New to Empire
Jayson
I am brand new to Empire. Where is a good place to get my feet wet!
Martin Neitzel
Join one of the "blitzes"! The weekly blitz (with hourly updates)
just started 18 hours ago, and anyway: there's no problem to join
in any day. Details at http://www.wolfpackempire.com/blitzes.html
Scott C. Zielinski aka Gemini has setup a "slow blitz" server with
updates every eight hours, running a month or so per round. Try to
find his article in this newsgroup to join in. Much nicer if you
can't afford to spend half of your day on the game.
Martin
Jayson
> Scott C. Zielinski aka Gemini has setup a "slow blitz" server with
> updates every eight hours, running a month or so per round. Try to
> find his article in this newsgroup to join in. Much nicer if you
> can't afford to spend half of your day on the game.
I was able to connect to one of the other blitz servers port 6789 on
wolfpack. I was the only player there, which is fine for now seeing
that I am still feeling my way around. The biggest problem I am having
is that the client that I am using (empire.py) keeps crashing. Is
there a better client to use on a Linux box. A non GUI client would be
fine, unless they are total garbage.
Garry Moorer
> I was able to connect to one of the other blitz servers port 6789 on
> wolfpack. I was the only player there, which is fine for now seeing
> that I am still feeling my way around. The biggest problem I am having
> is that the client that I am using (empire.py) keeps crashing. Is
> there a better client to use on a Linux box. A non GUI client would be
> fine, unless they are total garbage.
http://www.wolfpackempire.com/clients.html
I hear good things about ptkei. I use winace since my main machine is
a winblows box and of course the gods are always updating it.
You can be old school and go to the archives and use the command line
executable. I find that one very useful in the heat of battle.
empire.exe
The direct link to the archives from wolfpack seems to be broken.
Mebbe someone can fix that.
Ciao,
=GG=
Gemini
You can get to the old school command line interface fromt he clients
page as "empire-client". If you're on *nix, you can build from source.
DOn't know if it explains it, but, when using the command line, whether
*nix or Windoze, you must set at least two environment variables to
match the server you want to connect, i.e.
export EMPIRESERVER=blitz.wolfpackempire.com
export EMPIREPORT=6789
or however your shell sets environment variables. Otherwise, the empire
binary will first try to log onto a local server, if not, it connects
you to the Changling Blitz. I actually recommend that blitz for absolute
beginners, since updates occur so quickly, you can very quickly learn
the commands, their cause and effect, and how updates work. In a broad
sense, the Changling updates in one hour as much as a typical game much
update in a week. If you hopelessly destroy your country, log in and
grab a new one.
The Links page has some invaluable "first few updates" tutorials and
how-tos located at:
http://empserver.sourceforge.net/links.html
The online info pages:
http://empserver.sourceforge.net/infopages/TOP.html
are VERY helpful (although whyy they're under the Deity section, I'm not
sure)
Especially the "Guide" - old and outdated, but MANY good concepts:
http://empserver.sourceforge.net/infopages/Guide.html
found from the
http://empserver.sourceforge.net/infopages/all.html
Pages.
This ng (r.g.e) is a great resource - and questions, or get stuck, post
here, and someone is bound to give a great answer (look at all my posts,
LOL!)
Sincerely,
Scott C. Zielinski
Gemini ][
Jayson
> On Sep 20, 7:42ï¿œpm, Jayson <jay...@jwmlt2.org> wrote:
>
> You can be old school and go to the archives and use the command line
> executable. I find that one very useful in the heat of battle.
> empire.exe
>
I took the old school route. Making slow progress in figuring things
out. Thanks for the links, tips etc...
Gemini
>>
>> You can be old school and go to the archives and use the command line
>> executable. I find that one very useful in the heat of battle.
>> empire.exe
>>
>> =GG=
>
>
> I took the old school route. Making slow progress in figuring things
> out. Thanks for the links, tips etc...
Steep learning curve. There's a lot of info out there, you just need to
make sense of it - painfully slow. But, its very rewarding. Its the only
game I have ever played where I was thrilled and happy and very
fulfilled - just from surviving until update #8 (or something).
:D
Jayson
>
> Steep learning curve. There's a lot of info out there, you just need to
> make sense of it - painfully slow. But, its very rewarding. Its the only
> game I have ever played where I was thrilled and happy and very
> fulfilled - just from surviving until update #8 (or something).
>
> :D
Sure glad you said that. The game frankly is huge! There is a ton of
stuff to learn before you can even begin to think about
combat. Education, tech levels, distribution, defenses,
etc... Nevertheless, I am already hooked.
My latest area of frustration was with education. I am not sure what
the exact relationship between education and tech level is, but I built a
library, in an effort to create some education. The Library was at
about 89% and the population for that sector was about 60, but no
education was being generated. Any tips on why?
On a separate note, I was thinking about why this game is so
attractive to some (myself in particular). If I may wax metaphoric;
Empire seems to me like some ancient doohicky that you stumbled upon,
in your fathers dresser draw, from when he was just a little boy. What
the heck is this thing? A doohicky with lots of worn buttons, brass
toggle switches. Meters all over, that lite up dimly when you flip on
the power switch. I get the gist of how the dohicky is suppose to
work, but what the heck are all these buttons. Why when I hit this
button, does this meter move. Ahhh figuring out all those blasted
buttons and dials, knobs and switches. ...and making them all work
together! That is what has my attention with Empire. Empire is a
thinking mans game. If you hold on to the notion of playing Empire for
more that a weekend, then you must be a thinking man. You have to
think, just to figure out how to go about learning the game. You have
likely done a lot of thinking about how to put that 'execute' command
to work for you, after typing "exp c 0,0 ..." for the thousandth
time. Long before you have ever stepped into you first "real" game,
you have likely done more thinking about your first 10 updates, than
you have for any other game you have ever played. Thinkers like
Empire, because Empire is a thinking mans game.
Or, it could just be a really cool way to kill some time...
--J
Garry Moorer
snip...
> My latest area of frustration was with education. I am not sure what
> the exact relationship between education and tech level is, but I built a
> library, in an effort to create some education. The Library was at
> about 89% and the population for that sector was about 60, but no
> education was being generated. Any tips on why?
You need lcms in your library/school (l) for education.
Various people have different theories on what the edu vs tech level
should be. It depends on how you run your budget and how high you
want your tech production efficiency be, how much tech you want to
produce and spend money on, vs how much you want to spend on
education.
Tech and education can be very $$$. If you have no money you can't
build any toys to wage war with.
If you fall too far behind in technology you may have a problem.
Clients such as winace can tell you the exact amount of points (which
is different the production report) each update. Meaning you can see
what your near exact tech and edu will be after the update.
Commands such as info, production [*], budget, power [n], report [*],
etc. are your friends.
If you ever have time, do "info" and "list of commands" and then do
info on specific topics that seem important to you.
For example "info Producing", "info sector-types", info "Products",
"info mission", or whatever.
Hope this helps.
Ciao,
=GM=
Gemini
Its all those things, and more. I know, cliche. It is what you want it
to be. You could be the player that has a spreadsheet that calculates
every every last formula for the game, so he knows whether to to put 75
or 76 LCMs in that Library, on this update AND what to do with the extra
LCM if its 75. He'll also have several instances of emp_server going,
where he can export the world offline and toy with several 'models' for
the next few updates to ensure he's made the perfect choice. He aims not
just to win, but to win in the most efficient manner.
All the way to the casual player; who enjoys all the complexities and
micromanagement that the game entails, but is playing for pleasure,
knowing that he'll never have the dedication to actually win - and will
get a lot of enjoyment just from playing well from time to time.
I have found that every game I have played, I have learned something
new. The game is 'realistic' but not necessarily based on the real
world. It filled, for me, a niche of wanting to play a war game in a
perpetual world - I grew tires of "RTS" games (there was no actual
'strategy' in an RTS - it was whomever could click the fastest and blitz
their opponent first.)
It can be a frustrating and infuriating game - especially in the
beginning. Some people leave for years; but then come back. Its been
maintained for something like 30 years now - so sometimes its like a car
you have for years - still pretty reliable, but, you gotta warm her up
just right, and never shift at the wrong time. Don't use your left turn
signal and windshield wipers simultaneously. But if you can do that, she
rewards you with a great sense of comfort and reliability. Such is
Empire. Wolfpack has donated countless hours over many years and what we
have today is a pretty darn good product. It might not be perfect, but I
haven't found anything else that could replace it.
Anyway, I have rambled on, as I am prone to do. Stick with it - learn -
read the rich history enjoy a few games and you too will be a part of
the life of this game.
P.S. Now that summer is over, we gonna get some games going?
Scott C. Zielinski
Gemini
Gemini
>>
>> :D
>
>
<snip>
>
> My latest area of frustration was with education. I am not sure what
> the exact relationship between education and tech level is, but I built a
> library, in an effort to create some education. The Library was at
> about 89% and the population for that sector was about 60, but no
> education was being generated. Any tips on why?
>
> --J
FYI, Garry is right, but I would also add that the higher the Education,
the more 'efficient' your tech production is. i.e. you'll produce more
tech for the same resource and $$$ cost. This is a logarithmic formula,
so, it becomes less effective the more EDU you produce. Through
experience, you'll need to find your own sweet spot for what you're
trying to accomplish. As Garry said, WinACE will do a lot of those
calculations for you. I think the formulas are in the info pages, but,
they're not for the feint of heart. Even so, building a tech edu model
will just give you the resulting numbers - you still will need to know
what to do with that. Generally, in the beginning, I just winged for
what I felt was right - whilst checking with WinACE's projections.
You'll get an idea of where you're standing if you do a issue the report
command - either your tech/edu will be within the range of most other
players, or not. If it is, you're doing the right thing - if its too
high, you run the risk of running out of resources - too low, you run
the risk of being left behind and unable to compete.
Everything in this game affects everything else. i.e. The amount of Oil
pulled from the ground is directly related to your tech level - the
higher the tech, the more oil per o_content you'll get. BUT you need oil
to produce tech...so, you need to manage that.
Once you get the basics, you'll be all, "Ah, this is easy!" but then
you'll dig a little deeper, and a whole new layer will open up - and
empire will become a different, better game. Like your dad saying he
bought you a car. Cool. Then you find out the car is a sports car. then
you find out its a classic 65 Mustang. Then you find out its all that
AND its been tricked out, etc etc etc.
Geez I've rambled on AGAIN....
Scott C. Zielinski
Gemini
Jayson
> Garry Moorer <gmo...@gmail.com> writes:
> Another client you might want to try is lafe. It has its little quirks,
> especially with quoting, but I find it useful. Comes with Debian.
> Source here:
> http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/pool/main/e/empire-lafe/empire-lafe_1.0.orig.tar.gz
This is the only one I have not tried yet. I give it a whirl and let
you know.
> If you're feeling adventurous, try WinACE under Wine, and let us
> know whether it works. > The direct link to the archives from
I have tried WinACE under Wine, and it worked, but seemed a bit
glitchy. Possibly not an issue for an experienced player, but for me
it was enough to put WinAce to the side for now. Are there some
features in the GUI versions that seriously outshine the CLI verson,
or is it just a matter of preference?
Garry Moorer
> Markus Armbruster <arm...@pond.sub.org> wrote:
> > Another client you might want to try is lafe. It has its little quirks,
> > especially with quoting, but I find it useful. Comes with Debian.
> > Source here:
>
> This is the only one I have not tried yet. I give it a whirl and let
> you know.
>
> > If you're feeling adventurous, try WinACE under Wine, and let us
> > know whether it works. > The direct link to the archives from
>
> I have tried WinACE under Wine, and it worked, but seemed a bit
> glitchy. Possibly not an issue for an experienced player, but for me
> it was enough to put WinAce to the side for now. Are there some
> features in the GUI versions that seriously outshine the CLI verson,
> or is it just a matter of preference?
WinAce is a great client. The best I have ever used.
The only problem some night say is that it is too many features, if
you consider that to be a problem (I don't). I probably don't even
know to this day half the things Winace can do. One day I really
might read all the documentation and help.
It is constantly supported; bugs/features are fixed all the time. (It
used to suck up btu's each update, but you could prolly shut that off
if you wanted to).
You can use the command line in winace too.
In the thick of battle sometimes, speed might be everything which is
one of the reasons I close everything and go to the dos prompt or unix
window.
Ciao,
=GM=
Gemini
<snip>
>
> If you're feeling adventurous, try WinACE under Wine, and let us know
> whether it works.
>
I tried it. It works - kinda. Seems like the data gets parsed
incorrectly. The map will show, but, all the sector types are wrong. I
could give more details/screenshots if there's an interest. To me it was
unusable - but it does execute.
Scott
Martin Neitzel
> library, in an effort to create some education. The Library was at
> about 89% and the population for that sector was about 60, but no
> education was being generated. Any tips on why?
Don't forget that eductions gets averaged across roughly three
updates, so your adjustments to lcms in libs need a bit to have any
effect visible in "nat". Likewise, happiness is averaged, but the
numbers differ.
The exact gory details can be found in "info education" and
(referring the former) "info happiness" + "version".
Martin Neitzel
drake.d...@gmail.com
The latest versions of lafe, hpc (a pei relative), emp_hub, and
probably a few more stray utilities are in the CVS repository linked
from http://hmtools.sf.net
These are the most up to date versions, less than two years old by
several days now. The version of lafe compiled and uploaded to Debian
is a bit older.
-harmless