-=O EMPIRE WACKY IDEAS LIST O=-

This file contains the more bizarre and outlandish proposals for
changing the game of Empire.  See the EMPIRE WISH LIST for an
explanation of the indexing system.

  _________________________________________________________________

--- TABLE OF CONTENTS ---

Attack, Assault and Board.................a 
Missions..................................m 
Ships.....................................s 
Planes....................................p 
Land Units................................l 
Commodities and Sectors...................c 
Information Commands......................i 
Telegrams, Announcements, News............t 
Updates...................................u 
Deity.....................................d 
Miscellanious and Documentation...........x 
Error Messages............................e 

  --- ATTACK, ASSAULT AND BOARD --- 

a4
frontline <UNITS>
When a unit is created, it is automatically put on the frontline
(except for artillery and supply units). This means that when you
attack an adjacent sector, you will be asked if you want to include
this unit in the attack.
backline <UNITS>
When a unit is put on a mission, it is automatically put on the
backline. This means that when you attack, you won't be asked about
attacking with this unit. Also, supply units and artillery are born on
the backline. When attacking with units, allow the user to type Y,
rather than typing y for all the units you want to attack with. Y
would mean "attack with all units on the frontline". At the attack
prompt, you will be asked: Attack with infantry #3 (y/n/Y/N/b)? and
the "b" will mean "backline". This would be particularly handy when
attacking with a bunch of units and you want to leave some of them
behind to hold the beach-head. And you want to stop being prompted for
them.

  --- SHIPS --- 
  
s9
swap [s|p|l] <UNIT1> <UNIT2>
Swap the id numbers of units so you can control the order in which
they are built. In order to swap the numbers, the units must be in the
same sector, and the sector must be either a h/*/! as appropriate.
WARNING: this could be seriously abused!

s11
nuclear subs consume rads as fuel? need rads to build nuc sub?

s17
in fuel command, one petrol should be worth 20 oil. right now it is
more efficient to fuel ships and units with oil rather than with
petrol.
( in this one, it would probably be better IMHO to get rid of fueling
with oil altogether - Ken H.)

s20
Make assaulting cost ship mobility. This would help stop the ability
to assault with a small amount of mil over and over until
reacting units run out of mobility.

  --- PLANES --- 
  
p3
Allow transport planes to paradrop land units. (This would be
realistic.) Would use the following analogy:

Units on Planes         Units on Ships
x-light                 assault
para                    marine
cargo                   light

So, "cargo" units could be transported, "x-light" units could paradrop
but at a serious disadvantage and would lose all mob, and "para" units
could paradrop like marines could assault (with full attack and
reduced mob loss).

p8
planes should mobility when loaded and unloaded from a ship.

p12
Have an aquatic plane type. This would be a medium to small cargo
plane, that must be built in an airport but can only take off froma
harbor, or sea sector. While on the water, it could tend, however, not
be able to nav. It might, or might not be able to lay/sweep mines. And
fuel is another issue that would need to be looked into.

p14
perhaps the range a plane can fly should be limited by its efficiency.

  --- LAND UNITS --- 
  
l2
trans l <FROMSECT> <TOSECT>
to use sector mobility to transport a land unit from one sector to
another.

l3
Make a new kind of land unit (transport trucks) which can carry land
units in a similar way that ships can carry units. This would allow
you to transport heavy artillery and unmechanized infantry around
faster. (This would be a realistic change).

l5
Have very expensive land units called a spies:

                       lcm hcm mil guns shells avail tech  $
spy 1                      10   0   1    0      0     2    0  $2000
spy 2                      10   0   1    0      0     2    0  $5000
spy 3                      10   0   1    0      0     2    0  $8000



Spies can march through enemy territory and llook in there. Every
update, there will be a chance the spy is caught. Also there is a
chance it will be caught every time it moves in enemy territory and
every time it does an "lloo". It will be completely unaffected by
combat. The chance of detection should be something like: spy 1 10%,
spy 2 5%, spy 3 2%.

l6
land units should lose mob when loaded/unloaded from a ship.

l10
mobile headquarters unit type - capable of repairing land units by
using mobility, supplies, and mil. How about just letting engineers
work on units also?

  --- COMMODITIES AND SECTORS --- 
  
c9
Limit the amount of commodities (by weight) allowed to be kept on a
bridge, and have a stacking limit for units on a bridge. (Bridges can
only support so much weight eh?)

c10
build tu
At a price, build a tunnel through a mountain sector. This would turn
a ^ into a + at some great cost.

c12
autodemob 11,11 35 y
"autodemob" is to "demob" what "autonav" is to "nav". The principle is
simple: "autodemob 11,11 35 y" means every update, demob all the mil
in 11,11 except for 35. ( note - makes budget more complex - Oliver
Ricou )

c14
We need some Empire command which lets you do a lot of moving at once
with minimal BTU cost. Here would be one possible syntax: multimove
<ITEM> <SECTS> <THRESHOLD> <DISTSECT> <MINMOB> This is just like
distribute at the update. It would distribute commodities between
<SECTS> and <DISTSECT> depending on <THRESHOLD> (which applies to the
<SECTS>), and only doing moves provided that the mobility doesn't fall
below <MINMOB> in any of the sectors involved: empire [124,512]%
multimove f * ?civ>20 40 1,1 40 An alternate symtax could be:
multimove <ITEM>
where existing distribution thresholds are used.

  --- MISCELLANIOUS AND DOCUMENTATION --- 
  
x25
national happiness should be affected by your victories/losses, and if
you drown your mil (by scuttle/scrap) or starv your populace.
