HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: jch+@cs.cmu.edu (Jonathan Hardwick)
Subject: Re: Random bit of detail
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 92 00:51:58 GMT
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon

paulsen@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Brian Paulsen ) [when are you going to
fix that extra space?] writes:
> Plasma torps have such sheer power that there are many frequencies that need
> to be changed.  This pretty well prevents anybody from ignoring these torps.

My thinking: plasma torps are a barely-contained bundle of plasma,
with guidance and fusing controls riding piggyback on the plasma
container.  The guidance system has just enough intelligence to home
on the nearest enemy ship (although not enough to stay locked on to
one ship, dammit).  When a plasma torp explodes, either because it
gets close enough to an enemy ship or because a good phaser shot took
out the magnetic pinch field holding in the plasma, the bang is big
enough to damage everyone nearby, friend or foe. 

Here endeth the justification :)

Spaceman "I love the smell of plasma in the morning" Spiff
From: jecoleb@eos.ncsu.edu (have clue, will travel)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: ...AND THE EIGHTH SIGN OF THE APOCALYPSE SHALL BE--
Date: 11 Apr 92 06:24:49 GMT
Reply-To: jecoleb@eos.ncsu.edu
Organization: The Ghost Of Christmas Past Society

...the UDPig Borg. ;)

(just had to be said)

--
----------jeff the wonder llama, jecoleb@eos.ncsu.edu
------"I am a penis. Worship me."--lead singer of rock band Bicycle Face,
     vainly attempting to gain attention of the crowd at the Cat's Cradle 
     in Chapel Hill, while opening for Mojo Nixon & The Toad Liquors
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: terence@bronco.ece.cmu.edu (Terence Chang)
Subject: Re: special clue server
Organization: Carnegie Mellon University
Date: Sat, 11 Apr 1992 05:38:15 GMT

In article <22Gg0250c52o00@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com> fadden@uts.amdahl.com (Andy McFadden) writes:
>If there is a "clue" server, I strongly recommend that rank be *REMOVED*
>from it.  Since everyone has a clue, and there's no need to impress the
>newbies, why bother?  By eliminating rank from the clued server, you'd
>remove any remaining tendency to scum.

Hmm, the server could make every player who joins in an honorary Admiral and
then restore the rank on exit. [ By the way, don't try to promote an Admiral
using a server tool -- the ensuing meltdown is not pretty. ]

A while ago I was considering establishing "clue nights" on bronco (not a
pure clue server, so that inexperienced players could still play with clued
ones), where the only criterion for entry on clue nights was having enough
t-mode hours (erm, probably total hours for a user name to handle users with
multiple characters, or else a handmade "guest list" of registered
characters).  I would put the cutoff point at around 30 - 50 hours (or 100
for "diehard night").  The advantage of a handmade list is that you could
exchange names with similar servers, though it'd be a pain to maintain.

Equating clue with hours is nice, because it doesn't pressure players to
scum, it's a good way to filter out newbies without shutting them out
forever, and it doesn't require any arbitrary judgements by the server admin
whether Commander X is good enough or not to make the grade.

Terence
-- 
"People who get nostalgic      |  Terence Chang:
 about childhood were          |    e-mail: terence@bronco.ece.cmu.edu
 obviously never children."    |            or an acceptable facsimile thereof
       -- "Calvin and Hobbes"  |            (subject to change w/o notice)
From: tundra@sam.ksu.ksu.edu (Daniel Gene McDaniel)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: CLASH OF THE TREK-TITANS '92
Date: 8 Apr 1992 01:38:33 -0500
Organization: Kansas State University
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: sam.ksu.ksu.edu


In article <73185@netnews.upenn.edu>, botelle@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Justin R. Botelle) writes:
>In article <rtnu5INNgmp@agate.berkeley.edu> tom@ocf.berkeley.edu (Tom Holub) writes:
>>In article <rt890INN5vh@doc.ksu.ksu.edu> tundra@doc.ksu.ksu.edu (Daniel Gene McDaniel) writes:
>>)
>>)Is probley what these GA's say when BAV kills them in his DD.
>>)Personally it can be annoying when everyone is flying GA's.
>>)But unless they are willing to fly in threes. I just wave bye bye
>>)to them as they explode under a swarm of DD torps (tink) (tink).
>>)Gack!
>>)Tremendous Galaxy Torps... If they ever hit you... *Grin* 
>>
>>Let's be fair here--the main reason bav is able to kill GA's in his DD
>>is that most of the players on chaos servers are total hosers.  
>
>Of course, KSU IS FOR PUSSIES  (Thanks again for the  quote, Spaceace!)
>
>)
>)People who are defending DD's are missing the point.  Yes, it is possible
>)to kill any ship in any other ship, but the winning ship is not
>)always the one that had the advantage.  I could create a ship that
>)had the manuverability of a DD and the firepower of a BB and it
>)*still* would be possible to beat it in a DD, especially if it was
>)piloted by a hoser.  Does that make a DD better?
>
>I bet you could make SB that handles like a scout and has the same
>maxwarp, and Someone would still get trashed by a DD.
>
>) -Mojo
>
>Admiral Hector
Ack! I would think of a snappy come back, but whats the point hosers are
hosers and they still fly GA`S...

=================================================================
--Tundra/Dan           "Eat My Shorts!" - Bart Simson
================================================================= 

Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: mikey@eukanuba.wpd.sgi.com (Mike Yang)
Subject: Re: special clue server
Reply-To: mikey@sgi.com
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 92 20:00:29 GMT

In article <8dtNk1i00axfIUqFBF@andrew.cmu.edu>, jc7o+@andrew.cmu.edu (Joo C. Chung) writes:
|> P.S. Rank is meaningless. It only intimidates the neophytes. Get to know
|> the people, not the rank.

Very true.  I find it fun to play under many different names with low
ranks, depending on my mood, and I have to use a friend's computer
account.  Therefore, few people know who I am.  Boggle those newbies.
:-)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
                 Mike Yang        Silicon Graphics, Inc.
               mikey@sgi.com           415/335-1786
From: paulsen@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Brian Paulsen )
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: CMU teams and Genocides
Date: 12 Apr 92 01:19:51 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

In article <s7innINNlrr@agate.berkeley.edu> labc-3ae@web-2h.berkeley.edu (Superman) writes:
>
>I honestly do believe that a CMU team would 
>never be genocided.
>
>Cuz they tend to leave right when they start loosing.
>
>That's happened a lot of  times in the past 3 weeks.

Shit, Duck, you've only played the past 3 weeks.  I've noticed that they will
leave if

A) They are trying to scum and realize they can't.  (Actually rare now)
B) They can't genocide a team
C) They are near being genocided

(B) is VERY frequent. When on the opposing team, all I need to do is outwait
the other team for about 20-30 minutes.  Then all the bigshot Admirals leave
and the game is somewhat balanced in clue again.  Perhaps that's why when I
join a team, I usually genocide the other race.

>I guess they have no heart in the game.

Amen.

>Duck Dodgers

FreeKill
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: jch+@cs.cmu.edu (Jonathan Hardwick)
Subject: Re: Bronco UDP release
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 92 01:45:41 GMT
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon

terence@bronco.ece.cmu.edu (Terence Chang) writes:
> The updater is currently on AFS as /afs/ece/usr/terence/bronco.dist2.tar.Z
> I'm assuming Spaceman Spiff and other archive maintainers can keep up this
> newsgroup and snarf it accordingly.

Done.  In file code/bronco.dist2.tar.Z on gs69.sp.cs.cmu.edu.

Jonathan H.
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: griffon@iastate.edu (Tamber)
Subject: Re: Balancing ships
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 05:39:16 GMT

In article <UdtXO8e00Vp5Q15l1V@andrew.cmu.edu> "Timothy C. Worsley" <tw1r+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
>	I will stand firm with my statement that GAs are not balanced.  I will
>admit that some versions are more balanced than others.
>	In terms of straight fighting, various ships have never been balanced. 
>In general, BB beat CA beat DD or SC.  Odds are that a DD would beat a
>SC most of the time if humans could think fast enough.
>	Now other advantages of various ships make them better for one reason
>or another.
>
>DDs and SCs are good planet takers and bombers, and good at running and
>chasing.  That's really cool, but in a straight dogfight, they are at a
>disadvantage.
  WHAT?? *sigh*  Scouts are what I use MOST in a dogfight situation. I'd
rather use a scout to fight than anything else, ('cept maybe a SB :) 


>ZZnew guy


					Da griffon
-- 
"It is a dream. But through belief, the dream is reality. The reality
lives, dependant only upon a nourishment of belief, without which, no
reality can exist."	<- - - -> #*#*#|&|*#*#*	Tamber, PixieMud Elder,
 Email to GRIFFON@IASTATE.EDU	,.,.,.,.,.,.,.	    Dream Legend.
Xref: sparky rec.games.netrek:324 alt.games.xtrek:3699
From: sjsmith@cs.umd.edu (Stephen Joseph Smith)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek,alt.games.xtrek
Subject: Play-offs (was Re: UDP and regions)
Summary: Mojo, um, think we could find out about these things first?
Keywords: INL playoffs
Date: 8 Apr 92 16:32:01 GMT
Followup-To: rec.games.netrek
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, University of Maryland at College Park

In article <rtr2kINNh19@agate.berkeley.edu> 
tom@ocf.berkeley.edu (Tom Holub) writes [re the play-offs]:
>...The
>bottom four will be wild cards and play each other in the first round;
>the division winners will get a bye and play the winner of the wildcard
>game.  At least, that's the system I've worked out...any objections?

I have no problem about this, except that it would be nice if we [the INL
captains] had found out about the play-offs being increased from 4 teams to 6 
teams?  Like through e-mail rather than our addictive reading of
rec.games.netrek?  Just a minor grumble.

Call the division I teams with the best three records at the end of the season
IA, IB, IC in descending order, and the division II teams IIA, IIB, IIC.

Playoffs should then be:
IIC at IB
IC at IIB
winner of IIC at IB, at IIA
winner of IIB at IC, at IA
championship

Like this suggestion?  This should basically be standard play-off methods,
i.e., matching the expected worst team against the expected best team, and
mixing up the divisions as much as possible.

Just a thought...

						-=+=- Stephen Joseph Smith
						      Flt. Capt. Austere
						      Captain, Team Testudo
						      <sjsmith@cs.umd.edu>
From: paulsen@widget.seas.upenn.edu (Brian Paulsen )
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: plasmas?
Date: 8 Apr 92 22:42:10 GMT
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

In article <1992Apr08.173108.237622@cs.cmu.edu> hill@norman.VI.RI.CMU.EDU (Robert Hill) writes:
>In article <1992Apr8.162722.18262@fs7.ece.cmu.edu> akuo+@cs.cmu.edu (Augustine  
>Kuo) writes:
>Actually, plasmas are an important weapon for SB's.  In general, i use plasmas  
>for two reasons: 1)  planet taker on a planet 2) SB ogg (whether i am in the  
>base or defending it)  The best use of plasmas are when you know the defender  
>is cloaked at can't dodge (ie on a planet or going at high warp towards you  
>cloaked).  I use plasmas without much thought in a SB.  In many cases, the only  
>thing that saves your base is the plamsa torp.  

Right.  The only thing a plasma does for a base is increase its wtemp.  I might
get hit by a SB's plasma about once every couple days.  Considering that I ogg
the base probably several hundred times a day, this means I rarely get hit by
a SB's plasma.  Maybe I'm just lucky... Or maybe I'm not stupid enough to fly
straight at the base.  The only times I get hit are the times that I'm stupid
enough to fly right at the base...

FreeKill

P.S. I also think I'm one of the best base oggers in the game...
P.P.S.  I have a large ego...
From: fadden@uts.amdahl.com (Andy McFadden)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: Scanning beams are the BEST!!!
Date: 12 Apr 92 22:59:10 GMT
Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA

In article <73772@netnews.upenn.edu> paulsen@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Brian Paulsen ) writes:
>In article <1992Apr8.182603.14118@ils.nwu.edu> shafto@ils.nwu.edu (Eric Shafto) writes:
>>I love those scanning beams!  They don't use much in the way of fuel,
>>and they are a lot of fun.  I use them all the time.  I have only one
>>question, though.  What do they do?
>
>What server are scanning beams implemented on?

Scanning beams are part of the UDP distribution.  However, "scan.c" is
missing (it's basically "stats.c" hacked to display the same set of bar
charts, but of your opponent instead of you.  It also shows the #of armies).

There's also some extra code in the server; I believe it's in phaser.c
(which wasn't included with the UDP stuff either).

The idea was somebody else's, but I can't remember the name of the server
that they were on.

>Brian

-- 
fadden@uts.amdahl.com (Andy McFadden)
[ Above opinions are mine, Amdahl has nothing to do with them, etc, etc. ]
From: lyford@shark.rutgers.edu (Stephen "Raxas" Lyford)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: New Features? Netrek Community?  Is that you TERENCE?
Date: 14 Apr 92 17:20:15 GMT
Distribution: rec
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.


For those of you who are forced to play Netrek on monochrome (ugh)
screens (for me it all depends which machine is free in the lab)
there seems to me a very SIMPLE way to distinguish which empire 
planets belong to (unless I am missing something really obvious)

Much similar to the 'V' (shift-v) function for your close up
battle display on the left, a 'B' (shift-B) will toggle on your
galactic display between: 1) no labels on the planets to 2) The symbol
of the empire which is controlling that planet to 3) What functions 
that planet provides, like fuel, repair, armies,etc...

So try a 'B' next time you are playing on monochrome. It isn't as
great as color, but it works. :)
-- 
    +-----------------------+------------------------------+  
    |  Stephen Lyford       |   lyford@chowder.rutgers.edu |  
    |  Alpha Phi Omega      |   lyford@clam.rutgers.edu    |  
    |    Zeta Sigma         | ( lyford@chopin.udel.edu )   |
.___+-----------------------+------------------------------+___.
| Raxas @ TinyTIM / MicroMUSE / QuartzParadise / QuartzBBS     | 
| . . . . . . . RhostshylMUSE / AfterFiveMUCK . . . . . . . . .|
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: spot@CS.CMU.EDU (Scott Draves)
Subject: Re: CMU Netrek
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 92 22:54:59 GMT
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University
	<SFD.92Apr16141746@bezier.bezier.berkeley.edu>
Originator: spot@FORTRAN.FOX.CS.CMU.EDU

>>>>> On 16 Apr 92 19:17:46 GMT, sfd@bezier.berkeley.edu (Scott Drellishak) said:


Scott> I have to say that HunterKiller is the most irritating feature
Scott> of bronco.  Who decided that "more randomness" was a desirable
Scott> feature in a game of skill?

HK is not random.

-- 
			conform
scott draves		deform
spot@cs.cmu.edu		explode
From: paulsen@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Brian Paulsen )
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: Penn and the INL
Date: 8 Apr 92 20:29:47 GMT
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

In article <73261@netnews.upenn.edu> botelle@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Justin R. Botelle) writes:

>)OK....i've had enough.  Penn is undefeated because you haven't played a CMU  
>)team.  Wiz Kids spanked you in our scrimmage game.  I think you have some good)players, but when you play a CMU team...you will be crushed.

First of all, if we beat a CMU team, I will laugh for years...  I'll admit now
that I would be surprised to beat a CMU team.  I would also be surprised if we
get crushed by one also.  I guarantee that we won't get genocided.  It's just
plain impossible to genocide a clueful team...  We will probably get down to
our core planets, but that's about it.

>Only a few players on our team were there when Penn played Wiz Kids, but we
>would have thrown the game anyway, I'm sure, to give them an artificial 
>sense of security.

People keep thinking we suck because of the Penn-Wiz game.  First of all, you
were not there - so, maybe you should know the facts before you use that as an
example.

The facts of the Penn-Wiz game.
Only 3 of the starting 8 penn players were there.  Because some people didn't
show, we had 1 player who was almost a clueless newbie.  We had one alternate
playing. We had 2 people that we recruited from a bronco game.  We had an 8th,
but the guy left at the VERY beginning of the game.  So, the game was 8 vs 7,
and against almost a team of clueless newbies.  The Penn team is VERY different
now.

I will admit that back when we played Wiz, I sucked.  That was still at a time
when most of the penn team used borgs.  I use a borg now only when I'm trying
to scum that Admiral rank on rwd4.  Other than that, I'm a human only player.

Also, I've played as Torpsucker, a player who never raises shields.  I've
killed some Admirals on bronco in honest dogfights without my shields...

If any CMU team expects a repeat of our game vs the Wiz Kids, you are gonna be
in for a surprise...

>)Streaker sucks.  I kicked his butt all across the net last night.  If he can't)stop a player who is offensive tackling, what can he do??  Not much.  Best at 
As mentioned by Justin, we think you are thinking of Striker, not Streaker.
Streaker is probably one of the top players on the team, and I've noticed that
he makes a large effect by appearing in bronco games.

>)In all seriousness, I do respect some of the upenn players.  Freekill comes to)mind first.  Streaker has clue, but he's not even close to the best.

Wow, thanks.  I've been getting messages in the game that compares me to you.
I was really flattered.

>)-Spaceace!

FreeKill
From: nelson@reed.edu (Nelson Minar)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: pingtime and trying to assess lag
Date: 8 Apr 92 02:33:48 GMT
Article-I.D.: reed.1992Apr8.023348.8579
Organization: Reed College, Portland, OR

Disclaimer: the following comments only apply to the TCP client. I
don't know enough about the UDP client to make wild guesses like this.
The UDP client is much better, though.

In article <BATHURST.92Apr7155646@wimpie.noaapmel.gov> bathurst@noaapmel.gov (Bill Bathurst) writes:
>I was trying to assess how bad the lagg would be playing from
>andrew.cmu.edu to daffy.cac.washington.edu.  What would be an
>appropriate packet size to simulate eight players playing on
>our system?  I tried the following sizes:

Back when I was estimating such things I was guessing each person
wanted about 1k/second of packets through the wire to get about 3
updates a second. Someone more familiar with running a server could
give you a better estimate than I.

There are three kinds of problems with using TCP as a real time
protocol:

Packets take time to travel. Average ping time from one side of North
America to another is 200-300 ms. (That's what we get from reed to
bronco, also). That means that if I fire a torp, NOW, it will reach
the server .1 seconds later. But I'll be firing at a ship that was in
the spot where my mouse cursor is .2-.3 seconds ago, according to the
server.

Packets get lost. They arrive out of order. This makes TCP connections
feel "chunky". You all know the feeling.

Bandwidth is the worst kind of lag, though, and it's the one here at
Reed that we're really afraid of. Basically, it goes like this: if
you're on a T1, 16 people can play netrek at your host. if you're on a
56k link, they can't. 

As a rough estimate, the maximum throughput on a 56k line is
6k/second.  That means that the theoretical maximum number of players
on a 56k line is 6. That's why reed.edu is a poor choice for an xtrek
server. A T1 is 16 times as big as a 56k link, so if you have a T1,
you can handle 90 people, no sweat.

A lot of sites have T1s. Some have partial T1s, and a few people (like
us) are 56k lines.

Another big problem is travelling in the NSFnet, the major Internet
backbone. NSFnet tends to be slow.

Given all this, I'm impressed with how well the UDP client does.
-- 
                __
nelson@reed.edu \/                                        All things are true
From: jxh@math.ksu.edu (James C. Hu)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: CLASH OF THE TREK-TITANS '92
Date: 8 Apr 1992 21:24:18 -0500
Organization: Dept. of Mathematics, Kansas State University
NNTP-Posting-Host: hilbert.math.ksu.edu

jch+@cs.cmu.edu (Jonathan Hardwick) writes:

>frain@cis.ksu.edu (Jerry Frain) writes:
>> tom@ocf.berkeley.edu (Tom Holub) writes:
>> > as long as I have a clean enough connection to use tractors and
>> > phasers effectively, the DD will lose.
>> 
>> Unless the DD player is not a total hoser, and stays out of range of
>> your phasers and tractor beam.

>In other words, you runner scum, right?  Keep on dodging backwards,
>throwing torps at him, and always staying out of phaser/tractor range?
>On a chaos dogfighting server, this makes some kind of sense -- I
>mean, you don't care about real estate, so there's no shame in running
>away.  Of course, you've got to get the fool to chase you, but the GA
>probably gives them such an overwhelming feeling of superiority that
>you can sucker them into it with a few well-chosen taunts.

No, you let the DD's come to you.  Remember, this is a dog-fighting
server.  People like to fight.   The DD have to face you to throw
plasma, so charge the DD then, and try to get a phaser lock and
tractor.  Usually, DD's will come barely within tractor range, and
unless you are charging them, tractoring and phasoring at the same
time, they break the tractor beam too quickly.

DD's only have to run away if they get too close.  People who know how
to play against a GA don't have a problem with them, really.  bav just
likes to whine.
-- 
James C. Hu (jxh@math.ksu.edu), 1804 Denholm Dr., Manhattan, KS 66502
Opinions expressed are mine.  Let me know if they are someone else's.
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: jlbraddy@IASTATE.EDU (Jason L Braddy)
Subject: mono displays
Reply-To: jlbraddy@IASTATE.EDU (Jason L Braddy)
Organization: Iowa State University
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 00:46:00 GMT


Sure, "V" and "B" help, but having to switch the galactic back and forth, going,
"is it ours?" and then, "should I flatten it?" sucks.  Once the other team
starts ogging, I don't usually have all that much time to be fumbling around on
the keyboard.  Why not have the initial of the team that owns it next to the
planet in addition to the resource icons?  Along the same lines, why not put the
number of armies there, too?  Just some ideas.

Cmdr. Bill the Cat
From: paulsen@widget.seas.upenn.edu (Brian Paulsen )
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: Team Wizard (was Re: Penn and the INL)
Date: 10 Apr 92 22:52:27 GMT
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

In article <1992Apr10.102257.7832@hellgate.utah.edu> mmoore%peruvian.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Michael Moore) writes:

>>We had Darkhorse (a _clueful_ CMU INL team) down to their last planet
>>with 45min left in the game.  If we had taken the game seriously we
>>would have genocided easily.  A team like UPenn has absolutely no hope
>>against us.  

As I said before, if you want to lay money on this, you can assemble ANY team
and try to genocide Upenn within two hours.  It won't happen.  We would like
big money in this if we're going to give up more time than we already have.

I've seen about 5-6 Admirals go against somewhat clueless teams on bronco.
Genocide is VERY difficult even against idiots.  The only way you would win
would be on a timer, and even that would be surprising.  I suspect Darkhorse
realized that when you got them down to 1 planet, that they weren't going to
win.  They didn't take the game seriously after that.

Again, the Wiz Kids are my pick for the championship, but they won't genocide
Upenn, or any CMU team, or any Berkeley team.

FreeKill