Crawly Crypt Collection 1/crawlyvol1.bin/bbs/ge_241/ge_plr.txt

Text File | 1992-05-21 | 21KB | 485 lines

                         GALACTIC EMPIRE

                           Version 2.41

                      Game Play Instructions

           (C)1988-1992 By Bill Mountney & Bill Coffman


SO, YOU WANT TO RULE A GALACTIC EMPIRE?
=======================================

     Well, you have a very big job ahead of you.  It's the year
3092 and humankind (not to mention non-humankind) has finally
risen above the dark ages of senseless warfare and violence
between rival countries, and moved on to a golden new age of
senseless warfare and violence between rival Galactic Empires.  As
the ruler of one of these Empires, you will be right in the thick
of it, so there are a few things you'll have to know.


WHAT'S THE DEAL?
================

     You will be the leader of an Empire in space.  In the
beginning, your Empire will consist of just a few planets and a
small army, but with luck and experience, you may eventually build
an interstellar superpower.  First, however, you'll have to learn
the basics...


CREDITS
=======

     Credits are the standardized monetary exchange unit of most
of the known Universe.  You will, of course, want as many of them
as possible.  One source of income for your Empire is the taxes
collected from your people.  Others will be discussed below.


PLANETS & PRODUCTION
====================

     Planets are really what it's all about.  Your goal is to
acquire as many as possible in order to expand your Empire.
Planets come in four varieties, each of which produces a different
type of product:

Energy:    Energy planets produce energy, which is the most
           important commodity of all, because without it you
           cannot produce anything else.  Producing Energy,
           through solar power, is relatively cheap.  A small
           amount of energy is used in the process by the control
           equipment and the people who work there.

Food:      Food planets produce the food that is needed for your
           Population, Troops, Generals, and therefore your whole
           Empire, to survive.  Food planets require more credits
           and energy to maintain than do energy planets, due to
           the farm machinery required.

Ore:       Neutrinium Ore is the primary metal used in
           construction of all types of space craft and weapons,
           due to its superior strength.  The mining operations
           required to get at the ore are costly and use much more
           energy than food or energy planets.

Galactite: Galactite, the rarest of all known elements, has only
           recently been discovered to exist on a limited number
           of planets.  Although its properties are not yet fully
           explored or understood, it has already been found to be
           of extreme value as a source of power for the newly
           developed Planetary Defense System.  It is mined from
           the core of the planet, and this is a very expensive
           and energy hungry process.

     All four types of planets require roughly the same amount of
people there to do the work.  You must have an average population
of at least 20 million per planet in order to achieve normal
production levels.


EMPIRE STATUS REPORT
====================

     The first thing you will want to check out when maintaining
the Empire is your up to date Empire Status Report.  This will
tell you most of the important information on your Empire,
including the amounts of various items that you currently own,
number of planets you have, alliance status, etc.  Take your time
reading this, because as soon as you're done it's time for the
drudgery of:


PAYING THE BILLS
================

     These are the costs you will face in running your Empire.

Planetary Maintenance:

     Your planets need to be properly funded in order for them to
produce.  If you neglect this payment, you may wind up in a
production slump that will be very difficult to survive.  You may
also wish to pay a bit more to achieve even greater production,
but this will only work up to a point.

Energy For Production:

     Planets require adequate amounts of energy to produce their
goods.  This is as just as important as the maintenance fee, and
the same points mentioned above apply here.

Crime Prevention Agency:

     You can't expect to have an Empire of billions and billions
of people without some crime.  The less you pay here the more
you'll have.

Intelligence Agency:

     Your Intelligence Agency performs the dual role of spying and
covert operations in other Empires, and protecting your own Empire
from such actions.  You may hire up to five Covert Operation
Groups.  This fee will come up only once per day and will cost
10000 credits for each group that is assigned to internal
counterintelligence duty and 20000 credits for each group on
foreign intelligence duty.  Neglecting to pay the fee will result
in poor performance in both areas.

Military Maintenance:

     There are plenty of other Empires out there who all want what
the others have.  Whether or not you will be an aggressor or
defender, you will want to keep your military well paid.  Paying
them a bit more than required can improve performance.

Feeding Your People and Troops:

     Basically, hungry people don't work, and hungry soldiers
don't fight.  They also kind of tend to get rather angry.  If they
get too angry, the stability of your Empire may be in trouble.

Ore For Command Ship:

     A Command Ship is an important part of your military arsenal.
If you begin constructing one, it will require large amounts of
Ore for its construction and maintenance.  If it gets the amount
of Ore that is required, its power will increase up to the maximum
of 100%.  If neglected or damaged in battle, it will decrease.  If
you allow it fall to 0% it will be beyond repair and you must
build a new one.

Galactite For Satellite Defense Shield:

     A Satellite Defense Shield will protect your Empire from
attack by Interplanetary Ballistic Missiles.  If you have any
satellites, they require Galactite for charging.  If you give them
the required amount of Galactite, the charge will gradually
increase to 100%.  If neglected, or damaged by missile attacks, it
will decrease.  A Galactite reaction is very unstable, and if you
allow the charge to remain at 0% for very long, some of your
satellites may explode when their charge reverses polarity.


INTERIOR STATUS REPORT
======================

     The Interior Status Report actually consists of several
different reports which contain various information about changes
and problems in your Empire.

Population Report:

     You will be given statistics on the number of people who have
been born, died, immigrated to, or defected from the Empire.  This
will be followed by the new total population count and the average
population per planet.  The average population per planet is of
particular interest, because if your people become spread out too
thinly, there will not be enough of them to get the work done, and
production will drop off.  It is necessary to have at least 20
million people per planet for normal production.

Production Report:

     You will be told the number of planets you have producing
each product, their current production efficiency, how much of
each product was produced and the new total of each product that
you have on hand.

Military Status:

     This will give you the current Military Strength rating, and
any changes in the Command Ship or Defense Shield status.

Important Notices:

     Following these two reports, you may get a report on any
special or adverse conditions in your Empire.  This includes
energy or food shortages, over-expansion, crime reports, etc.


THE INTERGALACTIC COMMODITIES MARKET
====================================

     The Intergalactic Commodities Market has for decades been the
one stable thing in the otherwise unpredictable Universe.  Empires
from all over come here when the have excess products to sell, or
when they need to buy some of the various products to survive.
They can either buy or sell to other Empires, or to the Market
itself as long as it has something in stock to sell, or room left
in which to store what it would buy.  Usually, the best deals are
gotten through dealing with other Empires.

     The problem that arises with dealing with other Empires is
that they never tend to be at the Market at the same time, but the
Market has developed a solution.  The Market maintains a list of
any products an Empire wishes to buy or sell and the prices at
which to do it.  Even though another Empire may not be at the
Market while you are there, the Market can carry out the
transaction he wishes to make.  When you wish to buy or sell
something you will get a list of all the other Empires who wish to
buy or sell that product.  You can then chose to deal with any one
of them, the Market itself, or add your own name to the list so
other Empires can deal with you while you're away.


PLANETARY OPERATIONS
====================

Colonizing Planets:

     You must colonize planets in order to set up production
facilities on them.  The price for colonization varies with the
type of product being produced.

Abandonment:

  You may at times find that you have bit off more than you can
chew when it comes to colonizing planets.  It requires 20 million
people per planet to do the work required for normal production.
If your population is spread out more thinly than this, production
levels will begin to drop off.  One solution to this over-
expansion is to wait until your population grows enough to fill
the available planets.  If the situation is too urgent to wait it
out, your only option is to abandon enough planets to keep the
other ones running smoothly.  Unfortunately, the money you put
into colonizing them will be lost.

Dead Planet Options:

     Dead planets are planets which have been rendered lifeless by
a Gas Warhead attack.  You have the choice to restore them to
operation or abandon them.  Restoration costs approximately 3/4
the price of colonizing a new planet of the same type.

Priority For Production:

     You may assign a priority level to each type of planet that
determines its importance during production.  This level ranges
from 1 to 4 with 1 being the most important.  In the event that
there is not enough Energy or Maintenance Funds to cover all of
your planets, the type with the highest priority will get it's
share first, assuring that you get the best possible production of
the products you need most.  You may have multiple planet types
assigned to the same priority level, in which case they will all
get equal shares before any lower priority types.

How Big Is The Universe?

     People tend to think of Planets as being an unlimited
resource that will never run out.  Of course, they always think
that about every unlimited resource until it finally does run out.
And, as with every other "unlimited" resource through history,
they are beginning to find planets to be a little harder to come
by.  With some of the new destructive weaponry mentioned above,
the problem will no doubt be intensified.  Remember: Trees may
grow on Planets, but Planets don't grow on Trees.


BLACK MARKET PURCHASES
======================

     From time to time, you will be approached by various shady
characters offering to sell you items which most likely cannot be
obtained from any other source.  Several of these are discussed
below in the section on Interplanetary Missiles.  There is also
rumored be a new biological warfare weapon, which although it has
not been successfully placed in a missile warhead yet, may be able
to be used as a weapon by other means.  It is most likely very
dangerous to handle, and it is unsure whether a successful cure
has been developed yet.  You would probably be best advised to
avoid it like the plague.


GOVERNMENT SPENDING
===================

     You'll need a strong military to survive, either for offense
or defense.  These are the items you'll need to consider:

Troops and Generals:

     Troops are, as they have always been, the primary strength of
any army.  They are needed for both offense and defense.  Without
Generals to lead them, however, they will not be very useful.  A
single General can control about 5000 Soldiers.

Fighters and Defense Stations:

     Fighters could be considered the tanks or planes of modern
space warfare, depending on your point of view.  On the other
hand, Defense Stations are designed to destroy them.  Unless you
have enough fighters to penetrate your enemies Defense Station
network, you will be unable to land your Troops, and the battle
will not go very well for you.  Keep in mind that a single Defense
Station is a bit more powerful than a single Fighter.  In addition
to the cost of building Fighters or Defense Stations, you must
have enough Ore available for their construction.

Command Ship:

     A Command Ship is a powerful addition to your military
arsenal.  It will add considerable offensive or defensive
firepower to any military operation.  When you first begin
construction it will still be very weak, and it will take a while
for it to be built up to maximum power.  If it is damaged during
an attack it will also take time to be rebuilt.  The construction
and maintenance of a Command Ship both require Neutrinium Ore.

Inter-Planetary Ballistic Missiles:

     IPBM's, developed during the last few decades, have become a
very powerful and frightening force throughout the Universe.  They
are available with several different types of warheads, each of
which will produce different results.  They are launched and
travel through space at high speed seeking to impact on the
planets of the target Empire.  The types of missiles which are
currently available are as follows:

Regular Missiles:

     These carry large payloads of conventional explosives and can
inflict mass damage on the population, military facilities, and
production facilities of the planets they impact.  They may
occasionally destroy a planet altogether.

Neutron Missiles:

     These frightening weapons destroy all life on a planet, but
leave its production facilities intact.  This will result in the
victimized Empire having to spread its population out more thinly,
which could reduce it's production substantially.

Gas Missiles:

     These Missiles are only available though Black Market
sources.  They can utterly destroy all life and equipment on a
planet.  The gas will eat through and dissolve all organic or
metallic material it comes in contact with, and turn the planet
into a vast wasteland.  These "dead" planets will have to be
recolonized before they can ever produce again.

Planx Missiles:

     These devastating weapons are currently being sold only
through Black Market sources.  The place of their origin and the
process used to manufacture them is still unknown.  It is
suspected that they may be product of the evil Andromeda Empire
which will be discussed later.  What do they do?  Well, they blow
any planet they hit into cosmic dust.  They tend to be a bit less
accurate than the other types of Warheads, but the effect more
than makes up for it.

The Planetary Defense System:

     This new technology, based on a idea originally proposed a
long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, has just recently been
perfected.  It is the only defense against attack by IPBM's.  It
uses a system of satellites, orbiting the planets which are to be
defended, which will attempt to track and destroy incoming
missiles using high energy particle beams.  Until the discovery of
Galactite, there was no power source capable of sustaining the
type of beam required.  But Galactite is rare and expensive, and
it's use as a power source is still unstable at best, so this
system may still be a bit ahead of it's time.  Also, in order for
it to be truly effective, you must purchase at least one satellite
for each of your planets, and the more you have, the more
Galactite you will need to charge the system.  Having more than
one satellite per planet will increase the system's overall
effectiveness.


FOREIGN AFFAIRS
===============

     You will eventually be interacting with other Empires in
various ways.  These are the options you have:

Attacking:

     Here is where you get to put all that expensive military
hardware to work.  You can mount a conventional attack, in which
you will deploy Fighters, Troops and Generals, along with your
Command Ship if you have one, or you can launch an IPBM attack
with any various types of Missiles you have in your arsenal.

Alliances:

     Attacking is not the only way to interact with other Empires.
You may form an alliance with another Empire which will provide
each of you with military help from the other during an offensive
or defensive action.  If you propose an alliance to another
Empire, they will have the option of accepting your proposal,
after which you will go through a series of negotiations to decide
how much support each of you will provide during an attack, or
during defense from one.  During an alliance, the two Empires will
be able to freely view each others status reports, and will be
prevented from attacking or performing covert operations on each
other.  There is nothing to prevent one of them from breaking the
alliance at any time and then attacking, however, news of this
back-stabbing behavior will likely spread to other Empires who
would probably think twice about ever accepting another alliance
with such a two faced Empire.

Espionage:

     Covert Operations Groups can be hired and implanted in other
Empires, providing you with intelligence reports on the their
internal affairs, and information on an enemy's military before an
attack.  They may also carry out covert terrorist operations.
Amongst their possible missions are such diverse elements as
stealing Credits, Food and other products, sabotaging Production
Facilities, blowing up Fighters or Defense Stations, damaging or
destroying the Command Ship or Planetary Defense System,
assassinating Generals, and other more devious actions.

Cargo Shipments:

     You may build Cargo Ships which can be used to transport
goods to other Empires.  The most common use for this is to give
support to your Ally or other Empires with whom you have good
relations.  The shipments may either be provided to the other
Empire for no charge, or have a COD fee attached to them.  The
products that the Cargo Ships are currently equipped to transport
are Credits, Food, Energy, Troops, Generals, Fighters, and Defense
Stations.

Communications:

     Empires may communicate with each other through the Galactic
E-Mail System.  This allows the private transmission of messages
to a single Empire or group of Empires.  There is also a feature
to allow mass mailings to all Empires, which could be useful if an
Empire has something it wishes to  "advertise".  You may also send
messages anonymously if required.

List of Empires:

     You may also access the List of Known Empires of the
Universe, which will show the name of each Empire, and it's
current total number of planets.


SO WHAT AREN'T YOU TELLING ME HERE?
===================================

     There are some things which are best learned through
experience, but here are some hints that may help:

- You must keep an average population per planet of at least 20
  million in order to achieve normal production.

- A new Empire will usually have a limited number of turns of
  protection from attack by other Empires to allow time to build
  up adequate defenses.  However, this protection will be
  forfeited upon the first aggressive move, which includes
  conventional attacks, missile attacks, and covert missions (but
  not merely spying.)

- You should beware the evil Andromeda Empire.  They will stop at
  nothing to try to take over the Universe and all that is in it,
  and should not be trusted under any circumstances.