Space empires 4 manual pdf

Multiplayer options let up to 20 human or computer players to compete at once and the game allows for either traditional, turn-based gameplay or simultaneous action. This Gold version of Space Empires IV features several revisions to the originally released version, many inspired by fan feedback and some straight from the imagination of the game's designer. Notable among the improvements are features designed to offer more extensive options and simplified procedures for race and gameplay customizations.

For the most part when a game is re-released as a "Gold" game my thoughts immediately race to games that are released time and again with a new level added or a few multiplayer maps. Half-Life seems to be a huge culprit when it comes to this. Sleeping, I think. The original sucked a large number of hours out of my life and burned more brain cells than I could safely spare -- it nearly turned into a minor addiction.

The 6 major fires consist of 2 total losses and 4 with major damage to cargo and ship. Both incidents with the total losses occurred when the ships were in port. The origin has been cars new or second hand , trucks and pulling units.

Most of these fires have occurred when starting or driving the vehicle. None of the fires with cause identified has originated in any of the ship systems. The two total losses were on fire for days, the fixed CO2 system was applied for at least one of these ships. There are at least four other incidents where the CO2 system were applied, one of these being unsuccessful CO2 was released, but did not extinguish the fire and one with a one hour delay fire extinguished.

It is partly confirmed that these are low pressure CO2 systems. The increased fire risk when in port is topped up by the fact that the smoke detection system often is disconnected in order to avoid false alarms. This is not in conflict with SOLAS as the ro-ro deck is manned under the on- and off-loading operations.

It should also be noted that the fire extinguishing system usually low pressure CO2 is ineffective when the ship is in port, as external and internal ramps are open and can in many cases not be closed quickly in case of a fire. It is presumed that the above factors can explain the significant damages to ships having a fire when in port. Details of the fires are listed in appendix II.

The fatalities were one passenger and 14 illegal immigrants being on the car deck when the fire broke out at sea. Passengers are in general no longer accepted to stay on enclosed special category spaces when the vessel is at sea. Similar accidents can be avoided by security control and patrol. Some of the fires resulted in damage to the cargo, structural damages to the ship and list problems probably due to fire water.

The structural damages to the ferries were in general less significant that those reported for the cargo ships. The cause of fire has been identified for 4 out the 7 fires. The origin of the fire was in these cases trucks engine or cargo. Based on the available information, we estimate that the deluge was used to extinguish or control the fire in 5 out of 7 fires. There are no indication to the effect that the deluge system did not operate, except for one incident where they had temporarily loss of power.

It could be worthwhile to do a qualitative comparison with other objects. Only accidents with fatalities are included in this brief assessment. The details can be found in appendix III. Not much data are available from the accidents and in particular Tampomas II could be relevant in this context. The drencher system was apparently installed but not used. Power failure could be one explanation.

The heavy seas prevented a successful evacuation but there are also other facts that indicate that this vessel was not to SOLAS standard. The two other ships Chrissi Avgi and Sweet Name are due to the accident mode, ship size and year of built not considered to be relevant for our assessment of modern SOLAS ships. With the one exception Tampomas II, , we can conclude that the ro-ro deck operations have represented a minor hazard for passengers and that major damages to the ship and cargo are infrequent.

Although many sources have been visited, there are only about 25 ro-ro fires recorded on SOLAS ships in with some additional fires when considering fires outside this timeframe and ship type.

A similar hazard, road tunnels, has thus been assessed. These occurred in the period of to with fatalities from 1 to 9 14 accidents , 3 accidents and more that 1 wartime accident. Also the 3 remaining accidents have only a remote link to marine operations. When developing new standards for fire extinguishing systems for ro-ro decks, the following properties, in priorities order, should be regard as important: I.

The game will be identical to the 3rd Printing otherwise, except that any known errata will be corrected. This game is Rich in Theme. Carriers, fighters, mines, cloaking, dreadnoughts, merchant shipping, colonization, mining, terraforming, shipyards, black holes, warp points, non-player aliens, Doomsday Machines - everything an Epic Space Opera needs. Despite that, the rules are Incredibly Simple. Almost 20 years in the making, many elegant solutions have been developed to remove complexity and make the game intuitive.

Each space can reveal any of 12 different terrain effects like asteroids, nebulae, and planets. Terrain is important as it impacts both combat and movement, as well as how you will build your empire. Players then eXpand their empire by forming colonies long term, steady growth , harvesting resources quick income , and building a merchant fleet trade income. Damage at This is a detailed listing of exactly how much Range damage this weapon will do at each range.

The top number in blue is the range in combat squares, the bottom number is the amount of damage that will be done. This is assuming that the weapon hits its target. All components : Abilities This lists any special abilities that the component has. See Abilities for more information.

Buttons Click You can close this report window by clicking anywhere on it. Controls Items For the selected button tab, this will display a list of those items that you currently know of. Researching new technologies will add new items to the list. When an item is selected in this list, a detailed report about it will be displayed in the "Item Details" section.

Item Details This section presents a report about the selected item in the "Items" list. See the tab buttons below for more details. Buttons Components Causes the "Items" list to show all the components your empire has discovered.

Facilities Causes the "Items" list to show all the facilities your empire has discovered. Ship Sizes Causes the "Items" list to show all the ship sizes your empire has discovered.

Unit Sizes Causes the "Items" list to show all the unit sizes your empire has discovered. Tech Areas Displays all of the technology areas that your empire has discovered. These are the same technology areas that are listed in the Research Window.

Treaties Displays all of the treaties that your empire can enter into with another empire. These are the possible treaties that you can propose in the Communicate Window. Intel Projects Displays all of the intelligence projects that your empire has discovered. These are the same intelligence projects that are listed in the Intelligence Window. Formations Displays all of the formations that your fleets can engage in.

Hotkeys Displays all of the hotkeys that you can use in the game. See Hotkeys for more details. Close Closes this window and returns you to the Main Window. Description This window displays details about the selected facility. You can get this report by right-clicking on any facility you see on any window, or by going into the Help Window and selecting a facility.

Controls Cost The cost in the three resource types for this facility. The time it takes to construct this facility on a planet will be based on the rate of the space yard versus this cost. Abilities This lists any special abilities that the facility has.

Description There are three resources types used in the game to construct new items: minerals, organics, and radioactives. In addition, there are also research and intelligence points which can be spent towards research and intelligence projects. The more resources your empire generates the greater it's capacity to build new ships, research new technologies, and conduct covert operations.

Message Types Minerals Minerals are the raw metal ore that your planets mine and then refine into usable building materials. Organics Organics are items such as food and bio-matter which can be used in components.

Radioactives Radioactives are rare elements and compounds that are manufactured on planets for use in advanced devices. Research Research points are a representation of your Points empire's ability to research new technologies and apply them.

Intelligence Intelligence points are a representation of your Points empire's covert intelligence abilities. When you build one of these facilities on a planet, you will begin to receive those types of points. The number of points you receive is primarily determined by the facility itself. Each facility is rated with an amount of resources it will produce.

As the technology of a facility increases, so does the number of resources it produces. On a planet, the number of resources produced is also influenced by the amount of population and the happiness of that population. Mineral, Organic, and Radioactive facilities are also strongly influenced by the value of the planet. You can see how many resources an individual planet generates in that planet's report window.

You can see the total amount that your empire is receiving in the Empire Status Window. Gathering Gathering the resources from all of your planets is Resource automatic. Small freighters and merchant vessels Types too small to be tracked by the game transport the goods from where they are to where they need to be. However, you do need a port in which all of these merchant vessels can dock.

This is where Spaceports come in. A spaceport in a system allows the merchant ships to transport your points effectively. You must have a Spaceport in each system if you wish to spend the points generated by that system. Without a spaceport in the system, the planets generate the points, but they go nowhere. The goods just rot in the warehouses. The points do not accumulate waiting for you, they are lost. Once the spaceport is functional, the points will be available to be spent by your empire.

You an easily tell which system do not have spaceports by using the Galaxy Map Window. In addition, planets can be blockaded by enemy ships in orbit around the planet. If there are enemy ships in orbit around a planet, then that planet is blockaded and cannot give its resources to the empire.

Spending As each turn goes by, your empire receives these Resources resources from its planets, and can spend them as it sees fit. Research Points are spent in the Research Window. Intelligence Points are spent in the Intelligence Window. Description This window displays a report about the currently selected planet. This window is normally displayed in the Main Window when you left-click on a planet.

It can also be displayed if you right-click on a planet in any other window during the game. If this planet does not currently have one of your colonies on it, then the Planet Report Window - Empty will be displayed. For more information on Planets, see Planets. Controls Owner Flag The flag of the owning empire will be displayed in the upper-left corner of the window.

This will be the empire that owns the colony on this planet. You can right-click the flag to display the Race Report Window - Detail about this race. Planet Picture The picture of the planet is displayed in the upper-left corner of the report window. Status Icons To give you a quick look at the capabilities and status of this colony, status icons are displayed at the bottom of the planet picture.

These will tell you the general capabilities of the planet. See Status Icons for more details. Name The name of this planet. Type The physical type and size of this planet. Possible planet types are Rock, Gas, and Ice.

Possible sizes for a planet range from Tiny to Huge. Different planet types require different colonization technology to create a colony there. Planet size dictates how much population, facilities, and cargo that planet can hold. Atmosphere The atmosphere type of this planet. Each race can only breathe one atmosphere type. If the race on the planet cannot breathe the atmosphere, then the colony will be "Domed".

A Domed colony cannot hold as many people or facilities. Conditions These are the environmental conditions on the planet. Possible values for conditions range from Pleasant to Deadly. Conditions represent how difficult the environment on the planet would be to live in. The worse the conditions the more unhappy your people will become and the slower their reproduction will be. Value This is the relative value of the planet in Minerals, Organics, and Radioactives see Resources Types for more details.

In a normal game, this will be shown as a percentage value. This percentage is a modifier placed on the amount of that resources type that you produce on the planet. There is an unlimited supply of resources that the planet can generate. In a Finite Resources game, the value of the planet will be displayed as the actual number of resources that remain on the planet.

As you produce that type of resource on the planet, the total remaining will decrease. Description This is a general description for the planet. Colony Type The colony type is a description of the purpose of the colony.

You can set it when you colonize a planet to help you categorize your colonies. It is also useful for your Ministers see the Ministers Window so that they know what your intention for the colony is as well.

Population This is the total amount of population that is present on the planet out of how much total population can be present. The maximum amount of population a planet can hold is based on the planet size and whether it is a "Domed" planet or not.

If the colony is Domed, then a small dome status icon will appear after the maximum population. After the population number, there will also be a small icon for the race that is present on the planet. If there is more than one race present, there will be an icon for each different race. If you right-click on a race icon, you will display a window which shows how much population of each race is present on the planet.

If there is one race on the planet which cannot breathe the atmosphere, then the colony is considered "Domed".

Reproduction This is the current reproduction rate for your population on the planet. It changes depending on the conditions of the planet and the population's happiness. Mood This is a description of the happiness of the population on the planet. The happiness of a population modifies how many resources are produced by the planet. If a population grows angry, it may riot or even rebel. See Happiness for more details. Resource This displays the current amount of resources Production produced by this planet.

Research This display the current number of research points produced by this planet. See the Research Window for more details. Intelligence This display the current number of intelligence points produced by this planet. See the Intelligence Window for more details.

Under If there is an item currently being constructed by the Construction planet, it is displayed here. The items in this planet's construction queue can be changed in the Set Construction Queue Window.

Time For the item currently under construction, this is how Remaining much time remains until the item is complete. Close Pressing this button will close this window. If this window is being displayed on the Main Window, then no close button will be present.

Special Notes None. Description This is the Main Window for the game. You will use this window to control your entire empire, move your ships, and view all of the different systems in this section of the galaxy. The Main Window is divided up into 5 sections. Each of these sections is described on its own page for clarity. This is the narrow bar at the very top of the window.

This is the panel containing many buttons just below the status section. This is the large area at the bottom left of this window which displays planets and ships.

This is the list at the top right of the window which lists ships and also gives individual reports for items. Special Notes There are many "Hotkeys" which can be used in this window. Hotkeys are buttons on your keyboard which can be used to jump to commands without using the mouse. See HotKeys for a list of the keys for this window.

Controls Empire Flag This is your empire's flag. Empire Name This is the name of your empire. Emperor Name This is the name of your emperor "you".

Game Date This is the current date in the game. All games start at date Each turn is equivalent to one month or 0. Resources This displays the current amount of Minerals, Organics, and Radioactives that your empire has in storage.

These resources can be spent on various items such as new ships or facilities. Buttons Tutorial If you are playing the tutorial game, a small button with a "T" on it will appear in the upper-right hand corner of this window just to the left of the Minimize button. Pressing it will cause the Tutorial window to be redisplayed. Minimize This small button in the very top right of the Status Panel, looks like a Windows minimize icon.

Its function is just that. When you press it, the entire Main Window will be minimized on your Windows desktop. To bring the game back up again after minimizing it, just click on its button in your task bar for windows. Description This panel allows you to control your entire empire and bring up windows with different reports.

Most of the buttons in this section have corresponding hotkeys which can be pressed to active them. See the Orders section for more general details about orders. Buttons Command These buttons allow you to bring up windows to view and manipulate Buttons your empire. You can press these at any time during the game. This window allows you to save and load games, set game options, and set computer control of players.

This window allows you to create new designs, view enemy designs, and engage in simulated combat. This window displays all of the planets throughout the galaxy that you have seen. This window displays all of the colonies in your empire.

This window displays all of the ships, units, and fleets that you control. This window allows you to view and change all of the construction queues for your planets and ships. This window allows you to research new technologies. This window allows you to send messages to other empires, perform intelligence actions, and view comparisons of the different empires.

This window displays all of the news events that have happened since your last turn. This window allows you to view your economy and change overall settings for your empire.

This window displays all of the different components, facilities, and ship sizes that you have discovered. Once you select this, the various panels of the Main Window will become disabled until all of the computer players have completed their turn.

When Buttons you select a specific object in the System panel of the Main Window, the orders that can be executed for that object will become lit-up. See Orders for more information. This order will cause your ship to move from its current location to a location that you specify. When you select this order, the game will request that you select a destination point.

This point can be in either this system, or some other system. This is order allows you to select a waypoint to have your ship move to. It displays the Select Waypoint window when pressed. This order is the equivalent of giving the Move To order. This orders tells your ships to attack a location. Since a ship will automatically attack a location just by moving into it, the attack order only serves a purpose if you are trying to attack the same location that your ship is currently at if there are enemies at that same location.

The Attack order serves another purpose in a Simultaneous game, where it gives your ships the order to seek and attack a target. This is useful since your ships will actually seek no matter where the target moves during the turn. This order will give your ship the Move To order to the nearest location where you have a Resupply Depot facility. Your ship may have several unexecuted orders that it has in its orders list. This selection will clear all of the unexecuted orders that your ship has.

This order will cause your ship to warp through a warp point. When you select this, you will be requested for a location to warp through. Since a Move To order will cause your ship to warp through a warp point as necessary, this order is only really needed if the warp point is linked to an unexplored system.

This order will request that you select a planet to colonize. Your ship will be give several orders. First, it will try and load population from any planet at that location. It is important that your ship has some population in its cargo bay so that they can be placed on the planet when it is colonized. Next, the ship will be given orders to Move To the planet. And finally, the ship will be given the Colonize order. When your ship colonizes a planet, the ship will be deconstructed for raw materials.

Any population or cargo being carried by the ship will be placed on the planet. It is very important that your colony ship carry population when it is colonizing a planet. Without population, a colony will still be created, but it will have no people. A colony without population will not be able to construct any facilities.

This order will display the Fleet Transfer Window so that you can create new fleets, and add this ship and others into the fleet. This order will give your current ship orders to Move To the nearest location where you have component repair capabilities.

The order in which the components is actually repaired is specified in the Repair Priorities Window. This selection will display the Set Construction Queue Window. This selection will display the Cargo Transfer Window so that you can transfer cargo between ships and planets at this location. This order is not available in Simultaneous Games.

This selection will display a window asking to you select a cargo type. Then you will be asked for a location. This button will give your ship orders to Move To the location specified, then attempt to load all of the cargo it can of the type chosen. Your ship will attempt to load the cargo from a planet or base that you own at that location. If you have nothing that can hold the cargo at that location, then the order will not be executed. Usually, you will use the Cargo Transfer order to move cargo.

You would use this order if you want to perform the load sometime in the future. This selection will display a window asking to you select a unit type. This button will give your ship orders to Move To the location specified, then attempt to launch all of the units it can of the type chosen. You would use this order if you want to perform the launch sometime in the future.

A Sentry order causes the current ship to stay at its current position and wait until an enemy comes near. A ship on sentry will just skip its turn until an enemy ship comes into the same system, at which point it will clear its orders.

When you select this button, you will be asked to entry the patrol points. Each of these points is a location on the map that you want your ship to patrol through. The final point should be the location where your ship is now. This selection will also turn on the "Repeat Orders" option so that your ship will continue to patrol indefinitely.

This button will give your ship orders to Move To the location specified, then attempt to drop all of the cargo it can of the type chosen. The destination for the cargo will be a colony you have or a base. If you do not have something that can hold the cargo at the location, then the order will not be executed. You would use this order if you want to perform the drop sometime in the future. This button will give your ship orders to Move To the location specified, then attempt to recover from space all of the units it can of the type chosen.

You would use this order if you want to perform the recovery sometime in the future. This order will cause your ship to Move To the nearest system which is unexplored.

It also takes into account whether any other ships are already on their way to a system as well. This toggle will cause your current list of orders to repeat indefinitely.

Normally, when an order is completed, it is deleted from the orders list for that ship. With repeat orders toggled on, the orders are not removed and will cycle through when they reach the bottom.

This is a useful order to set up patrols, or cycling orders for a transport to load and drop cargo. This selection will display the Stellar Manipulation Window. Through this window you can execute any stellar manipulation components you may have on your ship Create Planet, Destroy Star, etc.

This selection will display the Scrap Window. You can use this window to scrap your ship, deconstruct and analyze it, mothball it, and more. This selection will display a window which will allow you to view all of the UN-executed orders for this ship. When selected, the Select Facilities Window will be displayed so that you can choose which facilities on this planet that you would like to scrap.

If your ship contains an operational cloaking device, then this order will cause your ship to cloak itself. A ship that is cloaked cannot be seen by any other players unless they have sensors equipped to detect them. If other players cannot see you, you can pass through locations where their ships sit without engaging in combat.

While cloaked, many normal orders are not available. See Sight for more details. When selected, a window will be displayed to allow you to enter a new name for this ship or planet.

If you currently have a fleet selected, then you can select this to change the fleet's formation and strategy. If your ship has an undamaged mine sweeping component on it, you can select this order to have your ship sweep the mines at a location. Now your ships will automatically sweep mines any time they move, but you may want to use this order to give an area a special "going over". This order will jettison the cargo that your ship or planet is carrying.

When you jettison cargo, it is removed from your ship and destroyed when shot into space. This is the reverse of the "Cloak" order. If your ship is currently cloaked, then you can select this order to cause the ship to decloak. This selection will display the Select Component Window so that you can choose a component to use. Some components have a single use and then they are destroyed. This order will cause your people to abandon your colony and leave the planet.

When you abandon the planet, you have the choice of whether you want to scrap the facilities on the planet or leave them as they are.