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"On air. On sea. On land. Still the Internet's greatest wargame simulation."

"All the news that fits, we print."
November, 1995
Vol. 2, No. 9

In This Edition

What's New

Bug Hunt III
Registration for Bug Hunt III, run by Ken Stevens, closes on 17 November.

Newbie Game
Pat Loney is running an Empire game strictly for beginners. Registration
closes sometime in the first week of November.

Long Term Games
Two new long term games started up this month.

Available Countries List on PEA
Put your country on this web page if you need a replacement or co-ruler.

"Benchmarks" by Ken Stevens
A new feature from the server team in this issue of the Empire News

Empire2 is a wrap
November 1, Empire 3 begins development!

Ultrix port for the server
Steven McClure has ported the Empire2 server to MIPS Ultrix.

BugHunt II
Was won by Goshlorien (Goshen/Lothlorien).

Insanity II
Was won by CCCP, Gothotn, and Kedesh.

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New games starting up

Bug Hunt III
Bug Hunt III will run on the Empire 3 server. Four players will start with 2 sectors and no units on each 60 sector island. This is a HIDDEN and SLOW_WAR game. Registration closes November 17. Send the following to bughunt@empire.net:
Name:
Country:
Password:
Email:
Experience:

Newbie Game
New players and those with experience level below 4 will have the oppurtunity to play in a beginners' game. Those interested should send their names and password to overlord@dork.alfred.edu (Pat Loney).

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Long Term Games

(http://www.empire.net/~children/pea_pages/games.html)

Two new long-term games begun since the last Empire News: "Thematic II", and "Bayou Blast".

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Client

Available Countries List on PEA
Need someone to help you co-rule your country?

Can't play anymore and need a replacement?

Are you a deity and need to replace some countries that didn't break
sanctuary?

Then please add yourself to the new "Available Countries" list on the PEA.
It's dead easy; just go to the PEA Pages (http://www.empire.net/~children/pea_pages), and then "Available Countries". Select "add" to add yourself to the list!

Once we have 4 or 5 concurrent games running, this list will prove invaluable as a way to inform others of the availability of your country.
Note that nowhere in the "Available Countries" will the name of tha
available country appear--this is to ensure that the new owner of the
country acquires it in one piece. The name of the game, however, will
appear so that people can make sure they don't end up with two countries in the same game (which is strictly forbidden).

Empire Toolkit for Clients and the C_SYNC protocol
All future client will link with the empire toolkit being coded by Kevin
Morgan. The toolkit will synchronize client data with the server, using
the C_SYNC protocol. Empire3 server coding will include support for
C_SYNC.

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Featured Columns

"Benchmarks"

by
Ken Stevens

This month, I made significant changes to land mines, ship visibility, sonar, ASW planes, and being broke. I also fixed hundreds of bugs in the Empire server.

I consider the current Empire2 server to be very stable. Perhaps the most stable any Empire server has ever been. There is only one known bug in the new server, namely that "update simulation" commands like budget and prod are grossly inaccurate. Ville Virrankoski of Finland [Hyperborea] has made fixing the Empire "budget" command his term project for a CS course.

As I write this, there are approximately 10 people writing new graphic Empire clients. The most serious of these projects is a group of four students (including Tero Paananen [Consolidated]) in Finland who have made writing a graphical Windows Empire client their major term project for a CS course. Most of these clients will be linking with the forthcoming EmpireToolkit (written by Kevin Morgan [Barsoom]). The EmpireToolkit is an Empire Database Manager which will communicate with the Empire 3.0 server using a newly developed client-server protocol called C_SYNC (see C_SYNC RFC ("http://www.empire.net/~children/PEA/deity/docs) ). What this means to you is that when someone sails a ship up to your coast, you will see a picture of a little ship moving across your screen. I hope to have Empire3.0 beta released in mid-November. In the meantime, I think I'll apply to a CS programme in Finland...

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Server

The Empire2 Server
If you'd like to try running the new server (http://www.empire.net/~children/PEA/deity/server), it is available on PEA. Many platforms have been tested with the server, and a new configuration process helps get things going.

Beginning this month, there will be a split in server development. Empire2 will continue to be supported, and Empire3 is just beginning, with a test release date in November, in time for the third Bug Hunt game. Empire3 includes the C_SYNC protocol, which allows the client to keep information about the player's and enemies' countries. The latest draft of the C_SYNC RFC (http://www.empire.net/~children/PEA/deity/docs) can be downloaded from the PEA.

The Empire Project Home Page (http://www.rr.ualberta.ca/~empire/)
For an up to date list of the changes in the new server, connect to the
Howitzer Blitz (http://www.empire.net/~children/pea_pages/blitzes.html) and type "info Empire2".

Empire Server Discussion mailing list
(http://www.empire.net/~children/empire-list/) The mailing list, a forum of discussion regarding changes to the server, has been established (with current traffic about 100 mail messages per month). If, and ONLY IF you are very familiar with the Empire source code, have experience modifying the Empire source, and have time to help with the Server project, send mail to empire-list-request@empire.net with the body content: subscribe

How to Run a Game
(http://www.empire.net/~children/ftp/deity/docs/how_to_run_a_game.txt)
Before making a game announcement to rec.games.empire, please read and heed this document.

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This month's winners

BugHunt II
was won by Goshlorien (Goshen, co-ruled with Lothlorien).

         sects  eff civ  mil  shell gun pet  iron dust oil  pln ship unit money
Goshlorie 340   98% 339K  15K  12K 1.7K  16K 170K 1.8K  22K 350   80   60   25K
    Aegis 145   94% 195K 5.8K 4.2K 480  4.2K  50K 2.5K 9.6K 140  100   30   55K
RomanEmpi 125   97% 160K 1.3K 3.3K 410  4.5K  23K 800  9.8K 170   40   20   30K
   Aradus 110   99% 139K 2.5K 9.7K 910  6.5K  45K 2.1K 5.5K 110   90   30  3.2K

Insanity II
was won CCCP, GotHotn, and Kedesh. Sorry, no power report is available.

Thematic I (correction)
was won by the alliance of Barsoom and Cathouse.

         sects  eff civ  mil  shell gun pet  iron dust oil  pln ship unit money
  Barsoom 455   94% 319K  15K 6.3K 755  9.0K  82K  10K  19K 280  110  230  110K
  Solvind 220   95% 156K 6.2K 5.5K 765  4.5K  60K 3.0K  11K  60  130   80   30K
   ST:TEG 200   95% 158K 7.0K 2.9K 440  2.8K  53K 900   11K  30  110   70  255K
 Cathouse 200   92% 146K  13K 3.5K 645  1.9K  22K 9.1K 3.0K  80  110  130   35K

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This Newsletter

Mark Ballinger is responsible for the Empire News and the Empire FAQ. If you have suggestions, corrections or announcements, please email me at
uesugi@empire.net.

Mark Ballinger (Uesugi)

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