Empire
Classic
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December 13, 2003 |
Documentation Downloads Links Other Versions |
Empire 4.2 ReleasedDecember 13, 2003 EmpireClassic (sometimes refered to as Empire4) has reached another major milestone in it's 30 year history. Empire started as Civilization in 1972 at the evergreen state college, It was written in interpreted Basic on an HP2000 mini-computer. Students customized the HP's operating system, and extended the Basic language into a one-of-a-kind installation. When that machine was retired, the source to Civilization was lost. Empire was written from scratch in 1984 in Pascal on an HP3000, where it was released to the HP3000 Contributed Library. This version was played and enhanced until 2003, when all future enhancements on the HP3000 version were stopped, and a project was launched to port the game to Linux and C++. That port is now complete. A distribution which includes compiled executables for both Linux and Windows is available on Sourceforge. A distribution which includes complete source is also available on Sourceforge. The first game is planned to run during Winter 2003/2004. Check forum announcements for details. Java Empire Client (JEC)November 23, 2003 JEC currently supports such features as selecting a ship, and setting its course by clicking on a destination on the map. You can move people and items on land, launch ships, and do other basic functions now, all from the JEC GUI interface. One of it's best features, is that it shows all visible ships from all other nations on the same map with your ships. At last, you can graphically see your fleets, with their destinations indicated, and enemy ships, showing their speed and heading, all on the same situation map. It's wonderful. In the screen clip above, four Algorithm destroyers close in on Mountainia 01 island, while a submerged Mountainian submarine (#54) watches helplessly. Other features include a separate telnet window, and a chat window which provides an automatically updates USERS command, followed by a chat screen that looks and feels like an IRC window. You can download JEC at Floogle. Alpha testing on EmpireClassic for Linux is available on Floogle as well. Telnet to floogle.empireclassic.com and login user=empire4, password=empire4. Big Game 2003 StartedJune 8, 2003 There is still plenty of time to join in, and since time accumulates so slowly, even if you join today - you will not be able to launch your first Liner for 3 weeks. To join the Big Game now and begin accumulating time, TELNET to HP3000.empireclassic.com, when the system prompts with EMPIREFCLASSIC: type HELLO PLAYER.EMPIRE5 See you in the "Big Game". Official IRC Channel EstablishedMay 3, 2003 Team Floogle has selected pgpn.com has the irc server to host the empire channel, for Empire conversation and support. It's a good place to ask "how-to" questions if you are a new player. Our thanks to Adam and the pgpn crowd for their help. The server name is irc.empireclassic.com (port 6667), channel #empire. Web Forum AvailableApril 27, 2003 A web based forum is now available to facilitate collaboration on software development, and provide a venue for Empire related discussions. Registration is open, and public comments are welcome. The forum can be accessed at C/C++ Port Moves ForwardApril 12, 2003 Team Floogle, lead by Chas Douglass, has re-activated a 4 year old effort to port EmpireClassic from Pascal to C/C++. A test version is available to try via TELNET at floogle.empireclassic.com (user ID=empire, password=empire). The new version compiles on both Linux (Red Hat) and Windows 2000. Empire Classic Client (ECC)October 28, 2002 Geary Epply has released a new Empire Classic Client (ECC) which combines a text based telnet client with a graphical mapping tool. The graphical map supports zoom, and shows the locations and destinations for all fleets. It runs using the Microsoft .NET framework. Version 3.52 ReleasedAugust 10, 2002 Annual "Big Game" StartedAugust 2, 2002 There is still plenty of time to join in, and since time accumulates so slowly, even if you join today - you will not be able to launch your first Liner for 3 weeks. To join the Big Game now and begin accumulating time, TELNET to HP3000.empireclassic.com, when the system prompts with EMPIREFCLASSIC: type HELLO PLAYER.EMPIRE5 See you in the "Big Game". Linux port startedJuly 1, 2002 Questions on the porting process should be directed to Ben. Where did the Server Go?June 12, 2002 If you are unable to connect to a server which has your regular game on it, try using the IP addresses directly. 208.168.200.150 is the new IP address, until the sysop makes a change, this may point to an older test server. 198.190.228.6 is the old IP address, if DNS propogates the new IP address before the sysop physically changes plugs in the back of the machine, use this one. In a few days - this will all resolve nicely. Version 3.51 DeployedJune 9, 2002 Source available on the webJune 8, 2002 Version 3.5 Expected Before JuneApril 2, 2002 Version 3.5 coding is complete and testing is underway on the major new functionality, Information Hiding. In previous versions of Empire Classic, most information about other players needed to be discovered. When your nation was first created, if you entered a NATIONS command, you would see only yourself - because you had not seen or encountered the other player's nations yet. In large games, it was not uncommon for many nations to not be aware of most of the other nations in the game. It almost felt like playing alone. Version 3.5 will allow game prophets to configure the level of Information Hiding to be used at the time the game is being created. Here are the choices:
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