HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: paulsen@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Commodore FreeKill)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: sfop vs the world
Date: 16 Apr 92 03:42:14 GMT
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

I wish we could see some game stats with this, or at least the .conquer file.

Anyways, the game...

It was hard to tell who got a bombing advantage.  We had a lot of difficulty
because two people were in the game that shouldn't have been.  One never moved
his ship for about 5 minutes, and then he left.  The other flew to one end of
the galaxy, did nothing, then came back to shoot at me (his teammate).  I
entertained him by shooting back.  These 2 left very shortly into the game.

We got two more people.  By this time, the Feds (sfops) took our (ori's) agri
and a repair planet.  I forgot the names (spica and arc, I think).  Most of the
game was a battle over these two planets and Org.

The bots were very good at fighting, but it was hard for me to tell because of
the incredible lag that kept occuring.  I had to scum kills to do get any.  It
was pretty easy, though.  The bots keep fighting until they are out of fuel.
Then you tractor them in and phaser.  The other way was to sit near a refuel
planet that had armies.  Then the bots come in cloaked and try to bomb it.
It was pretty easy to kill them then.

We took a lot of planets by exploiting the fact that they can't see cloakers
from far away.  Once you were cloaked, they tended to ignore you.  This helped
a lot in taking planets.  Another flaw that we noticed was that they like to
soften planets by putting a few armies on them.  This is usually ok, but they
would soften up agris, and leave agris neutral while they go get more armies.
Usually, we would take the agris back immediately.  I would venture in guessing
that the bots neutralized our agri about 10-15 times with only actually taking
it 2-3 times.

The other flaw that we noticed was that the teammates like to shoot over other
teammates.  We used this several times to kills their army carriers.

Also, the bots rarely ogged.  It may have been much harder to take planets if
the bots were actually making an attempt at stopping us.

However, for most of the game, it was about even.  At one point, it was about
13-7 in our favor, and then some people left.  The bots quickly took back their
planets.  If the bots could defend their space better, the humans might have
troubles against future sfops.

Brian
From: botelle@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Justin R. Botelle)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: Hector
Date: 12 Apr 92 01:19:32 GMT
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

In article <73730@netnews.upenn.edu) paulsen@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Brian Paulsen ) writes:

)Sorry, didn't mean to imply that you aren't a decent player.  However, if any
)person (not from Upenn) tried to list all the Admirals and Rear Admirals, I'll
)bet your name would never appear.
I agree, but how many Admirals and Rear Admirals would you list if you were
told to include only those from outside CMU who had this rank on Bronco??

The list would be small  (Terence, want to grep??)

)I just have more respect for people who make Admiral on 2*DI or 4*DI...  It's
)very easy to make Admiral when you always have a second character to come in as
)when you can't scum anymore...

Very easy?  Easy maybe, but not very.  And everyone can have a second 
character - they're free.
)
)FreeKill

Justin

Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: qarl@wucs1.wustl.edu (Karl Stiefvater)
Subject: Re: UDP v1.0 README addendum
Organization: Washington University, St. Louis Mo.
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 06:44:26 GMT

 fadden@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Andy McFadden) writes:
> Hmm, maybe with all the scrambling going on for new
> clients, it'd be a good time to change the authentication routine...?

Yes!!!  Perhaps I'm just paranoid, but the more bronco style blessed
servers there are, the more blessed borgs there are.

It seems reasonable that the blessed clients should have SEVERAL
authentication routines, one for each major server; where each server
only has the source code to ONE.  This way, if a server god decides to
create a blessed borg, it will only work on his server.

- Karl
From: labc-3ae@web-2h.berkeley.edu (Superman)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: RE: The Horsemen are.
Date: 9 Apr 1992 20:51:59 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Distribution: usa
NNTP-Posting-Host: web-2h.berkeley.edu
Originator: labc-3ae@web-2h.berkeley.edu


So who are the horsemen?

as in a roster a  list of players 

I want names :)

mUahahahahaha

Duck Dodgers
From: fadden@xserver.uts.amdahl.com (Andy McFadden)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: Blessed Binaries
Date: 6 Apr 92 21:02:57 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Amdahl

In article <18348@ector.cs.purdue.edu>, bouma@cs.purdue.EDU (William J. Bouma) writes:
|> In article <1992Apr04.154643.30301@cs.cmu.edu> jch+@cs.cmu.edu (Jonathan Hardwick) writes:
|> >substitution: "blessed binary = binary compiled by the netrek Gods".
|> >In other words, a blessed binary is what you need to play on a server
|> >during "human-only" hours.  Generally speaking, you get a blessed
|> >binary for your machine by FTP-ing it from one of the FTP sites in the
|> >server-list FAQ (where blessed clients *are* mentioned). 
|> 
|>    Am I really the only one bothered by this?  In general my policy is to
|>    NOT run a binary obtained off the net.  How can you tell where it has
|>    been?  In my experience "blessing" has absolutely no affect on disease.

I'm not sure you understand what "blessing" means.

The difference between a "blessed" client and an un-blessed client is in a
file called "reserved.c".  Basically, the server tries to prevent cyborgs
(modified clients) from signing on by sending a packet to the client, which
gets encrypted by a routine in reserved.c and sent back.  If the client's
encrypted packet matches the server's, then the player is allowed in...  If
not, the player is ejected.

Blessing has *NO* relationship with trojan horses, viruses, or whatever.  It
is certainly possible that the cyborg binaries that are being distributed
around could have trojan horses or other nasty creatures in them.  However,
the blessed binaries on FTP sites can usually be traced back to the person
who compiled them.  So far it hasn't been an issue.

|>    Though connecting to a server sounds like gobs of fun, I must practice
|>    "safe" game playing.  I encourage others to resist the temptation and
|>    abstain from these dangerous blessed clients.  Unless, of course, they
|>    have been tested within the last 6 months?

Since 90% of the people playing Netrek are using them, I guess you could say
they've been tested rather heavily over the last 6 months.  I very much doubt
that they've been scanned for evil stuff though, so either take it on faith
or just don't play during human hours...

|> Bill <bouma@cs.purdue.edu> 

-- 
fadden@uts.amdahl.com (Andy McFadden)
[ Above opinions are mine, Amdahl has nothing to do with them, etc, etc. ]
From: skaven@milton.u.washington.edu (William Gilliland)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: New HOREMAN OF THE APOCALYPSE....
Date: 15 Apr 92 21:51:01 GMT
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle

In article <1992Apr15.151417.27981@udel.edu> zog@strawberry.udel.edu (Zo(schwa)) writes:
>	I think the next HORSEMAN... should be...
>
>			Schwing!
>
>							-dan/zog
>

Geez, everyone has missed the totally obvious Horseman, the one that
would strike fear into the hearts of his opponents, wether or not he
was playing them at the time!

(Revelations 10:15)
	And striking without warning, catching his unsuspecting
victims anywhere, is the Horseman that cripples his foe.  Blinding
him to all that transpires around him, freezing him into nothing more
than phaser-bait.  And he shall be called Lag!

(Just my $0.03 -- inflation, dont you hate it?)

"Doesn't it bother you that evil messages | Bill Gilliland
creep into this .sig file when you read   |  
it backwards???"                          | skaven@u.washington.edu
                                          |
"Stranger things have happened."          | (with apologies to Negativland)
From: paulsen@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Brian Paulsen )
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: FAQ or FTP Available for Neophytes?
Date: 15 Apr 92 20:09:19 GMT
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

In article <1992Apr15.160841.18149@eff.org> peterco@eff.org (Peter A. Cohen) writes:
>Are there any docs available as a "training guide" for Netrek Neophytes?

The regular FAQ gives an ftp site that is run by jch.  This site has MANY
articles written by some of the best players.  These articles are recommended
for neophytes and veterans...

Brian
Organization: Junior, Chemical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 12:04:36 -0400 
From: Kevin Michael Bernatz <kb32+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: INL Games

Hopefully before any flames get sent,

Berkeley and us will play, thanks to Amazing.

-KB
 Captain of Team Akira
From: jch+@cs.cmu.edu (Jonathan Hardwick)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: Blessed Binaries
Date: 6 Apr 92 20:21:10 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon

bouma@cs.purdue.EDU (William J. Bouma) writes:
> jch+@cs.cmu.edu (Jonathan Hardwick) writes:
> >substitution: "blessed binary = binary compiled by the netrek Gods".
> 
>    Am I really the only one bothered by this?  In general my policy is to
>    NOT run a binary obtained off the net.  How can you tell where it has
>    been?  In my experience "blessing" has absolutely no affect on disease.
>    Though connecting to a server sounds like gobs of fun, I must practice
>    "safe" game playing.  I encourage others to resist the temptation and
>    abstain from these dangerous blessed clients.  Unless, of course, they
>    have been tested within the last 6 months?

Well, you could spend a month looking at 300k of source to find the
nasty icky bouncy-ball virus contained therein.  But even if it *wasn't*
there, you'd still have to trust your compiler when you compiled the
source (this is the Ritchie trick, I think?  Have I got my net.god
correct?).  Depends how rampantly paranoid you want to be.  Judging from
the number of .gov and .nasa.gov players, a sick computer at Purdue is
the least of our worries if the binaries are infected (note to the
dreamers : there is already talk of an Internet link to Space Station
Freedom.  How long before someone starts playing netrek in space?  And
will UDP be enough to cope with the down-link lag??)

Besides, netrek is by definition a promiscuous game.  Heck, I must have
connected up to at least 20 servers.  And each one of them has been
played on by hundreds of other players.  Just think of all the dirty
bits we've exchanged.  Ewwww....

Jonathan "reaching for the disinfectant spray" H.
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1992 21:04:47 -0400 
From: "Julian L. Ho" <jh6j+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Locking & Clockers
	<1992Apr6.020430.2475@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
	<87r702cXbfNv00@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com>

In message <72909@netnews.upenn.edu>, 
 paulsen@stipple.seas.upenn.edu (Brian Paulsen ) writes:
>I guess I'm nobody.  It's real useful in an LPS... Just lock on to that AS
>while he is still uncloaked.  Then all you have to do is phaser right in front
>of you...

I think you will find working on your "normal" phaser locks more rewarding
than using locks like this.  Just my opinion, though.

Rear Adm. guest  
Xref: sparky rec.games.netrek:255 alt.games.xtrek:3689
From: labc-3ae@web-2h.berkeley.edu (Superman)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Masters Official Playoff Server
Date: 11 Apr 1992 21:57:13 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Distribution: usa
NNTP-Posting-Host: web-2h.berkeley.edu
Originator: labc-3ae@web-2h.berkeley.edu


Berkeley has its very own UDP server.

BIGDOG.berkeley.edu


It will be the Official Masters of the Universe 
Playoff Server for the 1992 INL Division and Hopefully
Championship games.

I request that every other school start adding udp
to their home servers before the play off 
series so that UDP can help be available to all.

Duck Dodgers

btw- there will be no transwarp on bigdog.

:)

Some CMU people who played there said they got no lag 
at all so.. 

start playing bigdog instead of bezier.....
and feel the full destructive power of the Berkeley MIGHT!

My new Character will be My Little Pony (if it fits)
to gallop all over the horsemen. Muahahahahah

There wil be no apocalypse.... no death.. no destruction....
no famine... no fear....... no plagues.....

There will be only one.

DOOM

Join House of Doom or  Suffer!!!!!!!!!

Turin
From: jmt@legend.cma.fr (Jean-Marc Tanzi)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Recording games
Date: 6 Apr 92 16:14:03 GMT
Reply-To: jmt@legend.cma.fr (Jean-Marc Tanzi)
Organization: INRIA Sophia Antipolis, France

The idea of recording games is great. However, the amount of data needed
was probably much over-estimated. Do we really need to keep each torpedo
path and phaser shot? I think not, such details would make the replay rapidly
boring. The strategic course of the game is much more interesting.

So, being realistic, say we take a snapshot each second, and get:

	for each planets: 2 bytes (owner, armies) ->  80 bytes	  
	for each player:  16 bytes  (x,y, stats)  ->  256 bytes.

That's 336 bytes per second, some 1.2 Mb per hour.
A quite reasonable amount, actually.

-- 
=============================================================================
Jean-Marc Tanzi  |  Millions of years to make oil and forests,
jmt@cma.cma.fr   |  a century to burn them. Mankind versus Nature: 100000 to 1.
                 |  Will Mankind find a tougher planetary opponent?
From: labc-3ae@web-2h.berkeley.edu (Superman)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: RE: CMU teams and Genocides
Date: 13 Apr 1992 02:01:56 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Distribution: usa
NNTP-Posting-Host: web-2h.berkeley.edu
Originator: labc-3ae@web-2h.berkeley.edu

>CMU teams?  You mean a CMU or INL league tourney team?  You are wrong.     

>You mean individual CMU players, finding a game where it's one clue        
>agains many?  Sadly, I think it's common.  I try to avoid quitting when    
>my team sucks...  but then again, I'm there "to leave deep emotional       
>scars", not to genocide (Val puts things so well :).                       

>Why don't you try switching and making the game more even?  Don't like a   
>challenge?

>Ensign  ensign

NOpe.... we invited a bunch of CMU people to play on bigdog
one morning .... and there where a lot of what is considered
the best players... they know who there are..

and when my team started beating them... we got like 4 of their 
planets........

they started quiting .. and soon enuf all of em quit.

That was the game before our official scrimmage against CMU
mixed team during spring break.

Duck Dodgers
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 21:52:57 -0400 
From: "Timothy C. Worsley" <tw1r+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Common and Uncommon netrek terms

I can't believe I forgot:

Iggy:  The Hunter-Killer robot.  Named for the fact that he's
indipendent 'bot in slot g (Ig).

Planet Scum/ DI Scum/ Scum:  A player who takes planets even if it does
not help his/her team.  Also, anyone who takes planets.

ZZnew guy
From: rw2g+@andrew.cmu.edu (Richard Weinstein)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: Recording games
Date: 7 Apr 92 17:15:37 GMT
Article-I.D.: unix2.702666937.13240.0
Organization: Freshman, Math/Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

Wouldn't the easiest way to record games be to hook up a VCR
to your monitor??  Granted, you can't keep the info on disk, but
if you just want to record a game I would think a VCR affords an
easy solution. 
or the easiest of all, use a camcorder. Just point and record.
Show your mom what a great education you're getting...
That way you can get shots of the manual dexterity, too.
How fast can YOU torp-tractor-shieldsup-phaser-det-phaser?

--Rick                                                       ..
"We're not hitchiking any more... We're riding!" -Commander Hoek

stimpy+@cmu.edu  and/or  rw2g+@andrew.cmu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: cmlee@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Tom Chen-Ming Lee)
Subject: Re: The Horsemen!!!
Organization: University of California, at Berkeley
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 04:55:28 GMT

In article <Edsp1C_00Vp9E5XEdP@andrew.cmu.edu> rl2j+@andrew.cmu.edu (Ray R. Lieu) writes:
>Hey guys,
>
>Sorry to turn this b-board into a personal game-making medium,
>
>BUT....
>
>I also challenge the UPenn INL team  to face down  CMU's 
>Team The Horsemen of the Apocalypse in a Tournament style game
>sometime convenient for both teams....
>
>As a memeber of  a CMU's tournament team, I welcome the prospects at
>testing my skills or talents as it were against those from other
>schools, whose styles and skills may be different than my own....
>
>As a member of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, I am offended and take
>umbrage to the remarks made by Streaker about myself and my team.
>
>My question is what now will you do??????
>You may have bitten off more than you can chew....
>
>The ball's in your court,
>
>We're good, 
>We're ready, 
>and We're waiting.....

Hmmm...  Why didn't you register as an INL team?  Thanks for the relevation.

>Rear Admiral  ray
>Flt. Capt 	 Famine!
>Captain 	 Non-Stop!!


- Iolo the Bard
From: sjsmith@cs.umd.edu (Stephen Joseph Smith)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: INL Games
Keywords: Duke Testudo INL
Date: 17 Apr 92 16:51:26 GMT
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, University of Maryland at College Park

In article <sl1dfINN94i@agate.berkeley.edu> 
tom@ocf.berkeley.edu (Tom Holub) writes:
>In article <53287@mimsy.umd.edu> I write:
>)(c) Mojo, what do you do if this is really the case [that a team has
>disbanded]?  Drop them from the
>)standings completely?  Award everyone "wins" against them?  Award everyone
>)"ties" against them?  Award all their unplayed opponents "wins" or "ties"
>)against them?  Just curious...
>
>Probably just ignore the fact that they were in the league, so people
>who haven't played them will have just 5 games on their schedule.
> -Mojo

Sounds good.  Now here's a followup question:
When does the season end?
What happens if you have unplayed games after the end of the season? - not
unplayed games against a disbanded team, but unplayed games?

I really think that the following should occur:
(1) If the team captains agree on any result (tie, win for one team, win for
another) then that result should stand... maybe.  Up to your choice whether
this is legal.  (Of course, with netrek, it wouldn't be hard for two captains
to produce any result that they desired... e.g. I let you genocide me, or we
agree to start up the server, let it run for two and a half hours, and do
nothing, giving a 10-10 tie.  So I guess it should be legal.)
(2) If the team captains can't agree on any result, and can't play, double
forfeit.  Reason:  Otherwise (say, if the result were a tie) a team really 
concerned about its place in the standings - "standings scum" - would not play
any superior teams.  At all.  "Well, we really tried to play Akira, but we
just couldn't find the time.  I guess we'll just have to call it a tie." 

The primary disadvantage to "double forfeit" is that it can also be used for
a "standings scum," but only between a team trying to protect its advantage
over the opponent.  "Well, we and Akira are both 5-0, and we have 100 planets-
for to their 97.  Since we can't schedule a game, we both end 5-1, and we get
first seed on a tiebreaker."  Less likely, however.

What do you think, sirs?

						-=+=- Stephen Joseph Smith
						      Flt. Capt. Austere
						      Captain, Team Testudo
						      <sjsmith@cs.umd.edu>
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: jg@cs.brown.edu (Jeremy Gaffney)
Subject: Re: Team Wizard (was Re: Penn and the INL)
Organization: Brown Computer Science Dept.
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1992 19:37:01 GMT

Ummmm...Team wizard _didn't_ genocide us. They did, however,
take Earth with (I think) 10 mins left...
-- 
/*  Jeremy Gaffney [jg@cs.brown.edu gaffer@brownvm.brown.edu] */
Xref: sparky rec.games.netrek:225 alt.games.xtrek:3678
From: tw1r+@andrew.cmu.edu (Timothy C. Worsley)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek,alt.games.xtrek
Subject: Re: Newbie FAQ
Date: 7 Apr 92 02:18:43 GMT
Article-I.D.: andrew.cdsEO3G00VokM3SnBr
	<1992Apr06.203912.34556@yuma.acns.colostate.edu>
Distribution: na
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

>I'll take it that "Kiwi-lime ice"  is not that good, but I'm a choco-holic.

	Kiwi-lime ice isn't supposed to mean it's bad (I rather like Needmore),
just different.  I suppose that really Needmore is cloaser to Coffee
Heathbar crunch.

ZZnew guy
From: paulsen@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Brian Paulsen )
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: Team Wizard (was Re: Penn and the INL)
Date: 11 Apr 92 07:40:30 GMT
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

In article <Adtd8Gi00WBOQ6yh1R@andrew.cmu.edu> cm5m+@andrew.cmu.edu (Ceri Alun Morgan) writes:
>If I remember correctly, In Team Wizard's tourney against Team :), Quar
>and Spaceace! took earth with Balton "escorting" them in a SB. That was
>impressive! Under the right circumstances, I can see this startegy
>working against almost any team. 
>comments?

My only guess is that Team :) was experiencing enough lag that they couldn't
hit cloakers effectively.  I've never had this strategy work against a team I
was on.  Nor do I see how it could really work too well.

There just are too many times when the people who have kills aren't near, but
the base is.  The base then dies...  I am really confused on how Team :) got
genocided...  Their team has many clueful AND skilled players.  Also, Team :)
has amazing coordinating abilities for not being in the same room.

FreeKill