                               Concept : Plague

NAME
   Plague - The Plague

Level: Expert

Plague is used in Empire to symbolize all forms of disease  and  is  the  only
health  hazard  associated with the Empire game, (ignoring it's effects on the
players).  The characteristics of  plague  are,  therefore,  a  compromise  of
disease features (or bugs).

Note that if the NO_PLAGUE option is in use, a kindly deity has wiped out  the
plague for you. If not, worry about it.

The Empire Plague takes between 96 and 189 time units to  run  its  course  on
land,  (i.e.,  2  to 4 days in any particular sector if an Empire time unit is
1/2 and hour), and twice as long on ships, (4 to 8 days).   In  so  doing  the
plague goes through three stages:

Stage I -- The gestation or incubation phase  in  which  no  symptoms  appear.
   Sectors or ships that are in this stage of the plague are indistinguishable
   from healthy sectors or ships.  This stage lasts 32 to 63 time units, (less
   than a day and a half).

Stage II -- The infectious phase in which the symptoms first appear --  orange
   blotches  on  the  face and hands, sometimes accompanied by grey stripes on
   the genitalia, itching of the liver and spleen, an uncontrollable  fear  of
   ripe  tomatoes,  etc.  During this phase the plague is extremely communica-
   ble; for example, a simple delivery from an infectious sector  will  infect
   the destination sector.

Stage III -- The terminal phase in which people die, often in the act of flee-
   ing  from  (real  or  imagined) tomatoes.  The number of people that die is
   roughly inversely proportional to the research level of the  country  (plus
   100).

All three phases are of roughly equal average duration, (about 48 time periods
or 1 day).

Plague usually arises in countries with  high  technological  development  and
comparatively little medical research.  It arises specifically in sectors with
high population density and low efficiency.

Recently archaeologists have uncovered a treatise by a  Dr. M. Welby  entitled
Demographic considerations and the Empire Plague.  In part it states:

It appeared that our original hypothesis based  on  the
high  percentage of Lumbagan Legionnaires among the af-
flicted had led us down a blind alley and  that  if  we
were to solve this complex puzzle before the end of the
series in the spring possibly a reference to the series
of  tests  leading  to the mysterious Neilson Rating we
would have to turn to other disciplines for  help.   It
was  only  by  the  merest  lucky coincidence that as I
drove home one evening ...  here Dr. Welby  relates  an
amusing anecdote about a Brownie Scout and the director
of a film entitled Close Encounters of the Third  Grade
...  leading us to the following amazing formulation of
the relationship between medical research,  technology,

   likelihood    civ + mil + uw     t_level + (iron + oil) / 10 + 100
       of     =  --------------  *  ---------------------------------
     plague            999            r_level + effic + mobil + 100

Later formulations of this relationship show great similarity to his statement
(see info Innards).

Many researchers have commented on the surprising lack of correlation  between
food supply and plague outbreak.

Fortunately the plague is not infectious during the gestation  stage  so  that
the most effective method for curing plague has been to isolate it by emptying
adjoining sectors during the gestation period.

SEE ALSO
   Innards, Research, Sector-types, Technology, Populace, Update

