                           Server : Empire3 Changes

NAME
   Empire3 - Changes from the Empire2 server to the Empire3 Server

Level: Expert

There  have  been  several  changes/fixes  made to the Empire2 code in the new
Empire3 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.

Sectors
   -  The delivery and distribution stuff was removed from the output of "com-
      modity" and each column was widened to 5 characters (to  accomodate  the
      new system where sectors are now allowed to hold up to 9999 of stuff)
   -  Mountains  will now mine gold at 3/4 the rate that gold mines do (thar's
      gold 'n them thar hills!)
   -  Mountains can now only hold 1/10th the population of normal sectors.
   -  The mobility cost to move into a sector has been changed from:
          cost = (mcost - eff) / 5
        to:
          if (mcost < 25)
            cost = (2 + (3 - mcost) * eff) / 5
          else
            cost = (mcost - 20 * eff) / 5

      OLD SYSTEM: eff   0%  100%     NEW SYSTEM: eff   0%  100%
                    +  0.2   0.0                   +  0.4   0.0
                    m  0.4   0.2                   m  0.4   0.2
                    ^  5.0   4.8                   ^  5.0   1.0
      Note that this means land units can attack 100% mountains now, so  there
      will  be  a  tradeoff for the defender--either they can have a low effi-
      ciency mountain that costs more mobility to  attack  but  gets  a  lower
      defense  bonus,  or  they can have a high efficiency mountain that costs
      less mobility to attack but gets a higher defense bonus.
   -  New conditional query "coastal" which gets set when you take a  "census"
      of the sector.  Type "cens * ?coast=1" to get a list of all of your sec-
      tors which are adjacent to  water  (and  thus  vulnerable  to  assault).
      Ships
   -  -  The  size of "ts1 trade ship 1" was reduced to 100 lcm, 50 hcm, $1500
      (from 200 lcm, 100 hcm, $2500).  Most players were waiting  for  ts2  so
      this is a nice way to deal with that.
Planes
   -  In the old system, planes would be charged either 10 mobility (intercep-
      tors), 12 mobility (escorts) or 20 mobility (the rest) per flight.  This
      cost  was then multiplied by (100 / eff) with the restriction that plane
      mobility could not go below -32.  Planes flying  missions  were  charged
      only  1/4 of this.  In the new system, planes are charged a base rate of
      5 mobility to prepare for takeoff.  On top of this, they are  charged  a
      flight  cost  which  is  either 10 (interceptors and escorts) or 20 (the
      rest), however this flight cost is scaled down according to  the  length
      of  the flight--it is multiplied by (flight length) / (max plane range).
      The flight cost is then scaled by (100/eff) with the restriction that  a
      plane  can't  go below -32 mobility.  Planes flying missions are charged
      1/2 of this.
   -  The mobility of a plane will now go down by  one  point  for  every  two
      points  of damage it took from air-to-air combat, to a limit of -32 mob.
      This is to simulate the high mobility cost of air-to-air combat, and the
      fact that air-to-air combat is more effort for low tech planes.
   -  SAM  interception  is  now  separate  from  plane interception; for each
      attacking plane, if it cost at least $1000 to build, then one  SAM  will
      be  launched  at  it.   After  SAMs have been fired, fighter planes will
      intercept what's left over.
   -  The restriction that high tech nations can not build low tech planes has
      been removed (the above changes address the f1 SAM-soaking problem).
   -  Marine  missiles  on  interdiction now fire at a single ship rather than
      the whole fleet.  They pick the ship which is the most valuable  accord-
      ing  to (cost to build) * efficiency.  Furthermore, marine missiles will
      only launch at a ship if the ship cost >= $1000 to build or  if  it  can
      carry land units or planes.
   -  Sectors  which  your  planes fly over when they fly missions will now be
      added to your bmap.
Land Units
   -  There are three new land  units:  'cavalry  2',  'light  infantry',  and
      'aau1'.   Here's  the  basic  scheme.   The  old  cavalry are an average
      between the somewhat weaker cav1  and  somewhat  stronger  cav2.   light
      infantry  are  half  the size of and slightly fastar than inf1's. 'aau1'
      come at the same tech as Zepplins and let  low  tech  countries  try  to
      throw rocks at low tech planes...
Maps
   -  You now have 50 realms.
   -  Each  country  now  has two bmaps, their 'working' bmap and their 'true'
      bmap.  The true bmap contains only information put there by the  server.
      The  working  bmap  also  contains information put there by the bdes and
      sharebmap commands.  The 'bmap' command  usually  displays  the  working
      bmap  unless  the  player specifies 'bmap <SECTS> true'.  If the players
      working bmap becomes corrupted somehow, then they can type 'bmap <SECTS>
      revert'  to  revert  their  working  bmap back to their true bmap.  This
      change was necessary to prevent abuse of  the  new  'sharebmap'  command
      (which  compares  the  players  true bmaps when determining whether they
      overlap).
   -  There is a  new  command  "sharebmap  <COUN>  <SECTS>".   If  <COUN>  is
      friendly towards you and your 'true' bmaps already share enough informa-
      tion in common, then your bmap will be added to their  bmap.   For  more
      details see 'info sharebmap'.
Information
   -  The  new  info  page "info Mobility" gives the formulas for all mobility
      costs in the game.
Communication
   -  If someone else was the last person to use your country, then  when  you
      login you will get a message like:

               Last connection from: Mon Nov 13 04:48:04 1995
                                 to: Mon Nov 13 05:13:12 1995
                                 by: children@RedDragon.Empire.Net

   -  If the game is a blitz, then the 'players' command will list other coun-
      tries which are logged on.  This will cut down on the 'is  anybody  else
      logged  on?'  announcements.   Note that for players, 'last command' and
      'user@hostname' are not printed (only deities get to see this stuff).
   -  You can now read old announcements which you've already thrown  away  by
      typing:

      SYNTAX
         [##:##] Command : wire <number of days>

      This  works  much  in  the  same  way as news.  The server automatically
      deletes all announcements older than 7 days.
   -  New server commands 'toggle sync', 'toggle  async',  and  'sync'  permit
      client-server database synchronization.
   -  Before you type a telegram, you will now see:
          Enter telegram for Fodderland
          undo last line with ~u, print with ~p, abort with ~q, end with ^D or .
          1024 left:
        The new tilde escapes work very nicely.

Options
The following options have been made standard:
NEWPAF:         Plane combat is in nice easy-to-read columns

SEE ALSO
   toggle, sharebmap, Clients, Server

