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- Amiga Empire by Chris Gray - Sectors
-
-
- The Amiga Empire world consists of a square array of sectors. In the normal
- case, about 50% of the sectors will be sea sectors, about 5% will be
- mountains, and the rest will be wildernesses. Each country starts out with
- a pair of sanctuary sectors, side-by-side. Wilderness sectors vary in the
- richness of the iron and gold ore deposits they contain. An iron mine
- sector with a rich deposit of iron ore will produce useable ore at a faster
- rate than a sector with a poor deposit. Similar for gold mines, except that
- the gold deposit is used up as the gold mine turns it into gold bars.
- Natural borders formed by mountain ranges and seas are often used by
- neighboring countries to mark their political borders. Since shipping gold
- bars and ore around takes time and mobility, most people try to keep the
- consuming sectors fairly close to the producing ones. This also applies to
- produced goods like shells and guns. So, in general, care should be taken
- when designating sectors - think about what is or will be close to the
- sector, and how it fits in with what you have already constructed. If you
- redesignate a sector which is already efficient, you lose the work and cost
- that was needed to make the sector efficient. Thus, you should try to get
- your designations right the first time. An exception to this is sectors
- along a volatile border, or gold mine sectors, which are usually re-
- designated when the gold in them runs out.
-
- "Production" in Empire is a measure of the work done in a sector. It is an
- intermediate form of the final product produced by the sector. For example,
- an airport turns ore into production and then into airplanes. Production
- cannot be moved from one sector to another, but the 'contract' command
- allows you to contract the new production in your sectors. The contract is
- to some distant buyer outside of the Empire game. Production prices are
- semi-randomly determined - refusing a low offered price is usually wise.
- Occasionally, very high prices will be offered. The rate of production is
- proportional to the number of workers present. Each civilian is considered
- to be a worker, but it takes 5 military to be a worker.
-
- There is a fairly wide variety of sector types in Empire. The following
- discussion compares the various sector types to a "standard" sector, which
- doesn't really exist, but is used for this comparison. The character given
- with the type is the character which represents that type on maps, and
- which must be used with the 'designate' command to create sectors of that
- type.
-
- . - sea
- Sea sectors are the realm of ships. The only other sectors in which
- ships can sail are harbor and bridge span sectors. Sea sectors are the
- only ones which can be mined (as in ship-destroying mines). Only a
- deity can designate a sector to be a sea sector, thus normal countries
- cannot affect them. If goods or people are moved into a sea sector,
- they are lost, hence sea sectors cannot be claimed.
-
- ^ - mountain
- Mountains, like sea sectors, cannot be designated by normal countries.
- Thus, they too are not terribly useful. Mountain sectors can be moved
- into, however, although it takes a great deal of mobility. Because of
- this, mountain sectors make reasonably good natural borders.
-
- - - wilderness
- Most of the usable world starts out as wildernesses. Wildernesses can
- be owned, but they don't do anything special. Wilderness cost twice as
- much mobility to move onto as regular sectors.
-
- s - sanctuary
- Each country starts out owning two side-by-side sanctuary sectors.
- Sanctuaries cannot be attacked, bombed or shelled. If you move
- something out of a sanctuary, the sanctuary will be automatically
- turned into a capital. This is called "breaking sanctuary". You cannot
- designate new sanctuaries. Their purpose is to shield late starting
- countries from early starting ones which might stumble across them.
-
- c - capital
- Your active capital (originally your left-hand sector, later the sector
- you have most recently designated as a capital) is the center of your
- private co-ordinate system, thus it is at co-ordinates 0,0. When your
- active capital is updated, you gain BTUs, depending on how long it was
- since the last update, and on how many civilians are there. Capitals
- defend against 'attack' harder than standard sectors, and are capable
- of anti-aircraft fire.
-
- u - urban area
- Urban areas bundle civilians in units of 10. Thus, they can hold up to
- 1270 of them. Urban areas turn ore into new civilians faster than any
- other sector can make them reproduce. Enlistment does not work in urban
- areas. Because of the bundling, urban areas are very good at moving
- civilians around.
-
- a - army boot camp
- Boot camp sectors are similar to urban areas, except that they can hold
- up to 1270 civilians and military. Boot camp sectors convert civilians
- in them to military. They require that 30 civilians be kept in them
- at all times, and create military in classes of up to 100.
-
- d - defense plant
- These sectors turn ore into production units and then into guns.
-
- i - shell industry
- These sectors turn ore into production units and then into shells.
-
- m - mine
- Production in these sectors, which is governed by the richness of the
- iron ore deposit, is turned into ore, which is the basic construction
- component in Empire.
-
- g - gold mine
- Production in these sectors, which is governed by the richess of the
- gold ore deposit, is turned into gold bars. Gold bars should be moved
- into efficient banks, where they will earn interest when the banks are
- updated.
-
- h - harbor
- Production in harbors (from ore) can be used to build ships. Building
- ships is not automatic - it must be done using the 'build' command. You
- have the choice of the type of ship to build. Building ships also costs
- money in proportion to the BTU cost. Harbors are the only places at
- which ships can be loaded and unloaded.
-
- w - warehouse
- Warehouses are used for storing and moving goods. They store shells,
- guns, and ore in bundles of 10, thus upto 1270 of each. They also move
- them out in bundles of 10, at the same cost in mobility that a standard
- sector would need for 1.
-
- * - airport
- Airports turn production (from ore) into airplanes. Each airplane
- normally requires quite a bit of production. Airplanes can only take
- off from airports or from aircraft carriers. Similarly, the chances of
- landing at a 100% efficient airport in good weather are perfect.
- Airports are capable of anti-aircraft fire.
-
- t - technology center
- Production from ore in these sectors is turned into "technological
- advances", each of which adds 1 to your country's technology level.
- That level in turn determines your technology factor which scales such
- things as ship and airplane fuel consumption, shelling range, etc.
-
- r - research lab
- Production from ore in these sectors is turned into "medical
- breakthroughs", each of which adds 1 to your country's research level.
- Your research level affects the likelihood of catching the plague.
-
- f - fort
- Forts are the major land-based fighting sector. They can fire guns (up
- to 7, normally) offensively and can defend other sectors within their
- range of fire. Military attacking from a fort fight twice as hard as
- normal. Military defending from a fort fight four times as hard as
- normal. These factors are scaled by the fort's efficiency. Forts are
- also capable of anti-aircraft fire.
-
- + - highway
- Highways are the main land transportation device. Moving something onto
- a 100% efficient highway costs NO mobility. Normally, other countries
- can move things onto (and hence across) highway sectors, unless the
- highway is checkpointed.
-
- ) - radar station
- Radar stations have land-based radar, which can be used to look at a
- few of a neighbor country's sectors, and to watch out over the sea for
- ships.
-
- ! - weather station
- Weather stations can be used to predict the weather. This is dependent
- on your technology factor. Knowing the weather to expect can offer
- advantages during wars.
-
- # - bridge head
- Bridge head sectors turn ore into production. The 'build' command can
- then be used to build bridge spans in an orthogonal direction over sea
- sectors from a bridge head. Thus, you can build a two-span bridge over
- a river or sea arm. The span also normally costs $2000. If a bridge
- head is damaged below 20%, any bridge spans connected to it will
- collapse back into the sea.
-
- = - bridge spans
- These are built on bridge heads. They are much the same as highways. If
- they are damaged below 20%, they will collapse back into the sea,
- dumping everything that was on them.
-
- b - bank
- Gold bars stored in efficient banks will collect interest. Banks bundle
- gold bars in units of 4, thus they can hold 508 of them. They can also
- move them much easier than other sectors (gold bars are very heavy!)
- Military in banks defend harder than normal, and banks are capable of
- anti-aircraft fire.
-
- x - exchange
- Exchanges are used in international trade. Delivery routes out of
- exchanges cannot be constructed, but exchanges can sell goods in them
- to exchanges in other countries.
-
-