I think the word borg, in the sense of 'info-borg', is thrown around as a justification for elitism. As far as I am concerned, a truly great Netrek player will not benefit from the majority of the 'info-borg' characteristics that have been widely debated in the past. This then leads me to become convinced that the fear is that a not-so-great player may possibly compete. I think this elitism is has been a reason why Netrek fails to attract large audiences. The intimidation alone has been enough to prevent new players from ever feeling welcomed. I see nothing wrong with planets keeping track of last know information, or numbers showing up on the screen. It isn't like it changes anyways. I remember where the fuel planets and repair planets are. A "?" on top of the planet doesn't stop me. Why should a newbie be faced with such a large entrance requirement? Does it even make sense that the ship computer wouldn't remember if it was a fuel planet or not? Some things are definately borg. Computer targetting aids. Fully automated actions (shield up, auto det, tractor/repress). Then there is items that border on cheating. For example, synchronizing timer intervals with the server, and then modulating the shields such that they are only up for the server interval that a torpedo might cause damage, or alternating between accelerating and repairing. One that I speculated about, but never had time to complete, was a true borg "network" where the clients would communicate between each other about information received from the server. This would allow far more accurate approximation of the location of cloakers, and near instaneous cooperation within dog fights. Imagine four guardian-mode ships forming a wall, each alternating to det all incoming torps as a taker behind them takes the planet. Co-ordinating phasers in an area to cover maximum space while conserving fuel utilization to locate that last taker during an LPS before blasting him. These are borg things. Cheers, mark -- mark at mielke.cc / markm at ncf.ca / markm at nortel.com __________________________ . . _ ._ . . .__ . . ._. .__ . . . .__ | Neighbourhood Coder |\/| |_| |_| |/ |_ |\/| | |_ | |/ |_ | | | | | | \ | \ |__ . | | .|. |__ |__ | \ |__ | Ottawa, Ontario, Canada One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them... http://mark.mielke.cc/