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Instructions for Dominions! (v1.54a) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I. The History of the Empire ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (excerpts from The Complete Imperial History, (C) 2998 by the Imperial University in the Amalthea System.) 2750 : It was the Age of Happiness. The Galactic Empire, now almost three hundred years old, controlled every habitable world in the galaxy. The Imperial Capital in New Sol (system 21) was the greatest megopolis ever. The Imperial University in then Amalthea System brought together the most brilliant minds in history for the benefit of mankind. There had been no wars for almost seven decades. The massive Dreadnoughts of the Empire insured that peace would last forever. But that was two-hundred fifty years ago. In the year 2842, the Great Plague struck at the heart of the Empire. Trillions died. Entire planets were left lifeless after only a year. Emperor Koligar IV himself fell victim, leaving his three nephews to vie for the throne. What was to follow was the most destructive war the galaxy had ever known. The youngest nephew, Rjakar, quickly had his older brother Chiriton assassinated and then declared himself Emperor. Bayan, the third nephew, who had been exiled from New Sol in 2839 for political reasons, raised a navy from his supportive home system of Trantor, and with the help of several admirals in the Imperial Navy, attacked New Sol in 2844. By taking key planets close to the capital, Bayan was able to isolate New Earth in the New Sol system from the rest of the galaxy. Rjakar held out for five years. In 2849, Bayan launched his final assault against his cousin. The system of New Sol was pillaged, and the Imperial Palace on New Earth was razed after Rjakar was captured. He was swiftly executed by Bayan's own hand. The seven years of civil war had destroyed the structure of the Empire. The plague had annihilated several systems. Fear of the plague led to wide- spread xenophobia. Communication among systems was rare. Space pirates, almost eliminated two hundred years earlier, reappeared overnight. With the Imperial Navy committed to the war at New Sol, and a galactic famine in pro- gress, piracy was the only way, for many, to survive. Bayan's consolidation of power in 2851, along with the discovery of a cure for the plague in 2852, brought together almost half of the former Imperial Worlds. But Bayan had no interest in attempting to reinstate control over the devastated outer regions of the galaxy. Slowly, but surely, the bacchanalian lifestyle of Bayan and his court corrupted the remnants of the Galactic Empire. Trantor became a Sybarite's paradise as the new capital system of the Empire. Bayan's descendants retained control of the Empire for seventy-five years after his death in 2861, with the decay of the Empire growing throughout. A revolt by Admiral Veqan of Aeci Alpha ended the rule of Trantor and Bayan's kin, returning the capital to New Sol. Veqan's rule saw the rebuilding of New Sol and the first expansion of the Empire since the Imperial Civil War. But his mysterious death in 2942, after only six years in power, ended all possibility of Imperial reconstruction. For the past fifty-seven years, the Emperorship has been passed to and stolen by numerous admirals of the Imperial Navy. The Galactic Empire now consists of only New Sol (still the capital) and the stronghold systems of Amalthea, Trantor, Magrathea, and Terminus (systems 22 through 25, respectively). II. The Rise of the Second Empire ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You are one of twenty powerful warlords. Each of you has risen through the ranks of power on your home system. Now, the time for the construction of the Second Galactic Empire has come. Using military force (backed with eco- nomic force) you must build the foundations for the new empire. But the old Empire still controls the strongest systems in the galaxy and you must battle with the remnants of the Imperial Navy to capture them. Somewhere in the galaxy is the lost system of Sol, the birthplace of man- kind. The extremely high habitability of Sol will allow the population to grow rapidly, providing a much needed workforce for the warlord who can cap- ture it. III. How to Play ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dominions! is an easy-to-use, menu driven program. Each menu has a (H)elp function which will describe the available commands (it is for this reason that the individual descriptions of the commands have been omitted here in the instructions). The game "universe" consists of a galaxy of two hundred systems. The map of the galaxy is split into 5 sections which may be viewed using the (M)ap option in the Main Menu. One game month equals one day real time. Every day, the first time a user plays Dominions!, the Maintenence program will run. The program will update the systems and all ships in transit. A. The Object ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The object of Dominions! is to conquer everything you can, no holds barred. Your systems will produce goods which can then either be applied to the manufacture of warships or to the increasing of your shipbuilding ability. This is primarily a war game. All strategy involved in the game revolves around basic warfare theory. If you're a pacifist, this game isn't for you. Be forewarned - Offense isn't everything. Don't leave key systems undefended. Your neighbors aren't the nicest of people. B. The Menus ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Main Menu : From here you move to specialty sub-menus. Counterintelligence Menu : This menu controls your spying on other systems or empires (players). Diplomatic Relations Menu : Controls all the vital Diplomatic relations for your empire. Empire Menu : Controls the economic and political functions of the empire. Naval Menu : Controls the actions of all ships in your navy. Planetary Systems Management Menu : Allows you to control the economic and political functions of all the planetary systems you control. Every menu allows you to toggle the e(X)pert mode on and off, although the command is actually only listed in the Main Menu. When the eXpert mode is on, the full menu will not be shown, only a one line prompt will be given... Dominions! Main Menu ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Option (C,D,E,H,I,M,N,P,Q,R,S,X) > C. Getting Started ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When you first play in a given war, the computer will set up a new Empire for you. You will be asked to name your empire and your home system. The system number of your capital is the same as your empire number. Up to twenty players may participate in each war. Each player starts with the following... Technology Level 1.0 40 Frigates 10 Destroyers 10 Industry Units 4 Technology Units A home system with 15,000 population 75 % Habitability rating Industry Level 1.0 D. Planetary Systems ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The known galaxy is made up of 200 habitable systems that you can conquer. Each has its own individual characteristics. Below is how an average system statistics report looks: Planetary System Statistics Name...........: Apoc's System of Doom Number.........: 57 Owner..........: [11] Apocalyse's Legion X,Y............: 38,19 Habitability...: 63 % Population.....: 51,459 Industry Level.: 1.7 Defenses : Frigates : 46 Destroyers : 17 Cruisers : 4 Battleships : 1 Dreadnoughts : 0 SuperDreadnoughts : 0 Habitability is a relative rating of the system's compatibility with human life. The greater the habitability, the faster the system's population will grow. The formula for population growth of CONTROLLED systems is: New Pop = Old Pop * (1.05+(Hab/1000)) For an UNcontrolled system, the formula is: New Pop = Old Pop * (1.05+(Hab/2000)) Planetary Systems with high habitabilities will end up with populations MUCH greater than those of low hab systems. D(a). Terraforming Operations ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When your empire reaches a minimum of 20.0 Technology Level, you may engage Terraforming operations within any system that has less than a 75% overall hab- itability rating. The system will receive an increase in overall habitability of 1% per game month. Terraforming costs 750 Industry Units and the entire operation is destroyed in the likely event that another empire conquers the system. E. Empires ~~~~~~~~~~ Each player rules an Empire. Your Empire consists of all the systems and ships you control. There will be nineteen other empires opposing yours. Alliances are an option for those that wish to use them...but beware of treachery. E(a). Alliances ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ All players have the option to create open alliances within the game. The Diplomatic Relations menu contains all commands that would pertain to Diplomacy. From here you can select to be merely Friendly with another empire, or work from there toward an Alliance. All Alliances have to start with both players being Friendly toward one another. The benefits of an Alliance: Sending of reinforcement squadrons to one anothers controlled planetary systems. Use of Allied players planetary systems for Radius Scan information. F. Economics ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Economics in Dominions! are fairly simple. People are the key to manufacturing everything. The more people in your empire, the more ships you can make. There are two basic commodities : Technology Units and Industry Units. Technology Units are used to increase the Technology Level of your Empire. Industry Units have two functions; they can be used to manufacture warships or to increase the Industrial Level of a system. Production for the two commodities is different. It takes 2500 workers to produce 1 Technology Unit, but only 1000 workers to make 1 Industry Unit. Planetary labor percentages are by population. If you have 50% of the population in Industry, half of the system's population will work in Industry. Half of the system's production will NOT be Industry Units. A system's production is modified by the Industry Level of a system. The formula for production is: Ind. Units = Population / 1000 * Square Root of Industry Level Tech. Units = Pop / 2500 * Square Root of Industry Level G. Ships ~~~~~~~~ Maintaining a strong navy is absolutely essential to winning in Dominions!. To build ships, it takes Industry Units. However, if you never increase your Technology Level, you will soon discover that your smaller ships are greatly outclassed by your opponent's large ships. A balance between the size and number of ships is necessary. The following is chart of the Tech- nology Level and Industry Units needed to make each ship class: Ship Class Tech. Level Ind. Units ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Frigate 1.0 5 Destroyer 2.0 10 Cruiser 3.5 20 Battleships 5.5 40 Dreadnought 9.0 80 SuperDreadnought 15.0 160 Next is a chart of each ship's characteristics: Ship Damage Done on Damage Class Offense/Defense Takeable Speed ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Fr 1- 2 2- 3 5 3 Ds 2- 4 3- 6 11 3 Cr 4- 8 6-12 24 4 Bs 8-12 12-24 53 5 Dn 12-24 24-48 116 5 SDn 24-48 48-96 255 4 Damage Done on; tells how many structural points of damage the given class of ship can cause per round of battle. Damage Takeable is the amount of structural points the ship can take before being destroyed. Speed is the number of light years (ly) the ship will travel per game month. Don't send just one large ship to capture a system. Even if the enemy has only one Frigate he will win the battle using suicide tactics. Always support your larger ships with smaller ones. H. Spying ~~~~~~~~~ All spying is controlled from the Counterintelligence Menu. You can get up to TEN spy reports per game month. But, they aren't cumulative. If you don't use them, they're lost when the Maintenence program runs. You can use your spy reports to spy on either systems or enemy empires. You will be given almost all the information on that subject, including populations, Tech/Ind Levels, and system habitabilies. H(a). Radars ~~~~~~~~~~~~ NOTE : This particular option may or may not be active on the system you are playing. The option is defineable by the System Operator at the time of initialization. A player can build and install ONE radar station in each one of his/her Planetary Systems. The player can then "Examine" the radar report(s) via the (E)xamine Radars, in the Radar Management menu. If an enemy squadron is on its way to attack a planetary system that has a radar station installed, and the squadron is within the range of the radar, a report describing the squadron is printed as a response to "Examine Radars" command. There are three classes of radar stations: Class Scan Ind. Tech. Range Units Level ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Short range 4.0 100 5.0 Mid range 8.0 300 12.0 Long range 12.0 700 20.0 A player can install a longer range radar station in a planetary system which already has a lesser range station; but the existing station will be dismantled (no net increase in the total number of radar stations as reported in the "Empire Status"). In the likely event that a system containing a radar station falls to enemy forces, the station will be destroyed. I. The Galactic Empire and Sol ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Galactic Empire still controls five very powerful systems. New Sol (system 21) is defended by a large navy. The other four Imperial systems, Amalthea, Trantor, Magrathea, and Terminus (systems 22 through 25, respectively) are guarded by smaller, but still powerful navies. Capturing any of these systems will give a major advantage to the player that can do it. But be warned, the Galactic Empire doesn't sit still. The Empire will be attempting to expand it's sphere of control, and so long as one system remains under their control, they will strive to conquer other systems in the name of the Galactic Emperor. Somewhere in the galaxy is the lost system of origin of mankind, Sol. It possesses a large population and a 100% habitabilty, yet is defended by only about a dozen frigates. It is a very valuable system, and is on par with the power of the Imperial systems. J. Other Stuff ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you have comments, criticisms, or suggestions, you may be able to reach Apocalypse at: GEnie Mail Address C.HAISTY -- or -- CompuServe ID 72220,3000 J(a). More "Other Stuff" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As of the release of version 1.51, Pandemonium; the original Dominions! Home Board, was down and there was no way to directly contact Apocalypse via WWIVnet. If you have any comments, suggestions, or otherwise want to talk about Dominions! you may contact me, Tarl Cabot, as I will now be accepting the responsibility of product support. David "Tarl Cabot" Stidham Sysop: Ko Ro Ba (813) 237-0152 WWIVnet 1@8350 K. Dominions! Conference ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Yes, there is (once again) a WWIVnet message base dedicated to the discussion of Dominions! and if you are reading this on a WWIVnet system and it is not carrying the message base, please ask your Sysop about it, and ask your Sysop to contact Tarl Cabot @8350 (1@8350) regarding a subscription.