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.