******************************************** Empire v2.01 © 1990,1991,1992 by Crazy Cad Updated Last On Jul 26,1992 ******************************************** Version 2.01 Release (7-26-92) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ o Edited Harvest routine in Emp.Config. o Changed Bushels variables in Emp.Config to deal with 1/100ths instead of 1/10ths. o Divided FEED variable in Emp.Config to SFeed (Serf Feed) and AFeed (Army Feed). o Fixed Serf/Army starvation routines. Routines were based on hardcoded feed amount rather than FEED (or now SFeed and AFeed) variables. If the FEED variable was changed from default, starvation could kill more people then you had producing negative people. o Added new routine called CO to be used in the place of OPEN. My routine will retry if the file is in use. This will prevent multiple copies of Empire running to ever have any file sharing problems. o Corrected problem from 1.95 Land Buy/Sell rework. As the player gets more land, the price to buy land was supposed to go UP (still staying within the prices setup in the Emp.Config file). It seems I had the prices going down instead. The problem affected the Land Buy/Sell prices only. The Grain is/was Ok. o "Read the Empire Wall" now defaults to YES if there are New messages on the Empire Wall and NO if there are not. o Empire Wall can now accept lines more than 1 line long. o Reworded some of the stat messages at beginning of the Game to look/sound better. o Took out the word Beta in Emp.Intro.80 Version 2.00 Release (6-7-92) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ o Made a few more update/corrections in the Readme files getting ready for v2.0 release. o Text in Emp.Event2 reworded a bit to correct some bad grammar. Version 1.98 BETA VERSION (5-30-92) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ o Edited Emp.Invest files to place COST=xxxx variable on the first line for easy editing. If you change the cost of an investment, remember to Update the Investment's menu Emp.Menu2. o Fixed possible bug from old Emp.About files hanging around. o Corrected spelling of Emperor in Honor Roll option. o Fixed a glitch with Population Report. I used a <1 or >1 routine to determine if Population Gained or Lost xx people. Well if it was 1 it would either say POP if it was the 1st year or whatever it said for the previous year. Version 1.97 BETA VERSION (5-16-92) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ o Fixed call to get Minutes remaining for call. The Getuser return mins in Tenths. I was using this number without dividing by 10 to get the actual minutes. This did not cause any problems because the system would always kick them off when there time expired. Empire was just saying they had xx minutes left when actually they had less. o The Max Minutes of Empire per day & Max Minutes of Empire per play values can now accept 0 for Unlimited. With both of Unlimited, the Empire time limit (MINSLEFT) will be the amount of System time left for that call. If the System time is also set to Unlimited, there would be no time limit. o I've edited the messages such as 'Sorry, You have already played Empire enough today!' to give the exact reason (which Limit they have reached) why they cannot play Empire. o To avoid a little confusion, I've tried not to use the word play so vaguely. I now use Turns to mean the number of 'New Years' a player plays in Empire. I now use Plays to mean the number of times Empire is actually Ran. (How many times they actually Enter Empire from the PFiles section.) I hope this is less confusing. I knew it was bad when I was getting confused. o Added Plays per day limit (EM.39). This is the maximum # of times a user can Play Empire (Enter Empire from PFILES) per day. (0=Unlimited) Previous to Empire v2.0, this variable was not used, so its value will be defaulted to 0 (unlimited). o Added additional information to Edit routine. When you are editing a user stats, after selecting the stat to edit, I will describe that stat a little. This was done on all of the stats that were not obvious. o Corrected problem with c being used as a variable and as a constant for the color in my GETYN routine. Version 1.96 BETA VERSION (5-5-92) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ o Updated Emp.ID format to include Serial number. o Added UnCurOpt variable into Emp.Config. This will control the frequency of the Wizard appearing to UnCurse a cursed player. Setting this to 3 means this Wizard would come ever once every 3 plays. Setting this to 0 would mean that a Wizard would never come. o Added PLURAL routine to Curse notice in player Stats option. It would say 'You are currently cursed with the Harvest Hex which will last 1 more years.' Now it would say 'year.' o Added message that will be displayed when a curse has been lifted (when a curse expires). It says something like 'The Harvest Hex has been lifted.' o Added check for "filename" characters in users handles. Empire would not like these new toys that came with C-Net v2.17. If they do have one of these characters = " : ; / * it will inform them of the problem. o Added Plural routine to raids. This will prevent something like 'You take over 1 mills.' or 'Your raid fails with the death of 1 soldiers.' o Edited Execute.Me to check for Empire files in RAM. This will prevent updating files on HD but not in RAM:. o I've added a litle routine in the Buy Land/Grain routines to prevent it from saying you can afford -??? if you are in the hole a bit in your money (you can have negative money if your investments lost more than you have). It will now say you can afford 0 acres. Version 1.95 BETA VERSION (4-1-92) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ o While testing the INFORM message of a Multi-Port fight, I found a small bug in the Multi-port fight routine. When user A attacks user B, Empire A waits for Empire B to respond. If it does not respond, Empire A prompts user A to Try again. Well if during this prompting Empire B responds and user A says No to Try again, Empire B would be waiting for a fight and Empire A would have aborted the fight. So to fix this, even if you say no to try again, it will check 1 more time. o Reworked pricing routines for Land and Grain. The Max and Min prices for all of the Land and Grain purchases/sales are now in Emp.Config. o Edited INFORM routines to give outcomes of RAIDS and JOUSTS. I also changed the format/colors/etc. of INFORM messages. o Fixed bug in new INFORM routine. INFORM does not modify MES now, so other routines that use MES (like LOGIT) do not get the MES modified for an INFORM. (Basically this gets the *** & LF out of the Fighting News file.) o Normal Attack will now End at 600 soldier total. This should prevent really long fights. o Fixed bug in Soldier Spell curse. It seems that I displayed the message 'Due to the Soldier Spell, your army will not fight.' but did not take the fight option away from them. (Minor detail?! eheh) o Added 'Feed' variable to Emp.Config. This is the # of bushels each serf requires each year. (The Army requires 2x's as much.) Increase/decrease this to make Empire a tad bit harder/easier. o Added 'You have xx plays left today.' to user Stats Skypix file. (I forgot about the Skypix file when I added this to the normal file in v1.94.) o I fixed a typo in Emperor Hall of Fame (misspelled 'Emperor'). o I fixed a typo in 'EXECUTE.ME' (misspelled an 'echo'). Version 1.94 BETA VERSION (3-22-92) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ o I added a new INFORM routine that sends a message MES to all the players who are currently playing Empire. I use this routine to inform all players when a player enters or leaves Empire. o New Execute.Me file should make installation a bit nicer. o Bugs fixed in list of needed items to get to the next rank. I guess I had forgotten what a < symbol means or something. Spaceman set me straight. The Bug was; If you had 1 less than what was needed, it would not tell you that you needed 1 more. o Empire now keeps track of the number of ports being played a bit differently. The names of the players playing Empire are also being kept track up. This allows us to list the players currently playing Empire rather than just say Empire is being played on multiple lines. o Fixed 2 bugs in Curse option. 1) Players were allowed to recurse someone who was already cursed in some cases. The 2nd curse would override the first. My CURSED function returns the # of the curse instead of a 1/0 so if the Curse was 2 or 3 it would let it overide it. 2) When prompting for the optional Anonymous curse (which is done only if they have enough money) I looked at there money before they had paid for the Curse so it was possible for them to say Yes to this option when they could not afford it taking them into the negatives. I also tweaked the output of this prompt to get rid of the .0 at the end of the amount. o Changed format of Emp.About file. File is AREXX instead of text. (All other Emp.About.* files must be deleted.) o Added 'You have xx plays left today.' to user Stats. o Edited the Gambling routine to make it a bit more random. Version 1.93 BETA VERSION (3-9-92) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ o Emp.Maint and Emp.Info! fixes. Version 1.92 BETA VERSION (3-4-92) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ o I have added the reading of the new Emperor Hall of Fame when a player enters Empire. o I have created a menu from the Honor Roll command (H at Empire Command). The menu lets the player view 4 different types of Honor Rolls. o I have been informed that the QUERY command is better than the RECEIVE command to input data. The QUERY if inturupted by CHAT, OLM, etc. will reprint the question. (Thank Spaceman for this tidbit.) I switched my GETNUM and GETMES routines over to use QUERY instead of RECEIVE. The GETANS routine could not be converted because it only grabs ONE character and does not require a Return (QUERY require a return). o I have removed most of the BUFFERFLUSH commands from Empire. This command is used to clear Keyboard and Serial Buffers. I have added a few in places such as When an invalid key/option is made and certain other critial places such as the Are You Sure when trying to feed you people/soldiers less than they request. The main advantage of the lack of BUFFERFLUSHes is the ability to enter a bunch of commands and it will accept them one after the other rather than clearing them after accepting only one. Version 1.91 BETA VERSION (2-23-92) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ o Added War Reparations for winner of an Attack to be given IF the winner has at least one Diplomat to negotiate the agreement. They get roughly 20% if the loser has less Diplomats or 10% if they have the same or more Diplomats. o Reworked Spy menu and operations. I think it looks a lot nicer now. I also added the Help option to the menu. I changed the menu options from letters to numbers to be more consistent. I also change the risk from numbers to words. o I took the RAID menu out of the Emp.Main and put it in Emp.Menu.8. Added the Help option to the menu to pull up Emp.Help.7. o Reworked Raid routines to make the Palace a better defense. o Added Raid results to Fight News File. o Changed setup of Emp.Config's CLOSED variable. Old method did not work well with over 9 lines. New method allows you to flag any individual port to close. See editing Emp.Config is this file for more details. o Completed Help file for expanded online help. o Added option to Curse someone Anonymously for an extra 20% of the Curse Cost. Version 1.90 BETA VERSION (2-9-92) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ o Expanded Help menu into different sections. The different sections are now accessible from other parts of the game (ie from Investments menu, Fighting menu, etc..) ** Help files are not completed yet ** o Added ability to require a mininum number of players in the game before the players can play Empire. See MinPlayers in Emp.Config to set this up. o Added Are you sure prompts to feeding People and Army. It prompts only if you give them less than what they require. This was added to prevent leaving out a digit or so and completely killing off your people! o I fixed a bug in the giving of Maintenance access. The bug prevented everyone from getting maint access. The was it works, is for Empire to flag a player with maintenance they have to have System Maintenance and play Empire (at least one time) on Port 0. (It was done this way to prevent co-sysops from getting it if the Sysop did not want them to have it. Note: Empire Maintenace can always be given to any user by using Emp.Util to edit there player file.) The bug occured due to a change in the GETUSER flag for System Maintenance. I don't know when it changed but it is now 0 for Non maintenance and Non 0 for Maintenance. It used to 1. It returns a string like '1234567890' for System Maintenance now. I checked for 1 before, now I check for Non 0. Version 1.80 BETA VERSION (1-28-92) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ o Tweaked Harvest Routine in Emp.Config. o Tweaked Profits Routine in Emp.Main. o Corrected glitch with Emp.Event19. o Added Debug option (toggle) to documented undocumented # command. The Debug option when toggled on will print the filename of the external files used in RUNIT, READIT and DELIT. Version 1.70 BETA VERSION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ o Added UnCurse option. o Fixed incorrect colors from GETYN prompts. o Corrected problem with Emp.Data creation. o Corrected problem with Multi-User fight executions. Version 1.61 BETA VERSION (1-6-92) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ o Curse Config information brought into Emp.Config. * o Harvest routine brought into Emp.Config. * o Added Emp.Data to Delete list in RESET. o Fixed Sickness Spell curse. * See Emp.Config Instructions in this document for further info. Version 1.60 BETA VERSION (1-1-92) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ o Curse option added to Investments menu. o Additional stats held for Empire and player stats. (Creation of Emp.Data) o Tweaks here and there to improve the game. Version 1.52 BETA VERSION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ o Colors converted over to new C-Net 2.0 format. o New routines to keep track of multi ports and Emp.Maint added. Version 1.51 BETA VERSION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ o Error processing routines enhanced to provide more useful information if an error occurs. o Reset routine tweaked to provide some error checking and progress status. o Harvest routine adjusted to be a bit more generous. o Fight routine adjusted. Loss of nobles in battle is now determined by % of castle built. (It used to be just by # of soldiers killed, now it is both.) o I added a few more Skypix screens (some font changes on 'A New Year', 'Population Report'...) but all my Skypix look good for local screen and bad to caller so I'll have to fix those. (I didn't know that when I made all of them!) o Many other tweaks here and there.. I've also tried to comform some of the procedure calls in Empire, Emp.Util, and Emp.Maint to be the same. (Since they run seperately it didn't hurt to do things a bit different but it makes a bit less confusing.) Version 1.5 Update ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ o Multi-User fighting is now available. The Multi-User fights are not limited as much as the normal fights. (It doesn't care how many times you have attacked them or if they have an inactive army.) Since both users are playing the game, those limits shouldn't apply. o I've made some new routines to make things Plural and Singular. If you pay close attention you will see some things like '1 Foundry' instead of '1 Foundries'. I have 2 Plural routines and a WASWERE routine. (Wouldn't my old English teacher be proud.) o Spies have now been added. o Many internal routines have been re-written to provide faster execution and less memory consumption. o My Emp.Maint file was not prepared for 1991. The Player weed routine has been re-written to take into consideration year to year comparisions. o Emp.Maint file has been partially re-written for faster execution. I no longer use the external Workbench SORT command. It also gives a better description of what it is doing as it runs. o When sending mail to a user that is playing Empire, Error messages such as "PFILES:Emp/Mail/users name" not found would appear in Empire and Not Deleted - object in use would appear in the CLI. This only occured While player 1 was writing the mail to player 2. After the mail was completed, the file was closed solving the problem. To fix this I input the entire message before opening and writing the mail. That should prevent the annoying messages 99.9% of the time. If it does happen to be Writing it at the very time a Mailcheck is being done, it could still happen. This bug did not cause any problems it was just annoying. o During the Purchase of Grain, a user could enter invalid amount and the price would change when it repeated. This bug has been fixed. o Directory structure has been changed. The new directory PFILES:je 13+}PFILES contains all the Read Only Empire files. The makes the files a bit more organized and gives the ability to copy this Sub-Dir into RAM for faster (or at least quieter with some HDs') operation. See the Emp.Config setup on how to use this new RAM option. Version 1.4 Update ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ o Empire Maintenance now offers the ability to Switch Players. o Rank progession requirements are now shown with the other player Stats. o Rank requirements have been changed to match purchasing requirements. o On all purchases and sales, the amount made or spent is now indicated. o Varios color changes have been made to support 16 color mode. o New Events have been added. o Various internal routines have been modified for faster execution. o New Empire Utility command to Add Players to Empire. o New Empire Utility command to Create Custom Events for specific players at specific times through a menu driven process. o A bug from 1.3 has been fixed. (Mispelled CALL as CALLL) o A bug from 1.3 that caused the 1st Emperor to be in the Honor everytime rather than the last Emperor has been fixed. o A bug from 1.3 that caused error in Emp.Maint has been fixed. I forgot to refresh the Number of players after the player weed. This caused the Top 10 to mess up sometimes. It would spit up about 3 error messages in the CLI. I would see these and run Maint again and it work fine. (It was only when the players were being deleted. When I ran it the 2nd time, no players were being deleted.) Version 1.3k Update ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ o All known bugs have been fixed. o New Empire Utilities program. o New player file format for faster processing. (Use Emp.Update to update older player files.) o Empire can now reset when a player is crowned Emperor (optional). o Honor Roll will now generate a Top 5 if there are less than 10 players. o Honor Roll now includes the last player to be crowned Emperor. o Empire AMaint now alphabetized the player list. o When listing the players after about 20 players are listed a prompt to continue or abort list has been added. (I had over 100 players so it started getting a little LONG!) o As requested, Co-Sysops/Sysops will not get Empire Maint level unless they are on line 0. Once the access is given it is active on all lines. (Remember to play once in local mode or you'll miss the Maint!) o New Global Change command. This feature allows you to change any one player option from Edit Player for All the players. It also has the option to prompt each user before changing and to include the New User defaults. o Diplomats are now available. o The sysop can now give a player good or bad luck. (hehe) o Many Many more small changes and large changes that I am forgetting have been changed. Empire Installation/Update ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The installation should be a simple process of executing the file 'Execute.Me' in a Shell or CLI. Before doing so you must have your PFILES: directory assigned. (This is probably done in your startup sequence.) The assign tells the BBS and Empire WHERE the PFILES are located on your hard drive (or floppy). The 'Execute.Me' file will detect if this assign has not been done and inform you of how to do it. To run the Execute.Me type EXECUTE EXECUTE.ME in a Shell or CLI. (If the EXECUTABLE setting is set correctly the file should work by just typing in EXECUTE.ME) The Execute.Me will create the needed Subdirectories and copy the needed files. It will prompt you for any information it may need. After this is done, you are ready to add Empire into your C-NET PFILES System. In the BBS, enter the PFILES section. Add Empire to the list by using the 'A' command. For the questions answer using this guide: Enter the title as you want users to see it: : Empire v2.0 Enter full DOS path to file : PFILES:Empire Text, Arexx, DOS, or CNet file? Arexx Only one user at a time [No]? No Groups allowed to see [all]: 0-23 Flags required to see [none]: Days +/- offset to set date : (RETURN) Days to keep item [forever]: (RETURN) MCI environment variable [0]: 32 Add Emp.Util (Empire Utilities) in the same manner. I would suggest Access group to be only the Sysops. Add Emp.Update in the same manner. This is to be a ran one time to update old player files from versions before 1.3. After that it can be deleted. You could add Emp.Maint if you wanted to manually run the Empire Amaint. These settings could vary according to your personal choices or Amiga C-Net updates. The MCI environment set to 32 should enable the support of SkyPics. That should do it! It should now be ready to run by simply entering the # to which it was assigned in the PFILES list. NOTE: If this is an initial setup of the game, for Empire to give you (the sysop) Empire Maintenance access you must first run the BBS in LOCAL MODE. Empire will give anyone who has System Maint access level Empire Maint access IF they are logged on in Local mode (Line or Port 0). This was added to prevent unwanted access to be given to co-sysops. About Empire ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Empire is the result of over 2 YEARS of programming and testing. It is based on a combination of previous Empire games on the C-Net 64/128 with a lot of additional features to make the Amiga version superior. This program is copyrighted, this copyright covers ONLY original material and the actual usage and distribution of this program. This was mainly done to prevent someone from taking my name off this program and selling it. Usage of this Most Current version of Empire is given to those sysops that have donated to Register Empire. Usage of the lower versions of Empire is granted under the following conditions (1) it is run on a Registered C-NET Amiga BBS, (2) all credit remains intact, (3) this program should be available in the unmodified state free from charge to other registered C-Net Amiga Sysops. If any other type of agreement is sought please contact the author (Chris A.D. aka Crazy Cad). Empire registration is received with a donation of at least $25. Upon registering, you will have access to the latest versions of Empire and all future versions. You will also receive your own personalized Emp.ID. You can register by contacting either Me (Crazy Cad) or John (Warren Peace). Crazy Cad - Chris A.D. Warren Peace - Dr. John M. Hoyt Post Office Box 294331 7256 Petrol Suite 14 Lewisville, TX 75079-4331 Paramount, CA 90723-3387 The Amiga Castle BBS The Amiga Connection BBS (214) 219-0493 - HST (DS Soon) (310) 634-8759 - HST-DS (310) 633-5002 - 5 2400's in rotary Check and Money orders Voice payable to Chris A.D Tech support, etc - (310) 630-0820 or Dr. John M. Hoyt Orders Only Please! (800) 438-2638 Empire File Information ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Here is a quick reference to the files used by Empire. This is not ALL the possible files. - Refers to Optional files + Refers to files generated By the program * Refers to program code PFILES: Directory (Main files/Config Files) * Empire Main Loader file * Emp.Config Empire Configuration data * Emp.Update Program to Update Old Empire player files * Emp.Util Empire Sysop Utility Program * Emp.Maint Empire Amaint * Emp.Info! Empire Info (Status) PFILES:Emp/ Directory (Logs/Generated Files) + Emp.Deaths Obituaries log + Emp.Data Game Data file + Emp.Emperor Emperor Log + Emp.Emperors Emperor data file + Emp.Error Error?!? If you get some LET ME KNOW! + Emp.Gamble Gambling log + Emp.Last5 Internally used log of last 5 callers and last ID + Emp.Log General play log of Empire + Emp.Mail Contains a copy of all Empire Mail sent + Emp.News Fighting News log + Emp.Over Created to trigger reset / contains name of winner (if RESET=1) + Emp.Players List of all players handles + Emp.Top10 Normal Top Ten + Emp.Top10.1 Top Ten Land + Emp.Top10.2 Top Ten Army + Emp.Top10.80 80 Col Top Ten + Emp.TopEmp Emperor Hall Of Fame + Emp.Wall The Empire Wall + Emp.Wall! Last Wall date PFILES:Emp/Files Directory (Empire Files/Read Only) * Emp.About About Empire * Emp.Alive * Emp.CEvents Custom Events file. * Emp.Check Checks Empire stats. Emp.Closed Message seen when Empire is closed (via Emp.Config) * Emp.Config NOT USED. Is a backup to the Real one in PFILES: * Emp.Death Death by natural causes * Emp.Edit Used to edit a players stats. * Emp.EdPrice Edit Investment Costs (Spawned from Emp.Util) * Emp.Event1 Rats eat xx bushels * Emp.Event2 Queen cheating / execute noble * Emp.Event3 Wizard gives good luck for Joust * Emp.Event4 Herd of oxen fertilize land * Emp.Event5 Fertility dance * Emp.Event6 Dragon eats xx people * Emp.Event7 Treasure chest (curse) * Emp.Event8 Treasure Chest (gold) * Emp.Event9 Mount Shadow erupts * Emp.Event10 Fire OR Get 500 acres from Crazy Cad * Emp.Event11 Earthquake * Emp.Event12 Slave Trader * Emp.Event13 Local slave trader beheaded. Your receive xx serfs. * Emp.Event14 Fellow Emperor bit the big one * Emp.Event15 Plague * Emp.Event16 TIDAL WAVE * Emp.Event17 Noble caught as spy and executed * Emp.Event18 Barbarions capture xx acres (Inactive army) OR Slave Trader * Emp.Event19 Rotting wooden chest found * Emp.Event20 Ogre eats xx people * Emp.Event21 Locust destroy xx bushels * Emp.Event22 Love starved priest steal xx maidens * Emp.Event23 Trolls still xx bushels * Emp.Event24 Buy $100 magic beans * Emp.Event25 Hungry robbers steal xx dollars * Emp.Event26 Newspaper attracts Diplomat * Emp.Event27 Yellow Fever * Emp.Fight1 Part of Empire Attack routine Emp.Help Empire Help Menu Emp.Help.1 Game Concept & Goal Emp.Help.2 Investment Options Emp.Help.3 Player Rank Emp.Help.4 Fighting Emp.Help.5 Cursing Emp.Help.6 Spying Emp.Help.7 Raiding Emp.Help.8 Jousting Nobles Emp.Help.9 Misc Game Info & Tips * Emp.ID Registeration File - Emp.Intro.80 Intro screen 80 cols - Emp.Intro.80.tt2 Intro screen ANSI - Emp.Intro.tt4 Intro screen Skypix * Emp.Invest0 * Emp.Invest1 * Emp.Invest2 * Emp.Invest3 * Emp.Invest4 * Emp.Invest5 * Emp.Invest6 * Emp.Invest7 * Emp.Invest8 * Emp.Invest9 * Emp.Joust * Emp.Main Main AREXX file Spawned (ran) by Empire Emp.Menu1 Empire Main Menu general - Emp.Menu1.80 80 cols - Emp.Menu1.80.tt2.240 2400 baud Ansi - Emp.Menu1.80.tt2.960 9600 baud Ansi - Emp.Menu1.80.tt4.960 9600 baud Skypix Emp.Menu2 Emp.Menu3 Emp.Menu4 - Emp.Menu4.80 - Emp.Menu4.80.tt4.960 Emp.Menu5 - Emp.Menu5.80 - Emp.Menu5.80.tt4.960 Emp.Menu6 Emp.Menu7 Emp.Menu8 Emp.Menu9 Emp.NewUser Emp.NewYear.tt4! Emp.Pop.tt4! Emp.Profit.tt4! Emp.Quit Optional Farewell file - Emp.Quit0.tt4 Skypix Quit for Sir ( Be sure to ) - Emp.Quit1.tt4 Skypix Quit for Prince ( change these ) - Emp.Quit2.tt4 Skypix Quit for King (if your change) - Emp.Quit3.tt4 Skypix Quit for Emperor (the Rank names) * Emp.Raid1 * Emp.Raid2 * Emp.Raid3 * Emp.Raid4 * Emp.Raid5 * Emp.Rank * Emp.Rank0 * Emp.Rank1 * Emp.Rank2 Emp.Readme Sysop Intro/documentation Emp.Readme1 Detailed Empire Docs Emp.Readme2 Emp.Maint Docs Emp.Readme3 Emp.Util Docs Emp.Readme4 Emp.Info! docs * Emp.Reset Shared Empire Reset code * Emp.Spy * Emp.Stats AREXX routine for players Stats *- Emp.Stats.tt4 Skypix version *- Emp.Stats.tt4! actual skypix read from above Emp.Text Frequently used text in Empire (editable) * Emp.UnCurse Uncurse option * Emp.UpEmp Hall of Fame code Emp.Won Message seen by winner (if RESET=1) Optional Files ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I have made many optional files to allow you to customize or show off your artistic abilities with graphics. The following is a list of the base filenames which would be located in the PFILES:Emp/ directory. Each file can have a number of optional extensions added to them which is explained below the list. Emp.Intro This file if present is read instead of the message 'Welcome to C-Net AMIGA EMPIRE v2.0 by Crazy Cad.' Emp.New This file if present is read instead of the messages 'Ahh a New Player!' 'Let me get you set up!' Emp.Quit This file if present is read instead of the message 'Farewell v01}, Play Again Soon!' Each of the above filenames can have extensions that allows different files for different terminal types (Ascii, CBM, Skypix, Ansi, etc), term columns, or even baud rate in some cases. The following are some examples of possible main Empire menus. Emp.Menu1.80.tt4.960 Emp.Menu1.40.tt3.240 Emp.Menu1.40.tt3 Emp.Menu1.80.tt1.30 Emp.Menu1.40 Emp.Menu1.80 Emp.Menu1.tt2 Emp.Menu1.tt1 Emp.Menu1 Just about any combination of parameters are possible with restrictions. The Baud rate is only an option with a .TTx extension. (I felt this would be the only type of file this would be used on) The parameters should be in the above order. (Emp.Menu.tt3.40 would be Wrong, it would have to be Emp.Menu.40.tt3) The program looks in the order of Top to bottom as listed above. The parameters originate from the Users terminal parameters. This means that if a user is 60 cols for some reason you could have a 60 col menu. Empire Configuration ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Within the file Emp.Config located in the PFILES directory contains many variables some of which you may want to edit. Note: The original file Emp.Config with the default settings is located in the PFILES:Emp dir as a Backup. The PATH statements are used to tell Empire where it is on the system. It would probably only be changed if you for some reason wanted two separate games being played. The RAM option allows all the READ ONLY Empire files to be copied into a RAM disk (Path.7) If you enter RAM=1, Empire will check to see if this RAM disk (Path.7) exists and if it has the files in it yet. If they are not in it, it will copy them into it. It will inform the user that is copying files into RAM for faster execution. Once these files are in RAM, they will stay there. This is about 180k total. So If you have a lot of RAM and Empire is popular on your board give it a try. If you do not want it to take up this RAM ALL THE TIME, setting RAM=0 will use the files from the disk (Path.6) just as before. The ACTIVEARMY is the number of soldiers that represents an 'active army'. An active army can Fight and while an inactive army cannot and depending on the next variable an inactive army may be protected from being attacked. The ACTIVEYEARS variable is the number of years/turns a player is protected from being attacked when they have an inactive army. This is to help the New players yet prevent the powerful players from keeping an inactive army to avoid being attacked. The KILL variables 1 2 and 3 are the highest percent of Serfs, Soldiers and Nobles (accordingly) that can be killed in the events such as the Volcano and Earthquake. This number defaults to around 30% 25% and 15% and must be between 10-90%. The EVENTS variable refers to how many Emp.Events the game is using. This can be set to more than there actually is. If the Event is not found, no event occurs that year. This variable will probally not be changed unless you add or delete Emp.EVENT files. The RESET variable determines if the game is to be reset when a person becomes Emperor. A value of 1 will Reset the game. A value of 0 will not. The MEMORY variable represents the minimum amount of free memory in bytes which must be free at all times during the game. The game will gracefully end itself if free memory drops below this point. I would not advise anything below 80000 for this settings. The DEATH variable is the number of turn (age) a player will live before dieing of natural causes. The RANK.x are the various names of the Nobility or Rank. You could change these if you wanted. Ranks 0-3 are earned throughout the game. Ranks 4 and 5 are static. Once 4 or 5 is set they will remain. (most likely for Sysop) The CURCOST variable is the cost of the Curses. If you change the cost here be sure and change it in Emp.Menu2 (the Investments Menu) and Emp.Help.5 (the Curses Help file). CURSE.x variables are the Curses Names. If you change the name here, be sure to change them in Emp.Menu7 (the Curse Menu) and Emp.Help.5 (the Curses Help file). CURSSEV is a group of variables that determine the severity (length in Years) of the curses. Each digit corresponds to the curses defined above. For Example '4760' would be 4 years for Curse.1, 7 years for Curse.2, 6 years for Curse.3 and 0 years for Curse.4. Since you get ONE digit for each curse it must be 0-9 per curse. UNCUROPT variable controls the frequency of the Wizard appearing to UnCurse a cursed player. Setting this to 3 means this Wizard would come ever once every 3 plays. Setting this to 0 would mean that a Wizard would never come. HARV is the main Harvest calculation. Manipulation of this routine can make Empire very easy or hard. Here is an example of what this Harv my look like: Harv='x=int((em.6*wc*.3)+(em.5*.04*wc)+(em.5*3)+(em.11*wc))' /* Harvest routine */ or Harv='x=int((em.5*3)+(min(em.11,75)*min(em.6,1800)*.8)+(em.6*wc*.3))' /* Harvest routine */ The following variables are used in these examples: Em.5 = Acres of Land Em.6 = Number of Serfs Em.11= Number of Mills WC = Weather Conditions (1-10 1=Worst/10=Best) The SFEED variable is used to determine how many bushels of grain the serfs require each year to eat. Increasing this amount will make the game a bit harder, Decreasing it will make it a bit easy. The AFEED variable is used to determine how many bushels of grain the army require each year to eat. Increasing this amount will make the game a bit harder, Decreasing it will make it a bit easy. The max price variables are: MaxBPriceL Barbarian's Maximum Buying Price for Land MinBPriceL Barbarian's Minimum Buying Price for Land MaxSPriceL Barbarian's Maximum Selling Price for Land MinSPriceL Barbarian's Minimum Selling Price for Land MaxBPriceG Barbarian's Maximum Buying Price for Grain MinBPriceG Barbarian's Minimum Buying Price for Grain MaxSPriceG Barbarian's Maximum Selling Price for Grain MinSPriceG Barbarian's Minimum Selling Price for Grain These are the Maximum and Minimum prices that the Barbarian's will buy/sell land/grain. (These are in terms of the Barbarian NOT the player.) Increasing/decreasing these will make the game harder/easier. BOOM=1 is a marker used in the reading of this Config file. Let it BE! It just tells the main file that it doesn't need to read the rest of the file. (Conserves memory and time) NUKEDAYS (as if it wasn't obvious) is the number of days before an inactive player is NUKED (deleted). The CLOSED variable is used to flag a particular BBS line closed for Empire. The CLOSED variable should consist of 24 (Ports 0-23) 0's or 1's. Each 1 flags a port as Closed, Each 0 flags a port as Open. For example 000000000000000000000000 -> all lines Open. 001111111111111111111111 -> Lines 0 & 1 Open, Lines 2-23 Closed. S1-S7 are the lengths of the different logs (noted in the file) that the log should be shortened to during Empire Auto Maint. The S7 also has another purpose. It indicates the Length of the Last XX Emperors file. UACCESS determines Who can get into the Empire Utilities. The possible values for this variable are 0,1 and 2. Setting it to 0 means that you must be on PORT 0 (local line) to be able to run Emp.Util. A Setting of 1 means that you must be ID#1 to run Emp.Util. A Setting of 2 allows anyone with access to Emp.Util to run it. (This is to protect you of your nice co-sysops that are a little too nice to their own Empires!) The 2nd MEMORY variable is the minimum amount of free bytes required to initially RUN the program. This is checked in the Empire file before loading the larger Emp.Main file. I would not advise anything below 250000 for this setting. The MINPLAYERS variable not allow Empire to be played until there are at least this many players in the game. Editable Text of Empire ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In the area of text used in the game, I have used a method similar to Ken's BBS.TEXT in C-Net. The file EMP.TEXT in the PFILES:Emp/Files directory contains the most commonly used text and text I felt you might want to edit. Some of it is in there for conservation of memory and is used many times throughout the program. Some of the lines may look a little funny because they are spread out on two lines or are just part of a message. NOTE: When editing any of the Empire's text files You must use an editor that does not WORDWRAP and preferably one that can show you the End of Line characters so that spacing will not be altered. Player File Structure ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The following is the structure of the players file. The numbers represent the # on the Edit User screen and variable # (EM.# or EN.#) at which this information is stored. 1. Date of the players first play MMM DD (Month Date) 2. Last play date MMM DD XXX (Month Date Daysintoyear) 3. Last play time HH:MMXX (Hour Minutes Seconds) 4. Rank of the player: 0 = Sir 1 = Prince 2 = King 3 = Emperor 4 = Assigned in Emp.Config 5 = / These settings are static (once set, they won't change) 5. Acres of land 6. Number of serfs 7. Bushels of grain 8. Money 9. Soldiers 10. Markets 11. Mills 12. % of palace completed (0-10) 13. Foundries 14. Shipyards 15. Nobles 16. Diplomats 17. Spies 18. Tax Rate 19. Number of fights won 20. Number of fights lost 21. Total years played (Age) 22. Limit of number of fights per play 23. Limit of number of fights per day 24. Number of fights today (a counter) 25. Limit of number of turns (New Years played) per day 26. Limit of number of turns (New Years played) per play 27. Number of turns (New Years played) today (a counter) 28. Limit of minutes of Empire per play (0=Unlimited) 29. Limit of minutes of Empire per day (0=Unlimited) 30. Number of minutes played today (a counter) 31. Curse (Type + Length) 32. Luck (-20 to +20) (Pos is good luck/Neg is bad luck) 33. Maintenance level: 0 = None 1 = Access to look around but can't select Edit player 2 = Can select Edit player, but can't change anything 3 = Full Maintenance 34. Limit of gambling wins 35. Wall access level: 0 = None (They don't see the wall at all) 1 = Read the wall 2 = Read/Write 3 = Read/Write/Anonymous option 4 = Full Access (ability to see who wrote Anonymous) 36. Number of plays before a player can play again: 0 = Can play consecutive plays back to back 1 = Requires 1 play by another player before allowing 5 = Requires 5 play by another player before allowing If one was set to 2, after he played Empire, 2 more users must play before it would allow him to play again. A setting of 5 would therefore be for someone you really didn't want playing very much. A sysop would probably want 0 for back to back playing. 37. Number of attacks since last play 38. Number of Plays played today (counter) 39. Limit of Plays Per Day (0=Unlimited) This is the Max number of times Per Day a user can Enter Empire. 40. Reserved for future use in Empire. Multi-Line Notes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Empire will run on multi-line systems! To take advantage of this feature safely, I have Empire keep track of Who is playing and Who is being attacked at all times. This is done with the Ram:Emp directory. This prevents the players files from becoming corrupted or inaccurate by preventing the attack of someone who is currently playing or is currently being attacked. However, just because Empire supports multi-lines doesn't mean you can run it multi-line. You must have enough system RAM to support the Empire running however many times. (see Memory Notes) Empire v1.50 added support for multi-line fighting. This is done by using AREXX CLIP variables (variables that are memory resident and accessable through any AREXX program running). Empire v2.00 adds the sending of messages. (I call my routine INFORM.) It will Inform the other users that are playing of players entering & exiting, Fights, Jousts, and Raids that occur in Empire. Memory Notes ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Depending upon how much RAM your system has and how you run your board will determine how much memory is free for usage by Empire. Remember that when Empire is running on 2 lines (could be local and line 1) it is running twice taking up twice the memory. Memory is an important item to be aware of at all times. The memory consumption of Empire depends on the activity of the game. It usually takes about 210k or so but can take more! (The Maint command to Shorten a file can take up quite a bit of memory depending upon the size of the file so keep this in mind) The reason that AREXX takes up so much memory is that it does not free any of the memory it uses until the program has completed. This probably means 1 Meg users will be wanting that ram expansion before running Empire successfully. Empire v1.1 has been re-worked for better memory management. It should now be able to run on a 1 Meg machine with little or no problem. The controlling factors are 1) how much free memory is available and 2) how many players are playing Empire. Different hardware configurations take up varying amounts of memory. (some hard drives take a lot for buffers etc) The number of players has an influence because the players names are kept in memory. So having 10 players and having 75 players could make a difference. If you are having memory problems eliminated the Wall could save a bytes and running the system in 2 color or iconify mode helps. With the release of C-Net Amiga 1.9 memory consumption of the BBS has gone down. This and a few more external Empire files should keep the 1 Meg users in the game. Misc Notes ~~~~~~~~~~ o In order to insure that the Sysop would have the Maint level in Empire, the program will automatically set ANYONE ON THE LOCAL LINE with Sysmaint level to have Empire maint access. After one has this access, he can then give it to others though Empire Maint. o When running this program, you must have AREXX v1.14 or higher installed on your system. AREXX v1.15 is Recommended!! o If for some reason you ever wanted a person out of Empire. The HALT INTERUPT is supported to quit the players game (aborting their play and saving their stats). To do this, type HI in the CLI or SHELL. NOTE: This command sends a HALT INTERUPT to ALL AREXX files running. o In many prompts that present a Yes or No decision such as (Y,n), the letter that is capitalized would be the default if a return is hit. o In many of the prompts that have L=List, I used L because someone told me they liked single keystroke commands rather than shifted keys such as the ?. Well I was used to the ? before so they are BOTH accepted as the same on many of the prompts (with the exception of where L is list users and ? brings up a menu). o In another instance of command aliasing, (more than one letter giving similar results) the prompts to Quit (y,N) the letter 'Q' will be taken as 'Yes'. Seems to be a natural instinct to start hitting 'Q' to get out of things! o The sysop is immune to the majority of the limitations. In most cases it will say that you can't do it and then let you. So don't think that the limitations aren't working it is just your maint access. o At the main Empire command menu, there is currently another undocumented command # that brings up current available memory. (I guess it is now a documented feature?) I put this in to monitor Empires memory usage and just left it in there for those enquiring minds that want to know. This option also toggles on/off a DEBUG mode that displays the filenames of all the Empire external files that are read or executed. o The error log that Empire keeps (hopefully empty) now contains the actual program line that caused the error. This will make it easier for me to track down any problems. If you do have errors send this file (Emp.Error) to me to take a look at. Plans For Future Updates ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ o Ability for users to use Aliases o More events and maybe some kind of alliances o Better graphics and font support (I need Skypics!) If you have more suggestions, let me know. Sysop suggestions is source for most changes. That's It ~~~~~~~~~ Many thanks to all those who offered suggestions or reported problems. Also I would like to offer special thanks all my Beta-Testers and those who offered suggestions. --------------------------------------------------- Some BBS systems that have Beta Tested Empire --------------------------------------------------- Amiga Connection 213-634-8759 Warren Peace The Amiga Wasteland 307-778 7946 Mr. Crowley The Amiga Wasteland 307-638-0358 Mr. Crowley Amiga Underground 817-589-7667 Albert Skid Row BBS 818-341-1747 Modem Man Skid Row BBS 818-341-1756 Line 2 (19.2) Amiga University 216-486-2806 Professor Vitual Reality BBS 808-337-1560 Spaceman Superboard Two 702-423-7206 Gene Ponce RatCom BBS 301-437-9813 Rat White Miracle Land Amiga 313-422-3113 Billy The Kid Astral Gateway 313-367-6634 Extremulus Special Forces 412-342-1941 Machine Gun City Of Boldhome 714-831-2860 Oracle City Of Boldhome 714-831-2135 Line 2 (19.2) --------------------------------------------------- The Local (Dallas) Testers... --------------------------------------------------- Heavyduty BBS 214-275-7903 Heavyduty --------------------------------------------------- And without this board there wouldn't be any C-Net --------------------------------------------------- Future World II 313-981-1524 Big Brother HOME OF AMIGA C-NET 313-981-6150 --------------------------------------------------- If you have ANY problems, comments, or anything let me know. You can get a message to me on Future World or maybe through some of the above sysops or just give my board a call. Catch Ya Later CRAZY CAD Crazy Cad - Chris A.D. Warren Peace - Dr. John M. Hoyt Post Office Box 294331 7256 Petrol Suite 14 Lewisville, TX 75079-4331 Paramount, CA 90723-3387 The Amiga Castle BBS The Amiga Connection BBS (214) 219-0493 - HST (DS Soon) (310) 634-8759 - HST-DS (310) 633-5002 - 5 2400's in rotary