The Fred Fish Collection 1.5/ffcollection-1-5-1992-11.iso/ff_disks/300-399/ff357.lzh/Empire/Doc/Society

Text File | 1990-06-02 | 10KB | 175 lines

            Amiga Empire by Chris Gray - Empire Society


This note really isn't about Empire Society - it is actually a grab bag of
other topics, such as plague, technology, etc.


Associated with each county and each ship is a technology level. The level
for a country starts at 0 when the country is created. It is increased by
the efforts of technology centers. Ore in technology sectors is turned into
the ubiquitous "production units" by workers, which are then turned into
technological breakthroughs. Each such breakthrough adds one to the
technology level of the country. Whenever the active capital is updated,
however, 1% of the country's technology level is removed. The amount is
usually quite small, so the decreasing will not be noticeable for some time.
Technology level determines technology factor, which is used to scale the
effectiveness of many activities in Amiga Empire. A technology level of 0
yields a technology factor of .25, and an infinite technology level yields a
factor of around 1. Thus, there can be a factor of 4 between the
effectiveness of some things for a backward country and for a highly
advanced country.

Some of the things affected by the technology factor are the viewing range
of radar, the distance travelled per unit of mobility for ships, the
distance travelled per unit of fuel for airplanes, and the range and
effectiveness of guns.

The technology level of a ship is inherited from the country which built
the ship. The country's level at the instant the ship is build is
transferred to the ship. The rate of technology loss on ships is governed
by a different deity-controlled factor than the corresponding rate for the
country itself. The 'refurb' command can be used to raise the technology
level of a ship in a harbor, up to the current level of the country if
sufficent production units are available in the harbor.


The research level of a country is similar to the technology level. It is
increased by production in research institute sectors and lowered when the
active capital is updated. Currently, research level only affects a country
through plague. I have plans, however...


Plague in Amiga Empire is a representation of all aspects of disease. It is
deadly and highly infectious, but there is a simple and effective means of
combating it. Whenever a sector is updated, a "plague factor" for that
sector is calculated. Plague factor is increased by a high technology
level, by a high amount of ore present, and by high numbers of civilians
and military in the sector. It is decreased by a high research level, by
the sector being efficient, and by the sector having lots of mobility. The
'nation' command shows you the current plague factor in your capital. Keep
in mind that other sectors can have different plague factors, because of
the above-mentioned influences. A plague factor of 1.0 or more means that
each update of the sector has a small possibility of infecting the sector
spontaneously.

Plague goes through 3 stages. The first is the gestatory stage. In this
stage, there are no symptoms. The length of this stage (and the others) is
random. At the end of the gestatory stage comes the infectious stage. You
will be informed of the transition by a telegram or message. In the
infectious stage, the symptoms are visible (hence the notification). Any
movement of goods or people, whether manually or by a delivery route, from
or through a sector in the infectious stage of the plague will infect
sectors the goods or people go into or through. As an example, consider the
following small (and completely unrealistic) map:

                      0 1 2 3 4 5 6

                    0 f f f f f f f 0
                    1 f m m m m m f 1
                    2 f i i i i i f 2
                    3 f d d d d d f 3
                    4 f m m m m m f 4
                    5 f f f f f f f 5

                      0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Suppose the player issued the following command:

    move o 0,0 10 \r\r\r\r\re

to move 10 units of iron ore from sector 0,0 to sector 5,5. If sector 2,2
was infectious, the command would infect sectors 3,3 4,4 and 5,5. Suppose
that delivery routes for ore were set up to go down from the mines in row
1 to the shell industries in row 2 and up from the mines in row 4 to the
defense plants in row 3. Suppose also that the sectors are slowly being
filled with military, and a zero-threshold military delivery route goes
from left-to-right throughout the entire region. If sector 1,1 is
infectious when the region is updated, it would infect all of the mines
and shell industries in rows 1 and 2. This propagation is because of the
order in which sectors in a region are updated, which is left-to-right by
rows. If it was the mine at 4,5 that was infectious, it would only infect
the defense plant at 3,5 and the fort at 4,6.

The final stage of the plague is the terminal stage. During this stage,
civilians and military in the sector die off. The losses are minimized by
having the sector be efficient and with lots of mobility.


The original version of Empire by Peter Langston had the concept of
treaties. A treaty was agreed on by two countries, and stated some
restrictions on the countries. Restrictions could be such things as "shall
not enlist", "shall not fly over the other country's sectors", etc.
Whenever a command was given, all active treaties were checked to see if
the action would violate one or more of them. If it would, the player would
be told of the pending violation and asked if the command should be
cancelled. Violation of treaties resulted in news items and, I believe, a
telegram to the violated country. Amiga Empire does not have treaties. [yet]
They would be inefficient to implement, and local opinion among players holds
that they would be of very little value. [I disagree]


The concept of a checkpointed sector exists in Empire. Normally, a player
trying to move things into a sector that already belongs to another country
will be told that the sector belongs to someone else. Exceptions to this
are highway and bridge span sectors - you are normally allowed to move
through such sectors, whether you own them or not. If you leave goods or
people on the sector, however, they belong to the owner of the sector. If a
sector is "checkpointed" via the 'checkpoint' command, however, things are
different. When attempting to move into a checkpointed sector, you will be
asked for the checkpoint code. If you know the correct code (a number), you
are allowed access. Checkpointing highways and bridge spans is similar -
access is now denied to those who don't know the checkpoint code. A similar
situation exists with harbors - you can sail ships into harbors belonging
to another country if the harbor is checkpointed and you know the
checkpoint code. Once in such a harbor, you can use the 'load', 'unload'
and 'refurb' commands, but you will once again have to give the checkpoint
code for the harbor.

Additionally, if 2 countries border each other, they may trade goods for free
by having checkpointed sectors next to each other. Normally goods will not be
automatically delivered across national borders, but if the destination
sector is checkpointed, the goods will cross the border without having
the code. Be carefull you don't have this occuring with a country who
has the plague!


The 'declare' command in Empire allows you to declare the status of your
country with respect to each other country in the game. This status is one
of 'neutral', 'allied', or 'at war'. You initially start out neutral with
respect to all countries. The status of your country with respect to others
and of others with respect to you is shown by the 'nation' command. Changes
in status, done with the 'declare' command, show up in the news. If you are
allied with someone, spies sent by him into your sectors will not be
caught. If you are neutral, they may be caught and deported. If you are at
war, they may be caught and shot. If you are at war with someone, his
planes will be shot at when they fly over your ships or your fort, airport,
capital or bank sectors (if they are capable of it), and you will be
notified of the shooting. You can not buy goods from a country who is at war
with you. On radar, sectors will show up as "W" if they are owned by someone
who is at war with you, "A" if they are owned by someone who is allied to
you, and "?" if they are owned by someone who is neutral to you. The
MAP command will display sectors owned by countries who are allied to you,
and sonar will list the sub owners name if they are allied to you.


Due to external matters or simple lack of interest, players sometimes want
to stop playing Empire in the middle of a game. The 'dissolve' command
[is] made for that purpose. The dissolve command is irreversable, and
should only be used if you are sure you don't want to play any longer.
You sectors will be given to god, some of them may break out with the plague,
and your ships will be given orders to blow themselves up (some may revolt
and become pirates). You will no longer be able to do most commands, and
you can not receive public messages.


Remember at all time that Empire is just a game. Don't take anything that
happens in the game too seriously. This can be difficult if some of your
best friends gang up on you, or refuse to help when others gang up.
Remember the old saying "Don't get mad - get even!". Getting even may
involve waiting for the next game. In this kind of thing, Empire shares
attributes with board games like "Diplomacy". I have a friend who refuses
to play "Diplomacy" with anyone he considers to be a friend. I've never
talked him into playing Empire either.