5.1 Where To Find More

     Netrek is a very large and evolving game. There is much more to it than We could possibly put all in one document. We got most of the material in this document from the netrek archives.

      For more, the best place to go is the newsgroup rec.games.netrek. Reading the FAQ and FOCS (frequently offered clever suggestions) for this group is a good idea.

     Also, try the Netrek Home Page at Web page at http://allister.diamondmm.com. It has links to just about everything that exists in netrek and is a really good source of information, programs, etc. 

     A very good page is the JCH information archive,
http://www.cs.cmu.edu:8001/afs/cs/user/jch/netrek/README.html

     Those without www access can get the JCH archive by anon. ftp at cs.cmu.edu /afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/jch/netrek or at esoteric.agron.iastate.edu /pub/netrek/INFO

        Have fun!

5.2 Netrek Glossary

Compiled from posts by past players of the game, including:
 Kevin Bernatz (Sun Tzu)
 Terrence Chang (Exxon Valdez, retired)
 Hunter Chen
 Andrew Markiel (Grey Elf)
 Hugh More (ZZnew guy, retired)
Walter Pullen
 Thomas Smith
Timothy Worsley
Shekter: Credit is given for each entry. Those with no credit, I wrote. I have included many terms which are old or almost never heard anymore, for interest and
amusement. There are, for example, about 10 different types of scum that I had never heard of before (pizza scum and terminal scum are my favorite.)

Ellis: Removed a lot of those really old ones because this manual is too long already. ;-)

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

< A >  Index

ASW :
Anti-Scout Warfare.

@ :
Just a short way of saying at. "Rom @ 12" would mean The planet Romulus has 12 armies on it. "ogg 5 @ KLI" would mean to kill ship number 5 who is currently at Klingon or KLI on your galactic map.

< B >  Index

Barren :
No armies (duh, ;)) [ Hunter Chen ]

Bomb :
Initial bombing is best done with an Assault ship. If someone tells you to get an AS, they're referring to an Assault ship. Keeping the enemy bombed flat is best done with a scout.

Bomber scum :
Clueless teammates who during your last planet stand bomb the nearest planet that has 5 armies in something other than an AS, or bomb in an AS when the planet has 6..8 armies, resulting in an enemy planet with 4 armies that you have no hope of ever taking.

[cy]Borg :
A netrek client that has some sort of automatic cheatfeature, e.g. auto-dodge or phaser, cloaker display, etc. This is cheating except on designated borg servers such as mean.mu.caltech.edu.

Borg scum / Client Scum :
People who play borgs during non-borg hours or on non-borg servers. [ Walter D. Pullen ]
Someone who uses borg clients on non-client nights. At least most of  these are from Berkley. Most popular are plasma clients and phaser clients. I think its pretty clear that these people are cheating. [ Hugh More ]
[Shekter: this is now very uncommon due to the RSA verification
scheme, which was designed specifically to prevent this.]

Bronco server :
Bronco-type servers, such as CMU, Berekeley, USC, and UofW. Differs from Chaos servers in refuel and plasmas. No Galaxiy class ships. [ Hunter Chen ]
[Shekter: this is what is now the standard Netrek server, so named becuase it first appeared on a machine called bronco.]

[ro]Bot :
Practice robot, or third space robot, or terminator

Buttorp :
To fire torpedoes behind you while running. While this is a fun and easy way to waste someone who insists on chasing you, doing this habitually makes you a Runner Scum (see which). [ Shekter ]

< C >  Index

Chaos server :
Utexas or KSU server with high refuel rates, free plasmas, and Galaxy  classes. Also known as Galaxy server. [ Hunter Chen ] [Shekter: these are pretty rare these days. ]

Clue :
Netrek playing ability, experience, etc. Also someone who has these,  e.g. Tywong is clue.  [ Shekter ]

Clueless :
A generally derogatory term referring to a players inability to  match to expected levels of play either due to lack of experience or poor ability. [ Hunter Chen ]

Clueless scum :
People on your own team who do stupid things that don't help it any, including but not limited to: giving the enemy kills, picking up your only armies and then promptly dying, not listening to messages, etc.

Comeback :
A comeback is a conquer of the galaxy followed by race A genociding B followed by race                            C genociding race A.
     E.g., from a fresh galaxy, Feds genocide Roms, then Oris genocide Feds.

Core :
Your home worlds space. Core has 5 planets. Bombing enemy core is essential. Protecting home core is also essencial, but unless it's LPS or close to it too many people shouldn't stay in their own core.

Crack him open :
Ogg a ship on the off-chance that it may be carrying.

< D >  Index

Deep Bombing :
Bombing deep in enemy teritory. This often involves cloaking, and is very important at the begining of the game. [ Hugh More ]

Det :
To detonate torpedos. [ Timothy Worsley ]

DI :
According to the authors, DI is Destruction Inflicted.It is simply your (planets+bombing+offense) ratings x (Tmode hours).  When you a receive a promotion on DI, it means that you could sit around and do nothing while waiting for the required number of hours and still get the promotion.
E.g., Admiral Flatliner has only 27.19 hours while 40 hours and a ratings total of 8 are required for the rank. 8 x 40 = 320 DI. Flatliners ratings add up to 11.69, so
27.19 x 11.69 ~= 320.
Note that it is possible to lose DI because your ratings are always relative to the global average The double DI and quad DI promotions are fairly meaninglessbasically you can get a promotion with insufficient ratings but lots of hours. [ Terence Chang ]

DI scum :
Similar to ratings scum, these people either only play during the initial bombing runs, or else quit out near the end of the game when there are no more chances for lots of bombing and planet taking. [ Walter Pullen ]

Diagonal genocide :
A race that validly genocides the race of the diagonally opposite quadrant.  Diagonal                            genocides are ignored in detecting doubles/comebacks.

DL :
Draft League. A semi-professional Netrek league with regular games.  This requires less clue to play in than the INL (which see). [ Shekter ]

Double genocide :
A double genocide is a conquer of the galaxy followed  by race A genociding race B                           followed by race A genociding race C.
     E.g., from a fresh galaxy, Feds genocide Roms, then Feds genocide Oris.

Doosh :
To kill an important carrier who is carrying a reasonable number of armies. Any kill of a base that has been effective in gameplay is a doosh, whether the base was carrying armies or not. There are some other odd spots where dooshapplies. Any particularly large display of carnage (such as two fleets meeting at a planet and going up in an 8-ship chain explosion) certainly qualify. Also, even if a starbase were very weak and innefective, any base ogg where 6-7 ships uncloaked simultaneously from well-spread angles such that it is very clear that the base hasnt got a snowballs chance in hell, is quite clearly a Doosh![ Jon Blow ]

< E >  Index

Ensign Clueless :
A special term to denote those players who dont really know how to play very well, but help their teams greatly by being at the right place at the right time. These guys can really help Oggers and planet taker by distracting opponents and often serve to scare off runner scum who would be taking planets. [ Hugh More (ZZnew guy) ]

Ensign scum :
Good players who log in as guest or a new Ensign character so people will think they are clueless, until they promptly get wasted. Especially fun to do against the Newbie scum, below. [ Walter Pullen ]

Escort :
This envolves following a teammate (usually a carrier, or bomber) and making sure that no enemy comes along and destroys them. To do this you may well have to det, dogfight, and sacrifice your own life. If you try and fail you'll be much more regarded than if you didn't try and lived. See det.

< F >  Index

Faker scum :
People who do things like fly their SB at warp 1 when its not damaged, or pretend to be damaged so youll chase them and they can waste you. [ Walter Pullen ]

Flat :
Keeping the enemy flat is part of bombing. After the enemy has been effectively bombed, get a scout, destroyer, cruiser or GA (if server allows), and bomb the enemies armies that pop.

Free Beer :
Twinks are generally Free Beer. People who's ping stats are high, are free beer. People who have been so damaged by a dog fight or bombing a planet are often Free Beer. Free Beer simply means to be an easy kill. "3 = beer" would mean that 3 is an easy kill.

< G >  Index

Genocide :
The desirable end to a game. You geno the enemy by taking all of their planets.

Genocided race planets :
Those extra 10 planets you own after killing off an entire race. So called because it was noted that "Fed Space" wasn't really acurate if the Feds had been killed off.

Grey Elf effect :
To suddenly dodge into a stream of torps. He named it himself.  [ Timothy Worsley ] Also called the Pac Man Effect or Wocka Wocka Wocka Effect.

< H >  Index

Hitler : 
Scum who log in specifically to hurt a team, and so help the opposing side. This can involve giving away kills, going in as their SB and letting the enemy kill it (along with 25 armies), telling the other side whos carrying, along with other nasty things. [ Walter D. Pullen ]
A player who comes in on the other side in order to hurt them and then quits out again and rejoins his old team. [ Hugh More (ZZnew guy) ]

Hork :
Hork essentially means to greedily grab or steal something that belongs to someone else. To Hork a kill is to allow someone else, in a dogfight, to so hurt the other ship, that a blast or two from you will destroy that ship and give you credit. Another, more notorious hork, is to wait for someone to neutralize a planet, go in and drop 1 army and get credit for taking the planet. This adds to your DI and planet taking stats.
To be fair, most times horking, especially horking kills, is unintentional and even necessary. Remember, it's far better to hork than allow someone else to get the planet, or your team mates to get killed. If someone horks your kills, don't get mad. Next time they might not respond when you need help.

Hoser :
Practice bot. Also a derogatory term. [ Hunter Chen ]

Human Target :
A battleship Ogg done without cloaking at warp 8 in order to clear space. Named after Hugh Moores ship of the same name. [ Timothy Worsley ]

Hydra :
An immortal scout. "Hydra, mighty Hydra: If you cut off one head, another will grow in it's place."

< I >  Index

Iggy :
Practice robot. So named because it is often the player designated by Ig (Player in slot g, on the Independent team.)

INL :
International Netrek League. A professional Netrek league. INL players and INL games are generally considered to be the ultimate in Netrek clue. [ Shekter ]

Invalid genocide :
A genocide with an insufficient number of planet takers/army bombers participating (sum of                           both winning and losing sides).  The threshold was set arbitrarily at 6.  This filters out                           (approximately) genocides of undefended races and t-mode-less genocides.  Invalid                            genocides are ignored in detecting doubles/comebacks.

< K >  Index

Kids :
Armies. (I know theres an origin, but Im not sure what it is.) [ Timothy Worsley ]

Kill scum :
People who only play to rack up kills and dont do anything with them to help their team. They are often found hanging around the SB or around a last planet where they can easily rack up kills. [ Walter D. Pullen ]

Klown :
To kill a starbase with a 1 point phasor. Named after Killer Klown, who lost a starbase in this manner.

< L >  Index

LPS [Last Planet Stand] :
If the enemy is down to a few planets, its useful to try to get the  hardest ones first (like the home planet) while they are still uncertain  which planet youre planning to take: i.e. you can fake an attack on a different planet in hopes of drawing away some defenders. If it gets down to an LPS on the hardest planet, its much harder to take since the enemy knows exactly where youre going. [ Andrew Markiel ]

Lawyers :
Armies.

< M >  Index

Message scum :
People who send nasty or insulting messages to individuals or teams to intimidate or scroll their screen so they cant read useful stuff.  Especially applies to those robots.
[ Walter Pullen ]

< N >  Index

Name scum :
Similar to Ensign scum, people who play under a different name then they are accustomed to. Often involves switching terminals with a teammate to confuse the enemy or give an advantage. E.g. a good dogfighter gets a  kill and switches terminals with the team planet  taker. [ Walter Pullen ]

Net lag :
Slowing down and loss of information due to delay over the internet.

Newbie :
One who has just started playing netrek. [ Hunter Chen ]

Newbie scum :
Merciless players who target Ensigns and other newbies and waste them several times to rack up kills so they can do whatever. [ Walter Pullen ]

< O >  Index

Offensive Tackle :
See Human Target. Named for Jon Kims ship of the same name. [ Timothy Worsley ]

Ogg :
Og....The act of Ogging. The process of cloaking and appearing adjacent to enemy while firing torps and tractoring on to him. Purpose: To kill. Without caring about dying in the process, also called suiciding. Ogging is an art, it consists of knowing when to cloak and when to uncloak.  Planets are not subject to Ogging, since no one can here their screams.
     Back in, I believe, November/December of 1990 I use to play netrek much more than now. At the time, I was probably only Flt Captain Sun Tzu, maybe even just a Captain. A group of us, which included Jay Hui (TheSlug), Byron Sinor (Krang), and Steve Russel (Khelik) were playing netrek with Terence. The three of us were Feds, Terence was Orion. It was a full game, and Terence had come in as Og <== (beginning to get how it happened :> ). At this time, suiciding people with kills *NEVER* happened. Dogfighting rained supreme, and cloaking was used only for planet taking, that is until Terence decided to teach us CMU boys alesson.  Steve had accumulated a 3, 4 kill ship and had taken Spica (or El Nath, I dont remember) and Terence chased him and tried to mutual with him. Steve killed him, but was left at ~90% internal. As he wiggled towards Fed. space he watched the galactic map as Og reappeared and began to move rapidly in his direction. I will never forget how his voice shattered the calm of the cluster with yells of Its OGGGGGGGG. HELP! HELP!!!!!!!!!  Its OOOOOOGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!. His final words were something to the  effect of AAAAAAAAAArrrrrrrgggggghhhhhh, Ive been Ogged!!. Jay and I immediately picked up on the effectiveness of suiciding people, and had Terence show us how to do it better. That is how Ogging started getting  popular, and how the name spread through Netrek History. [ Kevin Bernatz ]

Ogger Scum :
Those who Ogg for no understandable reason. This does not include those who occationally Ogg planet takers with kills, bombers, and star bases. However, there are people who Ogg people with no kills, and people who never take planets simply because its the only way they can see anyone blow up other than themselves. [ Hugh More (ZZnew guy) ]

< P >  Index

Pac Man Fever :
The Grey Elf effect: To suddenly dodge into a stream of torps. This is much better known as Pac Man Fever!You know, eating the dots. [ Scott Drellishak ]

Peace scum :
Players who declare peace against the opposing team so they can get confuse some of the enemy to waste fuel, and can fuel off of the enemy planets as well. Generally not applied to scouts mapping the galaxy at the beginning of a game if they declare peace. [ Walter Pullen ]

Phaser Scum 
People who, at every opportunity, will try to prove that Phasers are superior to torps and plasma, and who will was an entire ships worth of  fuel chasing a phasering a scout .
[ Thomas Smith ]

Pig :
A Borg client written my Tod Mummert. Also, any player who uses this client. Named after MUCUS PIG. [ Timothy Worsley ]

Pizza scum :
A player who takes up a slot, normally cloaked, while eating, going to the bathroom etc.
[ Timothy Worsley ]

Pop :
When a planet grows armies. [ Timothy Worsley ]

Plasma Scum :
Some one who devotes their game play to getting plasma and keeping it (i.e. never dying). They stay near a fuel planet and just plasma anyone who comes near. Really obnoxious dorks to have on your team. [ Ellis ? ]

Planet Scum :
A sub-group of Ratings Scum. Those who waste armies by dumping them on planets that cant be defended in order to improve their planet ratings. This can acutally help the team if they have a lot of armies or are against a clueless opponent. Often, however, it hurts the team because the planets are quickly recaptured and the armies are lost for good.
[ Hugh More ]

++ :
Carrying. More or less plusses represent an exact knowledge of number of armies.
[ Timothy Worsley ]

Pregnant :
Carrying armies. [ Timothy Worsley ]

< R >  Index

Ratings (Stats) :
Your rating will be updated only during T-mode. Ratings are derived from your planet bombing, killing (offense) and getting killed (defense) rates, normalized with respect to the average of all players. That is, a rating of 1.00 means you have exactly the average of all the current players.

Ratings scum :
General scummy players who only play to make the next rank and dont bother helping their team any. [ Walter Pullen ]

Ratio Scum :
Another sub-group of Ratings Scum. Those who are so cautious about dogfighting that they rarely get a chance to do it, but prefer to pick up injured ships. These hurt a team by stealing kills from those who would use them (to take planets) and by filling up a team slot with a more-or-less useless player. Frequenly, star bases are Ratio Scum. [ Hugh More ]

RCD :
Receiver Configurable Distress. There is a whole section on these in your client manual.

Redlining :
Flying for a long period of time with an e-temp above 95.

Res[urrection] scum :
People who kill you right when you enter the game. The worst scum of  this type can kill you in this manner several times (especially in a borg on needmore) each time you get pissed off and come in to kill the person only to be smashed by a plasma and 8 torps before you can move or fire anywhere. [ Walter Pullen ]

Type II Res scum :
Basically the opposite of the above. These people use a shiny new ship or two to take out most anyone near their home planet, i.e. you are beautifully dogfighting, and manage to take out that BB in your DD. Unfortunately you are now going warp 2 and he comes right back in and flies at you in a new CA at warp 9 and your kill quickly becomes his kill.
[ Walter Pullen ]

Redlining :
Flying for a long period of time with an e-temp above 95. [ Timothy Worsley ]

The ROBO effect : 
Shooting a plasma as soon as it is fired. Some only count this as the ROBO effect if the phasorer is then accused of playing a borg client.  [ Timothy Worsley ]

Robot scum :
Players who bring in a 3rd space robot to give them an initial advantage if they get genocided, or else attract the Terminators or Hunterkillers over into enemy space to wreak havoc. [ Walter Pullen ]
[Ellis: since most servers no longer allow bombing out of T, and terminatorsweapons will only hurt the team who fired out of T, and not many servers even have iggy, you wont see this one a lot either.]

Runner Scum :
Berkley term. 1) This refers to those who run from and even fight in hopes of gaining the advantage of shooting backwards. It is important that this does not include running when outnumbered, injured, or out of fuel. It also does not include merely attemping to stay at rangewhere a smaller ship is more effective. Runner scum are looked down upon because this tactic cant be used by everyone. If it were, there would be no kills. So those who try to make the game more interesting get reamed. 2) also often used to descibe those who hide in the backfield and only fight the occational straggler. [ Hugh More (ZZnew guy) ]

RSA :
The encryption alogrithm used in Netrek to prevent people from using borgs. It works like this: each client has its own key, which is in two parts, a public and a private key. The public key is given to all the servers. The private key is hidden in the client binarythis is why clients are distributed only in binary form. When the client connects to the server, the server generates a packet of random data and sends it to the client. The client encrypts this with its private key and sends it back to the server. The server decrypts this with the public key for that client. If the client is what it claims to be, i.e. it has the correct private key, the public key will decrypt the packet back to the original sequence. Its actually somehwat more complex than this, but the net result is that its very difficult to use a borg when you are not supposed to.  Even if you do manage to create a blessed borg, the server gods can simply disable the particular key you are using, without causing too much disruption. [ Shekter ]

< S >  Index

Scarecrow:
A player who stays in a dangerous situation even though he is out of fuel or badly damaged in the hopes of tricking an opponent into wasting time or even running.

Scum :
Of course I like that one definition I read on this group a while  back, that a ___ scum is someone who does ___ more than I do. [ Walter Pullen ]
I should point out that at times, calling someone a <whatever> scum is a compliment. Particularly, Planet Scum and Ogger Scum can often help their teams, and are cheered by thier fellows. [ Hugh More ]

Shark Ogg :
To Ogg, without cloaking, by following a player just outside of effective weapon range, until s/he reaches an obstacle, and then attacking. [ Timothy Worsley ]

SMACK! :
A hit with a plasma torpedo, especially if the ship dies, when it is  also a FATALITY, and especially when the ship in question was carrying, in which case it is also a DOOSH! [ Ellis ]

Starbase scum :
People who play a SB and try to individually waste anyone that comes  near. This involves cloaking and when an enemy comes within range, quickly uncloaking and tractoring it in to its death. Common tactic found most anywhere. I do it all the time. :) [ Walter Pullen ]
[Ellis: of course, the base isnt helping its team at all. Dont do it.]

Stealer scum :
Very annoying teammates who steal your kills or planets, e.g. you skillfully wound Flt. Capt. Dodgeswell after a hard dogfight and are about to take him out when some Lieutenant flies in and takes the kill with one phaser, or you use 4 of your armies to neutralize a planet, only to have someone else take it when you are away getting more armies. Generally doesn´t apply if they take kills from the SB or take heavily contested planets. [ Walter D. Pullen ]

Surface Bombing : 
Bombing outside planets, genocided race planets, and other undefended planets.
[ Hugh More ]

Switcher scum :
People who switch sides in the middle of a game, often to the more clueful team so they can benefit by a quick genocide. Especially scummy is to log in on one side, and bomb the enemy flat, then quickly switch and bomb the first team flat, to rack up DI. [ Walter Pullen ]

< T >  Index

T :
See T-mode.

Take :
To take a planet. After getting a kill (only people with kills can take) pick up armies from your home planets and drop them on an enemy planet that's been bombed.
Normally it takes 5 armies to take a planet. 4 to destroy thier existing armies and 1 to actually take the planet. Never take an agri with less than 5 armies unless you're double taking with someone else. That is, you have, say, 3 armies and they have 2 armies and simatameously drop your armies on the planet.
Taking is most effective after most of the bombing has been accomplished.

Terminal scum :
People who kick you off that nice color xterm because youre playing games and they want to use it to get some work done. [ Walter Pullen ]

Third Space :
The section of the galaxy owned by teams with no players on them, e.g.  Orion and Klingon space in a Fed vs. Rom game.

Third space scum :
Someone who takes over neutral space rather than working for a genocide.
[ Timothy Worsley ]

Timercide :
When a team has 1 planet remaining a 30 minute timer comes on. At the end of that period, if the planet has not been taken the team surrenders.  Timercide is far less desirable than genocide.
Timercide generally happens because someone took the designated lps or someone didn't call an lps.

T-Mode :
Stands for Tournament Mode. Stats are only recorded on the server when there is a minmum number of players, usually 4 per team, to have a reasonable game, and the opposing teams are not diagonally across from each other, i.e. Rom Vs. Ori.. T-mode shows up as a little T in the flags display. You can only bomb and take planets in T-Mode, so basically if you dont have T-mode you dont have a game (which means you will have a minimum of eight players for a Netrek game.)

T-Mode Scum :
The worst slime in the galaxy. These are the people who at 3am log in  4 times on each side as guest, and then come in as their main character and bomb everything and take over the galaxy a few times while they are the only one playing = lots of DI. [ Walter Pullen ] [Shekter: this is not possible on many servers now, as they check the actual login and IP address of the player to prevent this sort of thing ]

< W >  Index

Wocka Wocka Wocka :
Pac Man effect of eating enemys torps without detting. Also labelled as the Grey Elf Effect.
[ Hunter Chen ]