                        Server : How to be a good God

NAME
   God - Tips on being God

Level: Expert

The  following  commands  act differently or require different parameters when
used as deity: wire, read, des, zdone, nav,  march,  transport,  move,  build,
country.

Comments from Dave Pare

I've  been  deity of seven or eight games, and each time I learn something new
about how far I should go, and how active a role I should take.

There are several things a deity should take into account.

 1)  Bug policy.  When a player says that a bug bit him, how do you handle it?
     Since  I  used to hack on the game at the same time players would play, I
     used to have a "nasty" bug policy.  That is, if a bug bites a player,  he
     loses.  It is very difficult to verify if a player "really did lose those
     1000 gold bars" from that bank because of a bug.  Also, whenever a player
     had  something  bad  happen  to him, he'd yell "BUG".  All too often, the
     player just did something stupid.

     If a player ever found a "good" bug (and reported it in  a  timely  fash-
     ion),  I'd  give him some kind of reward.  The reward was generally mate-
     rial enough to encourage them to report bugs, but not  too  much  so  the
     other players complained.  If through use of this bug the player manufac-
     tured "too many" goodies for himself, I  acted  to  redress  the  balance
     immediately.

     This whole case is only interesting when the Deity knows the Empire code,
     and can identify bugs as such.

 2)  Unskilled players.  It's tough watching your friends lose  in  an  Empire
     game.   Helping  "just  a  little"  by giving information, or by giving a
     teensy bit of assistance is BAD.  Empire is NOT a game of socialist  care
     for  the  needy;  it's more like survival of the fittest.  Players should
     sink or swim on their own.  If you help  a  novice,  you're  deliberately
     hurting  his  opponent.  Some players will lose, and as Deity you'll have
     to stand by and watch this happen.

 3)  Answering random prayers.  If you DO help someone,  help  them  in  rela-
     tively  minor  ways.  Do things like fill in some ocean, etc.  Don't give
     away commodities -- except perhaps food.  Whatever  you  do,  don't  give
     tech,  military hardware, civilians, military, or any information at all!
     The game is very stingy with information, and you should be too.

 4)  Security.  Make SURE that nobody else has access to the data directories.
     There  are  always players who will do anything to win.  If you help them
     control themselves by making the data  completely  unavailable  --  watch
     those  dump  tapes  too -- you'll be doing their moral fiber and everyone
     else a favor.

Remember, as Deity your job is to make the  game  fair.   Don't  hose  players
(unless  they  cheat  -- and you catch them!)  and don't give out information.
Information is very important in Empire, and as Deity you've got access to all
of  it.  Be careful in what you say, and how you leave your terminal at night!

Unless you've got nothing else to do, a Deity should  keep  player  communica-
tions  to  a  minimum.   Handling special player requests gets tedious after a
while; make players pay for Deity assistance.  One game I suggested  that  the
only  way  players  could  get the Deity to fill in ocean sectors, zap plague,
etc, was to offer a real-life sacrifice to the deity -- a few bottles of  good
beer, for example!  I got perhaps a dozen bottles, and managed to greatly cur-
tail player requests at the same time!

In summary, an Empire game should be between  players.   Any  time  the  Deity
helps  anyone,  Deity intervention starts becoming a factor in the game.  As a
Deity, you absolutely can't go wrong if you do nothing at all  except  routine
game maintenance.

SEE ALSO
   Deity

