                Amiga Empire by Chris Gray - Sectors


The Amiga Empire world consists of a square array of sectors. In the normal
case, about 50% of the sectors will be sea sectors, about 5% will be
mountains, and the rest will be wildernesses. Each country starts out with
a pair of sanctuary sectors, side-by-side. Wilderness sectors vary in the
richness of the iron and gold ore deposits they contain. An iron mine
sector with a rich deposit of iron ore will produce useable ore at a faster
rate than a sector with a poor deposit. Similar for gold mines, except that
the gold deposit is used up as the gold mine turns it into gold bars.
Natural borders formed by mountain ranges and seas are often used by
neighboring countries to mark their political borders. Since shipping gold
bars and ore around takes time and mobility, most people try to keep the
consuming sectors fairly close to the producing ones. This also applies to
produced goods like shells and guns. So, in general, care should be taken
when designating sectors - think about what is or will be close to the
sector, and how it fits in with what you have already constructed. If you
redesignate a sector which is already efficient, you lose the work and cost
that was needed to make the sector efficient. Thus, you should try to get
your designations right the first time. An exception to this is sectors
along a volatile border, or gold mine sectors, which are usually re-
designated when the gold in them runs out.

"Production" in Empire is a measure of the work done in a sector. It is an
intermediate form of the final product produced by the sector. For example,
an airport turns ore into production and then into airplanes. Production
cannot be moved from one sector to another, but the 'contract' command
allows you to contract the new production in your sectors. The contract is
to some distant buyer outside of the Empire game. Production prices are
semi-randomly determined - refusing a low offered price is usually wise.
Occasionally, very high prices will be offered. The rate of production is
proportional to the number of workers present. Each civilian is considered
to be a worker, but it takes 5 military to be a worker.

There is a fairly wide variety of sector types in Empire. The following
discussion compares the various sector types to a "standard" sector, which
doesn't really exist, but is used for this comparison. The character given
with the type is the character which represents that type on maps, and
which must be used with the 'designate' command to create sectors of that
type.

. - sea
    Sea sectors are the realm of ships. The only other sectors in which
    ships can sail are harbor and bridge span sectors. Sea sectors are the
    only ones which can be mined (as in ship-destroying mines). Only a
    deity can designate a sector to be a sea sector, thus normal countries
    cannot affect them. If goods or people are moved into a sea sector,
    they are lost, hence sea sectors cannot be claimed.

^ - mountain
    Mountains, like sea sectors, cannot be designated by normal countries.
    Thus, they too are not terribly useful. Mountain sectors can be moved
    into, however, although it takes a great deal of mobility. Because of
    this, mountain sectors make reasonably good natural borders.

- - wilderness
    Most of the usable world starts out as wildernesses. Wildernesses can
    be owned, but they don't do anything special. Wilderness cost twice as
    much mobility to move onto as regular sectors.

s - sanctuary
    Each country starts out owning two side-by-side sanctuary sectors.
    Sanctuaries cannot be attacked, bombed or shelled. If you move
    something out of a sanctuary, the sanctuary will be automatically
    turned into a capital. This is called "breaking sanctuary". You cannot
    designate new sanctuaries. Their purpose is to shield late starting
    countries from early starting ones which might stumble across them.

c - capital
    Your active capital (originally your left-hand sector, later the sector
    you have most recently designated as a capital) is the center of your
    private co-ordinate system, thus it is at co-ordinates 0,0. When your
    active capital is updated, you gain BTUs, depending on how long it was
    since the last update, and on how many civilians are there. Capitals
    defend against 'attack' harder than standard sectors, and are capable
    of anti-aircraft fire.

u - urban area
    Urban areas bundle civilians in units of 10. Thus, they can hold up to
    1270 of them. Urban areas turn ore into new civilians faster than any
    other sector can make them reproduce. Enlistment does not work in urban
    areas. Because of the bundling, urban areas are very good at moving
    civilians around.

a - army boot camp
    Boot camp sectors are similar to urban areas, except that they can hold
    up to 1270 civilians and military. Boot camp sectors convert civilians
    in them to military. They require that 30 civilians be kept in them
    at all times, and create military in classes of up to 100.

d - defense plant
    These sectors turn ore into production units and then into guns.

i - shell industry
    These sectors turn ore into production units and then into shells.

m - mine
    Production in these sectors, which is governed by the richness of the
    iron ore deposit, is turned into ore, which is the basic construction
    component in Empire.

g - gold mine
    Production in these sectors, which is governed by the richess of the
    gold ore deposit, is turned into gold bars. Gold bars should be moved
    into efficient banks, where they will earn interest when the banks are
    updated.

h - harbor
    Production in harbors (from ore) can be used to build ships. Building
    ships is not automatic - it must be done using the 'build' command. You
    have the choice of the type of ship to build. Building ships also costs
    money in proportion to the BTU cost. Harbors are the only places at
    which ships can be loaded and unloaded.

w - warehouse
    Warehouses are used for storing and moving goods. They store shells,
    guns, and ore in bundles of 10, thus upto 1270 of each. They also move
    them out in bundles of 10, at the same cost in mobility that a standard
    sector would need for 1.

* - airport
    Airports turn production (from ore) into airplanes. Each airplane
    normally requires quite a bit of production. Airplanes can only take
    off from airports or from aircraft carriers. Similarly, the chances of
    landing at a 100% efficient airport in good weather are perfect.
    Airports are capable of anti-aircraft fire.

t - technology center
    Production from ore in these sectors is turned into "technological
    advances", each of which adds 1 to your country's technology level.
    That level in turn determines your technology factor which scales such
    things as ship and airplane fuel consumption, shelling range, etc.

r - research lab
    Production from ore in these sectors is turned into "medical
    breakthroughs", each of which adds 1 to your country's research level.
    Your research level affects the likelihood of catching the plague.

f - fort
    Forts are the major land-based fighting sector. They can fire guns (up
    to 7, normally) offensively and can defend other sectors within their
    range of fire. Military attacking from a fort fight twice as hard as
    normal. Military defending from a fort fight four times as hard as
    normal. These factors are scaled by the fort's efficiency. Forts are
    also capable of anti-aircraft fire.

+ - highway
    Highways are the main land transportation device. Moving something onto
    a 100% efficient highway costs NO mobility. Normally, other countries
    can move things onto (and hence across) highway sectors, unless the
    highway is checkpointed.

) - radar station
    Radar stations have land-based radar, which can be used to look at a
    few of a neighbor country's sectors, and to watch out over the sea for
    ships.

! - weather station
    Weather stations can be used to predict the weather. This is dependent
    on your technology factor. Knowing the weather to expect can offer
    advantages during wars.

# - bridge head
    Bridge head sectors turn ore into production. The 'build' command can
    then be used to build bridge spans in an orthogonal direction over sea
    sectors from a bridge head. Thus, you can build a two-span bridge over
    a river or sea arm. The span also normally costs $2000. If a bridge
    head is damaged below 20%, any bridge spans connected to it will
    collapse back into the sea.

= - bridge spans
    These are built on bridge heads. They are much the same as highways. If
    they are damaged below 20%, they will collapse back into the sea,
    dumping everything that was on them.

b - bank
    Gold bars stored in efficient banks will collect interest. Banks bundle
    gold bars in units of 4, thus they can hold 508 of them. They can also
    move them much easier than other sectors (gold bars are very heavy!)
    Military in banks defend harder than normal, and banks are capable of
    anti-aircraft fire.

x - exchange
    Exchanges are used in international trade. Delivery routes out of
    exchanges cannot be constructed, but exchanges can sell goods in them
    to exchanges in other countries.

