I've now started http://wiki.us.netrek.org/netrek-dev/MarketIdeas please try to make mods short and to the point, and if you are expressing an opinion, sign it... --- Zach, please please use more paragraphs in your email; those huge blocks of text are mind-numbing to look at. Now, on Paradise. I've never played it. I'd really like to. But I think it is foolish to put any effort into it until there are clients for something besides unix. As Sturgeon demonstrated, we don't have enough players to support more than one kind of netrek right now. And I'm not sure the newbies are even reaching a point where Chaos or Sturgeon would make much of a difference to their perceptions. Although wrap is kinda obvious. And I think suggestions that involve programming changes are dicey; yes, an openGL client might be very nice, but do we have the coders? And what can we do in the meantime? > are encouraged to play on the bronco servers. In the past having a > good newbie server with bots also seemed to help. So if someone could pulsar-zone has bots, but no continuous torps (which makes it pretty unplayable for me; single torping would RSI my hands way too quickly). There's a problem, though, which is that since bots aren't listed on the metaserver, there isn't a good way for newbies to know to go there. I was thinking of suggesting changing the hostname to something like "practice" or "newbie", and also stressing use of that server in the newbie guide. But it is the least admin'd of the current bronco servers; Matt clearly does not have time to deal with newbie abuse issues. In regard to semi-retired players, I think once we get the tech pre-reqs in place and ramp up marketing, that we should make a concerted effort to get them back, even on a "let's try to save the game" campaign basis. I think the clue games have succeeded because of scheduling; people who want a solid game are more likely to make a set time than to drop in. I'm wondering if "newbie swim" / "office hours" would be feasible. We set some times where folks will be around to obs for newbies and feed them clues. Maybe some server params could be changed during those times to make the game easier. As far as players who abuse newbs, I think we all have to speak up more and let those folks know that their behavior is not ok. If every time someone is a jerk, four or five other players call them on it, we should hopefully at least reduce the severity of the situation.