Traders
From: http://librenix.com/?inode=895 :
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Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Space Tyrant Index Page: Linux game server development project
From: http://librenix.com/?inode=1364 :
This page links to the various articles that have been published about Space Tyrant, a multithreaded, network socket programming Linux game server project in C.
Read below for the history and overview or just click these links for the articles:
Then, on March 27, 2005, ST was promoted to a crude chatserver.
On June 26, 2005, Space Tyrant was released with many shiny new abilities. Players can now deploy fighters to guard sectors, navigate with the aid of an autopilot, rank the various players in the universe, and sleep peacefully knowing their alternate universe is being backed up constantly by a sporty new backup thread. Yes, good times are surely upon us.
(telnet to my ST server)
The current development version of the code is usually at http://librenix.com/st/st.c but the individual articles link to the specific versions discussed in each article.
You can mail me about the project at spacetyrant [at] librenix.com -- or you can just telnet into Space Tyrant, as listed above, and send me a radio message. I'm likely to get that faster. ;)
The Space Tyrant project has a new website, SpaceTyrant.com, where the latest source code is always available. Also, new articles about ST programming and about ST gameplay will be posted there as they come available.
Information on The Last Resort follows. TLR is one of the two games that Space Tyrant is intended to replace someday. Space Tyrant has a long way to go before it replicates TLR's 25,000 lines of C code. So far, it has reused only about 40 lines of TLR code, a handy 'bit-plane' sort dating back to 1998.
TLR Survival Manual
Is this game for you?
Read below for the history and overview or just click these links for the articles:
- Space Tyrant: A threaded game server project in C
- Space Tyrant: A threaded C game project: First Code
- Space Tyrant: A multiplayer network game for Linux
- Space Tyrant: Multithreading lessons learned on SMP hardware
Today we kick off a new multithreaded, network socket programming project which we will call Space Tyrant. Our mission is to write an open source, multiplayer, networked, strategy game in the C programming language. The goal of this project is to make a solid code base which implements a simple space trading game upon which other games can then be built. The game will be a subset of The Last Resort (TLR) that currently runs at Ioresort.com. This project will be a learning exercise for me as well as for any interested readers. The current state of the source code will be released with each article update.Source code to ST, then just an echo server, was not released.
Then, on March 27, 2005, ST was promoted to a crude chatserver.
This is the first code release of Space Tyrant. This is an early stage of development and, at this point, only implements the listening thread, the two IO threads for each player connection, and a skeletal game logic thread that does little beyond proof-of-concept code.Next, on May 30, 2005, ST started to resemble some sort of incomplete text game.
It’s now possible to connect to the game via telnet and to create an account, log in, and be issued a ship. Once you’re logged in, there is a universe to explore filled with ports for buying and selling goods and planets for scooping free goods. From those trading activities you can earn money, called microbots. Other than trading to earn more money, you only use your microbots to buy fighters -- which you can use to attack other players or the neutral fighters that guard some sectors.As of this release, the source code was placed under the GPL, version 2.
On June 26, 2005, Space Tyrant was released with many shiny new abilities. Players can now deploy fighters to guard sectors, navigate with the aid of an autopilot, rank the various players in the universe, and sleep peacefully knowing their alternate universe is being backed up constantly by a sporty new backup thread. Yes, good times are surely upon us.
If you’re looking for a planet, type the ‘L’ command that you would normally use to land on a planet in your sector. In the absence of a planet, the L key will engage the autopilot which will search for the nearest planet and give you a ‘/’ command to autowarp to it.There is normally a copy of the development version of the server running on my decTOP on port 23. To access it, type (or click, if it works for you) the following command:
(telnet to my ST server)
The current development version of the code is usually at http://librenix.com/st/st.c but the individual articles link to the specific versions discussed in each article.
You can mail me about the project at spacetyrant [at] librenix.com -- or you can just telnet into Space Tyrant, as listed above, and send me a radio message. I'm likely to get that faster. ;)
The Space Tyrant project has a new website, SpaceTyrant.com, where the latest source code is always available. Also, new articles about ST programming and about ST gameplay will be posted there as they come available.
Information on The Last Resort follows. TLR is one of the two games that Space Tyrant is intended to replace someday. Space Tyrant has a long way to go before it replicates TLR's 25,000 lines of C code. So far, it has reused only about 40 lines of TLR code, a handy 'bit-plane' sort dating back to 1998.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Space Tyrant: A Multiplayer Game and Programming Project
From: http://web.archive.org/web/20070621053109/http://spacetyrant.com/article-1.html :
On March 18th, 2005, the Space Tyrant project was announced:
Today we kick off a new multithreaded, network socket programming project which we will call Space Tyrant. Our mission is to write an open source, multiplayer, networked, strategy game in the C programming language. The goal of this project is to make a solid code base which implements a simple space trading game upon which other games can then be built. The game will be a subset of The Last Resort (TLR) that currently runs at Ioresort.com. This project will be a learning exercise for me as well as for any interested readers. The current state of the source code will be released with each article update.
Much has happened in the last two years. Today, Space Tyrant (ST) is a C programming project, a multiplayer space strategy game, and a long, long story. It will compile using GCC and it runs under Linux and Mac OS X. Here are links to the current source code, the history of the game design, and a running copy of the game. Note that the ST is telnet only right now although there are a few TLR players who are working on client interfaces.
The source code page
The game evolution
Play Space Tyrant
The early history can be read starting from this page: The ST project history and original code documentation. Gradually, those pages will be replaced by smaller, and possibly better organized, pages here at SpaceTyrant.com.
Space Tyrant was designed and coded by Ray Yeargin with help in the hard parts from Brian Estabrooks
On March 18th, 2005, the Space Tyrant project was announced:
Today we kick off a new multithreaded, network socket programming project which we will call Space Tyrant. Our mission is to write an open source, multiplayer, networked, strategy game in the C programming language. The goal of this project is to make a solid code base which implements a simple space trading game upon which other games can then be built. The game will be a subset of The Last Resort (TLR) that currently runs at Ioresort.com. This project will be a learning exercise for me as well as for any interested readers. The current state of the source code will be released with each article update.
Much has happened in the last two years. Today, Space Tyrant (ST) is a C programming project, a multiplayer space strategy game, and a long, long story. It will compile using GCC and it runs under Linux and Mac OS X. Here are links to the current source code, the history of the game design, and a running copy of the game. Note that the ST is telnet only right now although there are a few TLR players who are working on client interfaces.
The source code page
The game evolution
Play Space Tyrant
The early history can be read starting from this page: The ST project history and original code documentation. Gradually, those pages will be replaced by smaller, and possibly better organized, pages here at SpaceTyrant.com.
Space Tyrant was designed and coded by Ray Yeargin with help in the hard parts from Brian Estabrooks
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