                               Concept : Plague

NAME
   Plague - The Plague

Level: Expert

Plague  is  used  in  Empire to symbolize all forms of disease and is the only
health hazard associated with the Empire game, (ignoring it's effects  on  the
players).   The characteristics of plague are, therefore, a compromise of dis-
ease features (or "bugs").

Note that if the NO_PLAGUE option is in use, a kindly deity has wiped out  the
plague for you. If not, worry about it.

All of the timelines below are based on a game with 32 ETU updates.

The  Empire  Plague  takes  between 96 and 189 time units to run its course on
land, (i.e., 2 to 4 days in any particular sector/ship/land unit if an  Empire
time unit is 1/2 and hour.)  In so doing the plague goes through three stages:

Stage I -- The gestation or incubation phase  in  which  no  symptoms  appear.
   Sectors or ships that are in this stage of the plague are indistinguishable
   from healthy sectors or ships.  This stage lasts 32 to 63 time units, (less
   than a day and a half).

Stage  II -- The infectious phase in which the symptoms first appear -- orange
   blotches on the face and hands, sometimes accompanied by  grey  stripes  on
   the  genitalia,  itching of the liver and spleen, an uncontrollable fear of
   ripe tomatoes, etc.  During this phase the plague is  extremely  communica-
   ble;  for  example, a simple delivery from an infectious sector will infect
   the destination sector.

Stage III -- The terminal phase in which people die, often in the act of flee-
   ing  from  (real  or  imagined) tomatoes.  The number of people that die is
   roughly inversely proportional to the research level of the  country  (plus
   100).

All three phases are of roughly equal average duration, (about 48 time periods
or 1 day).

Plague usually arises in countries with  high  technological  development  and
comparatively little medical research.  It arises specifically in sectors with
high population density and low efficiency.

Recently archaeologists have uncovered a treatise by a  Dr. M. Welby  entitled
"Demographic considerations and the Empire Plague".  In part it states:

        It  appeared  that  our  original hypothesis based on the high
        percentage of Lumbagan Legionnaires among  the  afflicted  had
        led  us  down  a blind alley and that if we were to solve this
        complex puzzle before the end of  the  series  in  the  spring
        [possibly  a  reference  to the series of tests leading to the
        mysterious "Neilson Rating"] we would have to  turn  to  other
        disciplines for help.  It was only by the merest lucky coinci-
        dence that as I drove home one evening ...   [here  Dr.  Welby
        relates  an  amusing  anecdote  about  a Brownie Scout and the
        director of a film entitled "Close  Encounters  of  the  Third
        Grade"]  ...   leading us to the following amazing formulation
        of the relationship between medical research, technology, pop-
        ulation, standard of living and the Empire Plague:

   Likelihood of plague outbreak (in percent) is
           civ + mil + uw   t_level + (iron + oil + rad * 2) / 10 + 100
   max (0, -------------- * ------------------------------------------- - 1)
               max_pop             r_level + effic + mobil + 100

Later formulations of this relationship show great similarity to his statement
(see "info Innards").

Many researchers have commented on the surprising lack of correlation  between
food supply and plague outbreak.

Fortunately,  the  plague is only infectious while the sector is actively bat-
tling the plague (Stage II).  The most effective method for curing plague  has
been to isolate the sector by stopping all distribution, deliveries, movement,
etc.  originating from the sector once an outbreak has been spotted.

This includes loading and unloading of ships and land units (since  they  can,
of course, carry plague), allowing explorations out of the sector, moving com-
modities out of the sector, distribution or deliveries from the  sector,  etc.
Basically,  any  people  or  commodities that originate from a sector actively
battling plague will cause the destination sector (or ship or  land  unit)  to
become infected.

Once  an outbreak has been spotted, the plague takes on an infectious state at
the next update.  There is very little time to isolate the  sector  and  limit
deaths caused by plague.

SEE ALSO
   Innards, Research, Sector-types, Technology, Populace, Update

