Archived from groups: rec.games.empire (More info?)
Retro was certainly a vast improvement, been many years since we had a
strategic game like that.
But there are a couple options that should have been included, in order to make
the game more strategic rather than tactical, and to reduce micromanagement.
During the 1980s, my idea was to make empire more strategic than tactical, due
to comparions with chess, where after playing a perfect strategic game for 40
moves, you can lose to an inferior player due to a single tactical blow. To
give an example, in olden days we had highway networks, where we would hide
bars, and then designate the highway a new bank, and get income from it. Then
someone changed the update order so you would no longer get income from such
new banks (maybe there is a way around that but I haven't figured it out yet).
That meant you had to leave the bars in a bank, which created a fixed target
which if hit by the enemy could be a decisive tactical blow effectively
knocking you out of the game. Even if you have several banks it is still
possible for the enemy to get lucky with one tactical strike and defeat an
otherwise strategically superior country. I don't know of any historical
example from all of military history and strategy where such a thing occured in
a real war, though there have been numerous cases where the treasury was
captured, or the owner of the treasury took it on the road with them, so I
think the original set up where we could run with the bars along the highway
network was fine, and it was really stupid to change that.
In any case, to rectify that ridiculous situation where one tactical blow could
decide the game, my solution was the "superbars" option. That way even if you
hit the bank the bars are undamaged, though the enemy may lose income for an
update. So strategically the country is still viable, and the enemy still has
the strategic prospect of capturing the bars, but it is much harder to defeat
the victim with a single blow, rather the victim has to be beaten
strategically.
Another option was the Go_Renew option to reduce micromanagement. You would
have a very few gold and oil producing sectors, but they would continue
producing throughout the game. That is more like the real strategic situation,
for example the middle east is the oil producing region and retains that
strategic value over a very long period of time, rather than being drained of
oil in an update or two, after which a new oil well has to be found. Without
Go_Renew one is continually micro-managing new gold and oil sectors, which is a
totally useless waste of player time having nothing to do with strategy,
whereas with Go_Renew on the gold and oil sectors have a long term strategic
value and are worth defending and capturing. The middle east has to be defended
for its oil producing value, for example, whereas if the real world was like
empire, the middle east would be drained of oil in an update or two, then
forgotten.
Some moron is going to say "you should defend your bars", but the point is,
that makes it a tactical game, the issue isn't whether it is possible to defend
the bars, the issue is whether the game is tactical or strategic, and if it is
possible in theory to strike a decisive blow with a single plane that pinbombs
the bars and alters the course of the game, that makes it a tactical game.
Since there are obviously some unfathomably stupid players who want that type
of tactical game and are too stupid to understand the value of having a
strategic game, I have to put that caveat in there ahead of time. We'll see if
they react by flaming.
Some of the best games were games where each country had only one gold
producing sector, a mountain, but with Go_Renew on, that shows an example of
how gold could be handled. In olden days before paper money, the gold and
silver producing areas had a long term strategic value, giving the country that
could hold them a huge advantage in being able to finance a larger army. Philip
of Macedon, for example, was able to make Macedonia a great power by virtue of
controlling the main silver mines in the region.
If you want to make oil derricks mandatory, have just a very few land sectors
with oil, but have the oe exploration boats and have some sea sectors with oil
in them, which would be needed to make enough oil to become a great power. I
don't really think much of forcing oil derricks to be used though, too much
micromanagement.
Retro was certainly a vast improvement, been many years since we had a
strategic game like that.
But there are a couple options that should have been included, in order to make
the game more strategic rather than tactical, and to reduce micromanagement.
During the 1980s, my idea was to make empire more strategic than tactical, due
to comparions with chess, where after playing a perfect strategic game for 40
moves, you can lose to an inferior player due to a single tactical blow. To
give an example, in olden days we had highway networks, where we would hide
bars, and then designate the highway a new bank, and get income from it. Then
someone changed the update order so you would no longer get income from such
new banks (maybe there is a way around that but I haven't figured it out yet).
That meant you had to leave the bars in a bank, which created a fixed target
which if hit by the enemy could be a decisive tactical blow effectively
knocking you out of the game. Even if you have several banks it is still
possible for the enemy to get lucky with one tactical strike and defeat an
otherwise strategically superior country. I don't know of any historical
example from all of military history and strategy where such a thing occured in
a real war, though there have been numerous cases where the treasury was
captured, or the owner of the treasury took it on the road with them, so I
think the original set up where we could run with the bars along the highway
network was fine, and it was really stupid to change that.
In any case, to rectify that ridiculous situation where one tactical blow could
decide the game, my solution was the "superbars" option. That way even if you
hit the bank the bars are undamaged, though the enemy may lose income for an
update. So strategically the country is still viable, and the enemy still has
the strategic prospect of capturing the bars, but it is much harder to defeat
the victim with a single blow, rather the victim has to be beaten
strategically.
Another option was the Go_Renew option to reduce micromanagement. You would
have a very few gold and oil producing sectors, but they would continue
producing throughout the game. That is more like the real strategic situation,
for example the middle east is the oil producing region and retains that
strategic value over a very long period of time, rather than being drained of
oil in an update or two, after which a new oil well has to be found. Without
Go_Renew one is continually micro-managing new gold and oil sectors, which is a
totally useless waste of player time having nothing to do with strategy,
whereas with Go_Renew on the gold and oil sectors have a long term strategic
value and are worth defending and capturing. The middle east has to be defended
for its oil producing value, for example, whereas if the real world was like
empire, the middle east would be drained of oil in an update or two, then
forgotten.
Some moron is going to say "you should defend your bars", but the point is,
that makes it a tactical game, the issue isn't whether it is possible to defend
the bars, the issue is whether the game is tactical or strategic, and if it is
possible in theory to strike a decisive blow with a single plane that pinbombs
the bars and alters the course of the game, that makes it a tactical game.
Since there are obviously some unfathomably stupid players who want that type
of tactical game and are too stupid to understand the value of having a
strategic game, I have to put that caveat in there ahead of time. We'll see if
they react by flaming.
Some of the best games were games where each country had only one gold
producing sector, a mountain, but with Go_Renew on, that shows an example of
how gold could be handled. In olden days before paper money, the gold and
silver producing areas had a long term strategic value, giving the country that
could hold them a huge advantage in being able to finance a larger army. Philip
of Macedon, for example, was able to make Macedonia a great power by virtue of
controlling the main silver mines in the region.
If you want to make oil derricks mandatory, have just a very few land sectors
with oil, but have the oe exploration boats and have some sea sectors with oil
in them, which would be needed to make enough oil to become a great power. I
don't really think much of forcing oil derricks to be used though, too much
micromanagement.
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