Empire video game

 From stevens@math.toronto.edu Wed Aug 24 22:11:39 1994

Newsgroups: rec.games.empire,rec.answers,news.answers

From: stevens@math.toronto.edu (Ken Stevens)

Subject: rec.games.empire FAQ

Followup-To: poster

Summary: This FAQ describes the amazing internet game called Empire.

It provides precise instructions explaining how new players can

get in a game.

Supersedes: <faq_774984511@math.toronto.edu>

Reply-To: stevens@math.toronto.edu

Organization: Mathematics Department, University of Toronto

Date: Thu, 18 Aug 94 22:18:31 GMT

Archive-name: games/empire/faq

Posting-frequency: monthly

Last-modified: 1994/07/23

This FAQ is archived to:

  ftp.cis.ksu.edu:/pub/Games/Empire/FAQ.*

The most recent edition of EMPIRE NEWS may be found at:

  ftp.cis.ksu.edu:/pub/Games/Empire/docs/EMPIRE_NEWS/NEWS.*

     - = [ Empire FAQ Monthly Posting ] = -

      as of Sat Jul 23 11:11:11 1994

This FAQ answers these questions:

DESCRIPTION:

Q: What is Empire?

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

Q: What kinds of machines can I play from?

Q: Are there "turns" in this game?

Q: How long does a typical game last?

Q: Sound's neat!  How do I play?

CONNECTING:

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

Q: OK, I compiled my client.  The docs said something about a "host",

   "port", "country" and "password".  I need to specify these to connect to a

   game--what should I put for these four things?

Q: Just out of curiousity, what long term games are going on right now,

   and is there a way I could peek in on them?

Q: The basic unix client is, well, basic.  Are there more

   sophisticated clients available? 

Q: Are there any tools available for playing empire?

PLAYING:

Q: I'm keen, I can connect to a blitz, but I haven't a clue what to

   do!  How do I learn how to play?

Q: There seem to be a million commands!  What are the basic commands I

   should read about first?

Q: What's a Representative?

Q: What is a BTU and how do I get more?

Q: How do I build a ship?

Q: How do I load stuff on a ship?

Q: How do I get civilians to another island?

Q: Where do you make land units?

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

Q: I have a ship with "oiler" capacity, now how do I find out how much

oil a sea sector has?

        --- DESCRIPTION ---

Q: What is Empire?

A: It is a strategy wargame played by a number (between 10-80) of

people on the internet connected to an Empire Server.  If you've ever

seen the game "Civilization", Empire is a lot like it, except it is

more detailed, and of course multi-player.  As the leader of a nation

which consists of certain sectors on a large hexogonal grid, you

decide (based on resources) what each sectors "designation" should be.

This way, you obtain food, iron, gold, oil, uranium.  You distribute

these raw materials to factories to convert them into more useful

things.  You manage a civilian and slave populace for producing goods,

and a military populace for defence and conquest.  As the technology

level of your country increases, you are able to build more and more

advanced units: for example, at tech 0 you can build fishing boats and

cavalry, at tech 100 you can build planes, submarines, and artillery, and

by tech 300 you can build missiles, satellites, jet planes, and armored

tanks.

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

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

Q: What kinds of machines can I play from?

A: You can play from a Unix, VMS, or VM/CMS machine that is directly

connected to the internet.  So far, no clients have been written for

Macs or PC's connected to the net.

Q: Are there "turns" in this game?

A: Most aspects of the game are "real-time" (i.e. it isn't like risk

or diplomacy where there are turns), for example you sail ships, march

armies, and fly planes in real-time--so if you are a fast typist, then

you have an advantage.  The aspect of the game that has turns is

economic: goods are produced, population grows, and arms are

constructed only at a specific time (called the "update").

Q: How long does a typical game last?

A: This depends on how often updates occur.  There are two types of games:

A "blitz" has updates every ten minutes.  They last about 24 hours.

A "long term" game usually has one update a day.  They last 2-3 months.

Sometimes, long term games are set up with updates once every four

days to give busy people the opportunity to play--such games can last

up to a year!  To learn the basics of empire, it is highly recommended

that you first try "blitzing" a few times.

Q: Sound's neat!  How do I play?

A: Well, you can play right now if you want!  All you need to do is

ftp a client to your machine, and then connect to a game.

        --- CONNECTING ---

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

A: Here are the standard clients:

The standard client for unix is:

  ftp.cis.ksu.edu:/pub/Games/Empire/clients/empclient-1.1.tar.Z

the standard client for VMS can be found in:

  ftp.cis.ksu.edu:/pub/Games/Empire/clients/VMS

the standard client for VM_CMS can be found in

  ftp.cis.ksu.edu:/pub/Games/Empire/clients/VM_CMS

Q: OK, I compiled my client.  The docs said something about a "host",

"port", "country" and "password".  I need to specify these to connect to a

game--what should I put for these four things?

A: What you are really asking is "How do I get in a game?".  To get in

a long term game, you need to keep watching the newsgroup

rec.games.empire.  A new long term game is announced about once a

month.  However, there is a blitz up and running even as you read this

post.  The blitz resets every night at 8:02pm EST (so if you want to

play competitively, you should connect at that time), but you can

connect to it and play any time.  The host is "random.chem.psu.edu", and

the port is 1618.  For country, use a number from 1 to 10, and use the

same number for the password.

Q: Just out of curiousity, what long term games are going on right

now, and is there a way I could peek in on them?

A: Most long term games have "visitor" countries that you can use to

log into the game.  For a list of the current long term games, read

the bi-weekly posting to rec.games.empire called "EMPIRE NEWS".  The

latest issue of "EMPIRE NEWS" may be found in :

ftp.cis.ksu.edu:/pub/Games/Empire/docs/EMPIRE_NEWS

Once you connect to one of these games, you can have a look at what's

going on by typing "power" or "news".

Q: The basic unix client is, well, basic.  Are there more sophisticated

clients available? 

A: Yes.  My favourite client is:

  ftp.cis.ksu.edu:/pub/Games/Empire/clients/eif1.0.2.tar.Z

I like it because it has aliases and access to system files and commands.

There is also an X client:

  ftp.cis.ksu.edu:/pub/Games/Empire/clients/xemp5.0.02.tar.Z

There are also basic perl clients available:

  ftp.cis.ksu.edu:/pub/Games/Empire/clients/hpc.sh

  ftp.cis.ksu.edu:/pub/Games/Empire/clients/pec.2.0.sh

Q: Are there any tools available for playing empire?

A: Yes, there are tonnes!  Many of them are simply passed around among

friends.  But you can find a small arsenal of tools in:

ftp.cis.ksu.edu:/pub/Games/Empire/tools/Player.  However, some of the

tools in that directory are out of date.  For a list of the tools in

the archive and description of them, read the "README" file in that

directory, or the bi-weekly posting "EMPIRE NEWS" to rec.games.empire.

        --- PLAYING ---

Q: I'm keen, I can connect to a blitz, but I haven't a clue what to

do!  How do I learn how to play?

A: Ask and read.  Most Empire players are happy to answer newbie

questions--heck the more players we have the better!  There is lots of

material on Empire that you can read.  You have to be careful with

the documentation, though, because the game is always changing, and much

of the literature is out of date.  The surest way to get the most

up-to-date info is using the "info" command in empire.  The first info

pages you should read are "info sector-types" and "info products".  You can ftp

the entire "info" docs of empire from:

  ftp.cis.ksu.edu:/pub/Games/Empire/docs/chainsaw.3.0.info.tar.Z

I would also recommend:

  ftp.cis.ksu.edu:/pub/Games/Empire/WhatIsEmpire-FAQ.txt

The official users guide is 3 years out of date, but someone is

presently revising it.  You can get the outdated guide from:

  ftp.cis.ksu.edu:/pub/Games/Empire/docs/Users.Guide

Q: There seem to be a million commands!  What are the basic commands I

should read about first?

A: Use the "info" command to read about these commands: change, break,

map, ann, wire, tel, read, explore, move, res, cen, dist, thresh, lev,

com, prod, budget.

Q: What is a Representative?

A: A password.

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

A: A BTU is a "Bureucratic Time Unit".  Most Empire commands require

BTU's.  In a blitz, all you need to do to get more BTU's is to log out

and in again.  In a long term game, BTU's are generated by civilians

in 60% "c" sectors (captols) in the following way: every time you log

on, the server gives you a number of BTU's corresponding to the length

of time since the last time you logged on and the number of civs in

capitols which are at least 60% efficient.

Q: How do I build a ship?

A: Using the "build" command.

Q: How do I load stuff on a ship?

A: Using the "load" command.

Q: How do I get civilians to another island?

A: "nav" a ship with mil up to the island and "look" with the ship to

get the coordinates of a land sector.  Then "assault" the sector with

about 20 mil.  Designate the sector to be a "h".  Then next update,

the harbour should be 2% efficient and you will be able to nav a ship

carrying civs into the harbour and "unload" them.

Q: Where do you make land units?

A: In a "!" sector.

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

A:  Ships need to be in a "h" sector, planes in a "*" sector and units

need to be in a "!" sector.  The sector must be at least 60% efficient.  

Units and planes need mil in the sector.  Also there needs to be

sufficient "avail" in the sector (note the figures for "avail" in

"show * build" are misleading--the actual avail you need is much

larger than what "show" it says).  You need to have enough lcm's and hcm's in

the sector.  Land units can also need guns and shells.

Q: I have a ship with "oiler" capacity, now how do I find out how much

oil a sea sector has?

A: While you're navigating the ship, type "v".  It's a little tricky

to find, but the oil content will be shown in brackets on the left

hand side of the output.

Ken Stevens a.k.a. Buster, ruler of children

stevens@math.toronto.edu

-- 

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