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Overview:
The Nulligarchy game is currently being tested. source is available. You require a scheme interpreter (I use Guile) and Perl if you want to host games. You need Python if you want to run the Cyclops client.
In order to register as a new player, send a mail to the host. The mail subject must read:
NULLIGARCHY NEW
If you know the name of an Oligarch you want to play, you can supply that name as well.
NULLIGARCHY NEW name
If you want to see who is playing and what positions are available, see the player list.
The game simulates a Fantasy world. Each player controls a person in the simulated world. The persons controlled by the players are so-called oligarchs. The ancient greeks called a government where a few nobles ruled the vast majority an oligarchy. Therefore, players don't have to worry about money, food, or the weight the have to carry. The oligarchs are supposed to be rich and powerful enough. Such things are taken for granted. Having to deal with such things would make this a boring game.
The game is played as follows: In order to join the game, sign up as described on the Nulligarchy homepage. Once you have signed up, you will receive a report. After you read the report, write orders for your oligarch and send them back to the host. When a certain number of days has elapsed, the host will send new reports and the process repeats itself until a player wins the game. One such cycle is called a turn. The number of days per turn and the victory conditions may vary, check the Nulligarchy homepage for details.
The world is made up of regions. The regions are unevenly distributed. It takes one turn to move from one region to the next.
Oligarchs can attack each other. When they fight, the oligarch with the best weapon wins. When their weapons are equally powerful, chances of winning are 50:50. The best weapons are magic weapons. Non-magic weapons are not even listed in the reports since every person is assumed to have them. The power (also called the level) of a magic weapon is determined by the number of magic ingredients incorporated into the weapon. The more ingredients incorporated, the higher the level, and the better the weapon.
In order to create magic weapons, a magic spell must be cast. In order to cast this particular magic spell, there must be ten oligarchs praying for the magician. Another way to express this idea uses mana to describe the process. By praying, one oligarch can act as a mana source for another oligarch. Each additional mana source raises the mana level of the magician. Creating magic weapons requires a mana level of 10.
Magic weapons can be augmented. Augmenting a magic weapons incorporates more ingredients into the magic weapon. All magic weapon ingredients must be unique. An ingredient may not be added more than once to a particular magic weapon. The same ingredient may of course be added to other magic weapons.
In order to trade ingredients or weapons, oligarchs can propose deals and accept deals. In order to propose a deal, an oligarch offers a weapon or a number of ingredients in exchange for another weapon or a number of other ingredients. Any other oligarch can then accept the deal and initiate the exchange.
Parameters: Name of person to be attacked
The attack command starts a fight. All the people that are friends of the attacker will join the attacking side. All the people that are friends of the defender will join the defending side. People that are friends to both or neither sides will keep out of the fight. The fight continues until only combatants of one side remain. The unhurt combatants of the victorious side will imprison the members of the loosing side and take all their possessions.
An oligarch will refuse to attack a friend, even when directly ordered to do so.
Fights change the relationships between oligarchs. All those that fought on the same side increase their friendship by two points. All those that fought on opposing sides decrease their friendship by two points. All members of the defending side decrease their friendship versus the attacker by an additional point for a total decrease of three points, and the defender decreases his friendship versus the attacker by yet another point for a total decrease of four points.
Parameters: Name of weapon, list of ingredients
The create command creates a new magic weapon or augments an existing magic weapon. This command is a long command. No other long commands may be given in the same turn.
Parameters: Name of oligarch, number of deal to accept
The deal-accept command accepts a deal proposed by another oligarch. If several oligarchs accept the deal, friendship will decide who gets it. If equally good friends are accepting a deal, then the oligarch that gets the deal is chosen randomly among the good friends.
Deals change the relationships between oligarchs. All accepted deals will increase the friendship between the two oligarchs involved by one point.
Parameters: Number of deal to cancel
The deal-cancel command cancels a proposed deal.
Parameters: Stuff offered, stuff wanted
Stuff must be either a weapon name, or the name and number of an ingredient.
The deal-propose command proposes a deal that any oligarch in the same region may accept. The deal remains proposed until canceled, accepted, or until the host determines that the oligarch is unable to fulfill the deal should another accept it (eg. by offering more ingredients than actually owned).
Parameters: Name of mana destination
The pray-to command determines the new mana destination. The oligarch will act as a mana source for the mana destination, thus raising the mana destination's mana level by one. Each oligarch may have only one mana destination. Mana levels are not passed on to the mana destination, eg. if A prays to B and B prays to C, then B will have one mana level and C will have one mana level.
Parameters: Name of neighboring region
The move command moves the oligarch into a neighboring region. This command is a long command. No other long commands may be given in the same turn.
Cyclops is a very simple tool to enter your Nulligarchy orders.
You must have Python installed in order to run Cyclops. Luckily enough, Python has been ported to most operating systems, and it is quite easy to install.
Note that in theory, the development of the host, the development of Cyclops, and the writing of this documentation are synchronized. In practice, however, it happens often enough that new orders are implemented in the host, a few days later the documentation is written, and even later, Cyclops is updated.
When you join the game, and after ever turn, you will receive two reports: A plain text, and a XML file. The text file is for you to read. The XML file is for Cyclops; save it somewhere.
There is currently no way to get another copy of your reports if you loose or delete them. This will be changed.
Make sure you saved the XML report file in the same directory where
you keep the cyclops.py script. Open a command shell window,
switch to the directory where the XML report file is, and invoke
Cyclops like this:
python cyclops.py file
To enter commands, hit the command letter from the menu, hit enter and follow the prompts. If you want to redisplay the menu, enter the question mark at the prompt.
Here is an example. Everything I typed is rendered like this.
alex@snail:~/projects/nulligarchie > python cyclops.py reports/Alex.xml You will be entering orders for Alex Menu: a attack somebody (currently: nobody) c create or augment a magic item (currently: none) p pray to somebody (currently: nobody) m move somewhere (currently: not moving) s status x quit --> m Move into: 1. Zuerich 2. Genf number: 2 Moving into Genf -->
In order to send the orders back to the host, use the s key. This will show you your status. The list expression displayed is just the thing you need to send back back to the host. Paste and copy the lisp expression into a mail and send it to the host. See Mail Interface.
The host takes care of all administrative tasks. The following references explains how to communicate with the host via email.
See Registering as a New Player, in the introduction.
You can send your orders via mail. If you send several mails, the last one arriving at the host will be overwrite the others. Current Internet technology doesn't allow you to control how fast your mail travels, therefore it could be possible that a second mail overtakes a first mail and gets overwritten when the first mail finally arrives. In order to avoid this, make sure your first mail arrived savely before sending another one. The host will send you a receipt whenever a mail gets processed; just wait patiently for a few hours.
The mail must have the following subject:
NULLIGARCHY ORDERS password
The password is part of the subject line for your plain text reports. Here is an example of your plain text report. The password to use for your orders is in the subject line.
From: "Nulligarchie Host" <pbem@nulligarchy.org> To: your@mail.com Subject: Nulligarchie Text Report [password: secret] [...]
Sending the orders therefore looks like this:
To: pbem@nulligarchy.org Subject: Nulligarchy order secret [...]
When you start out, chances are you already have a password set. Should you want to change it, though, you can do it by mail. You might want to change the password since your predecessor might still know it.
The mail must have the following subject:
NULLIGARCHY PASSWORD oligarch:oldpassword:newpassword
Note that the three parameters are separated by colons [:] and that there are no spaces around the colons. The host needs this information to verify that you are indeed authorized to change the password.
Please note that the passwords used for the game are part of unencrypted mails. They travel through the Internet as plain text. A malicious cracker on the Internet can scan mails automatically and extract the password. Furthermore, the passwords are stored in a plain text file. If the host computer is cracked, your password will be compromised.
The password just makes it a little tricky for other players to forge your orders.