@brief Frequently Asked Questions
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It is a strategy wargame played by a number of people (usually between 4 and 100) on the Internet connected to an Empire Server. If you've ever seen the game "Civilization", Empire is a lot like it, except it is more detailed, and multi-player. As the leader of a nation which consists of sectors on a large hexagonal grid, you decide (based on resources) what each sector's "designation" should be. This way, you obtain food, iron, gold, oil, uranium. You distribute these raw materials to factories to convert them into more useful things. You manage a civilian and slave populace for producing goods, and a military populace for defence and conquest. You also have the tricky job of balancing a budget. As the technology level of your country increases, you are able to build more and more advanced units: for example, in a typical game, at tech 0 you can build fishing boats and frigates, at tech 50 you can build planes, cruisers, and infantry, and by tech 300 you can build satellites, jet planes, and nuclear weapons.
Yes, inasmuch as your client needs to see the server. If the server and all clients are on a private network, then that works as well.
Right now, none -- as I'm building the game. Initially, I'll have a text-based Linux client. Then a Mac and Windows text-based client. I'll leave it to others to use the API to create graphical clients.
Most aspects of the game are "real-time" (i.e. it isn't like Risk). You explore, sail ships, march armies, and fly planes in real-time--so if you type fast, then you will have an advantage. The aspect of the game that has turns is economic: goods are produced, population grows, and arms are constructed only at a specific time (called "updates").
This depends on how often updates occur. There are two types of games: A "blitz" has updates every ten minutes. They last about 24 hours. A "long term" game usually has one update every day or every few days. They last 2-6 months. To learn the basics of empire, it is highly recommended that you first try "blitzing" a few times.
Well, you can play right now if you want! All you need to do is get a client program onto your computer, and then connect to a game.
The main clearinghouse for empire information is Wolfpack Empire (http://www.wolfpackempire.com/). Here you will find information about classic Empire.
A BTU is a "Bureaucratic Time Unit". Most Empire commands require BTU's. In a blitz, you don't need to worry about BTU's. In a long term game, BTU's are generated by civilians in "capital" sectors. Every time you log on, the server gives you a number of BTU's corresponding to the length of time since you last logged on and the number of civilians in your capital.