Jim Bianchi left me this delightful tidbit.  There wasn't any way I
could take personal credit for this; let'e let Jim move you along
the use of TWFT:  (David Myers)


I. Oops, BUSTED!

     TEXT:
     When your alignment drops to -100 or less, you are given another 
option in the Porting menu: <R>ob. It is by exploiting this option that an
"evil" player can have such an advantage over a "good" player. How to get 
an "evil" align is the subject of another help file; this one will assume 
you're already evil and can rob ports.

     If you're busted at a port, you may not port there again for ANY purp- 
ose until after the next 14 game day "anniversary" OR until another trader 
gets busted at that same port, else you'll be rebusted before you can do 
anything. Now, sometimes you can get away with *trading* at a port at which
you've been busted (I've done it -- albiet quite inadvertantly), but it's a 
dicy venture and it's almost a sure thing you'll be rebusted if you try to 
pound that port or rob credits or steal product there. There are enough 
ports around to trade and/or rob at to make testing just how far you can
go in this direction impractical and unnesessary. 

     What is the 14 day anniversary? Very simply, it is the present age of 
the game in days divided by 14. If you subtract the remainder from 14, you 
will be left with the number of days until the next "bust clearing" takes 
place. Each time the games day counter adds another 14, busts are cleared 
and you can safely visit that port again. 

     When another player gets busted at the same port, you can safely rob 
or trade there again. Many corporation members make a point of exchanging 
info on ports at which they've been busted; then another member -- who may 
have been busted there before -- can again begin dealing at that port.

     When you're busted, typically your fine is 10% of your xp, all your 
cargo and <some> amount of holds. I've heard the figure 10% of your holds, 
but many times I've been busted in a maxed out StaMas and have lost only 2 
holds. And while using up to 85 holds (in a CorFla -- I've not yet had an 
opportunity to drive an evil ISS), I've never lost more than about seven 
holds max in any single bust.

     Getting busted stealing 365 holds of equip or 660 holds of organics 
and being fined -32 holds is the basis of the "holds bug." You are welcome 
to ferret out the technique for yourself. TWTIPS12.ZIP has an excellent 
segment dealing with implementing the various "holds bugs."

     The program TWUNBUG tracks how many times a player is busted as a 
means of detecting the use of (or an attempted use of) the -32 holds bug, 
since the only means by which such can be detected is by monitoring the 
number of times a player is busted (typically, a player trying to "upgrade" 
his ship using this bug will exhibit a long trail of busts). 

                                o    o    o

J. <alt>-5  --  5xp sell/steal cycle

     TEXT:
     This macro will first port, SELL the equip in your holds to the port, 
port again to STEAL the equip back, then port again and SELL the same load 
of equip. It will repeat this cycle until 1) the port "looses interest" in 
your bargaining; 2) you get busted; 3) you run out of turns; or (rarely) 4) 
the macro blows up. In addition to the (obvious) financial benifits accru- 
ing from this (slightly unethical) procedure <grin>, the algorithm used by 
this macro will continuously try to optimise the price you ask for the load 
of equip in order to gain max xp. 5xp is awarded for a price which is spot 
on (100%). This particular macro tries for a full 5xp per transaction.

     To use this macro, position yourself at the games main cmd prompt, in 
the same sector as (but not ported at) a port which buys equip (preferably 
one at 100% of buying capacity). You must have as much equip as you are 
going to use in your holds. ANSI can be on or off at your pleasure. Your 
align should be at least -100 and the max number of holds to use can be 
calculated by applying this formula: nr of holds to use = xp/20. (If you 
have 1400 xp, you can use 70 holds and not get busted *too* often.) Hit 
<alt>5.

o You'll be asked the port type.
     Reply with a number (1-9) or the alphabetic "code" for the port (i.e.: 
bsb, sbb, ssb or bbb). (This is so the algorithm can deal with the offers
to buy stuff the port may present.)
 
o You'll be asked how many holds to use.
     Reply with the number of holds you wish to use (holds to use = xp/20). 
(I've read that xp/20 will give an approx 98% chance of success; but xp/15 
will give 100%.) 

     Stand well back and watch as the money rolls in! The price asked for 
the equip should converge VERY rapidly to the point at which 5xp is gained 
with every transaction. NOTE: Apparantly this technique works best with at 
least 70 holds and with numbers of holds evenly divisible by 10 (70, 80, 
100, 150, 650. <grin>)

     This macro leaves you with a live keyboard, so if (say, due to line 
noise) TWFT gets "out of synch" with the game, there is the possibility 
that you can get things back on track by entering what TW seems to be 
looking for -- once the macro "recognises" where in the sequence it is, 
TWFT will take over and continue. 

     <alt>Q will bail you out of a running macro, <esc> will abort the 
initial data entry screen.

                                o    o    o

K. <alt>T

     The trading algorithm used will allow for "triple trading" OR normal 
trading. Triple trading is for when adjacent ports are complementary in all 
three products (e.g.: bsb and sbs). When triple trading is done, the algor- 
ithm will split the holds, taking half of them (in the case of a sbs port) 
or one third of them (in the case of a sss port) to use for buying each of 
the products avail. This is a fairly rapid way to gain xp as in my experi- 
ence, the trading macro converges very rapidly on the 2xp figures and once 
I saw it get me 5xp on three successive transactions. At three transactions 
per move this can result in a total of a 12xp gain per loop. (Natch, the 
creds are nice to watch accumulate, also!)

     Normal trading is when the ports are complementary in only two prod- 
ucts (as in a ssb and a sbs). The remarks above re: converging very rapid- 
ly on 2xp -- with occasional "hits" on 5xp -- apply here as well. (Ditto 
the one on creds piling up.)

     The triple trade is advantageous in another way, also: If a port be- 
comes "drained" by this technique, any use of it is denied to "hostile 
forces" (other players) until it has regenerated ..which will take several 
game days.

     With that out of the way, let's see what happens when you push <alt>T.

     You must be at the main game prompt and in the same sector as (but not 
ported at) a port, with either empty holds or the product(s) that port will 
buy. ANSI may be on or off at your pleasure.

     o When you enter <alt>T, you'll be asked for the sector of port 1. 
Enter the sector number of the port you are at.

     o Next, you'll be asked for the port type. Respond with either the 
numerical designation (1-9) OR the alphabetic designation (sbs, ssb, etc).

     o Do the same for port 2 (the other port of the pair.)

     o Then you'll be asked for the total number of holds to use. 

     o The next few prompts will ask for the number of holds to use for 
each complementary product. Answering -1 in any given category will let 
TWFT figure out the best values to use; if you enter 0 at this point, TWFT 
will not have anything to do with that particular product (great news for 
holds buggers who don't wish to deal in the product they've used to lock in 
their extra holds). Or you can enter the number of holds to use.

     You may freely mix any of these three input terms. This will run until 
you run out of moves or until the port loses interest. As with the sell/
steal macro's, this one leaves you with a live keyboard -- if things get 
"out of synch" and you can get them back on track manually, as soon as TWFT 
recognises where in the sequence it is, it will continue on. 

     This macro will do single, double or triple trades in adjacent sectors 
only.

     <alt>Q will bail you out of a running macro, <esc> will abort the 
initial data entry screen.
                                o    o    o

     L. F5 -- TWASSIST CIM capture

     TEXT:
     Press F5 to activate CIM capture. You should be at the main game 
prompt for this to work, *not* the computer prompt. ANSI can be on or off 
at your pleasure. This version directly supports TWASSIST. I assume if you 
cut up the file appropriately then it would support TWVIEW. You are prompt- 
ed for a filename.ext for the file. I generally use CAPTURE.TXT. This MAY 
become the default filename.ext for the capture, in which case you can just 
hit <cr> to accept that. (It's the default filename TWASSIST looks for.)

                                o    o    o

     M. Multi-steal (5xp sell/steal)

     TEXT:
     This is a 5 point sell/steal algorithm that uses the amount of your 
experience and the number of holds you wish to trade with to determine how 
many times to steal before selling. This algorithm is especially useful if 
you are evil (-100 or less alignment), have a large ship with many holds 
(say a colonial transport), and a low experience. The program takes into 
account the risk of getting busted in its overall efficiency calculation 
before deciding on a theft strategy. It is similar to the ALT-S and ALT-5 
algorithms but also asks for your experience.

                                o    o    o

