On 14 Mar 2007, at 22:32, lots of you wrote:

> The rule of thumb says that if you have the information you can  
> provide
> it to the player. However there are too many exceptions to such short
> statement.

Okay,

> For example my first client release was borg because I decided to  
> display
> number of armies by the side of each visible planet in the galaxy.  
> This
> is big no-no, because (according to veteran players) this info is
> available in general, but you have to point to the planet and hit 'i'
> in order to actually get it. This takes time in normal client and  
> doesn't
> in mine, so it is borg :)

Yes this was one of the things MacTrek is plagued with too. The first  
version
could do that, the 1.1 has a similar advantage but requires more  
clicking,
i think i will even the playing field by showing it only for 1 planet/ 
player at the time
similiar to the info window, but not in a window.

> The best definition of borg that I think I heard of is "If the change
> provided gives advantage to clued player over newbie  - it is borg,  
> if not
> - it's ok". This one also has its problems, so you'll have to  
> figure out
> with people here whether feature you add is ok or not.

which would be about anything, that is different from current mainstream
clients. Actually i think it is a balance, new clients do things  
differently,
so for experienced players, MacTreks "plus" features would be  
outweighted
by what you would find in other clients.

> The board actually includes yourself as well. Everyone who comes to
> discuss netrek development issues is "the board member".

I know, but i;am a consensus guy :-)

> The primary reason RSA is currently disabled on pickled is due to
> MacTrek players who can't verify properly yet. When they are able to
> verify and sufficient time has passed for them to upgrade, I envision
> re-enabling RSA.

Yes we have to look into that, it verifies fine on my server, but do not
see other servers enabling RSA. for that. (from logfile:

Joining: aqua, (1) Mon Dec  4 21:30:58 2006
         <aqua at oehoeboeroe.luky.nl>
Client: MacTrek. Arch: OSX-Tiger. Player: aqua.
         Login: aqua. at Mon Dec  4 21:31:00 2006
Joining: Blaster, (1) Mon Dec  4 21:34:40 2006
         <Pre_T_Robot!@worrelsik.luky.nl>

I've just been notified of a problem with 1.1.1 and Apples latest  
upgrade to OS X 10.4.9
it looks quite bad, the dynamic linker cannot find something in libs  
i did not know
were used anyway. Looking into it. Keep you posted

Chris