Motivation

Paradise doesn't have a huge following like normaltrek yet. The tournament thresholds for paradise will be also larger than normaltrek. (normaltrek has a threshold of 4, paradise could have 6 or 8.) Waiting for tournament mode is a fairly boring passtime.

There are a number of hazards for the player who is waiting for T-mode. If he wants to stay alert he can prevent them all, but who wants to waste all day waiting for a game that might never materialize? You just iconify it.

Without a crew your ship is vulnerable to clueless twinks who drive up and shoot you full of torps. You can get clobbered by Dread Pirate Roberts. You can get caught in the middle of a dogfight between two players. You're dead. Basically little things that don't interest you but require your attention.

Solution

Create a new mode for players who are just waiting for T. In this mode they can converse, or just ignore everything. There's no danger of getting blasted to shreds and Auto-Quitted. You can reenter the game at any time. If enough people arrive to create tournament mode, all the people on the queue will be notified and will join.

This mode looks like the outfit screen. You can read the MOTD (what a good idea!), send and receive messages, reenter the game at any time, or just iconify the client!

If someone sends a personal message to you, your client will beep to notify you. (We're working on a mod that will sound the X server bell at several frequencies in sequence to create an unmistakable sound).

If T-mode starts, you will be placed on the outfit screen. This causes the automatic deiconification of your client so you will NOT miss this event.

Sounds great! How do I try it?

On any paradise server, send yourself the message ``queue'' or ``tq''. Then just iconify the client and go about your normal work. If T-mode occurs, hop in and kick butt.

Sorry, this isn't available on normaltrek servers. If you want stability, try normaltrek. If you want whiz-bang ultracool hacks and don't mind the occasional sharp edge, play Paradise!