Archive-name: games/empire/faq
Posting-frequency: every 7 days
Last-modified: 1996/03/26


This is the text version of the web page:
  /empire/uesugi/html/FAQ.html

        
        -=[ Empire FAQ ]=-
        26 Mar 1996

This FAQ answers these questions:

==Description==
   * What is Empire?
   * Do I need direct internet access ("telnet") to be able to play?
   * What kinds of machines can I play from?
   * Are there "turns" in this game?
   * How long does a typical game last?
   * Sounds neat! How do I play?

==Connecting==
   * Where do I get a client for my machine?
   * All those clients are in tar.gz format. How do I get something out of
     tar.gz format?
   * 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?
   * Just out of curiosity, what long term games are going on right now, and is
     there a way I could peek in on them?
   * The basic unix client is, well, basic. Are there more sophisticated
     clients available?
   * Are there any tools available for playing empire?

==Playing==
   * 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?
   * There seem to be a million commands! What are the basic commands I should
     read about first?
   * What's a Representative?
   * What is a BTU and how do I get more?
   * How do I build a ship?
   * How do I load stuff on a ship?
   * How do I get civilians to another island?
   * Where do you make land units?
   * Why aren't my ships/planes/units gaining efficiency?
   * I have a ship with "oiler" capacity, now how do I find out how much oil a
     sea sector has?
   * Who can help me get started playing Empire?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

==Description==

What is Empire?
     It is a strategy wargame played by a number of people (usually between 4
     and 100) 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 hexagonal grid, you decide (based
     on resources) what each sector's "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 defense and conquest. You also have the tricky job of balancing a
     budget. 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.
     
     NOTE: rec.games.empire has nothing at all to do with a commercial PC game
     called "Empire Deluxe" (1993) or the PC version of an old VAX classic
     called "Empire: Wargame of the Century" which came out in the 80's and may
     be found at ftp://ftp.iol.ie/users/ai/pcempire.zip
      (ftp://ftp.iol.ie/users/ai/pcempire.zip) The newsgroups
     comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.announce and comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic concern
     themselves with games like these. However, people who enjoy those
     single-user versions of Empire would certainly enjoy the multi-user kind
     of empire we play here even more!

Do I need direct internet access ("telnet") to be able to play?
     Yes. It is a "real-time" game. You can not play by mail.

What kinds of machines can I play from?
     You can play from a Unix, VMS, VM/CMS, Macintosh, or PC (MS Windows or
     OS/2) machine that is directly connected to the internet (via LAN, SLIP,
     or PPP).

Are there "turns" in this game?
     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 type fast, then you will
     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 "updates").

How long does a typical game last?
     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 every day or every few days. They last
     2-6 months. To learn the basics of empire, it is highly recommended that
     you first try "blitzing" a few times.

Sounds neat! How do I play?
     Well, you can play right now if you want! All you need to do is get a
     client program onto your computer, and then connect to a game.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

==Connecting==

Where do I get a client for my machine?
     The standard Empire clients are located on the World Wide Web in the
     Planet's Empire Archives  (http://www.empire.net/~children/) (PEA), in the
     directory player/clients
      (http://www.empire.net/~children/PEA/player/clients/). If you have
     trouble connecting to the PEA, then you should try the PEA Mirror
      (http://www.santafe.edu/~empire/) which is updated once per day.
     
     The standard Empire client has been ported to:
        * UNIX
           (ftp://ftp.empire.net/pub/empire/player/clients/UNIX/empclient/)
        * VMS  (ftp://ftp.empire.net/pub/empire/player/clients/VMS/)
        * VM / CMS  (ftp://ftp.empire.net/pub/empire/player/clients/VM_CMS/)
        * Macintosh
           (ftp://ftp.empire.net/pub/empire/player/clients/Macintosh/)
        * MS Windows Winsock
           (ftp://ftp.empire.net/pub/empire/player/clients/Windows/)
        * OS/2  (ftp://ftp.empire.net/pub/empire/player/clients/OS2/)
     
     I'd recommend using a web browser to get your client. But if for some
     reason you can't do that, then here's how you get a client using ftp:
     
     ftp ftp.empire.net
     ftp
     ok@
     cd pub/empire
     cd player/clients/UNIX/empclient
     bin
     get empclient-2.5b.tar.gz
     quit
     gunzip empclient-2.5b.tar.gz
     tar -xf empclient-2.5b.tar
     cd client
     make

All those clients are in tar.gz format. How do I get something out of tar.gz
format?
     In unix, you simply follow the steps above. For other systems (e.g. home
     computers), you would need to get a copy of gzip and tar for your
     computer. Here is a short list:
     
     For MS Windows, the program av.zip
      (ftp://ftp.cica.indiana.edu/pub/pc/win3/util/av.zip) will unpack files in
     many formats including tar and gzip.
     
     For the Macintosh, look on any Sumex archive, such as The Hyperarchive
      (http://hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/HyperArchive.html):
        * MacTar
           (http://hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/HyperArchive/Archive/cmp/tar-40b.hqx)
        * MacGzip
           (http://hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/HyperArchive/Archive/cmp/mac-gzip-10b0.hqx)
     
     For DOS, look on any Simtel archive, such as oak.oakland.edu:
        * Gzip for DOS
           (ftp://oak.oakland.edu/SimTel/msdos/compress/gzip124.zip)
        * Tar for DOS
           (ftp://oak.oakland.edu/SimTel/msdos/archiver/tar4dos.zip)
        * Tar 320 for DOS
           (ftp://oak.oakland.edu/SimTel/msdos/archiver/tar320c-.zip)
     
     For other platforms, go to The Virtual Software Library
      (http://vsl.cnet.com/) and do a 'power' search for "tar" and "gzip".

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?
     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 for
     new game announcements. You can also check the New Games Starting Up
      (http://www.empire.net/~children/pea_pages/NEWS.html#New) section of the
     EMPIRE NEWS  (http://www.empire.net/~children/pea_pages/NEWS.html). A new
     long term game is announced about twice a month.
     
     However, there is a blitz up and running even as you read this post. The
     blitz resets every evening at 19:02pm EDT (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 "empire.net" (205.164.80.15), and the port
     is 7778. For country, use a number from 1 to 10, and use the same number
     for the password. For example, to use the standard client to connect to
     country number 9 of the blitz, type:
     
     setenv EMPIREHOST empire.net
     setenv EMPIREPORT 7778
     setenv COUNTRY 9
     setenv PLAYER 9
     empire
     info
     quit 

     Note that if country number 9 is already in use when you try to
     connect, then you should just try a different number from 1 to 10. A
     complete list of blitzes currently running may be found on the PEA Pages
      (http://www.empire.net/~children/pea_pages/). Immediately after
     successfully connecting to a blitz, you should change your country name
     and representative (password). This prevents others from using the same
     country and adds texture to the game. Nobody likes to be attacked by a
     number! If you quit a blitz and don't intend to return, be sure to change
     the country number and representative back to the original state.

Just out of curiosity, what long term games are going on right now, and is
there a way I could peek in on them?
     Most long term games have "visitor" countries (country "visitor" or
     "Visitor" with the same name for a password) that you can use to log into
     the game. For a list of the current long term games, check the PEA Page
     Currently Running Games
      (http://www.empire.net/~children/pea_pages/games.html).
     
     Once you connect to one of these games, you can have a look at what's
     going on by typing power or news.

The basic unix client is, well, basic. Are there more sophisticated clients
available?
     Yes. Ken Stevens has written an Empire client called "pei" with lots of
     nice features and many built-in tools. The latest version of pei is on the
     PEA in player/clients/  (ftp://ftp.empire.net/pub/empire/player/clients/)
     
     If you're looking for a UNIX client that's something in-between the
     standard client and pei, then try out player/clients/eif1.0.3.tar.gz
      (ftp://ftp.empire.net/pub/empire/player/clients/eif1.0.3.tar.gz). There
     are also two X-windows clients available on the PEA at
        * player/clients/xemp/
           (ftp://ftp.empire.net/pub/empire/player/clients/xemp/)
        * player/clients/myxec/
           (ftp://ftp.empire.net/pub/empire/player/clients/myxec/)

Are there any tools available for playing empire?
     Yes. You can find a small arsenal of player tools on the PEA in
     player/tools  (http://www.empire.net/~children/PEA/player/tools/).
     However, some of the tools in this directory are out of date, and most of
     the useful tools in this directory have been integrated into "pei".
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

==Playing==

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?
     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". If you have World
     Wide Web access, then I highly recommend browsing Drake Diedrich's
     harmless guide to Empire  (http://www.empire.net/~harmless/guide.html).
     The entire Empire "info" docs are on the PEA in
     player/docs/chainsaw.3.0.info.tar.gz
      (ftp://ftp.empire.net/pub/empire/player/docs/chainsaw.3.0.info.tar.gz) I
     would also recommend having a look at player/docs/WhatIsEmpire-FAQ.txt
      (ftp://ftp.empire.net/pub/empire/player/docs/WhatIsEmpire-FAQ.txt). You
     may also want to have a look at the Empire Users Guide
      (http://www.empire.net/~children/ftp/player/docs/Users.Guide.gz),
     although this document is a few years out of date and is currently being
     revised.

There seem to be a million commands! What are the basic commands I should read
about first?
     Use the "info" command to read about these commands: change, break, map,
      ann, wire, tel, read, expl, move, res, cen, dist, thresh, lev,
      com, prod, budget.

What is a Representative?
     A password.

What's a BTU and how do I get more?
     A BTU is a "Bureucratic Time Unit". Most Empire commands require BTU's. In
     a blitz, you don't need to worry about BTU's. In a long term game, BTU's
     are generated by civilians in efficient "c" sectors (capitols) 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.

How do I build a ship?
     Using the build command.

How do I load stuff on a ship?
     Using the load command.

How do I get civilians to another island?
     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 harbor should be
     2% efficient and you will be able to nav a ship carrying civs into the
     harbor and unload them.

Where do you make land units?
     In a "!" sector.

Why aren't my ships/planes/units gaining efficiency?
     Ships need to be in an "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 actually 4x what "show" says).
     You need to have enough lcm's and hcm's in the sector. Land units can also
     need guns and shells. In the client "pei" you can use the "sneweff",
     "pneweff", and "lneweff" tools to find out what efficiency your
     ship/planes/units will have after the next update, and if they won't get
     maximum efficient, what the sector needs.

I have a ship with "oiler" capacity, now how do I find out how much oil a sea
sector has?
     While you're navigating the ship, type "v" and you will get output like:
     
       [oil:82] oil derrick 1 (#297) @ 11,-1 0% sea
     which means that that sea sector has an oil content of 82.

Who can help me get started playing Empire?
     Before asking anyone, please try to find your answer in:
        * this FAQ,
        * the Planet's Empire Archives  (http://www.empire.net/~children/),
        * the documentation that came with your client,
        * the " info " command in the game.
     
     If you are new to playing Empire and need help getting started, and you
     can't find your answer in one of the above sources, then send email to one
     of the Empire Newbie Helpers
      (http://www.empire.net/~children/pea_pages/admin.html#Newbie-Helper).
     
     Mark Ballinger (uesugi@empire.net)
