                                Server : Bugs

NAME
   Bugs - Known bugs in the Empire Server

Level: Expert

NOTE: This file is dramatically out of date.

The classification scheme used by report is dumb.

You  can  make  a sector temporarily useless by filling up all its fields with
delivery and distribution information.  This is useful when an enemy is trying
to capture the sector (his mil don't have room to move in :-) You have to halt
some of the deliveries or distributions to make room for the military to  move
in.  (Mostly fixed by changing the number of available fields)

Warehouses  can't  distribute  all  commodities simultaneously, due to limited
fields for this information.  This becomes a problem if you have a countrywide
network  of  warehouses distributing to each other.  (Mostly fixed by changing
the number of available fields)

You can sometimes build planes in non-airport sectors, deliberately  or  acci-
dentally. FIXED

You can sometimes move small quantities of certain items from warehouses at no
mobility cost, even into mountains (this is my favorite bug, I'd hate  to  see
it fixed :-)

Guerrillas don't seem to carry the plague.

You  can  get  information  about  enemy sectors by attacking with 0 military.
This costs 0 BTU's currently (this is another of my favorite bugs :-) This  is
a  good  way  to  flood  the enemy mailbox with junk mail at no cost in BTU's.
FIXED

You can sometimes trick someone into paying a huge price  for  commodities  by
changing  the  price  suddenly.  Therefore one should always check prices when
buying commodities.

When two countries are attacking each other simultaneously, you can  sometimes
move  into  a sector he is in the process of attacking.  If you get the timing
right, he will take the sector but you will get it back, along  with  all  his
military.

If  a  plane is out to trade, and gets shot down, it can still be bought until
the next update.  If another country builds a new plane that gets  the  number
of  the  plane that was shot down, the new plane will go on the trading market
automatically.  Then if that plane is bought, the money goes  to  the  country
whose  plane  was  shot  down,  not the country that built the plane.  I stole
numerous planes (including nuclear missiles  :-)  this  way  (by  deliberately
putting low numbered planes up for trade, then having them shot down).

If a plane has negative mobility, then gets traded, mobility goes to 0.

Firing on sectors with land-locked sunken ships does strange things.

If  two  countries  are cooperating, its possible to raid an enemy airport and
steal the planes by putting them out to trade.

You can also strip enemy sectors of commodities using "sell", if you have mil-
itary control temporarily.

One can raid an enemy harbor and use up all the raw materials by building use-
less ships. FIXED

One can make work go back to 100 everywhere in a country by moving all  civil-
ians in low-work sectors onto a bridge, then collapsing the bridge.  Work then
goes to 100 at the next update, if you leave some mil in the vacated  sectors.
Or you can move mil out too, letting the sector ownership change to the Deity,
then move back in from a 100% working sector, and  work  goes  immediately  to
100.

Two  cooperative  countries  can  move  commodities around at no mobility cost
using the market.

You can depopulate an enemy sector in a raid by converting all civs to uws and
selling  them.   This  can make it hard for the victim to get back in the game
even with a rapid & successful counterattack. FIXED, convert takes mob now.

Sometimes sector ownership doesn't change when the last civ  starves,  so  you
may  get census information about sectors with 0 civs.  Later this same sector
may get its ownership switched to the Deity without your doing anything. FIXED

You can only have so much of a commodity in a sector.  If you went over 32,000
and something, units of food, for example, bizarre  things  might  happen.   I
think that has been fixed. FIXED

Treaty had bugs (for example, firing on any ships was considered a treaty vio-
lation, not just the ships of the country you had a  treaty  with).   I  think
Jeff might have fixed this. FIXED

Also  air  attacks  were not considered treaty violations.  This may have been
fixed. FIXED

You can collapse enemy bridges by making a lightning raid on  his  bridgeheads
and redesignating them, even if you only hold the bridgehead for a short time.
(In this games, bridges work differently, see info build, info bridges")

You can map out enemy territory by raiding his radar stations.

Condition checking is very treacherous.  Global commands with  conditions  are
unreliable.  I never figured out exactly what was wrong, although I think your
method of putting conditions towards the front of the line helped sometimes.

You can have more than 26 ships in a fleet, but only the first  26  will  move
when  you navigate the fleet (I think 26 is the right number, but I'm not cer-
tain.  It might be 32).

"Look" only spots subs (from destroyers) at a certain distance.   If  you  are
too close you won't see them (unless you are in the same sector).

You  can  only  fly  as many planes on a mission as you can fit on the command
line (so low numbered planes have an advantage this way).  USE WINGS

I never managed to load more than 1 warhead on a missile, but  I  didn't  have
time to investigate this thoroughly. FIXED

Wilderness  sectors that you own don't appear as "?" on enemy maps, so you can
sometimes hide information by leaving sectors as wilderness. FIXED

When a sector has a visible ship, radar doesn't show  whether  the  sector  is
land  or sea, just the ship.  This has interesting possibilities for exploita-
tion (like land-locking a battleship in your capital in order to  deceive  the
enemy :-)

I don't think you can land planes on a land-locked aircraft carrier anymore.

Its  common  to mistakenly set the price of a plane or ship incorrectly so one
should check trade after using set.

Torpedo isn't random, but always works within range (another  of  my  favorite
bugs :-) FIXED

Transporting nukes costs 0 mobility. FIXED

The "must be accepted by" date on offered loans is bogus.

"Turn off" doesn't stop updates.

SEE ALSO
   list, Innards, Server

