carlton@genrad.UUCP (Carl Hommel) (09/17/84)
Here are 20 tips for beginning players.
1. use the <realm> command to set realm 1 to -20:20,-10:10.
Then, after every update, say "realm 0 #1"
This will let you see what is surrounding you.
2. Toss all of your iron and most of your civilians into one of your
two ex-sanctuaries. You need the civilians much more than you need
the BTU's. When you start getting people, move them back into your capitol.
3. Send out small groups of people (like 1-5) to find mountains. Your
objective: an iron mine in the 75-100 range. You need iron to throw into
your urban center to get more people.
4. Designate the sectors with 1-5 people in them as "+" (roads). There aren't
enough people in them to do anything useful, and even a 1% road is better
for moving people than a "-" (wilderness).
5. You don't need more than 1 urban center. Its hard enough scrounging up
enough iron ore for it and all the "j" (light manufacturing) and "k"
(heavy manufacturing).
6. Make sure that any sector with more than 100 civilians has food in it.
Otherwise, they won't make babies, and a civilian workforce is everything.
7. Go through <info sector-types> and <info production> and make a chart
showing what products need which materials.
8. Resist the urge to ignore happiness. I think it impacts the following:
a) Unhappy people will not build guns (or airplanes).
b) Unhappy people will not <enlist> in your army very easily.
c) Happy people make babies faster.
9. "l" sectors are libraries, not light manufacturing. (An easy, but dumb
mistake, I made it twice last game.
10. Be very careful with the <enlist> command.
"enlist # ?desig=f 50" will not enlist 50 people in every fortress, but
50 people from every sector.
11. Use warehouses. They make it much easier to move products.
12. You need 11 times as much oil as gold dust. However, oil comes from the
sea. Large gold mines (80-100) are worth fighting over.
13. hcm's are primarily used for national defence. They build guns, shells,
and ships. If you don't feel threatened by your neighbors, (ie if you
can't find them) you don't need that many of them. Remember, if you
stockpile hcm, they won't show up on the power reports.
14. lcm's are the "butter" of the "guns or butter" equation. They buy
happiness, education, technology, and research.
15. Do not ignore research. Your tech level should be half of your research
level. If you don't believe me, wait until your first plague. But then,
it will be too late.
16. Plague will show up in an urban center with over 3000 people and 500 iron.
You MUST have several 100% roads "+" to get the people out to avoid plague.
17. Spend the BTU's to do a <power new> at least once a day, if POGO doesn't.
Store the results of these in one big file. Compare your progress to
others. Are they militarizing? Spreading out? Concentrating in a few
high efficency sectors?
18. A fleet is the second greatest drain on resources in the game. Nuclear
weapons are the first.
19. Islands: You must <assault> the island from a ship. Turn it into a
harbor "h". When it gets up to 2% efficency, move in a cargo ship, unload
civilians and food, and turn it into whatever you want.
20. If an island has more than 2 sectors to it, build a bridgehead to it. This
is a reasonable use of 200 hcm's.
Enjoy!
Carl Hommel
Wife: Oh, no! He just nuked your 100% gold mines!
Husband: No problem. They were played out, and he missed the warehouse.derek@uwvax.ARPA (Derek Zahn) (09/19/84)
I found the tutorial very interesting, however I have a slight problem.
Here at the university of Wisconsin, we do not have a copy of empire.
Anyone out there who would be willing to give us a copy with
documentation (source is not necessary; we are running 4.2 on VAXen),
I would appreciate it very much. Please reply by mail to me.
Thanks in advance,
derek
--
Derek Zahn @ wisconsin
...!{allegra,heurikon,ihnp4,seismo,sfwin,ucbvax,uwm-evax}!uwvax!derek
derek@wisc-rsch.arpachuck@dartvax.UUCP (Chuck Simmons) (09/22/84)
<You are broke! Mines and industries are now on strike.> Thanks on the tips for playing empire. I hope my comments on your tips won't be too obnoxious. >1. use the <realm> command to set realm 1 to -20:20,-10:10. > Then, after every update, say "realm 0 #1" > This will let you see what is surrounding you. Don't use the 'update' command. Set realm 0 so that it encompasses everything you are interested in seeing in a map. (My realm 0 is set to -50:20,-45:20.) Set up realm 1 to encompass the area that you update every day. Then instead of updating, use the 'census #1' command. The 'census' command doesn't use up btu's, nor does it change your realm 0. And if you use ve(6), you'll be giving 'census' commands every day anyway. >5. You don't need more than 1 urban center. Its hard enough scrounging up > enough iron ore for it and all the "j" (light manufacturing) and "k" > (heavy manufacturing). I have 5 urban centers. I am producing more iron than my u/j/k sectors can use, and am looking for more. (Those 3 mines with min=100 help alot.) Some reasons for having lots of urban centers are: 1) The more urban sectors you have the greater your "surface area" is. Having a large "surface area" helps a lot in getting civilians moved out of the way. 2) You can still produce a lot of people, but you don't have to worry quite as much about the plague problems associated with populous urban sectors. >11. Use warehouses. They make it much easier to move products. Also, build good 100% highways. A good highway is surrounded on both sides by sectors that produce and consume goods. (Libraries and parks should be far away from highways, but adjacent to light manufacturing. Radar and weather stations (and forts?) need not be near a highway.) Note that the total mobility cost of moving iron (for example) from a mine, to a warehouse and then to an urban center is greater than the mobility cost of moving iron from a mine, to a 100% highway, moving along the highway for a while, and then moving to an urban center. But warehouses definitely have their uses. In particular, iron tends to be found in mountains and there may not be room for a road. A nearby warehouse, however, can help get the iron out of the mountains into the lowlands. If I've been blithering, please tell me quickly. The livelihood of my nation depends on it! Chuck