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- THE HICHHIKER'S GUIDE TO EMPIRE
-
- as compiled by:
-
- Donald Harper
- (DHarper@uh.edu)
- 4.Nov.90
-
- from info files in the standard release from UCBVAX
-
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-
-
-
- NOTICE:
- I do not make any claim on the information in here. I just put it in one,
- semi-easy to read document & gave it to the net. Go yell at someone else if it
- goes against you.
- Also,please note that this is an unfomated release. If I have the time &
- energy, I will produce a prettier version...but, if you feel compeled to do it
- for me, please send me a copy! :)
-
-
-
-
- Donald Harper
- 4.Nov.90
-
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- Concepts, Notes, Hints, & Theory
- Concept : Introduction to Empire
-
- What is Empire?
-
- Empire is an military/economic simulation of make-believe countries in a
- make-believe world. In this version (UCSD Empire), the military part is
- emphasized. The economic part is still there, but as a prerequisite to a
- working military.
-
- What part do I play?
-
- Each player is the ruler of a country. As leader of your country, you give
- commands that affect your country (e.g., move people around, re-designate
- sectors, etc). You also handle all of your country's foreign policy.
-
- Empire lets you get reports on the status of your country (``info census''
- and others), find out what's going on in other parts of the world (``info
- news''), and communicate with other countries (``info telegram'').
-
- Although no goal is explicitly stated, most players rapidly derive their
- own, ranging from the mundane desire to be the biggest, strongest country
- in the game, to the more refined goals of having the most efficient land
- use possible, or having the lowest ratio of military to civilians while
- still surviving.
-
- The World of Empire
-
- Empire is played on a hexagonal map partitioned into a rectangular grid of
- M x N sectors (where M and N are typically, but not necessarily, powers of
- two, usually 64, 128, or 256). The world is made up of approximately 50%
- sea, 45% habitable land and 5% uninhabitable mountains. This map is gen-
- erated by a program that simulates the processes that may have occurred on
- Earth.
-
- Sectors can be assigned a specific sector type. These types range from
- banks to nuclear fuel processing plants. See ``info sector-types'' for
- more detail.
-
- Your personal coordinate system is based on your capital, which is a type
- of sector. Your capital is generally marked by the coordinates 0, 0.
-
- The Empire Time Scale
-
- The Empire world both does and does not match the real-time world. To
- better explain this, let us examine the concept of an update.
-
- At regular intervals (usually around four hours), the entire Empire world
- is updated. When the world updates, new population is added, ores are dug
- up and added to stockpiles, food and other commodities are distributed to
- sectors, the educational and technological levels are updated, and so on.
- It can be thought of as the minimum quantum for growth.
-
- On this time scale, an update could be considered to be approximately one
- generation. Thus the difference from the time scale of the real world.
-
- However, certain commands are issued in real-time, such as attacks. These
- commands have instantaneous effects on the state of your country. Dedi-
- cated (or merely experienced) Empire players will often log on to monitor
- their country. And most attackers will wait until the small hours of the
- morning to carry out their attacks, for obvious reasons.
-
- If you do not log in to Empire, any automatic policies you have set up will
- be carried out. However, Empire will not try to fix any mistakes you have
- made; unless you are very careful, it's probably not a good idea to rely on
- these automatics.
-
- Bureaucratic Time Units (BTU's)
-
- To prevent the more fanatical Empire players from staying logged on all the
- time, Empire places a limit on the amount of time you may be logged in per
- day. This limit is usually 120 minutes. If you run out of time, too bad!
- You can't log in again until the counter resets itself (usually at mid-
- night).
-
- The other control on the number of commands that you may issue are called
- ``Bureaucratic Time Units'' or BTU's. A BTU is an arbitrary amount of
- bureaucratic bookkeeping that your government must spend to perform a cer-
- tain function. Most commands that are not merely informative cost BTU's.
-
- BTU's are generated by your country's capital. The more efficient your
- capital, the more BTU's that are generated. A 100% efficient capital gen-
- erates 255 BTU's every 24 hours. However, you may have a maximum of 255
- BTU's at any one time. And once your BTU's reach zero, you may not issue
- any commands that use BTU's.
-
- Three things to note about BTU's:
-
- 1) Since commands use up BTU's, this limits the number of commands that a
- player may issue over a particular time period. This has the effect
- of preventing the Empire fanatic from overruning other players with
- less free time to log on.
-
- 2) The build-up of BTU's is constant and does not depend on being logged
- in. This allows players to participate when it is convenient rather
-
- than at some fixed time (such as most board games, or the stock
- market).
-
- 3) The BTU concept helps compensate for the fact that, in concept, the
- governments of each country are always ``playing'' although the player
- representing that country may only log in periodically.
-
- How long will a game take?
-
- Probably from one to four months. You should expect to spend one to four
- hours a day playing. Also expect that if you do spend this amount of time
- playing, your grades or work will suffer. You just can't spend that much
- time playing and either study or be productive.
-
- What should I do now?
-
- When a new country enters the game, it starts out with an amount of money
- and two sectors. These sectors are sanctuaries and have an initial amount
- of people and commodities. Until you break sanctuary, your country is
- effectively in stasis. Nothing will change until you actually log in and
- force a change (such as designating a capital to begin accumulating BTU's).
-
- The absolutely minimal set of information pages you should read are: capi-
- tal, census, deliver, designate, education, food, map, move, novice, popu-
- lace, products, realm, and sector-types.
-
- Tools to help you play:
-
- Ve, or Visual Empire helps examine your country. Note: ve is not easy to
- use; if you have time, paper is much better. Ve should be available from
- the same place you got your Empire client.
-
- A Comment from Peter S. Langston
-
- It should be remembered that Empire is mearly an interesting pastime; in
- the vernacular, it's just a game. There are many amusing stories of people
- that took the game too seriously; one tells of a corporate Vice President
- who walked into the computer room and flipped the main circuit breaker in
- order to stop an attack on his country; another tells of the Harvard stu-
- dent that refused to go to bed until everyone logged out of Empire and of
- the other players who took turns staying up late....
-
- While many players take Empire very seriously, an equal number of players
- use it as a safe environment in which they can act out their fantasies. On
- occasion the fantasies involved are remarkably aggressive or hostile. It
- has been my experience that the people with the most belligerent countries
- are often the people with the kindest hearts; anti-social game play doesn't
- necessarily reflect the true being underneath (or else I have some VERY
- weird friends).
-
- A Brief History
-
- The game Empire is the most recent in a series of territorial conquest,
- political/economic simulation games initially inspired by a board game of
- the same name played at Reed College (Portland, Oregon). Earlier versions
- were written at Reed by Peter Langston and at The Evergreen State College
- (Olympia, Washington) by Chas Douglas, Peter Langston, Ben Norton, Mike
- Rainwater and others; of particular note are the games Galaxy (Langston)
- and Civil (Norton). The previous version was written partly on the HRSTS
- Unix system at the Harvard Science Center, (Cambridge, Mass.), partly on
- the Unix system at Commercial Union Leasing Corporation, (New York, N. Y.)
- and partly on the Unix system at Davis Polk & Wardwell, (New York, N. Y.)
- by Peter Langston with invaluable goading from Joe Stetson, Robert Brad-
- bury, Nat Howard, Brian Redman, Adam Buchsbaum, and a myriad of others.
- Since Langston never released source code for his version, Dave Pare and
- friends de-compiled it and have created this version which is very dif-
- ferent.
-
- See also : novice, expert
-
-
-
- Concept : Empire Overview
-
- A BRIEF HISTORY
- This version of the game "Empire", known as BSD Empire, is the most recent in
- a series of territorial conquest, political/economic simulation games ini-
- tially inspired by a board game of the same name played at Reed College (Port-
- land, Oregon). Originally, Empire was written on PDP/11 (with all of 64k i/d
- space) by Peter Langston and others. Then came the VAX/11 series computers,
- and virtual memory, and from object code distributed by Langston in the mid
- 1980's was formed the basis of the current BSD Empire game.
-
- Dave Pare and Jim Reuter were responsible for turning Peter's VAX/11 object
- code distribution into tens of thousands of lines of semi-readable C code,
- giving birth to the initial version entitled "UCSD Empire". Various things
- were added, such as planes, missiles, periodic updates, performance enhance-
- ments, and -- naturally -- new bugs.
-
- This somewhat unstable game was sent northward to Berkeley, where Dave Sharn-
- off whipped it into shape with the help of his ucsd-empire mailing list. With
- the source code fairly widely available, many bugs were fixed, new features
- such as satellites were introduced, and it became clear after a few years that
- the code had degenerated into a hodgepodge of hacks.
-
- A major restructuring effort took place during the summer of 1989, by the
- members of the XCF, a foolish group of people that had plenty of spare time to
- help Dave Pare perform the rewrite. What you see now is the result of the
- restructuring effort; an attempt was made to regularize the interface so all
- the commands have the same "flavor", while also greatly improving the program-
- mer interface.
-
- THE OBJECT OF THE GAME
- Empire falls into the broad category of simulation games and involves mili-
- tary, political, and economic factors. Although no goal is explicitly stated,
- players rapidly derive their own, ranging from the mundane desire to be the
- biggest, mightiest country in the game and "conquer" all others to the more
- refined goals of having the most efficient land use possible or the lowest
- ratio of military to civilians while still surviving, etcetera.
-
- WHY USE A COMPUTER?
- The role of the computer in Empire is that of modeling the physical/economic
- system. Players interact through the computer rather than with the computer.
- The game is played in a "real-time" environment; players log on and allocate
- resources, attack neighbors, send diplomatic communiques, etc. whenever it is
- convenient. The program keeps track of these activities, maintaining a record
- of time spent and arranging for time to accumulate when players are not logged
- in to the game. Accumulated time is expressed in "Bureaucratic Time Units" or
- "B.T.U.s".
-
- BTUs?
- The purpose of the B.T.U. Concept is three-fold:
- I) Commands use up B.T.U.s. This limits the number of commands that any
- player can give in any particular time period. Thus the fanatics can't over-
- run the players with less free time by tenacity alone.
- II) The build up of B.T.U.s not being dependent on being logged on at any par-
- ticular time allows players to participate when it is convenient rather than
- at some fixed time (as in the case of monopoly, the stock market, etc).
- III) The B.T.U. arrangement helps compensate for the fact that in concept, the
- governments of each country are always "playing" although the player
- representing that country may only play periodically.
-
- GEOGRAPHY
- The geography of the game is embodied in a rectangular map partitioned into
- M x N sectors (where M and N are powers of two, usually 64, 128, or 256) that
- is approximately 50% sea, 45% habitable land and 5% uninhabitable mountains.
- This "map" is generated by a program (the "creation") that places volcanoes
- pseudo-randomly, lets large meteors and small meteorites impact the surface,
- strews gold deposits and oil deposits around, covers the planet with water,
- dries some of the water to form seas and land masses, runs rivers from moun-
- tain peaks down to the seas, allows sedimentation to create oil and fertility,
- and uses simple tectonics to expose oil and ores, etc.
-
- WHERE DO THE COUNTRIES COME FROM?
- New countries may join the game at any time. Upon entry into the game a new
- country is given two adjacent sectors. These sectors are initially designated
- "sanctuaries" and are inviolable. (Each country uses its own coordinate sys-
- tem with sector 0,0 being the current capital, a sanctuary initially. The
- initial two sectors are always numbered 0,0 and 2,0.) The new nation may con-
- fine itself to these two sectors for any length of time and thereby be safe
- from attack. However, in order to build or expand, it is necessary to leave
- the safety of the sanctuary. The sectors of land that were sanctuaries can
- then be redesignated as any of a multitude of other land-use types ranging
- from weather stations to gold mines to munitions plants.
-
- FURTHER READING
- For further information, here are a few "info" command topics that are basic
- to the understanding of the game:
-
- bye designate map spy break
- census food move syntax distribute
- nation info sector-types time {commands}
-
- A FINAL NOTE
- It should be remembered that Empire is merely an interesting pastime; in the
- vernacular, "it's just a game". There are many amusing stories of people who
- took the game too seriously; one tells of a corporate Vice President who
- walked into the computer room one Saturday and flipped the main circuit
- breaker in order to stop an attack on his country; another tells of the Har-
- vard student who refused to go to bed until everyone logged out of Empire and
- the other players who took turns staying up late...
-
- At this point Peter Langston would suggest that the people who act so nastily
- to you in the game aren't really such boors in real life, and that the game
- doesn't necessarily reflect the true being underneath. He is probably right.
- Unfortunately, Empire is and always has been a game of manufacturing military
- hardware. Almost every product that can be produced in Empire has military
- application, and the problem with producing military hardware is that once you
- have it, it is so tempting to use it "just to see how it works".
-
- So if you log in one morning to find out that your country has been turned
- into a sea of question-marks, and your navy is resting on the bottom, and your
- air-force is scrap metal or on the market under someone else's flag, just
- remember that you hold the moral high ground because you didn't spend all
- night playing some silly game!
-
- See Also: bugs, commands
-
- Empire : Advice for Novices
-
- A Treatise of Advice on War and Peace
- for Budding Empire Players
- by Dave Pare
-
- This article contains advice for beginning players. It deals mainly with
- staying alive and not economic development, because staying alive is tougher
- for beginners than is playing with the various sector-types.
-
- The most important thing I can say is that beginners should remember that
- Empire is not realistic. There are dozens of tricks to learn; until you mas-
- ter them, you will lose because of small oversights (like forgetting to check-
- point highways in Empire 1.2). There are generally fewer tricks in UCSD
- Empire, but they are still present. Beware of patterning your Empire actions
- after real-world strategies; they may not work as expected.
-
- When you start, grab as much land as you think you'll need. Locate and iden-
- tify other players, and get an idea of the size of your land mass. Send them
- all telegrams. Everybody likes to get telegrams; the telegram facility gives
- you the chance to make friends, influence people, and have fun role-playing
- your country. If you get to know somebody, you may not be attacked because
- you come across as a nice guy. Of course, if you sound like a bozo, you may
- get stepped on.
-
- Establish a definite border with your neighbors by inhabiting sectors with one
- civilian. This establishes your claim to the land behind these outposts, even
- though you don't actually occupy it yet. It also prevents your neighbor from
- discovering where YOUR capital is. In Empire, it's very important to protect
- the location of your capital; likewise, it's quite nice to know the location
- of the neighboring capitals just in case!
-
- If any of your neighbors attacks your outposts, that gives you a valuable clue
- to their intentions, while not costing you much in the way of resources.
- Also, an attack on a remote outpost may give you enough time to prepare your
- country for the possible invasion to follow. You may not want to claim too
- much land though, or the outposts will get overrun by people who are fed up
- with your obvious land-grabbing.
-
- If you determine that a likely division of your island will net you less than
- 50 sectors, you'd better attack one of your neighbors right away, because less
- than 50 sectors will means that your country will be worthless and weak for
- the whole game. Naturally, you don't want this! Unfortunately, that means
- that one of your neighbors must be blown away so that you can live. Too bad
- for your neighbor.
-
- Basically, try and be fair about land distribution, but make sure you get a
- good deal for yourself.
-
- Empire players go to war for many reasons. One is lack of resources; you have
- land, and they want it. Another is safety; your troops or ships are perceived
- as menacing, so they are destroyed by your adversary. Another is because the
- attacking player really enjoys attacking people! Still another is boredom
- and/or curiosity -- Just how do nukes work anyway? Hey, I know, I'll try them
- out on Freedonia!
-
- In Empire, wars are generally won by people who attack first. Because mobil-
- ity can be saved up (and in some versions, you accrue new mobility every
- half-hour), your attacks can proceed while the hapless enemy is asleep. Many
- Empire attacks have happened over the weekend, or at 2:00 in the morning. It
- is quite difficult to defend your country when you're not logged in. The
- auto-defense features of the game are minimal at best, and in the earlier ver-
- sions it was basically impossible without using an incredible amount of
- resources.
-
- The whole philosophy of First Strike holds true from early land warfare, to
- naval warfare, to the philosophy of Mutual Assured Destruction. If you strike
- first and your attack is well-planned, any retributive strike of the enemy's
- will be ragged at best. If it's a land war, all of the fighting will be on
- the enemy's territory, not on yours. Your industries will be fine, and the
- battleground will be the enemy's.
-
- Having mentioned the advantages of pre-emptive strikes, I must caution against
- spur-of-the-moment attacks. I've noticed that many wars tend to occur because
- some country sinks your battleship; you get mad and decide to attack. I'm
- just as guilty of this as anyone. Spending a few days marshalling your forces
- can mean the difference between a long, drawn-out slugfest, and an overwhelm-
- ing 2:00 blitzkrieg that blows away half the enemy's army and navy within the
- first few hours. While it's nice to have instant gratification (seeing enemy
- troops die right after you read the telegram describing the destruction of
- your poor, defenseless battleship feels SO good), a hasty counterattack will
- alert your enemy who will mobilize forces and retaliate accordingly. Things
- will escalate, and you'll be in a full-scale shooting war before you can say
- Gulf of Tonkin Resolution! And you will have lost the advantage.
-
- Going first only counts if you have marshalled your forces. A scattered,
- ill-planned attack will net you nothing but a little instant gratification, at
- the cost of a long drawn-out war in which your neighbors who aren't fighting
- are the only winners. Once two countries are at war, it's much harder to win
- overnight. Vietnam is a good example of what you shouldn't do. Gradual esca-
- lation just gives the enemy time to prepare. A sudden, overwhelming attack is
- far better and will achieve your goals much more cheaply.
-
- Knowing where the enemy is located is absolutely critical to the planning of a
- successful attack. Some people maintain maps. Painstakingly crafted by hand,
- these maps are worth incalculable amounts in later military adventures. More
- programming-oriented individuals write their own Empire helper programs which
- perform the same task, recording all the sectors visited. UCSD Empire allows
- the fanatical players to write their own client programs to connect to the
- game; this greatly simplifies the task of keeping track of the world. I know
- several people who have done this; however they refuse to release their
- clients because of the great military advantage inherent in keeping them
- secret!
-
- For nuclear combat, a good map is essential. If you don't want to look fool-
- ish when your nuke devastates open sea, you'd better have a map of your
- enemy's country or else you'll get turned into mush because the enemy spent
- the time making a map of your country.
-
- War takes up a lot of resources; your personal time is the most precious
- resource of all. In a war, your time, energy, and creativity will be devoted
- towards destroying your adversary. This leaves little time for economic
- development. In war, the home front stagnates, or goes to seed. Only the
- bare necessities are produced for the civilians at home, technological innova-
- tion and new land development ceases, and your country will generally fall
- behind in the global race for technology.
-
- Therefore, if you decide to go to war, you'd better win quickly or else it
- will take a lot of time, and your country will go downhill fast. If you're
- just punishing someone for doing something nasty, offer nice peace terms after
- you've meted out appropriate punishment. If you aren't attacking because
- you're bored, other players are likely to agree to peace because losing a war
- is unpleasant. I've turned enemies into allies often enough; they are happy
- to survive, and if your attack was relatively justified, they are happy to
- have you as a friend.
-
- You'll notice I didn't give any advice to responding to an attack. I think
- being attacked is generally a losing proposition. I guess the best bet is to
- concentrate your military farther to the rear so the enemy can't pre-emptively
- destroy them. In UCSD Empire, proper distribution of high-tech fighters,
- petrol supply, forts, artillery, and shells can make your country a tough nut
- to crack; however relying on defensive measures for your defense is generally
- a bad idea (recall the Maginot Line) because in Empire the attacker generally
- has the advantage unless fighting with greatly lower tech equipment.
-
- In earlier versions of Empire which allowed enlistment of newly-conquered sec-
- tors, defense is simply a matter of making sure you have a LOT of military in
- each border sector. As soon as ships start appearing on the power chart, make
- sure each sector bordering water has at least five to ten military. When more
- ships come around, beef up the coastline defenses even more. Naturally, put
- tons of military in your capital.
-
- To summarize, if you go to war, strike the first blow -- preferably at 0200.
- Making a world map helps greatly, and its utility increases as technology
- increases. Nuclear devices are useless as an effective strategic weapon
- without a map of the world.
-
- Remember the cost in your own personal time investment. Once the ball starts
- rolling, you won't be able to call it all off and go for a vacation. Your
- enemy will want to kill you, so you'd better be prepared to spend plenty of
- time in solid play.
-
- Humble Additions to the
- Treatise of Advice
- by Tom Tedrick
-
- In addition, keep mobility in mind. In many of my low-tech wars, superior
- mobility was decisive. In particular, UCSD Empire highways are extremely use-
- ful, because it takes less mobility to move through them. Having a lot of
- sectors with high mobility allows you to move a lot of stuff long distances in
- times of need.
-
- Combining these ideas gives you my basic opening strategy: take as many sec-
- tors as is possible, as quickly as possible (I will take 300 sectors the first
- day if I can), and designate them highways, leaving one civilian in each sec-
- tor. (You may need to leave one food in sectors with zero fertility.)
-
- When my country first reaches 100% efficiency, roughly two-thirds of my sec-
- tors will be 100% efficient highways. This allows me to shift my forces all
- the way from one border to another in a single move. I once had great fun
- smashing three countries that attacked me simultaneously from three sides by
- shifting all my forces from border to border to border, achieving local
- superiority in each case, and annihilating the enemy forces in turn at updates
- (this is related to the theory of the advantages of interior lines worked out
- by the Germans).
-
- If the enemy runs out of mobility you can sometimes catch the main invasion
- force helplessly immobilized on the front lines and annihilate it.
-
- Hints to the Wise
- by Shelley Louie
-
- Tom [Tedrick] writes a lot about the strategy in case of nukes and war. How-
- ever, there is more to Empire than blowing your enemy to kingdom come with
- large impersonal nuclear weapons. Since this is an advice note, I'll refrain
- from being too specific about tactics. You'll just have to learn them your-
- self.
-
- Building the Perfect Beast: (Country Construction)
-
- The first thing you want is land. Lots of land. A whole hell of a lot of
- land. You should try to expand your country from the very beginning. From
- there, you'll meet your neighbors who are doubtlessly doing the same thing
- you're doing. Expanding wildly. Now comes the first of a series of deci-
- sions you have to make. Do you want to become a raging power-mad war-
- monger? If you do, be sure to have built your army beyond the basic 100
- troops. The earlier in the game you find someone, the easier it is to
- crush them into oblivion. If you feel peaceful, see the diplomatic section
- of the text.
-
- Another difficult decision is designating your sectors. A good beginning
- mix is two mines per light construction and heavy construction factory,
- about 20% agribusinesses (later dropping to 10%, 5%, or even none at all!),
- and a few schools, research, parks, etc. to fill up some of the other
- space. The most important thing to have is a good transportation system in
- the form of your highways. Anywhere from 20-40% of your country should be
- highways. You'll find them infinitely useful in moving food to a starving
- sector, taking people to a new settlement, or transporting troops to a
- local revolution, highways are vital!
-
- Another important consideration is do you want really want to win? This
- implies the idea of competing in terms of building technology and research,
- and being able to get supplies to continue to produce both of these vital
- products plus happiness, a high (greater than 10) education, maintaining a
- military force, etc. Winning means succeeding on all fronts. I play to
- win, but find that I can't devote the time or effort to winning, so I usu-
- ally end up playing for the pure enjoyment of the game. Ask Tom [Tedrick]
- how many hours he puts into playing, and you can figure that is what you're
- going to have to do to win. A final warning, if you play seriously, your
- grades will drop. No if's, and's, or but's about this. You can't just
- throw three to five hours a day away and not have your schoolwork suffer.
-
- Happiness is a Warm Gun: (The Art of Diplomacy)
-
- No one trusts anybody in this game unless you know them personally outside
- of the limited scope of Empire. Of course, this limits you a lot, so you
- break the rules and make alliances with people who you have no relation to.
- And they in turn backstab you and devastate the country you so meticulously
- built for the last few weeks. Oh well, that's what you deserve...
-
- Just kidding. Most of the people you will play with are rather trustworthy
- souls. At least they are until it becomes burdensome to them. A good
- relationship (as all those sex manuals will tell you) is based on trust and
- respect for the other person. What does this mean to you? Build enough
- military to be a pain to invade. Military power insures respect. Trust is
- up to the two people involved. Treaties are a nice way to cry traitor when
- someone backstabs you, but are useless otherwise. However, they may help
- you sleep better at nights knowing someone might think twice before break-
- ing treaty. Treaty-breakers are always considered scum, at least as long
- as people's memories last.
-
- Night Moves: (The Art of Empire)
-
- Empire is a skill. Never forget that. You will learn as you play that you
- may have to stay up for that 3:00 AM update to completely surprise your
- unknowing victim or even just to maximize your country's potential. Also
- never forget that someone may be up at that time waiting to pounce all over
- you too. Pleasant dreams.
-
- Running on Empty: (Losing and still having fun)
-
- Okay, you've tried to keep up with Tom [Tedrick], Chris [Guthrie], and all
- those other experienced people, but it just isn't going to happen. You
- are not going to win the big win (i.e., become world dictator). What do
- you do? Give up and watch your country go to pot? Give all your stuff
- away to another country and resign? Or just redesignate everything into
- weather stations and say the hell with it?
-
- No! You can have fun even after you can't win. Make small wars with other
- small countries. Try to get a hold of nukes to devastate them. Form a
- cartel with other small nations and try to run over a big country. As in
- real life, the possibilities are endless! Look at the Middle East, they're
- having fun, right?
-
- This is just a game, and from this point on, you don't have to worry about
- watching over your nation too closely. Play for the enjoyment of playing.
-
- Which, of course, is the intention of Empire in the first place.
-
- On the Distribution of All Things
- by David Bleckmann
-
- The reader here is assumed to have read the information pages on distribute,
- threshold, and level.
-
- To use distribute, it is a good idea to have a warehouse. You don't have to,
- but this is how the command usually works. If for some odd reason you don't
- use a warehouse, you will have to use some other sector as your destination
- sector, as mentioned in info level. For novices, just build a warehouse. I
- will refer to warehouse instead of distribution sector for the rest of this
- text.
-
- You should place your warehouse in a spot that can be reached by all your sec-
- tors via a low mobility path. That is, for each sector you own, there should
- be a path along which you could move goods at very little mobility cost.
- Since 100% efficient highways don't cost any mobility to move across, roads
- that come close to each of your sectors and lead to your warehouse are a good
- idea.
-
- Now for each of your sectors you must set up a distribution path. Use the
- distribute command. This is a path from each of your sectors to your ware-
- house, along a low mobility path as described above. For example, if you have
- a nation that looks like this:
-
- j j m + c
- m + g * +
- h + w + k
- m + + g
-
- And you wanted to set up a path from your capital, you would give the command
- [##:##] Command: dist 0,0 bbg
-
- Note: the path can only be so long, and as your country gets larger you will
- need more than one warehouse.
-
- Once you have done this for all of your sectors, you are ready to start dis-
- tributing.
-
- Now you will probably want to have food on all your sectors, and if one sector
- has a lot of people on it, you may want to have a bit more on it. You will
- not want to have to monitor the food levels for all of your sectors. This is
- the process that is automated by distribute.
-
- Using food as an example, you can go through all of your sectors and issue a
- threshold command, such as:
- [##:##] Command: thresh f 0,0 40
-
- This will set the threshold for food at your capital at 40. You can do this
- for all of your sectors using a command like
- [##:##] Command: thresh f #
-
- And give a threshold for each of your sectors as prompted.
-
- Now at each update, Empire will move food to and from your warehouse in an
- attempt to satisfy all your threshold requirements. If for example a certain
- sector has more than its allotted threshold of a certain product (e.g., an
- agribusiness producing food), food will be moved off it to the warehouse. If
- a sector has less than its threshold, and the warehouse has any of that commo-
- dity, the product will be moved from the warehouse to the needy sector in an
- attempt to satisfy its threshold. If a certain sector has a threshold of 0
- for a certain product, no distribution takes place.
-
- Therefore if you wished to move as much iron as possible from an iron mine
- every update, you would set its threshold for iron to one. If somewhere else
- you had a lcm factory that can use 45 iron a turn (found out through the prod
- command) you would set its threshold for iron to 45 (or greater) and its
- threshold for lcm's to one. Then, on each update, Empire would move all iron
- off your iron mine (except for one unit), try to put 45 iron on your lcm fac-
- tory and take all lcm's (except for one) off your lcm plant (possibly to be
- used somewhere else).
-
- Note: the order in which this happens is predictable, but not always desir-
- able. Thus, if you have no iron on your warehouse to start with and your lcm
- factory gets updated first, it won't get any iron even though there will be
- some in the warehouse in a few seconds. It is always a good idea to keep
- surplus goods in your warehouse.
-
- The end result is that you can set up your country to move your products
- around without you logging in. It also doesn't cost as many mobility points
- to move things as distribute, and it costs no BTU's!
-
- Some Further Clarifications
- on Distribution versus Delivery
- by David Muir Sharnoff
-
- Secondly, I am still a little confused about distribution and delivery.
- When I designate a distribution route, does that mean that things will be
- delivered from the point of distribution to the warehouse? Or do I also
- have add the delivery route on top of the distribution route in order to
- get things moving? And how do I get the visual route of the distribution
- route? I can get delivery routes by doing the route command. Thanks.
-
- The two methods of moving commodities (distribute/threshold/level and
- deliver/cutoff/route) are completely independent.
-
- Delivery is most useful for short, one-sector, movement of commodities. Dis-
- tribute can be used in conjunction with highways and distribution sectors to
- provide low-cost, long-range movement of commodities. There is no analog to
- the route command in the distribute paradigm.
-
- Here are some examples of commands:
-
- [##:##] Command: distribute -2,0 jjjh
- This command sets up a distribution path from the distribution sector in -2,0
- to sector 4,0.
-
- [##:##] Command: thresh food 4,0 400
- This command sets the threshold on sector 4,0. Sector -2,0 (the distribution
- sector for 4,0) will attempt to keep 400 units of food in 4,0 by importing or
- exporting as necessary.
-
- [##:##] Command: thresh oil 4,0 100
- This command is the same as above, but will instead attempt to keep 100 units
- of oil.
-
- [##:##] Command: level -2,0
- This command will report the distribution routes and thresholds for sector
- -2,0.
-
- [##:##] Command: deliver food -2,0 (384) y
- This command will deliver all food from -2,0 in excess of 384 units to -3,-1.
-
- [##:##] Command: deliver lcm -2,0 b
- This command will deliver all lcm's from -2,0 to -3,1.
-
-
- [##:##] Command: deliver lcm -2,0 +30
- This command will deliver lcm's in excess of 24 (deliver uses multiples of
- eight).
-
- [##:##] Command: cutoff -2,0
- This command will report what commodities are being delivered from -2,0 and
- what their cutoffs are.
-
- [##:##] Command: route food -20:20,-10:10
- This command will graphically report the food delivery paths in the sectors
- from -20:20 to -10:10.
-
- Some More Hints for the Novice
- by Jeff Trim
-
- Tech levels are very important in this game. You cannot produce uranium, guns
- or shells until you achieve a tech level of 40.
-
- Choose your friends carefully. I was talking to Lewis from Cornell College
- and his comment was the best I'd heard in a while: Never ally with someone
- that doesn't have a definite interest in seeing you survive. Don't be
- deceived by the treaty command; treaty violations will show up in the news,
- but that is not going to stop the aggressor from wiping you out, no matter how
- bad it looks in the news.
-
- Nuclear attacks can cause a lot of damage, but no one has ever been taken out
- of the game by a nuclear attack. The damage from a purely nuclear attack is
- recoverable. It takes conventional forces combined with nukes to really do
- damage. (Of course I won't fool you either; it doesn't hurt to have a few
- nukes either.)
-
- Beware of running low on BTU's. I will recount one story of a player on this
- site that was running low on BTU's. His enemies launched a nuclear attack and
- hit his capital! Unfortunately, he didn't have enough BTU's to redesignate a
- new capital. The moral of the story is that you should plan an alternate cap-
- ital at some point in the game. These are generally not needed at the begin-
- ning of the game, because you need to effectively deploy your sectors in the
- early going. But later, it wouldn't hurt to have one or more alternate capi-
- tals.
-
- Empire is a game of perception. If your adversaries think you're tough,
- they're probably going to pass you and head for easier prey. But the reverse
- is also true; if you look weak they might try a few tactics on you -- and
- depending upon your response, they'll either back down or fight it out. Bar-
- gain from a position of strength. You could be the weakest country on the
- planet but still look so tough that no one would bother you. It's all percep-
- tion.
-
- Weak countries have an added advantage: gun running! If a country is heading
- out with his fleet to attack another country and you happen to be along the
- way, you could cut a deal with him and you could make a deal and allow that
- country to attack a coastal sector and turn it into a harbor. You've now
- placed an obligation on that country, who will be very careful to keep you
- happy so you won't grant similar privileges to that country's enemy. Weak
- nations can be quite powerful if you handle the diplomacy right. The tough
- players like blowing away their tough adversaries and as long as you stand
- idly by and watch those two countries blow each other to little pieces, you'll
- be left intact and growing richer off their little war.
-
- Some Final Hints from Various Sources
-
- Military and the Demobilization of Same
-
- It's generally a good idea to put demobilized military on active reserve.
- You should also consider whether you need an enlistment center to generate
- more military. You can't enlist more military than you have military
- reserves. The nation command will tell you how many military you have. Be
- careful, as many players have lost their countries through carelessness
- with their military at the start of the game.
-
- Actually, the enlist command cannot activate more military than you have on
- reserve. Even then they have to be in sectors with an efficiency of 60% or
- greater. Enlistment sectors can produce as many military as they are capa-
- ble of, but will never produce more than one-half of the civilian populace
- there. So you need to keep moving them out, or demobilizing them, etc.
- Also, the more military you have in an enlistment center, the more military
- get trained per update.
-
- Any civilian may be enlisted (no restriction on the efficiency of the sec-
- tor). No more may be enlisted than the number of reserves. Enlistment
- costs mobility whereas while demobilization costs cash. Military can only
- be demobilized in sectors with a 60% efficiency or greater. No more than
- one-half the number of civilians in a sector may be enlisted in one enlist
- command, but if it is issued many times, virtually all civilians in a sec-
- tor may be enlisted.
-
- One thousand reserves is enough for now, although I figure I always put
- them on reserve when I demobilize, at least up to 10,000.
-
- So you don't need to push for more reserves now, but might as well put all
- demobilized military on reserve.
-
- You make back the cost of demobilizing military in just two or three days I
- think, so I generally demobilize the military I don't have any use for, and
- put them on reserve.
-
- Depends on how you want to use them, I guess. I figure with 200 jet tran-
- sports at 127 mobility, I can land 20,000 military in an enemy country in
- one night, so I'd say 20,000 is a safe upper limit for reserves. I've
- never needed more than that.
-
- More Distribution Hints
-
- When distributing stuff to a warehouse, set the thresholds in the sector
- that is sending to or receiving from the warehouse to the amount that you
- want left in that sector. Don't set thresholds for the warehouse itself
- (unless its also distributing to another warehouse)
-
- The minimum threshold for distribution is one. A threshold of 0 means no
- distribution of that commodity will take place.
-
- Something to Remember about Technology
-
- An education level of five is required to build technology. There is a
- tech cap in the new versions, which means you can't build more than two
- tech per update.
-
- War Zones
-
- It makes it much easier if the player doesn't have to do anything to keep
- his country running, but can instead do the things that are of interest.
-
- There's also the problem of what to do in an invasion. I guess if invaded
- I just accept the damage, and don't try to fix it until the war ends.
-
- In a war zone I generally follow one of two basic plans. If I'm the
- invader, I either leave the sectors as they are and let the country being
- invaded fall apart, or if I can do something to make it worse for the
- enemy, I sometimes do that. I sometimes designate conquered sectors to
- agribusinesses if they need food, banks to reduce shelling damage, enlist-
- ment centers for military, forts for firing and attacking, harbors to get
- ships in, warehouses to collect, move, and distribute supplies, airbases
- for planes and bridge heads for easy movement.
-
- When being invaded, I also generally postpone any long term development and
- just concentrate on the basic sectors types for combat (a,b,c,e,f,h,w,#,*)
-
- I've found it's a mistake to worry about long term development in a war
- zone, until the battle is over. I will let a war zone be completely
- wrecked in order to achieve victory. So you need to keep your home area
- away from any war zones.
-
- So far the method of treating war zones and peaceful zones differently and
- keeping them separated has worked pretty well. The mistake I made in the
- past was to try to develop a war zone before the fight was over. Now I'm
- willing to completely wreck the area to win, and in fact you pretty much
- have to. The guerrillas take several days to get rid of even when the war
- is over.
-
- I mostly turn the sectors in the front lines into forts, enlistment
- centers, banks, and bridgeheads. Then maybe some warehouses, airports, and
- harbors within range of the front lines. And maybe some radar stations.
-
- Work Percentages are Important!
-
- Before moving civilians, check the work in the sector the civilians are in.
- If it's less than 100%, DON'T move any of them out. The reason: work in
- the destination sector will drop to the same level as the starting sector.
-
- It's a good idea to check after every update, to see if any sectors have
- work less than 100%. cen #0 ?work<100 is what I use. If work is less than
- 100%, workers won't work at full efficiency, and if it gets very low, the
- civilians may revolt and you'll lose the sector. Build lots of happiness,
- and keep extra mil in sectors with work less than 100%. That seems to
- help.
-
- Selling Things
-
- Selling is counterintuitive. Experiment carefully with it so you learn its
- quirks before you do anything major. The amount it asks for is the amount
- to be left in the sector, NOT the amount to be sold.
-
- I advise less experienced players NOT to do any global selling. Condition
- checking is unreliable, and many players have accidentally sold all the
- food in their country, resulting in mass starvation.
-
- Definitions and a Good Thing to Remember
-
- World tech and world research refers to the technology and research made by
- other countries which will automatically leak to the less developed coun-
- tries.
-
- If you let education get higher than happiness, then find work going to 0%
- in your sectors, don't say you weren't warned....
-
- On Nuclear Devices
-
- Just a note on nukes: in this version, there is a nice balance between
- nukes and economics. A player can do a lot of damage with nukes, but it
- costs a LOT. So it's rare that a country is completely annihilated by a
- nuclear attack, as used to be the case in PSL Empire.
-
- See also : introduction, expert
-
- Information : Hints
-
- My rule of thumb is, divide dust price by 2 to figure how many days it will
- take to recoup the investment. The divisor varies with the rate of return on
- gold bars.
-
- New players should note that its a good idea to put demobilized military on
- active reserve. They should also consider whether they need an enlistment
- center to generate more military. You can't "enlist" more military than you
- have military reserves. The "nation" command will tell you how many reserves
- you have. Be careful, as many players have lost their countries in past games
- through carelessness with their military right at the start of the game.
-
- Actually, the enlist command cannot activate more mils than you have on
- reserve. And even then they have to be in sectors with 60% efficiency or
- greater. Enlistment sectors can produce as many mils as they are capable of,
- but will never produce past 1/2 the civilian populace there. So ya gotta keep
- moving them out, or demobilizing them, etc... Also, the more mils you have in
- an enlistment center, the more mils per update get trained.
-
- Any civilian may be enlisted (no restriction on the efficiency of the sector).
- No more may be enlisted than the number of reserves. Enlistment costs mobil-
- ity (if the sector has any), while demobilize costs cash. Military can only
- be demobilized in 60% efficient sectors. No more than half the number of
- civilians in a sector may be enlisted in one "enlist" command, but if it is
- issued many times, virtually all civilians in a sector may be enlisted.
- Right? [That's right. -Tom]
-
- When distributing stuff to a warehouse, set the thresholds in the sector that
- is sending to/receiving from the warehouse, to the amount that you want left
- in that sector. No use setting threshholds for the warehouse itself (unless
- its also distributing to *ANOTHER* warehouse :-)
-
- The minimum threshold for distribution is 1. A threshold of 0 means no distri-
- bution of that commodity will take place.
-
- 1000 reserves is enough for defense, although I figure I always put them on
- reserve when I demobilize, at least up to 10,000, for attacking purposes.
-
- Depends on how you want to use reserves, I guess. I figure with 200 jet tran-
- sports at 127 mobility I can land 20,000 mil in an enemy country in one night,
- so I'd say 20,000 is a safe upper limit for reserves. I've never needed more
- than that.
-
- So you don't need to push for more reserves now, but might as well put all
- demobilized mil on reserve.
-
- You make back the cost of demobilizing mil in just 2 or 3 days I think, so I
- generally demobilize the mil I don't have any use for, and put 'em on reserve.
-
- An education level of 5 is required to build tech. There is a "tech cap" in
- the new versions, which means you can't build more than 2 tech per update.
-
- It makes it much easier on the player if he doesn't have to regularly do any-
- thing to keep his country running, but can just devote himself to doing the
- things that interest him. There's also the problem of what to do in an inva-
- sion. I guess if invaded I just accept the damage, and don't try to fix it
- until the war ends.
-
- So in a war zone I generally follow 1 of two basic plans. If I'm the invader,
- I either leave the sectors as is and let the country being invaded fall apart,
- or if I can do something to make it worse for the enemy I sometimes do that. I
- sometimes designate conquered sectors to aggies if they need food, banks to
- reduce shelling damage, enlistment centers for mil, forts for firing and
- attack, harbors to get ships in, warehouses to get and move and distribute
- supplies, * for planes, + for easy movement, # to build bridges to cross
- rivers in order to continue the assault, and - to slow up counterattacks and
- hide information on enemy maps. Also ) to make radar maps, and c to fool the
- enemy (and make reserve capitols).
-
- When being invaded, I also generally postpone any long term development and
- just concentrate on the basic sectors types for combat (a,b,c,e,f,h,w,+,#,*,))
-
- I've found its a mistake to worry about long term development in a war zone,
- until the battle is over. I will let a warzone be completely wrecked in order
- to achieve victory. So you need to keep your home base area away from any war-
- zones.
-
- Fake capitols are sometimes useful.
-
- Anyway, so far the method of treating warzones and peace zones differently and
- keeping them seperated has worked pretty well. The mistake I made in the past
- was to try to develop a warzone before the fight was over. Now I'm willing to
- completely wreck the area to win, and in fact you pretty much have to. The
- guerrillas take several days to get rid of even when the war is over.
-
- I've found it good policy to produce a large surplus of food and aim to have
- at least 100 food in each sector, when I have enough. Actually I now put 990
- food in each sector, except for aggies (100) and warehouses (9990).
-
- Before moving civs, check the work in the sector the civs are in. If its <
- 100% *DON'T* move any civs out. The reason: work in the destination sector
- will drop to the same level as the starting sector.
-
- "Selling" is counterintuitive. Experiment carefully with it so you learn its
- tricks before you do anything major. The "amount" is asks for, is the amount
- to be left in the sector, *NOT* the amount to be sold.
-
- I advise less experienced players *NOT* to do any global selling. Condition
- checking is unreliable, and many players have accidently sold all the food in
- their entire country, resulting in mass starvation.
-
- "World tech" and "world research" means: some of the research and tech made by
- other countries will automatically leak to the less developed countries.
-
- If you let education get higher than happiness, then find work going to 0% in
- your sectors, don't say you weren't warned :-)
-
- Just a tip on empire tactics: mobility is the key to dealing with many empire
- problems. Its often the bottleneck which interferes with various things, and
- the decisive advantage that gives victory to the attacker.
-
- Its a good idea to check after every update, to see if any sectors have work <
- 100%. "cen #0 ?work<100" is what I use. If work is < 100%, workers won't
- work at full efficiency, and if it gets very low the civs may revolt and
- you'll lose the sector. Build lots of happiness, and keep extra mil in sec-
- tors with work < 100%. That seems to help. Don't move civs out of sectors
- with work < 100%, or work will go down in the sector they move to.
-
- Just a note on nukes: in this version, there is a nice balance between nukes
- and economics. So if someone really wants to, he can do a lot of damage with
- nukes, but it costs him a *lot*. So its rare that a country is completely
- annihilated by nuclear attack, as used to be the case in PSL empire.
-
- No, my formula is civ = 2.8 mil + 8, to enlist the maximum of 0.4*(mil+10) per
- 8-etu update.
-
- The trick for boarding destroyers: you need a bunch of cargo ships, both to
- make several boarding attempts and to tend mil. When you try to board a ship,
- both the boarder and the boardee lose the same amount of mobility. You first
- have to get the destroyer's mobilty to be negative. Then you just keep trying
- to board it from one ship after another until you win. That's where my ship
- network method comes in handy. I usually have swarms of ships I can surround
- the enemy ships with.
-
- If you really want to beat him, map him out carefully, get your forces in
- position, then hit him very hard and try to overrun him in one night.
-
- If I have planes, my normal method is to take a sector I can see, put enough
- mil to hold it, des it "e" if it has lots of food, or maybe something else if
- there is a reason. Then get info about the adjacent sectors, and take the most
- promising one. Without planes its more of a struggle. Anway, I kind of zig-
- zag into the country taking the most interesting sectors, ignoring the others.
- This really seems to freak people out, when an enemy takes a path right
- through the heartland.
-
- You know there's a limit on how many ships in a given fleet can be navigated
- simultaneously? (32 ships I think).
-
- I would use planes (so having numerous airports each with a fair supply of
- fighters, spread around your country, would be the best countermeasure), ships
- (having forts loaded with guns and shells covering all coastlines helps a lot:
- also having destroyers and subs spread around your coastal waters in order to
- spot and counterattack enemy ships, also have bombers to bomb enemy ships, and
- radar stations to spot them is useful).
-
- I would invade by land, firing from forts, (mainly you need to counterattack
- actively when the enemy takes any sectors in your area, also forts wit
- guns/shells help a lot.) I would capture islands and build bridges to get into
- your country (so watch all offshore islands with bridge span range).
-
- Have a lot of shells in warehouses, ready to be moved to the front (you can
- move 4 for no mobility cost).
-
- I stop trying to develop areas involved in a conflict, and use them only for
- fighting.
-
- I turn the sectors in the front lines into forts, enlistment centers, banks,
- bridgeheads mainly. Then maybe some warehouses airports and harbors within
- range of the frontlines. And maybe some radar stations.
-
- Bombing enemy ships spotted by radar seems to work pretty well for the most
- part. If he has an aircraft carrier you can torpedo it.
-
- Mainly there are just lots of little tricks that you learn by experience. I
- usually figure its better to try some kind of attack and fail, than to be pas-
- sive.
-
- You never know exactly what may happen, sometimes you get lucky when you think
- its hopeless. So even if a plan has only a small chance of working, sometimes
- its worth a try, especially if the enemy has to actively do something to stop
- it. Sometimes he will just let you get away with it.
-
- Nocturnia has sunk two of my cargo ships unprovoked. I do not feel I could
- do much but get him pissed off right now, but would be willing if experts
- thought it for the best. I would need more guns and shells than I have for
- sure. What do you think I sould do? Sirus of Ranimes.
-
- See Also: overview, innards, HowToPlayEmpire
-
- Empire : Expert Advice
-
- Defense Against Nuclear Attacks
- Through the Denial of Information
- by Tom Tedrick
-
- A very good defense against nukes is to make it as difficult as possible for
- other players to find out where your country is, and thus to make maps of it.
-
- Here are some simple steps that you can follow:
-
- 1) Shoot down all planes that fly over your airspace. (Berkeley-type SAM
- missiles don't work too well for this purpose since the enemy can send in
- a few planes as SAM bait, and once all your SAM's have been fired off you
- have to rely on interceptors. I've had as many as a hundred SAM's wasted
- on a few such SAM-baiting planes. So you might as well build relatively
- few SAM's and concentrate on building large numbers of interceptors
- instead).
-
- It helps to have numerous airfields, say one airfield for every 25 sec-
- tors or so. Every airfield should be within interception distance of
- several other airfields, so that it is more difficult for an enemy to
- destroy or capture it. If an airfield is detected and nuked, you still
- have backup airfields. Every important sector should be within intercep-
- tion distance of several airfields.
-
- 2) Seal off all entrances to your inland seas by building bridges and laying
- mines (so no enemy ships can penetrate the area for mapping purposes).
-
- You can quickly clear an inland sea of enemy ships once you have it
- sealed off by systematically nuking the sea sectors. This is easier than
- hunting all over the place for subs.
-
- 3) Sink all surface vessels and submarines near your coastline. Have large
- fleets of destroyers posted around exposed coastal areas covering all sea
- sectors where enemy subs might try to sneak in for mapping purposes.
- Usually two fleets of 30 destroyers each are enough. Navigate the whole
- fleet one sector, stop and look for subs, navigate one more sector, stop
- and look for subs, and so on, until the fleet has made a circle and is
- back in its starting position. Sink any subs you find, of course.
-
- There is a maximum number of around 32 ships that can be in a fleet if
- you want to maneuver the whole fleet by fleet name (see info fleetadd).
-
- 4) Establish alliances under the condition that secrecy is maintained with
- respect to map information. Thus other allied countries can serve as a
- buffer zone against enemy countries. Many players are willing to be good
- allies.
-
- 5) Destroy or capture nearby radar stations.
-
- 6) Destroy or capture enemy air bases within range of your country. Until
- enemy technology gets high enough to launch against any target world-
- wide, they will often try to get someone to let them have an airbase hid-
- den near your country and launch nuclear strikes from there. I've always
- been able to find these if I worked at it.
-
- 7) Use psychological warfare. Nukers get tired of nuking you if it seems to
- have no effect. For example, have numerous false capitals, so that when,
- after great efforts, they manage to find what they think is your capital,
- and nuke it, only to discover that it was a fake, they will get
- discouraged. These fake capitals are also very useful as backups in case
- your real capital is discovered and destroyed.
-
- When an enemy gets close to doing real harm, a counterattack can often
- divert attention away from the current attack. Psychologically, attack-
- ers seem to underestimate the harm they are doing to you if you don't
- give out any information about how you are being affected, and they seem
- to overestimate the danger to themselves from your counterattack.
-
- Ship Networks and the Art of
- Transferring Supplies
- by Tom Tedrick
-
- Build large quantities of ships. When they're 100% efficient, load them with
- military and food (and civilians) if possible. Load guns and shells if you
- have them, but since they tend to be scarce, only a few ships will have them.
-
- Navigate them one by one as far as they will go. Leave only one ship in each
- sector (this makes it difficult for an enemy to sink very many of them, due to
- mobility restrictions and the problem of locating and identifying them one by
- one). On your maps, mark the ship number in the appropriate sector. Each sea
- sector thus has at most one ship number.
-
- Unless there is something in particular you want to do with a particular ship,
- leave it sitting in its sector indefinitely.
-
- As you build more and more ships, move them out one by one. If you leave ship
- X in a sector that already contains ship Y, ship Y should have full mobility
- by then. Navigate ship Y as far as it will go, then leave it sitting until a
- new ship comes along.
-
- Every ship in the network is now likely to be within range of some other ships
- in the network. If a ship requires any supplies, you can load them on a ship
- in a harbor, navigate it out, transfer the cargo via tend, navigate the tended
- ship, transfer its cargo, and so on, until you reach the any ship in the net-
- work. If you need military for assaulting or boarding, guns and shells for
- firing, torpedoing or laying mines, or if you simply want to move stuff into a
- distant harbor, you can do it using several tend and navigate operations.
-
- This has been particularly useful for sinking subs. I don't have enough guns
- and shells to keep all of my 100 or more destroyers fully armed, but when one
- of the unarmed destroyers spots a sub, I can arrange to transfer guns and
- shells to it from a loaded ship (or from a harbor).
-
- It's a very simple system from the player's standpoint, because all the player
- has to do is build the ship, navigate it, mark its number on the map, and for-
- get about it until a use for it arises. As more ships are built, the network
- automatically expands without requiring any planning. You don't have to keep
- anything in memory, except the ship number on your map. If any enemy surface
- ship gets trapped in the network, it's quite likely you can capture it, even
- if all you have is cargo ships (battleships, landing craft, and carriers could
- take some work though). If an enemy sub is spotted by your destroyers, you
- can almost always sink it. If a convenient target for an assault appears, you
- can get the necessary military there.
-
- Some Tricks to Use When Fighting
- by Various People
- (Mostly by Tom)
-
- The trick for boarding destroyers: you need a bunch of cargo ships, both to
- make several boarding attempts and to tend military. When you try to board a
- ship, both the attacker and defender lose the same amount of mobility. First
- you have to get the destroyer's mobility to be negative. Then you just keep
- trying to board it from one ship after another until you win. That's where my
- ship network method comes in handy. I usually have swarms of ships I can sur-
- round enemy ships with.
-
- If I have planes, my normal method is to take a sector I can see, put enough
- military to hold it, designate it e if it has lots of food, or maybe something
- else if there is a reason. Then get information about the adjacent sectors
- and take the most promising one. Without planes it's more of a struggle.
- Anyway, I kind of zig-zag into the country taking the most interesting sec-
- tors, ignoring the others. This really seems to freak people out, when an
- enemy takes a path right through the heartland.
-
- I would use planes (so having numerous airports each with a fair supply of
- fighters, spread around your country, would be the best countermeasure), ships
- (having forts loaded with guns and shells covering all coastlines helps a lot;
- also having destroyers and subs spread around your coastal waters in order to
- spot and counterattack enemy ships, also have bombers to bomb enemy ships, and
- radar stations to spot them is useful).
-
- I would invade by land, firing from forts, (mainly you need to counterattack
- actively when the enemy takes any sectors in your area, also forts with guns
- and shells help a lot). I would capture islands and build bridges to get into
- your country (so watch all offshore islands with bridge span range).
-
- Have a lot of shells in warehouses ready to be moved to the front (you can
- move four for no mobility cost).
-
- Bombing enemy ships spotted by radar seems to work pretty well for the most
- part. If he has an aircraft carrier you can torpedo it.
-
- You never know exactly what may happen, sometimes you get lucky when you think
- it's hopeless. Even if a plan has only a small chance of working, sometimes
- it's worth a try, especially if the enemy has to actively do something to stop
- it.
-
- See also : introduction, novice
-
- Empire : Deity Command Summary
-
- This list contains one-line descriptions of each Empire command meant for
- deity use:
-
- EMPIRE DEITY COMMANDS
- Add Country Create a country
- Country List the countries with their status
- Edit Modify sectors, nations, etc.
- Give Give(take) Commodities and/or money.
- New Capital Give a new country a capital
- Offset Temporarily change coordinate system
- Turn (Dis)allow logins, change the startup message
-
- Special Deity Syntax: @<CNUM>;<SECTS>.
-
- For example, to see country #3's sector 2,-2, type:
- [##:##] Command: census @3;2,-2
- Or to see country #5's realm 4, type:
- [##:##] Command: census @5;#4
- Comments from Dave Pare
- I've been deity of seven or eight games, and each time I learn something new
- about how far I should go, and how active a role I should take.
-
- There are several things a deity should take into account.
-
- 1) Bug policy. When a player says that a bug bit him, how do you handle it?
- Since I used to hack on the game at the same time players would play, I
- used to have a nasty bug policy. That is, if a bug bites a player, he
- loses. It is very difficult to verify if a player really did lose those
- 1000 gold bars from that bank because of a bug. Also, whenever a player
- had something bad happen to him, he'd yell BUG. All too often, the
- player just did something stupid.
-
- If a player ever found a good bug (and reported it in a timely fashion),
- I'd give him some kind of reward. The reward was generally material
- enough to encourage them to report bugs, but not too much so the other
- players complained. If through use of this bug the player manufactured
- too many goodies for himself, I acted to redress the balance immediately.
- This whole case is only interesting when the Deity knows the Empire code,
- and can identify bugs as such.
-
- 2) Unskilled players. It's tough watching your friends lose in an Empire
- game. Helping just a little by giving information, or by giving a teensy
- bit of assistance is BAD. Empire is NOT a game of socialist care for the
- needy; it's more like survival of the fittest. Players should sink or
- swim on their own. If you help a novice, you're deliberately hurting his
- opponent. Some players will lose, and as Deity you'll have to stand by
- and watch this happen.
-
- 3) Answering random prayers. If you DO help someone, help them in rela-
- tively minor ways. Do things like fill in some ocean, etc. Don't give
- away commodities -- except perhaps food. Whatever you do, don't give
- tech, military hardware, civilians, military, or any information at all!
- The game is very stingy with information, and you should be too.
-
- 4) Security. Make SURE that nobody else has access to the data directories.
- There are always players who will do anything to win. If you help them
- control themselves by making the data completely unavailable -- watch
- those dump tapes too -- you'll be doing their moral fiber and everyone
- else a favor.
-
- Remember, as Deity your job is to make the game fair. Don't hose players
- (unless they cheat -- and you catch them!) and don't give out information.
- Information is very important in Empire, and as Deity you've got access to all
- of it. Be careful in what you say, and how you leave your terminal at night!
-
- Unless you've got nothing else to do, a Deity should keep player communica-
- tions to a minimum. Handling special player requests gets tedious after a
- while; make players pay for Deity assistance. One game I suggested that the
- only way players could get the Deity to fill in ocean sectors, zap plague,
- etc, was to offer a real-life sacrifice to the deity -- a few bottles of good
- beer, for example! I got perhaps a dozen bottles, and managed to greatly cur-
- tail player requests at the same time!
-
- In summary, an Empire game should be between players. Any time the Deity
- helps anyone, Deity intervention starts becoming a factor in the game. As a
- Deity, you absolutely can't go wrong if you do nothing at all except routine
- game maintenance.
-
- See also : none
-
- Concept : Food
-
- In Empire, as in the real world, everyone must eat to survive, (see SPECIAL
- NOTE below for the exception). All of these numbers below are subject to
- change. Execute the version command to get some of this information. Ask the
- deity for the rest.
-
- Each civilian or military eats 0.0005 units of food per time unit, (i.e. 0.024
- units of food a day in non-Blitz Empire).
-
- The ability of a sector to grow food is indicated by its fertility. Fertility
- values range from 0 to 100.
-
- Food can be grown in any kind of sector although agribusinesses are able to
- grow more food with fewer workers.
-
- Every sector produces a base level of food according to the following:
- The amount of food that the sector can grow in one time unit is:
-
- fertility * 0.002
-
- The amount of food that can be harvested in one time unit is:
-
- (civilians + military / 5) * 0.002
-
- i.e. one civilian can harvest four times the amount that he/she eats while
- one military can harvest 4/5 of the amount that she/he eats.
-
- Note that this means that although a sector with a fertility of 40 can grow
- enough food to support 160 people at least 10 of them must be civilians. In
- fact, any combination of civilians and military that meets the following two
- criteria will be self-sufficient:
-
- civilians + military <_ 4 * fertility (amount that grows)
-
- military <_ 15 * civilians (amount that gets harvested)
-
- In an agribusiness an additional amount of food can be grown. That amount is
- calculated by the following:
-
- An efficiency factor (effact) takes into account the state of repair of the
- agribusiness itself (sector efficiency, effic) and the educational level of
- your farmers (the national education level, elev):
-
- effact = (effic * (elev + 10)) / (100 * (elev + 20))
-
- The amount of additional food that the sector produces in one time unit is:
-
- (civilians + military / 5) * effact * fertility / 1000.
-
- Thus, a 100% agribusiness with a fertility of 50 and an educational level of
- 10 has an efficiency factor is 2/3; one civilian can harvest 0.033 units of
- food per time unit beyond the food normally produced in that sector. This
- extra amount is enough to support 33-three other people while one military
- can harvest 0.0066, enough to feed 13 other people.
-
- agribusiness are:
-
- | EDUCATION LEVEL |
- | 0 | 10 | 100 |
- ------+-----+------+------+
- F 10 | 0.5 | 0.67 | 0.92 |
- E ---+-----+------+------+
- R 50 | 2.5 | 3.33 | 4.58 |
- T ---+-----+------+------+
- . 100 | 5.0 | 6.67 | 9.17 |
- ------+-----+------+------+
-
- SPECIAL NOTE: Residents of a sanctuary need no food to survive; thus no one
- ever starves in a sanctuary.
-
- On a ship the following applies:
-
- The amount of food that can be produced on a fishing boat in one time unit
- is:
-
- civil / 100. * fertil / 100.
-
- The amount of food that can be produced on any other ship in one time unit
- is:
-
- 0
-
- The presence of food also affects the birthrate in Empire; if there is no food
- in a sector no babies will be born. A baby consumes 0.3 units of food in
- growing to adulthood. However, babies are only allowed to eat half the food
- in a sector. Thus if a sector could produce 25 new civilians but only has 2
- spare units of food, (after the current population has eaten), only three
- babies will be born and one unit of food will be left.
-
- See also : innards
-
- Concept : Guerrilla
-
- Guerrillas are created in several ways; when a sector is captured by an
- enemy, or when civilians riot for one reason or another (starvation, no happi-
- ness, etc).
-
- Guerrillas have a generally detrimental effect on the well-being of your coun-
- try. Depending on the amount of military in the sector they infest, they will
- either attack the military there (but only if they have a good chance of win-
- ning), blow up things (lowering sector efficiency), or, if they are too badly
- outnumbered, they will try and move to a different sector.
-
- If there are no military in the infested sector at the end of the update to
- break up guerrilla recruitment drives, your civilians' loyalty will suffer.
- If the sector is only occupied -- not completely owned by you, that is -- then
- it will revert back to the old owner, renouncing the conqueror and returning
- to their old allegiance. The guerrillas will then move on to convert more
- sectors. Particular guerrilla bands will fight to the death, or until you
- dissolve in disgust.
-
- Guerrillas will attempt to recruit new followers from semi-loyal sectors and
- from the uncompensated worker population. Loyal civilians will resist these
- recruiting drives, but uncompensated workers will always flock to the banner
- of the guerrilla warrior.
-
- The renowned guerrilla fighter Colonel (later Captain) Batguano gave a talk to
- the special forces, which was later made into an Armed Forces Technical
- Manual. In it he states,
-
- The first thing you learn is that the che are hardier than cockroaches,
- eat like birds, and are simply invulnerable to gunfire and napalm.
- They hide in the sewers.
- There are two ways to handle the guerrilla problem;
- one way requires high yield fusion weapons,
- and then they only die when everything else in the sector is destroyed.
- Unfortunately, collateral damage to civilian assets renders this
- strategy negatory ... Col. Batguano then launches into
- a tirade against the wimpy-assed liberals which interfere with the
- proper guerrilla suppression techniques ...
- Almost every fully-populated area we moved into
- had a few dozen of the little monsters,
- and troop levels of 50-100 per sector were found to adequately
- pacify the region.
- Of course, depopulating the area prior to takeover often had a salutory
- effect on the number of che we later found...
-
- You will be notified of the varying civil disturbances by production telegrams
- showing a body count of guerrillas killed, a sector being subverted by revolu-
- tionary propaganda, or a sector lost to guerrilla activities!
-
- Concept : Happiness
-
- The happiness level of an Empire country is determined by the presence of
- park sectors in the following way. Whenever a park sector is updated and
- there are the proper amounts of raw materials (usually light construction
- materials and money -- see info products for exact figures), those materials
- are turned into happy strollers. The ratio of happy strollers to population
- can be found in the version command.
-
- The happiness level is actually a moving average, with the past happiness
- being weighted somewhat more than the current production. One large produc-
- tion of happiness will not cause the happiness level to jump by a large
- amount. Rather, it will affect the happiness level for days to come. If no
- happiness is produced, then within a few days to a week, the country's happi-
- ness will have dropped close to zero.
-
- Happiness is required for countries which have any sort of technology or edu-
- cation at all, with greater levels being required as the expectation (and
- tech/edu levels) of the populace increases. A country with an unhappy popula-
- tion can expect a decrease in the work of some sectors.
-
- The nation command will display, among other things, your current happiness
- level.
-
- See also : education, innards, nation, products, research, technology
-
- Concept : Plague
-
- Plague is used in Empire to symbolize all forms of disease and is the only
- health hazard associated with the Empire game, (ignoring it's effects on the
- players). The characteristics of plague are, therefore, a compromise of
- disease features (or bugs).
-
- The Empire Plague takes between 96 and 189 time units to run its course on
- land, (i.e., 2 to 4 days in any particular sector if an Empire time unit is
- 1/2 and hour), and twice as long on ships, (4 to 8 days). In so doing the
- plague goes through three stages:
-
- Stage I -- The gestation or incubation phase in which no symptoms appear.
- Sectors or ships that are in this stage of the plague are indistinguishable
- from healthy sectors or ships. This stage lasts 32 to 63 time units, (less
- than a day and a half).
-
- Stage II -- The infectious phase in which the symptoms first appear -- orange
- blotches on the face and hands, sometimes accompanied by grey stripes on
- the genitalia, itching of the liver and spleen, an uncontrollable fear of
- ripe tomatoes, etc. During this phase the plague is extremely
- communicable; for example, a simple delivery from an infectious sector will
- infect the destination sector.
-
- Stage III -- The terminal phase in which people die, often in the act of flee-
- ing from (real or imagined) tomatoes. The number of people that die is
- roughly inversely proportional to the research level of the country (plus
- 100).
-
- All three phases are of roughly equal average duration, (about 48 time periods
- or 1 day).
-
- Plague usually arises in countries with high technological development and
- comparatively little medical research. It arises specifically in sectors with
- high population density and low efficiency.
-
- Recently archaeologists have uncovered a treatise by a Dr. M. Welby entitled
- Demographic considerations and the Empire Plague. In part it states:
-
- It appeared that our original hypothesis
- based on the high percentage of Lumbagan Legionnaires
- among the afflicted had led us down a blind alley
- and that if we were to solve this complex puzzle
- before the end of the series in the spring
- possibly a reference to the series of tests
- leading to the mysterious Neilson Rating
- we would have to turn to other disciplines for help.
- It was only by the merest lucky coincidence
- that as I drove home one evening ...
- here Dr. Welby relates an amusing anecdote
- about a Brownie Scout and the director of a film
- entitled Close Encounters of the Third Grade ...
- leading us to the following amazing formulation
- of the relationship between medical research,
- technology, population, standard of living and the Empire Plague:
- likelihood civ + mil + uw t_level + (iron + oil) / 10 + 100
- of = -------------- * ---------------------------------
- plague 999 r_level + effic + mobil + 100
-
- Later formulations of this relationship show great similarity to his statement
- (see info innards).
-
- Many researchers have commented on the surprising lack of correlation between
- food supply and plague outbreak.
-
- Fortunately the plague is not infectious during the gestation stage so that
- the most effective method for curing plague has been to isolate it by emptying
- adjoining sectors during the gestation period.
-
- See also : innards, research, sector-types, technology
-
- Concept : Populace
-
- Unlike the other sector variables in Empire, the population cannot be traded,
- or sold. The civilian populace is the only provider of income to an Empire
- nation. Also, only friendly civilians can be enlisted into the army and navy.
-
- The loyalty of a given sector, also known as the willingness of the civilian
- population to work, is initially 100% -- that is, all of the people are work-
- ing. In the event that the sector is captured, starves, or falls victim to
- revolutionary subversion, the work of the sector will decrease. This will be
- shown by the work % decreasing.
-
- If people starve in a sector, the amount of work they do drops to 0, (because
- they are too weak to work).
-
- If a sector is a conquered sector, a star * will be shown in the appropriate
- column on the census report. Friendly sectors allow enlistment of military,
- as well as the ability to move the civilians freely about. Occupied civilians
- will not move, and friendly civilians cannot enter these sectors. In addi-
- tion, occupied civilians will not serve in the armed forces.
-
- If the thought of not being able to move conquered populace bothers you, then
- you have the option of converting these conquered people into uncompensated
- workers, involving the expenditure of BTU's and money (for the paperwork). If
- all the conquered people in one sector are converted to uw's, then the sector
- is then marked as yours.
-
- If the people in a sector are unhappy (due to starvation, subversion, or lack
- of happiness) they can go on strike and cease working. You can get them back
- to work by heavy-handed military control (placing one military for each 20
- striking civilians).
-
- Finally, your populace requires happiness to keep their enthusiasm for work
- going. As technology and education increase, your work force expects to share
- in the increased levels by getting more consumer items (VCR's, BMW's, etc)
- represented by happy strollers. If you don't have at least one happiness
- point per two units of education, and a point for each forty units of tech,
- your people will not be happy.
-
- See also : attack, happiness
-
- Concept : Prayers
-
- There is one country in the game that has no material possessions yet owns
- everything... That country is country #0 (often called The Deity). The power
- of this ethereal country is unbounded -- it can do anything from creating a
- civilian (as was the case with the first civilian), to literally moving moun-
- tains.
-
- Despite this great power The Deity is the champion of the meek and it is to
- country #0 that the downtrodden turn when in need of aid. The most common
- form of prayer is the telegram; if you should be in need of aid type:
- [##:##] Command: telegram 0
- When the program requests your message for The Deity, state it simply:
-
- Enter message for The Deity; end with ^D
- <512> Fumia took my capital and then deleted my account!
- <461> HELP!!
- <454> ^D
-
- If this doesn't get helpful results then you should send a second prayer with
- more specific details. e.g.
- <512> I'll donate a bar of gold (to charity)
- <473> for 20% more efficiency in my capital.
- <433> Okay?
- <428> ^D
-
- This last message is sure to move the compassionate Deity to provide help.
-
- Note that The Deity wouldn't consider providing instruments of destruction
- like guns & shells (unless, of course, the church had a particularly great
- need for a new set of gold candlesticks or the like).
-
- See also : telegram
-
- Concept : Products
-
- Many Empire sector types exist specifically to turn raw materials into pro-
- ducts. Some of those products may, in turn, be considered raw materials for
- other industries which produce other products.
-
- This table gives the constituents and costs for each type of product.
-
- NOTE: All costs given in the table are for 100% production efficiency. Many
- processes depend on technology level or educational level of the country; a
- note like p.e.=(tlev+10)/(tlev+20) means that a country with a technology
- level of 0 has a production efficiency of 50% and will only produce one-half
- of the specified product amount for the given costs, whereas a country with a
- technology level of 100 will have a production efficiency of 92%.
-
- The rate at which constituents are turned into products is governed by the
- work accrued to a sector (see info innards) divided by the units of consti-
- tuents per unit of product. E.g., it takes 3 units of work to produce 1
- shell; 2 units to incorporate the light construction materials and 1 unit for
- the heavy. Natural resources such as fertility count as one unit of consti-
- tuents; e.g., it takes 1 unit of work per unit of food produced.
-
- shells Shell production efficiency depends on technology level;
- p.e.=tlev/(tlev+10) Shells cost $3 each to manufacture. Each
- requires 2 units of light construction materials and 1 unit of
- heavy construction materials. You must have a minimum technology
- of 20 to produce shells.
- guns Gun production depends on technology level; p.e.=tlev/(tlev+10)
- Guns cost $30 each to manufacture. Each requires 5 units of light
- construction materials, 10 units of heavy construction materials,
- and 1 unit of oil. You must have a minimum technology of 20 to
- produce guns.
- iron Iron ore production depends on mineral content in mines. Extract-
- ing iron ore is free, and the mineral content of the sector is not
- depleted by mining iron.
- dust Gold dust production depends on gold mineral content in gold
- mines. Extracting gold dust is free, but the gold mineral content
- of the sector is depleted by mining gold dust.
- bars Gold bars are produced in banks. Gold bar production depends on
- gold dust in gold mines. Gold bars cost $30 to produce and
- require 5 units of gold dust each.
- food Food production efficiency depends on technology level and the
- fertility of the sector; p.e.=(tlev+10)/(tlev+20). Growing food
- is free, and the fertility of the sector is not depleted by grow-
- ing food.
- oil Oil production efficiency depends on technology level and the oil
- content of the sector; p.e.=(tlev+10)/(tlev+20). Pumping oil is
- free, but the oil content of the sector is depleted by extracting
- and refining oil.
- petroleum Petroleum production depends on technology level;
- p.e.=tlev/(tlev+10). A unit of petroleum costs $1 to manufacture.
- Every 10 units of petroleum require 1 unit of oil to produce. You
- must have a minimum technology of 20 to produce petroleum.
- lcm Light construction material production efficiency depends on tech-
- nology level; p.e.=(tlev+10)/(tlev+20). Producing lcms does not
- cost money, but requires 1 unit of iron ore.
- hcm Heavy construction material production efficiency depends on tech-
- nology level; p.e.=(tlev+10)/(tlev+20). Producing hcms does not
- cost money, but requires 2 unit of iron ore.
- rad Radioactive material production efficiency depends on technology
- level, which must be at least 40. p.e.=(tlev-30)/(tlev-40). Pro-
- ducing rads cost $2 per ton, and depletes the uranium content of
- the sector.
- education A unit of education (a class of graduates), costs $10 to produce
- and requires 1 unit of light construction materials.
- happiness A unit of happiness (happy strollers), costs $10 to produce and
- requires 1 unit of light construction materials.
- technology Technology production efficiency depends on education level;
- p.e.=elev/(elev+10). A unit of technology (a technological break-
- through), costs $100 to produce and requires 10 units of light
- construction materials, 5 units of oil and 1 unit of gold dust.
- research Research production efficiency depends on education level;
- p.e.=elev/(elev+10). A unit of research (a medical discovery),
- costs $100 to produce and requires 10 units of light construction
- materials, 5 units of oil and 1 unit of gold dust.
-
- Concept : Research
-
- The research level of an Empire country is determined by the output of
- research sectors in the following way. Whenever a research sector is updated
- and there are the proper amounts of raw materials (usually light production
- materials, oil and gold dust, see info products for exact figures), those
- materials are turned into medical discoveries; for each medical discovery, the
- research level of the country is raised by 1.
-
- The research level decays away with time however, (the diseases mutate), at a
- rate of 1% per 48 time units, (i.e., 1% per day in games with half-hour time
- units). Therefore if a country has 5 research labs each of which is supplied
- with enough materials and has enough workforce to produce 1.5 medical
- discoveries a day, the total national production of medical discoveries will
- be 7.5 per day and the research level of the country will approach 750, where
- the 1% daily loss exactly equals the daily gain of 7.5.
-
- The research level affects the likelihood of plague outbreaks.
-
- The nation command will display, among other things, your current research
- level.
-
- See also : innards, nation, products, technology
-
- Default : Rules
-
- One player, one country. You man NEVER use any country other than your own.
- It is ok for two people to play one country but it NEVER ok for one person to
- play two countries. If you get caught doing this, each country will be fined
- $300,000, your tech will drop to zero, your bars will disappear, and the more
- powerful of the two countries will be dissolved for you. The person who
- turned you in will get $100,000. DON'T DO IT.
-
- Ok, but what do I do when I'm away?
-
- 1) you may turn over your country to a non-player who has never
- played anyone else's country. You MUST tell me if you do this as I
- will be watching who is playing what.
- 2) you may turn your country over to me (the deity)
-
- Bugs: if you find a bug, you are REQUIRED to report it to me. I will not let
- other people know about the bug in most cases and in most cases, you may
- exploit it until it is fixed. Punishment for use without telling: at least
- $50,000.
-
- Concept : Sector Types
-
- BASICS INDUSTRIES MILITARY / SCIENTIFIC
- . sea d defense plant t technical center
- ^ mountain i shell industry f fortress
- s sanctuary m mine r research lab
- / wasteland g gold mine n nuclear plant
- - wilderness h harbor l library/school
- c capital w warehouse e enlistment center
- p park u uranium mine
- COMMUNICATIONS * airfield FINANCIAL
- + highway a agribusiness b bank
- ) radar installation o oil field
- j light manufacturing
- # bridge head k heavy manufacturing
- = bridge span % refinery
-
- BASICS
-
- SEA - Sea sectors form natural barriers that can only be crossed by ships,
- (made in harbors, below), or spanned by bridges, (also below). You can not
- designate anything else to be sea nor can sea be designated to be anything
- else.
-
- MOUNTAIN - Mountain sectors form another natural barrier that cannot be
- redesignated; however, they can be moved through (at great expense in terms of
- mobility units).
-
- SANCTUARY - Sanctuary sectors are created when a new nation is created. They
- are inviolate in that no one can fire at them or attack them. This protection
- ends when the new country first moves out of the sanctuary (called breaking
- sanctuary); the sector then becomes a capital. NOTE: in games with multiple
- sanctuaries per country ALL sanctuaries become capitals when any one does!
-
- WASTELAND - This is the result of the explosion of a nuclear device. Waste-
- lands are uninhabitable forever.
-
- WILDERNESS - Most of the world is wilderness at the beginning of the game.
- Wilderness has no particular attributes; you can move into it if unoccupied,
- thereby making it your territory, but will probably want to designate it as
- something else once you own it.
-
- CAPITAL - Capitals are the source of bureaucracy time units (BTU's). They
- accrue in proportion to the efficiency of the capital and the number of civi-
- lians at work in it. If a country has a 100% efficient capital with 100 civi-
- lians in it BTU's will accrue at the rate of 4 per hour, (assuming half-hour
- time units). Most commands use up BTU's, (see list of commands for numbers of
- BTU's used per command). A nation may only have one active capital at a time
- (although many sectors may be designated as capitals). If an active capital
- is captured by an attack a new one must be designated by the victim in order
- to be able to collect BTU's. The capture of a capital will result in the loss
- of money from the victim nation (loss of tax records, federal reserves, etc).
- Capitals are twice as efficient at defending against attack as other sectors
- (except fortresses). Use the capital command to make a capital the active
- one.
-
- PARK - Parks are provided solely for the convenience of the people. Parks
- require construction materials to provide maintenance services and add to a
- nation's happiness level. The conversion of raw materials takes place
- automatically at a rate dependent on the efficiency of the sector, the pres-
- ence of the required materials, and the number of workers in the sector.
-
- COMMUNICATIONS
-
- HIGHWAY - Whenever you move civilians, ore, gold, etc, mobility units (mob on
- the census) are consumed dependent on how far and how much you move. However
- if the movement is through 100% efficient highway it costs nothing to move.
-
- RADAR - Radar stations can scan the surrounding area (up to 6 units away for
- 100% efficiency) and generate a radar plot identifying sector types at dis-
- tances up to 1/3 their range and ships up to their full range.
-
- BRIDGE HEAD - Bridge heads are the land based ends of bridges. They, like
- harbors, turn construction materials into bridge spans; see info build for the
- details of this process.
-
- BRIDGE SPAN - A bridge span is the suspended part of a bridge that crosses
- water sectors. They are built and supported by bridge heads and are much like
- highways except for three things:
- (1) Bridge spans provide food through fishing, (the fertility can be thought
- of as fish-count).
- (2) Bridge spans must maintain at least 20% efficiency or else they collapse.
- (3) If the only bridge head supporting a particular bridge span is redesig-
- nated as something else the bridge span will collapse.
-
- FINANCIAL
-
- BANK - Banks are used for smelting and storing gold bars. They include a
- smelter to refine gold dust into gold bars. While the bars are stored in the
- bank the busy little bankers invest them and return a profit on their use.
- Banks are of the Fort Knox variety; they are more impervious to shelling than
- any other sector and military in them fight twice as hard against attack as
- those in industries. Banks are also particularly adept at moving gold bars
- around; bars are moved and stored in groups of four thus fewer mobility units
- are required to move a gold bar from a bank than anywhere else.
-
- INDUSTRIES
-
- DEFENSE - In defense plants construction materials are turned into guns. The
- conversion of raw materials into guns takes place automatically at a rate
- dependent on the efficiency of the sector, the presence of the required
- materials, the technology level of the country, and the number of workers in
- the sector. See info products for information on the materials required to
- produce guns.
-
- SHELL INDUSTRY - These sectors are similar to defense plant sectors except
- they turn construction materials into shells. The conversion of raw materials
- takes place automatically at a rate dependent on the efficiency of the sector,
- the presence of the required materials, the technology level of the country,
- and the number of workers in the sector. See info products for information on
- the materials required. One shell is used each time you fire, (except for
- submarines which use three shells to make one torpedo).
-
- MINE - Mines produce iron ore by digging it out of the ground. The rate at
- which it is produced is dependent on three factors; the efficiency of the
- mine, the number of civilians working in the mine, and the mineral sample for
- the sector (min on the census report). Iron is a renewable resource; i.e.
- digging up iron does not deplete the mineral content of the sector.
-
- GOLD MINE - Gold mines are similar to ordinary mines, (above), except that
- they produce gold dust. The rate at which it is extracted is dependent on
- three factors; the efficiency of the sector, the size of the labor force in
- the sector, and the gold sample for the sector (gmin on the census report).
- The raw gold dust can be transported to any sector but if it is left in a bank
- sector it will be refined into bars automatically . Gold is a non-renewable
- resource; i.e. extracting the gold depletes the gold content of the sector.
-
- URANIUM MINE - Uranium mines are very similar to gold mines, (above), except
- that they produce radioactive materials. The rate at which it is extracted is
- dependent on three factors; the efficiency of the sector, the size of the
- labor force in the sector, and the uranium content of the sector (uran on the
- census report). Uranium is a non-renewable resource; i.e. extracting it
- depletes the content of the sector.
-
- HARBOR - Harbors combine shipyard facilities and docks. Construction materi-
- als are converted into ships and the ships can be loaded and unloaded in the
- harbor, (see info load). No ships are constructed until the build command is
- given, (see info build).
-
- WAREHOUSE - Warehouses are used to store shells, guns, iron, gold dust, food,
- oil, light construction materials, and heavy construction materials. Moving
- the above out of a warehouse only takes one tenth the mobility cost it nor-
- mally would. Note: warehouses are often used as distribution centers.
-
- AIRFIELD - Airplanes can only be built in airports and most can only take off
- and land at airports. (though some can take off and land in other sectors and
- some can take of and land on aircraft carriers see ship-types for details)
-
- AGRIBUSINESS - These sectors are large farms and provide food. Agribusiness
- sectors produce as much as five times as much food as other sectors. The har-
- vesting takes place automatically at a rate dependent on the efficiency of the
- sector, the fertility of the sector (fert in the census), the education level
- of the country, and the number of workers in the sector. See info products
- for details.
-
- OIL - Oil fields produce oil by sucking it out of the ground. The extraction
- of oil takes place automatically at a rate dependent on the efficiency of the
- sector, the oil content of the sector (oil on the census report), the technol-
- ogy level of the country, and the number of workers in the sector. Oil is a
- non-renewable resource; i.e. extracting oil depletes the oil content of the
- sector.
-
- REFINERY - Refineries produce petroleum by processing oil. This production
- takes place automatically at a rate dependent on the efficiency of the sector,
- the number of workers in the sector, and the technology level of the country.
-
- LIGHT - Light manufacturing plants produce light construction materials from
- iron. This production takes place automatically at a rate dependent on the
- efficiency of the sector, the iron in the sector, the technology level of the
- country, and the number of workers in the sector.
-
- HEAVY - Heavy manufacturing plants produce heavy construction materials from
- iron. This production takes place automatically at a rate dependent on the
- efficiency of the sector, the iron in the sector, the technology level of the
- country, and the number of workers in the sector.
-
- MILITARY / SCIENTIFIC
-
- FORTRESS - Fortress sectors have many special characteristics; you can fire
- guns from fortresses, whenever an attack is launched from a fort or on a fort
- the military in the fort are stronger than military in any other type of sec-
- tor by an amount proportional to the efficiency of the fort. e.g. 100 military
- in a wilderness attacking a 100% efficient fort that has 25 military gives
- even odds; see info attack for details.
-
- TECHNOLOGY - Technical centers are bastions of pure technology research, which
- is to say universities with massive defense department grants. They turn con-
- struction materials into technological advances thereby raising the technology
- level of the country (which affects gun ranges, pollution, etc.). The conver-
- sion of raw materials takes place automatically at a rate dependent on the
- efficiency of the sector, the presence of the required materials, the educa-
- tion level of the country, and the number of workers in the sector.
-
- RESEARCH - The research lab is a bastion of pure medical research, which is to
- say it is a large university with massive March-of-Dimes funding. The
- research lab turns construction materials into medical discoveries which raise
- the research level of the country and help retard the spread of disease, (usu-
- ally caused by the pollution from technical centers). The conversion of raw
- materials takes place automatically at a rate dependent on the efficiency of
- the sector, the presence of the required materials, the education level of the
- country, and the number of workers in the sector.
-
- NUCLEAR - The nuclear lab is a bastion of applied technology, which is to say
- it is an immense underground building filled with evil geniuses playing Adven-
- ture on huge computers. The nuclear lab turns construction materials into
- nuclear weapons. No devices are constructed until the build command is given,
- (see info build).
-
- LIBRARY/SCHOOL - The library/school sector is the foundation of a country's
- educational structure. They use up construction materials to produce units of
- education which raise the educational level of the country (which affects the
- efficiency of research and technology sectors). The conversion of raw materi-
- als takes place automatically at a rate dependent on the efficiency of the
- sector, the presence of the required materials, and the number of workers in
- the sector.
-
- ENLISTMENT - The enlistment sector is the boot camp of Empire. It converts
- civilians into military, once the efficiency level has been raised to 60%.
- Unlike the other production sectors, it uses only military as a workforce, and
- converts civilians in the sector into military.
-
- See also : designate
-
- Concept : Taxes
-
- Civilians exist in Empire to work and provide cash to the government. Simply
- by existing, they generate revenue to their host country in proportion to the
- efficiency of the sector in which they work.
-
- The military-industrial complex exists in order to siphon off hard-earned tax
- dollars. Military cost (in general) about ten times as much as a civilian
- pays in taxes.
-
- In addition, final goods and services cost money to produce. Ships, planes,
- guns and shells are all examples of the costs inflicted upon a helpless
- government by the military-industrial complex. Also, services such as tech-
- nology research, medical research, and even happiness (money and lcm's can buy
- happiness here...) cost something to create. Consumer items such as food,
- lcm, hcm, and all other intermediate goods (or raw materials) cost nothing
- other than the hard work of the oppressed citizenry.
-
- Note that it takes ten civilians to keep one soldier in the field. Note also
- that the only way to make money is either to be pacifistic and let your nation
- accumulate wealth by having a small standing army, or by selling products to
- other nations.
-
- Concept : Technology
-
- The technological level of an Empire country is determined by the output of
- technology sectors, (see info products for the specifics). Whenever a techno-
- logical breakthrough is produced, the technology level of the country is
- raised by 1.
-
- The technology level decays away with time however, (the technology becomes
- obsolete), at a rate of 1% per 48 time units, (i.e., usually 1% per day).
- Therefore if a country has 6 technology centers each of which is able to pro-
- duce 1 technological breakthrough a day, the total daily production of techno-
- logical breakthroughs will be 6 and the technology level of the country will
- approach 600, where the 1% daily loss exactly equals the daily gain of 6.
-
- The technology level affects the range that guns can fire, the range over
- which radar is effective, the range that planes can fly and the range that
- torpedoes can travel, among other things.
-
- The nation command will display your current technology level and technology
- factor.
-
- See also : innards, nation, research
-
- Concept : Time
-
- Because of the unique nature of Empire governments, (i.e. the decision makers
- spend most of their time on vacation. Hmmm, not so unique actually), and the
- fact that ideally the Empire environment will mirror the real world, various
- heuristics dealing with time have been implemented.
-
- The first is the Bureaucratic Time Unit (BTU) concept which keeps track of the
- potential for doing work possessed by your government.
-
- The second heuristic, (i.e. hack), is the Elapsed Time Limit (ETL) which lim-
- its the amount of time that players may be logged on each day. The ETL is not
- cumulative and is reset to some particular value, (often two hours, check the
- version command to be sure), every night at midnight.
-
- The ETL and BTU counts are displayed with each command prompt as follows:
- [##:##] Command:
- The first ## is the Elapsed Time today, in minutes. This number starts at 0
- every midnight. The second ## is the number of BTU's remaining.
-
- See also : innards, version
-
- Concept : Ship Types
-
- The ships currently available in Empire are:
-
- patrol boat submarine oil derrick
- fishing boat tanker aircraft carrier
- minesweep heavy cruiser battleship
- destroyer cargo ship fishing trawler
- landing ship nuclear sub hydrofoil
- radar center
-
- These ship types differ in their fundamental capabilities; some can fire two
- guns, some only one; the sizes of the guns differ on all of them; cargo ships
- can carry many guns but can't fire them; etc. The capabilities of each ship
- are given by the show command. The headings are as follows. For the building
- data:
-
- lcm The lcm required to build the ship.
- hcm The hcm required to build the ship.
- tech The minimum technology required to build the ship.
- $ The cost of the ship.
-
- The headings for the capability listing are
-
- def defensive armament of the ship
- spd the distance/mu for moving (in relative units)
- vis how visible the ship is, (relative units)
- spy how far the ship can see, (i.e. how good the communication equipment is),
- again in relative units
- rng twice the distance the guns can fire, (assuming a high technology level)
- fir the number of guns the ship can fire at once
-
- Each ship can carry a certain amount of products and has certain capabilities.
- These are listed under the cargoes & abilities section. The cargoes give the
- number of each product that can be carried. The abilities are as follows.
-
- fish The vessel will accumulate food by fishing
- torp The vessel can fire torpedos.
- dchrg The vessel can drop depth charges
- plane The vessel can carry planes with the light attribute set.
- miss The vessel can carry missiles.
- oil The vessel can drill for oil
- sonar The vessel has sonar capabilities to detect submarines
- mine The vessel can lay mines
- sweep The vessel can sweep the sector for mines and recover them
- sub The vessel is a submarine
- spy The vessel can engage in spying activities
- land The vessel can be used as a landing craft
-
- Some examples of the output:
-
- [##:##] Command: show ship build
-
- lcm hcm tech $
- patrol boat 20 10 40 $350
- fishing boat 25 15 0 $200
- minesweep 25 25 20 $550
- destroyer 25 35 20 $1100
- submarine 40 30 70 $2200
- tanker 40 40 50 $4000
- heavy cruiser 40 50 40 $3000
-
-
-
- [##:##] Command: show ship cap
-
- def spd vis spy rng fir cargoes & abilities
- patrol boat 30 50 10 4 1 1 10m 10s 2g 30f
- fishing boat 10 20 15 2 0 0 30c 5m 100f fish
- minesweep 60 30 20 3 1 1 25m 60s 2g 25f sweep
- destroyer 80 35 20 4 3 2 80m 40s 4g 80f dchrg sonar mine
- submarine 30 25 2 3 2 2 25m 25s 4g 40f torp sonar mine sub
- tanker 40 25 60 3 0 0 30c 5m 990p 200f 990o
- heavy cruiser 100 30 30 5 6 3 120m 60s 6g 100f mine
-
- See also : coastwatch, fire, load, lookout, mine, navigate, tend, torpedo,
- fly, show
-
- Concept : Plane Types
-
- The general plane types currently available in Empire are:
-
- fighters
- escorts
- light bombers
- heavy bombers
- transports
- missiles
-
- These plane types differ in their fundamental capabilities; some can fly bomb-
- ing missions, other carry cargo, others exist to shoot down other planes.
- Missiles are special; they are planes which fly one-way missions and cannot be
- shot down by opposing planes.
-
- The technology level at which the plane was built is very important. The same
- model plane built at a higher tech level will outperform the planes built at a
- lower tech level.
-
- The particular planes available and their attributes are given by the show
- command. The fields given in the output are as follows. For building:
-
- lcm the amount of lcm to build the unit,
- hcm the amount of hcm to build the unit,
- tech minimum tech level to build this unit,
- $ cost of the unit in dollars,
-
- For the capability report the fields are:
-
- acc bomb accuracy, low is best; a 0 accuracy implies no ability.
- load bomb load/cargo capacity.
- att air-to-air combat attack rating.
- def air-to-air combat defense rating.
- ran base range (in sectors).
- mil military needed for crew.
- gas amount of fuel used each trip.
-
- The abilities are given as a set of attributes for each plane. These include:
-
- tactical pinpoint bombing ability
- intercept interception and escort ability
- cargo cargo-carrying and air-assault ability
- bomber strategic bombing ability
- VTOL vertical take-off ability -- no need to use airports
- missile missile -- one shot.
- light light, can land on carriers or be carried on a submarine
- spy spy ability, for recon missions
- orbit a satellite - stays in orbit until shot down
- xtra a stealth plane - has a chance of not triggering intercepts
-
- As an example of the output
- [##:##] Command: show plane build
-
- lt bomber 2 12 8 70 $900
- lcm hcm crew tech $
- fighter 1 8 2 1 40 $400
- lt bomber 1 10 3 2 40 $550
- transport 1 12 5 2 45 $800
- hvy bomber 1 20 6 3 50 $1100
- long bomber 1 20 6 4 60 $1100
- fighter 2 10 6 1 70 $800
-
-
- [##:##] Command: show plane cap
-
- acc load att def ran fuel abilities
- fighter 1 30 0 3 2 4 1 tactical intercept light
- lt bomber 1 30 1 1 2 5 1 bomber tactical light
- transport 1 0 9 0 1 8 2 cargo
- hvy bomber 1 90 5 2 3 9 2 bomber
- long bomber 1 90 2 1 2 30 4 bomber
- fighter 2 25 1 6 4 8 1 tactical intercept light
- lt bomber 2 25 2 2 3 10 1 bomber tactical light
- escort 2 25 0 5 4 12 2 tactical intercept light
- chopper 1 0 3 0 2 6 1 cargo VTOL light
-
- See also : fly, build, show
-
- Concept : Nuke Types
-
- There are three different types of nuclear devices in Empire: fission bombs,
- fusion bombs, and neutron bombs. Both fission and fusion bombs perform simi-
- larly, with fusion bombs giving more bang for the buck. Neutron bombs do much
- less damage to commodities and sector efficiency, but still inflict full dam-
- age on the population in the sector.
-
- In general, the only way to avoid damage by a nuclear detonation is to avoid
- the area prior to and during actual detonation. Hardening missiles (in silos)
- is the only exception, and even that cannot protect from a direct hit by the
- larger nuclear devices.
-
- The details of the nuclear devices present in Empire can be seen using the
- show command. The meaning of the fields are as follows:
-
- name The nukes name.
- lcm The amount of lcm needed to build the nuke
- hcm The amount of hcm needed to build the nuke
- oil The amount of crude oil required to build it.
- rad The number of radioactive products required to build it.
- tech The minimum tech level required to construct the nuke.
- $ The cost of the nuke to construct.
-
- The other fields given in the capabilities are as follows.
-
- blst The blast type of the nuke
- dam The damage rating of the nuke
- lbs the weight of the warhead, limiting missile and plane nuclear device
- carrying capacity.
-
- As a guide (these numbers are subject to change):
- [##:##] Command: show nuke build
-
- Concept : Nuke Types
-
- lcm hcm oil rad tech $
- 10kt fission 50 50 25 50 200 $7500
- 50kt fission 60 60 30 75 225 $9000
- 100kt fission 75 75 40 100 250 $12000
- 250kt fusion 50 50 25 50 280 $7500
- 500kt fusion 60 60 30 75 295 $9000
- 1mt fusion 75 75 50 100 310 $12000
- 3mt fusion 100 100 75 127 325 $19000
-
- [##:##] Command: show nuke capab
-
- blst dam lbs tech $
- 10kt fission 3 80 4 200 $7500
- 50kt fission 3 100 6 225 $9000
- 100kt fission 4 120 8 250 $12000
- 250kt fusion 4 150 4 280 $7500
- 500kt fusion 5 170 6 295 $9000
- 1mt fusion 6 190 8 310 $12000
- 3mt fusion 7 210 10 325 $19000
-
- The larger the megatonnage, the more damage done by the weapon. Effects (as
- in the real world) can only be determined by experimentation, although
- research suggests that radioactivity left behind by nuclear detonations may
- have lasting effects.
-
-
- Here are the blast patterns for typical nuclear devices:
- 3mt fusion, air burst
-
- 17% 17%
- 17% 77% 97% 77% 17%
- 17% 97% / / 97% 17%
- 77% / / / 77%
- 17% 97% / / 97% 17%
- 17% 77% 97% 77% 17%
- 17% 17%
-
- 3mt fusion, ground burst
-
- 16% 16%
- 16% 32% 42% 32% 16%
- 16% 42% 95% 95% 42% 16%
- 32% 95% / 95% 32%
- 16% 42% 95% 95% 42% 16%
- 16% 32% 42% 32% 16%
- 16% 16%
-
- 1mt fusion, air burst
-
- 2% 2%
- 2% 62% 82% 62% 2%
- 2% 82% / / 82% 2%
- 62% / / / 62%
- 2% 82% / / 82% 2%
- 2% 62% 82% 62% 2%
- 2% 2%
-
- 1mt fusion, ground burst
-
- 28% 37% 28%
- 37% 85% 85% 37%
- 28% 85% / 85% 28%
- 37% 85% 85% 37%
- 28% 37% 28%
-
- 500kt fusion, air burst
-
- 47% 67% 47%
- 67% / / 67%
- 47% / / / 47%
- 67% / / 67%
- 47% 67% 47%
-
- 500kt fusion, ground burst
-
- 24% 32% 24%
- 32% 75% 75% 32%
- 24% 75% / 75% 24%
- 32% 75% 75% 32%
- 24% 32% 24%
-
- 250kt fusion, air burst
-
- 32% 52% 32%
- 52% 92% 92% 52%
- 32% 92% / 92% 32%
- 52% 92% 92% 52%
- 32% 52% 32%
-
-
- 250kt fusion, ground burst
-
- 20% 27% 20%
- 27% 65% 65% 27%
- 20% 65% / 65% 20%
- 27% 65% 65% 27%
- 20% 27% 20%
-
- 100kt fission, air burst
-
- 10% 30% 10%
- 30% 70% 70% 30%
- 10% 70% 90% 70% 10%
- 30% 70% 70% 30%
- 10% 30% 10%
-
- 100kt fission, ground burst
-
- 14% 20% 14%
- 20% 50% 50% 20%
- 14% 50% / 50% 14%
- 20% 50% 50% 20%
- 14% 20% 14%
-
- 5kt fission, air burst
-
- 32% 32%
- 32% 52% 32%
- 32% 32%
-
- 5kt fission, ground burst
-
- 25% 25%
- 25% 60% 25%
- 25% 25%
-
- see also: launch, fly, build, transport, show.
-
-
- CHANGES :
-
- This file enumerates some of the more important chnages between BSD Empire
- 1.1 and versions previous to 1.0.
-
- The empire client protocol has changed for 1.1. Get a new copy.
-
- You can change your country name for free when you are still in sanctuary.
-
- The option of doing "sonar", "radar", or "lookout" in the middle of a navigate
- has been re-installed, but to do so costs 1 BTU per instance.
-
- for details.
-
- Power takes an optional argument. Say either "power x" or "power new x" to
- see the top x countries.
-
- Report takes an optional argument. Say "report cnum" or "report cname" to see
- a report of country #cnum (named cname).
-
- To see the fertility, min, gmin, etc of a sector, use "resource". Same syntax
- as census.
-
- "Nation" no longer displays diplomatic status information. The new command
- "relations" does. Both are correctly documented.
-
- Planes cost 1/10th of the listed cost, because there is a cost involved in
- making and keeping it efficient. So you may think they're cheap, but they
- will cost you bucks in the long run.
-
- "plane" and "ship" no longer default to all of your ships if you don't specify
- an argument. To get all ships or planes, type "ship *" or "plane *".
-
- Information : Bugs
-
- Harden doesn't seem to work.
-
- Hardened planes/ships can still be transported.
-
- Plane wing's don't work.
-
- The classification scheme used by report is dumb.
-
- Capital doesn't check who owns a sector before telling you if it is a capital.
-
- 500 kiloton fusion bombs did the same damage as 3 megaton fusion bombs. I
- suspect this problem is more general but I haven't tested all possibilities.
-
- You can make a sector temporarily useless by filling up all its fields with
- delivery and distribution information. This is useful when an enemy is trying
- to capture the sector (his mil don't have room to move in :-) You have to halt
- some of the deliveries or distributions to make room for the military to move
- in.
-
- Warehouses can't distribute all commodities simultaneously, due to limited
- fields for this information. This becomes a problem if you have a countrywide
- network of warehouses distributing to each other.
-
- You can sometimes build planes in non-airport sectors, deliberately or
- accidentally.
-
- You can sometimes move small quantities of certain items from warehouses at no
- mobility cost, even into mountains (this is my favorite bug, I'd hate to see
- it fixed :-)
-
- Guerrillas don't seem to carry the plague.
-
- You can get information about enemy sectors by attacking with 0 military.
- This costs 0 BTU's currently (this is another of my favorite bugs :-) This is
- a good way to flood the enemy mailbox with junk mail at no cost in BTU's.
-
- You can sometimes trick someone into paying a huge price for commodities by
- changing the price suddenly. Therefore one should always check prices when
- buying commodities.
-
- When two countries are attacking each other simultaneously, you can sometimes
- move into a sector he is in the process of attacking. If you get the timing
- right, he will take the sector but you will get it back, along with all his
- military.
-
- If a plane is out to trade, and gets shot down, it can still be bought until
- the next update. If another country builds a new plane that gets the number
- of the plane that was shot down, the new plane will go on the trading market
- automatically. Then if that plane is bought, the money goes to the country
- whose plane was shot down, not the country that built the plane. I stole
- numerous planes (including nuclear missiles :-) this way (by deliberately put-
- ting low numbered planes up for trade, then having them shot down).
-
- If a plane has negative mobility, then gets traded, mobility goes to 0.
-
- Firing on sectors with land-locked sunken ships does strange things.
-
- If two countries are cooperating, its possible to raid an enemy airport and
- steal the planes by putting them out to trade.
-
- You can also strip enemy sectors of commodities using sell, if you have mili-
- tary control temporarily.
-
- One can raid an enemy harbor and use up all the raw materials by building use-
- less ships.
-
- One can make work go back to 100 everywhere in a country by moving all civili-
- ans in low-work sectors onto a bridge, then collapsing the bridge. Work then
- goes to 100 at the next update, if you leave some mil in the vacated sectors.
- Or you can move mil out too, letting the sector ownership change to the Deity,
- then move back in from a 100% working sector, and work goes immediately to
- 100.
-
- Two cooperative countries can move commodities around at no mobility cost
- using the market.
-
- You can depopulate an enemy sector in a raid by converting all civs to uws and
- selling them. This can make it hard for the victim to get back in the game
- even with a rapid & successful counterattack.
-
- Sometimes sector ownership doesn't change when the last civ starves, so you
- may get census information about sectors with 0 civs. Later this same sector
- may get its ownership switched to the Deity without your doing anything.
-
- You can only have so much of a commodity in a sector. If you went over 32,000
- and something, units of food, for example, bizarre things might happen. I
- think that has been fixed.
-
- Treaty had bugs (for example, firing on any ships was considered a treaty vio-
- lation, not just the ships of the country you had a treaty with). I think
- Jeff might have fixed this.
-
- Also air attacks were not considered treaty violations. This may have been
- fixed.
-
- You can collapse enemy bridges by making a lightning raid on his bridgeheads
- and redesignating them, even if you only hold the bridgehead for a short time.
-
- You can map out enemy territory by raiding his radar stations.
-
- Condition checking is very treacherous. Global commands with conditions are
- unreliable. I never figured out exactly what was wrong, although I think your
- method of putting conditions towards the front of the line helped sometimes.
-
- You can have more than 26 ships in a fleet, but only the first 26 will move
- when you navigate the fleet (I think 26 is the right number, but I'm not cer-
- tain. It might be 32).
-
- Look only spots subs (from destroyers) at a certain distance. If you are too
- close you won't see them (unless you are in the same sector).
-
- You can only fly as many planes on a mission as you can fit on the command
- line (so low numbered planes have an advantage this way).
-
- I never managed to load more than 1 warhead on a missile, but I didn't have
- time to investigate this thoroughly.
-
- Wilderness sectors that you own don't appear as ? on enemy maps, so you can
- sometimes hide information by leaving sectors as wilderness.
-
- When a sector has a visible ship, radar doesn't show whether the sector is
- land or sea, just the ship. This has interesting possibilities for exploita-
- tion (like land-locking a battleship in your capital in order to deceive the
- enemy :-)
-
- I don't think you can land planes on a land-locked aircraft carrier anymore.
-
- Its common to mistakenly set the price of a plane or ship incorrectly so one
- should check trade after using set.
-
- Torpedo isn't random, but always works within range (another of my favorite
- bugs :-)
-
- Transporting nukes costs 0 mobility.
-
- The must be accepted by date on offered loans is bogus.
-
- Turn off doesn't stop updates.
-
- See also : list, commands, innards, and the SOURCE
-
- Concept : Innards
-
- This topic contains fairly nitty-gritty descriptions of some of the underly-
- ing mechanisms in the Empire system. It is not meant for the weak-of-heart or
- casual reader. (And it's usually out of date.)
-
- Sector Updates
-
- Several characteristics of the Empire game are dependent on sector updates --
- mobility, efficiency, mining of ore, generation of production units, etc.
-
- An understanding of the calculations involved is often helpful in planning the
- timing of various actions and although it is unlikely that this description is
- strictly up to date, it should provide a feel for the overall philosophy.
-
- All commodities in a sector are kept as short integers. The program cannot
- have negative commodity values, so the theoretical capacity of a sector is
- 32767, while in practice it is actually 9999 in warehouses, and 999 in most
- other sectors. While it is possible to move more commodities than 999 into
- the non-warehouse sectors, production of commodities will not go above the
- level of 999. So, an update that produces 450 units of iron in a sector that
- already has 800 units can at most add 199 units.
-
-
- Here is an approximate description of the algorithm that is called whenever an
- update occurs:
-
- Variables used are:
- etus the # of Empire time units in this update
- civ civilians in the sector
- mil military in the sector
- uw uncompensated workers in the sector
- desig designation of the sector
- effic efficiency of the sector
- miner iron mineral content of the sector
- gold gold mineral content of the sector
- t_level technology level of the country
- r_level research level of the country
- p_stage plague stage in the sector
- p_time plague stage duration
- workforce an intermediate variable that represents work potential
- work the amount of work done in the sector
-
- Parameters used are (see the version command for actual values):
- s_p_etu seconds per Empire time unit
- fgrate the food growth rate
- fcrate the food cultivation rate
- eatrate how much food people eat
- obrate birth rate
- uwbrate uncompensated worker birth rate
- babyeat how much babies eat growing up
- bankint bank interest rate in $/bar
-
- workforce = (civ*100/sector work + uw + mil / 5.) / 100.
- If workforce = 0 go away and don't update anything
-
- /* increase sector efficiency */
- If the weather is good enough for construction and we're not broke then
- effic becomes effic + work (if possible) and costs $1 for each
- percentage point gained.
- Otherwise charge the $1 for each percentage point that would have been
- gained, (pay for workers to play cards).
-
- /* grow some food */
- Set dd = etu * sector_fertility * fgrate
- (this is the amount of food that can be grown in etu time units)
- Set dtemp = work * 100. * fcrate
- (this is the amount of food that the people there can harvest)
- If (dtemp < dd) (if there aren't enough people to harvest it all)
- set dd = dtemp
- Set foodtmp to the amount of food in the sector plus dd
-
- /* feed the masses */
- If desig is sanctuary then
- set dd equal to 0.
- Else
- set dd equal to etu * (civ + mil) * eatrate
- (this is the amount of food the people need to eat)
- If (dd > foodtmp) then some people will starve
- figure out what percentage of the population can be fed,
- and kill the rest (up to a maximum of 1/2 the populace)
- set food = 0
-
- Otherwise
- set food = foodtmp - dd (with a maximum of 999)
-
- /* population growth */
- set q = etu * civ * obrate
- the number of births possible in other sectors
- If q is bigger than food / (2 * babyeat) set q to food / (2 * babyeat)
- food available to mature this many babies into civilians
- If q is bigger than 999 - civ set q to 999 - civ
- enough room for that many
- Set food = food - q * babyeat
- Set civ = civ + q
-
- /* mobility */
- Add etu to mobil (to a max of 127)
-
- /* pay taxes */
- Collect the taxes, pay the military
- nat_money -= (milcost * mil)
- nat_money += (civtax * civ)
-
- /* plague */
- If p_stage = third kill off a bunch of people,
- alert the owner and the news and decrement p_time by dt.
- If p_time <= 0 set p_stage = zero (plague has burned itself out).
- If p_stage = second report
- to the owner and the news and decrement p_time by dt.
- If p_time <= 0 set p_stage = third
- and randomly reset p_time in the range of 32 to 64.
- If p_stage = first decrement p_time by dt.
- If p_time <= 0 set p_stage = second
- and randomly reset p_time in the range of 32 to 64.
- If p_stage = zero and a random number in the range 0-99
- is less than the figure generated by the equation in info plague
- then set p_stage = first
- and set p_time to a random number of half hours between 32 and 64.
-
- /* delivery & distribution */
- If anything is being delivered from this sector and there is
- more of it than the delivery threshold (always a multiple of 8)
- and the country is not broke
- deliver as much of the excess as mobility allows.
- If plague_stage is second (the infectious stage)
- set plague_stage and plague_time in the destination sector.
- If there is a distribution threshold for this sector, and
- if the sector isn't at this threshold,
- import or export as necessary from the distribution warehouse
- the number of commodities, mobility permitting.
-
- /* production */
- If effic is less than 60 skip the rest.
-
- If desig is bank then accrue etu * bankint interest per gold bar
- If desig is capital pay etu * $1 for government salaries
- If desig is enlistment sector, then convert civilians to military
- newmil = (etu * (mil + 10) * 0.05);
- nat_money -= newmil * 3;
-
- If this sector produces something (mines, research labs, etc.)
- calculate how much can be produced (see info products)
- (Note that the amount that can be produced is limited by work)
- produce it
- pay for it (money, iron, gold mineral, oil, etc.)
-
- Several points are noteworthy:
-
- The work done in a sector(ore dug up, efficiency growth, population growth,
- products generated, etc) is dependent on the product of time since last update
- and work force (work above) while the accumulation of mobility is independent
- of work force.
-
- If the population of a sector is very low it may never generate any work at
- all due to conversion to integer truncation.
-
- Ship Updates
-
- Ships are also updated only when accessed however the mechanism is simpler.
- The only characteristics that are changed by ship updates are the mobility,
- the efficiency, (if less than 100%). the food, (and therefore the crew if
- starvation occurs), the amount of oil, and plague status, (which can also
- change the size of the crew).
-
- The algorithm is essentially:
- add etu to mobility (with a maximum of 127)
- add etu to efficiency (with a maximum of 100)
- add etu * civil * sector_oil / 10000. to oil if ship type is oil derrick
- add etu * civil * sector_fertil / 10000. to food if ship type is fishing boat
- feed the crew and passengers
- starve a few if not enough food
- check for plague progress,
- (the same as in sectors except each stage lasts twice as long on a ship)
-
- Bureaucratic Time Units
-
- There is one further update that is not handled in the sector update routine;
- that is the update of bureaucracy time units (BTU's). These are the numbers
- printed in brackets before the command prompt. Most commands given use BTU's,
- some use 1, some use 2 and some use more, making BTU's a vital commodity. The
- generation of BTU's is dependent on the efficiency and the work force in the
- capital sector. Note that no capital implies no BTU's.
-
- The relationship governing the accumulation of BTU's is:
-
- etu = (current time - last login time) / s_p_etu;
- BTU = BTU + etu * civil * effic / 50
-
- Therefore, a 100% capital with 100 civilians gains 96 BTU's a day, while a 30%
- capital with 38 civilians only gains 11 (10.94) BTU's a day. Note that the
- etu calculation is rounded off to the nearest s_p_etu time units, so if your
- last logoff was less than s_p_etu seconds ago, you will receive no btus.
-
- See also : education, happiness, products, research, technology, time
-
- Concept : Differences from Old Empire
-
- UCB Empire Version 0.9.24 - Update for Version 1.2 Players
-
- So you want to try the New Empire Huh?
-
- Okay, I have written this document with YOU in mind! Welcome to the Univer-
- sity of California at Berkeley's Empire! (From now on called UCB Empire).
- There are a whole bunch of changes in the game since we last played, so I need
- to bring you up to date.
-
- Our OLD EMPIRE game was Version 1.2 - written way back in the 70's by Peter
- Langston, when he was going to College like we are! But Empire has come along
- way since then - and what many have considered the REAL EMPIRE was released in
- 1985 - containing the final version of Peter Langston's Empire game. It still
- is considered the Standard. But in 1986 the computer brains at Berkeley
- decided to play around with the Source Code and create their own enhanced ver-
- sion of the game. Hence Berkeley Empire was created....
-
- Changes from Version 1.2
-
- (Please keep in mind that these are only a FEW on the changes - you're going
- to have to read the Manual and use the INFO command to get a REAL good idea on
- what you should read up on - DON'T depend on this list to tell you everything
- you need to know)
-
- There is an announce command - this command sends a Telegram to EVERYONE in
- the game - and you can make an announcement to the World.
-
- In the OLD game - you simply dug up ORE and sent it to the Shell, Defense,
- etc. factory to have it processed into something else (make guns, shells,
- etc).
-
- But in the NEW game - sectors are a lot more complex. For one thing curtain
- sectors CAN'T even PRODUCE until your country has reached a given TECH level.
- These sectors are currently:
-
- Shell Factories (need at least 20 TECH) Gun Factories (need at least 20
- TECH) Petroleum Plants [ for Airplane Fuel ] (need at least 20 TECH) Uranium
- Mines (need at least 40 TECH)
-
- Other sectors can produce normally, even though your TECH level is still 0.
- Keep in mind that you CAN DESIGNATE the ABOVE sectors - but they won't produce
- until you reach the desired TECH LEVEL.
-
- Also, it takes more Materials to make 1 Unit of a finished product. By this I
- mean that to make approximately 1 SHELL at your shell factory, you'd have to
- have: 3 Dollars (in the treasury), 2 LCM, 1 HCM, and at least 20 TECH Level.
-
- LCM is Light Construction Materials, HCM is Heavy Construction Materials, and
- I discussed the TECH Level problem (above). To fully understand this concept
- - please see info products and info sector-types.
-
- FORTS - have been improved. It used to be in OLD Empire that you had to use
- the DEFEND command to say which sectors you wanted to DEFEND with the guns
- from your fort. But in the NEW Empire - your forts will fire on ANY enemy
- attacker as long as the attacker is within the guns' range when the attack was
- made. Hence - no more DEFEND command.
-
- FOOD - In the OLD Empire you didn't have to worry about it - the people fed
- themselves. But in the NEW Empire - there is a new sector designation called
- a for agribusiness. These are farms that make food and you have to transport
- that food to other sectors that don't grow food or those sectors will starve.
- **NOTE** that in the FERTILITY rating in the CENSUS report - only those with
- HIGH Fertility ratings can successfully grow food. If the FERTILITY rating is
- in the 10-30% - BE CAREFUL - they may not be able to grow enough food to sus-
- tain even themselves! Food is also a great Commodity to SELL (hint,hint!)
-
- WEATHER - There ISN'T ANY! (no more rainy days :-) Although judging from the
- way Berkeley has been improving the game - it won't be long til they do fix
- it. Can you imagine what weather will be like if they update it like the did
- the planes! Thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes,
- etc. BUT FOR NOW - THERE IS NO WEATHER - Atmosphere is stuck at 0 - clear
- days!
-
- NEXT UPDATE (how will I know when it is supposed to Happen?) - EMPIRE will
- always tell you when the NEXT UPDATE is scheduled by using the VERSION com-
- mand. VERSION will also tell you how much food will grow per-update and also
- things like - how much food you people eat per update - etc.
-
- MAP CHANGES - in the OLD Empire you could move u)p, l)eft, r)ight, d)own, etc
- - but now you have to move in DIAGONALS - you'll get used to it - the world is
- set up like this so the game can handle more SECTORS per world. Basically
- means that the MAP display is more condensed - and you'll be able to see more
- sectors on a MAP display than ever before.
-
- A few new SECTOR-DESIGNATIONS have been added:
-
- BASICS INDUSTRIES MILITARY / SCIENTIFIC
- . sea d defense plant t technical center
- ^ mountain i shell industry f fortress
- s sanctuary m mine r research lab
- / wasteland g gold mine n nuclear plant
- - wilderness h harbor l library/school
- c capital w warehouse e enlistment center
- p park u uranium mine
- COMMUNICATIONS * airfield FINANCIAL
- + highway a agribusiness b bank
- ) radar installation o oil field
- j light manufacturing
- # bridge head k heavy manufacturing
- = bridge span % refinery
-
- PLEASE! Fully READ the info sector-types
-
- I haven't got time to go through all of them - but I will point out a few of
- them that might be unfamiliar to you.
-
- PARKS - these are special because they convince your people that they should
- ENLIST and go out and fight for you! Lots of fun - gotta have one of these to
- keep the ENLISTMENT rate high.
-
- URANIUM MINE - I forgot to add this above with the other Commodities - with
- the Commodities FERTILITY, OIL, GOLD, MINE - there is also URANIUM. Uranium
- is the most UNCOMMON natural resource and hence those that have a deposit of
- it should be careful to guard it well. When URANIUM is dug up it becomes
- radioactive Matter - you then deliver the Radioactive Matter to the Nuclear
- Plant and have it converted into - you guessed it - NUKES! Be aware, however,
- that you must have a HIGH Tech level to make nukes - and it is going to take
- you a LONG TIME to get to this point.
-
- REFINERY SECTORS: These are where the OIL you make is turned into PETROL(-eum)
- for your various AIRPLANE needs. Planes run on PETROL and the refinery sec-
- tors make PETROL out of OIL. You then have to deliver the PETROL to your Air-
- ports for use...
-
- LIBRARY/SCHOOL: Obviously your people aren't very smart :-) As it is your
- going to need to educated them. Education will increase CROP yields and also
- help with TECHNOLOGY. see info education.
-
- World Updates
-
- In the OLD EMPIRE - updates weren't handled in a FAIR way. If you created a
- 0% FORT before you logged out of Empire - it would REMAIN a 0% FORT until you
- logged back into Empire - and if your on a LONG weekend that could have meant
- that you would be WIPED OUT!!!!
-
- In the NEW EMPIRE - updates are handled by an independent program called the
- Transaction Manager. This program runs independently of EMPIRE and runs at 4
- hours intervals, updating the game constantly. That means that you enemies
- will be updated just as often as you ARE - and may make them think a little
- more carefully about attacking you. The CURRENT update times are:
-
- 2am, 6am, 10am, 2pm, 6pm, 10pm (In the local time zone)
-
- NO OTHER UPDATES ARE POSSIBLE - except at these times. What is updated is all
- Mobility, Food Production, Shell & Factory Production, Ship Plane and Sector
- Efficiency, and EVERYTHING that update used to do. (hence there is NO Update
- Command). Everyone is updated at the SAME TIME!
-
- Other Things That Might be of Interest
-
- Terrorists! - (real trouble makers, but great for setting on your enemies -
- they blow up things and convert followers!)
-
- SHOOT - it is now possible to SHOOT your civilians (captured enemy ones) or
- your own :-) God knows why you would but... sometimes the conquered people
- are REAL radical and it DOES become necessary
-
- SELL - you can sell your goods on the OPEN Market - and set PRICE MULTIPLIERS
- so that your enemies HAVE to buy at a BIG mark up - but your friends can still
- buy your good cheap!
-
- Okay - you've been waiting for it - so here it is! The new line of Ships,
- Planes and Nukes for Empire:
- The Ships
-
- $$$ lcm hcm tec def spd vis spy rng fir
- 350 20 10 40 30 50 10 4 1 1 patrol boat
- 200 25 15 0 10 20 15 2 0 0 fishing boat
- 550 25 25 20 60 30 20 3 1 1 minesweep
- 1100 25 35 20 80 35 20 4 3 2 destroyer
- 2200 40 30 70 30 25 2 3 2 2 submarine
- 4000 40 40 50 40 25 60 3 0 0 tanker
- 3000 40 50 40 100 30 30 5 6 3 heavy cruiser
- 600 60 40 0 50 25 35 3 0 0 cargo ship
- 2000 50 50 120 20 10 80 4 0 0 oil derrick
- 4400 70 65 60 80 30 35 8 2 2 aircraft carrier
- 4000 55 65 50 127 30 35 6 8 4 battleship
- 1500 60 30 120 15 40 15 5 0 0 fishing trawler
- 4000 90 60 320 30 40 1 3 0 8 nuclear sub
- 1200 40 40 70 30 30 30 2 0 0 landing ship
- 2500 40 40 220 20 70 17 5 0 0 hydrofoil
- 6000 80 30 280 20 30 20 10 0 0 radar center
-
- food civ mil sh gun pln dst pet oil
- 30 0 10 10 2 0 0 0 0 patrol boat
- 100 30 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 fishing boat
- 25 0 25 60 2 0 0 0 0 minesweep
- 80 0 80 40 4 0 0 0 0 destroyer
- 25 0 25 25 4 0 0 0 0 submarine
- 200 30 5 0 0 0 0 990 990 tanker
- 100 0 120 60 6 0 0 0 0 heavy cruiser
- 900 50 50 300 50 0 900 0 0 cargo ship
- 300 80 80 0 0 0 0 0 200 oil derrick
- 180 0 350 350 4 8 0 500 0 aircraft carrier
- 300 0 200 100 8 0 0 0 0 battleship
- 120 25 5 0 0 0 100 25 0 fishing trawler
- 500 30 30 25 4 8 0 60 0 nuclear sub
- 300 0 400 0 0 0 0 0 0 landing ship
- 20 60 30 0 0 0 0 0 0 hydrofoil
- 60 0 20 0 0 0 0 0 0 radar center
-
- The column headings have the following meanings:
- $$$ money required to build it
- lcm light construction materials required to build it
- hcm heavy construction materials required to build it
- tec technology required to build it
- def defensive armament of the ship
- spd the distance/mu for moving (in relative units)
- vis how visible the ship is, (relative units)
- spy how far the ship can see, (i.e. how good the communication equipment
- is), again in relative units
- rng twice the distance the guns can fire, (assuming a high technology
- level)
- fir the number of guns the ship can fire at once
- food the amount of food the ship can carry
- civ the number of civilians the ship can carry
- mil the number of military the ship can carry
- sh the number of shells the ship can carry
- gun the number of guns the ship can carry
- pln the number of planes the ship can carry
- dst the amount of gold dust the ship can carry
- pet the amount of petrol the ship can carry
- oil the amount of oil the ship can carry
- aml the amount of lcms the ship can carry
- amh the amount of hcms the ship can carry
-
- Note that some ship differences are not listed in these tables.
-
- Only fishing boats and fishing trawlers accumulate food by fishing.
-
- Only oil derricks accumulate oil at sea.
-
- Only destroyers will drop depth charges, and only destroyers can see and fire
- at submarines.
-
- Only submarines can fire torpedos.
-
- Only destroyers and heavy cruisers can lay mines.
-
- Only minesweeps can reclaim mines from the sea.
-
- Only nuclear submarines can carry nuclear missiles.
-
- Only aircraft carriers can launch and retrieve air strikes.
-
- Only cargo ships can carry lcms (1400) and hcms (900).
-
- See also : coastwatch, fire, load, lookout, mine, navigate, tend, torpedo, fly
-
- The Planes
-
- name lcm hcm $$$ tech acc load att def ran mil gas flags
- fighter 1 8 2 400 40 30 0 3 2 4 1 1 P_T|P_F|P_L
- lt bomber 1 10 3 550 40 30 1 1 2 5 2 1 P_T|P_B|P_L
- transport 1 12 5 800 45 0 9 0 1 8 2 2 P_C
- hvy bomber 1 20 6 1100 50 90 5 2 3 9 3 2 P_B
- long bomber 1 20 6 1100 60 90 2 1 2 30 4 4 P_B
- fighter 2 10 6 800 70 25 1 6 4 8 1 1 P_T|P_F|P_L
- lt bomber 2 12 8 900 70 25 2 2 3 10 2 1 P_T|P_B|P_L
- escort 2 12 5 850 75 25 0 5 4 12 1 2 P_T|P_F|P_L
- chopper 1 10 4 900 75 0 3 0 2 6 1 1 P_C|P_V|P_L
- transport 2 14 10 1200 80 0 9 0 3 20 3 3 P_C
- long transport 14 10 1200 80 0 3 0 1 35 5 7 P_C
- hvy bomber 2 20 15 2000 90 75 9 4 5 20 5 3 P_B
- long bomber 2 20 15 2000 100 75 4 2 2 40 8 8 P_B
- jet fighter 16 5 2000 140 40 2 12 7 8 1 3 P_T|P_F|P_L
- jet lt bomber 14 7 1200 140 20 5 5 8 14 2 3 P_T|P_B|P_L
- jet hvy bomber 35 20 5500 140 60 16 5 12 44 5 5 P_B
- jet transport 30 20 1700 140 0 16 0 6 40 3 5 P_C
- chopper 2 15 8 1000 180 5 2 4 3 8 1 2 P_T|P_B|P_V|P_L
- chopper 3 15 12 1100 180 0 5 2 3 12 2 2 P_C|P_V|P_L
- jet fighter 2 16 5 2000 200 30 2 10 6 8 1 3 P_T|P_F|P_V|P_L
- jet escort 12 5 4850 1000 25 0 20 20 50 7 5 P_T|P_F
- jet fighter 3 16 5 3000 1100 30 2 30 20 20 1 4 P_T|P_F|P_V|P_L
- jet fighter 4 16 5 3000 1200 30 2 35 25 25 1 4 P_T|P_F
- tac missile 1 10 5 500 160 80 4 0 5 8 0 0 P_M|P_L
- tac missile 2 12 8 600 180 70 6 0 6 10 0 0 P_M|P_L
- irbm 1 15 15 1000 250 60 5 0 3 15 0 6 P_M|P_L
- irbm 2 18 18 2000 270 50 7 0 3 18 0 6 P_M|P_L
- icbm 1 30 30 3000 280 70 7 0 3 40 0 6 P_M|P_L
- icbm 2 45 45 4000 320 50 10 0 6 50 0 6 P_M
- icbm 3 60 60 5000 400 20 15 0 10 60 0 6 P_M
- trident 25 25 1200 290 45 6 0 3 19 0 6 P_M|P_L
- cruise missile 20 10 700 300 30 5 0 20 15 0 7 P_M|P_F
- sam 1 45 45 1200 380 10 2 30 1 15 0 5 P_M
- sam 2 55 55 1500 440 5 4 70 1 35 0 6 P_M|P_F
-
- The column headings have the following meanings:
- lcm the amount of lcm to build the unit,
- hcm the amount of hcm to build the unit,
- $$$ cost of the unit in dollars,
- tech minimum tech level to build this unit,
- acc bomb accuracy, low is best; a 0 accuracy implies no ability.
- load bomb load/cargo capacity.
- att air-to-air combat attack rating.
- def air-to-air combat defense rating.
- ran base range (in sectors).
- mil military needed for crew.
- gas amount of fuel used each trip.
-
- The flags field use the following abbreviations:
- P_T pinpoint bombing ability
- P_F intercept/escort ability
- P_C cargo-carrying ability
- P_B load used for bombing ability
- P_V vertical take-off ability -- no need to use airports
- P_M missile -- one shot.
- P_L light, can land on carriers or be carried on a sub
-
- The Nukes
-
- name lcm hcm oil rad cost tech lbs
- 10kt fission 50 50 25 50 7500 200 4
- 50kt fission 60 60 30 75 9000 225 6
- 100kt fission 75 75 40 100 12000 250 8
- 250kt fusion 50 50 25 50 7500 280 4
- 500kt fusion 60 60 30 75 9000 295 6
- 1mt fusion 75 75 50 100 12000 310 8
- 3mt fusion 100 100 75 127 19000 325 10
-
- lbs -- the weight of the warhead, limiting missile and plane nuclear
- device carrying capacity.
-
- BUGS - Yes there are many - and there is VERY little user support from
- the authors. All of my MAILINGS to them have not been replied to. But
- I think it might mean that they are taking the summer off - we'll see,
- but for now it remains an as-is package! What you see is what you get -
- and so far I haven't found anything wrong with this version. PLEASE
- report all bugs that you find - if I can't fix them - we can work some-
- thing out with the folks at UCB.
-
- Concept : Quick Reference Card
-
- Sector-types:
- BASICS INDUSTRIES MILITARY / SCIENTIFIC
- . sea d defense plant t technical center
- ^ mountain i shell industry f fortress
- s sanctuary m mine r research lab
- / wasteland g gold mine n nuclear plant
- - wilderness h harbor l library/school
- c capital w warehouse e enlistment center
- p park u uranium mine
- COMMUNICATIONS * airfield FINANCIAL
- + highway a agribusiness b bank
- ) radar installation o oil field
- j light manufacturing
- # bridge head k heavy manufacturing
- = bridge span % refinery
-
- Products:
- Item $ Lcm Hcm Iron Dust Oil Rad Tech Production Eff.
- Shells: 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 20 tlev/(tlev+10)
- Guns: 30 5 10 0 0 1 0 20 tlev/(tlev+10)
- Iron: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
- Dust: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
- Bars: 30 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 0
- Food: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (tlev+10)/(tlev+20)
- Oil: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (tlev+10)/(tlev+20)
- Petrol 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 20 tlev/(tlev+10)
- (per 10 units; others per unit)
- Lcm: 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 (tlev+10)/(tlev+20)
- Hcm: 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 (tlev+10)/(tlev+20)
- Rad: 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 40 (tlev-30)/(tlev-40)
- Educate: 10 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
- Happy: 10 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
- Tech: 100 10 0 0 1 5 0 0 0
- Resrch: 100 10 0 0 1 5 0 0 0
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Commands
- Empire : Command Summary
-
- This list contains one-line descriptions of each Empire command; further
- information on a particular command may be obtained by running info on that
- command (e.g. info attack).
-
- EMPIRE COMMANDS
-
- Announce Send an announcement to all players
- Arm Load nuclear weapons onto planes or missiles
- Assault Attack coastal sector from ship
- Attack Attempt to seize a sector from another country
- Board Board enemy ship
- Build Build ships, planes, bridges, or nuclear weapons in specified
- sectors
- Buy Purchase commodities from the world market
- Bye Log out of Empire
- Capitol Change the location of your capital
- Cargo List the commodities on board your ships
- Census Report contents of sectors
- Change Change country name or representative's name
- Coastwatch Check from sectors for nearby ships
- Collect Foreclose an overdue loan
- Commands Print out all Empire commands
- Commodity Report commodities in sectors
- Consider Accept, decline or postpone consideration of a loan or treaty
- Convert Change conquered civilians into uncompensated workers
- Cutoff List delivery thresholds
- Declare Formally declare alliance, neutrality or war
- Deliver Establish delivery routes for shells, ore, etc
- Demobilize Change military into civilians
- Designate Specify sector utilization
- Dissolve Dissolve your government and country (suicide)
- Distribute Establish distribution destination sector
- Enlist Turn civilians into military
- Financial Show all the outstanding loans in the world
- Fire Fire artillery from sector/ship on sector/ship
- Fleetadd Designate members of a fleet
- Fly Fly planes from sector/ship to sector/ship and bomb or snoop
- Harden Place missiles into protective silos
- Headlines Summarize the weeks events (part of news)
- Info Provide information on various topics
- Launch Launch nuclear missiles or satellites from silos or nuclear sub-
- marines
- Ledger Report on outstanding loans
- Level List distribution thresholds
- List Brief command list
- Load Load goods, people, etc onto a ship
- Lookout Check from ships for other ships and/or sector types
- Map Generate a map showing sector types, seas, etc
- Market Report current selling prices in the world market
- Mine Drop mines from destroyer
- Move Transport ore, civilians, guns, etc
- Mult Set price multipliers of goods
- Nation The state of your nation
- Navigate Move ship or fleet around
- News The yellow press
- Nuke List all nuclear devices in a given area
- Offer Offer a loan or treaty to another country
- Origin Change the origin of your country's co-ordinate system
- Plane Report status of plane, wing or planes in a give area
- Power Display arbitrarily measured strengths of all countries
- Produce Predicts production of sectors at the next update
- Quit Log out of Empire
- Radar Perform radar scan from ship or sector
- Read Read your telegrams
- Realm Print out or modify one of your four realms
- Repay Repay a loan (all or part)
- Report List all countries and their status
- Route Display delivery routes
- Satellite Download data from a reconnaisance satellite
- Sect Show only sectors owned by you in map form
- Sell Sell commodities on the world market
- Set Establish price for a ship
- Ship Report status of ship, fleet or ships in a given area
- Shoot Dispose of enemy civilians or uncompensated workers
- Show Describes current potentials for building ships, planes, bridges,
- or nuclear weapons
- Spy Snoop on adjacent enemy sectors
- Survey Show distributions in map form
- Telegram Send diplomatic communique to another country
- Tend Supply ships with guns and/or shells
- Territory Assign various sectors to a specific territory
- Test Check the effect of a proposed move
- Threshold Set commodity distribution thresholds
- Torpedo Slip a torpedo to some poor sucker (from a sub)
- Trade Generate a report on ships for sale and perhaps buy some
- Transport Move a nuclear device around
- Treaty Listing of all current and pending treaties
- Unload Inverse of load (above)
- Upgrade Update the tech of a ship to the current tech level
- Version Display parameters of this world
- Wipe Remove all distribution thresholds
-
- See also : list, bugs
-
- Concept : Command Syntax
-
- The Empire Shell (command interpreter) expects input in the form:
- [##:##] Command: VERB ARG1 ARG2 ...
- VERB is any one of the command words in command list (map, move, info, etc).
-
- The number of ARGs varies from command to command. In most cases the ARGs
- need not be supplied on the command line; any that are not supplied will be
- obtained by prompting. The exception to this rule are those that are enclosed
- in [square brackets] in the command list. The presence of these ARGs changes
- the way the command is carried out.
-
- Certain basic argument types recur often and are abbreviated in the following
- ways.
-
- <CNUM/CNAME> ::= either a country number or a country name
-
- <ITEM> ::= any one, (or unambiguous abbreviation), of:
- xloc x coordinate
- yloc y coordinate
- owner owner of the sector
- oldown original owner of captured sector
- des sector designation
- newtype new sector designation
- efficiency efficiency
- work work/loyalty
- mobility mobility units
- minerals sector contents
- ocontent oil content
- pcontent oil content
- fertility food fertility
- uranium content uranium
- civilians civilians
- military military
- uw uncompensated workers
- uncompensated workers uncompensated workers
- shells number of shells
- guns number of guns
- petroleum amount of petrol
- iron ore amount of iron ore
- dust (gold) amount of gold dust
- bars of gold number of gold bars
- food quantity of food
- oil amount of crude oil
- rad amount of radioactive materials
- lcm light construction materials
- hcm heavy construction materials
- distpath distribution path
- s_delivery product delivery routes (shells)
- g_delivery gun delivery routes
- p_delivery petroleum delivery routes
- i_delivery iron ore delivery routes
- d_delivery gold dust delivery routes
- b_delivery gold bar delivery routes
- f_delivery food delivery routes
- o_delivery oil delivery routes
- r_delivery radioactive material delivery routes
- l_delivery lcm delivery routes
- h_delivery hcm delivery routes
- u_delivery uncompensated worker delivery routes
- s_dist product distribution thresholds (shells)
- g_dist guns distribution thresholds
- p_dist petroleum distribution thresholds
- i_dist iron ore distribution thresholds
- d_dist gold dust distribution thresholds
- b_dist gold bar distribution thresholds
- f_dist food distribution thresholds
- o_dist oil distribution thresholds
- r_dist radioactive material distribution thresholds
- l_dist lcm distribution thresholds
- h_dist hcm distribution thresholds
- u_dist uncompensated worker distribution thresholds
- Note that some of these properties have less than useful values. For
- instance the value of distpath is not generally meaningful but zero (0)
- indicates no distribution path.
- <LOAN> ::= loan number
- <SECT> ::= sector coordinates in the form: x,y
- <SECTS> ::= sector(s) in the form:
-
- lox:hix,loy:hiy ?cond&cond&...
-
- lox, hix, loy, hiy are coordinates bounding the rectangular area to be con-
- sidered
-
- cond is a condition of the form:
-
- <VALUE><OPERATOR><VALUE>
-
- <VALUE> is either an <ITEM>, as above, a number in the range 0 to 65536, or
- a sector designation, (m for mine, c for capital, etc),
- <OPERATOR> can be any one of:
- < less than
- = equal
- > greater than
- # not equal
-
- Thus mob=100, ore#0, 7=guns, civ#mil, des=b are examples of legitimate con-
- ditions, (note lack of embedded spaces), and
- [##:##] Command: census -3:3,-3:3 ?des=+&gun=5&mil>civ
- will list all highways within 3 of your capital with exactly 5 guns and
- more military than civilians.
-
- Similarly,
- [##:##] Command: deliver f -9:9,-9:9 ?f_del=0
- will allow you to set up food delivery in all the sectors that don't
- already have food delivery.
-
- Note that hix, hiy, and ?cond are all optional. Also, the entire
- lox:hix,loy:hiy section may be replaced by either #, #0, #1, #2, or #3
- which refer to the four realms that you can define. (See info realm.) Note
- that # and #0 are equivalent.
- <SHIP> ::= one ship number
- <FLEET> ::= fleet designation, which may be a list of ships separated by
- slashes (`/'), a fleet letter, the character tilde (`~') which means all
- ships not in a specific fleet, or a rectangular sector area.
- <SHIP/FLEET> ::= either a single ship number or a fleet designation.
-
- Note that <FLEET> specifications may have an optional ?cond&cond... argu-
- ment like that used for <SECTS> arguments. For instance:
- [##:##] Command: ship ~ ?des=d&mil>5
- will list all destroyers that have more than 5 military which are not
- currently in any fleet.
-
- The output from commands may also be sent to a file or another process by
- utilizing these alternate syntaxes:
-
- [##:##] Command: VERB ARG1 ... > FILE
- which sends the output to the file FILE.
-
- [##:##] Command: VERB ARG1 ... >> FILE
- which appends the output to the file FILE.
-
- [##:##] Command: VERB ARG1 ... >! FILE
- which sends the output to the file FILE, replacing the file it if it already
- exists.
-
- [##:##] Command: VERB ARG ... | PROGRAM [ARGS...]
- which send the output of the command to the program PROGRAM with optional
- arguments ARGS. This is most useful when PROGRAM is some type of pager like
- more(1) or less(1).
-
- The Empire shell also recognizes a few control characters:
-
- _n_a_m_e _m_e_a_n_i_n_g
- interrupt Abort command and return to Empire command level
- quit Exit Empire
- EOT Exit Empire
-
- See also : realm, command
-
- Command : ANNOUNCE
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: announce
-
- The announce command is a variant of the telegram command. It sends your mes-
- sage to _a_l_l of the players in the game. This convenient service costs $100 to
- provide.
-
- A banner line saying ANNOUNCEMENT is prepended to your message so that
- announcements won't be confused with telegrams. In all other respects,
- announcements are exactly the same as telegrams.
-
- For example:
- [##:##] Command: announce
- Enter telegram for everyone; end with ^D
- 512 left:
- 511 left: For Immediate Release
- 475 left: from
- 447 left: Groonland Embassy
- 413 left:
- 412 left:
- 440 left: HELP! Curmudgeon just TRASHED our capital! We had even proposed
- 345 left: a very fair treaty, but they did it anyway! People of the World,
- 279 left: UNITE! Overthrow the slavemasters of Curmudgeon!
- 229 left: <EOT>
-
- See also : prayers, read, telegram
-
-
- Command : ARM
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: arm <PLANE> warhead-type <NUMBER>
-
- The arm command loads nuclear devices aboard delivery systems such as planes
- or missiles. It is possible that a given delivery system can carry a large
- load, so it may happen that a missile could carry many nuclear devices.
-
- No nuclear weapons can be delivered unless they are first loaded aboard
- delivery vehicles. However, until they are residing in a plane or missile,
- they are considered invulnerable to attack (buried inside of mountains), and
- cannot be used by any potential conqueror (they don't know the fail-safe
- codes).
-
- Note: there is no way to unarm.
-
- See also : build, transport, launch
-
-
- Command : ASSAULT
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: assault <SECT> <SHIP> troops
-
- The assault command allows your marines to hit the beaches. It is also the
- only way to get ashore other than by unloading at a harbor, thus it is the
- first step to gaining land on a new continent.
-
- Any ship with military can assault an military-less sector, however only a
- landing ship can assault a sector with military in it with its full complement
- of troops. The other ships will only be able to land a fraction of their
- troops in any given assault. This represents the use of the Admiral's gig,
- the Captain's barge, etc.
-
- If you have ship #28 bearing 10 military at 31,53 it can assault land at any
- of the adjacent sectors, (32,52; 33,53; 32,54; 30,54; 29,53; or 30,52). For
- example:
- [##:##] Command: assault 32,54 28 9
-
- This command asks to assault sector 32,54 from ship #28 with 9 troops. Assum-
- ing the sector has no military, and since there were 10 troops on the ship to
- begin with, 90% of the food will be taken along by the assaulting troops, (and
- each one that makes it will contribute his or her 10% to the conquered sec-
- tor).
-
- The program will ask for any information which was not included on the command
- line, (sector to be assaulted, which ship is doing the assaulting, number of
- brave troops to disembark).
-
- The assaulting troops face the disadvantage of having to reach the beach,
- therefore they are less effective than any land troops they may encounter.
-
- Both capitals and forts fight twice as hard as other sectors against sea
- assaults.
-
- Note: the sector being assaulted will have exactly the same reaction to being
- conquered as if it were attacked by land.
-
- See also : attack, board
-
- Command : ATTACK
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: attack <SECT> <move in?>
-
- The attack command is used to conquer sectors owned by other countries. It
- should not be used to take over unoccupied sectors (move does that more effi-
- ciently). Also, attack will not let you attack your own sectors.
-
- To attack sector 12,-6 you would type:
- [##:##] Command: attack 12,-6
- This will initiate the attack sequence against sector 12,-6 (note: you may
- only attack one sector at a time). Empire will then ask you if you would like
- to move into the sector in the event you win. You should reply with a y or n.
-
- Then you will be informed of the sector's status, e.g.
-
- Sector 12,-6 is a 15% fortress with 40 military or so.
-
- At this point you will be asked how many military you wish to dedicate from
- each sector of yours that adjoins the victim's sector.
- Troops from each type of sector normally fight with equal stamina, however
- troops in fortresses fight especially hard, as do troops defending a capital.
- Troops defending forts at 100% efficiency have a 4-to-1 advantage over ordi-
- nary troops and troops defending 100% efficient capitals have a 2-to-1 advan-
- tage over ordinary attacking troops. Troops attacking from forts have up to a
- 2-to-1 advantage over other types. Of course these effects are degraded by
- lower efficiency; for instance the figures for defending forts, defending cap-
- itals and attacking forts at 50% efficiency are 2.5-to-1, 1.5-to-1 and 1.5-
- to-1 respectively.
-
- Before considering an attack on a sector one should weigh the possibilities of
- that sector being defended by one or more guns! The sector in question need
- not be a fort to be defended since any forts within range will join the fray
- at the least provocation; however attacking forts can be doubly deadly, for if
- the fort has a gun and is within the defense range of another fort, both will
- fire at your troops with devastating effect.
-
- The next big question - cost??
-
- Attacking costs you in three ways:
-
- 1) BTU cost -- the cost of flying desks and telling the next of kin.
- Each attack costs a number of BTU's equal to the total # of troops killed *
- 0.15
-
- 2) Mobility cost -- gasoline, K-rations, etc
- The cost in mobility to the attacking sector(s) depends on the terrain:
-
-
- Mobility Cost (Per Military) in Attacks
-
- sector type being attacked
-
- | (+) | (-) | (^) | (?) |
- ----+------+------+------+------+
- Highway (+) | .125 | .291 | 21.3 | .208 |
- F ----+------+------+------+------+
- R Wilderness (-) | .208 | .375 | 21.4 | .291 |
- O ----+------+------+------+------+
- M Mountain (^) | 10.7 | 10.9 | 31.9 | 10.8 |
- ----+------+------+------+------+
- others (?) | .167 | .333 | 21.3 | .250 |
- ----+------+------+------+------+
-
- The cost in mobility to the defending sector is the same as for the attacking
- sector if the attack is unsuccessful. If the attack is successful the mobil-
- ity in the conquered sector goes to 0, (the populace destroys the goodies
- before being captured).
-
- 3) Ill-will cost -- distrust from conscientious objectors and bleeding hearts
- This is a cost that you can only learn from experience ...
-
- The battle will rage until someone is wiped out, (the victim fights with all
- of his troops). Each time a soldier is killed a character is typed; ! if a
- defending soldier got it, @ if an attacking soldier went down and * if the
- last attacking soldier from a specific sector was nailed.
-
- If you lose, tough! However, if you win, and you have specified you wish to
- move in after your victory, some of your surviving attacking forces will move
- into the victim's sector. For example, if three sectors were attacking one
- quarter of the attack forces will occupy the conquered sector.
-
- When planning an attack remember that overwhelming forces greatly increases
- your odds; i.e., attacking 10 men with 40 will result in your losing fewer
- troops than if you had attacked with 20.
-
- A few notes:
-
- The deity (country 0) is believed to be pacifistic and unlikely to help
- attackers, (except in response to a large offering on the Religious Holidays).
-
- If you successfully take the sector over, then the civilians will be turned
- into conquered populace (see info populace for details), unless the sector was
- previously yours.
-
- Finally, before initiating an attack you should consider whether the real
- answer to your problem might lie in diplomacy (you heavy-handed clod!)
-
- See also : assault, fire, move, prayers, telegram
-
- Command : BOARD
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: board [<SHIP> [(from ship)]]
-
- The board command enables two ships' crews to engage in hand-to-hand combat.
- To board ship #16 from ship #93 you might type:
- [##:##] Command: board 16
-
- The program will ask from which ship you wish to board, (you may only board
- from one ship at a time).
-
- In order to be able to board a ship, your ship must be as fast or faster than
- the defending ship. If you can't catch him, you can't board him!
-
- The attacking ship will use, based upon its speed, an amount of mobility to
- overtake and board the target ship. If the attacking ship has no mobility, it
- cannot catch anybody! Ships' speed depends upon the speed of the ship, the
- technology of the owner, and the current efficiency of the ship. A 50% dam-
- aged ship moves one-half the speed it does when undamaged.
-
- Some things to note:
- Boarding costs BTU's -- in direct proportion to the number of military killed.
-
- The boarding party is at a disadvantage while swinging across to the other
- ship, e.g. 10 against 10 is not even odds.
-
- Other ships belonging to the victim will fire on you when you try to board,
- (if you're within range).
-
- See also : fire
-
- Command : BOMB
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: bomb <BOMBERS> <ESCORTS> mission-type <SECT> route
-
- The bomb command is used to rain destruction upon helpless enemy ships,
- planes, and sectors. It represents a complete mission for one or more bombers
- and escorts taking off from one place and returning to base at the end of the
- mission.
-
- <BOMBERS> represents a list of planes which can carry bombs. Only planes
- which have a bomb bay, belong in a sector which is stocked with gas and
- shells, and have sufficient mobility will be successfully selected for the
- mission.
-
- <ESCORTS> represent a list of fighter planes which are capable of escorting
- the bombers all the way to the target. To be selected, escorts must have fuel
- and mobility.
-
- Mission-type must be one of "pinpoint", "strategic", or "nuclear". Each mis-
- sion has different objectives for the planes performing it. Pinpoint missions
- allow bombers to attack ships, sector efficiency, commoditites in sectors, and
- planes on the ground in the target sector. Strategic missions damage all com-
- modities in the entire target sector, while not damaging any ships or planes
- resident (similar to the ship and sector fire missions). Nuclear missions
- allow each bomber in the list to drop a nuclear device in the target sector.
- Nuclear devices damage everything in the sector; planes, ships, and commodi-
- ties. Only missiles in hardened silos can avoid damage from a nuclear mis-
- sion.
-
- <SECT> represents an assembly point, where all of the planes in the mission
- meet before proceeding on to the target sector. The assembly point must be
- owned by you, and must not be more than four sectors away from any of the
- planes selected for the mission.
-
- Route is a normal empire path specification.
-
- Light bombers are used primarily for pinpoint bombing. They perform as well
- as fighters do for strategic bombing. Heavy bombers, while they can perform
- pinpoint bombing, are notoriously inaccurate and in general miss what they are
- aiming at. They are used mainly for strategic bombing.
-
- During the course of a mission, your planes may fly over someone else's land.
- If you fly over land owned by another country, and this country is either hos-
- tile or at war with you, fighter planes from the enemy country will scramble
- and attempt to intercept your force. If the country is simply neutral, he
- will be notified that his radar tracked your planes as they flew over his
- country. If the country is allied, then nothing will occur.
-
- If you manage to fight though the enemy fighters and arrive at the target sec-
- tor, your force must still contend with any flak guns which your enemy has
- stationed there. What's more, any enemy ship in the target sector will also
- shoot at each of your bombers before any attacks are performed.
-
- A well-equipped fleet of battleships in a heavily-defended harbor can be very
- risky to attack, even though hitting ships in harbor is like shooting fish in
- a barrel.
-
- Planes have differing air-to-air combat abilities, differing ranges, and
- load-carrying capacities. Some airplanes don't need runways, but can operate
- out of any sector which has fuel in it.
-
- See also : plane-types, build, fly, para, drop, recon
-
- Command : BREAK
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: break
-
- In Empire your sectors are initially sanctuaries. While in sanctuary your
- people don't eat, work or reproduce. They also can't be attacked.
-
- Break removes the sanctuary protection from your country and forces your peo-
- ple to work for a living. You can't do any country development commands until
- you break out of sanctuary.
-
- See also : sector-types
-
- Command : BUILD
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: build [ship|plane|nuke|bridge] <SECTS> [ship-type|plane-
- type|nuke-type|direction] <TECH>
-
- The build command is used to specify the types of ships to be built in your
- harbors, the planes and missiles at your airfields, the nuclear devices at
- your nuclear production facilities, and the directions in which bridge spans
- are to be built from bridge head sectors.
-
- The ability to produce ships, planes, nukes, or bridges, is based on several
- factors: labor force, light production units, heavy production units, oil
- units, radioactive material units, available cash, and technology level. The
- quantities or levels required vary with the object being built.
-
- HARBOR SECTORS
-
- The ship choices range from patrol boats through battleships and yachts. For
- a brief table indicating the production costs of the different ship types
- respond with ?. For a table describing the costs and capabilities of the dif-
- ferent ship types see info ship-types.
-
- The labor force required to build a particular ship type is equal to the
- ship's tonnage, which is the lcm cost plus twice the hcm cost. Labor force is
- defined as the number of civilians multiplied by the work percentage, plus the
- number of uncompensated workers, plus two-fifths the number of military.
-
- Only the first letter of the ship type is required to indicate your choice.
-
- Note that ships first appear at 20% efficiency and a 19% efficient ship will
- not float (i.e., it sinks). As the ships' crew and harbor personnel work on
- them, their efficiency grows to 100%. The workforce needed to increase a
- ship's efficiency by one percent per time unit is equal to its tonnage.
-
- Harbor workforce is divided up among those ships needing work in proportion to
- their tonnages relative to the total, up to a workforce limit of two times the
- tonnage for any ship. For fastest efficiency growth, put full crews on your
- newly built ships and leave them in harbor until they reach 100%.
-
- Ships at sea have only their crews to make repairs. Crew members each supply
- the same amount of work, whether civilian, military, or uncompensated worker.
- A small crew on a large ship may not be able to make any repairs at all.
- (Moral: keep your ships fully crewed in anticipation of future damage.)
-
- Entropy acts on ships at the rate of one efficiency point every four time
- units. Ships at sea without enough crew to fight entropy effects will gradu-
- ally rust, take on water, and sink.
-
- AIRPORT SECTORS
-
- The choices range from low tech fighter 1 planes up to and including super-
- long range jet hvy bombers and icbm 3s. For a brief table indicating the pro-
- duction costs of the different plane types respond with ?. For a table
- describing the costs and capabilities of the different plane types see info
- plane-types.
-
- Note that planes first appear at 10% efficiency. As time passes, and as long
- as there are available work units in the airport at which the planes reside
- (to work on the planes), they grow to 100% efficiency.
-
- NUCLEAR PLANT SECTORS
-
- If you type
- [##:##] Command: build 6,2
- and 6,2 is a nuclear plant that has enough hcm (heavy construction materials),
- lcm (light construction materials), oil, and radioactive material, the work-
- force in the sector is large enough (as defined above), you have enough money,
- and your technology level is high enough, then the program will construct a
- new nuclear device of the type requested, and add it to the current stockpile
- in that sector.
-
- BRIDGE HEAD SECTORS
-
- If you type
- [##:##] Command: build 2,2
- and 2,2 is a bridge head that has enough hcm (heavy construction materials),
- the workforce in the sector is large enough (as defined above), you have
- enough money, and your technology level is high enough, then the program will
- respond:
-
- Bridge head at 2,2; build span in what direction? j
- Bridge span built over 4,2
-
- To find out the required amounts of materials, workforce, and money try to
- build in an underdeveloped bridge head sector and the program will tell you
- the current amounts (may be changed by the local deity).
-
- If the optional (direction) argument is used in the command line the program
- will try to build a span in the specified direction from all bridge heads in
- the given area that have the necessary heavy production units.
-
- See also : launch, fly, nuke
-
- Command : BUY
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: buy <ITEM> <CNUM> <AMOUNT>
-
- The buy command allows nations to purchase commodities on the open market.
- Not all commodities can be traded -- notably civilians and military. Prices
- depend on the price multiplier set by the selling nation with respect to the
- buying nation.
-
- Typical output looks like:
- [##:##] Command: buy food
- Trade report : food
- cnum country amount item price
- (# 0) MGM 926 your own lot
- (#15) hodedo 10 5.20
- (#17) Anorexia 2150 2.25
- Country number to buy from : 17
- Number of food to buy (max 10) : 100
- destination sector : -2,0
- That just cost you $225.00
-
- Note that the first amount was identified as your own lot since you can't buy
- from yourself. In addition, the destination sector must be a warehouse, and
- must be greater than 60% efficient to receive commodities.
-
- See also : sell, mult, market
-
- Command : BYE
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: bye
-
- The bye command is how you go bye-bye to log out of the game.
-
- This command costs zero BTU's. You can use it often.
-
- If, for some obscure reason, you would like to end an Empire session but
- prefer not to use the bye command you may achieve the same result by typing
- the EOT character, (control-D).
-
- See also : shell
-
- Command : CAPITOL
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: capitol <SECTOR>
-
- This command changes the location of your nation's capital. The new sector
- must be of type "capital", and must be owned by you.
-
- This command does not change your coordinate origin (where 0,0 is located), so
- if you prefer your coordinates centered on your nation's capital, you must use
- the origin command. For example:
- [##:##] Command: capit -10,-4
-
- Your capital is now at -10,-4.
-
- [##:##] Command: orig -10,-4
-
- Designation of new origin requires revision of sector numbers.
- Origin at -10,-4 (old system) is now at 0,0 (new system).
-
- See also: origin, designate
-
- Command : CARGO
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: cargo [<SHIP/FLEET> | <SECTS>]
-
- The cargo command lists the commodities on board your ships in readable for-
- mat.
-
- The <SHIP/FLEET> and <SECTS> arguments are provided in case you only wish to
- look at one ship or one fleet or all ships within a given area.
-
- If no argument is given your entire navy will be listed.
-
- The report format contains the following fields:
-
- shp# the ship number
- shiptype the type of ship; patrol boat, submarine, etc,
- x,y the ship's current location (relative to your capital),
- flt the fleet designation letter (set by create command),
- eff the ship's efficiency,
- sh the number of shells on board,
- gun the number of guns on board
- pet the amount of petroleum on board
- irn the amount of iron on board
- dst the amount of gold dust on board
- bar the number of gold bars on board
- oil the amount of oil on board
- lcm the amount of light construction materials on board
- hcm the amount of heavy construction materials on board
- rad the amount of radioactive material on board
-
- For example:
- [##:##] Command: cargo K
- shp# ship type x,y flt eff sh gun pet irn dst bar oil lcm hcm rad
- 86 aircraft carrier -29,-51 K 100% 298 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
- 110 battleship -29,-51 K 100% 100 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
- 115 battleship -29,-51 K 100% 60 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
- 181 destroyer -27,-35 K 100% 40 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
- 182 destroyer -27,-35 K 100% 40 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
- 183 destroyer -27,-35 K 100% 40 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
- 6 ships
-
- See also : ship, build, navigate, load, upgrade, fleet
-
- Command : CENSUS
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: census <SECTS>
-
- The census command displays specific information on some or all of the sectors
- you occupy.
-
- In the syntax of the census command <SECTS> is the area on which you wish
- information, (see info syntax).
-
- A typical usage might be:
- [##:##] Command: census 0:9,0:9 ?des=m
- which would list data for mines in an area to the south-east of the capital.
-
- A census lists each of your sectors in the specified area headed by:
-
- CENSUS del dst
- sect eff mob uf uf * civ mil uw food work avail ter
-
- These columns represent:
- sect the x and y coordinates of the sector
- eff the efficiency of the sector (affects all benefits of a designated sec-
- tor except mobility units)
- mob the number of mobility units, (see move)
- uf Two delivery columns corresponding to: uncompensated workers and food.
- uf Two distribute columns corresponding to: uncompensated workers and food.
- * occupied enemy sector.
- civ the number of civilians
- mil the number of military troops
- uw the number of uncompensated workers
- food the amount of food
- work the percentage of civilians working in the sector (based on the local
- sector happiness).
- avail the quantity of workforce available for construction or maintenance of
- planes, ships, or nukes.
- ter the territory number.
-
- For example:
- [##:##] Command: cens #0
-
- Tue Jun 20 00:33:43 1989
- CENSUS del dst
- sect eff mob uf uf * civ mil uw food work avail ter
- 2,-2 f 100% 8 .. .. 0 499 0 0 0% 64
- -1,-1 f 100% 32 .. .. 629 0 0 970 43% 31 3
- 1,-1 n 100% 31 .. 627 0 0 970 51% 30
- 3,-1 ) 100% 32 .. .. 0 0 0 0 0% 0
- -2,0 h 100% 32 .. .. 629 0 0 970 100% 93 50
- 0,0 * 100% 114 .. .. 906 845 0 729 100% 173 50
- 2,0 c 100% 127 .. .. 154 100 124 71 100% 49
- 1,1 - 0% 32 .. .. 1 0 0 0 0% 0
- 8 sectors
-
- See also : commodity, resource, level, cutoff, map
-
- Command : CHANGE
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: change [country | representative]
-
- This simple command enables you to rename your country, or your representative
- name associated with your country.
-
- COUNTRY NAME
-
- [##:##] Command: change country name
-
- New name -- Hodedo
-
- This will change the name of your country to Hodedo. In order to change your
- name you must pay 10% of your cash on hand and 254 btus. These expenses
- reflect the trouble of changing all the national emblems, stationary, flags,
- etc.
-
- REPRESENTATIVE NAME
-
- [##:##] Command: change representative
-
- New name -- ho
-
- Your representative's name will now be ho. Note that the new name you type
- WILL print out, (in case of a typing error). As a consequence you won't want
- to do this while your arch-enemy is watching.
-
- See also : nat
-
- Command : COASTWATCH
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: coastwatch [<SECTS>]
-
- The coastwatch command allows coastal sectors to report sightings of ships.
-
- In good weather the visibility range is equal to four times the sector effi-
- ciency expressed as a decimal times the technology factor; e.g. a 100% effi-
- cient harbor with a 50% technology factor can see 2 sectors away. An excep-
- tion is radar installations which have a maximum range equal to fourteen times
- the sector efficiency, (i.e. 3.5 times as far).
-
- A typical usage might be:
- [##:##] Command: coast #3 ?type=)
-
- 3,-11 efficiency 100%, range 5.6
- Pandora (#5) oil derrick #74 @3, -9
- -1,4 efficiency 100%, range 5.6
- -3,13 efficiency 100%, range 5.6
- Galexis (#2) destroyer #35 @-3, 11
-
- See also : lookout, sector-types, radar
-
- Command : COLLECT
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: collect <LOAN>
-
- The collect command is the loan-shark's delight! Through the collect command
- overdue loans can be cleared up.
-
- If you should find that you have a problem debtor who refuses to pay up on
- your kind loan you can always seize one or more of his/her sectors. Perhaps
- the mere threat of a collection on someone's capital may do the trick!
-
- To settle up accounts on overdue loan #9 you would type:
- [##:##] Command: collect 9
- The program would then ask which sector you would like to claim as just and
- rightful compensation for the outstanding debt.
-
- What sector do you wish to confiscate?
-
- To which you reply with the coordinates of a sector owned by your debtor to
- which you are adjacent. The program then paws over the sector and assesses
- its value:
- That sector (and its contents) is valued at $2345.00
-
- If the amount you are owed exceeds this amount the sector becomes yours! If
- the value of the sector is close enough to the amount you are owed the debt is
- considered to be repaid.
-
- See also : consider, ledger, offer
-
- Command : COMMODITY
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: commodity <SECTS>
-
- The commodity report provides information pertaining to the various commodi-
- ties in some or all of the sectors you occupy.
-
- In the syntax of the commodity command <SECTS> is the area on which you wish
- information, (see info syntax). A typical usage might be:
- [##:##] Command: commodity -6:6,-3:3
- which would list data for the area extending three sectors out from the capi-
- tal in each direction.
-
- The commodity report lists each of your sectors with the following heading:
-
- COMMODITIES deliver-- distribute
- sect sgpidbolhr sgpidbolhr sh gun pet iron dust bar oil lcm hcm rad
-
- These columns represent:
- sect the x and y coordinates of the sector
- sgpidbolhr Ten delivery columns corresponding to: shells, guns, petroleum
- (refined), iron, dust (gold), bars of gold, oil, light construc-
- tion materials, heavy construction materials, and radioactive
- materials.
- sgpidbolhr Ten distribute columns corresponding to: shells, guns, petroleum
- (refined), iron, dust (gold), bars of gold, oil, light construc-
- tion materials, heavy construction materials, and radioactive
- materials.
- sh the number of shells in storage
- gun the number of guns in storage
- pet the number of units of refined petroleum
- iron the number of units of iron ore
- dust the number of units of gold dust
- bar the number of gold bars
- oil the amount of crude oil
- lcm the number of units of light construction materials
- hcm the number of units of heavy construction materials
- rad the number of units of radioactive materials
- For example:
- [##:##] Command: commodity -3:3,-2:2
-
- COMMODITIES deliver-- distribute
- sect sgpidbolhr sgpidbolhr sh gun pet iron dust bar oil lcm hcm rad
- 6,0 k .......... ...1....0. 0 0 0 100 0 0 0 0 1 0
- -1,1 j .......... .......0.. 0 0 0 95 0 0 0 1 0 0
- 1,1 t .......... .......1.. 0 0 0 0 50 0 54 100 0 0
- -3,3 g ....g..... .......... 0 0 0 0 43 0 0 0 0 0
- -6,4 m ...j...... .......... 0 0 0 65 0 0 0 0 0 0
- -4,4 m ...u...... ...0...... 0 0 0 144 0 0 0 0 0 0
- -2,4 g .......... .......... 0 0 0 0 23 0 0 0 0 0
- 2,6 t .......... .......1.. 0 0 0 0 38 0 53 130 0 0
- 4,6 l .......... .......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 100 0 0
- 4,8 t .......... .......1.. 0 0 0 0 37 0 53 20 0 0
- 6,8 h .......... .......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 35 15 0
- 11 sectors.
-
- The direction of delivery is indicated by the same characters that are used in
- the move, navigate, and other commands to indicate direction. The presence of
- a distribution threshold for a particular commodity is indicated by a digit in
- the appropriate column under distribute, representing the hundreds digit of
- the threshold value.
-
- See also : census
-
- Command : CONSIDER
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: consider loan <loan #> accept|decline|postpone
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: consider treaty <treaty #> accept|decline|postpone
-
- This command allows you to consider accepting a loan or treaty offered by
- another country.
-
- The program will list the various terms of the loan or treaty under considera-
- tion and ask for your decision as to whether to accept the terms, decline
- them, or postpone making a decision.
-
- If you accept a loan, the money is immediately credited to your account and
- the time period of the loan starts. If at the time of your acceptance, the
- loaner does not have sufficient funds the size of the loan will be diminished
- to fit the loaner's cash on hand.
-
- If you accept a treaty, it goes into effect immediately but the time period of
- the treaty is calculated based on the offer date rather than the acceptance
- date.
-
- Loan offers are withdrawn if not accepted within a number of days equal to the
- proposed loan's duration.
-
- Treaty offers expire at the time the proposed treaty would expire.
-
- Warning: When the terms of a loan are printed out, take note of the due date;
- if you do not pay by the due date the interest will double and you will be
- subject to collection, (see info collect).
-
- See also : collect, ledger, offer, treaty
-
- Command : CONVERT
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: convert <SECTS> <NUMBER>
-
- The convert command converts enemy (captured) populace into uncompensated
- workers. If the sector is not actually conquered, no civilians will be con-
- verted.
-
- After the program has collected any necessary information it will list each
- sector where civilians are converted.
-
- Note: you must have enough military in the sectors to force the populace to
- become uncompensated workers -- about 10%.
-
- [##:##] Command: conv -3:3,-1:2 10
- Number to convert : 22
- 22 conquered populace converted in -1,-1 (30)
- 13 conquered populace converted in 1,-1 (13)
- 22 conquered populace converted in 3,-1 (30)
- 17 conquered populace converted in -2,0 (17)
- 22 conquered populace converted in 0,0 (36)
- 22 conquered populace converted in -1,1 (34)
- 22 conquered populace converted in 1,1 (34)
- 18 conquered populace converted in 0,2 (18)
- 22 conquered populace converted in 2,2 (45)
- Total new uw : 180
-
- Note that there is a cost of 0.01 BTU's per civilian converted in addition to
- the registration fee of $1.5 per conversion.
-
- Command : CUTOFF
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: cutoff <SECTS>
-
- The cutoff report provides information about the various delivery cutoff lev-
- els in some or all of the sectors that you occupy.
-
- In the syntax of the level command <SECTS> is the area on which you wish
- information, (see info syntax). A typical usage might be:
- [##:##] Command: cutoff -6:6,-3:3
- which would list data for the area extending three sectors out from the capi-
- tal in each direction.
-
- The cutoff report lists each of your sectors with the following heading:
-
- DELIVERY CUTOFF LEVELS
- sect ufsgpidbolhr uw food sh gun pet iron dust bar oil lcm hcm rad
-
- These columns represent:
-
- sect the x and y coordinates of the sector
- ufsgpidbolhr the twelve delivery direction columns correspond to the delivery
- direction for food, guns, petroleum (refined), iron ore, dust
- (gold), bars (dust), oil, lcm, and hcm.
- uw the delivery cutoff threshold for uncompensated workers in that
- sector
- food the delivery cutoff threshold for food in that sector
- gun the delivery cutoff threshold for guns in that sector
- sh the delivery cutoff threshold for shells in that sector
- pet the delivery cutoff threshold for petroleum in that sector
- iron the delivery cutoff threshold for iron ore in that sector
- dust the delivery cutoff threshold for gold dust in that sector
- bar the delivery cutoff threshold for gold bars in that sector
- oil the delivery cutoff threshold for oil in that sector
- lcm the delivery cutoff threshold for light construction materials in
- that sector
- hcm the delivery cutoff threshold for heavy construction materials in
- that sector
- rad the delivery cutoff threshold for radioactive materials in that
- sector
- For example:
- [##:##] Command: cutoff -3:3,-2:0
- Wed Nov 12 00:15:51 1986
- DELIVERY CUTOFF LEVELS
- sect ufsgpidbolhr uw food sh gun pet iron dust bar oil lcm hcm rad
- 0,0 c ............ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
- -5,-3 a n........... 0 400 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
- -6,-2 k j........... 0 400 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
- -4,-2 + j........... 0 400 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
- -2,-2 m ....n....... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
- -5,-1 t ............ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
- -1,-1 w ....j....... 0 0 0 0 0 800 0 0 0 0 0 0
- 1,-1 m ....j...b... 0 0 0 0 0 40 0 0 0 0 0 0
- 3,-1 j .....j...... 0 0 0 0 0 0 104 0 0 0 0 0
- 5,-1 b ............ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
- 0,0 c y........... 0 200 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
- 2,0 + g.......j... 0 200 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 80 0 0
- -5,1 l ........j... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
- 12 sectors
- See also : delivery, commodity, census
-
- Command : DECLARE
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: declare <POSITION> <CNUM/CNAME>
-
- The declare command allows you to officially declare your diplomatic relations
- with other countries.
-
- <POSITION> may be alliance, neutrality, hostile, or war; <CNUM/CNAME> is
- either the name or number of the other country in question.
-
- Your official relations with other countries affect various aspects of the
- game; for instance, if a country with whom you are at war spies on one of your
- sectors and you catch the spy he/she will be shot! If you had been neutral or
- merely hostile to the spy's country she/he would merely have been deported.
- If the spy was from an allied country he/she would never be caught in the
- first place.
-
- Similarly, a plane from an allied or neutral country will not be shot at by
- your sectors when it flies over them.
-
- Declare also asks whether you want to change your multiplier for this country.
-
- The newspaper is very interested in declarations of war or alliance -- don't
- expect to keep such declarations secret.
-
- See also : fly, nation, spy
-
- Command : DELIVER
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: deliver <ITEM> <SECTS> <THRESH>
-
- The deliver command is used to specify to which sector the various commodities
- in a sector will be delivered at each update.
-
- In the syntax, <SECTS> is the sector or sectors from which the deliveries are
- made, <ITEM> is one of the following:
-
- u uncompensated workers
- f food
- s shells
- g guns
- p planes
- i iron ore
- d gold dust
- b bars of gold
- o oil
- l light construction materials
- h heavy construction materials
- r radioactive materials
-
- and <THRESH> can be one of three optional arguments.
-
- 1). A numeric argument in parentheses specifies a minimum amount to be
- left in each delivering sector. For example, (64) specifies that only the
- amount in excess of 64 can be delivered. This is particularly handy in
- cases where you wish to maintain some stock in a given sector but pass
- along any extra to an adjoining sector.
-
- 2). A numeric argument preceded by a plus sign, (e.g. +32), specifies that
- all thresholds in the specified area should be set to the thresh value and
- no delivery destinations should be changed.
-
- 3). A thresh argument of - requests a list of deliveries and thresholds
- for all sectors in the specified area and changes nothing. This is the
- only way to examine the delivery thresholds.
-
- Except in the + and - cases described above, the program asks the direction
- for each sector's delivery of the designated item.
-
- The direction must be specified as one of the six direction characters, (usu-
- ally `y' `h' `b' `v' `f' or `t'), the no-direction character, (usually `h'),
- or just a carriage return, (in which case the delivery will not be changed in
- that sector).
-
- You may also specify a threshold at this time which will override any thres-
- hold specified by the command arguments by following the direction with a
- number in parentheses.
-
- NOTE: delivery thresholds are stored as a multiple of 8. Thus specifying a
- threshold of (25) will actually become a threshold of 24.
-
- The census and commodity reports will indicate deliveries by the same charac-
- ters used to specify them in this command.
-
- If accessing a sector causes an update to be performed and the destination
- sector is not owned by you, the message delivery walkout between x,y & x,y
- will be printed and nothing will be delivered.
-
- Delivery routes may also be mapped out with the route command.
-
- See also : census, commodity, route, innards, syntax
-
- Command : DEMOBILIZE
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: demobilize <SECTS> <NUMBER>
-
- The demob command returns soldiers from the military back to civilian life.
- In addition, you have the option of placing the returning GI's into the
- nation's active reserve. The active reserve provides a pool of available mil-
- itary for a small salary (usually the same amount generated by a civilian) and
- provides for quick mobilization of military during a threat to national secu-
- rity.
-
- As a result of demobilization, and as a thank you for serving their country in
- its time of need, a GI Bill is given to each soldier to the tune of $5 each.
-
- Troops can only be demobilized in sectors which have greater than 60% effi-
- ciency, and only in home sectors (that is, not in occupied territory).
-
- When troops are successfully demobilized in a given sector, the number of new
- civilians is printed, and the number in parentheses shows the total number of
- military left in that sector.
-
- You have the option of placing civilians on active reserve. Civilians on
- active reserve can later be enlisted but you must pay them to stay on. Gen-
- erally civilian on active reserve costs one tenth of what a military costs.
-
- [##:##] Command: demob -3:3,-1:2
-
- Number to demobilize : 10
- 10 demobilized in -1,-1 (30)
- 7 demobilized in 1,-1 (13)
- 8 demobilized in 3,-1 (30)
- 10 demobilized in -2,0 (17)
- Total new civilians : 35
-
- See also : enlist
-
- Command : DESIGNATE
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: designate <SECTS> <DESIGNATION>
-
- In Empire all sectors have a designation. The designation represents the
- principal industry or activity taking place in that area. When a sector is
- designated a harbor, for example, the civilians in the sector start building
- shipyards and docks, (with a little help from any military present).
-
- If the redesignated sector is already declared to be something else, and is
- efficient, then the workers will have to tear down the existing construction
- and then build the new sector. The workers dismantle existing sectors four
- times faster than they can build.
-
- As work progresses the efficiency will climb toward a maximum of 100%.
-
- If you don't specify the <DESIGNATION> argument in the command line as in:
- [##:##] Command: designate 1:3,2:5
- The program will ask for each sector specified what you want the new sector
- designation to be.
-
- However, if you wish to designate one or several sectors to be one particular
- thing and don't want to be asked on each one you can type something like:
- [##:##] Command: designate -6:6,-3:3 ?type=f +
- This will designate all fortresses that you own within three sectors of your
- capital to be highways.
-
- See also : sector-types
-
- Command : DISSOLVE
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: dissolve
-
- The dissolve command is the coward's way out of Empire. It does several
- things: it gives all your sectors back to The Deity, pays off any debts that
- it can, voids any treaties in which you were involved, and allows your ships
- to decide their own fate. Some ships riot, some go up for sale, and some are
- scuttled.
-
- Using the dissolve command is simplicity itself:
- [##:##] Command: dissolve
- You will be given one last chance to change your mind:
-
- Are you SURE you want to do this?
-
- And then it's curtains...
-
- See also : prayers
-
- Command : DISTRIBUTE
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: distribute <SECTS> <PATH>
-
- The distribute command is used to specify the path that goods will travel dur-
- ing an update. Each sector is allowed to have one and only one path to a dis-
- tribution sector (a warehouse). Subsequent distribute commands will replace
- the existing distribution path.
-
- For example,
- [##:##] Command: distribute 2,0
-
- highway at 2,0 delivers to 8,4.
- New path? jjuh
- New path delivers to 7,-1
-
- This command changed the distribution path for sector 2,0 from a warehouse at
- 8,4 to a warehouse at 7,-1.
-
- The command will warn you if the path you specify is not completely owned by
- you, and also if the path does not end at a warehouse. It is not required
- that the distribution path end at a warehouse, but it is required that you one
- all the sectors that the goods will travel along.
-
- Use threshold to specify what good will flow to and from the warehouse.
-
- See also : deliver, threshold, level
-
- Command : DROPOFF
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: dropoff <TRANSPORTS> <ESCORTS> <SECT> <COMMODITY> route
-
- The dropoff command is used to resupply beleaguered friendly troops with food,
- shells, reinforcements, and other necessities of battle.
-
- <TRANSPORTS> represents a list of planes which are to travel to the target
- sector. Only planes which are provided with gas, and have sufficient mobility
- will be successfully selected for the mission.
-
- <ESCORTS> represent a list of fighter planes which are capable of escorting
- the transports all the way to the target. To be selected, escorts must have
- fuel and mobility.
-
- <SECT> represents an assembly point, where all of the planes in the mission
- meet before proceeding on to the target sector. The assembly point must be
- owned by you, and must not be more than four sectors away from any of the
- planes selected for the mission.
-
- <COMMODITY> is the name of a commodity which is to be carried along on all of
- the planes which have a transport capacity.
-
- Route is a normal empire path specification.
-
- The target sector must be owned by you. Planes which arrive safely at the
- target sector will drop the goodies off to the waiting people below.
-
- See also : plane-types, bomb, fly, para, recon
-
- Command : DUMP
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: dump <SECTS>
-
- The dump command displays all information on some or all of the sectors you
- occupy. dump is a combination of census, commodity, cutoff and level. Each
- sector's information is printed on one very long line. Fields are separated
- by a single space.
-
- This command is designed to be used for input to an empire tool such as ve.
-
- In the syntax of the dump command <SECTS> is the area on which you wish infor-
- mation, (see info syntax).
-
- A typical usage might be:
- [##:##] Command: dump #5
- which would list data for all sectors in realm #5.
-
- A dump lists each of your sectors in the specified area. The header line is a
- list of fields that correspond to the order that dump prints the sector info.
-
- See also : census, commodity, cutoff, level
-
- Concept : Education
-
- The education level of an Empire country is determined by the output of
- library/school sectors in the following way. Whenever a library/school sector
- is updated and there are the proper amounts of raw materials (usually light
- construction materials and money -- see info products for exact figures),
- those materials are turned into classes of graduates. The number of classes
- of graduates per population unit can be found by executing the version com-
- mand.
-
- Education is actually a moving average, with previous education production
- being much more heavily weighted than current production. This implies that a
- large production of education today will not result in a large jump in educa-
- tion levels.
-
- Education is important for both technology and research production.
-
- The nation command will display, among other things, your current education
- level.
-
- See also : happiness, innards, nation, products, research, technology
-
- Command : ENLIST
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: enlist <SECTS> <NUMBER>
-
- The enlist command converts civilians into military in the sectors specified.
- Military created by the enlist command are actually reserves called up from
- your country's military reserve. If your country has no military reserves
- (created by demobilize) then no civilians will be converted and no military
- will be generated.
-
- After the program has collected any necessary information, it will list each
- sector where civilians answer the call and the number who showed up followed
- by the total number of military resulting (in parentheses).
-
- If <NUMBER> is a positive number that many draftees will be sought in each
- sector regardless of any military already in the sector.
-
- If <NUMBER> is a negative number of the form -xxx, then an enlistment quota is
- established and the draft board will attempt to enlist enough in each sector
- to bring the total number of military up to xxx in each sector.
-
- Although the program tries to draft the specified number of civilians in each
- sector only one-half of the civilians in a sector can be called upon at any
- one time.
-
- Civilians in conquered sectors (the conquered populace) will not serve in your
- armed forces.
-
- [##:##] Command: enl -3:3,-1:2 10
- Number to enlist (max 397) : 22
- 22 enlisted in -1,-1 (30)
- 13 enlisted in 1,-1 (13)
- 22 enlisted in 3,-1 (30)
- 17 enlisted in -2,0 (17)
- 22 enlisted in 0,0 (36)
- 22 enlisted in -1,1 (34)
- 22 enlisted in 1,1 (34)
- 18 enlisted in 0,2 (18)
- 22 enlisted in 2,2 (45)
- Total new enlistment : 180
- Paperwork at recruiting stations ... 3.6
-
- Note that there is a cost of 0.2 BTU's per draftee in addition to the basic
- cost of the command and enlistees use up some mobility in the enlistment pro-
- cess.
-
- See also : demobilize.
-
- Command : EXPLORE
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: explore <ITEM> <SECT> <NUMBER> <ROUTE>
-
- The explore command takes over part of the functionality of move. Explore is
- used to stake your claim to unowned sectors. Only civilians and military can
- be used to explore. Note that you can not stop exploring in a sector that you
- already own.
-
- <ITEM> can be any one of:
-
- c civilians
- m military
-
- If <SECT> is not provided in the command line, the program will request the
- starting sector then display the resources of that sector and a map of the
- adjoining sectors. The prompt consists of the number of mobility units in
- that sector, its designation, and its coordinates in the form:
- <97.0: a -6,4>
-
- which indicates 97 mobility units in agribusiness sector -6,4. You may
- respond with any combination of:
-
- y for up-left
- u for up-right y u
- g for left \ /
- j for right g -- -- j
- b for down-left / \
- n for down-right b n
- v for view
- m for map
- h for end of movement
-
- The view command shows the sector efficiency and some of the contents of the
- sector you are currently occupying.
-
- Since the <ROUTE> can be specified in the command line, simple movements are
- often typed as a single line, such as:
- [##:##] Command: explore m 2,0 20 jjjh
- Or some movements may be done partly on the command line and partly interac-
- tively:
- [##:##] Command: explore c 2,0 1 gg
-
- - ^ min gold fert oil uran
- - - - 67 0 0 0 82
- - ^
- <125.4: - -4,0> v
- 0% wilderness with 0 civilians.
- - ^ min gold fert oil uran
- - - - 67 0 0 0 82
- - ^
- <125.4: - -4,0> h
- Sector -4,0 is now yours.
-
- Typical mobility costs are:
-
- 1 mu per 5 civilians
- 1 mu per 5 military
-
- These costs are for movement through a 100% efficient regular sector in good
- weather. Wildernesses cost twice as much mobility, mountains cost lots more,
- and highways can cost as little as nothing (if 100% efficient).
-
- See also : move, test, navigate, transport
-
- Command : FINANCIAL
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: financial
-
- The financial report shows all of the outstanding loans in the world, so that
- the loan sharks can better calculate the ability of a prospective client to
- pay.
-
- It does not show loan offers pending, however, just those loans which have
- been accepted.
-
- [##:##] Command: financial
-
- -= Empire Financial Status Report =-
- Mon Oct 6 11:12:30 1986
- Loan From To Rate Dur Paid Total
- 6 ( 2) Domino ( 3) Oz 0% 10 0 5000
- 8 ( 4) Zyf (14) Id 0% 30 0 2000
- 11 ( 2) Hodedo ( 3) Oz 13% 15 18000 25000
- See also : loan, ledger
-
- Command : FIRE
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: fire [<VSECT> | <VSHIP>] [<ASECT> | <ASHIP>] <NUMBER>
-
- The fire command is used to shoot up land sectors or ships.
-
- The general form for shooting at land from land is:
- [##:##] Command: fire <VSECT> <ASECT>
- Where <VSECT> is the victim sector, (the sector AT which you are shooting, not
- the sector FROM which you are shooting).
-
- The general form for shooting at land from ships is:
- [##:##] Command: fire <VSECT> <ASHIP> <NUMBER>
-
- The general form for firing at ships from land is:
- [##:##] Command: fire <VSHIP> <ASECT>
- Again, <VSHIP> is the victim ship number.
-
- The general form for firing at ships from ships is:
- [##:##] Command: fire <VSHIP> <ASHIP> <NUMBER>
-
- If not specified on the command line the program will ask for the sector or
- ship FROM which you are firing, (<ASECT> or <ASHIP>).
-
- The only sector that may fire is a fortress, which must have at least two mil-
- itary for a firing crew, at least one shell to fire, and a gun big enough to
- reach the victim location; range is equal to the number of guns, (with a max-
- imum of 7), times the technology factor, (which has a maximum of 1. see info
- technology).
-
- Any military ship may fire as long as it has at leasr one crew (which must be
- military, not civilians), at least one gun, at least one shell, and has at
- least 60% efficiency. If the ship can fire more than one gun and <NUMBER> was
- not specified on the command line the program will ask how many you wish to
- fire. See info ship-types for gun ranges.
-
- Forts and non-destroyers cannot hit submarines on the high seas. The only way
- to attack a submarine is to have a destroyer drop a depth charge on it,
- costing two shells.
-
- The program then prints a satisfying Kaboom!!! and, assuming you were in
- range, inflicts damage.
-
- Ships lose 15 mobility points for each shot fired.
-
- The damages inflicted vary with efficiency of the attacker, the size of the
- guns (battleship guns are four times as big as patrol boat guns), the number
- of guns fired, etc.
-
- A table of approximate damages looks like:
- From To Range of damages
- ---- ---- ----------------
- land land 11% .. 16%
- land sea 14% .. 49%
- pat * land 7%
- pat * sea 9% .. 28%
- bat ** land 25%
- bat ** sea 30% .. 64%
-
- * pat here is a patrol boat firing a single gun, (the wimpiest sea gun avail-
- able)
- ** bat means a battleship firing four guns at once.
-
- An illustrative example of shelling land:
- [##:##] Command: fir 34,18 36,18
-
- Kaboom!!!
- 13% damage done to sector 34,18
-
- Meanwhile, the owner of sector 35,18 might be logged on and would perhaps see
- the following:
-
- [15:98] Command: cen 34,18
- Sat Jul 30 16:18:01 1984
- CENSUS del cnt
- sect eff mob cmf cmf % * civ mil food min gmin fert oil
- 34,18 i 100% 127 ... ... 200 100 23 23 31 73 18
- 1 sector
- You have a telegram waiting ...
-
- [15:98] Command: read
- BULLETIN! dated Sat Jul 30 16:18:02 1984
- Country #9 shelled 34,18
- Shall I burn it? y
-
- [15:98] Command: cen 34,18
- Sat Jul 30 16:18:26 1984
- CENSUS del cnt
- sect eff mob cmf cmf % * civ mil food min gmin fert oil
- 34,18 i 87% 110 ... ... 175 83 20 23 31 73 18
- 1 sector
-
- Note that the shell did about 13% damage in the sector.
-
- If the sector fired on is a fort with guns and shells it will fire back with
- approximately the same damages (assuming it has the range).
-
- If the sector is near any friendly forts within range of the attacker that all
- such forts will return fire.
-
- If a ship fired on has guns and shells it will fire back AND any other ships
- of the same nationality that are in range will also fire on you.
-
- See also : attack, assault, torpedo, technology
-
- Command : FLEETADD
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: fleetadd <FLEET> <SHIP/FLEET>
-
- The fleetadd command is used to specify the fleet groupings of your ships.
-
- [##:##] Command: fleetadd <FLEET> <SHIP/FLEET>
- In the syntax <FLEET> is the alphabetic character to be used as the fleet
- designation. This character can be chosen from the set of upper or lower case
- a-z and tilde (~). The pseudo-fleet specification tilde specifies all ships
- not currently in any fleet.
-
- The specification of ships, <SHIP/FLEET>, can have one of several syntaxes:
- example meaning
- ------- -------
- 23 ship 23
- 2/14/23 ships 2, 14, and 23
- c all ships currently in fleet `c'
- ~ all ships currently in the null fleet
- 2,3 all ships in sector 2,3
- -1:3,0:2 all ships in the square area bounded by -1,0 & 3,2
-
- All fleets, (with the exception of the `~' fleet), are limited to some maximum
- size and you will be informed how many ships can be added when this command is
- run.
-
- Having ships organized into fleets can be very helpful in loading, moving,
- etc., in that fewer commands are required to perform these commands on groups
- of ships if they can be specified by fleet number.
-
- Note that you can remove ships from a fleet by adding them to the `~' fleet.
- e.g.
- [##:##] Command: fleetadd ~ A
- This command would purge all ships from fleet `A'.
-
- See also : load, lookout, navigate, radar, ship, unload
-
- Command : FLY
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: fly <TRANSPORTS> <ESCORTS> <SECT> <COMMODITY> route
-
- The fly command is used to move planes and commodities from the starting
- sector(s), and ending up in the target sector.
-
- <TRANSPORTS> represents a list of planes which are to travel to the target
- sector. Only planes which are provided with gas, and have sufficient mobility
- will be successfully selected for the mission.
-
- <ESCORTS> represent a list of fighter planes which are capable of escorting
- the transports all the way to the target. To be selected, escorts must have
- fuel and mobility.
-
- <SECT> represents an assembly point, where all of the planes in the mission
- meet before proceeding on to the target sector. The assembly point must be
- owned by you, and must not be more than four sectors away from any of the
- planes selected for the mission.
-
- <COMMODITY> is the name of a commodity which is to be carried along on all of
- the planes which have a transport capacity. If nothing is specified, then
- nothing will be carried.
-
- Route is a normal empire path specification.
-
- If the transports stray over enemy territory, then they will be intercepted
- and shot at just like any other mission. If the destination sector is not an
- airport, then all planes in the mission must have V/STOL capability.
-
- See also : plane-types, bomb, para, drop, recon
-
- Command : HARDEN
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: harden <PLANES> <LEVEL>
-
- The harden command is used to install missiles into protective silos which can
- prevent their destruction during a nuclear or non-nuclear attack. Each suc-
- cessive harden command will add to the current hardness level of the missile
- in question.
-
- Each point of hardening uses one unit of heavy construction materials, and
- costs $5.
-
- Once a missile has been placed in a silo (hardened to a level greater than 0)
- it can no longer be moved.
-
- See also : launch, nuke-types, plane-types
-
- Command : HEADLINES
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: headlines [days]
-
- The headlines command lets you read just the important, subjective, summary
- part of the news without boring you with the confusing details.
-
- If you include a number in the command, it will print headlines based on the
- news from that many previous days.
-
- The headline Relative Calm Prevails appears whenever the reporters haven't
- been able to dig up any interesting tidbits to give the news analysts.
-
- The headlines are produced by the editorial staff of the Empire News who are
- solely responsible for their lack of content.
-
- See also : news
-
- Command : INFO
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: info [<TOPIC>]
-
- The info command either gives a list of info topics or gives a brief descrip-
- tion of a particular concept or command in the Empire game.
-
- To get a list of available info topics type:
- [##:##] Command: info
- and a list will be given.
-
- To get information on a particular topic type:
- [##:##] Command: info topic-name
- The program will type out the date of the last modification to that particular
- info topic and then print the document in question.
-
- See also : bugs
-
- Command : LAUNCH
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: launch <PLANES>
-
- The launch command is used to launch nuclear missiles (or satellites) from
- sectors or nuclear submarines owned by you. If there are nuclear warheads on
- board the particular missile, you will be asked for targeting data for each
- warhead (also known as re-entry vehicle), including the target x,y.
-
- Once a satellite has been launched, it can not be moved again.
-
- Additionally, each missile can be targeted to air-burst or ground-burst. In
- order to better destroy missiles on the ground (or in their silos), the
- ground-burst technique is used. Ground-bursts are much less effective against
- large area targets, but do massive damage to the sector it impacts, possibly
- knocking out hardened missiles before they can be used against you. In the
- parlance of nuclear targeting doctrine, this is known as counter-force target-
- ing.
-
- Air-bursts are used in order to kill large numbers of civilians, to knock out
- industry (by flattening the factories), to take out lightly armored military
- targets in a large area, and to generally wreak havoc. Nuclear strategists
- call this a counter-value technique.
-
- Once all targeting data is entered, the launch command will notify you of a
- successful launch, targeting, and (if all goes well) the detonation of the
- nuclear devices in their target sectors. Note here that it is much safer to
- use 100% missiles than those which are less efficient, and missiles below 60%
- cannot be launched.
-
- Of course, things don't always go as planned!
-
- Note that when you are first asked for the target sector you can chicken out
- by hitting ^C (or your favorite abort character).
-
- See also : build, planes, satellite, nuke-types, On Thermonuclear War by Her-
- man Kahn.
-
- Command : LEDGER
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: ledger
-
- The ledger command prints the information on all outstanding loans in which
- you are involved.
-
- The loan number, loaner's name, loanee's name, principal, interest rate,
- expiration date, amount due, etc. will be printed for each loan.
-
- For example:
- [##:##] Command: ledger
- ... Groonland Ledger ...
-
- Loan #0 from Groonland to Dog Dish
- Amount paid to date $0
- Amount due (if paid now) $5046 (if paid on due date) $5250
- Due date is Thu Mar 19 16:44:35 1981
-
- Loan #1 from Doctor Fate to Groonland
- (proposed) principal=$3000 interest rate=10% duration(days)=30
- Loan must be accepted by Tue Feb 17 16:43:27 1981
-
- See also : consider, financial, offer
-
- Command : LEVEL
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: level <SECTS>
-
- The level report provides information about the various distribution thres-
- holds in some or all of the sectors that you occupy.
-
- In the syntax of the level command <SECTS> is the area on which you wish
- information, (see info syntax). A typical usage might be:
- [##:##] Command: level -6:6,-3:3
- which would list data for the area extending three sectors out from the capi-
- tal in each direction.
-
- The level report lists each of your sectors with the following heading:
-
- DISTRIBUTION LEVELS
- sect path------ dst uw food sh gun pet iron dust bar oil lcm hcm rad
-
- These columns represent:
-
- sect the x and y coordinates of the sector
- path------ the route that goods travel to and from the distribution sector
- dst the distribution destination for the sector
- uw the distribution threshold for uncompensated workers in that sec-
- tor
- food the distribution threshold for food in that sector
- gun the distribution threshold for guns in that sector
- sh the distribution threshold for shells in that sector
- pet the distribution threshold for petroleum in that sector
- iron the distribution threshold for iron ore in that sector
- dust the distribution threshold for gold dust in that sector
- bar the distribution threshold for gold bars in that sector
- oil the distribution threshold for oil in that sector
- lcm the distribution threshold for light construction materials in
- that sector
- hcm the distribution threshold for heavy construction materials in
- that sector
- rad the distribution threshold for radioactive materials in that sec-
- tor
-
- For example:
- [##:##] Command: level -3:3,-2:0
-
- Fri Oct 31 16:58:34 1986
- DISTRIBUTION LEVELS
- sect path----- dst uw food sh gun pet iron dust bar oil lcm hcm rad
- -2,-2 m -2,-2 201 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
- 0,-2 g 0,-2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
- 2,-2 w 4,-2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
- -1,-1 + b -2,0 0 130 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
- 1,-1 + n 2,0 51 200 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
- 3,-1 + b 2,0 51 200 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
- -2,0 a ullln 6,0 51 400 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
- 0,0 c g -2,0 0 896 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
- 2,0 i ugu -2,-2 51 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 90 90 0
- 9 sectors
-
- See also : distribute, threshold, commodity, census
-
- Command : LIST
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: list
-
- The list command gets you a list of commands with their associated BTU costs,
- (see info time for description of BTU's). This should not be confused with
- info {commands} which generates a brief summary of each command.
-
- [##:##] Command: list
-
- Current EMPIRE Command List
- ------- ------ ------- ----
- Initial number is cost in BTU's.
- Text enclosed in {braces} is comment rather than part of the command.
- Args in [brackets] are optional, but can only appear on the command line.
- Args in <angle brackets> have the following meanings:
- <CNUM/CNAME> :: a country number or name
- <ITEM> :: commodity such as `ore', `guns', etc
- <LOAN> :: loan number
- <SECT> :: sector coordinates in the form: x,y
- <SECTS> :: sector(s) in the form: lox:hix,loy:hiy/d ?cond&cond&...
- <SHIP> :: one ship number
- <FLEET> :: fleet designation, or area
- 2 announce 2 arm <PLANE> <WARHEAD> <NUMBER>
- 2 assault <SECT> {from ship} 2 attack <SECT> <move-in> {from sect}
- etc.
-
- See also : commands, syntax, time, bugs
-
- Command : LOAD
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: load <SHIP/FLEET> <AMOUNT> <COMMODITY>
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: load <CARRIER/SUBMARINE> <PLANE/MISSILE> plane
-
- The load command carries out the loading of ships. Commodities (like guns,
- civs, food) can be loaded onto any ship. Missiles can be loaded onto nuke subs
- and planes can be loaded onto carriers.
-
- The ship(s) must be in a harbor and the harbor must be at least 2% efficient.
-
- In the first form, load ship# amount commodity, the amount argument specifies
- the amount of the given commodity you wish to load on each ship specified.
- Amounts greater than that allowed will be truncated to the maximum possible.
-
- In the second form, load carrier# plane# 'plane', where you say plane instead
- of say civ a plane/missile is loaded onto a carrier/sub.
-
- See info ship-types for a table of the maximum amounts of each items that can
- be carried on each ship type.
-
- See also : unload, navigate, ship-types
-
- Command : LOOKOUT
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: lookout <SHIP/FLEET>
-
- The lookout command allows ships to report sightings of other ships and land
- sectors.
-
- The various ranges over which lookout is effective break down into two groups:
-
- SHIP to SHIP
-
- This range is dependent on both the visibility of the ship being observed
- and the visual range of the observing ship. (see info ship-types) Subma-
- rines are a special case - they cannot be seen by simply looking out from a
- ship! In order to detect subs, you need to use sonar. Likewise, submarines
- cannot see anything but land from a lookout. While submarines cannot be
- seen by a lookout, they cannot see other ships by a lookout. (see info
- sonar)
-
- SHIP to SHIP
-
- This range is effectively 1.0.
- For example:
- [##:##] Command: lookout 24
-
- Groonland (#1) patrol boat #10 @-13,7
- Curmudgeon (#4) heavy cruiser #36 @-14,6
- Groonland (#1) oil derrick #41 @-14,6
- Groonland (#1) tender #53 @-14,6
- Groonland (#1) mine 100% eff with approx. 300 civilians @-12,6
- Groonland (#1) heavy manufacturing 23% eff with approx. 10 civilians @-11,7
-
- See also : coastwatch, ship-types, sector-types, radar, sonar
-
- Command : MAP
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: map <SECTS>
-
- A map gives you a graphic representation of all or part of your country.
-
- Your own sectors show up as a designation mnemonic (see sector-types) while
- sectors held by other countries appear as question marks (?). Mountains,
- wilderness ares, and seas appear as '^', '-' and '.' respectively.
-
- Examples:
- [##:##] Command: map -9:18,-8:5
- generates a 28 x 14 map based on data supplied by the sectors in the area
- specified.
-
- ---------0000000000111111111
- 9876543210123456789012345678
- -8 . . . - - -8
- -7 . . . . - ^ -7
- -6 . . . . - - - - -6
- -5 . . - . a a - ^ ? ? - -5
- -4 . . . . k o ! - ^ ? ? ? -4
- -3 . - . a h j a ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ - -3
- -2 . . - . a a a ^ a a - - - -2
- -1 . . . a a a b + + ^ ^ - -1
- 0 . . . m c u a a - ^ - ^ 0
- 1 . - . a a . a a - - ^ 1
- 2 - ^ ^ a a a ^ a - - ^ 2
- 3 - - - - - - - . . - 3
- 4 ^ - - - - - ^ - - 4
- 5 - ^ - - ^ - - - 5
- ---------0000000000111111111
- 9876543210123456789012345678
-
-
- [##:##] Command: map # >mapfil
- where your realm (or '#', see info realm or info update) is -5:5,-6:6 will
- type out a 11 by 13 sector map and also put the map in the file called mapfil.
-
- See also : census, commodity, radar, realm, route, update
-
- Command : MARKET
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: market
-
- The market report displays the lowest-priced commodity of each item type on
- the market which is not on sale by you, the selling nation, the number of
- units on sale, and the price per unit.
-
- If a product argument is given, then a list of the prices of that product is
- printed in the same way as buy.
-
- Note that this takes into account the multiplier from the selling nation to
- your country, so the market price may vary from country to country.
-
- [##:##] Command: market
-
- -= World Commodity Market Report =-
- Mon Oct 6 10:22:09 1986
- item cnum country qty $/unit
- shells (# 3) Oz 219 500.00
- iron ore (#12) Idiots 696 5.00
- dust (gold) (#14) Zyf 20 120.00
- food (# 7) Vixen 500 0.15
- light produc (# 3) Oz 175 200.00
-
- See also : buy, sell, mult
-
- Command : MINE
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: mine <SHIP> <NUMBER>
-
- This command drops mines in the sea and is functional from ships with mine-
- laying capability (see info ship-types).
-
- Each mine gives a 5% chance that a passing ship will be hit. The probabili-
- ties are additive, e.g. twenty mines produce a 100% chance of a mine colli-
- sion. The damage is dependent upon the size of the ship and the spot that the
- mine hits.
-
- Some damage ranges are:
-
- patrol boat 60% - 80%
- fishing boat 100% -100%
- minesweep 51% - 71%
- destroyer 38% - 58%
- submarine 41% - 61%
- tender 38% - 58%
- heavy cruiser 27% - 47%
- cargo ship 35% - 55%
- aircraft carrier 27% - 47%
- battleship 23% - 43%
- yacht 70% - 90%
-
- In the command syntax <SHIP> is the number of one of your destroyers and
- <NUMBER> is the number of mines you wish to drop. That number of shells,
- (assuming you've got them), will be dropped in the sector that destroyer occu-
- pies, magically becoming mines as they hit the water.
-
- Mines can only be removed safely by a minesweeper. (Other ships can remove
- them by hitting them, but...)
-
- Harbors and sea sectors under bridge spans can be mined. Your ships will
- automatically avoid these mines when passing through, (and your minesweepers
- will not not pick them up).
-
- Note that the sector is checked for possible mine hits only when a ship moves
- into it; thus, a destroyer may safely drop mines in a sector and then move
- out. On the other hand, the mines know no allegiance, so moving back into a
- mined sector is foolish at best unless it is a harbor or under a bridge span.
-
- See also : navigate
-
- Command : MOVE
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: move <ITEM> <SECT> <NUMBER> <ROUTE>
-
- The move command is crucial to Empire; it carries out the movement of civili-
- ans, military, ore, guns, shells, food, planes, etc. on land. Note that you
- can only move into sectors that you own, so you cannot take sectors via move.
- To take sectors, use the "explore" command, which uses the same syntax as
- move.
-
- <ITEM> can be any one of:
- c civilians
- m military
- u uncompensated workers
- f food
- g guns
- s shells
- p petrol
- i iron ore
- d gold dust
- b bars of gold
- l light construction materials
- h heavy construction materials
- r radioactive materials
-
- If <SECT> is not provided in the command line, the program will request the
- starting sector then display the number of mobility units in that sector, its
- designation, and its coordinates in the form:
-
- <97.0: a -6,4>
-
- which indicates 97 mobility units in agribusiness sector -6,4. You may
- respond with any combination of:
-
- y for up-left
- u for up-right y u
- g for left \ /
- j for right g -- -- j
- b for down-left / \
- n for down-right b n
- v for view
- m for map
- h for end of movement
-
- The view command shows the sector efficiency and some of the contents of the
- sector you are currently occupying.
-
- Since the <ROUTE> can be specified in the command line, simple movements are
- often typed as a single line, such as:
- [##:##] Command: move m 2,0 20 jjjh
- Or some movements may be done partly on the command line and partly interac-
- tively:
- [##:##] Command: move c 2,2 18 jj
-
- <32.3: g 6,2> v
- 10% gold mine with 3 civilians.
- <32.3: 6,2> h
-
- Typical mobility costs are:
- 1 mu per 5 civilians
- 1 mu per 5 military
- 2 mu per 5 uncompensated workers
- 2 mu per 5 shells
- 2 mu per gun
- 4 mu per plane
- 1 mu per 5 tons of iron ore
- 1 mu per 5 tons of gold dust
- 10 mu per bar of gold
- 1 mu per 5 tons of food
- 1 mu per 5 units of oil
- 1 mu per 5 tons of light construction materials
- 1 mu per 5 tons of heavy construction materials
- 1 mu per 5 tons of radioactive materials
-
- These costs are for movement through a 100% efficient regular sector in good
- weather. Wildernesses cost twice as much mobility, mountains cost lots more,
- and highways can cost as little as nothing (if 100% efficient).
-
- See also : navigate, transport, test, explore
-
- Command : MULT
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: mult <CNUM/CNAME> <NUMBER>
-
- The mult command allows a nation to set price multipliers of the goods they
- are selling.
-
- The <CNUM/CNAME> argument is the number or name of the nation for which you
- want to reset the multiplier, and <NUMBER> is the new multiplier (a floating-
- point number). If no arguments are given, you are prompted for them. A car-
- riage return or incorrect nation at this prompt allows the changing of all the
- price multipliers.
-
- For example, if one nation is a nice nation, and another is particularly
- unfriendly, the price multiplier for the nice one might be 0.75, while the
- nasty nation might have one around 5.
-
- The price multiplier affects the price of a nation's goods to other nations.
- Final item price is determined by multiplying the price of the item at the
- time of the sale by the individual price multiplier for the nation buying the
- item. You cannot have a price multiplier below 0.05.
-
- Typical output looks like:
- [##:##] Command: mult
-
- for which country? bar
- bar ( 1.000) : 3.00
-
- [##:##] Command: mult
-
- for which country?
- Editing nation price multipliers...
- MGM (1.00) :
- hodedo (2.55) : 100
- bar (1.00) : ^C
- Aborted
-
- The second editing session left unchanged all price multipliers except the one
- for country hodedo, which was set to 100.
-
- See also : buy, sell
-
- Command : NATION
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: nation
-
- The nation report command displays various data about your country.
-
- The data displayed by the nation command is formatted as a single page report
- and should be self explanatory. For example:
- [##:##] Command: nation
-
- MGM Nation Report Sat Nov 4 15:01:52 1986
- Nation status is ACTIVE Bureaucratic Time Units: 250
- Capital is 100% efficient and has 87 civilians and 80 military
- #0 -10:10,-5:5 #1 -10:0,-64:64 #2 -10:64,-64:64 #3 -10:64,-64:64
- #4 -10:20,-10:10 #5 -10:10,-5:5 #6 -10:20,-25:25 #7 -10:30,-20:0
- The treasury has $16800.00 Military reserves: 152
- Education.......... 9.20 Happiness....... 12.01
- Technology......... 16.81 Research........ 19.82
- Technology factor : 30.81% Plague factor : 0.93%
-
- See also : power
-
- Command : NAVIGATE
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: navigate <SHIP/FLEET> <ROUTE>
-
- The navigate command is the move command applied to the sea. You can control
- one ship or an entire fleet with it.
-
- A ship must have at least one crew (which may be civilian or military, but not
- an uncompensated worker) to be navigated. If you are moving a fleet and the
- flagship stops, the fleet stops; (the lowest numbered ship is always con-
- sidered the flagship).
-
- The program will prompt with the mobility of the flagship, the minimum mobil-
- ity value for the fleet, and the current sector coordinates in the form:
-
- <57.0:23.5: -6,4>
-
- which means the flagship has 57 mobility units, some other ship in the fleet
- has 23.5 mobility units and the flagship is in sector -6,4. You may indicate
- the direction you would like the fleet to move by typing a string of letters
- consisting of any combination of the following:
-
- y for up-left
- u for up-right y u
- g for left \ /
- j for right g -- -- j
- b for down-left / \
- n for down-right b n
- v for view
- h for end of movement
-
- The view option costs no mobility but really only tells you whether or not
- you're in a harbor.
-
- Since the <ROUTE> can be specified in the command line, simple ship movements
- are often typed as a single line, such as:
- [##:##] Command: nav 19 jjjh
-
- Or some movements may be done partly on the command line and partly interac-
- tively:
- [##:##] Command: nav 18 jj
-
- <112.7:112.7: -4, -2> v
- patrol boat #18 on open sea @ -3,-2
- <112.7:112.7: -4, -2> gh
- patrol boat #18 stopped at -6,-2
-
- Some typical movement costs are:
-
- ship 25% tech factor 50% tech factor 100% tech factor
- type cost/sector cost/sector cost/sector
- ------ ---- ---- ----
- patrol boat 7.68 6.4 4.8
- fishing boat 25.6 21.33 16.0
- minesweep 19.2 16.0 12.0
- destroyer 10.96 9.13 6.85
- submarine 15.36 12.8 9.6
- tender 12.8 10.67 8.0
- heavy cruiser 12.8 10.67 8.0
- cargo ship 19.2 16.0 12.0
- aircraft carrier 15.36 12.8 9.6
- battleship 15.36 12.8 9.6
-
- Moving a ship through a sector that has been mined by a destroyer introduces a
- 5% chance per mine (cumulative) that you will be damaged by detecting one of
- the little cuties. Minesweeps can remove up to five mines per pass through a
- sector (indicated by the message Sweep...).
-
- See also : mine, ship-types
-
- Command : NEWS
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: news <DAYS>
-
- The news command prints a copy of the local newspaper published by The Empire
- News.
-
- This morning after daily recounts financial exploits, the telegram traffic
- between countries, and political maneuvering in addition to the chronicling of
- such mundanities as shelling, attacking, and nuclear testing.
-
- It's great breakfast reading!
-
- Normally your edition of the news will only contain events that have occurred
- since you last read the news. You can specify what time period you'd like it
- to cover with the optional <DAYS> argument in the command line as in:
-
- [##:##] Command: news 2
- Which will print the news for the last two days.
-
- See also : headlines
-
- Command : NUKE
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: nuke <SECTS>
-
- The nuke report prints a listing of all the nuclear devices in a given area,
- together with their types.
-
- [##:##] Command: nuke #1
-
- x,y # type
- 2,-12 2 100kt fission bomb
- 2,-12 5 5mt fusion bomb
-
- See also : build, launch, transport
-
- Command : OFFER
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: offer loan <CNUM/CNAME> <AMOUNT> <DURATION> <RATE>
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: offer treaty <CNUM/CNAME>
-
- The offer command is used to offer either a loan or a treaty to another coun-
- try.
-
- In the case of a loan:
-
- <CNUM/CNAME> is the number or name of the country to whom you are offering
- the loan,
-
- <AMOUNT> is the size of the loan. (NOTE: do not use a dollar sign),
-
- <DURATION> is the length of the loan in days,
-
- <RATE> is the interest rate, (per <DURATION>), on the loan.
-
- The program prompts with various questions concerning any terms of the
- loan not provided on the command line and sends a telegram to <CNUM/CNAME>
- announcing the loan offer.
-
- If the other country accepts the loan, (using the consider command), the
- money will be transferred from your account and you will be notified that
- the loan duration has started.
-
- Note that the dependence of rate on the duration makes a 30 day loan at
- 10% a worse deal than a 60 day loan at 15%.
-
- In the case of a treaty:
-
- <CNUM/CNAME> is the name or number of the country to whom you wish to
- offer the treaty.
-
- You will be asked to set both the conditions for yourself and for the
- other country.
-
- The conditions from which you may choose are:
-
- Condition Command(s) affected
- no attacks on ships board
- no shelling ships fire, fly, torp
- no sector attacks assault, attack
- no shelling land fire, fly
- no enlistments enlist
- no building build
-
- Note that the first five terms apply to interactions between the two par-
- ties to the treaty while the last three apply to ANY actions of the speci-
- fied type.
-
- Once you have offered the treaty, a telegram will be sent to the other
- country indicating the offer. If the other country accepts the treaty,
- (using the consider command), you will be notified that it has gone into
- effect.
-
- Once signed, the treaty is not binding! However, any violation of the
- treaty will be pointed out to the violator in time for him/her to recon-
- sider the action and will find its way into the news.
-
- See also : collect, consider, ledger, repay, treaty
-
- Command : ORIGIN
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: origin <SECTOR>
-
- This command changes the origin of your co-ordinate system (where 0,0 is
- located.)
-
- This command does not change the location of your nation's capital, though its
- coordinates, like the coordinates of all other sectors, will be different
- after using the origin command.
-
- Your realms will be automatically recalculated to point to the same area on
- the map.
-
- See also: capitol
-
- Command : PARADROP
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: paradrop <TRANSPORTS> <ESCORTS> <SECT> route
-
- The paradrop command is used to sneak troops behind enemy lines, or to drop in
- unawares on lightly-defended enemy islands or outposts. It represents a com-
- plete mission for one or more transports and escorts taking off from one place
- and returning to base at the end of the mission.
-
- <TRANSPORTS> represents a list of planes which can carry commodities. Only
- planes which have a transport capacity, belong in a sector which is stocked
- with gas and military, and have sufficient mobility will be successfully
- selected for the mission.
-
- <ESCORTS> represent a list of fighter planes which are capable of escorting
- the transports all the way to the target. To be selected, escorts must have
- fuel and mobility.
-
- <SECT> represents an assembly point, where all of the planes in the mission
- meet before proceeding on to the target sector. The assembly point must be
- owned by you, and must not be more than four sectors away from any of the
- planes selected for the mission.
-
- Route is a normal empire path specification.
-
- If the planes manage to fight through enemy air defenses and arrive on-target,
- each transport in the mission will be shot at by any guns present on the
- ground. Surviving transports will drop the paratroops they carry, which will
- attack any enemy military occupying the target sector. Paratroops, due to
- their vulnerability and lack of heavy equipment, count only 1/2 in combat
- against the ground troops in the target sector.
-
- If you win, then the target sector is yours and you capture any commodities
- and planes which happen to be there, although it is probable that any planes
- will be damaged by their ground crews before capture. Hardened missile silos
- are always destroyed prior to sector takeover.
-
- See also : plane-types, bomb, fly, para, drop, recon
-
- Command : PATH
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: path <SECT>
-
- The path command generates a map of the distribution path for a specific sec-
- tor.
-
- The <SECT> argument is a single sector, as described in info syntax.
-
- The distribution paths are indicated with go-tos exactly as for the "route"
- command:
-
- m/ up-right (u in level)
- m> right (j in level)
- m\ down-right (n in level)
- /m down-left (b in level)
- <m left (g in level)
- \m up-left (y in level)
-
- An example:
-
- [##:##] Command: path -2,0
-
- - - - 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1
- 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
- -5 . . a a . . . a -5
- -4 . k o . . . 1 -4
- -3 a h j a . . +/ . -3
- -2 ^ a a a . a/ a -2
- -1 . a a a b +/ + . -1
- 0 0\ c u> t> i/ . . 0
- 1 . a> l/ ^ a a . . 1
- 2 . a a a . a . 2
- - - - 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1
- 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
-
- where -2,0 distributes to 10,-4 along the path shown.
-
- See also : distribute, census, syntax, route, map
-
- Command : PLANE
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: plane [<PLANE> | <SECTS>]
-
- The plane report command is a census of your planes and lists all the informa-
- tion available in readable format.
-
- The <PLANE> and <SECTS> arguments are provided in case you only wish to look
- at one plane or all planes within a given area.
-
- Plane expects some argument. To see all planes, use the argument '*', or
- enter "plane *".
-
- The report format contains the following fields:
-
- # the plane number
- type the type of plane; fighter 1, jet hvy bomber, etc,
- x,y the plane's current location (relative to your capital),
- wing the air wing designation letter,
- eff the plane's efficiency,
- mu the number of mobility points the plane has,
- tech the tech level at which it was created,
- range and the range (in sectors) it can fly on a given mission.
-
- For example:
- [##:##] Command: plane b
-
- # type x,y wing eff mu tech range
- 0 chopper 1 2,0 100% 67 99 8
- 1 chopper 1 2,0 100% 87 99 8
- 2 escort 2 2,0 100% 127 99 16
- 3 hvy bomber 2 2,0 100% 127 99 27
- 4 chopper 1 2,0 100% 67 99 8
- 5 planes
-
- See also : arm, bomb, build, drop, fly, launch, paradrop, recon, satellite,
- scrap, wingadd
-
- Command : POWER
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: power [new] [num]
-
- The power report provides one view of national strengths. It can be particu-
- larly helpful in planning defense strategies and treaty voting.
-
- If the optional new argument is given, the program will take several minutes
- to gather information and generate a power report based on that up-to-date
- information. This costs several BTU's (typically 10).
-
- If the optional new argument is not given, the program will shown you the
- report generated the last time someone asked for new data.
-
- If the optional num argument is given, only the top num entries in the power
- chart will be displayed.
-
- In the power report the countries are listed in order of decreasing power fac-
- tor, each being represented by a line in the following format:
-
- sects eff civ mil shell gun pln iron dust gold food oil ship money
- a b c d e f g h i j k l m n
-
- Each column represents a different commodity or aspect for that country. The
- columns and values used in computing the power factor are:
-
- a # of sectors
- b average sector efficiency
- c # of civilians
- d # of military
- e # of shells
- f # of guns
- g # of planes
- h tons of iron ore
- i tons of gold dust
- j # of gold bars
- k tons of food
- l tanks of oil
- m # of ships
- mm tons of ships (not displayed)
- n # of dollars
- oo units of light construction materials (not displayed)
- pp units of heavy construction materials (not displayed)
- qq megatons of nuclear weaponry (not displayed)
-
- The power factor is determined by the following equation:
-
- power factor = n / 100
- + (c + d + e + h + i + k + l + mm + oo) / 10
- + pp / 5
- + (f + a * b) / 3
- + g + m + j
- + a * 3
- + qq * 100
-
- See also : census, nation
-
- Command : PRODUCE
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: produce <SECTS>
-
- Produce predicts how much is going to be produced at the next update. It also
- shows you how much could be produced if more materials were available in the
- sector.
-
- In the syntax of the produce command <SECTS> is the area on which you wish
- information, (see info syntax). Produce reports on any sector that would pro-
- duce goods, sectors that don't produce anything or are less than 60% efficient
- are ignored.
-
- A typical usage might be:
- [##:##] Command: produce 0:9,0:9 ?type=m
- which would list data for mines in an area to the south-east of the capital.
-
- The production report is headed by the lines:
-
- PRODUCTION SIMULATION
- sect des eff wkfc will make--- p.e. cost use1 use2 use3 max1 max2 max3 max
-
- These columns represent:
-
- sect the x and y coordinates of the sector
- des The sectors designation
- eff the efficiency of the sector in doing its task. Note that some
- sectors although working at 100% may show up less as the natural
- resources influence this figure.
- wkfc the number of active workers in the sector (in units of civili-
- ans).
- will How much of what product will be made at the next update.
- p.e. Production efficiency - the efficiency with which the product is
- made (i.e. how much benefit education or technology gives).
- cost The cost of the product in dollars
- use[123] The three use fields show how much of what product are consumed
- in producing the given number of products produced.
- max[123] The three max fields show what would be used if it were
- available in the sector (i.e. this is what the workforce is
- capable of using if it was available).
- max This field gives the maximum output for the workforce if all the
- raw materials were present.
-
- For example:
- [##:##] Command: prod #4 ?civ>100
-
- prod #
- Wed Aug 17 08:28:21 1988
- PRODUCTION SIMULATION
- sect des eff wkfc will make--- p.e. cost use1 use2 use3 max1 max2 max3 max
- 1,-3 m 56% 1003 22 iron 1.00 $0 22
- 5,-3 a 46% 1006 171 food 0.87 $0 171
- 9,-3 l 100% 1003 0 edu 1.00 $0 0l 40l 40
- -14,-2 r 100% 999 0.00 medical 0.06 $0 0d 0o 0l 2d 10o 20l 0.12
- -8,-2 j 100% 798 32 lcm 0.87 $0 32i 32i 32
- -6,-2 o 1% 182 0 oil 0.87 $0 0
- -4,-2 a 100% 1003 360 food 0.87 $0 360
- 0,-2 m 60% 1003 24 iron 1.00 $0 24
- 4,-2 m 54% 999 22 iron 1.00 $0 22
- 8,-2 % 100% 999 0 petrol 0.78 $0 0o 40o 400
- -15,-1 l 100% 1003 26 edu 1.00 $234 26l 40l 40
- -13,-1 o 28% 968 11 oil 0.87 $0 11
- -3,-1 m 51% 1003 20 iron 1.00 $0 20
- 5,-1 k 100% 1998 40 hcm 0.87 $0 78i 78i 40
- -28,0 a 53% 1003 19 food 0.87 $0 19
- -16,0 m 62% 1003 25 iron 1.00 $0 25
- -12,0 j 100% 999 40 lcm 0.87 $0 39i 39i 40
- -6,0 m 50% 964 19 iron 1.00 $0 19
- -4,0 m 59% 935 22 iron 1.00 $0 22
- 19 sectors
-
- See also : products
-
- Command : RADAR
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: radar [<SHIP/FLEET> | <SECTS>]
-
- The radar command bears some resemblance to modern high-resolution radar. It
- has a circular range dependent upon its efficiency.
-
- To run land radar type:
- [##:##] Command: radar <SECTS>
- where <SECTS> must be the sector where the radar station resides, or an area
- that contains one or more radar stations.
-
- The program will respond with the station's efficiency and range and then
- display the area.
-
- What is displayed is dependent upon the range. Sectors and ships within 1/2
- of the range are displayed with their sector or ship designations. Sectors at
- greater distances are indicated by a '?' if they are inhabited by another
- country.
-
- A 100% radar station in a country with infinite technology on a clear day has
- a range of 8. The range is linearly related to efficiency; thus a 50% radar
- station can see half as far as a 100% radar station. The range is related to
- technology level in the usual way, i.e., it varies linearly with technology
- level as indicated in the nation report; see info nation and info technology
- for details.
-
- Satellites will appear on the map as a '$'.
-
- WARNING! Land radar cannot spot submarines.
-
- FURTHER WARNING! Even worse, should your cunning enemy move troops right to
- your doorstop and leave the sector designated a wilderness it would show up on
- your very efficient radar as '-'. Thus you would never know he was there....
- Well, almost never.
-
- An example of land radar:
- [##:##] Command: radar 5,1
- 5,1 efficiency 100%, max range 6
- . a a - ^ ? ?
- T k o ! - ^ ? ?
- a h j a ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
- h . a w a ^ - ? a ?
- . . a m a b f a ^ ^ -
- . . m c * a a - ^ - ^ -
- . - . a + . 0 a - - ^ - .
- - ^ ^ a + ) ^ a - - ^ .
- - - a m + a f . . - ^
- ^ a - a + a ^ - - -
- - ^ - - ^ - - - -
- - ^ - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
-
- To run naval radar type:
- [##:##] Command: radar <SHIP/FLEET>
- where <SHIP/FLEET> is the number of a ship or a fleet designation.
-
- Sea radar is highly dependent upon what kind of ship you have and what kind
- the opponent has. (e.g., Battleships can see battleships far away but fishing
- boats must be close together to see each other).
-
- The maximum distance at which ship A can see ship B is dependent on two fac-
- tors: the spying ability of ship A, and the visibility of ship B. Battleships
- have sophisticated communications equipment which give them a maximum spying
- range of 6 while fishing boats, having little such equipment, have a maximum
- range of 2. This factor is shown in a table in info ship-types under the
- heading spy. On the other hand, the ships vary in size and consequently, vary
- in visibility. Battleships, oil derricks, and carriers are the easiest to
- see; next come cargo ships, heavy cruisers and tenders, and so on. See info
- ship-types for a chart.
-
- Ship A will see ship B if the distance between them is less than:
-
- spy factor of ship A * visibility of ship B
- efficiency * ------------------------------------------- * technology factor
- 20
-
- Note that, although subs can not be found via radar, destroyers automatically
- use sonar so they can see subs. Destroyer A will see submarine B if the dis-
- tance between them is less than:
-
- spy factor of ship A * visibility of ship B
- efficiency * ------------------------------------------- * technology factor
- 20
-
- An example of ship radar:
- [##:##] Command: radar 50
-
- patrol boat #50 at -1, -3 efficiency 100%, max range 4
- . . . . .
- . . . . - -
- . . - . a a -
- . . . T k o ! -
- . - F a P j a ^ ^
- . . - . a w a ^
- . . . a m a b
- . . m c * a
- - . a + .
-
- See also : census, map, nation, ship-types, technology
-
- Command : READ
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: read
-
- The read command is used to read the telegrams sent you by other countries and
- by the game, (e.g. when you make a sale or are attacked).
-
- When telegrams arrive you are informed with:
-
- You have a new telegram waiting ... if there is just one new one, or
- You have ten new telegrams waiting ... if there are ten of them, or
- You have several new telegrams waiting ... if there are very many.
-
- After reading all your telegrams you may discard them by answering yes to the
- question posed. If you answer no the telegrams will remain pending but you
- will not be reminded of them.
-
- See also : telegram
-
- Command : REALM
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: realm <NUMBER> <SECTS>
-
- The realm command allows you to manipulate the contents of the realms associ-
- ated with your country which provide a convenient way to save coordinates that
- are frequently used (see info syntax for use of realm arguments).
-
- In the syntax of the realm command <NUMBER> is the number of the realm to be
- set. Note that the update command manipulates realm 0 (see info update).
-
- The <SECTS> argument is optional; if included, the specified realm will be set
- to <SECTS>; if omitted the coordinates of the specified realm will be printed.
-
- [##:##] Command: realm 1
-
- Realm 1 is -3:3,3:3
-
- [##:##] Command: realm 1 -3:2,4
- [##:##] Command: realm 1
-
- Realm 1 is now set to -3:2,4:4
-
- If the <NUMBER> argument is omitted, the coordinates of all realms will be
- printed.
-
- Also note that the <SECTS> argument may use the # form of realm specification.
- [##:##] Command: realm 0 #1
- Now realm 0 is set to -3:2,4:4.
-
- The nation report includes the coordinates of all four realms.
-
- See also : syntax, nation, update
-
- Command : RECON
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: recon <SPYPLANES> <ESCORTS> <SECT> route
-
- The recon command is used to gather intelligence about sectors that the spy
- mission overflies. The planes take off from their respective airports, assem-
- ble, and then fly the mission and land in the destination sector.
-
- <SPYPLANES> represents a list of planes which are to be performing the intel-
- ligence gathering operation. Only planes which are provided with gas, and
- have sufficient mobility will be successfully selected for the mission.
-
- <ESCORTS> represent a list of fighter planes which are capable of escorting
- the transports all the way to the target. To be selected, escorts must have
- fuel and mobility.
-
- <SECT> represents an assembly point, where all of the planes in the mission
- meet before proceeding on to the target sector. The assembly point must be
- owned by you, and must not be more than four sectors away from any of the
- planes selected for the mission.
-
- Route is a normal empire path specification.
-
- Recon missions can be intercepted just like any other mission. If the desti-
- nation sector is not an airport, then all planes in the mission must have
- V/STOL capability.
-
- See also : plane-types, bomb, fly, para, drop
-
- Command : RELATION
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: relations
-
- The relations command displays your diplomatic status with other nations. If
- the optional argument is specified, the command displays that country's
- diplomatic status with other nations.
-
- The data displayed by the nation command is formatted as a single page report
- and should be self explanatory. For example:
- [##:##] Command: relations
-
- MGM Diplomatic Relations Report Sat Jun 17 23:24:46 1989
-
- 0) POGO Allied Allied
- 1) 1 Neutral Neutral
- 2) Groonland At War Hostile
-
- [##:##] Command: relations 2
-
- Groonland Diplomatic Relations Report Sat Jun 17 23:24:46 1989
-
- 0) POGO Neutral Neutral
- 1) 1 Allied Neutral
- 3) MGM Hostile At War
-
- Command : REPAY
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: repay <LOAN>
-
- The repay command is used to repay loans from other countries.
-
- The <LOAN> argument is the number of the loan you are repaying and if not
- included on the command line it will be solicited by the program.
-
- You can repay all or part of the loan with this command; however beware of
- letting the loan become overdue -- the lender may decide to force collection
- (see info collect).
-
- When you repay on a loan a telegram is sent to the lender informing her/him of
- the amount repaid.
-
- [##:##] Command: repay 12
-
- You presently owe $4515 payment : $2000
-
- or,
-
- [##:##] Command: repay 12
-
- You presently owe $4515 payment : $4515
- Congratulations, you've paid off the loan!
-
- See also : collect, consider, ledger, offer
-
- Command : REPORT
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: report
-
- The report command displays a list of all the countries in the game, their
- status (in-flux, visitor, active, etc), and the relative tech, education, and
- research levels compared with your own.
-
- If you specify a country name or number, it will only display information on
- that country.
-
- An example of a report command for the country Froom 93 would look something
- like this:
- [##:##] Command: report
-
- NUMBER NAME TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH EDUCATION STATUS
- 0 MGM superior superior superior DEITY
- 1 Froom 93 similar similar similar Active
- 2 Groac backward advanced backward Active
- 3 Blackmoor similar similar backward Broke
- 4 Sogood backward backward backward In flux
- 5 ptr->null backward backward backward Active
- 6 Panda Land primitive similar backward Broke
- 7 guest none none none Visitor
-
- [##:##] Command: report 4
-
- NUMBER NAME TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH EDUCATION STATUS
- 4 Sogood backward backward backward In flux
-
- [##:##] Command: report Panda Land
-
- NUMBER NAME TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH EDUCATION STATUS
- 6 Panda Land primitive similar backward Broke
-
- Command : RESOURCE
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: resource <SECTS>
-
- The resource command displays specific information on some or all of the sec-
- tors you occupy.
-
- In the syntax of the resource command <SECTS> is the area on which you wish
- information, (see info syntax).
-
- A typical usage might be:
- [##:##] Command: resource 0:9,0:9 ?des=m
- which would list data for mines in an area to the south-east of the capital.
-
- A resource report lists each of your sectors in the specified area headed by:
-
- RESOURCE
- sect eff min gold fert oil uran ter
-
- These columns represent:
-
- sect the x and y coordinates of the sector
- eff the efficiency of the sector (affects all benefits of a designated sec-
- tor except mobility units)
- min the percentage richness of non-gold minerals, (range is 0-100, not used
- up, i.e. a renewable resource)
- gold the amount of gold ore, (range is 0-100, in absolute tons, i.e. non-
- renewable)
- fert the fertility of the soil in relative terms, (range is 0-100, not used
- up, i.e. a renewable resource)
- oil the petroleum content of the soil in relative terms, (range is 0-100, in
- absolute tons, i.e. non-renewable)
- uran the uranium (radioactive materials) content in relative terms, (non-
- renewable)
- ter the territory number.
-
- For example:
- [##:##] Command: reso #0
-
- Sat Sep 2 03:20:00 1989
- RESOURCE
- sect eff min gold fert oil uran ter
- 3,-5 ^ 40% 38 0 64 0 44
- 5,-5 ) 100% 75 0 41 0 36 90
- 7,-5 t 100% 65 0 38 0 72
- 9,-5 h 100% 48 0 42 0 45 5
- 0,-4 j 100% 0 0 112 40 0
- 2,-4 j 100% 32 0 69 0 36
- 4,-4 l 100% 60 0 53 0 37 22
- 6,-4 + 100% 52 0 14 0 78
- 10,-4 ^ 20% 100 0 0 0 79
- 9 sectors
-
- See also : commodity, census, products
-
- Command : ROUTE
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: route <ITEM> <SECTS>
-
- The route command generates a graphic display of the delivery arrangement for
- a specific deliverable item in a given sector area.
-
- The <SECTS> argument is as described in info syntax. <ITEM> is one of the
- following:
-
- u uncompensated workers
- f food
- s shells
- g guns (not gold)
- p planes
- i iron ore
- d dust, (gold)
- b bars of gold
- o oil
- l light construction materials
- h heavy construction materials
- r radioactive materials
-
- The delivery routes are indicated with go-tos using the following codes,
- (assuming the sector in question is a mine):
-
- m/ up-right (u in census)
- m> right (j in census)
- m\ down-right (n in census)
- /m down-left (b in census)
- <m left (g in census)
- \m up-left (y in census)
- $m$ distribution ($ in census)
- <m$ left & distribution (g and $ in census)
- etc.
-
- An example:
-
- [##:##] Command: route f #
-
- - - - 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1
- 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2
- -5 /a$ /a$ /a$ -5
- -4 /k <o /g <a$ -4
- -3 a> h> \j \a$ + -3
- -2 \a$ \a$ $a\ /a$ /a$ -2
- -1 /a$ $a\ /a$ b /+ + -1
- 0 m c u t \i 0
- 1 \a$ \l \a \a 1
- 2 a/ \a a/ $a$ 2
- - - - 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1
- 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2
-
- See also : deliver, census, syntax
-
- Command : SATELLITE
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: satellite [<PLANE> | <SECTS>]
-
- The satellite command is how you get information from your satellites. A
- satellite must be in orbit (launched) before it will begin transmitting. The
- type of information you get from a satellite depends on what type of satellite
- it is.
-
- An ordinary satellite will return data that looks remarkably like radar out-
- put. If the satellite has imaging capabilities you will see the sector desig-
- nations. If not then you will see a '?' for inhabited sectors.
-
- A satellite with imaging capabilities will also show the ships within range.
-
- Spy satellites provide much more information. Their output is a table that
- looks remarkably like spy output followed by another table listing all the
- ships in the area with their owner, ship type, and efficiency.
-
- Spy satellites with imaging capabilities can also see subs!
-
- After launching, a satellite will take a while to come on line. During this
- period, (shown by mobility being < 127), you cannot use the satellite.
-
- See also : launch, radar, spy, census, map, ship-types
-
- Command : SECT
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: sect <SECTS>
-
- The sect report gives you a graphic representation of all or part of your
- country, similar to map. Only sectors owned by you show up, however. The
- rest of the world is simply blank.
-
- If your terminal is of the proper type, any sectors selected by the ?cond
- operator will show up in reverse video.
-
- Examples:
- [##:##] Command: sect -9:18,-8:5
- generates a 28 x 14 map based on data supplied by the sectors in the area
- specified.
-
- ---------0000000000111111111
- 9876543210123456789012345678
- -8 -8
- -7 -7
- -6 -6
- -5 a a -5
- -4 k o ! -4
- -3 a h j a -3
- -2 a a a a a -2
- -1 a a a b + + -1
- 0 m c u a a 0
- 1 a a a a 1
- 2 a a a a 2
- 3 3
- 4 4
- 5 5
- ---------0000000000111111111
- 9876543210123456789012345678
-
- See also : census, commodity, radar, realm, route, update, map
-
- Command : SELL
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: sell <COMMODITY> <SECTS> <AMOUNT> <PRICE>
-
- The sell command allows nations to sell commodities on the open market. Not
- all commodities can be traded -- notably civilians and military. Prices
- depend on the price multiplier set by the selling nation with respect to the
- buying nation, and the price set at the time of sale.
-
- The <COMMODITY> is the type of commodity you are selling, <SECTS> represents
- the range of sectors which will be selling items. If negative, the amount
- reflects the amount of food to be taken from each sector. If positive, the
- amount shows the lower limit of food required to be present in that sector and
- will only sell food in excess of that limit. Price is the base price of the
- commodity to the world, modified by the individual nation multipliers.
-
- Typical output looks like:
- [##:##] Command: sell food #1 ?food>400 -100 2.5
-
- sold 200 food in -7,-3 (100)
- sold 501 food in -8,-2 (100)
- sold 201 food in -4,-2 (100)
- sold 662 food in -7,-1 (100)
- sold 812 food in -3,-1 (100)
- sold 411 food in -10,0 (100)
- sold 571 food in -4,0 (100)
- sold 721 food in -2,0 (100)
- sold 126 food in -9,1 (100)
- sold 172 food in -7,1 (100)
- sold 842 food in 1,1 (100)
- Total food put on the market : 5219
- cost of the items : 5.00
- That just cost you $521.90
-
- Any sector can sell commodities. There is a certain overhead on selling
- items, based on the difficulty of moving the items in question.
-
- See also : buy, mult
-
- Command : SET
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: set <type> <SHIP/PLANE> <PRICE>
-
- The set price command allows you to set the prices on ships for sale.
-
- <type> is the type of unit you are putting on sale, <SHIP/PLANE> is the unit
- #, and <PRICE> is the cost per ton.
-
- If you don't supply the price on the command line the program will ask the
- selling price.
-
- Negative prices can't be used (no more Crazy Eddie).
-
- You may withdraw an offer by setting the price to zero.
-
- The nation multipliers will provide inflated prices to nations you do not with
- to sell to, and discounts for those to whom you wish to give a break. Note
- that ships are not delivered to the purchaser, but planes are.
-
- See also : trade
-
- Command : SHIP
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: ship [<SHIP/FLEET> | <SECTS>]
-
- The ship report command is a census of your ships and lists all the info
- available in readable format.
-
- The <SHIP/FLEET> and <SECTS> arguments are provided in case you only wish to
- look at one ship or one fleet or all ships within a given area.
-
- Ship expects an argument. To see every ship you own, give it the argument
- '*', or type "ship *".
-
- The report format contains the following fields:
-
- shp# the ship number
- shiptype the type of ship; patrol boat, submarine, etc,
- x,y the ship's current location (relative to your capital),
- flt the fleet designation letter (set by fleetadd command),
- eff the ship's efficiency,
- civ the number of civilians on board
- mil mil is the number of military on board
- uw the number of uncompensated workers on board,
- food the amount of food on board
- pln the number of planes on the ship
- mu the mobility of the ship
- tech the tech level of the ship
-
- For example:
- [##:##] Command: ship K
-
- shp# ship type x,y flt eff civ mil uw food pln mob tech
- 86 aircraft carrier -29,-51 K 100% 0 100 0 72 20 64 211
- 110 battleship -29,-51 K 100% 0 0 0 0 0 64 152
- 115 battleship -29,-51 K 100% 0 25 0 50 0 64 152
- 181 destroyer -27,-35 K 100% 0 50 0 50 0 14 220
- 182 destroyer -27,-35 K 100% 0 50 0 50 0 14 220
- 183 destroyer -27,-35 K 100% 0 50 0 50 0 14 220
- 6 ships
-
- See also : build, cargo, fleetadd, navigate, load, lookout, scrap, sonar, tor-
- pedo, upgrade
-
- Command : SHOOT
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: shoot <SECTS> <NUMBER>
-
- The shoot command allows you to shoot enemy civilians or recalcitrant uncom-
- pensated workers. In order to be able to keep the populace under control
- (i.e., not have them rebel), you must have one military for every ten civili-
- ans. Shooting of populace in sectors where this is not the case is disal-
- lowed.
-
- <NUMBER> is a positive number that is the number of people shot per sector.
-
- After the program has collected any necessary information it will list each
- sector where your troops shoot down the poor helpless people along with the
- number of people murdered.
-
- If all the civilians in the sector are removed, and it was a conquered sector,
- it will become completely controlled by you, and you will be notified of this
- fact.
-
- See also : populace
-
- Command : SHOW
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: show <UNIT_TYPE> [build|capabilities]
-
- The show command either gives information on the indicated unit types. This
- information is gleaned directly from the current Empire data structures so is
- always up to date. The format of each output is more fully described in the
- relevant info pages (ship-types, nuke-types etc.).
-
- Describe currently knows about bridges, planes, ships and nukes.
-
- To get information on a particular topic type:
- [##:##] Command: show unit-type
- Unless the unit is a bridge, a further parameter is needed to indicate whether
- you wish information about construction of units or the capabilities of units.
- So, for example
- [##:##] Command: show nuke capabilities
- will give something like
-
- blst dam lbs tech $
- 10kt fission 3 80 4 200 $7500
- 50kt fission 3 100 6 225 $9000
- 100kt fission 4 120 8 250 $12000
- 250kt fusion 4 150 4 280 $7500
- 500kt fusion 5 170 6 295 $9000
- 1mt fusion 6 190 8 310 $12000
- 3mt fusion 7 210 10 325 $19000
-
- Note that you can only get information on items that you are actually
- technologically capable of building!
-
- See also : ship-types, nuke-types, plane-types
-
- Command : SONAR
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: sonar <SHIP/FLEET>
-
- The conar command allows ships to look for submarines and submarines to look
- for ships.
-
- In the current implementation, sonar works similar to lookout. The major
- difference is that a submarines cannot use lookout to sight ships. Likewise,
- submarines cannot be sighted by ships via lookout.
-
- There are two aspects to sonar - passive and active sonar.
-
- ACTIVE SONAR
-
- This is the most visible form of sonar. It is simply a ship's ability to use
- sonar pings to detect other ships. The range of a ship's active sonar is
- identical to the range that it can sight ships via lookout. (see info
- lookout) When you type "sonar 25", you are using active sonar.
-
- PASSIVE SONAR
-
- This is more subtle. Passive sonar is a ship's ability to hear sounds, mainly
- active sonar pings. When a ship pings you with active sonar, you can detect
- that ping. If a ship with sonar gets pinged, that country receives a telegram
- saying "Sonar ping from x,y detected by ship Z!" In its current implementa-
- tion, passive sonar is the ability to detect a ping.
-
- When a ship emits a ping, that ping has to travel out to a target ship,
- reflect off of it, and then return to its source. So, in order to detect a
- ship X sectors away, a sonar ping must be able to travel 2X sectors - from the
- source to the target, and back to the source. So, if a ship can use active
- sonar to detect ships X sectors away, passive sonar can detect active sonars
- from 2X sectors away. So the range at which you can detect sonar pings is
- twice the range at which you can use sonar.
-
- The active and passive sonar modes means that you want to be careful when you
- use sonar, because you will tell others where you are long before you actually
- detect them. This also gives you some warning before you get your submarine
- attacked, as enemy ships have to use sonar to find you. The key to submarine
- warfare is "run silent", meaning use your sonar only when you have to.
-
- On the other hand, destroyers are designed to hunt subs. A destroyer guarding
- a player's coast should use sonar often, especially if it has other destroyers
- nearby to support him if he gets in trouble.
-
- For example:
- [##:##] Command: sonar 24
-
- Groonland (#1) patrol boat #10 @-13,7
- Curmudgeon (#4) heavy cruiser #36 @-14,6
- Groonland (#1) oil derrick #41 @-14,6
- Groonland (#1) tender #53 @-14,6
- Groonland (#1) submarine #53 @-14,6
- Groonland (#1) nuclear sub #53 @-14,6
-
- See also : coastwatch, ship-types, sector-types, radar
-
- Command : SPY
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: spy <SECTS>
-
- The spy command allows reconnaissance operations to enforce an oral treaty or
- as preparation for an attack (or even for a prayer to the Deity).
-
- The spy report will reveal, (in round figures), the numbers of troops, civili-
- ans, guns, shells, iron, and planes and the sector designation and efficiency
- in neighboring sectors.
-
- The sectors denoted by <SECTS> are those from which you are spying, (see info
- syntax for format). Note: you can only spy from sectors that have military in
- them.
-
- Note that the number of BTU's consumed is dependent upon the number of sectors
- into which you spy, e.g., a 5x8 area costs one full BTU.
-
- If you are spying on an unallied country your spy could be apprehended...
- his/her chances are dependent upon the number of patrolling military in the
- sector.
-
- If the other country has declared itself at war with you the spy will be shot
- and the other country, (and the rest of the world, through the news), will be
- warned that you tried to spy on him...
-
- If the other country is neutral towards you the spy will be deported.
-
- See also : census, read, declare
-
- Command : SURVEY
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: survey <ITEM> <SECTS> ?cond<op>cond
-
- The survey command shows the distribution of a commodity or resource in map
- form. Sectors which are owned by you, but do not match the conditional have
- their current designation displayed much as in a map. Sectors matching the
- conditional are shown in one of several ways.
-
- Sectors which have none (or a level of zero) of the item being surveyed show
- up as a blank.
-
- If <ITEM> is a commodity, then sectors having the commodity present will be
- shown as a digit from 0 to 9, the digit representing the number of hundreds of
- the commodity present in the sector. Sectors with more than 999 of a given
- commodity will be seen as a '$'.
-
- If <ITEM> is a sector resource, then the 0 to 9 digits will represent the
- number of tens of the resource present in the sector. Sectors with more than
- 99 of a given resource will show up as a $.
-
- If your terminal can support standout mode, then sectors selected will be
- highlighted.
-
- Sectors not owned by you will show up as blanks.
-
- NOTE: the syntax of this command is somewhat bizarre, as the conditional
- cond<op>cond is for all practical purposes NOT optional if the survey is to
- display any values.
-
- See also : sector, map
-
- Command : TELEGRAM
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: telegram <CNUM/CNAME>
-
- The telegram command allows non-treaty communication to take place between
- representatives. Currently you are given only 512 characters per telegram, so
- telegrams encourage succinct diplomacy.
-
- The <CNUM/CNAME> argument is either the number or name of the recipient
- nation. Telegrams sent to country #0 appear as prayers, (favors are best
- obtained in this manner.)
-
- While entering your telegram the system tells you how many characters you have
- left. You end the telegram by typing ^D on a line by itself.
-
- For example:
- [##:##] Command: tel 7
-
- Enter telegram for Groonland; end with ^D
- 512 left:
- 511 left: B.F.D. Pouncetrifle
- 491 left: Groonland Embassy
- 472 left:
- 471 left: Dear Ambassador Pouncetrifle,
- 441 left:
- 440 left: Just a little note to express the friendly wishes that all of us
- 375 left: in Curmudgeon feel toward you backward savages in Groonland. As
- 310 left: to the matter of the treaty you've proposed please remember that
- 245 left: if we wished we could TRASH your capital.
- 203 left:
- 202 left: As always I remain,
- 176 left: Your humble and obedient servant, etc, etc
- 126 left: E. D. Amen Dada
- 104 left: Under Asst. West Coast Promo.
- 68 left: the Sovereign State of Curmudgeon
- 28 left: <EOT>
-
- See also : announce, prayers, read
-
- Command : TEND
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: tend <SHIP> <COMMODITY> <AMT> <to-SHIP/FLEET>
-
- The tend command allows transfer of commodities from a particular (supply)
- ship to patrol boats, submarines, battleships, etc. while at sea.
-
- If you had cargo ship #16 which had food, and your fleet S needed food, you
- could resupply the entire fleet with 20 units of food by typing
- [##:##] Command: tend 16 food 20 S
-
- Requirements are that the tending ship must be in the same sector as the
- tended ships, and it must be yours. During bad weather, tending is impossible
- due to heavy seas. A positive <AMT> indicates the amount the tender will give
- away, while a negative amount indicates the amount that the tender will try to
- extract from each ship.
-
- See also : load, unload
-
- Command : TERRITORY
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: territory <SECTS> <NUMBER>
-
- In Empire sectors may be given a territory id number. This number may be used
- in conditional statements as in:
- [##:##] Command: census # ?territory=27
- The program will then give you a census report for all the sectors that have
- been assigned the territory number 27.
-
- In this sense it is essentially an extended realm. However, you are not lim-
- ited to rectangular regions and you have 99 values to choose from.
-
- Some possible uses include; all sectors distributing to a particular sector;
- all coastal sectors; all sectors that have armed missiles in them. And prob-
- ably thousands that I haven't thought of. ;-)
-
- To unset a territory, set its value to zero.
-
- Command : TERRITORY
-
- See also : realm, distribute
-
- Command : TEST
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: test <ITEM> <SECT> <NUMBER> <ROUTE>
-
- The test command lets you check the effect of a proposed move. This can be
- helpful when you're not sure whether you have enough mobility to reach a cer-
- tain location or you wish to compare two possible routes for a move.
-
- The test command has exactly the same arguments as the move command and acts
- almost the same. There is one important difference:
- Nothing is actually moved and no mobility is used.
-
- See also : move
-
- Command : THRESHOLD
-
- SYNTAX:
- [##:##] Command: threshold <ITEM> <SECTS> <THRESH>
-
- The threshold command is used to specify the level of a given commodity which
- is to be maintained by the sector's distribution sector. These levels are
- maintained by either importing or exporting commodities. This importation and
- exportation is done automatically during an update. Both imports and exports
- from distribution sectors cost only one-half normal mobility.
-
- In the syntax, <SECTS> is the sector or sectors from which the deliveries are
- made, <ITEM> is one of the following:
-
- u uncompensated workers
- f food
- s shells
- g guns
- p planes
- i iron ore
- d gold dust
- b bars of gold
- o oil
- l light construction materials
- h heavy construction materials
- r radioactive materials
-
- and <THRESH> is a number specifying the level of commodity which is desired.
-
- The census and commodity reports will indicate distribution thresholds by the
- hundreds digit of the threshold level. In order to have a threshold take
- effect, it must be at least one.
-
- Sectors importing or exporting items can be seen by the route command (marked
- with a $) or by the sect command.
-
- See also : distribute, census, commodity, route, level
-