                                Server : Bugs

NAME
   Bugs - Known bugs in the Empire Server

Level: Expert

NOTE: This file is dramatically out of date.  The classification  scheme  used
by report is dumb.

You can make a sector temporarily useless by filling up all  its  fields  with
delivery and distribution information.  This is useful when an enemy is trying
to capture the sector (his mil don't have room to move in :-) You have to halt
some  of the deliveries or distributions to make room for the military to move
in.  (Mostly fixed by changing the number of available fields)

Warehouses can't distribute all commodities  simultaneously,  due  to  limited
fields for this information.  This becomes a problem if you have a countrywide
network of warehouses distributing to each other.  (Mostly fixed  by  changing
the number of available fields)

You can  sometimes  build  planes  in  non-airport  sectors,  deliberately  or
accidentally. FIXED

You can sometimes move small quantities of certain items from warehouses at no
mobility  cost,  even into mountains (this is my favorite bug, I'd hate to see
it fixed :-)

Guerrillas don't seem to carry the plague.

You can get information about enemy sectors  by  attacking  with  0  military.
This  costs 0 BTU's currently (this is another of my favorite bugs :-) This is
a good way to flood the enemy mailbox with junk mail  at  no  cost  in  BTU's.
FIXED

You can sometimes trick someone into paying a huge price  for  commodities  by
changing  the  price  suddenly.  Therefore one should always check prices when
buying commodities.

When two countries are attacking each other simultaneously, you can  sometimes
move  into  a sector he is in the process of attacking.  If you get the timing
right, he will take the sector but you will get it back, along  with  all  his
military.

If a plane is out to trade, and gets shot down, it can still be  bought  until
the  next  update.  If another country builds a new plane that gets the number
of the plane that was shot down, the new plane will go on the  trading  market
automatically.   Then  if  that plane is bought, the money goes to the country
whose plane was shot down, not the country that  built  the  plane.   I  stole
numerous planes (including nuclear missiles :-) this way (by deliberately put-
ting low numbered planes up for trade, then having them shot down).

If a plane has negative mobility, then gets traded, mobility goes to 0.

Firing on sectors with land-locked sunken ships does strange things.

If two countries are cooperating, its possible to raid an  enemy  airport  and
steal the planes by putting them out to trade.

You can also strip enemy sectors of commodities using sell, if you have  mili-
tary control temporarily.

One can raid an enemy harbor and use up all the raw materials by building use-
less ships. FIXED

One can make work go back to 100 everywhere in a country by moving all civili-
ans  in low-work sectors onto a bridge, then collapsing the bridge.  Work then
goes to 100 at the next update, if you leave some mil in the vacated  sectors.
Or you can move mil out too, letting the sector ownership change to the Deity,
then move back in from a 100% working sector, and  work  goes  immediately  to
100.

Two cooperative countries can move commodities  around  at  no  mobility  cost
using the market.

You can depopulate an enemy sector in a raid by converting all civs to uws and
selling  them.   This  can make it hard for the victim to get back in the game
even with a rapid & successful counterattack. FIXED, convert takes mob now.

Sometimes sector ownership doesn't change when the last civ  starves,  so  you
may  get census information about sectors with 0 civs.  Later this same sector
may get its ownership switched to the Deity without your doing anything. FIXED

You can only have so much of a commodity in a sector.  If you went over 32,000
and  something,  units  of  food, for example, bizarre things might happen.  I
think that has been fixed. FIXED

Treaty had bugs (for example, firing on any ships was considered a treaty vio-
lation,  not  just  the  ships of the country you had a treaty with).  I think
Jeff might have fixed this. FIXED

Also air attacks were not considered treaty violations.  This  may  have  been
fixed. FIXED

You can collapse enemy bridges by making a lightning raid on  his  bridgeheads
and redesignating them, even if you only hold the bridgehead for a short time.
(In this games, bridges work differently, see info build, info bridges")

You can map out enemy territory by raiding his radar stations.

Condition checking is very treacherous.  Global commands with  conditions  are
unreliable.  I never figured out exactly what was wrong, although I think your
method of putting conditions towards the front of the line helped sometimes.

You can have more than 26 ships in a fleet, but only the first  26  will  move
when  you navigate the fleet (I think 26 is the right number, but I'm not cer-
tain.  It might be 32).

Look only spots subs (from destroyers) at a certain distance.  If you are  too
close you won't see them (unless you are in the same sector).

You can only fly as many planes on a mission as you can  fit  on  the  command
line (so low numbered planes have an advantage this way).  USE WINGS

I never managed to load more than 1 warhead on a missile, but  I  didn't  have
time to investigate this thoroughly. FIXED

Wilderness sectors that you own don't appear as ? on enemy maps,  so  you  can
sometimes hide information by leaving sectors as wilderness. FIXED

When a sector has a visible ship, radar doesn't show  whether  the  sector  is
land  or sea, just the ship.  This has interesting possibilities for exploita-
tion (like land-locking a battleship in your capital in order to  deceive  the
enemy :-)

I don't think you can land planes on a land-locked aircraft carrier anymore.

Its common to mistakenly set the price of a plane or ship incorrectly  so  one
should check trade after using set.

Torpedo isn't random, but always works within range (another  of  my  favorite
bugs :-) FIXED

Transporting nukes costs 0 mobility. FIXED

The must be accepted by date on offered loans is bogus.

Turn off doesn't stop updates.

SEE ALSO
   list, Innards, Server

