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1994-08-11
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IRON OX, Version 1.12
(C)opyright 1994, Joel W. Downer
THE SCENARIO
In the 23rd century, all of Earth's frontiers have been exhausted (even
the oceans have been drained, pursuant to the Deforestation and
Environmental Degradation Act of 2214). With the mountains strip-mined
to dust and the entire planet bare of luxite, the vital mineral needed
for supralight travel, corporations have had to turn to other worlds
to find virgin nature to plunder.
They're accomplishing this rapine at a record pace by enlisting
independent landowners. The corporations transport land-hungry
colonists to new worlds, parcel out territory to them as rapidly as the
colonists can develop it, and then purchase the colony's products at
embarrassingly low prices. (This game is virtually free of violence,
but it's not short on exploitation....)
You are one of these colonists, looking for a world with clean air, tall
mountains, and an open horizon so that you can bless it with smog, mines,
and solar panels. With the help of iron oxen -- multipurpose, automated
robotic harvesters -- you're going to find a way to make nature work for
your profit.
THE GAME
Iron Ox is an interactive strategy BBS doorgame for three to eight
players. The Iron Ox door supports literally hundreds of games going on
at one time, so you may be involved in several different games at once.
(The maximum number of games you can play at one time is set by your
sysop, and is limited to three in the unregistered version.) Iron Ox is
a game of strategy, intense competition, and just a little bit of goofy
humor. It will test skills you didn't know you had -- from your ability
to manage a large estate of mines and farmland to your ability to write
bad poetry. The game involves a number of different layers of strategy,
so you may be able to master the basics in a short time, but you could
play for months or even years without completely exhausting the
possibilities.
Game play is based on turns (usually one per day), which equate to
"months" for your character. The game advances to a new month (and you
can take another turn) when everyone in the game has had a chance to
play or when a day has passed since the last turn ended. (In other
words, if a game has four players and you're the fourth one to play, you
can go right back in and take your turn for the next month as soon as
you're done.) By default, games last 14 turns, which will usually mean
two weeks.
STARTING AND JOINING GAMES
When you join or start games from the main menu, you will choose an
alias by which people will know you in that game (if you like, you can
use your real name). You also choose what species you want to be -- you
can be human, or any of several non-human races. In general, all of the
different races have an equal chance to compete, but the more exotic
species have special characteristics you must learn to exploit.
Luckily, you can choose different aliases and races in different games,
so you'll have plenty of opportunities to experiment.
If you start a game rather than joining an existing game, you will have
the option to set a minimum and maximum number of players for the game
(by default, the minimum number of players is three and the maximum is
eight). If you're just getting started with the game, choosing a 3-4
player game will ensure a fast start. If the Iron Ox door is
registered, you will also be able to choose the length of the game
within limits set by your sysop.
Whether you started a new game or joined a game someone else started,
you will also be allowed to vote on whether to start the game as soon as
possible or to wait for more people to join. Beginning with Iron Ox
version 1.10, you will be able to play your first turn right after
starting or joining a game -- you don't have to wait for more people to
join the game first. However, the game will not advance to the second or
subsequent turns until at least the minimum have joined and a majority
of players vote to start. Naturally, the game will begin when the
maximum number of players has joined regardless of their votes.
THE COLONY
The world you are conquering is divided into a 5 x 12 map, labelled with
letters and numbers (1-5 and A-L). These squares can produce any of
four materials:
The Product Is Produced Best By Value
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Food River Land Keeps Your Character Alive
Energy Open Plain Keeps Your Oxen Running
Mineral Ore Mountainous Land Needed by Store to Make Oxen
Luxite ??????????? Worth a Lot of Money! <g>
Luxite is the most valuable material you can produce, but it can be
tricky to find -- it may be anywhere, and mining for it at random is a
waste of time. The Prospector's Office can tell you how much luxite
may be found in individual map squares, but only for a price.
You will be able to claim one square of land per turn. (Opportunities
to buy extra land will come up from time to time.) Before your land
will make anything for you, you will have to purchase an iron ox at
Oxware, Etc., and program the ox to produce the materials you want.
You start the game with six units of food and six units of energy, and
you can buy and sell products at the General Store. However, you will
want to make sure that you assign some squares to produce food or energy,
because other players and various disasters can wipe out the inventory
at the store, leaving you in peril of starvation!
The self-employed work very long days, and you're no exception: depending
on your race, you will have between 10 and 22 hours a day to work (less if
you're short on food).
Game Activity Hours Deducted
----------------------------------------------
Claiming Land 2 hours
Buying a New Ox 1 hour
Changing an Ox's Job 1 hour
Prospecting for Luxite 1 hour (or more)
Visiting the General Store 1 hour
Going to the Bank 2 hours
Visiting the Saloon none (that's rest and relaxation!)
Entering/Bidding on Auctions none (perhaps you use a cellular phone...)
Trading with Other Players none (cellular phone again...)
Joining/Trading w/ Commune none (you know the story by now...)
Dirty Tricks on Other Players variable
If you have game time left over at the end of your turn, you can do odd
jobs to make extra money.
The game offers a variety of options that you'll learn best by
exploring. The Planetary News Office will allow you to review the
history of the game and post announcements for other players to read.
The Saloon will allow you to shoot the bull with other players, buy
drinks, and enter and vote on the Planetary Cultural Competition, not to
mention waste your free hours and coins in the infamous Rat Race. Dirty
Tricks give you a way to make life difficult for other players ... if
you can get away with it!
HOW TO WIN THE GAME
Your score in this game is based on the estimated value of your property
in credits. Land is the most valuable kind of property -- worth
thousands of credits -- but food, ore, energy, luxite, and money are
counted, too. Remember that the score values of different products are
based on the prices at the beginning of the game, not the fluctuating
colony-side economy: Sometimes selling your products can help your
score, and sometimes it's best to hold onto them.
Each game has winners and losers. The door also keeps track of overall
score -- your total points for all the games you've played. The overall
score (which you can view with (L)ist Scores from the Main Menu) is
cumulative (it includes points from games that have finished); it resets
monthly, or on some other schedule set by your sysop. If you're playing
the registered version of Iron Ox and your sysop has enabled time
prizes, you may be able to win extra on-line time through skillful play.
The door keeps track of all-time records: highest individual score and
highest margin of victory. It also keeps records for the games with the
highest *overall* score for the colony (the property of all the players
added together). Would you rather run up a high score at the expense of
other players, or work for the overall good of the colony? It's up to
you.
THE RACES
Inside the game, you'll find a catalog of all the races you're allowed
to play, along with ANSI pictures and descriptions. Here, though, is a
little general advice about each race:
Human: The baseline for comparison -- average at everything.
Rockpicker: Good miner and very good at dirty tricks, but not the best
choice for beginners. Vulnerable to starvation, and greatly
mistrusted by everyone.
Slouch: Not much good at anything, but very lucky.
Caper: Very talented -- good at almost everything! -- but works short
hours and takes frequent vacations. Keep an eye on the boredom
monitor in the game status screen. Don't work too hard, and try to
keep entertained!
Photovore: Very powerful character, but tricky to use to its fullest
advantage. Doesn't mine well, but excellent at making food and
energy. Lots of hours per day to play with, and invulnerable to
starvation. A beginner might not be able to use the Photovore to its
full potential, but the generous number of hours can be a good way
to learn.
Shovelfist: Great miner, but unlucky and not especially clever.
Vulnerable to starvation. People pick on Shovelfists.
Rubblemuncher: Invulnerable to starvation (like the Photovore) and
*great* at making ore. However, this character doesn't get many
hours per day, and may have trouble making enough energy to meet
its needs.
Handler: Not much good at making things, but decent at dirty tricks and
*very* good at bartering. Mostly a character for advanced players
and team play.
Metamorph: Very attractive character because of its ability to change
shapes! The best way to use a Metamorph is to change shape into
something the colony is likely to be short on (e.g., to change into a
Rubblemuncher when no one in the colony is good at making ore). Note
that changing shape will disable your character for a full turn, so
it's not a decision you should make lightly.
The best choices for beginning players are the Human, Slouch, Caper, and
Photovore.
NICE, NASTY, OR BOTH?
After you've played Iron Ox for a while, the basics -- claiming land,
buying oxen, buying and selling product at the store -- will start to
seem simple. You won't have seen that "Warning: Eat or Die!" message
for a while, and those natural disasters that used to frustrate you so
much will start to look like neat opportunities because they drive the
purchase prices at the store so high. "So," you say, "is that all there
is to learn? This is too easy!"
The truth is that you're now ready to start learning the real heart of
the game: how to interact with other players and drive your score up
and/or their scores down.
Iron Ox includes dozens of different ways for you to help or harm other
players. Some of those ways support a friendly, cooperative style of
play where everyone comes out on top. Others are designed for those
hard-hearted, ruthless, malicious players who think that cooperation
died with the Soviet Empire.
Naturally, you will have to experiment to learn all of the tricks of the
trade, but here is some basic information on a few of the best tactics:
The Nice Stuff
Auctions Do you have extra energy when you know there's a
shortage? Put it up for auction, and you can pass it
along to the highest bidder. The advantage of auctions
is that the competition can drive up prices; the
disadvantage is that they are slow and give you limited
control over where your product ends up.
Trade Deals Unlike an auction, a trade deal can happen very quickly
-- the recipient can accept or reject as soon as he or
she receives it, sometimes in the same turn as the deal
was offered. However, a trade deal is an all-or-nothing
proposition, and there's no bidding: you choose a single
player and make that player an offer.
Trade deals offer a fast way to exchange products
*without* the risks of joining a commune. Team players
who use trade deals effectively can achieve scores
impossible for solo players.
Communes The most powerful form of cooperation is to found or join
a commune. (No, being a member of a commune doesn't make
you a Communist, though some Rockpickers think so. <g>)
Members of communes still hold onto private property, but
they can trade it back and forth with other commune
members without waiting for confirmation, and can view
information about fellow members that they ordinarily
could only see by spying. Because the philosophy of
communes is "all for one and one for all," scores for
commune members are averaged across the entire commune.
Warning: Be careful about whom you invite into your
commune! An unscrupulous grifter or flim-flam man can
sometimes pick an entire commune clean of its property
and then disappear.
The Nasty Stuff
Spying Spying on another character allows you to find out the
character's race, state of health, and status in the
world -- how much food, energy, ore, luxite, and money he
or she has on hand. The penalty for being caught
spyling is 250 credits.
Sabotage Sabotage involves smashing an opponent's ox into tiny
little pieces with a ball peen hammer. Naturally, this
dirty trick is a great way to work out your aggressions.
If you are caught sabotaging another player's ox, the
penalty is 1,000 credits.
Stealing The trusty old "five-fingered discount" is one of the
fastest ways to leapfrog up in the standings or help
another player along to starvation. Be careful, though!
If you are caught stealing, you will be penalized a plot
of land and -- even worse -- that plot will be awarded to
the player you were trying to rob!
Order Pizza Online games are a great place to do all those things
we're *FAR* too mature and honest to do in real life.
This dirty trick is really more of a prank: It involves
ordering a pizza in the name of another character so that
the food arrives in the middle of the night and leaves
your victim bleary-eyed -- and less able to work -- the
next day. If you are caught, you will be fined 100
credits.
Call Pirates Luxite pirates are ruthless, nasty predators who have
made a fortune stealing from hard-working colonists. One
of the most terrible things a colonist can do is to cut a
deal with these vermin and give them the planetary
security codes. However, this act of infamy is a great
way to harm a player who has saved up too much luxite.
Warning: Be *VERY* careful about this dirty trick. Some
colonists have been executed for aiding the pirates.
Bribe Reporter Reputation is very important on a small colony world. By
spreading lies about another player, you can generate
suspicions and dissension among your opponents. Having a
false report printed in the newspaper isn't very
expensive, and people have very seldom been caught, but
you'll have to use this option shrewdly to make it work
to your benefit.
The Countermeasures
The Sheriff Being the victim of theft can make you feel helpless,
particularly if you're playing a character who isn't good
at stealing. You may know *who* is stealing from you,
and you may know it's going to happen in advance, but
they don't make a home security system a Rockpicker can't
foil. The Sheriff's office gives you a means of revenge.
If another character is stealing from you repetitively,
you can ask the Sheriff to send a deputy out to your home
to watch for that character until the next time you play.
If the character tries to steal from you again -- before
the next time you play a turn in the game! -- he or she
will automatically be caught. If you're wrong, however,
*you* will be fined a plot of land for wasting the
deputy's time.
Warning: Be *VERY* careful with this option, because
order of play has a lot to do with whether your
prediction will come out true! For example, if you are
the last person to play in one turn and the first person
to play the next turn, your prediction cannot succeed and
you *WILL* lose a plot of land. Them's the breaks,
pardner.
Trojan Oxen Trojan Oxen cost at least twice as much as regular oxen,
and they don't make anything. Sound pretty useless,
don't they? Actually, they can be very effective,
particularly if you are having trouble with another
character sabotaging your oxen.
Trojan Oxen *appear* to produce whatever product you
choose. By default, they appear to produce as much as
you normally could given your race and the terrain type.
For an extra price, however, you can "turbo-charge" a
Trojan Ox so that it appears to produce even more --
making it an extra-tempting target for sabotage.
Trojan Oxen, you see, are experts in self-defense. After
a tangle with a Trojan Ox, even the most dedicated
saboteurs wish they had never hefted that ball peen
hammer. Note: Trojan Oxen are only available in the
registered version of Iron Ox.
STRATEGY
Iron Ox is a very simple game to play, but the strategy may take you
months to master. Here are some tips to help you get started:
1. Claim your one plot of land every turn. It doesn't cost anything,
it's always worth something, and it's good for your score.
2. Make sure you keep your character well fed! Unless you're one of
the species that doesn't require food (Photovore and Rubblemuncher),
going several months on short rations could cause your character to
starve to death, eliminating you from the game!
3. Don't wait until you're hungry or running out of energy to start
making food and energy. If you assign an ox to make food this turn,
you won't be able to eat the food until *TURN AFTER NEXT*. In order
to survive, you have to think ahead.
4. Be conservative about Dirty Tricks: Stealing is fun, but losing
plots of land (the penalty for being caught) isn't. Many factors
determine your rate of success at stealing, including the size and
value of what you're stealing, your race, the month of the game, and
what kind of character you're stealing *from*. Until you know the
rules, be careful!
5. Take advantage of the information the game gives you. Read the
Newspaper carefully each month, and check the Game (I)nfo Screen and
(Y)our Holdings screen from the (H)elp Menu at least once per turn.
7. Take the Colony Cultural Competition seriously. The topics -- bad puns,
disgusting recipes, etc. -- may seem frivolous, but the prize for the
winner -- a free plot of land! -- is worth the trouble. Make an
entry even if you can't think of something good, and be sure to vote.
The Committee has been known to favor people who are good citizens.
8. If you have friends who are playing the game, don't ignore the
possibility of alliances or team play. Trade deals and communes are
very powerful tools, and several of the races were designed to work
best as parts of two- and three-player alliances.
9. Playing every day makes a big difference. Few things are more
frustrating than missing a day and coming back to find that someone
has stolen all your character's food and you've starved to death. If
you can't play every day, remember that the game will allow you to
claim an extra plot of land after a missed turn. If you know in
advance that you're going to miss a day, you may have special reason
to consider visiting the Sheriff's office....
Luxite and ore are usually worth much more money than food and energy,
but trying to produce lots of them early in the game is dangerous,
because doing so will force you to rely on the store for food and
energy. Buying up everything from the store can hurt opponents who are
relying on store inventory, and will also cause prices to rise (store
prices are based on supply and demand), but do not expect to make money
just by buying and selling! Any time you stockpile large amounts of a
product, you are taking a risk, because occasional events (a rat
infestation, an earthquake, or a pirate raid, for example) can destroy
your stockpile.
The game does not have to be competitive -- players can accomplish the
highest scores by working *together*, using trades to share product and
put land in the hands of the characters who can use it best -- but it
can very often be cutthroat. Whether your game is friendly or ruthless,
the key to success is understanding what the other players are trying to
do. If all players make one product, the price will be driven very low
by the excess supply and everyone will suffer. If other players are
relying on the store for food or energy, you should be very careful
about doing the same thing. The store's inventory is not
inexhaustible.
Good luck!