                        Server : How to be a good God

NAME
   God - Tips on being God

Level: Expert

The  following  commands  act differently or require different parameters when
used as deity: wire, read, des, zdone, nav,  march,  transport,  move,  build,
country.

Comments from Dave Pare

I've  been  deity of seven or eight games, and each time I learn something new
about how far I should go, and how active a role I should take.

There are several things a deity should take into account.

 1)  Bug policy.  When a player says that a bug bit him, how do you handle it?
     Since  I  used to hack on the game at the same time players would play, I
     used to have a "nasty" bug policy.  That is, if a bug bites a player,  he
     loses.  It is very difficult to verify if a player "really did lose those
     1000 gold bars" from that bank because of a bug.  Also, whenever a player
     had  something  bad  happen  to him, he'd yell "BUG".  All too often, the
     player just did something stupid.

     If a player ever found a "good" bug (and reported it in  a  timely  fash-
     ion), I'd give him some kind of reward.  The reward was generally materi-
     al enough to encourage them to report bugs, but not too much so the other
     players  complained.   If through use of this bug the player manufactured
     "too many" goodies for himself, I acted to redress the balance immediate-
     ly.

     This whole case is only interesting when the Deity knows the Empire code,
     and can identify bugs as such.

 2)  Unskilled players.  It's tough watching your friends lose  in  an  Empire
     game.   Helping  "just  a  little"  by giving information, or by giving a
     teensy bit of assistance is BAD.  Empire is NOT a game of socialist  care
     for  the  needy;  it's more like survival of the fittest.  Players should
     sink or swim on their own.  If you help  a  novice,  you're  deliberately
     hurting  his  opponent.  Some players will lose, and as Deity you'll have
     to stand by and watch this happen.

 3)  Answering random prayers.  If you DO help someone, help them in relative-
     ly  minor ways.  Do things like fill in some ocean, etc.  Don't give away
     commodities -- except perhaps food.  Whatever you do,  don't  give  tech,
     military  hardware,  civilians, military, or any information at all!  The
     game is very stingy with information, and you should be too.

 4)  Security.  Make SURE that nobody else has access to the data directories.
     There  are  always players who will do anything to win.  If you help them
     control themselves by making the data  completely  unavailable  --  watch
     those  dump  tapes  too -- you'll be doing their moral fiber and everyone
     else a favor.

Remember, as Deity your job is to make the game fair.  Don't hose players (un-
less  they cheat -- and you catch them!)  and don't give out information.  In-
formation is very important in Empire, and as Deity you've got access  to  all
of it.  Be careful in what you say, and how you leave your terminal at night!

Unless  you've  got  nothing else to do, a Deity should keep player communica-
tions to a minimum.  Handling special player requests  gets  tedious  after  a
while;  make  players pay for Deity assistance.  One game I suggested that the
only way players could get the Deity to fill in  ocean  sectors,  zap  plague,
etc,  was to offer a real-life sacrifice to the deity -- a few bottles of good
beer, for example!  I got perhaps a dozen bottles, and managed to greatly cur-
tail player requests at the same time!

In  summary,  an  Empire  game  should be between players.  Any time the Deity
helps anyone, Deity intervention starts becoming a factor in the game.   As  a
Deity,  you  absolutely can't go wrong if you do nothing at all except routine
game maintenance.

SEE ALSO
   Deity, Server

