[net.games.emp] hullo...

rwg (07/16/82)

Some notes from a beginner after his first game (warning: contains whining
which may be considered offensive; parental guidance suggested):

o	routes should be able to fork.
o	why do commands like 'route' take up BTU's?
o	it is undestandable that some commands are unusable without money;
	However, messages like 'enlist is not a valid command' are worse than
	useless (I tried a dozen different spellings/capitalizations/synonyms
	before someone told me what was wrong).
o	If not now the case, ALL actions of the Deity should be detailed in
	the news.
o	There should be a means to create a world where the Deity has only the
	powers of initial creation and final destruction; I envy any site
	where scruples are so high that tampering is not a concern (I trust I
	do not need to enumerate the circumstances which prompted this).
o	It seems unlikely that nations on the verge of nuclear power have no
	idea of the shape of the continents. A map of the world should be
	available. Besides being extremely useful, this would somewhat offset
	the 'world view' of the player who is also the Deity.

Peace and Tranquility to your nation	-	Rich
						"Its only a game..."
						"Its only a game..."

bch (07/19/82)

At unc we have agreed that The Deity should not be a player.  No matter
how scrupulous or careful a player may be, there is always knowledge
in being a Deity that gives you a distinct advantage over the other
players even if you don't want that advantage (i.e you are informed
of plague contraction before anyone else, you are informed of ship
sinkings and, of course, must answer prayers.)  Solutions to the
problem of having essentially no Deity except for the creation are
systemic:
	(1) Run empire in its own group, with an id which is the
	    only id in that group.  Have someone set up all the
	    empire distribution files under that id and prepare them
	    for execution with that id as the privileged user.
	    (This should be done for security reasons anyway.)

	(2) run empcre and some form of randomized nation assignment
	    program such as mkemp (distributed earlier on this list.)

	(3) Turn the id over to someone uninvolved and have them
	    change the password!

	(4) While there are still ways to breach security and gain
	    access to other countries data, at least now everyone
	    has the same chance to do so.

If your local Deity refuses to do this, well....

				Byron Howes