The Cabal's Secret Hideout

Web Master: traitor@tw-cabal.com

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Dec 15th, 2006 - By Traitor

There is a mirror of this site located at tw-cabal.navhaz.com. This is being hosted by Singularity.  I'm going to turn over day to day operation of this site to him on Jan 1st.  After the 1st, when you go to tw-cabal, it'll be redirected to the navhaz.com site.  At least in theory. heh.

Congrads Sing!

Oh, and it's almost been a year since I had a smoke!  355 days to be exact.  I quit cold turkey.  My secret?  Gum.  Not the nicotine gum, but regular old gum.  I bought about 20 packs to start, and I made sure I had many different flavors.  I put a pack in every place I EVER stashed or carried smokes.  My truck, my coats, my nightstand, next to my PC, in the freezer, at work, etc... And I kept at least two packs of gum on me at all times.  Every time I reached for a smoke, I got a piece of gum instead.  I went through a lot of gum, but it was just as easy to remember to buy gum as it was to remember to buy smokes.  I just swapped one ritual for another.  Only the new one was much cheaper and healthier. 

After about 100 days, I got so sick of gum that I hardly even noticed that I had quit smoking too.

Happy Hunting!

Dec 7th, 2006 - By Traitor

Many of you are scratching your heads?  If you are one of them, allow me to explain.  I'm always happier when I'm pontificating. :P  I'll be quick and make only 4 points.

1) After Kemper left EIS I feel that the forums went downhill. There was a long period last summer after Earth took over administration where I was the only effective moderator.  And all it seemed like I was doing was deleting post after post, while not having the real power to do something about the root problem of constant puerile smack.  It's wasn't worth it.  Guess what?  It's still the same.  Only now I'm not a moderator.  Not that I wanted to be one now anyway.  I'm was much happier when TW wasn't a job.  Woulda been nice to still have been in the beta test group, but I can't access that area anymore.  Meh. Don't bother fixing that.  

2) I know that "classic" can't continue on the path it is on now.  I feel that leaving my website around will only painfully prolong the inevitable demise of "classic". That's one reason why I'm stepping away. I'd rather see something new, or see things go back the way they were. I'm pretty sure that NEITHER is gonna happen.  I hope I'm wrong about the former.  Certainly if there is less support for "classic", one hopes that there would be more for whatever the hell he's doing now. I am just very worried that this will go down just like TW: Dark Millennium or New Coke.  It's a big project with big dreams and big scope creep.  In my heart, I want him to succeed and make a great new game!  But I feel that it's going to move away from what made TW one of my favorite games.  I have this bad feeling that I'll end up being some giant featherless dinosaur when the ice age hits, and all my prey will have learned how to hibernate.  

3) There are maybe a 1/2 dozen people that pose a serious challenge to me now, and I don't have time to play at that level anyway. Basically, I can either play a not so serious pickup game and have no real challenge, or I can play at a real high level and get no sleep for a week.  Either way it's just a pain in the ass.  And the biggest problem is that if I am gonna play, I HAVE to play at my best.  I don't enjoy playing at the low level.  I can't sit back and relax.  I HAVE to win.  My competitive nature is an underlying force that drives me both in games and in real life.  It can't be denied.  Not for long anyway.  And while I have done my share of one-on-one training, I don't get too many kicks out of it - hence the website - 'cause it sucks away all of my fun.  There are exceptions, I've had the privilege of having some of the finest "students" ever.  But it forces me into a leadership position when all I want to do is play an ATM with teeth.  So, while there are tons of games out there, it's become difficult for me to find the kind of games that I really enjoy. 

4) I got a new life and I'm really enjoying it. In the last year I've focused on real life pursuits, not virtual ones.  And I've never been happier.  Except for some lingering bitterness about TW...Man, I wish I could get all that time back.  Well, not my last victory at AB:CtB.  I wouldn't trade that one for the world.  

All of these things have left me feeling that it's not worth it to keep the site running any more.  

I don't have the legal resources to stop people from copying/mirroring/hosting these pages if they really want too.  I also don't care.  However, I am going to recommend that only ONE person host it, and that the rest of you mirror THAT persons site.  That way, if there are changes or corrections to be made, then everyone will benefit.  This is in response to the demand to keep it active.  I would rather it died, but if the community won't let it, then I want a good caretaker.

I've asked one person if they want to take over managing the files.  Not mirroring, but managing.  As in making new entries and adding content.  If they accept, then I'll announce things.  If they say no, then I'll ask the next person.  Heh.  I'll post here when I know.

If you have sent me e-mail on the subject, trust me: I've read it.  I probably won't respond to those because of time issues.  If you just e-mailed me to say 'hey' then I'll get back to you eventually.  (I get something like 3000 pieces of spam for every legit e-mail from TW people.  Thanks to a few miscreants that didn't like how I handled things while I was an EIS mod.  It takes a loooooong time for my filters to process my tw-cabal e-mail.  Maybe that's the 5th reason I'm leaving...)

[edit: I don't want anyone to think that I personally blame JP, Earth, or any of the other EIS mods.  Trust me, it's a LOT more complex than that.] 

Dec 4, 2006 - By Traitor

I'm done.  No more updates.  This site will be going down on Jan 1st, 2007.  There are many, many reasons for it.  But I'd rather go out on a high note. 

Thanks to everyone who helped me make this site!  But in particular, I'd like to thank the following:

Kemper3 aka Harley - If I was the writer, then you were the editor.  This wouldn't have been possible without your input.  

River Rat and Alienbase.net - 90% of the stuff on this site was tested, developed, or discovered on your TWGS.  Thanks for hosting so many great games for free!  My corp won the first game there*, and I've been a loyal player since.  If I ever decide to play again, I'll go look for your server first.

Hecate aka Pheo6e - For pissing me off so bad in a game over at Augie's that you actually inspired me to create this site.  Thankyou for letting me corp with you when I was a noob and showing me the ropes.

Roberts - Every red that has ever MR'ed at a -65 MCIC port owes you thanks.  Because of you, we were making 60 million a day when all other corps were making 40 tops.   If you hadn't pointed it out to me, I would have never researched MCIC.  

Cowboy, Adomma, and Kavanaugh - For always being up for a good fight.  Many of the strategies and tips on this site were tried out on you guys first.  Thanks for putting up with me for so many years.

And of course, Elder Prophet.  You didn't think I'd forget, did you?  Thanks for everything bro!

There are many more that deserve recognition, but the above 8 people did more for this site than any of them realize.  

Happy Hunting!

*Well, Game A was the first game banged there, and Banano's corp won that one. But game B was the second game banged, and we won that one on 10/21/00, a week before Banano's corp won Game A. heh.  It's all about timing.  

Oct 31, 2006 - By Traitor

Happy Halloween! 

Oct 27, 2006 - By Traitor

I wanted to expound on my previous news post.  

I'm a scripter.  I'm very good at it.  I write scripts in my head.  Long scripts in my head.  By the time I get to the point where I start typing, it's already 95% written.  Then I just crank it out at 80wpm.  Do some debugging, and voilá!

I had an inspiration in late August. I was going to write an autonomous red Bot.  I usually don't talk about my scripts till I have them near completion.  A bird in hand so to speak.  I have things that I don't talk about to even my closest TW friends because I want to be the first to try it.  I'm selfish that way.  Sometimes, I'll float out an idea, just to see if there might be a better way of doing it.  But not this one.  The Bot I had in mind would play an effective red, and after day one, I would NEVER again have to personally be at keys once the script got fired up.

As long as my PC was running, the script would play all my turns.  From day one sprint to dock through PPT through busting up through SST through SDT through Megga's.  I already had all that written. I had automated day one login.  I had automated PPT for cash.  And I got the rest of the red scripts coming out the wazoo.  As long as my team-mates didn't make a mistake, (like give me bad Jump Point info, heh) the script could play my turns for the entire game.  I just needed to figure out how the Blue could get me SAFELY into the game when I was cloaked at dock.  That was the inspiration!

I wrote the script in my head.  I had the AI figured out solid.  It was actually simpler than Move Helper or my Data Miner scripts.  The changes to my existing scripts were easily made.  

There are some risks with it, of course.  Like getting disconnected while at dock, TWGS crash, or losing my ISP.  But that's the same risk you take whether you are at keys or not, and at least with the script, my notorious fat finger problem would be solved.  If I lose connection, it'll try for a reconnect and cloak or flee faster than I ever could.  I just make sure my PC is on at some point in the day and I'm good to go.  Heck, I even have a 1 hour UPS. In many ways, it's safer than actually playing at keys.  A well played red with proper support is more or less unkillable.  

All the blues needed to do was just post in the logs that they were ready for me (using a pass phrase that was randomly determined just before I cloaked out or parked in a cit) and within a few minutes, it would log me on and park at dock or sit in the cit.  Then the blue says what method of cashing we're using, what the ship numbers are, what the jump point is, and then my script does the rest.  Sector Params and loadvar/savevar are how I would share info between the various scripts the master script would call.  I would even have it retreat and run away if the enemy gets too close to the cashing area. When the script got low on turns, it would stop and return to base or wait for cloak tow.   My original Cabal Team SDT script did everything after arriving at the Jump Point already, that that script is 5 years old!  I don't know why it took so long for me to see it. 

I got really excited!  This was one of my dreams.  Most of it I have already written.  Heck, you can go look on grimy or my site and see 75% of the code is ALREADY there, just not adapted for this use.  It would only take a few tweaks to my existing scripts and less than 1000 lines of new AI for the master script!  I could write this in a week!  

I could play again!

And I could even give this script out to my friends.   

And that last thought stopped me.

And as sudden as the inspiration came to me, all desire to play left. 

Usually, the competitive side of me wins out.  Which is why I wrote OLAP, LOLAP, Dock Killah, Data Miner, etc... Many of you have seen those in action, some of you from both sides.  They are scripts that many people think ruin the game.  LOLAP bypasses time limits, completely violating the spirit of what time limits are about.  Dock Killah = noob killah.  I wrote T-buster specifically to counter it, and even it can get hit by dock killah if you don't run t-buster correctly.  And that is the stuff I've given out. You tell my new dataminer what script/method the enemy used to calculate their least used sectors, and it spits out the sectors they likely chose for their base.  You are literally better off in a dead end or random sector.  

But this...this bot thing is different.

Whenever I think about TW, all I can think of is that script.  I can't get it out of my head.  I can't undo what I've done, even if its only in my head.  The competitive side of me wants to write it and use it and abuse it.  The player in me refuses. I keep starting to write it and then deleting it.  Over a dozen times now.

I have made a lot of excuses over the past two months of why I haven't on as much, or why I stopped posting in the forums (although I really WAS mad at EIS...), or why I turned down game invites. 

And really, that's what has ended it for me.  The ultimate killjoy.  I know blue bots have been around for a while.  You can make a blue bot setup an SDT area, furb, planet farm, colo, and defend already.  But with this scrit, the only pepole who need to be at keys are the gridders/killers/defenders.  And that side of the fence has never appealed to me.  Neither has solo play.

Well, I spilled the beans about the bot to Elder Prophet the other day on the phone.  I think he felt the same way about it that I did.

Someone else can write the red bot script, I won't.  

But it's coming.

I may come back when/if JP finishes the next version.  But don't hold your breath.

Oct 4, 2006 - By Traitor

I don't have much to say.  I'm happy.  Happiness makes me do things besides play TW.  I'm on a hiatus from TW for a while.  I'll prolly play in HHT.  That might get me back into it.

Nine Eleven, 2006 - By Traitor

Never Forgive, Never Forget!

Five!?!  Five freaking years and still no dead Zealot?!?  WTF?  Anyone else get the feeling that there are way, way more of them now too?  The only thing that has changed in the last 5 years is that now MORE people want to kills us.  Do us all a favor.  In the next election, wherever you see the word incumbent next to someone's name, VOTE FOR THE OTHER GUY!  Clearly none of the current crop of politico wussies has the mettle to step up and do what needs to be done.  I'd pay more taxes if I knew it would go to arranging for the Zealot to have his innards cleaned by a chipper-shredder. 

July 3, 2006 - By Traitor

Well, I decided to update the little pic in the corner.  I added the '05 TW Award for Best Info.  Thankyou everyone.  Looks like UTW won best overall site.  I guess I need to get better minions.  :)

Seriously tho, congrads to everyone who got nominated and to everyone who got an award!  Even to those of  you who didn't deserve it, and want to change history.  And a special shout out goes to Elder Prophet for finally getting recognized for your scripting talent!  Congrads bro!  I'm expecting BIG things from you now!  Heh.

With this year's win, I've finally tied Eleq's website for most wins in the Website Info category.  Hell, tied for the most wins in any single catagory for that matter.  I humbly stand on the shoulders of a TW legend.  Nice view from up here.  It was on his TWGS that the idea for this site was born.  Rolo and Hekky and I forget who else slaughtered us on the 2nd game we played there.  I whined about how unfair it was that blah blah blah lack of information.  Hekky responded with "Why don't you do something about it."  This site is the result. 

No content has been added, but I did get permission to host something cool.  I'm doing minor edits on it now to bring it up to modern standards.  I think people will like it.  I'll be sure to give credit where it's due, unlike some non-deserving-history-altering folks.

Oh, and the proper macro for exiting dock and cloaking from the Tavern at Dock is "q q q y y", not "q q y y".  Just in case you ever forget.  Thanks to The Butcher for that little clarification. <sigh> :)