Tradewars 2002 is a text, turn-based, space trading and combat, strategy game.  Let me break that down for you.

First off,  Tradewars 2002 is a text game.  There are no SVGA graphics, the graphics in the game are limited to the ascii chart.  There are some animations, (at the Stardock and during the course of gameplay) but in the interest of speed, it is suggested that ansi animations are turned off for serious play. 

For information on turning animations off, click here.

Tradewars is turn based.  Each player is allowed a specific number of turns each day.  Turns are generated hourly, so in a 960 turn game, each player would accumulate 40 turns (960 / 24 = 40), providing they have not reached the turn limit set by the sysop.  Generally, once the days limit of turns has been accumulated, at the turn of the hour, a player would forfeit the turns which would have generated.  For instance, in a game with 960 turns per day, a player accumulates 960 turns.  This can be done by not playing their turns and letting them accumulate.  Once a player reaches the daily turn limit, (in this case 960) at the turn of the hour, the player will not have 1000 turns, but will remain at 960 turns. 

Recent changes to the game (12/05) permit turn banking, which allows players to accumulate a sysop determined number of days turns before forfeiting accumulated turns.  For instance, a game with 960 turns that allows two day turn banking, would allow a player to accumulate 1920 (960 * 2), turns before forfeiting turns accumulated on the hour.   

Tradewars 2002 is a space trading and combat game set in a universe consisting of a sysop configurable 1,000 to 20,000 inter-connected sectors.   In the Tradewars universe many sectors contain ports for trading product and robbing and stealing.  Players create planets and populate them with willing workers from Terra (Sector 1), who produce product to sell at ports and fighters to defend or attack with.

For more information on the Tradewars Universe, click here. 

Multiple ship types with varying cargo space and offensive/defensive capabilities allow players to efficiently use their turns and fighters.  Each ship takes a number of turns to move from one sector to another.  A stock Scout Marauder uses two turns to move one sector.  An Imperial Starship uses four turns to move one sector.  There are many different types of ships and each is suited for different aspects of game play.

For more information on Ship Types, click here.

  Multiple planet types can be created with varying production and storage levels.  Planetary defenses can be upgraded by building citadels and then upgrading them to higher levels.  Each planet type has different qualities making it valuable, (or not) for player strategies.  There is a sysop configurable limit on the number of planets allowed per sector.  Planets need colonists and product to upgrade.  Planets may negotiate directly with ports, if in the same sector, thereby selling much larger quantities of product than any ship can carry. 

For more information on Planets, click here:

Players may form corporations and work as teams.   Players have a choice of playing good or evil, (also known as red and blue).  Good players can safely transwarp to Terra, and get colonists to develop their planets and generate income for them.  Evil players can rob credits and steal product from ports to generate credits.  It is possible to switch from good to evil and vice versa based upon in game actions and thru deliberate tactics.  When a good attacks an evil, his alignment will go up.  When an evil attacks a good player his alignment will go down.  Most corporations will have both evil and good players on them.

For more information on Good (Blue) play, click here.

For more information on Evil (Red) play, click here.

Combat?  Well, there are only so many sectors after all... Ships can be either captured or destroyed.  Ships can also be booby-trapped.  Most ships come equipped with an escape pod, but after being Ship Destroyed that player must wait until extern (extern is a maintenance program which runs once a day, usually midnight)  runs before they may re-enter the game.  Ports may be destroyed, sectors may be mined, navigational hazards will be created and planets may be invaded and claimed by the invaders.  Speed at keys is very important during "at keys" battle, and macro usage is common.

For more information on Common Defensive Tactics, click here.

For more information on Common Offensive Tactics, click here.

The game is over when a player or corporation declares victory and no other team or player disputes the win.  In the event a player or corporation disputes the victory, it is the team/player declaring victory's  obligation to acquire all game assets of the team/player disputing the win, and issue an "I told you so" in the game log.  In most games it is obvious whom the victor should be, but taking into account player error and dumb luck,  it is TW3003 standard operating procedure to recognize that on any given Sunday...

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