                           Server : Empire2 Changes

NAME
   Empire2 - Changes from the Chainsaw server to the Empire2 Server

Level: Expert

There  have  been  several  changes/fixes made to the Chainsaw code in the new
Empire2 Server.  This outlines the various changes and how  they  will  affect
you,  the  player.   Most  of  these  changes were coded by Ken Stevens <chil-
dren@empire.net> and any bug-reports in the new server should be  directed  to
him.

Ships
   -  Ships now have three letter abbreviations.
   -  "load" syntax has been changed to make it the same as the "move" syntax.
      - The following changes were made to the sonar command:
        - will only work from ships at sea
        - will only detect ships at sea
        - will now detect the shoreline
        - will only detect things if there is a straight line of water
          between the detector and the detected
        - now displays a map and changes your bmap
        - for ships with tech > 310, shows mines on the map with an X and
          puts the X on your bmap
   -  All ships (including subs) in harbors are now visible via the  "lookout"
      command by all ships (including subs) in adjacent sectors
   -  If  a  NEUTRAL  (or worse) ship sails within your coastwatch range, then
      you will receive a telegram like this:
      TheBorg lc2 light cruiser 2 (#666) sighted at -9,-1
      This telegram is sent before any interdiction is done.  If you  want  to
      turn this feature off, then type "toggle coastwatch off".  Note that you
      can also now turn off those nuisance sonar ping detection  telegrams  by
      typing "toggle sonar off".
   -  You  may  now  tend land units which have "assault" capability (see info
      tend).
   -  "build" syntax has been simplified.  You no longer need to specify  tech
      level  to  build at (the default is your current tech level).  Also, the
      <NUMBER> arg now comes before the <TECH> arg:

         [##:##] Command : build s 4,0 fb1
      builds a fishing boat at current tech level.

         [##:##] Command : build s 4,0 fb1 5
      builds 5 fishing boats at current tech level.

         [##:##] Command : build s 4,0 fb1 2 99
      builds 2 fishing boats at tech level 99.
   -  "show" output now shows you the total amount  of  avail  used  to  build
      something.
   -  The  Autonav  code  has  been  completely  rewritten and is dramatically
      improved.  Thanks Chad!
   -  You now get a telegram if someone loads something onto your ship  or  if
      someone unloads into your harbour.
   -  Load/Unload now tell you exactly how much stuff got loaded/unloaded from
      each ship.
   -  You can now only unload into a sector if you are friendly towards  them.
   -  The  "coastwatch"  command  now  shows  ship names!  (Empire invents the
      telescope!)
   -  The "payoff"  command  now  shows  the  distance  your  ship  has  trav-
      eled--handy for making sure you pass those critical distances.
   -  The  tech level required to build aegis cruisers has been increased from
      150 to 260.
   -  The following ships: "mc  missile cruiser", "aac aa cruiser", "agc aegis
      cruiser",  and  "ncr  nuc cruiser" have been given a new ship capability
      called "anti-missile"  This means that they will use their  anti-missile
      systems  to attempt to intercept enemy missiles aimed at any ship within
      a 1 sector radius.  Note that just like abm &  a-sat  missile  intercep-
      tion, only missiles belonging to countries you are "Hostile" or "At War"
      with will be intercepted.  Thanks Chad!
   -  Ship damage now always factors the armor value of the  ship,  no  matter
      where  the  damage comes from.  Also, whenever a ship is hit, the player
      is told exactly how hard that particular ship was hit.
   -  The "scuttle", "scrap", "mission", and "fuel" commands will  now  accept
      "l" for the unit type.  (You are no longer required to type "la".)
   -  Now  when  you  load land units onto a ship, the code will automatically
      try to supply them, and if they are out of supply, you will get a  warn-
      ing.

Subs
   -  ASW  planes  will  now fly out to track any non-FRIENDLY (including NEU-
      TRAL) sub movement.
   -  However there is a chance that the plane won't even leave the ground and
      notice  any sub movement at all.  The chance of detection is identchance
      = (1 - (1 - hitchance)^2).
   -  ASW planes will no longer detect subs they  fly  over  while  flying  an
      interdiction mission.
   -  Once  the  planes  have arrived at the sector where the sub movement was
      detected, then identchance is checked again.  If success, then the plane
      is able to identify the owner of the sub.  If the owner is neutral, then
      the player gets the message:
            np1 naval plane 1 #2 tracks TheBorg subs at 2,-6
      If the plane is unable to identify the owner of the sub, then the player
      gets the message:
            np1 naval plane 1 #2 detects sub movement in -3,-3
      If  the  ship  was  identified as HOSTILE or AT_WAR, then the plane will
      drop depth charges.
   -  If depth-charges miss, then the ship owner will get the message:
      RUMBLE... your sub in 24,0 hears a depth-charge explode nearby
   -  torp and fire will now only tell the victim that a "sub" torped them, or
      that return fire damaged a "sub" (rather than giving out detailed infor-
      mation about the sub number, type, and owner...)
   -  max sonar range has been reduced to 7 and sonar output no longer  prints
      blank lines.
   -  sonar  has  been changed in the following way: detection = (source "spy"
      value) + (target "vis" value) If the detection value  is  less  than  8,
      then sonar will just print
        Sonar detects sub #12
      If  the  detection  value is above 7, then sonar will report the type of
      sub.  Only if the detection value is above 9 will the owner of  the  sub
      be revealed.
   -  For  ASW planes flying "sonar" or "recon" missions, a similar change has
      been made.  The plane needs to pass one identchance  check  to  see  the
      type  of  sub, and needs to pass two identchance checks to see the owner
      of the sub.
   -  Note in both of the above cases, owner and type of FRIENDLY  and  ALLIED
      subs will always be revealed.

Navigation
   -  When  you "nav" or "order" your ships, they will automatically avoid "x"
      and "X" sectors on your bmap.
   -  now when you navi (or march), any new sector designations  automatically
      appear on your nav map and get added to your bmap (you no longer need to
      do a "look" to find out their designation.  Note that subs will only see
      sea, harbors, and bridges and will have to look" (and risk detection) to
      see anything else.
   -  If you hit the wrong character, navi will now display all possible  navi
      commands.
   -  You can now draw a 'M' map or a 'B' bmap while navigating.
   -  You  can  list  the ship you are navigating using 'i' and you can change
      your flagship using 'f'.
   -  Navigating using "nav", "order" or "sail" now  calls  exactly  the  same
      code  and  will thus result in exactly the same risks (mines & interdic-
      tion).
   -  Now you can type commands like this:
         [##:##] Command : nav 72 jlsruMluBursh
      That is, you can mix directions with other navigation commands.
   -  Interdiction of navigating ships now works as follows:

               1. Forts interdict.
               2. If there are any ships left, ships, land, planes interdict.
               3. If there are any ships left, marine missiles on interdiction  fire one at a
                  time until there are no ships left.

   -  There is now a new kind of diplomatic relation that you can have with  a
      country:  "Friendly"  which  falls between "Neutral" and "Allied".  This
      basically splits "Allied" into two steps: anything to do with  ships  is
      available  to  "Friendly"  nations  (nav,  load,  unload, tend, upgrade,
      order, sail, follow), whereas anything to do  with  planes  or  military
      support  is  reserved  for Allies.  This allows you to establish trading
      relationships without the necessity of  a  military  relationship.   See
      info relation for full details.
   -  If  the BIG_CITY option is enabled, then small ships may navigate, load,
      and unload in 2% cities.

Planes
   -  Planes which are less than 40% efficient can not fly.
   -  If you're tech is higher than 290, then you may not  build  planes  with
      tech lower than 150.
   -  Planes  will  only abort if they have been damaged below 80% (it used to
      be that they could abort at anything below 100%).
   -  The range of marine missiles and SAM's has been reduced.
   -  Air combat reports are now succinct tables with headers.  Much easier to
      read.  Thanks Waffen!
   -  New  command "skywatch" scans your skies overhead for satellites.  Works
      very much like "coastwatch".
   -  You can now filter your satellite output  to  list,  for  example,  only
      banks  owned  by country #7 which are over 60% efficient.  The selectors
      available are exactly the same as those used by  the  "census",  "ship",
      and "land" commands.  See "info satellite" for more details.
   -  A 75% satellite now only sees 75% of sectors (the rest are blank).  It's
      always the same 25% that are blank.
   -  All missiles are now VTOL.  In particular, this means that  missiles  on
      missions will now fire from anywhere (including on subs).
   -  Surface missiles can now be put on interdiction mission.  To distinguish
      surface missiles from anti-ship missiles, the latter have been  given  a
      new  capability  called "marine".  Surface missiles on interdiction will
      keep firing on the enemy until at least 100 damage has been done.
   -  Interdicting marine missiles will also fire on ships when they "fire".
   -  Missiles and planes flying interdiction missions will now  detonate  any
      nuclear warheads that they are carrying.
   -  When  you  "arm" a missile or plane, you will be asked whether you would
      like to program the warhead to airburst or groundburst.
   -  Missiles and planes are now limited to a maximum of one warhead  apiece.
   -  A-sats  will  now  automatically  attempt  to  intercept  any satellites
      launched by a country you're "Hostile" or "At  War"  with.   This  works
      exactly  the  same  way as ABM defense.  Also, if you launch a satellite
      over a sector which is owned by a non-ally then they will get a  message
      telling them that you have positioned a satellite over their sector.  In
      the age of advanced telecommunication such things don't go unnoticed.
   -  There is now only one formula for determining  whether  a  plane/missile
      hits  its  target  and  how  much damage it does (including abm's and a-
      sat's).  See "info bomb" for the formula.   In  particular,  planes/mis-
      siles  flying missions will now have exactly the same hitchance as those
      flown by hand.

Land Units
   -  Land units now have three letter abbreviations.
   -  Artillery must be at least 20% efficient before it can fire.
   -  The "lmine" command now allows you to lay as  many  land  mines  as  you
      want.   If  the  unit  can't carry as many mines as you asked it to lay,
      then it will just keep resupplying itself until  it  finishes  the  job.
      Also, it now costs engineers 1 point of mobility per mine laid.
   -  If land units are accompanied by engineers, then their chance of hitting
      a land mine is reduced by a factor of 3.  E.g. if there are 25 mines  in
      the  sector,  then  a land unit has a 33% chance of hitting a land mine.
      If it is accompanied by an engineer, then that chance drops to 11%.
   -  If an engineer sweeps a land mine that it cannot carry, it drops it as a
      shell into the sector.
   -  Engineers  now  sweep  a  number of times equal to 2 times the number of
      shells they can carry.
   -  The chance of an engineer finding a land mine in a  sector  is  now  50%
      time the "att" value of the unit:
                # of sweeps   chance of finding a mine
      old system   5            66%
      eng1  130    6            60%
      eng2  165    8            75%
      meng  260    8            90%
   -  You  can  now draw a 'M' map or a 'B' bmap while marching.  Also, if you
      hit the wrong character, navi will now display all possible  march  com-
      mands.
   -  Fortifying a land unit no longer clears the unit's mission.
   -  You  can  list  the  units you are marching using 'i' and you can change
      your leader using 'f'.
   -  Now you can type commands like this:
         [##:##] Command : mar 72 jlruMluBurh
      That is, you can mix directions with other march commands.

Forts
   -  Forts now get their range bonus for return fire if they're > 60%.
   -  Forts now do not cost anything to designate.
   -  You may not fire a fort which is less than 5% efficient.
   -  Forts will now only automatically interdict ships that the country would
      be  able  to  see  using  the "coastwatch" command.  Ships out of visual
      range will not be interdicted by forts.  Note that ship/ship, unit/ship,
      plane/ship interdiction was not changed, and also the "fire" command was
      not changed.  _only_ fort/ship interdiction was changed.

Sectors
   -  Bank interest is now scaled by efficiency rather than simply turning off
      below 60%.
   -  Shoot syntax has changed from "shoot 2,0 c 400" to "shoot c 2,0 400".
   -  Harbors now have the same packing bonus as a warehouse.
   -  You can now build bridges all on one line as in:
         [##:##] Command : build b 2,2 j
   -  You  are  now only allowed to cede to nations which are Friendly towards
      you.
   -  The new Empire command "strength" will show you the defense strength  of
      all your sectors (including number of land mines and reacting units from
      nearby sectors).
   -  The "test" command no longer requires there to be the commodity  in  the
      sector  (useful  if  you want to use that sector as a temporary stopover
      and you don't want the stuff to get stranded there).
   -  Shelling now factors in the efficiency of the sector into its  defensive
      bonus,  so now a 0% bank defends the same as a 0% fort which defends the
      same as a 0% road.  The formula for calculating the new defense value of
      a sector is: ((defense - 2)*eff/100) + 2
   -  The "neweff" command now checks to see if a sector has been stopped.
   -  xdist and ydist are now in player coordinates.
   -  Any interdiction of things being moved will also damage the sector being
      moved into.  Note: this will slow down bridge attacks!
   -  Deliver now gets the same 4x bonus that distribute gets.
   -  The "spy" command now gives you much more useful information:

   SPY report
   Wed Jul 26 21:10:13 1995
      sect   type own oldown eff  civ  mil  shl gun  pet food bars units planes
     29,5      c+   4      4  90  980    0  940  10    0    0    0     2      0

   -  A new option has been added to the server  called  BIG_CITY.   When  the
      BIG_CITY option is turned on, it takes lcm's, hcm's, and money to create
      a city ('c' sector), but they can hold ten times as many civs, and get a
      10x packing bonus for moving civs.
   -  It  used  to be that a gold mine could not hold more than 999 dust.  Now
      all sectors are allowed to hold 9999 of anything, but  it  is  now  only
      _production_ which is limited to 999 per update.
   -  Now  the  "starvation" command will let you check for starvation on land
      units or ships.

Info
   -  The info pages are now organized into subjects.  Type "info" for a list.
   -  The  budget  command  has been changed so that now you may choose not to
      pay maintenance costs.  Also, "mil" on ships/planes/units has been moved
      from  the maintenance costs for those items to the "Military" section of
      the budget.

Commands
   -  Broke countries are now allowed to use all commands except for the  fol-
      lowing:

      arm  assault  attack board bomb build convert disarm drop enlist explore
      fire fly grind harden launch lmine mine paradrop recon  satellite  scrap
      shoot sweep torpedo treaty upgrade work
   -  Broke  countries used to be prevented from using the following commands,
      but will now be allowed to use them:

      demobilize lload llookout load lookout lradar lrange lretreat ltend lun-
      load  march  mission  morale  mquota  navigate  order qorder radar range
      retreat sail sonar sorder spy supply tend transport unload unsail

Update
   -  If you can not afford to maintain your ships/planes/units or you  choose
      not  to  maintain  them  using the "budget" command, then they will lose
      ETU/5 % efficiency at the update.  Also, if you are broke at  the  point
      of  the  update  when  it comes time to build something, then that thing
      will not be built.  In short, the only way you can go broke  now  is  by
      having lots of mil to pay.

Communication
   -  The new commands "flash" and "wall" permit instant communication between
      friends and allies respectively.  Type "info flash" and "info wall"  for
      more details.
   -  The  new  command  "toggle" can be used to instantly inform you when you
      receive a new telegram.  You can also use "toggle" to temporarily  block
      flash  messages.   To  find  out  which clients support this, type "info
      Clients".
   -  The server will now correctly report how many telegrams you  have  wait-
      ing.
   -  The  new  command  "pray" lets you send a telegram to the Deity.  Also a
      telegram from the deity is no longer called a BULLETIN, it is now called
      a TELEGRAM.
   -  The new command "motd" lets you see the "message of the day" (login mes-
      sage) again.
   -  The buggy commands "mail" and "wmail" have been removed from the server.
      If you want to use them, you'll have to use pei.
   -  You  can  now  specify which countries you'd like to see in your "power"
      report.
   -  New "report" command lists number ranges rather than "advanced",  "supe-
      rior", etc...

Combat
   -  Defense against attack, assault, and paradrop is now exactly the same.
   -  If  attack  odds  are > 90%, then defensive support is no longer called.
      This will put a stop to most shell-draining techniques.
   -  You can now specify how many troops you want to board with.   Also,  the
      code  now  always  forces  you to leave at least 1 mil on your ship when
      boarding.  You can also board from any sector type and with  land  units
      having  "assault"  capability.  You may not board with more mil or units
      than the boarded ship can hold.
   -  You may not attack with supply, security,  artillery,  or  anti-aircraft
      (flak capability) land units.
   -  Attacking land units & mil used to be taken out of the sectors/ship they
      were attacking/assaulting/boarding from.  This caused  endless  problems
      (including  stranded  units).  In the new code, mil and units stay where
      they were until they have finished attacking.  The battle is assumed  to
      take  place  along  the  "border"  between  the  two sectors.  Thus, the
      attacking mil & land units will be vulnerable to shelling and  attacking
      while you are answering the attack prompts.
   -  If,  while  you  are  answering  the attack prompts, anything happens to
      either the sector you are attacking, or the mil & units you are  attack-
      ing  with,  then you will be notified ("land unit #3 damaged from 80% to
      50%", "Your mil in 3,1 damaged from 180 to 12", "defending mil has  been
      increased  from 10 to 250").  You will also be notified in this way if a
      bridge collapses, one of your attacking  sectors  was  taken,  you  were
      shelled,  your  enemy abandoned the sector you were attacking, your land
      units reacted to fight another battle, ...)  You will be notified if any
      of  these  things  change  before the battle and given a chance to abort
      your attack.  If for some reason it is  no  longer  possible  to  attack
      (e.g.  you  now  own  the sector, or a bridge collapses) then the attack
      will be automatically aborted.
   -  The sub-prompt for both the "attack with" and the  "move  in"  questions
      has changed to [ynYNq?].  The meanings of these 6 answers are:

               y - yes this unit
               n - no this unit
               Y - yes all units in this army
               N - no all units in this army
               q - quit attack
               ? - print this help message

   -  The server will now add up the mil you saw and the enemy land units your
      scouts saw, and based on this info, it will estimate a defense  strength
      of  the  enemy.   If  your scouts didn't see the efficiency of the enemy
      units, then it will assume that they were at 100%.  Based on this  esti-
      mated  defense  strength,  the server will calculate an estimate of your
      success odds for you and if these estimated odds are less than 50%, then
      the  server  will  ask  you if you're sure you want to continue with the
      attack.  These estimates are made  before  support  is  calculated,  and
      before the enemy reacting units have reacted, so it will not be particu-
      larly accurate.  However, if by the time you've finished  answering  all
      the  attack prompts something has happened which has made your odds much
      worse than you expected (e.g. your cavalry got  shelled  or  your  enemy
      beefed  up  his  mil),  then  this  will  give you a chance to abort the
      attack.
   -  Immediately after a battle is won (i.e. before any  move-in  sub-prompts
      are asked), 1 mil (first choice) or 1 land unit (second choice) is auto-
      matically moved into the taken sector.  Not only does this put a defini-
      tive  stop to shell-draining tricks, but it also resolves what was a big
      problem in the old code of the taken sector being owned but  not  occup-
      pied  for  a  period.   This  problem  resulted  in, among other things,
      stranded land units.  It is impossible to strand a land unit in the  new
      code.
   -  I  have  added  a  new option to the server called INTERDICT_ATT, which,
      when enabled, calls the usual interdiction routines against mil  &  land
      units  moving  into the victim sector after an attack.  The same chances
      of interdiction apply as in "move" and "march".  The mil get interdicted
      sector by sector, and the land units all at once.
   -  In  the  new  attack code, it is much harder for a unit to fail a morale
      check.  The new chance (recalculated after each hit) is (retreat% - unit
      efficiency).   Thus,  a  land unit which has a retreat percentage of 60%
      and is now 50% efficient, will have a 10% chance of retreating with each
      hit.

Important bugfixes
   -  Missiles  on  subs will now fly missions against enemy planes (in chain-
      saw, the missiles simply vanish).
   -  Subs now only interdict subs if they have sub-torp ability (in chainsaw,
      sb1's will interdict sb1's).
   -  Missiles will no longer hit subs.
   -  Your  airport  now  needs to be at least 60% eff in order to fly bombing
      runs from it (in chainsaw you can bomb from 40% airports, but  only  fly
      and recon to 60% airports).
   -  You  can't  sweep, hit, or lay sea mines in a harbour.  You can't sweep,
      hit, or lay land mines on a bridge.  (In chainsaw,  your  ally  can  hit
      your land mines in your harbour.)
   -  It  is no longer possible to accidently go broke through any of the fol-
      lowing commands: build,  convert,  demob,  des,  harden,  upgrade.   (In
      chainsaw  it's  easy  to accidentally go broke through one of these com-
      mands.)
   -  Much of the "attack" function was rewritten to check for "special cases"
      which can result in lost military and units.  Thanks Chad!
   -  The range of missiles on interdiction mission was half of what it should
      be.  this is now fixed.
   -  If you typed "realm #2 0:10,0:10", it would change realm  #0.   This  is
      now fixed
   -  If  you downgraded your relations from Allied to Neutral, then the other
      country would downgrade their relations towards you to Hostile.  This is
      now fixed.
   -  You  used to have to log out and back in again to stop being broke.  Now
      your status will be updated as soon as you get the money (well, one com-
      mand after to be exact).

Options

   The following options have been made standard:
   DROPANY:        you can drop things on sectors belonging to allies
   REJECTS:        you can reject announcements and teles from annoying countries
   BMAP:           map info gained is saved in a big world map (bmap command)
   AUTONAV:        ships can move automatically
   SCUTTLE:        you can sink your own ships automatically
   CONVASAT:       anti-satellite missiles don't need nuclear warheads
   ABM:            anti-missile missiles exist
   GRIND:          you can grind gold bars back into dust
   NONUKESUB:      nukes don't affect submarines
   RANGEDIT:       you can modify the range of your planes
   MISSDEF:        ships with tactical missiles will fire them in defense
   SHIPSAM:        ships can carry and use SAMSs
   BIND:           network stuff, no interest to players (NITP)
   MERC:           a collection of bug fixes
   TACARGO:        planes that are cargo AND tactical can bomb (zeppelins)
   NOGODS:         deity countries don't show up on power reports
   BETTERARMOR:    armor has more of an effect on ship damage
   GODNAMES:       bulletins are identified by which deity sent the
   MULTIFIRE:      multiple ships/sects can fire at once
   SHIPTORP:       ships can have torp ability
   SWEEP_PLANES:   some planes can sweep mines
   MINE_PLANES:    some planes can lay mines
   ASW_PLANES:     some planes can detect/kill subs
   HARBOR_POLICE:  you can board ships in your harbor using mil from the harbor
   WING_LOAD:      you can load groups of planes on ships with 1 command
   ALLYUPGRADE:    allies can upgrade your ships in their harbors
   ALLYHARB(etc):  allies will increase your ships' efficiency in their harbors
   RETREAT:        ships can automatically retreat, under conditions you set
   STEALTHV:       stealth is a % chance to evade, all planes are rated 0-100%
   SEMILAND:       some ships can land 20% of mil instead of 10% or 100%
   WIRE:           announcements are seperated from teles/bulletins
   STOP:           Sectors taken over must be started.  Start and stop are enabled

   The following options have been permanently turned off
   REALM_IN_NAT:   realms are displayed by the nation command
   DAVYJONES:      nukes hitting sea affect 1 sect, hitting waste/sanct don't det
   BABY_NUKES:     Nukes affect only 1 sector

SEE ALSO
   strength,  tend, toggle, flash, relations, arm, starvation, Damage, report,
power, Clients, Attack, Server

