Preliminary Edition Peter Langston Copyright (c) 1977 by P. Langston Overview of the Empire game (as of 5/78) The game empire is the most recent in a series of territorial conquest games inspired by a board game of the same name played at Reed College (Portland, Oregon). Earlier versions have been written at Reed by Peter Langston and at The Evergreen State College (Olympia, Washington) by Chuck Douglas, Peter Langston, Ben Norton and Mike Rainwater. The current version was written partly on the HRSTS Unix system at the Harvard Science Center, (Cambridge, Mass.), partly on the Unix system at Commercial Union Leasing Corporation, (New York, N. Y.) and partly on the Unix system at Davis Polk & Wardwell, (New York, N. Y.) by Peter Langston with invaluable goading from Joe Stetson, Robert Bradbury, Nat Howard and others. Empire falls into the broad category of simulation games, involving both military and economic factors. Although no goal is explicitly stated, players rapidly derive their own, ranging from the mundane desire to be the biggest, mightiest country in the game and conquer all others to the more refined goals of having the most efficient land use possible or the lowest ratio of military to civilians while still surviving, etcetera. The role of the computer in Empire is that of modeling the physical/economic system. Players interact through the computer rather than with the computer. The games is played in a "real- time" environment; players log on and allocate resources, attack neighbors, send diplomatic communiques, etc. whenever they have time and the program keeps track of their activities such that when they are not logged on the time accumulates until they do log on; (accumulated time is expressed in "bureaucratic time units" or B.T.U.s). The purpose of the B.T.U. Concept is three-fold: I) The fact that commands use up B.T.U.s limits the amount of time that any player can spend developing his/her country so that the insomniacs won't necessarily out-play (or perhaps over-play) the players with less free time; II) The build up of B.T.U.s not being dependent on being logged on at any particular time allows players to participate when it is convenient rather than at some fixed time (as in the case of monopoly, the stock market, etc); III) The B.T.U. arrangement helps compensate for the fact that in concept, the governments of each country are always "playing" although the player representing that country may only play periodically. The geography of the game is embodied in a rectangular map partitioned into M x N sectors (where M and N are typically but not necessarily powers of two, usually 32, 64 or 128) that is approximately 50% sea, 45% habitable land and 5% uninhabitable mountains. This "map" is generated by a program (the "creation") that places volcanoes pseudo-randomly forming land masses, (continental drift was too complicated), and then pseudo-randomly places veins of gold and iron ore. New countries may join the game at any time; upon entry into the game a new country is given two adjacent sectors. These sectors are initially designated "sanctuaries" and are inviolable. (Each country uses its own coordinate system with sector 0,0 being the current capital, a sanctuary, initially. The initial two sectors are always numbered 0,0 and 1,0.) The new nation may stay in these two sectors for any length of time and thereby be safe from attack. However, in order to build or expand it is necessary to leave the safety of the sanctuary. The sector of land that was a sanctuary can then be redesignated as one of a multitude of other land-use types ranging from weather stations to gold mines to munitions plants. For further information, here are a few "info" command topics that are basic to the understanding of the game: build designate prayers update bye info sector-types weather census innards spy commands map telegram country move time Empire Command Summary This list contains one-line descriptions of each Empire command; further information on a particular command may be obtained by running info on that command (e.g. "info attack"). General Bye Log out of Empire Census Report contents of sectors Commands Brief list of commands Country List last access, BTUs, status and name for each country Deliver Establish delivery routes for shells, ore, etc Declare Formally declare alliance, neutrality or war Designate Specify sector utilization Dissolve Dissolve your government and country (suicide) Execute Take commands from the specified file Forecast Predict future weather conditions Headlines Summarize the weeks events (part of "news") Info Provide information on various topics List Brief command list Map Generate a map showing sector types, seas, etc Move Transport ore, civilians, guns, etc Nation The state of your nation News The yellow press Power Display arbitrarily measured strengths of all countries Read Read your telegrams Realm Print out or modify one of your four "realms" Route Display delivery routes Shell Spawn a shell Update Perform updates in all sectors and set "realm" Weather Produce a weather map Confrontation Attack Attempt to seize a sector from another country Change Change country name, representative's name or user Checkpoint Designate checkpoint code for sector(s) Defend Specify defending artillery fire Enlist Turn civilians into military Fire Fire artillery from sector/ship on sector/ship Fly Fly planes from sector/ship to sector/ship and bomb or snoop Grant Give away sectors to another (adjacent) country Offer Offer a treaty to another country Spy Snoop on adjacent enemy sectors Telegram Send "diplomatic" communique to another country Treaty Listing of all current and pending treaties Vote Accept, reject or postpone consideration of offered treaty Naval Assault Attack coastal sector from ship Board Board enemy ship Build Build ships or bridges in specified sectors Create Designate members of a "fleet" Load Load goods, people, etc onto a ship Lookout Check from ship/sect for other ships and/or sector types Mine Drop mines from destroyer Navigate Move ship or fleet around Radar Perform radar scan from ship or sector Ship Report status of ship, fleet or ships in a given area Tend Supply ships with guns and/or shells Torpedo Slip a torpedo to some poor sucker (from a sub) Unload Inverse of load (above) Finance Accept Accept, reject or defer consideration of a loan Collect Foreclose an overdue loan Contract Arrange to sell production (automatically) to country #0 Ledger Report on outstanding loans Lend Offer a loan Repay Repay a loan (all or part) Set Establish price for an item in an exchange sector or a ship Trade Generate a report on items for sale and perhaps buy some Concept : COMMAND SYNTAX The Empire command interpreter, (shell), expects input in the form: [##:##] Command: VERB ARG1 ARG2 ... VERB is any one of the command words in "command list", ("map", "move", "info", etc). The ARGs will vary from command to command, but certain basic argument types recur often and are abbreviated in the following ways. (cname) ::= country name (cno) ::= country number (item) ::= any one (or unambiguous abbreviation) of: efficiency minerals gold (mineral) mobility production checkpoint defended contracted civilians military shells guns planes ore bars (of gold) (loan) ::= loan number (sect) ::= sector coordinates in the form: x,y (sects) ::= sector(s) in the form: lox:hix,loy:hiy ?cond&cond&... "lox", "hix", "loy", "hiy" are coordinates bounding the rectangular area to be considered "cond" is a condition of the form: (value)(operator)(value) (value) is either an (item), as above, a number in the range 0 to 127, or a sector designation, ("m" for mine, "c" for capital, etc), (operator) can be any one of "<", "=", ">" or "#", Thus "mob>100", "ore#0", "7=guns", "civciv" will list all highways within 3 of your capital with exactly 5 guns and more military than civilians. Note that "hix", "hiy", and "?cond" are all optional. Also, the entire "lox:hix,loy:hiy" section may be replaced by either "#", "#0", "#1", "#2", or "#3" which refer to the four "realm"s that you can define. (See "info realm".) Note that "#" and "#0" are equivalent. (ship) ::= one ship number (fleet) ::= fleet designation, which may be a single ship, a list of ships separated by slashes, `/', a fleet letter, the character `~' which means all ships not in a specific fleet, or a rectangular sector area. Note that (fleet) specifications may have an optional ?cond&cond... argument like that used for (sects) arguments. In the case of ships either "civ" or "mil" may be used for the "crew" of a ship and "designation" is used for ship type. For instance, "ship ~ ?des=d&mil>5", will list all destroyers not currently in any fleet with more than 5 crew. The output from commands may also be sent to a file or another process by utilizing these alternate syntaxes: [##:##] Command: VERB ARG1 ARG2 ... >FILE which sends the output to the file "FILE". [##:##] Command: VERB ARG1 ARG2 ... >>FILE which appends the output to the file "FILE". [##:##] Command: VERB ARG1 ARG2 ... | which sends the output to the program "PROG" along with the specified arguments, (which can also include redirection of output or further piping). To get the output to go to both the terminal and a file use: [##:##] Command: VERB ARG1 ARG2 ... | The Empire shell also recognizes a few control characters: name code meaning ---- ---- ------- interrupt Abort command and return to Empire command level quit ^\ Exit Empire EOT ^D Exit Empire See also: realm, command Concept : TIME Because of the unique nature of Empire governments (i.e. the decision makers spend most of their time on vacation) and the fact that ideally the Empire "environment" will mirror the "real" world, various heuristics dealing with time have been implemented. The first is the Bureaucratic Time Unit (BTU) concept which keeps track of the potential for doing "work" posessed by your government. The second heuristic (i.e. hack) is the Elapsed Time Limit which limits the amount of time that players may be logged on each day. The ETL is not cumulative and is reset to a value X (defined when the game is built and installed), typically somewhere between 30 minutes and two hours, every night at midnight. The ETL and BTU counts are displayed with each command prompt as follows: [##:##] Command: See also : overview, innards Empire Sector Designations Basics . sea ^ mountain s sanctuary - wilderness c capital u urban area Industries d defense plant i shell ind. m mine g gold mine h harbor w warehouse * airfield a agribusiness (farm) Military / Scientific t technical center f fortress r research lab Communications + highway ) radar station ! weather station # bridge head = bridge span Financial b bank x exchange -sea- Sea sectors form natural barriers that can only be crossed by ships (made in harbors, below). You can not designate anything else to be sea nor sea to be anything else. -mountain- Mountain sectors form another natural barrier that cannot be redesignated; however, they can be moved through (at great expense in terms of mobility units). -sanctuary- Sanctuary sectors are created when a new nation is created. They are inviolate in that no one can fire at them or attack them. This protection ends when the new country first moves out of the sanctuary (called "breaking sanctuary"); the sector then becomes a capital. -wilderness- Most of the world is wilderness at the beginning of the game. Wilderness has no particular attributes; you can move into it if unoccupied, thereby making it your territory, but will probably want to designate it as something else once you own it. -capital- Capitals are the source of bureaucratic time units (B.T.U.s) they accrue in proportion to the efficiency of the capital and the number of civilians at work in it. If a country has a 100% efficient capital with 100 civilians in it B.T.U.s will accrue at the rate of 4 per hour. Most commands use up B.T.U.s, (see "list of commands" for numbers of B.T.U.s used per command). A nation may only have one active capital at a time (although many sectors may be designated as capitals). The last sector designated as a capital is the currently active one. If an active capital is captured by an attack a new one must be designated by the victim. Capitals are twice as efficient at defending against attack as other sectors (except fortresses). -urban area- Urban areas are cities. People move into and out of cities in groups of 10 (families). An urban sector can hold up to 1270 civilians but only 127 military. The urban area consumes ore in providing essential services for the city-dwellers leaving them more time to "fool around" therefore the birth rate in cities is particularly high. However, if no ore is supplied to an urban area the lack of essential services allows the death rate to be as high as the birth rate. -defense plant- In these sectors ore is turned into guns, going through the intermediate form of "production units". It takes 10 units of ore and 5 hours in a 100% efficient defense plant with 100 civilians working in it to produce 10 units of production ( or 10 hours for 50 civil, etc). It takes 10 units of production to make a gun. The rate at which ore is converted to production is dependent on the efficiency of the sector, the number of civilians in the sector and the presence of ore. Only 127 production units can be kept in any one sector so if there is ore and 127 production units already in a "d" sector the production of guns ceases until the production units are converted into guns (see info "innards") and the message "production bottleneck in x,y" is printed. -shell industry- These sectors are similar to defense plant sectors except they turn ore into production into shells. It takes 2 units of production to produce one shell and the maximum number of shells that can be kept in one sector is 127; in case of overflow, production stops and "production bottleneck in x,y" is printed. One shell is used each time you fire, (except for submarines which use three shells to make one torpedo). -mine- Ore comes from mines. The rate at which it is produced is dependent on three factors; the efficiency of the mine, the number of civilians working in the mine, and the mineral sample for the sector ("min" on the census report). Mines start producing ore at about 60% effic, assuming a reasonably high mineral sample and 80-100 civilians. -gold mine- Gold mines are similar to ordinary mines, (above), except that they dig up gold ore and include a smelter to refine the ore to gold bars. The raw ore can not be transported to any sector other than gold mines as in the case of ordinary minerals. Gold ore is a non-renewable resource; a gold mine with a 70% gold sample can only yield 140 units of gold ore after which it will have a 0% gold sample. One half unit of gold mineral converts to one unit of ore which converts to one unit of production which converts to 1/5 of a gold bar (see info "innards" for further specifics). -harbor- Harbors combine shipyard facilities and docks. Ore is turned into production in harbors to build ships and the ships can be loaded and unloaded in the harbor. The rate at which production units are generated depends on efficiency and civilian workforce as in other industries. Ships are built using the "build" command, (see "info build"). Ships vary in their "production cost"; p.t. boats require 30 production units whereas battleships require 127 (see info "ship-types" for further info). -warehouse- Warehouses are used to store shells, guns, and ore. These items are stored in lots of ten (containerized) so that they may be moved more cheaply (costing 1/10 as many mobility units). Note that moving 19 shells into a warehouse will only result in a lot of ten being stored, with the other 9 being returned to the originating sector. -airfield- Airfields are where planes are built (ore becomes production, becomes planes). Airfields are also particularly good for landing and taking off, and as a matter of fact it is virtually impossible to take off from any other sector, although you can often land in other sectors. -agribusiness- These sectors are large farms and provide food. Food is currently not implemented. -technology center- These sectors are actually universities with massive defense department grants. They turn ore into production units into technological advances thereby raising the technology level of the country (which affects gun ranges and pollution). -fortress- Fortress sectors have many special characteristics; you can fire guns from fortresses, whenever an attack is launched from a fort or on a fort the military in the fort are stronger than military in any other type of sector by an amount proportional to the efficiency of the fort. e.g. 100 military in a wilderness attacking a 100% efficient fort that has 25 military gives even odds. -research lab- The research lab is a bastion of "pure" medical research which is to say it is a large university with massive March-of-Dimes funding. The research lab turns ore into production units into medical discoveries which raise the research level of the country and help retard the spread of disease, (usually caused by the pollution from technical centers). -highway- Whenever you move civilians, ore, gold, etc, mobility units ("mu" on the census) are consumed dependent on how far and how much you move. If the movement is over 100% efficient highway however it costs nothing to move. In addition, highway sectors are useful for international trade in that any nation may move onto and/or from highway sectors owned by any other nation unless the sector has been checkpointed (see "info checkpoint"). -radar- Radar stations can scan the surrounding area (up to 6 units away for 100% efficiency) and generate a radar plot identifying sector types at distances up to 1/3 their range and ships up to their full range. -weather station- Weather stations are used to forecast the weather conditions at any particular spot or spots for a given time in the future. The area for which they can predict is governed by their efficiency and the length of time in the future that they can foresee is dependent on the size of their civilian staff. -bridge head- Bridge heads are the land based ends of bridges. They, like harbors, turn ore into units of production which are then used to build bridge spans. -bridge span- A bridge span is the suspended part of a bridge that crosses water sectors. They are built and supported by bridge heads and are much like highways except for two things: (1) Bridge spans can't even provide the minimal amount of food that any other land sector provides, therefore civilians or military left on bridges for long periods of time will slowly die off, (negative population growth). (2) Bridge spans must maintain at least 20% efficiency or else they collapse. -bank- Banks are of the fort knox variety; they are more impervious to shelling than any other sector and military in them fight twice as hard against attack as those in industries. Banks are also particularly adept at moving gold bars around; bars are moved and stored in groups of four and half as many mobility units are required to move a gold bar out of a bank as anywhere else. -exchange- Exchanges are the trading posts of empire, they are used to put commodities up for sale and to buy those being sold by other countries, (see "info trade"). See also : designate Empire Ship Types At present there are 8 different ship types: pt boat submarine battleship destroyer freighter minesweep tender carrier These ship types differ in their fundamental capabilities; some can carry (and fire) two guns, the sizes of the guns differ on all of them; freighters can carry 127 guns but can't fire them; etc. The following table contains all these parameters: cost sp vis rng civ mil sh gun plns ore gold vrng pt 30 50 6 1 - 10 10 1 - - - 4 sub 70 25 1 2 - 25 25 2 - - - 3 bat 127 25 25 8 - 127 127 4 - - - 6 des 60 35 15 3 - 80 40 2 - - - 4 fre 80 20 20 - 127 - 127 127 - 127 127 3 min 50 20 20 1 - 25 10 1 - - - 3 ten 100 30 20 1 - 100 127 30 - - - 3 car 127 25 25 2 - 60 40 2 127 - - 4 where: cost is the number of production units required to build it sp is the distance/mu for moving in relative units vis is how visible the ship is rng is twice the distance the guns can fire (assuming a very high technology level) civ, mil, sh, gun, ore & gold are the amounts of civilians, military, shells, guns, ore & gold the ships can carry vrng is how far the ship can see (i.e. how good the communication equipment is) again in relative units Concept : RESEARCH The research level of an Empire country is determined by the output of research sectors in the following way. Whenever a research sector is updated and there are 25 or more units of production they are turned into "medical discoveries"; for each 25 units of production the research level of the country is raised by 1. The researchhow far the ship can see (i.e. how good the communication equipment is) again in relative units Concept : RESEARCH The research level of an Empire country is determined by the output of research sectors in t- [text from this point until next clear text below was garbled] ith time, (the technology becomes passe) at a rate of 1% per day (48 time units). Therefore if a country has 5 technology centers each of which is able to produce 40 units of production a day the total daily production of technological breakthroughs will be 200 / 25 ( = 8) and the technology level of the country will approach 800, where the 1% daily loss exactly equals the daily gain of 8. The technological level affects the range that guns can fire, the range over which radar is effective, the range that planes can fly and the range that torpedoes can travel. The "nation" command will display, among other things, your current technology level. See also : innards research nation Concept : PLAGUE Plague is used in Empire to symbolize all forms of communicable disease and is the only health hazard associated with the Empire game. The characteristics of plague are, therefore, an unavoidable compromise of disease features (or "bugs"). The Empire Plague takes between 96 and 189 time periods to run its course in a particular sector (i.e. 2 to 3.9 days) and in so doing goes through three stages: Stage I -- The gestatory phase in which no symptoms appear. Stage II -- The infectious phase in which the symptoms first appear; blue and orange blotches on the face and hands, sometimes accompanied by grey stripes on the genitalia, itching of the heart and liver, an uncontrollable fear of ripe tomatoes, etc. During this phase the plague is extremely communicable, a simple delivery of ore from an infectious sector is certain to infect the destination sector. Stage II -- The terminal phase in which almost everybody dies, usually in the act of fleeing from real or imagined tomatoes. All three phases are of roughly equal duration (about 48 time periods or 1 day). Plague usually arises in countries with high technological development and comparatively little medical research and specifically in sectors with high population and low efficiency. Dr. M. Welby in his pioneering work "Demographic considerations and the Empire Plague" wrote: It appeared that our original hypothesis based on the high percentage of Lumbagan Legionnaires among the afflicted had led us down a blind alley and that if we were to solve this complex puzzle before the end of the series in the spring [probably a reference to the series of tests leading to the mysterious Neilson Rating] we would have to turn to other disciplines for help. It was only by the merest lucky coincidence that as I drove home one evening ... [here he relates an amusing anecdote about a Girl Scout and a film director] ... leading us to the following amazing formulation of the relationship between medical research, technology, population, standard of living and the Empire Plague. likelihood (civ + mil) (t_level + ore + 100) of = ----------- * ------------------------------- plague 254 (r_level + effic + mobil + 100) Later formulations of this relationship show great similarity to his statement (see info "innards"). Fortunately the plague is not infectious during the gestatory stage so that the most effective method for curing plague has been to isolate it by emptying adjoining sectors during the gestation period. See also : innards sector-types technology research Concept : INNARDS Sector Updates Several characteristics of the empire game are dependent on sector updates -- mobility, efficiency, mining of ore, generation of production units, etc. An understanding of the calculations involved is often necessary in planning the timing of various actions. This info topic is included to help explain how this (complex) task is carried out, and although it is unlikely that it is strictly up to date, it should provide a feel for the overall philosophy. All commodities in a sector are kept as integers, some as 16 bits but most in 8 bits (i.e. values range from -128 to 127). Because of this an update that gives a population growth of .9 civilians becomes a growth of 0. On the other hand, an update that produces 150 units of ore in a sector can at most add 127 units of ore. Here is an approximate description of the algorithm that is called whenever a sector is accessed: Variables used are: curup = the present time (in half hours) lstup = the time of the last update for the sector dt = curup - lstup, elapsed time since last update civ, mil = civilians & military for the sector desig, effic = designation & efficiency for the sector miner, gmin = regular & gold mineral content of the sector t_level, r_level = technology & research level of the country p_stage, p_time = plague stage & plague stage duration workforce = an intermediate variable that represents work potential iwork = the amount of work done in the sector If lstup == 0 (i.e. never been updated) go away and don't update anything workforce = (civ + mil / 5) / 100 If workforce = 0 go away and don't update anything dt = curup - lstup If dt > 256 then set it to 256 iwork = dt * workforce If t < 1 and we weren't told to ignore time, go away and don't update anything A few other strange considerations enter here, e.g. if the sector does not belong to the current player and iwork is less than 48 then don't update, etc Check the weather, if it's bad enough do some damage to the sector If the weather is good enough for construction then effic becomes effic + t (if possible) and costs $1 for each percentage point gained. Set q equal to dt * civ If desig is urban then set q = min(127, civ + min(q/100, ore)) - civ set civ = civ + 10 * q set ore = ore - q Else if desig is bridge span set civ = civ - q / 400 Else If civ > 31 and civ < 97 set civ = min(127, civ + q / 200) Else set civ = min(127, civ + q / 400) Add dt to mobil (to a max of 127) Add dt to lstup Pay for military supplies and amount equal to ((mil / 32) * dt) / 8 dollars Check for plague conditions: If p_stage = "third" kill off a bunch of people, alert the owner and the news and decrement p_time by dt. If p_time <= 0 set p_stage = zero (the plague has burned itself out). If p_stage = "second" report to the owner and the news and decrement p_time by dt. If p_time <= 0 set p_stage = "third" and randomly reset p_time in the range of 32 to 64. If p_stage = "first" decrement p_time by dt. If p_time <= 0 set p_stage = "second" and randomly reset p_time in the range of 32 to 64. If p_stage = zero and a random number in the range 0-99 is less than the following figure: (civ + mil) (t_level + ore + 100) ----------- * ------------------------------- 254 (r_level + effic + mobil + 100) then set p_stage = "first" and set p_time to a random number of half hours between 32 and 64. If anything is being delivered from this sector and there is more of it than the delivery threshold deliver as much of the excess as mobility allows. If plague_stage is "second" (the infectious stage) set plague_stage and plague_time in the delivered sector. If effic is less than 60 or the current player is broke skip the rest. If desig is bank then accrue dt * $.125 interest per gold bar If desig is capital, radar, or wethr pay dt * $1 for utilities If desig is technology or research then pay dt * $1 for utilities, convert units of production into tecnological or medical advances, and then turn up to effic * iwork / 100 units of ore into production units If desig is defense plant, shell industry or airport then convert units of production into guns, shells or planes then turn up to effic * iwork / 100 units of ore into production units If production is being sold (contract) collect money for it If desig is harbor or bridge head then turn up to effic * iwork / 100 units of ore into production units If production is being sold (contract) collect money for it If desig is goldmine then turn production units into gold bars, turn up to effic * iwork / 100 units of ore into production units If production is being sold (contract) collect money for it Dig up gmin * iwork / 100 units of ore decrement gmin by gmin * iwork / 200 If desig is mine then dig up miner * effic * iwork / 10000 units of ore If ore is being sold (contract) collect money for it Note that the work done in a sector (ore dug up, efficiency growth, population growth, production units generated, etc) is dependent on the product of time since last update and work force (iwork above) while the accumulation of mobility is independent of work force. Concept : INNARDS Also note that civilian populations between 32 and 96 grow at twice the rate of those lower or higher. Finally, note that if the population of a sector is very low it may take a long time before t is greater than 1 so the sector may not be updated for quite a while. Ship Updates Ships are also updated only when accessed however the mechanism is much simpler. The only characteristics that are changed by ship updates are the mobility units and the efficiency (if less than 100%). The algorithm here is: t = curup - lstup if t < 3 don't update anything add t to mobility (with a maximum of 127) add t to efficiency (with a maximum of 100) Note that since an Empire Time Unit is half an hour, ships will only be updated every one and a half hours. Bureaucratic Time Units There is one further update that is not handled in the sector update routine; that is the update of bureaucratic time units (B.T.U.). These are the numbers printed in brackets before the command prompt. Most commands given use B.T.U.s, some use 1/2, some use 1 and some use more, making B.T.U.s a vital commodity. The generation of B.T.U.s is dependent on the efficiency and the work force in the capital sector. Note that no capital implies no B.T.U.s. The relationship governing the accumulation of B.T.U.s is: B.T.U. = B.T.U. + (curup-lstup) * civil * effic / 50 Therefore, a 100% capital with 100 civilians gains 96 B.T.U. a day, while a 30% capital with 38 civilians only gains 11 (10.94) B.T.U. a day. Command : ACCEPT The accept command allows you to sign or decline a loan offered by another country. If you accept the money is immediately credited to your account. Warning : The terms of the loan are printed out... take note of the due date; if you do not pay by then the interest will double and you are subject to "collection". To accept (or decline) a loan type: [##:##] Command: accept (loan) where (loan) is the loan number. The command will list the conditions of the loan then ask "accept/decline/postpone". The meaning is obvious. Loan offers are withdrawn if not accepted within a number of days equal to the proposed loan's duration. See also: Financial [status], Ledger, Lend, Collect Command : ASSAULT The assault command allows your marines to "hit the beaches". To run this command type: [##:##] Command: assault 32,54 if sector 32,54 is to be assaulted. The program will ask which ship is doing the assaulting and how many brave troops to disembark... These suckers face the problem of reaching the beach, i.e. they are less effective than any land troops they encounter. Both capitals and forts fight twice as hard as other sectors against sea assaults. See also: Attack, Board Command : ATTACK The attack command is used to conquer sectors owned by other countries. It should not be used to take over unoccupied sectors ("move" can do that). To attack a sector type: [##:##] Command: attack 12,-7 This will initiate the attack sequence against sector 12,-7 (note: you may only attack one sector at a time). You will be informed of the sector's status, e.g. Sector 34,45 is a 15% fortress with 40 military or so. At this point you will be asked how many military you wish to dedicate from each sector of yours that adjoins the victim's sector; (thus you could attack with up to 508 military). Troops from each type of sector normally fight with equal stamina, however troops in fortresses fight especially hard, as do troops defending a capital. Defending forts at 100% efficiency give their troops a 4-to-1 advantage over ordinary troops and 100% efficient capitals give their troops a 2-to-1 advantage over ordinary attacking troops. Attacking forts give a 2-to-1 advantage over other types. Of course this effect is degraded by lower efficiency. Before considering an attack one should weigh the possibilities of that sector being defended by a gun! (see "info defend") It need not be a fort; however attacking forts can be doubly deadly; for if the fort has a gun and is defended by another fort, both will fire at your troops with devastating effect. In your favor is the fact that the defending gun can only be fired from a fort and that fort must be within range of you. The next big question - cost?? Attacking costs you in three ways: B.T.U. cost (the cost of flying desks) = # of total troops killed * .15 Mobility cost (for gasoline & k-rations) depends on terrain: Mobility Cost (Per Military) in Attacks type of sector being attacked attacking from (+) (?) (-) (^) (+) Highway .125 .208 .291 21.3 (?) others .167 .250 .333 21.3 (-) Wasteland .208 .291 .375 21.4 (^) Mountain 10.7 10.8 10.9 31.9 and finally Ill-will cost (distrust from peaceniks) = ??? The battle will rage until someone is wiped out (the victim fights with all of his troops). Each time a soldier is killed a character is typed; "!" if a defending soldier, "@" if an attacking one and "*" if an entire attacking sector is lost. If you lose, tough! However, if you win, your attacking forces that survive will move into the victim's sector. When planning an attack remember that overwhelming forces greatly increases your odds; i.e. attacking 10 men with 40 will result in your losing fewer troops than if you had attacked with 20. A few notes: The deity (country 0) is pacifistic and unlikely to help attackers (except in response to a large offering on sunday). Finally, before initiating an attack you should consider whether the real answer to your problem might be diplomacy, (you heavy- handed clod!) See also: Assault, Prayers, Telegram, Move, Fire, Defend Command : BOARD The board command enables two ships' crews to engage in hand-to- hand combat. To board a ship type [##:##] Command: board (ship) where (ship) is the ship number you wish to attack. The program will ask from which ship you wish to board. You may only board from one ship at a time... One more problem --- you can not board a freighter while it is in a fleet and protected by gunships... Take note that the boarders are at a disadvantage while swinging across to the other ship. Weather can prevent boarding when the sea is too rough... Command : BUILD The build command is used to specify the types of ships to be built in your harbors and the directions in which bridge spans are to be built from bridge head sectors. Its general form is: [##:##] Command: build (sects) Given sufficient labor force, time and ore each harbor or bridge head will accumulate up to 127 production units which can be used to build ships or bridge spans. HARBOR EXAMPLES If you type: [##:##] Command: build -4:2,3:16 ?des=h You build in any harbor sectors within the -4:2,3:16 area. The program responds: 37 production units in harbor at -3,14 kind of ship? You now have your choice as to what kind of ship to build assuming you have sufficient production units and money. Your choices are : Ship type Production Money pt boat 30 270 minesweeper 50 450 destroyer 60 540 submarine 70 630 freighter 80 720 tender 100 900 battleship 127 1016 carrier 127 1016 Only the first letter is required to indicate your choice. If the optional argument is used the program will try to build the specified ship type in all harbors in the given area and will not ask you to specify ship type for each harbor. Note that ships first appear at 50% efficiency. As time passes they grow to 100% efficiency. BRIDGE HEAD EXAMPLES If you type [##:##] Command: build 2,2 and 2,2 is a bridge head, (#), the program will respond: Bridge head at 2,2; build span in what direction? (udlr) d Bridge span built over 2,3 Note that bridge spans require 127 production units in the bridge head and cost about $2000 each to build. If the optional argument is used the program will try to build a span in the specified direction from all bridge heads in the given area that have the necessary 127 production units. Command : BYE The bye command is how you go bye-bye. The general form is: [##:##] Command: bye This command costs zero BTUs. Use it often. If, for some obscure reason, you would like to end an Empire session but prefer not to use the "bye" command you may achieve the same result by typing either the quit character, (^\), or the EOT character, (^D). See also: shell Command : CENSUS The census command allows you to see specific information on some or all of the sectors you occupy. The general form of the command is: [##:##] Command: census (sects) where (sects) is the area on which you wish information (see "info syntax"). A typical usage might be: [##:##] Command: census -3:3,-3:3 which would list data for the area extending three sectors out from the capital in each direction; or [##:##] Command: census 0:9,0:9 ?des=m which would list data for mines to the south-east of the capital. A census lists each of your sectors in that area followed by: cmsgpob des eff min gold mob civ mil sh gun pl ore bar prod These abbreviations are: * indicates a checkpointed sector (see "info checkpoint") cmsgpob Seven delivery columns corresponding to: civilians, military, shells, guns, planes, ore, and bars of gold. $ indicates a sector whose produce is being sold to The Deity (see "info contract") 0-7 indicate delivery to an adjacent sector: 0 is for north, 1 is for north-east, 2 for east, 3 for south-east, etc. % indicates a sector that is being defended (see "info defend") des the sector designation, (see "info sector-types") eff the efficiency of the sector (affects all benefits of a designated sector except mobility units) min the percentage richness of non-gold minerals (not used up, i.e. a renewable resource) gold the amount of gold ore (in absolute tons, i.e. non- renewable) mob the number of mobility units, (see "move") civ the number of civilians mil the number of military troops sh the number of shells in storage gun the number of guns in storage pl the number of planes present ore the number of units of ore bar the number of gold bars prod the number of production units, (an intermediate commodity between ore and products, usually ignored except in harbors and bridge heads; see "info build"). Command : CENSUS Final example: [##:##] Command: cens -9:9,-9:9 ?des=f&mil<25&mob>20 will list all forts in the surrounding area that have fewer than 25 military and more than 20 mobility units. Command : CHANGE COUNTRY NAME, REPRESENTATIVE NAME or USER This simple command enables you to rename your country or your representative or to change the computer account ("user") associated with your country. You will first be asked for your current (not new!) representative's name (just to make sure you are legit). [##:##] Command: change country name I.D. check: Your name? (here you type 'goofball' or whatever) New name -- Mountainia This will change the name of your country to "Mountainia". Similarly, to change your representative's name: [##:##] Command: change representative I.D. check: Your name? (goofball again) New name -- quasimodo Your representative's name will now be "quasimodo", (note that although the name you typed for "I.D. check" didn't print out, the new name you typed did print out, in case of a typing error. As a consequence, you won't want to do this while your arch-enemy is watching.) [##:##] Command: change user I.D. check: Your name? (quasimodo) Currently only kissinger can use this country. You may reset it to only you (kissinger) or to anyone. Which? (answer "me" or "any") any This will allow anyone who knows your representative's name to log in in to your country. This would be handy if several people were running one country as a "team" (polite word for "committee"). Similarly, to reestablish the check on user identity: [##:##] Command: change user I.D. check: Your name? (quasimodo) Currently anyone can use this country. You may reset it to only you (kissinger) or to anyone. Which? (answer "me" or "any") me This will disallow anyone but you to log in to mountainia. The switch to "any" and then back to "me" could also be used to transfer control of a country from one user to another. See also : country-roster Command : CHECKPOINT The checkpoint command allows you to grant access privileges to another country. Anyone knowing the checkpoint code can pass thru the sector and/or remove anything residing in the sector. To run this command type: [##:##] Command: checkpoint 0:3,-2:4 The program will ask for your representative name to prevent others from changing your codes. It will then request the code for each sector. The code can be any number between -128 and 127 (inclusive) but if it is 0 the checkpoint is removed... Census will indicate checkpoints with a * in the "code" column. Note that whereas most sectors are closed to general access unless they are checkpointed (and then open only to people who know the code), highway sectors are normally open to access from everyone (i.e. anyone can move people in and, more importantly, out) unless they are checkpointed. See also : census, move Command : COLLECT The collect command is the loan-shark's delight! Through the collect command overdue loans can be "cleared up". If you should find that you have a problem debtor who refuses to pay up on your kind loan you can always seize one or more of his/her sectors. Perhaps the mere threat of a collection on someone's capital may do the trick! To settle up accounts on overdue loan #9 you would type: [##:##] Command: collect 9 The program would then ask which sector you would like to claim as just and rightful compensation for the outstanding debt. What sector do you wish to confiscate? To which you reply with the coordinates of a sector owned by your debtor to which you are adjacent. The program then paws over the sector and assesses its value: That sector (and its contents) is valued at $2345.00 If the amount you are owed exceeds this amount the sector becomes yours! If the value of the sector is close to the amount you are owed the debt is considered to be repaid. See also : Lend, Ledger, Accept Command : CONTRACT The contract command allows you to sell the output of a particular industry directly to the outside world (via The Deity, country 0). For instance, to sell the production units generated in a shell industry located at -3,3 type: [##:##] Command: contract -3,3 and the program will reply with something like: The Deity offers $3.15 per unit of production in -3,3 do you accept? At which point you can take it or leave it (answer "yes" or "no"). If you already have a contract for the given sector a "yes" answer will reset the sale price to the current offer (the prices offered vary slightly with time) and a "no" answer will end the contract. The presence of a contracted sale in a sector is indicated by a dollar sign, ("$") in the census. See also : census Command : COUNTRY-ROSTER The country roster command allows you to determine the number, names and various other information about countries currently in the game. The general form is: [##:##] Command: country The country roster will also contain the time that each country last logged out of the game (or the terminal they are on if currently logged in), the number of Bureaucratic Time Units (B.T.U.s) remaining and each nation's status. For example: [123] Command : country Wed Feb 2 18:06:51 1984 # last access time slots status country name 0 Tue Feb 1 18:14 [127] 0 0 DEITY GOD HIMSELF 1 [127] 15 20 Active Amerika 2 Fri Jan 28 18:15 [73] 12 18 Active Bongo - Bongo 3 Tue Feb 1 18:40 [81] 16 19 Active California 4 Mon Jan 31 21:04 [54] 16 21 Active Dog Dish 5 Fri Jan 28 20:00 [106] 17 20 Active East Eden 6 Tue Feb 1 12:15 [0] 16 18 Active Frodo 7 Wed Feb 2 15:51 [127] 16 22 Active Greenland See Also : power Command : DECLARE The declare command allows you to make official your diplomatic relations with other countries. The general form is: [##:##] Command: declare (position) (cno/cname) Position may be "alliance", "neutrality", or "war"; (cno/cname) is either the name or number of the other country in question. Your official realtions with other countries affect various aspects of the game; for instance, if a country with whom you are at war spies on one of your sectors and you catch the spy he/she will be shot, if however, you had been neutral to the spy's country she/he would merely have been deported. (If the spy was from an allied country he/she would never be caught in the first place.) See also : nation, spy Command : DEFEND The defend command allows forts to defend other sectors from attack. The defending fort will fire upon any attacking forces. To run type: [##:##] Command: defend (sects) The program will ask from which fort this area is to be defended, (note that forts can only protect as far as they can fire). The census report indicates sectors that are being defended with a percent sign ("%"). If you wish to find out which fort(s) are defending a particular area use the following form of the defend command: [##:##] Command: defend (sects) % The presence of the percent sign ("%") causes the program to run an I.D. check on you and then display the protecting fort location for each sector in the area given. See also : census Command : DELIVER The deliver command is used to specify to which sector the various commodities in a sector will be delivered at each update. The general form is: [##:##] Command: deliver (item) (sects) where (sects) is the sector or sectors from which the deliveries are made, (item) is one of the following: c civilians m military s shells g guns p planes (believe it or not) o ore (not gold ore, though) b bars of gold and can be one of three optional arguments. A numeric argument in parentheses, "(thresh)", specifies a minimum amount to be left in each delivering sector. For example, "(64)" specifies that only the amount in excess of 64 can be delivered. This is particularly handy in cases where you wish to maintain some stock in a given sector but pass along any extra to an adjoining sector. A numeric argument preceded by a plus sign, "+thresh", specifies that all thresholds in the specified area should be set to the thresh value and no delivery destinations should be changed. A thresh argument of "-" requests a list of deliveries and thresholds for all sectors in the specified area and changes nothing. This is the only way to examine the delivery thresholds. Except in the "+thresh" and "-" cases described above, the program asks the destination for each sector's delivery of the designated item. The destination must be specified as the x,y of one of the eight surrounding sectors or just a carriege return, (in which case the delivery will not be changed in that sector). You may also specify a threshold at this time which will override any threshold specified by the command arguments by following the destination with a number in parentheses. The census report will indicate deliveries by the numbers 0 - 7 in the "codes" column. 0 indicates a delivery to the north, 1 to the northeast, 2 to the east, etc. If, when accessing the sector has caused an update to be performed, and the destination sector is not owned by you the message "delivery walkout between x,y & x,y" will be printed and none will be delivered UNLESS the destination sector is checkpointed in which case delivery will proceed normally. This facilitates exchange of goods between adjoining countries. Delivery routes may also be mapped out with the "route" command. See also : census, route, innards, syntax Command : DESIGNATE In Empire all sectors (land) have a "designation". The "designation" represents the principal industry or activity taking place in that area. When a sector is designated a harbor, for example, the civilians in the sector start building shipyards and docks (with a little help from any military present). At first the sector's efficiency will drop to 0%, indicating that no harbor facilities are available. As work progresses the efficiency will climb toward a maximum of 100%. The general form of the designate command is: [##:##] Command: designate (sects) The program will ask for each sector specified what you want the new sector designation to be. However, if you wish to designate one or several sectors to be one particular thing and don't want to be asked on them you can type: [##:##] Command: designate (sects) designation For example: [##:##] Command: designate -3:3,-3:3 ?des=- + This will designate all wildernesses (that you own) within three sectors of your capital to be roads. One special note on designating capitals. You can have more than one sector designated as a capital, however the most recently designated one is your 'real' capital. It is this capital that is used for the computation of your B.T.U.'s and for that reason it is also the one your enemy will try to capture during a war. See also : sector-types Command : DISSOLVE The dissolve command is the coward's way out of Empire. It does several things: it gives all your sectors back to The Deity, pays off any debts that it can, voids any treaties in which you were involved, and allows your ships to decide their own fate. Some ships riot, some go up for sale, and some are scuttled. Using the dissolve command is simplicity itself: [##:##] Command: dissolve You will be asked your name (to make sure you have the authority to do it) and then it's curtains... See also : Prayers Command : ENLIST The enlist command invokes a draft in the sectors given. To run this command type: [##:##] Command: enlist (sects) The command will ask you how many troops you wish to call up. It will then list each sector where troops answer the call and the number who showed up. Note that only 50% of the civilians in a sector can be called upon at any one time and that no one in an urban area is willing to be drafted. In addition the military become unix irreversibly (no population growth) and lazy workers. Command : EXECUTE The execute command lets you run command files in empire. Its general form is: [##:##] Command: execute file where "file" is the name of the file containing (empire) commands. For instance, if you had a file called "empdaily" which looked like: update >grunch news >>grunch map # >>grunch census # >>grunch ship >>grunch and then you logged in to Empire and said: [##:##] Command: execute empdaily the program would perform an update, read the news, make a map, output a census, list the status of each of your ships into the file "grunch" and then prompt you for further commands. Beware however, if your file says "bye" you will be logged off! Command : FIRE The fire command is used to shoot up land sectors or ships. The general form for shooting at land is: [##:##] Command: fire (sect) Where (sect) is the sector AT which you are shooting, (NOT the sector FROM which you are shooting). The general form for firing at ships is: [##:##] Command: fire (ship) Again, (ship) is the victim ship number. The program will then ask for the sector or ship FROM which you are firing. The only sector that may fire is a fortress which must have at least 5 military for a firing crew, at least 1 shell to fire, and a gun big enough to reach the victim location; range is equal to the "number" of guns (with a maximum of 7) times the technology factor (which has a maximum of 1. see "info technology"). Any ship other than a freighter may fire as long as it has at least one gun, at least one shell, and has at least 60% efficiency. If the ship can fire more than one gun the program will ask how many you wish to fire. See info "ship-types" for gun ranges. The program then prints a satisfying "Kaboom!!!" and, assuming you were in range, inflicts damage. The damages inflicted vary with efficiency of the attacker, the size of the guns (battleship guns are four times as big as pt boat guns), the number of guns fired, etc. A table of approximate damages looks like: From To Range of dmages land land 11% .. 16% land sea 14% .. 49% pt * land 7% pt * sea 9% .. 28% bat ** land 25% bat ** sea 30% .. 64% * pt here is the example of the wimpiest sea gun while ** bat means a battleship firing four guns at once. An illustrative example of shelling land: [##:##] Command: fir 34,18 Firing on sector 34,18 from 35,18 Kaboom!!! Meanwhile, the owner of sector 35,18 might be logged on and would perhaps see the following: Command : FIRE [##:##] Command: cen 34,18 Sat Jul 30 16:18:01 1984 sect sgpob des eff min gold mob civ mil sh gun pl ore bar prod 34,18 4..10% i 100% 17 23 127 127 107 127 0 0 0 0 101 1 sector You have a telegram waiting ... [##:##] Command: read BULLETIN! dated Sat Jul 30 16:18:26 1984 Country #19 shelled 34,18 Shall I burn it? y [##:##] Command: cen 34,18 Sat Jul 30 16:19:26 1984 sect sgpob des eff min gold mob civ mil sh gun pl ore bar prod 34,18 4..10% i 87% 17 23 110 110 94 111 0 0 0 0 88 1 sector Note that the shell did about 13% damage in the sector. If the sector fired on is a fort with guns and shells it will fire back with approximately the same damages (assuming it has the range). If a ship fired on has guns and shells it will fire back AND any other ships of the same nationality that are in range will also fire on you. See also: attack, assault, torpedo, technology Command : FLEETADD The fleetadd command is used to specify the fleet groupings of your ships. The general form is: [##:##] Command: fleetadd (fleet) (ships/fleet) where (fleet) is the alphabetic character to be used as the fleet designation, upper or lower case a-z and `~'. The pseudo-fleet specification `~' specifies all ships not currently in any fleet. The specification of ships, (ships/fleet), can have one of several syntaxes: ex meaning -- ------- 23 ship 23 2/14/23 ships 2, 14, and 23 c all ships currently in fleet `c' ~ all ships currently in the "null" fleet 2,3 all ships in sector 2,3 -1:3,0:2 all ships in the area bounded by -1 & 3 (EW) and 0 & 2 (NS) All fleets, (with the exception of the `~' fleet), are limited to some maximum size and you will be informed how many ships can be added when this command is run. Having ships organized into fleets can be very helpful in loading, moving, etc. in that fewer commands are required to perform these commands on groups of ships if they can be specified by fleet number. Note that you can remove ships from a fleet by adding them to the `~' fleet. e.g. [##:##] Command: fleetadd ~ A This command would purge all ships from fleet `A'. See also : load, lookout, navigate, radar, ship, unload Command : FLY The "fly" command is the "move" or "navigate" of the air. It represents a complete mission for one or several planes taking off from one place (and perhaps ending up in one place). The general form of the command is: [##:##] Command: fly (sect) or [##:##] Command: fly (ship) Although planes can land on any kind of sector, (with varying degrees of success), they can only take off from airfields and aircraft carriers; thus (sect) must be the x,y of an airfield and (ship) must be the ship number of an aircraft carrier. The program requests information as to number of planes and bombs on the mission and tells you how many of each is available to you, (note that each plane requires 2 military as crew). And then you're in the air. Vital statistics such as fuel, (mobility), are displayed with the prompt: <7.5:6:2:-6,4> which indicates 7.5 fuel units, 6 planes, 2 bombs (each), flying over sector -6,4. The number of fuel units loaded in each plane is the same and is calculated as: fuel_available = sector_mobility * 4; fuel_used = min(fuel_available, 32) (fuel tank size is 32) fuel-units = technology_factor * fuel_used If your planes are carrying no bombs, and the weather is not stormy, they will be able to travel 1 sector, (orthogonally), per fuel unit. If they are carrying bombs the per sector fuel cost rises by 1 for each bomb rack required, (each bomb rack can hold up to three bombs), and by .2 for each bomb, (although this is often only a one-way cost). All the commands take the same amount of fuel except the diagonal motions which take 1.414 times as much. The possible responses to the prompt and their meanings are: u for up d for down \l u /r r for right l for left \|/ \l for up-left l -- -- r /r for up-right /|\ /l for down-left \r for down-right /l d \r b for drop a bomb from each plane v for circle once and take a look down e for land in the current sector or on a ship in this sector The safest place to land is on a 100% efficient carrier or 100% efficient airfield. If the airfield is less than 60% built your chances of a safe landing are proportionately less than 100%. Other sectors are also possible landing sites as in this table: sector efficiency designation| 0% 50% 100% -----------| --- --- ---- airfield 0% 83% 100% road 40% 57% 73% other 50% 30% 10% When flying over land owned by another country great care should be taken to avoid flying over sectors that automatically shoot at you (unless they are checkpointed and you know the code). Fortresses, capitals and airfields all fire on "foreign" aircraft (assuming they have the guns & shells). When this happens to you the flak will appear on your terminal along with the dying groans of your pilots, (kinda makes it hard to sleep at night). Three final words of caution: 1) Always keep an eye on the fuel gauge 2) Be careful where you land. 3) Don't do anything that you shouldn't. Command : FORECAST The forecast command is used to predict the weather around a weather station. It requires one civilian for each hour in the future you wish to peruse. The range of the prediction depends on its efficiency. Thus a 100% weather station can predict up to 7 sectors away. To run this command type: [##:##] Command: forecast (sects) The program will request the location of the weather station and list the location of the high and low at the hour you requested and then one hour later. Thus you can plot the motion of the weather centers.. It will also give you a map of the area as it will appear in that future hour... See also : weather, map, sector-types Command : GRANT The grant command is a means of donating a sector to another country. To run this command type: [##:##] Command: grant 3,-11 The program will request the country number to whom you wish to donate the sector. There are a few restrictions on the use of this command: You can not donate a capital or a sanctuary. You can only offer a sector to an adjacent country, ie. the recipient country must own a sector next to the sector being sacrificed... You must own the sector you are donating. See also : map, spy Command : HEADLINES The headlines command lets you read just the important, summary part of the news without boring you with the confusing details. [##:##] Command: headlines <# days> If you include a number in the command it will print headlines based on the news from that many previous days. See also : news Command : INFO The info command gives a brief description of a particular aspect or command in the empire game. To get info on a specific topic type: [##:##] Command: info (topic) where (topic) is "move", "sector-types" or whatever. The program will type out the date of the last modification to that particular info topic and then print the first page. The program will then wait for a before printing the second page, and before the third, etc. To get a list of available info topics type: [##:##] Command: info and a list will be given. For example, to get information about the info command type: [##:##] Command: info info and this description will be typed out (again). Command : LEDGER The ledger command prints the information on all outstanding loans in which you are involved. The general form is: [##:##] Command: ledger The loan number, loaner's name, loanee's name, principal, interest rate, expiration date, amount due, etc. will be printed for each loan. See also : lend, finances, accept Command : LEND The lend command is used to offer loans to other countries. The general form is: [##:##] Command: lend (cno/cname) where (cno/cname) is the number or name of the country to whom you are offering the loan. The program then prompts with various questions concerning the terms of the loan and sends a telegram to (cno/cname) informing them of the loan offer. See also : ledger, accept, collect, repay Command : LIST The list command gets you a list of commands with their associated B.T.U. costs, (see "info time" for description of B.T.U.s). This should not be confused with "info commands" which generates a brief summary of each command. The general form is: [##:##] Command: list or [##:##] Command: command list See also : Commands, Time Command : LOAD The load command enables the loading of ships. To run type: [##:##] Command: load (ship) (percent) where (ship) is the ship number. The ship must be in a harbor. If the harbor is not yours but has been checkpointed you may still load from it if you know the checkpoint code. The optional percent argument indicates that you wish to load the the specified percentage of the maximum amount possible of each commodity. If you do not use the percent argument the program will interactively ask you how many of each item to load. The maximum each ship can hold is: type civil milit guns shells ore gold planes pt 0 10 1 10 0 0 0 sub 0 25 2 25 0 0 0 des 0 80 2 40 0 0 0 bat 0 127 4 127 0 0 0 fre 127 0 127 127 127 20 0 min 0 25 1 10 0 0 0 ten 0 100 30 127 0 0 0 car 0 60 2 40 0 0 127 See also : unload, checkpoint, navigate Command : LOOKOUT The lookout command allows ships to report sightings of other ships and land sectors and allows coastal sectors to report sightings of ships. The general form is: [##:##] Command: lookout (ship/fleet/sect) The various ranges over which lookout is effective break down into three groups: ship to ship This range is dependent on both the visibility of the ship being observed and the visual range of the observing ship. (see "info ship-types") Destroyers seeing Submarines is a special case; if the sub is out of "regular" visual range (i.e. not in the same sector) but within 3 or so of the destroyer the message "Snorkel at X,Y" is printed. ship to land This range is either 1.4 in good weather (barometer > 700.) or 1. in bad weather (barometer < 700.). land to ship In good weather this range is essentially equal to twice the sector efficiency expressed as a decimal; e.g. 100% can see 2 sectors away. The exception is radar installations which have a range approximately equal to seven times the sector efficiency. See also : Ship-types, Sector-types, Radar Command : MAP A map gives you a graphic image of all or part of your country. Your own sectors show up as a designation mnemonic (see "sector- types") while sectors held by other countries appear as question marks ("?"). Mountains and seas appear as '^^' and '..' (respectively) but, if the map is being sent to a file or the printer, the mountains will appear as '##' for greater printer legibility. The form of the map command is: [##:##] Command: map (sects) where (sects) is the area for which you wish a map. Examples: [##:##] Command: map -8:8,-5:3 generates a 17 x 9 sector map based on data supplied by the sectors in the area specified. -5 ? ^ ? ? ? -4 . - ? ^ ^ ^ ? - ^ - ? -3 . f . ^ b ^ a f ? f f - -2 . f a m m m a i . g * . -1 . . ) m i c c ^ u g . 0 . h h ! h * h x . . 1 . . . . . . . . 2 3 - - - - - - - - 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 [##:##] Command: map # >mapfil where your "realm" ( or '#', see "update") is -5:5,-6:6 will type out a 11 by 13 sector map and also put the map in the file "mapfil". Command : MINE The mine command drops mines in the sea and is only functional from destroyers. Each mine introduces a 5% chance that a passing ship will be hit. The damage is severe but dependent upon the size of the ship. To drop mines type: [##:##] Command: mine (ship) Where (ship) is the number of one of your destroyers. You will be asked how many mines you wish to drop and that number of shells (assuming you got 'em) will be dropped in the sector that (ship) occupies, magically becoming mines as they hit the water. Mines can only be removed safely by a minesweeper. (Other ships can remove them by hitting them, but...) For various reasons harbors and bridge spans can not be mined. Note that the sector is checked for possible mine hits only when a ship moves into it; thus, a destroyer may safely drop mines in a sector and then move out. On the other hand, the mines know no allegiance, so moving back into a mined sector is foolish at best. See also : navigate Command : MOVE The move command is crucial to Empire; it facillitates the movement of civilians, military, ore, guns, shells, planes, and gold bars. To run it type: [##:##] Command: move ITEM where ITEM is one of: c civilians m military o ore g guns s shells p planes b bars of gold The program will request the starting sector then display the number of mobility units in that sector and its coordinates in the form: <97.0: -6,4> which indicates 97 mobility units and sector -6,4. You may respond with any combination of: u for up d for down \l u /r r for right l for left \|/ \l for up-left l -- -- r /r for up-right /|\ /l for down-left \r for down-right /l d \r v for view e for end of movement Typical mobility costs are: 1 mu per 5 civilians 1 mu per 5 military 1 mu per 5 tons of ore 2 mu per gun 2 mu per 5 shells 4 mu per plane 10 mu per bar of gold These costs are for an orthogonal move, (u, d, l or r), through a 100% efficient "regular" sector in "good" weather; diagonal moves cost 1.414 times as much, wastelands cost twice as much, mountains cost lots more & highways can cost as little as nothing (if 100% efficient). If you wish you may give all or part of the information for a move on the command line: [##:##] Command: move c -3,0 20 rrre This command will try to move 20 civilians from -3,0 to your capital, (0,0). Command : NATION The nation command displays various data about your country. Its usage is: [##:##] Command: nation The data displayed by the nation command should be self explanatory, but if not let country #0 know and more descriptive text will appear. See also : power, country-roster Command : NAVIGATE The navigate command is the move command applied to the sea. You can control one ship or a fleet. To run type: [##:##] Command: navigate (ship/fleet) where (ship/fleet) is the ship number or the fleet letter. If you are moving a fleet and the flagship stops, the fleet stops. (The lowest numbered ship is considered the flagship.) The program will prompt with the mobility of the flagship, the minimum mobility value for the fleet and the current sector coordinates in the form: <97.0:23.5: -6,4> which means the flagship has 97 mobility units, some other ship in the fleet has 23.5 mobility units and the flagship is in sector -6,4. You may indicate the direction you would like the fleet to move by typing a string of letters consisting of any combination of the following: u for up d for down \l u /r r for right l for left \|/ \l for up-left l -- -- r /r for up-right /|\ /l for down-left \r for down-right /l d \r v for view e for end of movement Typical orthogonal, (u, d, l or r), moving costs in good weather are: ship 25% tech factor 50% tech factor 100% tech factor type cost/sector cost/sector cost/sector ------ ---- ---- ---- pt boat 7.68 6.4 4.8 submarine 15.36 12.8 9.6 battleship 15.36 12.8 9.6 destroyer 10.96 9.13 6.85 freighter 19.2 16.0 12.0 minesweep 19.2 16.0 12.0 tender 12.8 10.67 8.0 carrier 15.36 12.8 9.6 In bad weather movement costs more (on the order of 10%); in very bad weather ships may be damaged by moving them. Moving a ship through a sector that has been mined by a destroyer introduces a 5% chance per mine (cumulative) that you will be damaged by "detecting" one of the little cuties. Minesweeps can remove up to five mines per pass through a sector (indicated by the message "Sweep..."). See also : mine, weather, ship types Command : NEWS The news command is the local newspaper run by The Deity. This "morning after" daily recounts financial exploits, the telegram traffic between countries, and political maneuvering in addition to the chronicling of such mundanities as shelling and attacking. It's great breakfast reading! Type: [##:##] Command: news or: [##:##] Command: news 2 if you only wish to see the news for the last two days. See also : headlines Command : OFFER The offer command allows you to suggest a written treaty to another country. The treaty once signed is not binding! To run type: [##:##] Command: offer (cno/cname) where (cno/cname) is the name or number of the country to whom you wish to offer a treaty. You will be asked to set both the conditions for yourself and for the other country. The conditions from which you may choose are: Condition Command(s) affected No ship attacks assault, board No ship shelling fire No sector attack attack No sector shelling fire No peeking (spying) spy No enlistments enlist No building ships build See also : vote, treaty Command : POWER The power report will give you an accurate picture of world strengths. It is particularly worthwhile in planning defense strategies and treaty voting. A power report is obtained by typing: [##:##] Command: power If someone has generated a power report within the last hour, you will be graced with an immediate output of that information. Otherwise it will take 1-2 minutes to obtain the report. Output consists of the following information : a # of sectors b # of civilians c # of military d # of guns e # of shells f # of planes g average sector efficiency h # gold bars i # of ships ii tons of ships (not displayed) j # of dollars k power - a measure of military/industrial capability k is determined by the following relation: k = (a*g+d)/3 + (b+c+e+ii)/10 + j/100 + f + i + 5*h See also : census, country-roster Concept : PRAYERS There is one country in the game that has no material possessions yet owns everything... That country is country #0 (often called "The Deity"). The power of this ethereal country is unbounded -- it can do anything from creating a civilian (as was the case with the first civilian), to literally moving mountains. Despite this great power The Deity is the champion of the meek and it is to country #0 that the downtrodden turn when in need of aid. The most common form of prayer is the telegram; if you should be in need of aid type: [##:##] Command: telegram 0 When the program asks your message for The Deity state it simply, e.g. Enter message for The Deity; end with ^D <122> Fumia took my capital and then deleted my account! <71> HELP!! <64> ^D If this doesn't get helpful results then you should send a second prayer with more specific details. e.g. <122> I'll donate a bar of gold (to charity) <83> for 20% more efficiency in my capital. <43> okay? <38> ^D This last message is sure to move the compassionate Deity to provide help. Note that The Deity wouldn't consider providing instruments of destruction like guns & shells (unless, of course, the church had a particularly great need for a new set of gold candlesticks or the like). See also : telegram Command : RADAR The radar command bears every resemblance to modern high- resolution radar. It has a circular range dependent upon its efficiency. To run land radar type: [##:##] Command: radar (sect) where (sect) must be the sector where the radar station resides. The program will respond with the station's efficiency and range and then display the area. What is displayed is dependent upon the range, i.e. sectors and ships within 1/2 of its range are displayed with their sector or ship designations. At further distances a '?' is used to indicate the presence of another pilgrim not of your faith. A 100% radar station has a range of 6.1. The range is linearly related to efficiency so a 25% radar can see 1.525 sectors away. !!WARNING!! Radar cannot spot submarines. Even worse, should you possess a cunning enemy he might move troops right to your doorstop leaving the sector designated a wilderness which would show up on your very efficient radar as '-'. Thus you would never know he was there....well almost never. If you worry about this try taking a map -- he can't hide there! To run naval radar type: [##:##] Command: radar (ship) where (ship) is the number of the ship.. The sea radar is highly dependent upon what kind of ship you have and what kind the opponent has... e.g. Battleships can see battleships far away but not pt boats.. Battleships have a 100% range of 6 while p.t. boats, destroyers and carriers have a range of 4 and all other ships see only 3. On the other hand, the ships vary in size and consequently, vary in visibility: battleships and carriers are the easiest to see (25), next come freighters, minesweeps and tenders (20) followed by destroyers (15), pt boats (10) and lastly, submarines (2). Note that although subs can not be found via radar that destroyers automatically use sonar too so they will see subs up to 2.86 sectors away.. See also : census, map, ship-types Command : READ The read command is used to read the telegrams sent you by other countries and by the game (e.g. when you make a sale or are attacked). When telegrams arrive you are informed with: "You have a new telegram waiting ..." if there is just one new one, or "You have ten new telegrams waiting ..." if there are ten of them, or "You have several new telegrams waiting ..." if there are very many. The command to read them is: [##:##] Command: read After reading them all you may discard them by answering "yes" to the question posed. If you answer "no" the telegrams will remain pending but you will not be reminded of them. See also : Telegram Command : REALM The realm command allows you to manipulate the contents of the four "realm"s associated with your country which provide a convenient way to save coordinates that are frequently used, (see "info syntax" for use of realm arguments). The general form of the realm command is: [##:##] Command: realm (number) <(sects)> (Number) is the number of the realm to be set and must be in the range 0:3. Note that the update command manipulates realm 0 (see "info update"). The (sects) argument is optional; if included the specified realm will be set to (sects), if ommitted the coordinates of the specified realm will be printed. e.g. [##:##] Command: realm 1 -3:2,4 [##:##] Command: realm 1 Realm 1 is -3:2,4:4 Also note that "#"-type arguments may be used in the (sects) argument. [##:##] Command: realm 0 #1 Now realm 0 is set to -3:2,4:4. The nation report includes the coordinates of all four realms. See also : syntax, nation, update Command : REPAY The repay command is used to repay loans from other countries. The general form is: [##:##] Command: repay (loan) where (loan) is the number of the loan you are repaying. You can repay all or part of the loan with this command, however beware of letting the loan become overdue -- the lender may decide to force collection (see "info collect"). When you repay on a loan a telegram is sent to the lender informing them of the amount repaid. See also : lend, ledger, accept, collect Command : ROUTE The route command generates a graphic display of the delivery specifications for the various deliverable items in a given sector area. The general form of the command is: [##:##] Command: route (item) (sects) (sects) is as described in "info syntax" and (item) is one of the following: s shells g guns (not gold) p planes o ore b bars of gold The delivery routes are indicated with "go-to's" (as opposed to "come-from's") using the following codes (assuming sector in question is a mine): ^m^ up (0 in census) m/ up-right (1 in census) m> right (2 in census) m\ down-right (etc) vmv down /m down-left mapfile [36:101] Command : shell Toodles...type '^D' to return to Empire $ print mapfile $ ^D Welcome back to Empire. [37:100] Command : See also : syntax, map Command : SHIP REPORT The ship report command is a census of your ships and lists all the info available in readable format. To run type: [##:##] Command: ship (arguments in <> are The is in case you only wish to look at one ship or one fleet or all ships within a given area. If no argument is given your entire navy will be listed. The report format is: # type x,y f eff c/m sh gun pln ore gold mu where # is ship number, type is "pt boat", "submarine", etc, x,y is its location (relative to your capital), f is the fleet designation letter (set by "create" command), eff is the ship's efficiency, c/m is the number of crew (civilians on a freighter, military otherwise), sh is shells, guns is guns, pln is planes, ore is ore, gold is gold bars, mu is mobility units. For example: [6:119] Command : ship b # type x,y f eff c/m sh gun pln ore gold mu 0 pt boat 6,29 b 100% 10 10 1 0 0 0 10 4 carrier 6,31 b 100% 35 16 2 3 0 0 104 16 pt boat 3,-31 b 100% 10 0 0 0 0 0 40 20 submarine 6,29 b 100% 15 12 2 0 0 0 10 See also : create, navigate, load Command : SPY The spy command allows reconnaisance operations to enforce an oral treaty or as preparation for an attack (or even for a prayer to the Deity). The spy report will reveal (in round figures) the numbers of troops, civilians, guns, shells, and the sector designation and efficiency in neighboring sectors. To perform this type of research type: [##:##] Command: spy (sects) The sectors denoted by "(sects)" are those from which you are spying, (see "info syntax" for format). Note that the number of BTUs consumed is dependent upon the number of sectors into which you spy, e.g. A 5x8 area costs one full BTU. Warning!! If you are spying on an unallied country your spy could be apprehended... his/her chances are dependent upon the number of patrolling military in the sector. If the other country has declared itself at war with you the spy will be shot and the other country (and the rest of the world, through the news) will be warned that you tried to spy on him... If the other country is neutral towards you the spy will be deported. See also : census, read, declare Command : TELEGRAM The telegram command allows non-treaty communication to take place between representatives. Currently you are given only 512 characters per telegram, so telegrams encourage succinct diplomacy. The general form is: [##:##] Command: telegram (cno/cname) where (cno/cname) is either the number or name of the recipient nation. Telegrams sent to country #0 appear as prayers, (favors are best obtained in this manner.) While entering your telegram you may use ^U to delete the current line, (or ) to delete the previous character, (including s) and ^R to print the number of characters left and re-type the telegram so far. For example: [##:##] Command: tel 7 Enter telegram for Groonland; end with ^D B.F.D. Pouncetrifle Groonland Embassy Dear Ambassador Pouncetrifle, Just a little note to express the friendly wishes that all of us in Curmudgeon feel toward you backward savages in Groonland. As to the matter of the treaty you've proposed please remember that if we wished we could TRASH your capital. As always I remain, Your humble and obedient servant, etc, etc E. D. Amen Dada Under Asst. West Coast Promo. the Sovereign State of Curmudgeon An alternate form of the telegram command allows you to send a telegram from a file. It is: [##:##] Command: telegram (cno/cname) (file) which sends the file to the specified country. For example: [##:##] Command: telegram Groonland threat would send the file "threat" to Groonland. See also : Read, Prayers Command : TEND The tend command allows your tender ships to resupply pt boats, submarines, battleships, destroyers and minesweeps while at sea. To tend ship #16 type: [##:##] Command: tend 16 You will then be asked the number of the tender providing the goodies. If the tender is in the same sector as the tendee, and they're both yours, etc the program will ask how many military, guns and shells you want to transfer. See also : load, unload Command : TORPEDO The torpedo command is used to shoot up ships. The general form is: [##:##] Command: torpedo (ship) Where (ship) is the victim ship number. The program will then ask for your sub number and check that it meets the following criteria: 1) It must be a submarine 2) It must have at least 1 gun (torpedo tube) 3) It must have at least 3 shells (3 shells = 1 torpedo) 4) It must be at least 60% efficient Meeting all these criteria, your torp will be launched toward the victim ship... A countdown of seconds until the expected detonation will commence. Since the range of torpedos is a maximum of 1.99999 or so, anything a distance of 2 or more from you will be out of range and you will be told so, (after your torp is in the water). If you are in range, your chance of making a hit will be dependent on your distance from the target: 90% if you're in the same sector, 22% if you're orthogonally adjacent and 13% if you're diagonally adjacent. A hit which will be reported to you as "BOOM!" followed by a report of the damage done to the victim ship. The damage done is dependent on the size of the victim ship. A torpedo does between 63% and 100% damage to a pt boat and between 28% and 56% damage to a battleship or aircraft carrier. In order to simulate the "real-time" situation your mobility will go negative (forcing you to stick around). Your first torp will make your mobility go to -10; the second will make it -20; etc. If your torpedo scores a hit your victim will be informed of the fact and will be told the number of the sub, but not the country (so you can deny it). The victim's only automatic protection against sub attacks is that any destroyer of his (hers) that is in the same sector as you and that has shells will drop them on you as depth charges. Each depth charge does 30% to 40% damage to your sub. See also: attack, assault, fire Command : TRADE REPORT The trade report lists all items for sale in exchange sectors and/or all ships that are being sold and allows you to buy these items. The three forms of the trade command are: [##:##] Command: trade [##:##] Command: trade land and [##:##] Command: trade naval The "land" and "naval" forms deal only in exchange items and ships, respectively. The first form deals with both. Because the first and second forms require a scan of the entire world they take a few moments to run. Typical output looks like: [##:##] Command: trade Empire Trade Report Thu Aug 25 11:47:21 1977 2 guns @ $133.35 100 shells @ $8.40 Lot #0 3 bars of gold @ $850.50 18 shells @ $7.35 Lot #1 100% submarine crew:25 guns:1 shells:4 @$3675.00 lot #0 54% battleship crew:3 guns:0 shells:4 @$17742.00 lot #1 Which lot? ( for none) 0 To be delivered to exchange at 12,7 How many guns? 2 You are now $266.70 poorer. See also: Set [prices] Command : TREATY The treaty command will report on all outstanding treaties and all pending treaties. The conditions and durations are displayed... To run type: [##:##] Command: treaty See also: Vote [on treaty] Command : UNLOAD The unload command is the opposite of load and follows the exact same syntax...so why are you looking here for documentation? type: [##:##] Command: unload (ship) where (ship) is the ship number.. See also (instead) load Command : UPDATE The update command causes all your sectors to be brought up to date in terms of digging up ore, building efficiency, generating mobility units, etc. It also defines the coordinates associated with"realm 0" ("#" or "#0"). The general form is: [##:##] Command: update or [##:##] Command: update (sects) In the first example the entire world would be scanned for sectors of yours that need updating, and realm 0 ("#") would be set to include all of your sectors. In the second case only the area specified would be scanned and "#" would be set to encompass all sectors of yours in that area. For example: [37:105] Command : update -1:1,-1:1 Production bottleneck in 0,-1 guns built in 0,1 Your "realm 0"(#0) is -1:1,-1:1 and consists of 7 sectors. [37:105] Command : update Your "realm 0"(#0) is -3:1,-1:1 and consists of 9 sectors. Note that the first time through only the sectors in the area specified were counted and that some of them produced messages when they were updated, while the second time through caught all the sectors, (and took 2 minutes) but the middle sectors had already been updated so they did not produce further messages. An additional argument to update allows you to control the printing of the update messages. If the argument "quiet" is specified, (e.g. "update 12:15,-3:4 quiet"), NO update messages will be printed except the "realm" message and certain emergency messages. If, on the other hand "verbose" is specified not only will the standard messages be printed but also messages describing attempts to deliver blivets to sectors that are already full of blivets will be printed. See also : innards, syntax, realm Command : VOTE The vote command allows you decide on a written treaty. You may vote yes, no , or abstain. Yes - of course you accept. No - i guess you turn it down. Abstain - you haven't got the guts to say no but are too ambitious to say yes (i.e. You can come back to vote again another day). To run type: [##:##] Command: vote (treaty) where (treaty) is the treaty number. See also: Treaty report Command : WEATHER For each sector in a weather map an integer indicates the local barometric pressure Negative integers show low-pressure sectors (bad weather), and positive integers show high-pressure sectors (good weather). A map gives you an instantaneous picture of the pressure centers, (for weather prediction you must build a weather station). To get a weather map type: [##:##] Command: weather (sects) where (sects) is the area to be covered by the map. A typical example might be: [##:##] Command: weat -23:0,-8:2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 - - - - - - - - - 0 3 2 1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 -8 3 3 3 3 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1 -8 -7 4 4 4 4 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1 -7 -6 8 8 8 4 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0-1-1-1-1-1-2-2-2-2 -6 -5 8 9 8 4 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0-1-1-1-1-1-2-2-2-2 -5 -4 8 8 8 4 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0-1-1-1-1-1-2-2-2-2-2 -4 -3 4 4 4 4 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0-1-1-1-1-2-2-2-3-3-3 -3 -2 3 3 3 3 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0-1-1-1-1-2-2-3-3-3-3 -2 -1 2 2 2 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0-1-1-1-2-2-2-3-3-4-4 -1 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0-1-1-1-1-2-2-2-3-4-6-6 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0-1-1-1-1-2-2-2-3-4-6-9 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0-1-1-1-1-2-2-3-3-4-6-9 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 - - - - - - - - - 0 3 2 1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 extreme low pressure center at 1,2; extreme high at -22,-5 (this weather map was taken during the great storm of '77 when two ships sank off the coast of East Eden at 0,1.) See also : forecast -- +---------------------------------------------------------+ | Frank Kaefer | fkk@stasys.UUCP | Heavy Metal is the law | +---------------------------------------------------------+