.\" $Id: vms-empire.6,v 1.4 2002/08/01 18:58:22 esr Exp $ - (c) Copyright 1987, 1988 Chuck Simmons */ .\" .\" Copyright (C) 1987, 1988 Chuck Simmons .\" .\" See the file COPYING, distributed with empire, for restriction .\" and warranty information. .\" .TH Empire 6 .SH NAME empire -- the wargame of the century .SH SYNOPSIS empire [-w water] [-s smooth] [-d delay] [ -S save-interval ] [ -f savefile ] .SH DESCRIPTION Empire is a simulation of a full-scale war between two emperors, the computer and you. Naturally, there is only room for one, so the object of the game is to destroy the other. The computer plays by the same rules that you do. .TP 10 .BI \-w water\^ This option controls the amount of water on the map. This is given as the percentage of the map which should be water. The default is 70% water. \f2water\fP must be an integer in the between 10 and 90 inclusive. .TP .BI \-s smooth\^ This controls the smoothness of the map. A low value will produce a highly chaotic map with lots of small islands or lakes. A high value will produce a map with a few scattered continents. Be forewarned that a high value will cause the program to take a long time to start up. The default value is 5. .TP .BI \-d delay\^ This option controls the length of time the computer will delay after printing informational messages at the top of the screen. \f2delay\fP is specified in milliseconds. The default value is 2000 which allows the user two seconds to read a message. .SH EXAMPLES empire -w90 -s2 .P This produces a map with many islands. .P empire -w50 -s0 .P This produces a really strange map. These values are not recommended for the faint at heart. .P empire -w10 .P This produces a map with lots of land and a few lakes. The computer will have a hard time on this sort of map as it will try and produce lots of troop transports, which are fairly useless. .P There are two other option. .TP .BI \-S interval\^ sets the \fIsave interval\fR for the game (default is 10). Once per \fIinterval\fR turns the game state will be automatically saved after your move. It will be saved in any case when you change modes or do various special things from command mode, such as `M' or `N'. .TP .BI \-f savefile Set the save file name (normally empsave.dat). .SH INTRODUCTION Empire is a war game played between you and the user. The world on which the game takes place is a square rectangle containing cities, land, and water. Cities are used to build armies, planes, and ships which can move across the world destroying enemy pieces, exploring, and capturing more cities. The objective of the game is to destroy all the enemy pieces, and capture all the cities. .P The world is a rectangle 60 by 100 squares on a side. The world consists of sea (.), land (+), uncontrolled cities (*), computer-controlled cities (X), and cities that you control (O). .P The world is displayed on the player's screen during movement. (On terminals with small screens, only a portion of the world is shown at any one time.) Each piece is represented by a unique character on the map. With a few exceptions, you can only have one piece on a given location. On the map, you are shown only the 8 squares adjacent to your units. This information is updated before and during each of your moves. The map displays the most recent information known. .P The game starts by assigning you one city and the computer one city. Cities can produce new pieces. Every city that you own produces more pieces for you according to the cost of the desired piece. The typical play of the game is to issue the Automove command until you decide to do something special. During movement in each round, the player is prompted to move each piece that does not otherwise have an assigned function. .P Map coordinates are 4-digit numbers. The first two digits are the row, the second two digits are the column. .SH PIECES The pieces are as follows: .P .TS center box tab(;); l | c | c | r | r | r | c. Piece;You;Enemy;Moves;Hits;Str;Cost _ Army;A;a;1;1;1;5(6) Fighter;F;f;8;1;1;10(12) Patrol Boat;P;p;4;1;1;15(18) Destroyer;D;d;2;3;1;20(24) Submarine;S;s;2;2;3;20(24) Troop Transport;T;t;2;1;1;30(36) Aircraft Carrier;C;c;2;8;1;30(36) Battleship;B;b;2;10;2;40(48) Satellite;Z;z;10;--;--;50(60) .TE .P The second column shows the map representation for your units. .P The third shows the representations of enemy units. .P Moves is the number of squares that the unit can move in a single round. .P Hits is the amount of damage a unit can take before it is destroyed. .P Strength is the amount of damage a unit can inflict upon an enemy during each round of an attack. .P Cost is the number of rounds needed for a city to produce the piece. .P The number in parenthesis is the cost for a city to produce the first unit. .P Each piece has certain advantages associated with it that can make it useful. One of the primary strategic aspects of this game is deciding which pieces will be produced and in what quantities. .P \f3Armies\f1 can only move on land, and are the only piece that can move on land. Only armies can capture cities. This means that you must produce armies in order to win the game. Armies have a 50% chance of capturing a city when they attack. (Attacking one's own city results in the army's destruction. Armies that move onto the sea will drown. Armies can attack objects at sea, but even if they win, they will drown.) Armies can be carried by troop transports. If an army is moved onto a troop transport, then whenever the transport is moved, the army will be moved with the transport. You cannot attack any piece at sea while on a transport. .P \f3Fighters\f1 move over both land and sea, and they move 8 squares per round. Their high speed and great mobility make fighters ideal for exploring. However, fighters must periodically land at user-owned cities for refueling. A fighter can travel 32 squares without refeuling. Fighters are also shot down if they attempt to fly over a city which is not owned by the user. .P \f3Patrol boats\f1 are fast but lightly armored. Therefore they are useful for patrolling ocean waters and exploring. In an attack against a stronger boat, however, patrol boats will suffer heavy casulties. .P \f3Destroyers\f1 are fairly heavily armored and reasonably quick to produce. Thus they are useful for destroying enemy transports which may be trying to spread the enemy across the face of the world. .P When a \f3submarine\f1 scores a hit, 3 hits are exacted instead of 1. Thus submarines can inflict heavy damage in a fight against heavily armored boats. Notice that healthy submarines will typically defeat healthy destroyers two-thirds of the time. However, a submarine will defeat a fighter about two-thirds of the time, while a destroyer will defeat a fighter three-fourths of the time. .P \f3Troop transports\f1 are the only pieces that can carry armies. A maximum of six armies can be carried by a transport. On any world containing a reasonable amount of water, transports will be a critical resource in winning the game. Notice that the weakness of transports implies they need protection from stronger ships. .P \f3Aircraft carriers\f1 are the only ships that can carry fighters. Carriers carry a maximum of the number of hits left of fighters. Fighters are refueled when they land on a carrier. .P \f3Battleships\f1 are similar to destroyers except that they are much stronger. .P \f3Satellites\f1 are only useful for reconaissance. They can not be attacked. They are launched in a random diagonal orbit, and stay up for 50 turns. They can see one square farther than other objects. .P All ships can move only on sea. Ships can also dock in a user-owned city. Docked ships have damage repaired at the rate of 1 hit per turn. Ships which have suffered a lot of damage will move more slowly. .P Because of their ability to be repaired, ships with lots of hits such as Carriers and Battleships have an additional advantage. After suffering minor damage while destroying enemy shipping, these ships can sail back to port and be quickly repaired before the enemy has time to replenish her destroyed shipping. .P The following table gives the probability that the piece listed on the side will defeat the piece listed at the top in a battle. (The table assumes that both pieces are undamaged.) .P .TS center box tab(;); l | c | c | c | c | c. vs.;AFPT;D;S;C;B _ AFPT;50.0%;12.5%;25.0%;00.391%;00.0977% D;87.5%;50.0%;25.0%;05.47%;00.537% S;75.0%;75.0%;50.0%;31.3%;06.25% C;99.6%;94.5%;68.7%;50.0%;04.61% B;99.9%;99.5%;93.8%;95.4%;50.0% .TE .P Notice, however, that when a ship has been damaged, the odds of being defeated can go up quite a bit. For example, a healthy submarine has a 25% chance of defeating a battleship that has had one hit of damage done to it, and a healthy submarine has a 50% chance of defeating a carrier which has suffered two hits of damage. .SH "MOVEMENT FUNCTIONS" There are a variety of movement functions. The movement functions of pieces can be specified in user mode and edit mode. Cities can have movement functions set for each type of piece. When a movement function for a type of pieces is set for a city, then every time that type of piece appears in the city, the piece will acquire that movement function. Be forewarned that moving loaded transports or loaded carriers into a city can have undesirable side effects. .P Normally, when a movement function has been specified, the piece will continue moving according to that function until one of the following happen: .TP 5 .B * An enemy piece or unowned city appears next to the piece. In this case the piece will be completely awoken, unless its movement function has been set to a specific destination. Armies on ships and pieces inside cities will not be awoken if the enemy piece is gone by the time it is their turn to move. .TP .B * You explicitly awaken the piece. .TP .B * The piece can no longer move in accordance with its programmed function. In this case, the piece will awaken \f2temporarily\fP. You will be asked to move the piece at which time you may awaken it. .TP .B * The piece is a fighter which has just enough fuel (plus a small reserve) to get to the nearest city. In this case, the piece will awaken completely, unless its movement function has been set to a specific destination, or its movement function has been set to \f2land\fP. .P The rationale behind this complexity is that fighters must be awoken completely before they are out of range of a city to prevent one from accidentally forgetting to waken the fighter and then watching it fly off to its doom. However, it is presumed that when a path is set for the fighter, the fighter is not in danger of running out of fuel. .P Pieces do not completely awaken when their function has been set to a destination because it is slightly time consuming to reset the destination, but very simple (one keystroke) to wake the piece. .P The movement functions are: .TP 10 .B Attack This function applies only to armies. When this function is set, the army will move toward the nearest enemy city, unowned city, or enemy army. This is useful when fighting off an invading enemy or taking over a new continent. When an army is set to this mode, it will also explore nearby territory. This tends to make the "grope" movement mode pretty useless. .TP .B Awake When pieces are awake, you will be asked for the direction in which the piece should move on each turn. .TP .B Fill This function applies to carriers and transports. When this function is specified, these ships sleep until they have been filled with fighters or armies respectively. .TP .B Grope This function causes a piece to explore. The piece heads toward the nearest unseen square of the map on each of its moves. Some attempt is made to explore in an optimal fashion. .TP .B Land This function applies to fighters and causes the fighter to head toward the nearest transport or carrier. .TP .B Random This movement function causes a piece to move at random to an adjacent empty square. .TP .B Sentry This movement function puts a piece to sleep. The function of a city cannot be set to 'sleep'. .TP .B Transport This movement function only works on armies. The army sleeps until an unfull transport passes by, at which point the army wakes up and boards the transport. .TP .B Upgrade This movement function only works with ships. The ship will move to the nearest owned city and remain there until it is repaired. .TP .B