1. Right now, I am instantiating all bzflag "spawn" zones as Mars Explorer materilization clouds - which are probably the white things you are seeing
2. Yep! "Kid Safe Mode" is definitley on the long, long 2.0 list :)
3. I dont have any current plans to add flags (perhaps someday, but definitley a long way off) - but teleporters sure sound fun!
4. My eventual goal with the Whirld project is to create a program that will let you create worlds inside Mars Explorer - or perhaps a companion world designer app.
5. As mentioned above, BZW is just the first format I am implementing because it is so simple. I will eventually define my own much more advanced world format - which will work great with Sketchup, Blender, etc - and which will allow the definition of much more fluid worlds such as Freestyle.

Mars Explorer has always been much more than "a game capable of wasting time" to me. Thank you Aubrey for your response. I don't feel that I'm being dramatic in the least. Nor do I say anything against future concepts or claim loss of roots, etc.

 re: Tank - I conceded our debate in the 1.9.8 post.

re: playing older versions - multiplayer not functional yet for version 1.91 at least.

  All, and I mean ALL I am saying, right now, is that 1.9.8 is still madly bugged and is not at all a solid gaming platform yet. Even mine and Dude's game's integrity are now deteriorating and we two usually can host the more stable games.

I have placed comments about most of what is below in the 1.9.8 post as requested.

Currently in 1.9.8:

No reduction from previous versions in non-responding/delayed/no connection vehicles. Even Host can go not responding if he changes vehicles. This is in every single game, not most. Yes, I read about the total overhaul and I hope it works. Floating Tanks (default gravity)

Rematerialize still works with totally non-Quarry related tags.

Vehicles continue to "Matrix" (freeze and stay frozen mid-air) with or without Delayed etc below them.

More choppy-moving players than any previous version.

Bubbles on dry land.

Lava Racer still occasionally loads without any available land even when other players have land on their screens.

Boot button stops working with a named evictee morphing into an un-evictable yet able-to-text BuggyClone.

Level 4 lasers are occasionally, visibly penetrating walls/gaining Quarry and sometimes reflecting off of nothing at a 90 degree angle.

Lasers are emanating from other vehicle's previous position. I'm  talking way more than half a second here. I mean the shooting vehicle is not even in the area (on my screen) and lasers keep coming and coming from ground, from walls, space, creepy. (Before and after rejoin screenshots below)

Invisible bots that can tag.

Laser hits, even when accompanied by visual "splashes" on vehicle's surface often fail to reliably register.

Now, please take my word for these above reports. If bots are invisible, be assured I checked that badges are on and there simply are no visible bot vehicles on the map whatever. If I see something strange, I take a screenshot and post it on the appropriate thread. Also, I am well aware of all the short term solutions and workarounds and I seek no explanations. I check my facts and I interview hosts about their activity on the host computer and I ask where other players see things on the map so I know what's what. 

• NR, matrixed vehicles: This is why I am overhauling the entire networking system.

• Floating Tanks: Due to their physics intensive nature, tank physics are currently only simulated on the "authoratative" client game instance. This means that they can float away when non - authoratative game instances stop recieving positional updates for them.
• More choppy-moving players than any previous version: This is suprising - I thought the new interpolation code was pretty good. However, I did release 1.9.8 with a slightly slower positional update rate (10 times per second) than other beta versions in an effort to combart the NR issue. Please let me know if 1.9.9 is smoother - it has code that is already overhauled a bit, and it updates vehicle positions 20 times per second.
• Lasers fired from nowhere: 1.9.8 now includes the firing position of each laser inside the "send laser" network call. So unless someone has created a hacked client or something (highly unlikely), the position the laser is fired from should be exactly where the player was when they fired it... If they aren't there on your screen, then you are just seeing an instance of the core positional update bug in action.
• Laser hits not registering: Laser hits are only determined on the "authoratative" client (the player's computer on which the laser was fired). If you get hit by a laser, yet it doesn't register - then the laser missed you on the authoratative client for that laser. This is probably because your positional sync to their computer was delayed, which is just another instance of the main bug in action.

• Bubbles on dry land: Interesting - I'll take a look at this. I thought I had fixed this before 1.9.8.
• Lava Racer not loading: Very interesting! However, the new whirld system should completley take care of issues like this.

That would be the world creator post!