38 lines
1.4 KiB
Perl
38 lines
1.4 KiB
Perl
.TH Concept Time
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.NA Time "ETUs, BTUs and ETL"
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.LV Expert
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.s1
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The Empire clock counts Empire Time Units (ETUs), just like an
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ordinary clock counts seconds.
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.s1
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There's always the same number of ETUs between updates (the
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\*Qversion\*U command shows how many). ETUs automatically stretch or
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contract to maintain that when updates move around for some reason,
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say a change of schedule, or unplanned downtime.
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.s1
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Because of the unique nature of Empire governments,
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(i.e. the decision makers spend most of their time on vacation.
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Hmmm, not so unique actually),
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and the fact that ideally the Empire \*Qenvironment\*U
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will mirror the \*Qreal\*U world,
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various heuristics dealing with time have been implemented.
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.s1
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The first is the Bureaucratic Time Unit (BTU) concept
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which keeps track of the potential for doing \*Qwork\*U
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possessed by your government.
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.s1
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The second heuristic, (i.e. hack),
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is the Elapsed Time Limit (ETL) which limits the amount of time
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that players may be logged on each day.
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The ETL is not cumulative and is reset to some particular value,
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(often two hours, check the \*Qversion\*U command to be sure),
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every night at midnight.
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.s1
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The ETL and BTU counts are displayed with each command prompt
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as follows:
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.EX
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The first \*Q##\*U is the Elapsed Time today, in minutes.
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This number starts at 0 every midnight.
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The second \*Q##\*U is the number of BTU's remaining.
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.s1
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.SA "Innards, version, BTU, Playing"
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