A Wolfpack Empire Publication
"All the news that fits, we print."
October, 2003

In This Edition

• What's New?
• Links/Resources/Getting Started
• Games --
  • Upcoming
  • Current
  • Recently ended
• Clients and Player Tools
• Server and Deity Info
• Hints of the Month
• Anno of the Month
  

What's New?

Lord of the Rings Empire II started! See `Current Games' below.

A flurry of clients were released this month.

Daniel Kiracofe announced WinACE 2.2.13, which is mostly a bug-fix
release, but also has a few new features. There have been several
releases specially for LOTR II since.

Laurent Martin announced PTkEI 1.18.1. This release has bug fixes,
code cleaning and compatibility fixes.

eif 1.3.1 wasn't publicly announced, but your ever-vigilant editor
spotted it for you anyway.

Drake Diedrich announced `Have-you-stopped-violating-readline-yet?'
LAFE 1.0.

Daniel Tryba announced Empproxy 1.0.0, a simple web-proxy for an
Empire server. Read the announcement at
http://groups.google.de/groups?selm=bjist0$lss$1%40news.tue.nl

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Links/Resources/Getting Started

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New Games

Please contact us if you want your game listed here!

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Current Games

Lord of the Rings Empire II would run at empire.tau.ac.il, port 1617,
except it is currently down for a scheduled break until October 7th.

The game has had nine updates before the break. Since it is `hidden',
not much is known about the state of the world, but numerous wars
pretty much everywhere in Middle Earth have made the headlines.

Mysterious travelers reportedly roam the land. Smaug was sighted
several times, and Earrame spooked a few coast-watchers.

Game reports can be found at
http://groups.google.de/groups?selm=bkcimr$va$1%40hood.uits.indiana.edu
http://groups.google.de/groups?selm=bkv9bc$a3m$1%40hood.uits.indiana.edu

Newbie IV just started quietly, and is running at 208.187.205.245,
port 5000. The Newbie game series is designed for relative newcomers.

The Changeling Blitz is running at blitz.wolfpackempire.com, port
6789. This blitz resets at 7:00pm US/Eastern (currently 23:00 UTC)
every day. Updates are enabled at 7:30pm. There is a 60 ETU update
every 10 minutes. Note that world size and some options change daily.
It is up to players to figure that out each day, but typing "version"
helps.

The Zebra Blitz is running at blitz.wolfpackempire.com, port 5678.
This blitz resets at 6:00pm US/Eastern (currently 22:00 UTC) every
Sunday. Updates are enabled at 6:30pm. There is a 48 ETU update
every hour on the hour.

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Recently Ended Games

No games known to the Empire News ended in the previous month.

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Clients and Player Tools

The basic Empire client can be found at
http://www.wolfpackempire.com/clients.html, source as well as binaries
for many platforms.

The latest version of WinACE is 2.2.13. Read the announcement at
http://groups.google.de/groups?selm=1e50e999.0309070650.71995db1%40posting.google.com
and download from http://sourceforge.net/projects/winace/
There have been several updates for LOTR since, which you can find at
the same place.

The latest version of PTkEI is 1.18.1. See the PTkEI home page at
http://www.lfmm.org/ptkei/

The latest version of eif is 1.3.1. See the eif home page at
http://www.stack.nl/~marcolz/empire/

The latest version of LAFE is 1.0. Get it from
http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/e/empire-lafe/
or any other Debian mirror.

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Server and Deity Information

The current Empire server is 4.2.12. Download it from
http://www.wolfpackempire.com/server.html

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Hint of the Month

To `old-own' a conquered sector as soon as possible, you need to bring
down the number of hostile civilians fast. 60 mobility convert just
300 civilians, which brings a fully populated sector down to some 700
civilians. But these will make 210 babies --- not much progress.
You'd need six updates to convert everybody. Obvious ways to speed
this up: shell them, bomb them, or starve them to death. Not quite as
obvious: save up mobility before you convert. 120 mobility reduce
population to 400, which will grow to 520. Another convert using 60
mobility reduces civilians to 120. One more convert and you're done.
Four updates.

You can also turn conquered sectors into slave farms. Only convert
civilians above `max safe population'. This maximizes growth, since
civilians multiply twice as fast as uncompensated workers. Hostile
civilians become loyal after a while, which closes down your slave
farm. If you don't want this, let it revert to the old owner once in
a while, by moving out all military. It's advisable to kill all che
first.

If you can't conquer a sector suitable for your slave farm from an
unwilling neighbor, try making a deal with a willing neighbor.

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Anno of the Month

From Lord of the Rings II:

> Announcement from Erebor, (#17)  dated Fri Sep 19 00:10:27 2003
The peaceful Dwarves of Erebor have been attacked by our 'so-called'
friends Iron Hills and Dale!!! This is a call for aid from any in range -
come to our aid for the good of our Children!! These Tyrants must be stopped!

> Announcement from Smaug, (#47)  dated Fri Sep 19 00:12:13 2003
I could fly over...

> Announcement from Erebor, (#17)  dated Fri Sep 19 00:15:44 2003
The Dwarves of Erebor would be in debt for life!  We have arranged an
offering for you... burn as many of those Tyrants.. All you can eat special...

> Announcement from Smaug, (#47)  dated Fri Sep 19 00:17:02 2003
Mmm. I like Dwarves with a side of Men, dipped in Elf sauce.

> Announcement from Dale, (#16)  dated Fri Sep 19 00:23:30 2003
? Mighty SMAUG,

We, Men of Dale, always feeded you,
We were aware of your preference for little
ugly dwarfs for dinner,
We were almost "out of stock" of them, so we decided to please you, to replenish
ed our warehouses near your moutain with them.

Feel free to take what's left,

Girion,
Lord of Dale

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