                                Command : DROP

NAME
   drop - Use planes to drop commodities in your own sectors

Level: Expert

SYNTAX
   [##:##]  Command : dropoff <TRANSPORTS> <ESCORTS> <SECT> <PATH|DESTINATION>
<COMMODITY>

The "dropoff" command is used to resupply  beleaguered  friendly  troops  with
food, shells, reinforcements, and other necessities of battle.

<TRANSPORTS>  represents  a  list  of planes which are to travel to the target
sector.  Only planes which are provided with gas, and have sufficient mobility
will be successfully selected for the mission.

<ESCORTS>  represent  a  list of fighter planes which are capable of escorting
the transports all the way to the target.  To be selected, escorts  must  have
fuel and mobility.

<SECT>  represents  an  assembly point, where all of the planes in the mission
meet before proceeding on to the target sector.  The assembly  point  must  be
owned  by  you,  and  must  not be more than four sectors away from any of the
planes selected for the mission.

<COMMODITY> is the name of a commodity which is to be carried along on all  of
the planes which have a transport capacity.

Route  is  a normal empire path specification. You may also give a destination
sector on the command line, or at any time while giving the route, and  empire
will use the best path from the current sector to the desired destination sec-
tor.

When getting a path interactively, empire will show you  the  information  you
have  (from  your  bmap)  concerning  the  current area, to help you plot your
course.

Planes which arrive safely at the target sector will drop the goodies  off  to
the waiting people below.

Any  plane  with  the "mine" ability can mine a sector by dropping shells in a
sea sector.

Note that a plane must be at least 40%  efficient  before  it  can  leave  the
ground.

SEE ALSO
   Plane-types, bomb, fly, paradrop, recon, Mobility, Planes, Commodities

