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THE WORLD OF CONQUER

The Conquer world is very bloody, and a player needs skills at war gaming,
diplomacy, and building an economy to succeed. Rival races are constantly
at war, and the world starts filled with player nations, random peoples
(lizard men in their cities of gold, barbarians, nomads, pirates, brigands),
and both hostile and friendly computer controlled non player countries.
Conquer can be played solitaire. The computer uses a highly intelligent
movement algorithm to run the armies and navies of these non player
countries (NPC), and has intelligent algorithms built in that control these
nations diplomacy, construction, and economies. You can find NPCs allied with
you against a common enemy, but can also suddenly be stabbed in the
back and find hostile NPC armies at your doorstep.
END
WHAT IS WHAT IN THE WORLD

The world is composed of a 2 dimensional map of sectors, created by the
computer at the beginning of the game. Each sector has about 10 unique
characteristics (altitude, gold, vegetation...).

SECTOR ELEVATIONS include:
ZMOUNTAIN ZHILL ZCLEAR
ZWATER ZPEAK
SECTOR VEGETATION
Uninhabitable Areas (do not produce food and people simply do not like)
ZVOLCANO ZDESERT ZJUNGLE
ZTUNDRA ZICE ZSWAMP
Inhabitable (people like, number is relative value of food production)
ZGOOD...9 ZFOREST...3 (4 ELF) ZLIGHT...6
ZWOOD...7 ZBARREN...4 (3 ELF)

CONQUER is designed so each race likes their appropriate terrain. Elves like
woods & forests, Humans like good & light vegetation, and Orcs and Dwarves
like hills and mountains. You can only redesignate inhabitable sector types.
END
RACES OF THE WORLD

ORC 'O' See next page.
ELF 'E' Great at defense and quick, but few in numbers. They start
with VOID power, which is perhaps the most potent power in the
game, but which costs them an extra distribution point.
DWARF 'D' Dwarves are good at combat, but slow and few in numbers. They
start with MINER power, which allows them to quickly mine
metal/jewels, and thus improve their combat skills and powers.
HUMAN 'H' Humans start average at everything -- with reasonable numbers,
of people, and WARRIOR power, which gives them +10% in combat.
They have OK reproduction and good movement.
LIZARD 'L' (NPC only) An ancient race bound to their cities of gold
PIRATE 'P' (NPC only) Wandering pirates/brigands intent on plunder
NOMAD 'N' (NPC only) Will the wandering nomads tribes leave you alone?
BARBARIAN 'B' (NPC only) Indigenous natives and monsters
END
ORC NATIONS IN CONQUER

Orc nations are very special in Conquer. The only thing an orc is good at is
making other orcs. They are slow, poor at combat, & bad in special abilities.
They can get reproduction of up to 14% per year (the normal limit is 10%) &
can start with a large number of people as initial reproduction costs are less
than normal. Orcs are led by monsters (they start with MINOR MONSTER power),
and are always evil (the only good orc is a dead orc...). They are so nasty,
EVERYBODY they meet start out hostile (50%) or at war (50%) with them.
Player nations get an option here, but they usually start out hostile to you.

In combat, orc & goblin units types flee just like mercenaries (a random
chance, modified by odds...), and orcs are charged 2x normal cost for raising
their combat bonus at game start and 3x during play, so they usually need
2:1 odds or better to win (expect heavy losses).

Finally, Orcs are slow, as they require tremendous leader incentive to move
and not kill each other. Large orc nations do have the ability to take over
other Orc nations (The Sauron Syndrome). There is no Orc CAVALRY.
END
POSSIBLE NATION ALIGNMENTS

Nations in conquer can be good, neutral, or evil. Alignment impacts how
non player nations will react to your nation ( good nations like good
nations, but hate evil nations. Nobody is mean to neutral nations,
but nobody likes them either ). Player nations choose an alignment
when they get created (no limitations) which can not change. Players
actions are not restricted by their alignments, but players should
play "in character". There are more evil non player nations than there
are good non player nations, so it is more fun/challenging to play the
good guys.
END
SECTOR DESIGNATIONS

The following is the list of possible sector designations:

ZTOWN ZFORT ZMILL
ZCITY ZSTOCKADE ZGRANARY
ZCAPITOL ZUNIVERSITY ZCHURCH
ZMINE ZLUMBERYARD ZSPECIAL
ZGOLD ZBLACKSMITH ZRUIN
ZFARM ZROAD ZDEVASTATED

For more information on each, see the helpfile on 'Designations'
END
METAL, FOOD, AND GOLD

FOOD: You MUST have enough food to feed your people... One civilian eats
your national eatrate units of food. Soldiers eat double. If you
run out of food, you run the risk of famine. Food will spoil based
on the spoilrate percentage for each nation.
METAL: You need to have metal to draft new military, as per the unit types
section. One person produces one metal per point of mineral in
the sector per turn. An amount of Metal (based on how many troops
you have) can be used to buy +1% in your nations attack or defense.
JEWELS: You can have a maximum of 10 talons debt for every jewel
point that you mined. After that point, you undergo a TAX REVOLT,
which has not yet been implemented. Thus gold can be negative to
a certain level. Jewels are also useful to obtain magic, spending
Jewels will buy you one random new power (command M). The cost for
the magic power is dependent on your race and how many other powers
you have. See the helpfile on magic for more information. You can
have 10 talons in the treasury for each jewel (gold based economy).
After that, your gold talons will be converted to jewels at a 10:1
ratio.
END
CIVILIAN MOVEMENT

The game offers users the capability to forcibly move civilians around
the map (via the 'Z' command). Civilians will, however, move of their
own volition. Below are how civilians of different races think about "good"
sectors of various types. The program is intelligent enough to appropriately
handle poor or low value sectors. Sum the numbers found below. The result
is the relative "attractiveness" of a sector.

General Modifiers: Goldmine: XGOLDATTR / jewels Farm: XFARMATTR / food value Other: XOTHRATTR
Trade Good: XTGATTR Mine: XMINEATTR / metals Town: XTOWNATTR City: XCAPATTR

Racial Modifiers
Race Mtn Hill Clear Forest Wood City Mine Gldmine
Dwarf XDMNTNATTR XDHILLATTR XDCLERATTR XDFOREATTR XDWOODATTR XDCITYATTR XDMINEATTR XDGOLDATTR
Elf XEMNTNATTR XEHILLATTR XECLERATTR XEFOREATTR XEWOODATTR XECITYATTR XEMINEATTR XEGOLDATTR
Human XHMNTNATTR XHHILLATTR XHCLERATTR XHFOREATTR XHWOODATTR XHCITYATTR XHMINEATTR XHGOLDATTR
Orc XOMNTNATTR XOHILLATTR XOCLERATTR XOFOREATTR XOWOODATTR XOCITYATTR XOMINEATTR XOGOLDATTR
END
VIEWING THE WORLD

When you log in, you will notice that you can only see a part of the
world. You must discover the world by getting certain magical powers,
by taking land, or by moving armies and navies. The use of SCOUT armies
is intended for this purpose.

The 'd' command allows you to change what you see on the map. You can
alter the information in the sector and can change the type of sectors that
are highlighted as follows:

viewing options: (d)esignation, (r)ace, (M)ove cost, (p)eople, (D)efense
(f)ood, (c)ontour, (v)egetation, (m)etal, (n)ation mark, (j)ewels, (i)tems
highlight option: (o)wner (a)rmy (y)our Army, move (l)eft, (s)pecial, (x)=none
toggle move mode: hit '/'

Move mode ('/' toggle) will display both the current display as well as
the move cost for each sector along side.

I have tried to make the use of these options clear and self explanatory.
Roman numerals (for population...) indicate thousands of people.
END
COMMERCE AND TRADING

Trading makes it be possible to exchange items between nations.

There are seven types of items available for trade: gold, food, metal,
jewels, land, soldiers, and ships. To place an item up for trade,
the player need only select the sell option on the commerce board. The
player will then enter the type and amount of his product followed by the
type and minimum amount of what he wants in return. The product will
remain on the commerce board until it is purchased or removed by the
owner of the product. To purchase an item, a player can just select the
item number to purchase and then enter a bid amount. You may only trade
mercenary, siege engine, catapult, (summoned) monster, or elephant units.
Certain Items will be available for "instant purchase" from the game
itself, these are indicated by the nation name of "Conquer".

During every update, bids will be resolved and the highest bid for a
product will receive the product. There is a 20% administration fee
for a trade (i.e. 20% of the traded goods on each side disappear)
END
DIPLOMACY IN CONQUER

Diplomacy is very important in conquer. You maintain a diplomatic status with
each nation in the game. This is adjusted via the 'S' (diplomacy) command.
Possible status' are TREATY, ALLIED, FRIENDLY, NEUTRAL, HOSTILE,
WAR, and JIHAD. Be very careful with TREATY and JIHAD. Once chosen,
it will take XBREAKJIHAD gold talons to change your mind (and might ruin
your reputation). You can only take land from a nation that you are at
WAR or JIHAD with. TREATY implies that you AUTOMATICALLY declare war on
nations who ATTACK your ally - but not on nations whom they attack.

Diplomacy with non player nations is important as it determines if you get
attacked or not.
END
BRIBING NPC NATIONS

Conquer allows you a chance to bribe non player nations for the paltry sum
of XBRIBE per 1000 troops in the bribee's nation. A nation with 10000 troops
can be bribed for only 10xXBRIBE gold talons (a bargain). This has a
percentage chance of working, but you wont know if it worked until the update.

same allignment: 50%
1 level allignment difference: 30%
2 level allignment difference: 20%
They are isolationist: 15%
same race: +20%

Bribing NPCs is a good way to get some breathing room.
You waste your money if you are at war with them that turn.
You can not bribe player nations, barbarians, nomads, lizards, or pirates.
END
SEASONS
(not fully implemented yet)

winter: army units must end turn in town or suffer 10% attrition.
farms produce no food. movement is at half ability.
spring: produce 1/2x food.
summer: produce 1x food. units get 50% movement bonus.
fall: produce 2.5x food.

you must have a sector spring,summer,and fall or it will produce no food
global events should be good too; typhoon season, famine times, etc.
Perhaps the climate of a region should also effect the events. ie,
more typhoons in the equatorial belt. Typhoon should be calculated
with a starting point and an ending point and then it walks in
between causing devastation.
END
FINAL HINTS & OTHER COSTS

It is important to initially have a reproduction of 9-10% and a move of ~8-9.
You need about 1000 military to start - to take enough new land.
Take as much land as possible in the beginning.
Make sure your combat bonus stays respectable.

OTHER COSTS

Designation Costs: $XDESCOST
Designation to Fort or Town: 10x$XDESCOST+$XDESCOST METAL
Designation to City: 20x$XDESCOST+5*$XDESCOST METAL
Fortification: $XFORTCOST*(2**Fort Level)
Bribe Nation: $XBRIBE/level
Move Civilians: $50/civilian
END
OTHER NOTES

The computer can move for players if they don't enter a turn and the
CMOVE variable is set before the program is compiled. This works well...
for a time. The Computer will NOT redesignate captured sectors for you.

Mercenaries must be paid a fee equal to enlistment fee when disbanded.

If you have too many people in a given non Town, non capitol sector,
reproduction and production is halved for them. If you have a large
number of people in a sector, they will not reproduce.

WARNING: The Naval Code has been known to be buggy. Please pay attention
and send the author notes on discrepancies in the code.
END
OPTIONS OF YOUR VERSION

Maximum Number of Armies Per Nation....XMAXARM
Maximum Number of Navies Per Nation....XMAXNAVY
Absolute Maximum Number of Nations.....XNTOTAL
Starting Points to buy your nation.....XMAXPTS
Percentage of land that is mountains...XPMOUNT
Storm Percentage.......................XPSTORM
Cost for Orc Npc Takeover..............XTAKEPRICE
Average Number of Random Events........XNORANDEVENTS
Chance of Volcano Eruption.............XPVULCAN

Mail Checker XSYSMAIL System V XSYSV
Monsters XMONSTER Npc Cheat XCHEAT
Storms XSTORMS Volcanos XVULCANIZE
Npc Nations XNPC PC Automove XCMOVE
Random Events XRANEVENT Orc Takeovers XORCTAKE
Super God XOGOD Hidden News XHIDELOC
Trading XTRADE
END
ADDITIONAL OPTIONS

Land Vision Range is..................XLANDSEE
Navy Vision Range is..................XNAVYSEE
Army Vision Range is..................XARMYSEE

Taxation Rates:
Food tax per value point per person...XTAXFOOD
Jewel tax per jewel point per person..XTAXGOLD
Metal tax per metal point per person..XTAXMETAL
Town tax per person...................XTAXTOWN
City tax per person...................XTAXCITY

100% chance per XTOMUCHMINED metal mined of deplete metal mines.
100% chance per XTOMUCHMINED jewels mined of deplete gold mines.
XFINDPERCENT% chance that new materials are found in a sector.
Sector overpopulation occurs with XTOMANYPEOPLE people.
Maximum Sector Population is XABSMAXPEOPLE people.
Ships may carry XSHIPHOLD items per holding unit.
END
DONE

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