Amiga Plus 1995 #2/Amiga Plus CD - 1995 - No. 2.iso/internet/faq/englisch/rec.games.empire

Text File | 1995-04-11 | 13.2 KB | 354 lines

Archive-name: games/empire/faq
Posting-frequency: every 14 days
Last-modified: 1995/2/26

This FAQ is archived as:
  rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/news.answers/games/empire/faq
and in hypertext format as:
  http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/games/empire/faq/faq.html

The most recent edition of EMPIRE NEWS may be found in:
  rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/news.answers/games/empire/news
and in hypertext format as:
  http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/games/empire/news/faq.html

If you have World Wide Web access, then the following node is an
excellent source of info about Empire:
  http://random.chem.psu.edu/empire/


     - = [ Empire FAQ Bi-Weekly Posting ] = -
      as of Sun Feb 26 11:11:11 1995

This FAQ answers these questions:

DESCRIPTION:
Q: What is Empire?
Q: Do I need direct internet access ("telnet") to be able to play?
Q: What kinds of machines can I play from?
Q: Are there "turns" in this game?
Q: How long does a typical game last?
Q: Sound's neat!  How do I play?

CONNECTING:
Q: Where do I get a client for my machine?
Q: OK, I compiled my client.  The docs said something about a "host",
   "port", "country" and "password".  I need to specify these to connect to a
   game--what should I put for these four things?
Q: Just out of curiousity, what long term games are going on right now,
   and is there a way I could peek in on them?
Q: The basic unix client is, well, basic.  Are there more
   sophisticated clients available?
Q: Are there any tools available for playing empire?

PLAYING:
Q: I'm keen, I can connect to a blitz, but I haven't a clue what to
   do!  How do I learn how to play?
Q: There seem to be a million commands!  What are the basic commands I
   should read about first?
Q: What's a Representative?
Q: What is a BTU and how do I get more?
Q: How do I build a ship?
Q: How do I load stuff on a ship?
Q: How do I get civilians to another island?
Q: Where do you make land units?
Q: Why aren't my ships/planes/units gaining efficiency?
Q: I have a ship with "oiler" capacity, now how do I find out how much
   oil a sea sector has?
Q: Who can help me get started playing Empire?

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: What is Empire?

It is a strategy wargame played by a number (usually between 4 and
100) of people on the internet connected to an Empire Server.  If
you've ever seen the game "Civilization", Empire is a lot like it,
except it is more detailed, and of course multi-player.  As the leader
of a nation which consists of certain sectors on a large hexogonal
grid, you decide (based on resources) what each sector's "designation"
should be.  This way, you obtain food, iron, gold, oil, uranium.  You
distribute these raw materials to factories to convert them into more
useful things.  You manage a civilian and slave populace for producing
goods, and a military populace for defence and conquest.  You also
have the tricky job of balancing a budget.  As the technology level of
your country increases, you are able to build more and more advanced
units: for example, at tech 0 you can build fishing boats and cavalry,
at tech 100 you can build planes, submarines, and artillery, and by
tech 300 you can build missiles, satellites, jet planes, and armored
tanks.

NOTE: rec.games.empire has nothing at all to do with a PC game called
"Empire Deluxe" (1993) or an old PC game called ""Empire: Wargame
of the Century" which came out in the 80's.  However, people who
enjoyed those games would probably enjoy the kind of empire we play
here even more!

------------------------------

Subject: Do I need direct internet access ("telnet") to be able to play?

Yes.  It is a "real-time" game.  You can not play by mail.

------------------------------

Subject: What kinds of machines can I play from?

You can play from a Unix, VMS, VM/CMS, Macintosh, or PC (MS Windows)
machine that is directly connected to the internet.

------------------------------

Subject: Are there "turns" in this game?

Most aspects of the game are "real-time" (i.e. it isn't like risk
or diplomacy where there are turns), for example you sail ships, march
armies, and fly planes in real-time--so if you are a fast typist, then
you have an advantage.  The aspect of the game that has turns is
economic: goods are produced, population grows, and arms are
constructed only at a specific time (called the "update").

------------------------------

Subject: How long does a typical game last?

This depends on how often updates occur.  There are two types of
games: A "blitz" has updates every ten minutes.  They last about 24
hours.  A "long term" game usually has one update every day or every
few days.  They last 2-6 months.  To learn the basics of empire, it is
highly recommended that you first try "blitzing" a few times.

------------------------------

Subject: Sound's neat!  How do I play?

Well, you can play right now if you want!  All you need to do is
ftp a client to your machine, and then connect to a game.

------------------------------

Subject: Where do I get a client for my machine?

Here are the standard clients:

UNIX              ftp.cis.ksu.edu:/pub/Games/Empire/clients/empclient-1.1.tar.Z
VMS               ftp.cis.ksu.edu:/pub/Games/Empire/clients/VMS/
VM_CMS            ftp.cis.ksu.edu:/pub/Games/Empire/clients/VM_CMS/
Macintosh         ftp.cis.ksu.edu:/pub/Games/Empire/clients/MEC_1.0.0.cpt.hqx
MS Windows        ftp.cis.ksu.edu:/pub/Games/Empire/clients/win3_b.zip

For example, to get the standard UNIX client and compile it, type:
  ftp ftp.cis.ksu.edu
  anonymous
  userid@
  cd pub/Games/Empire/clients
  bin
  get empclient-1.1.tar.Z
  quit
  uncompress empclient-1.1.tar.Z
  tar -xf empclient-1.1.tar
  cd client
  make

------------------------------

Subject: OK, I compiled my client.  The docs said something about a "host",
     "port", "country" and "password".  I need to specify these to
     connect to a game--what should I put for these four things?

What you are really asking is "How do I get in a game?".  To get in
a long term game, you need to keep watching the newsgroup
rec.games.empire.  A new long term game is announced about once a
month.  However, there is a blitz up and running even as you read this
post.  The blitz resets every night at 8:02pm EST (so if you want to
play competitively, you should connect at that time), but you can
connect to it and play any time.  The host is "random.chem.psu.edu", and
the port is 1618.  For country, use a number from 1 to 10, and use the
same number for the password.
For example, to use the standard client to connect to the "visitor"
country of the blitz, type:
  setenv EMPIREHOST random.chem.psu.edu
  setenv EMPIREPORT 1618
  setenv COUNTRY Visitor
  setenv PLAYER Visitor
  empire
  power
  quit

------------------------------

Subject: Just out of curiousity, what long term games are going on right
     now, and is there a way I could peek in on them?

Most long term games have "visitor" countries that you can use to
log into the game.  For a list of the current long term games, read
the monthly posting to rec.games.empire called "EMPIRE NEWS".  The
latest issue of "EMPIRE NEWS" may be found in :
  rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/news.answers/games/empire/news
and in hypertext format as:
  http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/games/empire/news/faq.html

Once you connect to one of these games, you can have a look at what's
going on by typing "power" or "news".

------------------------------

Subject: The basic unix client is, well, basic.  Are there more sophisticated
     clients available?

Yes.  I have written an Empire client called "pei" with lots of
nice features and many built-in tools.  You can find the latest
version of pei at:
  euromath.dk:/pub/incoming/
There is also an X client:
  ftp.cis.ksu.edu:/pub/Games/Empire/clients/xemp5.0.02.tar.Z

------------------------------

Subject: Are there any tools available for playing empire?

Yes.  You can find a small arsenal of tools in:
  ftp.cis.ksu.edu:/pub/Games/Empire/tools/Player/
However, some of the tools in this directory are out of date, and most
of the useful tools in this directory have been integrated into "pei".
For a list of the tools in the archive and description of them, read
the "README" file in that directory, or the monthly posting "EMPIRE
NEWS" to rec.games.empire.

------------------------------

Subject: I'm keen, I can connect to a blitz, but I haven't a clue what to
     do!  How do I learn how to play?

Ask and read.  Most Empire players are happy to answer newbie
questions--heck the more players we have the better!  There is lots of
material on Empire that you can read.  You have to be careful with
the documentation, though, because the game is always changing, and much
of the literature is out of date.  The surest way to get the most
up-to-date info is using the "info" command in empire.  The first info
pages you should read are "info sector-types" and "info products".
If you have World Wide Web access, then I highly recommend browsing
the "harmless guide to empire" at:
  http://random.chem.psu.edu/empire/guide.html
You can ftp the entire "info" docs of empire from:
  ftp.cis.ksu.edu:/pub/Games/Empire/docs/chainsaw.3.0.info.tar.Z
I would also recommend:
  ftp.cis.ksu.edu:/pub/Games/Empire/WhatIsEmpire-FAQ.txt
The official users guide is 3 years out of date, but someone is
presently revising it.  You can get the outdated guide from:
  ftp.cis.ksu.edu:/pub/Games/Empire/docs/Users.Guide

------------------------------

Subject: There seem to be a million commands!  What are the basic commands I
     should read about first?

Use the "info" command to read about these commands:
change, break, map, ann, wire, tel, read, explore, move, res, cen, dist,
thresh, lev, com, prod, budget.

------------------------------

Subject: What is a Representative?

A password.

------------------------------

Subject: What's a BTU and how do I get more?

A BTU is a "Bureucratic Time Unit".  Most Empire commands require
BTU's.  In a blitz, all you need to do to get more BTU's is to log out
and in again.  In a long term game, BTU's are generated by civilians
in efficient "c" sectors (capitols) in the following way: every time
you log on, the server gives you a number of BTU's corresponding to
the length of time since the last time you logged on and the number of
civs in capitols which are at least 60% efficient.

------------------------------

Subject: How do I build a ship?

Using the "build" command.

------------------------------

Subject: How do I load stuff on a ship?

Using the "load" command.

------------------------------

Subject: How do I get civilians to another island?

"nav" a ship with mil up to the island and "look" with the ship to
get the coordinates of a land sector.  Then "assault" the sector with
about 20 mil.  Designate the sector to be a "h".  Then next update,
the harbour should be 2% efficient and you will be able to nav a ship
carrying civs into the harbour and "unload" them.

------------------------------

Subject: Where do you make land units?

In a "!" sector.

------------------------------

Subject: Why aren't my ships/planes/units gaining efficiency?

Ships need to be in an "h" sector, planes in a "*" sector and units
need to be in a "!" sector.  The sector must be at least 60%
efficient.  Units and planes need mil in the sector.  Also there needs
to be sufficient "avail" in the sector (note the figures for "avail"
in "show * build" are misleading--the actual avail you need is much
larger than what "show" it says).  You need to have enough lcm's and
hcm's in the sector.  Land units can also need guns and shells.  In
the client "pei" you can use the "sneweff", "pneweff", and "lneweff"
tools to find out what efficiency your ship/planes/units will have
after the next update, and if they won't get maximum efficient, what
the sector needs.

------------------------------

Subject: I have a ship with "oiler" capacity, now how do I find out how much
     oil a sea sector has?

While you're navigating the ship, type "v" and you will get output like:
  [oil:82] oil derrick 1 (#297) @ 11,-1 0% sea
which means that that sea sector has an oil content of 82.

------------------------------

Subject: Who can help me get started playing Empire?

Before asking anyone, please try to find your answer in:
  - this FAQ,
  - the EMPIRE NEWS,
  - the documentation that came with your client,
  - the "info" command in the game.

If you are new to playing Empire and need help getting started, and
you can't find your answer in one of the above sources, then send
email to one of the following:

Sasha Mikheev     [e-mail]
Raminder Bajwa    [e-mail]
Tero Paananen     [e-mail]
Ben Blaukopf      [e-mail]
Robert Buckles    [e-mail]
Ville Virrankoski [e-mail]
Don Harper        [e-mail]
Sam Tetherow      [e-mail]
Jim Ortlieb       [e-mail]

They are the official "Newbie Helpers" for Empire and should be able
to help you.  Please do not send me questions about getting started
playing Empire as I've got my hands full at the present time.

Ken Stevens a.k.a. Buster, ruler of children
[e-mail]
--
# Ken Stevens              : 129 Lippincott St.      :
# [e-mail] : Toronto, Canada M5S 2P3 :  1 416 968 9470