f1
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                                   ceDSE
                          (Dave's Space Empire)
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                           cePlayer Documentation
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cb1c4.  cfRunning Your Empire

     Each game "turn" is composed of the following phases:

          A.  Alliance Round
          B.  Ruling Round
          C.  Government Actions Round
          D.  Battle Round

     I'll briefly go through each in turn:

     cbAc4. cfAlliance Round

     Alliances are a VERY important part of the game.  A player does not
     have a very good chance of surviving in the game if they are
     independent or if they are in a weak alliance.  This much the same
     way as a real war situation.  You must choose your alliance carefully
     because of this.  If you are simply going to join an alliance read
     all the alliance descriptions carefully.

     The alliance round is where you form, join, list, or otherwise
     manipulate alliances.  New players will have the options to
     join an alliance, start a new alliance, list existing alliances,
     and quit alliance mode.

     If you decide to join an alliance it will prompt you for an alliance
     number or will list all the alliances for you.  Please not listing
     the alliances and this point is different from the list you get by
     typing 'L' to list just the names of the alliances.  The game will
     show you some statistics on each alliance and show a description of
     the alliance written by the leader.  Just follow the prompts.

     If you decide to start an alliance, you will be prompted for a
     name, then you will become the leader of that alliance.  You must
     also decide how many of each kind of force to charge your members
     to remain in your alliance.  Remember, you're a member so you also
     have to pay the fees.  Leaders get to do a few things that no one else
     can do:  Break up (dissolve) an alliance and kick someone out of your
     alliance (Expell).  You may also change your alliances fees at any
     time.  You will be the only one in your alliance that is notified
     when your alliance is attacked and when a player defaults on their
     payments.  A newly formed alliance recieves 21 turns of protection
     much the same way as a player does.  Attacking another alliance or
     spying on another alliance will void your protection.

     The alliance maintains an army, to which individual members
     contribute some of their forces.  This alliance army is used
     to protect each of the members from attack (see below).  If
     the alliance is disbanded, each member should get the troops
     it contributed back.

     Each day you must make payments to your alliance in the form of
     forces.  The amount of the payment is determined by your leader.  If
     you do not have enough forces to pay your fees on a certain day the
     game will record this in your record and when you try to join another
     team the leader of that team will see how many you times you balked
     on your previous team.  You can make up for a missed payment by
     donating forces to your alliance (review defense forces on the
     alliance menu).  If you donate enough forces to make up for a full
     payment then one balk will be deducted from your record.  The game
     will accept a negative amount of balks so you may donate ahead of
     time in case you think you may default in the future.

     Also, there is a bank account for each alliance that any alliance
     member may deposit to and withdraw from.  The advantage of this
     bank account over the individual accounts is that there are more
     people contributing to the account, thus more money in the account,
     thus higher interest payments from the DSE InterGalactic Bank.

     cbBc4. cfRuling Round

     The Ruling Round is where you get a report of the current
     status of your empire, and decide how to budget your credits.
     You must pay for the upkeep of your planets, feed your people,
     and pay for your army and/or spies.

     It is advised that you keep close to the indicated nominal
     values (if possible), otherwise your people will become
     displeased with your leadership.  If that happens, rebels
     will spring up and wreak havok on your empire.  Allocating
     extra money or food to your people will generally raise
     their faith in you, however.

     There are two forms of income for your empire:  Ore mining and tax
     money.  Ore money is derived from the number of ore mining planets
     you have.  Tax money is based on the number of people in your empire.
        
     cbCc4. cfGovernment Actions Round

     Next is the Government Actions menu.  This has a number of things
     you can do: Government Purchases, Government Sales, Covert Operations,
     Special Missions, Defense Industry Production, Radio Network, and
     Visit Bank.

     cd-cfGovernmment Purchasescd-cf

     When you select Government Purchases, you will be presented
     with a list of things you can buy, ranging from army soldiers
     to spies to planets.

     A note on governing planets:  You MUST have one governing
     planet for every 25 other planets.  Governing planets do
     nothing more than sap your funds, but they are required to
     keep law and order in your empire.  If you do not have enough,
     then things will get out of hand quickly.

     A note on training planets: Training planets will train a small
     number of soldiers per turn, thus adding to your total amount of
     soldiers without having to pay for them.

     A note on research planets: One research planet will raise your
     "tech level" by .5 each turn.  Therfore, if you have 5 research
     planets, your tech level will go up by 2.5 each turn.  The higher
     the tech level, the more efficient your defense, ore mining,
     agricultural, and training planets will be.

     Hint:  Buying ore planets will generate more revenue next turn.

     cd-cfGovernment Salescd-cf

     This gives you a very similar menu to Government Purchases, however,
     whatever you select is what you want to sell.  Items can be sold at
     half their original value.

     cd-cfCovert Operationscd-cf

     If you have any spies, then you will be able to conduct covert
     missions against other players.  You can use this to find out
     information about other players.  But be warned that the con-
     sequences of a failed mission are severe.  Note that spying on
     another person will void your protection.  The computer will notify
     you of this.

     cd-cfSpecial Missionscd-cf

     You must also have spies for this.  This allows you to try to start
     a rebellion, demoralize troops, tap communications, or bribe spies
     from another empire.

     cd-cfDefense Industry Productioncd-cf

     Here is where you set the production percentages for your defense
     planets (which you purchase from the Government Purchases menu).
     You need to set what percentage of fighters, cruisers, and defense
     stations you want your defense planets to make.

     cd-cfRadio Networkcd-cf

     This is available in a couple other places as well.  Here you can
     send private messages to other player(s) or post public messages
     for all players to read.

     cd-cfVisit Bankcd-cf

     The bank is designed to help you budget your money which can be very
     important at the later stages of the game.  Also, another person
     spying on you cannot see the money that is in your bank but they can
     see the money in your normal credit balance.  The Bank pays 2%
     interest each day that you play.

     cbDc4. cfBattle Round

     After the Government Actions, you will be asked if you want to do
     battle.  Since the best way to get points is to take planets from
     other players, you will probably be doing this a lot.  Choose the
     player you want to attack and the amount of troops you want to send
     over and the battle is on!  Note that if you attempt to attack some-
     one your protection will be nullified (see below).  There is always
     an element of chance in battle, so you always have a chance of winning
     (or losing :-).

     Note that if the defender is part of an alliance, then troops from
     that alliance will rush to his aid.  If the defender is a member of
     YOUR alliance you will expelled from your alliance.  If you are the
     leader then your victim will be expelled rather than yourself.  The
     game will notify you when you attack someone in your own alliance.

     If you emerge the victor in battle, then you will receive 10% of your
     enemy's planets (rounded up).  If you take ALL of your enemy's planets
     (excluding governing planets), then you wipe that player from the game
     (which does wonders for your army's morale).


cb2c4. cfWinning The Game

     To win DSE, you must accumulate 100,000 points.  This is done mostly
     by squashing other players (okay, so its not a friendly game...).
     When a person reaches 100,000 points or more, he becomes the "Space
     Lord".  If he stays there for 7 days, he wins the game and it starts
     over.  If more than one player has over 100,000 points, then the per-
     son with the most points is the Space Lord.  To prevent a player in a
     large alliance from winning without even participating in a single
     battle himself you cannot be a space lord if you are a member of a
     team.

     Note that there can be only ONE winner.  That generally means you have
     to stab somebody in the back if you're part of an alliance and you
     want to win.  This becomes more significant towards the end of the
     game.  Since most players will not be on their own a few teams will
     emerge as the strong ones.  You will eventually have to attack someone
     in your own team.

cb3c4. cfMiscellaneous Stuff

     New players are protected from being attacked for their first 21 turns
     (or whatever the SysOp sets this to).  Use them wisely.  If you attack
     someone (or even ATTEMPT to attack someone), then your protection will
     be cancelled.  Also, attempting an infiltration spy mission will
     cancel your protection.

