                              Command : IMPROVE

 SYNTAX:
   [##:##] Command: improve <SECTORS> <railroad|highway> <AMT>>

The improve command lets you upgrade your highway and railroad  networks.   By
improving  the  highways in a sector, you can dramatically reduce the mobility
costs incurred in all aspects of movement through a sector.   By  improving  a
sector's  railways, you can make it possible for trains to freely move through
sectors where movement was previously impossible.

Highways, bridge heads, and bridge spans -- transportation sectors  by  design
--  have  mobility  cost  factors (MCST) of 1, and cannot be further improved.
All other sectors types have an MCST of 2 or greater.  As the MCST of a sector
increases,  more  mobility  is expended moving things through that sector.  By
using `improve', however, you can boost the highway and/or railroad  "ratings"
of  any  sector to the point where Depending on specific game parameters, it's
effective MCST may come close to or equal that of a highway sector.

   [##:##] Command: improve 5:11,5 r 50

                              Command : IMPROVE

   warehouse @ 5,5: rails improved to 50% (+50%)
   mountain @ 7,5: insufficient resources for improvement
   mountain @ 9,5: rails improved to 50% (+50%)
   wilderness @ 11,5: rails improved to 73% (+40%)

Highway and railroad improvements are ranked from 0 to 100%.  Use the  `mobil-
ity' command to learn the current levels improvement in a particular sector or
range of sectors.  Full 100% improvement is required to  reduce  the  sector's
MCST  to  its  absolute  minimum value (typically 1.2).  Railroad improvements
affect the mobility costs involved in the movement of trains; highway improve-
ment  affect  the  mobility  costs  involved  in all other aspects of movement
through a sector, including deliveries, distribution, etc.   Improvements  can
be done in almost any sector, including mountains.

Improvements require money,  materials,  and  mobility.   Typical  improvement
costs are:

                              Command : IMPROVE

                           1% IMPROVEMENT
                        Highway     Railroad

        Money               $10           $5
        Materials         1 lcm      0.1 hcm
        Mobility          2 mob        1 mob

Material and mobility costs are rounded to the nearest whole number, and  will
always  be  a  minimum  of  1.   Sector  efficiency has no effect on degree of
improvement.

NOTE: Improvements remain unaffected by later changes in sector designation or
ownership.  Once improvements have been made, they can be reduced only by dam-
age to the sector.  Trains can only pass through sectors that have  an  effec-
tive  MCST  of 1.4 or less.  Exact values of minimum achieveable MCST and MCST
necessary for train passage can be found in the the output  of  the  `version'
command.

                              Command : IMPROVE

See also : mobility, bomb, bunkers

