Welcome to Wolf 359. This is the support site for the Wolf 359 Trade Wars 2002 game server, which officially opened for business on Jan 13, 2001. This web site is maintained by Twisted.

Brought to you by TSTC

This game server is totally free! It is proudly made available by Texas State Technical College, where we train tomorrow's technicians today! If you are looking for quality education in one of over 40 different technical fields, visit our web site, give us a call, or come see for yourself. We have campuses all over Texas and are very happy to have visitors (we love to show off!).

So, if you are looking for technical training and a new exciting and successful career, keep us in mind. If you are looking for universal domination, then just sit back, make a few planets, kill a few people, and enjoy!

TW League Certified Server

NEWS

08/17/2001

Well, I am now proud papa again. Dustin James White was born on the 7th.

The Voyager Class has been made available in the Trekkin game. This ship should make evil players happy. It is twarp/photon capable and has a fair amount of holds. Dustin's arival delayed its availability, I hope you can forgive him :)

I was playing and a player brought up the matter of a sysop playing on his own board. This is a valid point. I do play occassionaly, and I do have access to information that would give me a great advantage over other players, and I have the ability to modify game settings and configuration. I could easily give myself 4 billion credits and enough fighters to rule the universe forever.

But thats no fun. I am the kind of guy that won't even shake Christmas presents, because it might spoil the surprise. I pointedly avoid looking at sector numbers and making sysop game notes when I am doing administration duties. This makes it tougher sometimes, because I have to look stuff up again later, but I can enjoy the game that way. I also try to avoid using the sysop observer character, because when I get a list of whos online, it shows what sector they are in. I don't want this information. I ignore it. It would ruin the surprise.

I do NOT modify any character except in the rare instance when someone forgets their password. I have modified two ship passwords in the past when players have forgotten them. But I feel that does not affect game play in any way, and therefore okay. I do sometimes look at player's info if I feel they may be duping illegally. But I look for similarities, not strengths or locations.

I understand if you are uncomforable with my occasional participation in the games. I hope this will satisfy you somewhat. I basically don't want to cheat, I would rather lose. Losing is actually a good thing, because you learn more that way. And I have learned a lot in the past (heh heh). I have been playing for quite a while, and know a lot of the tricks, so if I do thouroughly destroy you, understand that it is skill, not access. And don't worry if you grind me into the dirt, I don't carry a grudge, and I may try to team with you next time.

As for my playing style, I'm a planet farmer. I don't really go for seek and destroy, unless I've got my homes fully set and am confident I am defended. I don't play evil very well. On a 1 to 10 scale, I would say I'm a 7. I'm pretty good, but there are a lot of players that could show me a thing or two. I'm not picky, and I'll team with anyone. The more playing styles I see, the more I learn. Occasionally, I'll team with a group of my buddies here in town, in which case we may not accept others into the corp.

Okay, I'm off my soap box now. Really, if you have a problem or suspect I am cheating, (I know this sounds silly) contact me. I would be glad to explain how I did something or try to answer any of your questions. I have heard of sysops cheating on other boards, and I want you to know that will not happen here.

Well, power went out again last night. I don't know when, but I came in today to see that my servers had rebooted. The new server has an ATX power supply, and the BIOS does not seem to support comming back on automatically when power is restored. I'm gonna have to find a way around that...

It is 6:22 central time (US) and the server is back up. Please stress test it. It seems MUCH smoother. Amazing what new hardware can do. It took an hour longer than I expected, but well worth the wait. Still have some little things to do, but they can wait till later. Please contact me with any problems you encounter.

Also, I have noticed the dupe list is growing. People please don't make me start actively enforcing the no-dupe rule. I don't like doing that, but I will if need be. I am aware of some legal dupes, I won't forget about you people, but there are several obvious non-legal dupes. Do I have to remind you that duping is CHEATING? If the only way you can have fun is by cheating to win, please find another game or server. 'nuff said.

Okay, the new hardware has been installed into a new rack case (had to modify it extensively). I am about to move it over into the PDC role and move all game server stuff over. So, as of 3:15 Central Time US, I am downing the game server. I am guesstimating it will take a couple of hours. So look for it to be up around 5:30.

New Server Specs:
dual Pentium III 866 MHz (flip-chip), 133 MHz front side bus, 256 MB of RAM, Adaptec SCSI RAID controller, 2 IBM 9.1 GB SCSI-3 drives mirrored, 3Com 3c905b 100 MB network card, Diamond Stealth 4000 3D video card (4 MB RAM, something I had layin' 'round), 1 4GB Seagate IDE drive, and a 50X IDE CD ROM. And its all in a Compaq Proliant rack-mount case that used to house a 486. Man I had to modify, but at least it didn't require a hack saw this time...

Wish me luck...

They are doing some network upgrade/modifications at our end (for the main campus Internet connection), and there has been some pretty good lag going on. I know, I know, its a pain. We're experiencing it going out onto the Internet as well, which is a large part of our job. Hopefully, this is complete and the lag has ended. If you do continue to run into lag, please understand and know that it will be resolved soon (if it hasn't already).

Well, as far as the authorization issue, I have been told that the server can continue to operate until a decision is made. I havn't heard anything yet, and I take no-news as good-news.

New hardware planned for this server has come in. I will post when the server will be down as soon as I know when I'll do the upgrade. It may be real short notice, as I do things when I get the opportunity :) I havn't seen the hardware, and I can't remember what I ordered exactly, but it is a dual Pentium III (700+ MHz). A good jump from the AMD K6-2 300 MHz its on now. This is a Primary Domain Controller, so I have a bit to install. The server may be down for a few hours.

The stock game has been rebanged.

A quick note: when (er- if) this is approved, this web site will probably move to a web server located on the TSTC campus (probably cmt.tstc.edu, my departmental web server). But I will redirect this site there when and if it does move.

Many of you have emailed me with your geographic location. Thank you, this information should help. Some of you also gave me some good information on how to better use this as a class project as well as how to improve the game server itself. I appreciate all your comments, and if this does get approved I feel that the server will benifit tremendously.

The stock game will rebang tomorrow. I know this is shorter notice than I usually give, but I have received several requests and it is evidently quite ready for it. I'm sorry if this is a surprise and you are currently playing that game actively. I have been in games that rebanged without notice, and I know that can be quite upsetting.

On that note, one of the suggestions I received about the server is to have rotating stock games. I like this idea. Most of the stock games on this server have lasted about a month. If I were to have two stock games starting about two weeks apart (as well as the various custom games), then there will always be a game just started or about to start. I will probably incorporate this idea as soon as the current situation is resolved.

Okay, I have some important news.

First, Shadow Wars has been resigned, and Trekkin has rebanged with a larger number of aliens. If you wish Stock to rebang, please email me.

Second, I need your help to continue to run this server. I am running the game server on a computer owned by Texas State Technical College, where I am an instructor in the Computer Maintenance Technology department (CMT). It originally started as a class project, but grew much larger than I had anticipated.

I have requested that I be officially allowed to operate the game server. If it is approved, many things in the game will improve. If it is not approved, it will be shut down. One extreme or the other.

My justifications for operating this game server are that it is a good teaching tool for students, and that it can be a valuable advertising medium for TSTC. They agree that it is a good teaching tool, but need to know that it can be good advertising in order to approve it. They want to know that people from all over are viewing this web page and playing the game, not just students and friends.

To help show that this is true, I'm asking you to take just a second and email me, telling me where you are playing from. All I want is country/state/city (no addresses, I don't want to come visit...). With this type of information, I can possibly load the dice in our favor.

Thank you in advance for helping me keep this server open. It really is a good example for my students, and one that keeps their attention longer than Office, IIS, and WINS servers do :)

Also, for icing on the cake, if you are looking for a good technical education, please tell me. Texas State Technical College has been rated as one of the top technical colleges in the US, and the top technical college in Texas. We have campuses all over the state, with the main campus here in Waco, Texas. For information about our college, go to our main web site.

waco.tstc.edu

And don't forget to tell em that Twisted sent ya! (a.k.a. Shannon White in CMT)

The Trekkin rebang has been rescheduled until Monday. Just no time for it right now. The Shadow Wars game will close on that day as well.

The Trekkin game will rebang one week from today (Friday, July 13).

The Shadow Wars game will end (no rebang) on Tuesday July 10. Little interest and a desire to host a TW League game are the main factors here. This will be replaced eventually with a league game.

There's been much going on lately, including my second child about to enter the world. So, needless to say, I have pretty much just let the server run itself for a while. Matter of fact, someone emailed me a few days ago and informed me that Deep Space Nine in the Trekkin game had been destroyed. News to me, heh heh.

So, my participation level will be low for a little while until things calm down somewhat.

We've had another storm hit, and therefore another power outage. Our power was out for three hours, and the server didn't come back up correctly. So if you couldn't get in, thats why.

We are now a certified Trade Wars League server! Woo woo! Okay, so we will be having a league game sometime in the future. It will be a new game, leaving the others alone.

I think the Shadow Wars game will be retired soon, due to lack of interest. Very few players in there. Stock and Trekkin are the big games, so I'll focus on them, and streamline a little.

The downtime was due to a power outage. Power was down for several hours, and my servers didn't come back up like they should have. Lightening storms suck.

The Stock game is rebanging today.

Looks like there is some network problems going on. I can't seem to get to the server, and I'm assuming no one else can either. It's gonna stay this way till I can get up there on Tuesday... Sorry, guys...

I have received several requests to rebang the Stock game. It will rebang on Wednesday May 30 (05/30/01).

Upgrades are being ordered, and this server may be getting a dual PIII board. Notice will be given when the server will be down for any upgrade, so check back here for info. At least two weeks notice will be given if any rebangs will occur due to upgrade. It will probably be that time anyway for the Trekkin and Shadow Wars games...

I'm going out of town for a few days. Hopefully, we won't have a power incident like the ones that have plaqued me every time I go out of town. If it should go down, it will stay down until I get back on Monday.

All games are going strong. The aliens in the Trekkin game are a little sparce, and I will be increasing their numbers a little.

Please, people, heed the no duping rules. There are a couple of people that are very obviously creating many different traders. If you want to test something out, use the Tutorial game. You can dupe there all you want. Thats what its for. If it continues in the other games, I will be forced to start banning IPs.

I will be out of town on Friday the 23, so the Trekking game's rebang has been rescheduled for Monday, March 26.

The Trekkin game will rebang on Friday, March 23, around noon. I'm going to make some minor adjustments to the ships, improve the aliens' ships a little, and possible add a couple of planet types (all following the Star Trek universe). I want the aliens' ships worth capturing and using. I'll possibly get rid of an alien or two as well, but I'm not sure about that one yet or not.

The web page (this page) has moved from geocities to homestead, and it seems to be much faster. Geocities just has too much traffic and not enough bandwidth...

The Extreme Deathmatch has been dropped due to lack of interest. Maybe in the future, if enough people contact me, I can make a private little closed game for that type of contest.

I've applied to be a TW League server. I'm sure that will take a while to approve, and I'm going to have to find out what I need to do to start a league game, once we've been approved. If so, it'll probably be a stock game, and I'll rebang the current stock game for that purpose. Don't worry if you're playing the stock game, I'm sure it won't be anytime real soon...

There are two new games in the works. The Tutorial game is online and a game called Shadow Wars is about to open. The Tutorial is meant for testing and learning, and the Shadow Wars game is a Babylon 5 based game.

The Stock Game and the Extreme Deathmatch game are rebanging. The Extreme Deathmatch is a corp vs corp closed game. email me if you want in. Last corp standing wins. I will open it as soon as I have a few players who want in.

I have installed some new software on the server that handles log analyzing for me, and does daily back-ups in case of server problems. We can jump any game back in time up to 7 days in case of emergency. Thats right, we have Back Step technology.

Well, after being reset, the aliens have indeed taken on a mind of their own. The Klingons and Cardassians have evidentally gone to war with each other. Didn't see that one coming. They are really smacking the hell out of each other. They are, however, more down to earth and some players are obviously on hunting sprees.

It has come to my attention that the aliens, although fully functional and quite active, don't have home worlds like they should. As far as I can tell, I have everything configured and active. I have begged for help in the TWGS forum, but if anyone has an idea about a solution or reason for this, please email me.

It has been determined that the aliens in the Trekkin game are a little too strong. They are going to be reset at different levels. They are going to be made weaker, slower to build, worth more exp, and carry more money. If any of you have messed with them, you'll know why. This being the first time I've set up aliens, I knew I would have to tweak them a bit to make it interesting and survivable. I will soon have bit of information about each of the alien races posted here and in the Star Dock library.

All games have rebanged and the game server is officially open for business. I've noticed a few people checking out the server before this, so hopefully we'll have a good group of players in soon. As I rebanged, I did modify a few settings in the eXtreme game, and added the Klingons (with a few custom ships) to the Trekkin game to help fill out the universe. 20k sectors is a lot of space.

The end of the eXtreme game is scheduled for Feb. 15, and will rebang on the 15th of each month, with winners being posted here. Check the games section for information on how winners are determined. There are a few different categories for winning, as well as an over-all winner.

I've got this web site going, but still need to add a bunch of stuff. You will probably notice some blank pages. They will be filled shortly... If you have any suggestions, feel free to email me. Is there anything you would like to see here? Tell me, and I'll see what I can do. (hey, I'm easy...)