HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: ss72+@andrew.cmu.edu (Sean Christopher Simmons)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: Server Bug
Date: 27 Jan 93 03:26:16 GMT
	<63715@mimsy.umd.edu>
Organization: Sponsored account, School Of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

Excerpts from netnews.rec.games.netrek: 26-Jan-93 Re: Server Bug Leonard
Dickens@mimsy.um (1047)

> >We determined all this back when we
> >discovered the bug that allows you to dock ships onto scouts (was this
> >fixed in the bronco distribution?)

> Yes it was... ships docked automatically undock when a SB refits... I
> don't know offhand what happens when a SB refits into SB, but that
> could go either way and be OK.


ObHistory:

	In the original code, if a SB refit to a SB, docking information was
ignored so that ships would not be automatically undocked.  If the newly
refitted SB then refit to another ship-type, the docking was still
ignored, and the ships would remain docked.*  On non-bronco servers, the
bug still exists.  I believe (but am not sure) that it can be done on
bigdog.
	
*When this was first fixxed, it caused any ship that docked on a base to
teleport to the Fed base.

ZZnew guy
From: hadley@cad.ics.uci.edu (Tedd Hadley)
Subject: Re: ROBOT SB
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Organization: UC Irvine Department of ICS
Keywords: request
Date: 22 Jan 93 13:31:52 GMT

In <106034@netnews.upenn.edu> paulsen@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Brian Paulsen) writes:

>No, only an iggy base dodges the torps of only one ship.  Most robots dodge
>torps of all ships.  I know my bot base also uses T/P to dodge and also dets
>torps perfectly.  I think with one escort, it could survive a 6 man ogg wave
>indefinitely.

   Again from robot experience, I find that one escort is worth 2-3 oggers --
   or to put it another way: # actual oggers = # oggers - 2.5 * # escorts :)

   I think this applies in regular games also..

++
   Tedd Hadley (hadley@uci.edu)
From: leonard@mimsy.umd.edu (Leonard Dickens)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: More Questions on the Cutting EDGE
Date: 25 Jan 93 16:46:28 GMT
Organization: Deep Thirteen, Gizmonics Institute

Greg Chung writes:
>As you may recall, I've been working on an update to the Moo client. 
>An example of my current distress call is:
>    K0->KLI    -- HELP!  K0:   0% Dmg, 100% Shd, 100% Fuel!, W-TEMP!  --
>The most notable changes here are that armies are not displayed if you
>don't have any (instead of "no armies!").  Some people found this
>confusing.  

As do I.  With the proliferation of clients made possible by RSA, you
cannot expect people to be able to reason on the fly that you don't
carry because they see nothing about armies in your distress, and you
are in the XXX client.  Please include armies in the standard distress.

Except for SBs, I see very little reason for anyone to distress except
to note armies carried.  Remember: your ship is EXPENDABLE!  This is
another good reason to keep army info in the distress.


>2)  It might be plausible to make a separate info button that will, for
>example, only get info on planets, and another only to get info on a
>ship.  There might not be much use for this, other then when an entire
>team is sitting on a planet you want to info.

This is an Official NBR change... go for it.  If people don't want to
use it, then they don't have to map it.  If they do, then it is there.
The amount of code needed is trivial since almost all of it is already
there to handle the planet case of the normal 'i'.


>3)  With some unknown degree of error, you can extrapolate the
>approximate (not sure how accurate) direction to a cloaker that you are
>tractoring.  

Borg.  Borg.  Borg.  


>4)  Should shooting from within repair mode take you out of repair mode
>(shields down)?  

No; if the server god(dess) wants that to happen he (she) can program
it into the server.

For the NBR it might be worthwhile to totally automate repair at the
server level; that is, as long as a player sits at warp 0 with shields
down he or she would automatically be repairing; as soon as the player
moves, shoots, raises shields etc then repair mode would be lost.

-Leonard
From: fadden@uts.amdahl.com (Andy McFadden)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: MS-II and iastate
Date: 22 Jan 93 21:31:25 GMT
Reply-To: fadden@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Andy McFadden)
Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA


Thu Jan 21 17:46:33 (PST)
2b5f51f9: Conn to svc 2 from pv7b8d.vincent.iastate.edu (1675)  (s=11)
2b5f51fe: Conn to svc 2 from pv7b8c.vincent.iastate.edu (1446)  (s=11)
2b5f5205: Conn to svc 2 from pv7b8c.vincent.iastate.edu (1447)  (s=11)
2b5f5209: Conn to svc 2 from pv7b8d.vincent.iastate.edu (1676)  (s=11)
2b5f520f: Conn to svc 2 from pv7b8d.vincent.iastate.edu (1677)  (s=11)
2b5f5213: Conn to svc 2 from pv7b8c.vincent.iastate.edu (1448)  (s=11)
2b5f5216: Conn to svc 2 from pv7b8c.vincent.iastate.edu (1449)  (s=11)
2b5f521c: Conn to svc 2 from pv7b8d.vincent.iastate.edu (1678)  (s=11)
2b5f5223: Conn to svc 0 from pv7b8e.vincent.iastate.edu (1787)  (s=11)
2b5f5223: Conn to svc 2 from pv7b8c.vincent.iastate.edu (1450)  (s=13)
2b5f522b: Conn to svc 2 from pv7b8c.vincent.iastate.edu (1451)  (s=13)
2b5f522c: Conn to svc 2 from pv7b8d.vincent.iastate.edu (1679)  (s=13)
2b5f523c: Conn to svc 2 from pv7b8d.vincent.iastate.edu (1680)  (s=11)
Thu Jan 21 17:47:40

That's 12 calls to the "verbose" port (3520) from two apparently adjacent
iastate machines in the space of a minute (I figure the one from pv7b8e was
somebody else).  Of 2120 total connections for the last 24 hours, 90 were
from one of four vincent.iastate.edu machines (pv7b8[cdef]).  (There were
also calls from three other hosts to port 3521; I removed those to make it
easier to read.)

A grep for "vincent" showed that there were connections from five other
machines, but only one connection from each, all to the "new" port (3521).

The value on the left is the time in seconds.  Each connection was made
after 4-6 seconds had elapsed.


This suggests that there is a hoser on the loose at iastate.  If this is
being done intentionally, please encourage the person(s) involved to stop.
If it's just a clueless wonder, teach them the wonders of I/O redirection
into a file.

The output of "last -50" on that workstation would be of value.  Don't forget
to adjust the date for your timezone.


You can convert the time index on the left with this program:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/types.h>

main(argc, argv)
int argc;
char *argv[];
{
    time_t t;
    t = strtol(argv[1], NULL, 16);
    printf("%s", ctime(&t));
    exit(0);
}

To use it, compile it with "cc cvd.c -o cvd" and then run "cvd 2b5f523c" or
whatever.

If you need to test a program which uses MS-II output, and for some reason
you can't get the ouptut from a file, I can provide code which will allow
you to post a message on a port.  That way you can simulate a call to MS-II.

-- 
fadden@uts.amdahl.com (Andy McFadden)
[ Above opinions are mine, Amdahl has nothing to do with them, etc, etc. ]
Organization: Senior, Chemical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 16:40:43 -0500 
From: Kevin Michael Bernatz <kb32+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: New Season : INL Council READ THIS

Ok guys,
	What's the plan on the scheduling for next season?  Does anyone have
any idea yet?


-KB
Organization: Senior, Chemical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 1993 15:38:05 -0500 
From: Kevin Michael Bernatz <kb32+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: BRONCO's absence
Distribution: usa

Excerpts from netnews.rec.games.netrek: 22-Jan-93 BRONCO's absence Noah
White@cad.gatech.ed (475)


>   We are holding a CLUE GAME this tonight (FRIDAY 1/22/92) at 8pm.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!
Posting about "clue games" the same night is a big lose!!!!!!!!!!! 
CMU's net is 2 days behind so us CMU clue that would love to play keep
getting fucked because of our fucking peice of shit asshole net system
(can you tell I don't like it :> )


-KB
 Rear Admiral "Pissing off the Discovery People" Akira
From: ss72+@andrew.cmu.edu (Sean Christopher Simmons)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: Learning SB
Date: 21 Jan 93 21:53:04 GMT
Article-I.D.: andrew.cfLuTUu00VpQIBY30N
Organization: Sponsored account, School Of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

Excerpts from netnews.rec.games.netrek: 20-Jan-93 Learning SB Leonard
Dickens@mimsy.um (6998)

>  R0->ALL  Wreck  :-*
> The second is a weenie invention lacking elegance; don't do it.


	The :-* is reserved for hitting a carrier with plasma.  One uses one *
for every army.

Note of style:
	One is not allowed to post SMACK!, DOOSH! etc for a carrier who has
succeeded in thier mission even parlially (dropped 2 armies on a
non-agri, etc.).
	If you have been gloating an a carrier DOES manage to take a planet
under you, he is allowed to post a DOOSH! message or :-* face after the
planet's name (Romulus :-***).
	If you are killed by a player phasering your own plasma in your face
she may post !KCAMS.
	It is in poor taste for a base to post a SMACK! message for a cloaker,
although for non-cloakers, it's OK.
	DOOSH! messages for less than 3 armies are pathetic.  For three or
four, they still show insecurity.
	One should only post army motel messages for players who you fear will
really take you planets.  Posting a message about an actual amy hotel is
kicking someone when they'e down.  I true army hotel will pick up and
run arround for a long time, hopefully calling for escort, being too
afraid to drop.  A true army hotel is someone who you would prefer if
they pick up than if they left the armies scattered on random planets.

ZZnew guy
From: bharat@shadow.Eng.Sun.COM (Bharat Mediratta)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: Client problems.....
Date: 27 Jan 1993 03:17:48 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Distribution: world
Reply-To: bharat@shadow.Eng.Sun.COM
NNTP-Posting-Host: shadow

In article 728098929@cortez.ecn.purdue.edu, ajmiller@cortez.ecn.purdue.edu (Andrew J Miller) writes:
> Greetings,
> This is metzlcw@helios.augustana.edu posting from a friends
> account.  I have just acquired the bronco.final version of
> xtrek.  I have a sun sparc_ipx and wer're running openwindows.
> I can connect to a server, and even quit by clicking on the 
> appropirate box if I don't want to wait.  However, if I
> get onto a Server and try to type anything like a handle
> or something, I get nothing, my terminal just beeps at me.
> Can anybody please help me!!  It's REALLY annoying to see
> the timer ticking away and I can't connect.
> 
> Either mail metzlcw@helios.augustana.edu or post here.
> ANY help would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> Chris Metzl (helios.augustana.edu)
> 
> 

Try adding:

OpenWindows.FocusLenience: True

to your .Xdefaults file (and then reboot)

	-Bharat

---
    /\        Bharat Mediratta
   \\ \       Graphics Continuation Group
  \ \\ /      
 / \/ / /     
/ /   \//\    SUN Microsystems, Inc.	
\//\   / /    Mailstop: MTV18-218
 / / /\ /     2550 Garcia Avenue, Building 18
  / \\ \      Mountain View, CA 94043
   \ \\       Phone:  (415)336-4347, FAX:(415)336-5471
    \/        Email:  bharat.mediratta@eng.sun.com



Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: rhodesia@wixer.cactus.org (Felix S. Gallo)
Subject: Re: From the CounCILboY:  Your news reps are... [drum roll]
Followup-To: rec.games.netrek
Organization: Real/Time Communications
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 01:07:16 GMT

bav@hobbes.ksu.ksu.edu (Brick Verser) writes:
>rhodesia@wixer.cactus.org (Felix S. Gallo) writes:
>>osyjm@cs.montana.edu (Jaye Mathisen) writes:
>> [. . .]
>>>Brian Paulsen -- 4 
>>>Felix Gallo -- 4
>>
>>Tied with BRIAN PAULSEN?  Oh, someone just *shoot me.*
>> [. . .]
>>
>>Well, my loyal followers and I won't take this lying down!  WE
>>DECLARE THIS ELECTION VOID!  There was OBVIOUS ballot stuffing
>>by the would-be so-called ""winners""!
>> [. . .]
>
>Gee...I can't imagine why he didn't win.
>
>--Brick

et tu, bav?

Man, I can't wait until I get real net.  Oh, man, can't I wait until
I get real net.  Oh I am hopping up and down at the very thought of
getting real net and PUTTING THE HIGH HARD ONE RIGHT PAST OLD BAVSTER
OLD PAL.  I might even let my girlfriend play for a while, just so
she can *ice* him again.
-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Felix Sebastian Gallo                              rhodesia@wixer.cactus.org
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: hadley@cad.ics.uci.edu (Tedd Hadley)
Subject: Re: Abusive Misuse of Tedd Hadley's Server
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Organization: UC Irvine Department of ICS
Keywords: request
Date: 22 Jan 93 13:43:20 GMT

In <1jn7ttINN5v2@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> mccoy@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Jim McCoy) writes:

>But can a base dock with a base docked with a base....

>Now _that_ would be something to see (visions of 2 teams of 8 bases linked
>together, sharing thier fuel and repair with each other come to mind...)

   I must try this out :)  It does require a fairly substantial change to
   code, though -- p_docked is used in two different contexts, if starbase,
   # docked to, else pno base host -- which explains why it hasn't been done
   before..

   BTW, in light of Scott's famous "server" announcements I think we can
   classify this one the same way.  (But thanks for the ideas, Scott :)

++
   Tedd Hadley (hadley@uci.edu)


Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: books@fsunuc.physics.fsu.edu (Roger Books)
Subject: Re: More Questions on the Cutting EDGE
Organization: FSU nuclear physics
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 93 14:25:01 GMT

In article <C1HDqH.I5C@acsu.buffalo.edu> v119matc@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Claus Schwinge) writes:

>I assume that this discussion was about automatic repair at warp zero?
>I'm all in favor of having a ship automatically repair when at warp zero, 
>and stop repair when the ship changes direction, gains speed, fires, 
>raises shields, tractors or pressors.  Just leave the 'R' key doing the 
>same thing it does now.
>

So you have to remap 0 to the R key.  Big deal.

Note, on this arguement I vote "couldn't care less".

Cirdan

Roger
books@fsunuc.physics.fsu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: justin@seas.smu.edu (Justin Anderson)
Subject: Re: Scummers all over the place!!!!!!!!!!!!
Organization: School of Engineering and applied science; S.M.U.; Dallas, Tx
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1993 10:41:19 GMT

In article <-pl3q_d@rpi.edu> kumara2@rpi.edu writes:
>
>     Well guys it was boring night, so I wanted to play netrek, and I started
>looking for servers to play at. I first went to Doorstop, and looky looky:
>
>Server: doorstop.design.iastate.edu, port 2592 (Iowa State, INL.)
>Last checked at 01:14:21 (3 minutes ago).
>
>There are 8 people playing here.
>
>  Type Rank       Name              Login
>F0 SC  Ensign     guest             justin@star0.seas.smu.
>F3 CA  Ensign     guest             justin@star1.seas.smu.
>F5 CA  Ensign     gogggg            justin@quick_f.seas.sm
>F6 CA  Ensign     guest             justin@zebra.seas.smu.
>R1 AS  Commander  maxout            justin@express.seas.sm
>R2 CA  Ensign     guest             justin@turbo_f.seas.sm
>R4 CA  Ensign     bagy              justin@zebra.seas.smu.
>R7 CA  Ensign     guest             justin@zebra.seas.smu.
> 
>
>     Another one bites the dust!!!!!      Caught you scummer!!!!!!



   Isn't it great when you come in from a late night of partying with the 
   roommates and come to play a game of netrek that someone with nothing
   better to do tries to cause trouble.  What better way to introduce them to
   the game than all against each other with no scum-seekers.  But, of course,
   to have friends under my account isn't righT, or so i was told by
   Slut, so I proceeded to humor him(her?) and go along with whatever it
   said, and logged out.  Geez...its just a game...get a life!  We were all 
   sitting here  laughing about what you were saying, and i thought you weren't    serious, but I checked anyway..seems like someone is too obsessed with the
   game and is afraid of missing out on something.  BTW...to be honest, i was
   using an additional terminal (r7) so that I could intro them to t-mode. 
   But then again, thats not what you want to hear, is it?!!

   Justin
   justin@seas.smu.edu 

Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: ahabig@bigbang.astro.indiana.edu (Alec Habig)
Subject: Re: MS speeds around the globe, my ardurous labors come to fruitation
Organization: Indiana University Astrophysics, Bloomington, IN
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 09:50:43 GMT

In article <AfLntKy00VpQ8Aklco@andrew.cmu.edu> Sean Christopher Simmons <ss72+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
>Excerpts from netnews.rec.games.netrek: 19-Jan-93 MS speeds around the
>globe,.. sl7sg@cc.usu.edu (1661)
>
>> netrek.chemietechnik.uni-dortmund.de	1353			27%
>> diamant.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de	2697			13%
>
>
>	You should try orthanc.cs.su.oz.au, just for kicks.

Yeah, but oz has an excuse - 300,000 km/s.

Does anybody know why the German net is so godawful atrocious?  Even the
Italian net is better (maybe this will embarass some German Engineers into
doing something about it....)

	Alec
	(Entropy)

PS - Actually, I think they use carrier pigeons for datalines in some parts of
Germany.
Organization: Sponsored account, School Of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 23:07:21 -0500 
From: Sean Christopher Simmons <ss72+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Shorter games?
	<1k571r$31a@agate.berkeley.edu>

Excerpts from netnews.rec.games.netrek: 27-Jan-93 Re: Shorter games? Tom
Holub@soda.berkeley. (1546)

> Yes, but the beautiful thing about sports (and note that I've always
> looked at the INL as a sporting league rather than a gaming club)
> is that the better team *doesn't* always win.  This keeps things
> interesting for the better team (since they can't be assured of
> their win), the poorer team (since they always have a chance of winning),
> and any spectators (which is not really relevant to netrek, but still).

	I don't think that this is a plan for other sports, just a result of
human errors.  Indeed, the same errors can come up in netrek games. 
Certainly, there are sports where one can come and know the winner
before the meet  In track, for swimming for example, the faster team
will win (barring DQs).  I don't think that this has to make the game
less interesting for the teams involved.
	
> If I wanted to see the 'correct' winner every time, I'd watch the
> World Chess Championships.  Yawn.


	Yeah, Fischer just walks in KNOWING that he's going to win.  Certainly,
I think that a game between GB and HB is more exciting than a game
between Fischer and Spasky, even though it's not likely to be as close.


> The attrition of Berkeley INL players is really remarkable.  The
> Masters, the Ogglies, and now the Golden Bears have all lost 3 or
> 4 players after the season.  Ginger Lynn, who's been playing netrek
> for years, told me the other day that, "It's just no fun anymore."

> These people are burning out.  The games are too long and take too much
> concentration.  We're in this to have fun, not to prove who's the biggest
> netrek ironman.

	There is a lot more involved in what makes the game fun than just how
long it is.  The biggest loss here was caused by a lack of captains.  We
used to have 6.  Now we only have 3.  This was largely because it's
harder to schedual games with teams outside of CMU.
	What *I* find to be the biggest cause of stress it the damn extra hour
spend BEFORE the game when stragglers come in and you wait for the game
to start.  If the council wants to eliminate THIS, I'll be more than
supportative.

ZZnew guy
Organization: Sponsored account, School Of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 19:59:49 -0500 
From: Sean Christopher Simmons <ss72+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Yea, tho' I walk through the valley of the shadow of Red Shirt
	<105717@netnews.upenn.edu>

Excerpts from netnews.rec.games.netrek: 20-Jan-93 Re: Yea, tho' I walk
throug.. Brian Paulsen@eniac.seas (416)

> I think I could arrange to have the SC and CA team be completely different
> teams so that a SC-CA match could be run... :)


	I don't like that plan.  I wanted to be on both teams.

ZZnew guy
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: lyodav@iastate.edu (Sun God)
Subject: Re: MS-II and iastate
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1993 04:27:59 GMT

In article <75pJ03jPc98B00@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com> fadden@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Andy McFadden) writes:
>
>Thu Jan 21 17:46:33 (PST)
>2b5f51f9: Conn to svc 2 from pv7b8d.vincent.iastate.edu (1675)  (s=11)
>2b5f51fe: Conn to svc 2 from pv7b8c.vincent.iastate.edu (1446)  (s=11)
>2b5f5205: Conn to svc 2 from pv7b8c.vincent.iastate.edu (1447)  (s=11)
>2b5f5209: Conn to svc 2 from pv7b8d.vincent.iastate.edu (1676)  (s=11)
>2b5f520f: Conn to svc 2 from pv7b8d.vincent.iastate.edu (1677)  (s=11)
>2b5f5213: Conn to svc 2 from pv7b8c.vincent.iastate.edu (1448)  (s=11)
>2b5f5216: Conn to svc 2 from pv7b8c.vincent.iastate.edu (1449)  (s=11)
>2b5f521c: Conn to svc 2 from pv7b8d.vincent.iastate.edu (1678)  (s=11)
>2b5f5223: Conn to svc 0 from pv7b8e.vincent.iastate.edu (1787)  (s=11)
>2b5f5223: Conn to svc 2 from pv7b8c.vincent.iastate.edu (1450)  (s=13)
>2b5f522b: Conn to svc 2 from pv7b8c.vincent.iastate.edu (1451)  (s=13)
>2b5f522c: Conn to svc 2 from pv7b8d.vincent.iastate.edu (1679)  (s=13)
>2b5f523c: Conn to svc 2 from pv7b8d.vincent.iastate.edu (1680)  (s=11)
>Thu Jan 21 17:47:40
>
>That's 12 calls to the "verbose" port (3520) from two apparently adjacent
>iastate machines in the space of a minute (I figure the one from pv7b8e was
>somebody else).  Of 2120 total connections for the last 24 hours, 90 were
>from one of four vincent.iastate.edu machines (pv7b8[cdef]).  (There were
>also calls from three other hosts to port 3521; I removed those to make it
>easier to read.)
>
>A grep for "vincent" showed that there were connections from five other
>machines, but only one connection from each, all to the "new" port (3521).
>
>
>This suggests that there is a hoser on the loose at iastate.  If this is
>being done intentionally, please encourage the person(s) involved to stop.
>If it's just a clueless wonder, teach them the wonders of I/O redirection
>into a file.
>
   There are two more or less clueless people who use my account to play netrek
other than me. The more clueless one was responsible for both this problem
and the traitor problem mentioned by some base player in an earlier message.
I guess I'll have to talk with the ol' chap.
--Dave/WeenieBlaster



Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: von@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Steve Von Worley)
Subject: Another pOP Idea
Organization: University of California, at Berkeley
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 23:38:42 GMT

While I like the multiple simultaneous poppage (MSP) that a 40-second 
interval provides, I find the use of a 'pop timer' reprehensible.  
(as a note, I like MSP because it adds spice to the game by allowing
more armies to be picked up)

Thus, I came up with a reasonable solution which maintains MSP while
making a timer useless:

Instead of popping planets on exact 40 second boundaries, pop planets at
random intervals in the range from 20 to 60 seconds with a mean of 40
seconds.

How does this sound?

Sandia
-- 
Steve Von Worley
von@cory.berkeley.edu
Computer Science Gradual Student
University of California at Berzerkly