The map is a rectangle 600*1000 miles on a side. The resolution is 10, so the map you see is 60*100. The map consists of sea='.', land='+', Uncontrolled cities='*', Computer-controlled cities='X', and Your dominated cities='O'. Each emperor gets 1 move per round (1 round=1 day), moves are done sequentially.
The map is displayed on the player's screen during movement. The player prompted to move all pieces that do not otherwise have assigned functions. The typical play of the game is to issue the Move command for each round until you decide to do something special. The game starts by assigning you one city. Your first objective is to capture more cities to expand your production of forces.
The pieces are as follows:
Piece Yours Enemy Moves Hits Phase Maximum Number
ARMY A a 1 1 5 500 FIGHTER F f 4 1 10 200 DESTROYER D d 2 3 20 200 SUBMARINE S s 2 2 25 200 TROOP TRANSPORT T t 2 3 30 100 CRUISER R r 2 8 50 100 AIRCRAFT CARRIER C c 2 8 60 100 BATTLESHIP B b 2 12 75 100
The second column gives the map representations for your units, the third gives the representations of enemy units. Hits is the amount of damage a unit can take before it is destroyed. Phase is the number of turns necessary to produce that unit. Moves is the number of squares that unit can move in a single turn. The last column is the maximum number of that unit that you can have.
Fighter: Fighters move over sea or land. They move 4 times per day.
They are refueled at controlled cities and carriers. They
are shot down over uncontrolled cities. They have a max.
range of 20 spaces.
Ships, general: All ships can only on the sea. They move two times
per move. Ships can also dock in a controlled city.
Docked ships have damage repaired at rate of 1 hit per day.
Destroyer: Typical ship
Submarine: When a submarine scores a hit, 3 hits are exacted instead
of the usual 1 from the enemy unit.
Troop Transport: Troop Transports can carry a maximum of 2 * (the
number of hits left) of armies.
Cruisers: typical ship
Aircraft Carriers: Carriers can carry a maximum of
1 * (the number of hits left) of fighters.
Battleship: typical ship
Awake: no function (you will be asked to move the piece every turn).
Sentry: stay put. do not ask the user to move the piece. wake up if
an enemy piece comes within sensor range.
Random: (for armies only) move at random subject to the following conditions:
If an uncontrolled city is adjacent, attack it.
If an enemy unit is adjacent, attack it.
If an unfilled troop transport of yours is adjacent, get on it and
wake up.
Move if possible without attacking any of your own units.
It will not destroy itself unless it is in a city
surrounded by your units.
An easy way to give it this function is type 'R' when a move
is requested.
Move: move towards location assigned to the piece (in editing mode).
wake up if enemy piece is encountered. wake up temporarily if obstacle is
in path of movement.
Direction: move in specified direction, wake up if enemy piece is
encountered. wake up temporarily if obstacle is in path of movement
Fill: (troop transports and aircraft carriers only) go on sentry duty
until full of armies or fighters.
This is asked between every movement turn. The following commands are valid at this time:
Q: quit program
M: begin movement
V: save game
J: puts you into Editing Mode (explained later), where you can
examine and/or change the functions associated with your pieces
and cities.
P: request sector printout. there are 8 sectors, each
representing a 20*70 area of the map, arranged as follows:
0 4
1 5
2 6
3 7
the sectors overlap by 10 vertically, and 40 horizontally.
Note that the sectors for updating are slightly different,
but this is unimportant.
T: request a block printout of the entire map. use ttynnn in
response to the request for a tty number. default is your own
tty number.
C: give the computer a free move. the game gets more interesting if
you give the computer a headstart of 50 rounds or so!
N: give the computer a bunch of free moves (50 to 75 is good
at the start of the game).
R: display the round number.
H: crashes the program
To simply move a piece, type one of the following keys;
QWE
A D
ZXC
These keys move in the direction of the key from S. The terminal is set no echo and only 1 character is accepted, so no need for a Return. Hit the SPACE BAR if you want the piece to stay put.
the following commands have the same effect as in orders mode J: enter Editing Mode P: Print new sector T: Print sector map V: Save the game
Other commands are:
R: if it's an army, set it to moving at random
S: put on sentry duty.
I: set unit to moving in a direction specified by the next character
typed in which should be one of the 8 standard directions.
G: put the troop transport (or aircraft carrier) to sleep until it
accumulates 6 armies (or 8 fighters), then wake it up. this is equivalent
to putting it in function fill. if the ship is damaged, the ship will
wake up when it has all it can take.
K: wake up all armies (or fighters) on the troop transport (or aircraft
carrier).
?: request the number of hits left on a craft. it also displays the
number of armies (or fighters) aboard.
H: refresh the screen
ATTACKING something is accomplished by moving onto the square of the unit you wish to attack. hits are traded off at 50% probability of a hit landing on one or the other units until one unit is totally destroyed. there is only 1 possible winner.
You are shown only the 8 squares adjacent to your units. This information is updated before and after every move. The map displays the most recent information known.
Coordinates are 4-digit numbers. the first 2 are the row, the second 2 are the column.
NOTE: You are allowed to do FATAL things like attack your own cities, drive armys into the sea and ships into land. Only moving onto the edge of the world causes a warning.
To move the cursor around, use the standard direction keys.
QWE
A D
ZXC
Other commands are:
O: exit from editing mode.
P: print new sector.
R: display round #.
I: give piece (or city) the function 'direction', enter the key
specifying the direction following the 'i'.
K: wake up piece (or city).
S: put piece (or city) to sleep.
?: request info on piece or city. irrelevant for fighters or armies.
Y: change phase of city that cursor is on top of. when program asks for
production demands, key in the letter corresponding to what you want
produced.
L: put army in 'random'.
M: put piece (or city) in 'move' function.
then move the cursor to where you want it to go, and type 'H'.
You can give cities functions. this doesn't affect the city any, but any fighter landing in that city will pick up the specified function. this is useful for setting up automatic fighter movements.
Note that you cannot affect anything inside a city with the editor. this also holds for anything on board a troop transport or an aircraft carrier.
Fighters moving under the command of a function will wake up when they have 10 rounds of fuel left. This is to enable you to decide whether you want to make it kamikaze or send it back to a city for refueling. Be careful to cancel any currently assigned function before trying to bring the fighter back.
This program is used so only one copy of the object code is required as the program pulls EMPIRE across from BRAVO ensuring the latest version of the games is played and also limiting game playing hours.
Please report any problems to PCM or MDP
view:Empire printed on 09/02/89 at 17.25