PlanetsCentral

Does anyone know of any active Thost sites anymore?

Does anyone know of any active Thost sites anymore?

I don't, but may I ask what part of THost is it you wish to play?

Adding THost support is very low priority for me currently (but not zero priority!). Actually, running it isn't so much of a problem, but integrating it is more work. For example, it doesn't have a turn checker. I do have a replacement for that but it's not at the same level PHost's turn checker is.

The other issue would be integrating add-ons. This is currently scripted around Linux shell scripts, which don't work with THost on DOS obviously. (Actually, I even got provided a THost source port that would run natively on Linux, which would solve that, but has many other issues.)

--Stefan

Does anyone know of any active Thost sites anymore?

There are still BBSs kickin' about that run TimHost games, but they aren't very active.

There's only one active game on the BBS I connect to; it's running the "Tantalus Machine" REF mode and currently on turn 48 with host run daily until completion.

Afaik this here is the only site worldwide left which hosts VGA Planets games. If you know ans others, please share it here, just for the record.

Does anyone know of any active Thost sites anymore?

THOST has only one feature (for a pirate) that is not in PHOST - this is FIX TOW

Ozzy Mandias in Thost hosts?:

Does anyone know of any active Thost sites anymore?

I don't, but may I ask what part of THost is it you wish to play?

Adding THost support is very low priority for me currently (but not zero priority!). Actually, running it isn't so much of a problem, but integrating it is more work. For example, it doesn't have a turn checker. I do have a replacement for that but it's not at the same level PHost's turn checker is.

The other issue would be integrating add-ons. This is currently scripted around Linux shell scripts, which don't work with THost on DOS obviously. (Actually, I even got provided a THost source port that would run natively on Linux, which would solve that, but has many other issues.)

--Stefan

THOST has only one feature (for a pirate) that is not in PHOST - this is FIX TOW

Can you explain that in more detail please? "Fix Tow"?

Can you explain that in more detail please? "Fix Tow"?

Since I received several posts regarding this matter I think it's time to play my cards.

What is this all about? I found a post that says something about the Sacrificial Lamb tactic and I replied that I found a way to tow ships to my wolf packs and get to the destination fuel less (with my tower). That involves no fighting and the enemy can do nothing except jettison all the cargo/fighters/torps/money after he realizes he's going to be robbed.

Some of you will say that they used this tactic before, but there COULD be changes in cargo, so the normal tow can end up with >=1 kt of fuel on the tower OR the tower will get short with >=1 lys to the waypoint. This leads to the Sacrificial Lamb tactic or to luck. My method does not involve ANY luck (except, of course, the risk of hitting a mine during the tow or by "meeting" one of those towing conflicts ) and is 100% accurate (I tested all the distances using the latest THost 3.22.047).

Ok, I think it's time to present the idea

Any privateer player will "visit" enemy's planets to see what is there (but this tactic can be used in deep space as well). Use (if possible) low ID ships, so that you won't "experience" a towing conflict if there are many enemy ships (what could be a towing conflict is not the intent of this article, and can be found on Donovan's site). After you "see" the prize, look into the table below: Is it a cloaker? Damn! Forget about it The towing distance vary? Damn. Use another tactic to steal the ship There are ONLY 11 (Hope I counted them right ) ship types that cannot be stolen using this tactic The towing distance is 4 lys (The ship is a beaty Biocide )? Drop all your fuel from the tower (except 1 kt - doesn't matter the rest of the cargo) and tow the Biocide 4 lys (exactly 4 lys) to the South (180 degrees), North (0 degrees), East (90 degrees) or West (270 degrees). Don't try other angles. Now, your client will probably tell you that the ship has not enough fuel to get there by towing the Biocide. Forget this! You WILL get there, I assure you. Now get with your wolfpack to the destination (in advance) and the next turn ROB, ROB ROB it blind However, be aware, that the Biocide can "feel" that its days are now over and the next turn will jetisson all his fuel, so leave some fuel (10 kt will do) on the robbing ships and be sure to have 100+ kt on the tow-capturing ship (that Biocide is HEAVY and will dry your fuel tank when moved large distances), so that they won't be fuel less by moving a few lys. Any Privateer should take this case into consideration.

ONLY gravitonic ships count (so use for this tactic only the following ships from the standard ship list: BR4, BR5 or MBR); for other cloakers or ships (as towers) it is another matter.

ANY type of gravitonic ship can be used as tower BR4, BR5 or MBR equipped with at least one beam (What sane Privateer player would build a gravitonic without beams? ), having W9 as engines and having ANY cargo - except the fuel tank which must be only 1 kt of fuel (don't worry, those little gravitonic ships won't be able to carry much ).

Also this tactic is useless to tow Cloaking ships (except the cases when these ships cannot cloak: due to lack of fuel or damaged).

Hereafter is the table with all the data needed.

I know the text-only version is not good-looking (I didn't have time to play with special table-border characters). I have the original Excel sheet. Donovan are you interested into publishing it to your site. I didn't included this Excel as attachment since it is a little big (has colors ).

Exemplification ========== Ship "Super Transport Freighter" has associated the distance of 10 lys, but is marked with "..8" (or red color for Excel version) because there is a Dangerous variation of distance till 8 lys. That means that the towing could end anywhere between 8 lys and 10 lys distance (depending on the weight of the tower and of the Super AFTER the turn is done) Ship "Gorbie Class Battlecarrier" has associated the distance of 4 lys. That means any gravitonic can tow this behemoth 4 lys by having only 1 kt of fuel and arriving fuel less at the destination (doesn't matter how much the Gorbie is loaded). Ship "Dark Wing Class Battleship" has associated the distance of 4 lys, BUT this is marked with *(or yellow color for Excel version), that means the ship can cloak imediatelly after you seen it, so you can't rob even if you're able to tow it to the destination. Avoiding using this tactic against cloaking ships (except against poor opponents ).

Legend .. X The tow may not finish on the intended destination. This depends on the weight of the tower and towee and renders this tactic useless against this type of hull * The ship is able to cloak, so this tactic is of no use against this ship (except the cases when the ship cannot cloak: damage or no more fuel)

Ship name Distance to Tow in lys Dangerous Variations in lys

Gorbie Class Battlecarrier 4 Annihilation Cls Battleship 4 Merlin Class Alchemy Ship 4 Biocide Class Carrier 4 Golem Class Baseship 4 Neutronic Refinery Ship 4 Nova Class Super-Dreadnought 4 Rush Class Heavy Carrier 4 Virgo Class Battlestar 4 Automa Class Baseship 4 Dark Wing Class Battleship 4 * Diamond Flame Cls Battleship 5 Victorious Class Battleship 5 T-Rex Class Battleship 5 Missouri Class Battleship 5 Instrumentality Cls Baseship 6 Cybernaut Class Baseship 7 Madonnzila Class Carrier 7 Crystal Thunder Cls Carrier 7 Scorpius Class Light Carrier 7 Ill Wind Cls Battlecruiser 7 Super Star Cruiser 7 Pawn Class Baseship 7 Super Star Carrier 7 Super Star Destroyer 7 Bloodfang Class Carrier 8 Diplomacy Class Cruiser 9 Emerald Class Battlecruiser 9 Resolute Cls Battlecruiser 9 * Valiant Wind Class Carrier 9 D7 Coldpain Class Cruiser 10 * Kittyhawk Class Carrier 10 Moscow Class Star Escort 10 Thor Class Frigate 10 D7a Painmaker Class Cruiser 10 H-Ross Class Light Carrier 10 Nebula Class Cruiser 10 Lizard Class Cruiser 10 * Super Transport Freighter 10 .. 8 Tranquility Class Cruiser 10 Onyx Class Frigate 11 Saber Class Frigate 11 Arkham Class Frigate 11 Fearless Wing Cruiser 11 * Iron Lady Class Frigate 11 Skyfire Class Cruiser 11 Super Star Frigate 11 Gemini Class Transport 11 Lady Royale Class Cruiser 13 Large Deep Space Freighter 13 .. 12 Quietus Class Cruiser 13 Banshee Class Destroyer 13 Cat's Paw Class Destroyer 13 Firecloud Class Cruiser 13 Ruby Class Light Cruiser 13 Saurian Cls Light Cruiser 13 * White Falcon Class Cruiser 13 * Cobol Class Research Crsr 14 Deth Specula Class Frigate 14 * Loki Class Destroyer 14 Dwarfstar Class Transport 14 * Sage Class Frigate 14 Vendetta Class Frigate 14 Sagittarius Class Transport 14 D19b Nefarious Cls Dstryr 15 Taurus Class Scout 15 Brynhild Class Escort 15 Cygnus Class Destroyer 15 D3 Thorn Class Destroyer 15 * Meteor Cls Blockade Runnr 15 * Nocturne Class Destroyer 15 Patriot Class Light Carrier 15 Sky Garnet Class Destroyer 15 B222 Destroyer 16 Bright Heart Cls Destroyer 16 * Gaurdian Class Destroyer 16 Q Tanker 16 Little Pest Class Escort 17 Outrider Class Scout 17 Red Wind Class Carrier 17 * Aries Class Transport 17 Armored Transport 19 Opal Class Torpedo Boat 19 Little Joe Class Escort 19 RU25 Gunboat 19 Topaz Class Gunboat 19 Iron Slave Class Baseship 19 Medium Deep Space Freighter 19 Reptile Class Destroyer 19 * BR5 Kaye Cls Torpedo Boat 21 * BR4 Class Gunship 21 * Serpent Class Escort 21 Watcher Class Scout 24 .. 23 Swift Heart Class Scout 24 * Mig Class Scout 27 .. 23 B41 Explorer 27 .. 20 Eros Class Research Vessel 27 Bohemian Class Survey Ship 27 B200 Class Probe 27 Deep Space Scout 27 .. 15 Falcon Class Escort 27 .. 23 Small Deep Space Freighter 27 .. 23 Small Transport 27 .. 23 PL21 Probe 30 .. 27 Neutronic Fuel Carrier 34 .. 9

Have fun, Privateers Dacian Hantig (Dacus) dacianhantig@rdslink.ro

Xhumeka in Re: Thost hosts?:

Can you explain that in more detail please? "Fix Tow"?

Since I received several posts regarding this matter I think it's time to play my cards.

[...]

The towing distance is 4 lys (The ship is a beaty Biocide )? Drop all your fuel from the tower (except 1 kt - doesn't matter the rest of the cargo) and tow the Biocide 4 lys (exactly 4 lys) to the South (180 degrees), North (0 degrees), East (90 degrees) or West (270 degrees). Don't try other angles. Now, your client will probably tell you that the ship has not enough fuel to get there by towing the Biocide. Forget this! You WILL get there, I assure you.

Maybe describe the objective in other words: you want to tow a ship, but run out of fuel in the process, such that the victim cannot fight you. Problem is, the victim ship can change its mass, so you cannot always predict exactly how far you get.

It happens that Tim-Host has a formula error (bug) when dealing with running-out-of-fuel: when it sees that you cannot reach your waypoint, it will start computing:

• hmmm, they have too little fuel to reach their 20 ly waypoint.
• hmmm, their fuel will suffice for 50% of that distance.
• so, how much is that distance? 50% x 81 ly = 40 ly, so we allow them to move 40 ly.

The problem is that it is using the engine's maximum distance, not the waypoint distance, to determine the allowed distance.

Now, if you do that when towing, a victim's mass will affect the relative distance you get: if they're heavier than anticipated, the percentage will drop; if they're lighter, it will raise.

Therefore, with Tim-Host, you can run out-of-fuel at a precise location even if your victim changes mass, and you can await them with a cloaked wolfpack.

However, given that this feature cannot be explained by anything other than a bug, I'd rate its implementation in PHost pretty unlikely, given that its mission was fixing bugs. I mean, we don't reproduce the "stuck fighter bay" bug as well...

Here's a description of this (and one other) bug in Tim-Host fuel computations: http://phost.de/~stefan/fuelusage.html

--Stefan

Thanks for the info!

Therefore, with Tim-Host, you can run out-of-fuel at a precise location even if your victim changes mass, and you can await them with a cloaked wolfpack.

--Stefan

this error is missing in phost. but it is extremely useful to the pirate when playing the Thost

Ozzy Mandias in Thost hosts?:

Does anyone know of any active Thost sites anymore?

I don't, but may I ask what part of THost is it you wish to play?

Adding THost support is very low priority for me currently (but not zero priority!). Actually, running it isn't so much of a problem, but integrating it is more work. For example, it doesn't have a turn checker. I do have a replacement for that but it's not at the same level PHost's turn checker is.

The other issue would be integrating add-ons. This is currently scripted around Linux shell scripts, which don't work with THost on DOS obviously. (Actually, I even got provided a THost source port that would run natively on Linux, which would solve that, but has many other issues.)

--Stefan

AutoTroll had a trn checker. Besides NAVGAP, I mostly played on AutoTroll sites so I know I'd always get a message saying my turn was good.

AutoTroll had a trn checker. Besides NAVGAP, I mostly played on AutoTroll sites so I know I'd always get a message saying my turn was good.

As far as I know, AutoTroll uses chktrn.exe, which basically only checks that your turn file actually is a turn file that belongs to the current turn. So it will tell you when your turn is stale, but not when you got a red error due to mismatching shiplist files on your side.

Actually, PlanetsCentral checks for stale turns internally without need of an external checker.

It will send you a message with your status, of course. If you upload the turn through the website, you will get the status immediately.

--Stefan