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Trailing-Edge - PDP-10 Archives - walsh_goodStuff_1600 - more-games/empire.nws
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[23-Jun-80]
Many wonderful changes!
1.  CHANGE TO SPECIFICATIONS:  When moving in I-mode, or
to a preassigned square, your units will no longer simply
stop when obstructed.  They will instead try to go around
the obstruction by jogging "counterclockwise", and if that
fails, "clockwise".  This behavior is a little different
from current standards, but is much more useful.  Give it
a chance before you gripe.  NOTE:  when the obstruction
is an enemy unit, or a "*" or "X", the unit will wake up
temporarily, to give you a chance to attack.  This also
happens if your unit simply finds itself adjacent to an
attackable (not friendly) entity.

2.  Along with (1), if fighters are told to move to a
preassigned square (city "M" function), you will not be
asked to move the fighter at Range=10.  You still will
be asked in I-mode.  This was done because you frequently
have cities that are more than 10 apart but normally just
want to move the fighter between cities.

3.  Armies in R-mode no longer wastefully jump onto a
transport if there are already 6 armies on it.  When an
army DOES decide to jump onto a transport it immediately
goes to sleep.

4.  "G" to a troop transport in a city is now illegal.

5.  There is a new entity available, called the "SPOT".
A "SPOT" is a mechanism whereby you assign functions to
points.  When a unit reaches a "SPOT", it picks up a
function which you have assigned.  These functions include
"Enter I-mode", "Enter M-mode", "Enter R-mode", and "Wake up".
Any point on the map, except the edge points, can be made into
a "SPOT" by moving the cursor there IN EDITING MODE and typing
the "@" character.  You can show the spots by typing "!" in
editing mode or when asked to move a unit.  You can clear a
spot IN EDITING MODE by placing the cursor at the spot and
typing "#".  EMPIRE allows you to have up to 50 "SPOTS".

To assign a function to a SPOT you place the cursor there in
editing mode and type "I<direction>", such as IA or I4.  You
can also type "M<stuff>H", where <stuff> is the usual cursor
positioning sequence.  These are the same commands to tell
units where to go.

Another function you can assign a "SPOT" is the "WAKE" function.
When a spot has this function and a unit lands on the spot, you
are asked what to do with the unit.  You can assign a function
to the piece on the spot, or simply move it manually.  But NOTE:
you will have to move the piece off the spot with a normal
movement command -- the idea behind the function "WAKE" is
just that, wake the player up and find out what he wants.
spots are given the function "WAKE" when they are created.
You can also give a spot the "WAKE" function by going there
in editing mode and typing "K".

You can have armies enter random mode by giving a spot
function "L", just as you would give an army function "L".

6.  Random mode now has an additional feature.  If your units
have nothing better to do (i.e., where before they would just
pick a random direction), they now make an attempt to explore
unknown territory.  Failing that, they will attempt to avoid
making a crowd.

7.  EMPIRE now has some stopcodes to help in identifying the
last few remaining bugs.  These are of the form "EMPxxx <stuff>"
and are real STOP statements.  If you should be so lucky as to
get one of these, by all means .SAVE the core image and the
EMPIRE.DAT file, note anything unusual that got typed out,
and report the problem to the "EMPIRE hacker".
[13-Jun-80]
EMPIRE now looks for it's maps in GAM:EMPIRE.Mnn, where
'nn' is ASCII representation for a two-digit decimal
number.  This will allow up to 100 maps to exist.  You
are encouraged to submit maps!
(See MAKMAP.FOR[10,5324] ON KL1026.)