BATTLE MINES

Updates for 2005

December 24th
Spies have a new ability: Sabotage.

Any spy can perform sabotage. The cost is high: One Aid to bribe the guards, one Diamond to bribe officials, one Enriched Uranium to make the explosion, and your spy's life. The result is the destruction of four random basic buildings in your victim's land. Advanced buildings will not be affected, as the security around them is too great.

You will not know which buildings were destroyed, as your Spy is taken out in the blast. Adjacent nations will get reports of the mysterious explosion.

Communist spies have a 50% chance of surviving the mission. (They give a building destruction report in this case.) Also, communist spies now have a 50% chance of being killed when inciting revolt. This simplifies the rules for commies: Communist spies are always half as likely to be killed as a regular spy.

The Dock now has an added function: When you have a Dock, adjacent Sea tiles increase the chance of getting Food each turn by 10%, not just 5%.

December 23rd
Communist spies are no longer removed when inciting revolt.
The fundamentalist Theocrats have some difficulty with their research: It costs them 16 objects to Tech Level, not 15.

December 21st

mysql> select name,homeland,resource from map where homeland like '%xade%';
+----------+---------------------+-------------+
| name     | homeland            | resource    |
+----------+---------------------+-------------+
| Goober   | South xadebrook     | uranium ore |
| Freesoul | Central xadebrook   | pig iron    |
| Jeong In | west xadebrook      | bauxite     |
| xade     | Northern xadebrook  | coal        |
| Throggg  | NorthEast xadebrook | sand        |
+----------+---------------------+-------------+
5 rows in set (0.00 sec)

It's like a plague o'er the land, except instead of getting sick you just scratch your head and raise an eyebrow.

Power has been altered/simplified. The following is now true:

The Greenhouse uses one Power when it operates.
The first Refinery uses one Power.
The second Refinery uses two Power.
The Factory uses three Power.
Players without an Academy save one Power.
Players with a working Windmill save one Power per powered building.
Players with a working Solar Panel save one Power per powered building. (These are now cumulative on Windy days.)
Each Power spent (Fuel or Coal) causes one Pollution.
Power which is saved causes no Pollution.
Uranium Ore boosts Reactor Fuel by eight, down from ten. (Tech Level 11 has changed too.)
The above Power rules apply to Coal Refineries too; The base material cost for refining Diamonds is now 8 Coal. (Still 1 for all others.)

This new arrangement is more demanding on players with a well-developed territory. Play hard!

Idle players (>1 week) will now automatically have one trade posted during maintenance. It will be the base material they produce offered for a random base, in the normal mining ratio. They will also have their Firepower set to the number of Cannons they have.

Theocrats, citing irreconcilable ideological differences (same as always,) can now wage war with one another.

December 20th
New graphics are up.
Two new (purely aesthetic) options are available under Player Setup.

Ramul's deals are now slightly less cutthroat, for higher techs particularly. He'll no longer ask for the refined version of the base you're trying to obtain.

December 19th
The combat accuracy bonus for higher Tech Level has been abolished. Accuracy is now increased when your opponent has more buildings: Every four buildings you have increases your opponent's accuracy by 1%. (Go Battle-n00bs!)

The Black Market has been improved, and is now pretty kickass I feel.
You can obtain all base materials (including Uranium Ore) on the Black Market. Select an object and submit the form. Three-fingered Ramul will quote a price to you; it is based on the object you ask for, your current inventory, your Tech Level and your Least Valued Object policy setting (be sure to set this first). If you want to take his offer, check the confirmation box and submit again.

December 16th
It's an overhaul of all things Glass related today.

Greenhouses now cost only 2 Glass, but use up one Power and produce one Pollution when they are active during Production. They can be deactivated with a new Policy setting. Greenhouse Pollution (like Refinery Pollution) can be prevented with clean energy. Even if you Power the Greenhouse, you are not guaranteed to grow Food; the odds remain as before.

Palantirs now cost only 1 Glass to manufacture.

Spies are now hardier: Instead of immediately dying in combat, they have a 20% chance of being killed for each building destroyed. For example, if three buildings were destroyed in combat where your spy was, there is a 60% chance your spy will be destroyed. This chance is halved for Communists.

Additionally, your Spies can survive even outside of contact with you. They will not be lost when you move away from them, either due to land movement or exchange. A complete list of your Spies and Palantirs is now available on the Espionage page.

Communists have new bonus: They can now see the complete inventory of their spy targets.

Monarchy is simplified/improved: They now simply get a PM bonus equal to the number of Vassals they have, plus the number of Outposts they have up to a maximum of three.

Adjacent Vassals or Masters now count as Outposts.

If you are holding your own Palantir, you can see the Firepower and Munitions Policy of other players who are holding one of your Palantirs on the View page.

December 15th
If you have no Coal at the end of Production, you will get one for free.

December 12th
Some balancing measures:

There's a new section on Power in the docs.
All free Coal and related errata are abolished. Instead, all players receive one free Power, usable as usual in Factories and Refineries. The Academy always uses one Power, so once it's built the n00b Power goes away. Those scientists suck back the juice with their experiments and computers.
Factories now always cause three Pollution when used during production in any regard. For Capitalists, if refining resources are limited, Refineries will be used in preference over the Factory.
The "clean power" provided by the Windmill and Solar Panel now extends only to refining operations. Reiterating, Factories always pollute.
The Windmill is now a basic building.

Industry Style has been changed to incorporate Pollution.

Laissez-faire: Each cycle you get +3 PM, +1 Pollution and another +1 Pollution for each neighbor who is also Laissez-faire.
Nominal: You get +1 Pollution for each Laissez-faire neighbor and -1 Pollution for each Green neighbor.
Green: You get -2 PM, and -1 Pollution.

Your Pollution will never go below zero. These numbers may be tweaked later.

December 11th
Three new buildings! No graphics to go with them yet.

Dock - Basic Building, costs 2 Steel and 2 Food.
Having a Dock causes adjacent Sea tiles to act as Outposts for you. You can interact with players across the Ocean. A Dock cannot be constructed when out of sight of the Sea of Rust.

Windmill - Advanced Building, costs 2 Aluminum and 2 Diamond.
The Windmill provides Pollution-free power to your Refineries and Factory at no cost, but only when the weather is Windy or Stormy.

Solar Panel - Advanced Building, costs 2 Glass and 2 Diamond.
The Solar Panel also provides Pollution-free power, but only when the weather is Windy or Sunny.
Note that the Solar Panel is mostly Glass, so it vibrates apart during Land Movement.

The Reactor has been modified; It now costs 2 Aluminum and 2 Enriched Uranium (rather than 2 ALU, 1 EUR, 1 DMND.) If your Reactor is hit during combat, it will only take out another four buildings, not six.

The power supplied to a Coal Refinery has changed to a maximum of 5. 5 of the 10 Coal to make a Diamond can be payed with a power plant: Windmill, Solar Panel, or Reactor. The other five must be payed in Coal.

Technocracy has changed: Technocrats now take a hit of one PM (-1 Production Modifier) each turn to support their advanced buildings shield.

December 9th
The cost of movement is now 10 Coal and 1 Enriched Uranium (payable in bundles of Uranium Ore of course.) I even have the physics to go with it now: The ten Coal is to dig a really deep mine shaft, and then detonating the Uranium near to the center of the planet, inducing tectonic shift. The science is solid, right? I mean, come on guys! Get with the program! >^o^<

Due to the innate difficulty of operating in the radioactive desolation of their landscape, Uranium miners have innured themselves to most second-hand toxins. Players on Uranium Ore map tiles are now immune to the negative effects of Pollution on Production Modifier.

December 8th
President Maya's harsh expletives get the job done!

Slashed naught level idle players now tithe +2, not +1.

The -1 Tithe for a Vassal having many fewer buildings than the Master has been pushed back from 1/2 to 1/4. This is the same as the IWI attack limitation ratio. Unfortunately your attack may yet push the victim below that ratio, so tithing is not guaranteed.

In less pleasant news, Refineries and Factories now pollute when they operate during production. The first Refinery to operate makes one Pollution, the second makes two, the third (for Capitalists) makes three. (This is cumulative. Three refines makes six Pollution.) If your Factory produces an Item, it generates three Pollution.

Pollution recalculation has moved to the end of production. This makes it better in two ways: Your Pollution heading into production will predictably be what effects your production that cycle, and the aforementioned building pollution (as well as Food and Overflow) will be halved at the end of Production, lessening its impact immediately. Click to review Pollution in the docs.

December 6th
There's no more within-5-level limit on stealing Tech Levels. The only requirements are that you:

a) Land exchange
b) Someone of superior tech
c) Who holds your Palantir
d) With whom you share governmental hatred.

December 5th
The abstruse "Convert Objects" option on the Trade page has been reinvented as the Black Market. The Black Market lets you trade four (4) of any Object (double that amount for Coal) for one base material (Bauxite, Pig Iron, Sand,) or two Coal.
Unfortunately as your society becomes more advanced, your people grow reluctant to endure the presence of degenerate fences and cutthroats. For each two Tech Levels gained, the number of Objects required to make a Black Market trade will increase by one.

The spy report has been distributed amongst your hosts on the "View" page. Just click their name anywhere it appears. Viewing yourself now also shows your building manifest.

December 4th

Aid now costs 1 less Food to manufacture. (1 Steel + 1 Aluminum + 1 Food = 1 Aid)
Reversion to Anarchy (with 3 buildings or less) now happens at the end of production.
Vassals can now freely initiate Distant Warfare (against anyone not their master), since these wars can only be won or drawn. Restrictions still apply to Local Warfare.
Items will never be fired out of a Cannon. These include: Diamond Drills, ICBMs, Food and Aid. Basically all the stuff you really don't want to lose that way.
Theocracy now avoids 50% of all bad production events, and I made unexpected yields quite a bit sweeter. There's a bit of an X factor, but I think this makes Theocracy powerful enough that I reduced their Church-having-enemy Local Warfare accuracy bonus to only +20% (down from +30%).
Monarchy gets a kick in the pants: Their PM bonus equation now includes a bonus for each Vassal the Monarch has at the start of Production. Insert cheese: It's good to be the king!
Review these changes in the government section of the docs, there's a good chap.

December 3rd
Christmas has come early this year!

All players can now build up to 2 Refineries.
Refining costs have dropped to 1 Coal + 1 Base to make 1 Refined, or 10 Coal to make 1 Diamond.
All players can now make 2 Trades. (Offers.)

So that's the good news. To balance these changes out:

Coal miners can no longer make an extra Trade.
Anarchy gets -1 Trade.
Capitalists can no longer build an extra Refinery; Instead, if they set their Factory to make nothing (appears as "Refine" on the Manufacturing Policy list) and have refining enabled, their Factory will act as an extra Refinery.
Capitalists are no longer immune to revolt.
Aid packages will only give one free Refinery, if you already have one you will instead get an extra Warehouse when using Aid.

To clarify, I've added a new section on Refining and Manufacturing in the docs.
Happy holidays everyone!

December 2nd
It's now possible to voluntarily scrap buildings on the Construction page.
Scrapping a building costs one Coal. You get the usual warfare scrap back from the building, Anarchists receiving their bonus. You cannot scrap your last Mine, Cannon, or Warehouse.

November 29th
Theocratic luck bonus has improved. They now evade 25% of unlucky maintenance events.

To entice you, consider that most bad luck hits players with plenty; Theocracy helps you maintain your vast array of Wearhouses and Cannons, as your God watches over you during bad weather.

November 28th
High Score calculation changes:
A Negative Production Modifier no longer subtracts from your score.
Advanced Buildings now only count x 1.
Total Buildings now count, but divided by 10 rounding down.
Ie: 9 total buildings, Score is +0. 31 total buildings, Score is +3.

Food production has been standardized. A Greenhouse isn't necessary to grow Food anymore. Read about it in the docs.
In summary, coastal players may no longer need a Greenhouse to get Food occasionally, but their growing bonus isn't so large anymore.

November 27th
On the trade page you Discard Objects!! has been replaced by Convert Objects.

This allows the conversion of 10 of any object into 1 base material (2 if it's Coal), apart from Uranium Ore. (Coal, Bauxite, Pig Iron or Sand.) Just set the Object being offered and the Object being requested, hit the Convert button, and 10 Objects (if you have that many) will become the base of your choosing. No pollution is caused by this event.

All the former messy "half pollution" rules for Discarding Objects are nullified, Discard Objects no longer exists.

Please practice safe sex.

November 25th
Ever hear of tectonic shift?

If you are adjacent to the Sea of Rust, you can move your entire territory on the Foreign Affairs page for 10 Coal.
All foreign Outposts in your land are destroyed, and Spies you are hosting run away. You lose Outposts you are no longer adjacent to, and Spies you are no longer in contact with.
Due to the intense vibrations of tectonic shift, all your buildings containing 50%+ Glass are destroyed. This includes: Greenhouse, Telescope, Office Tower, Customs House.

The Outposts page is now known as the Foreign Affairs page.

Terraforming is not so cut and dry anymore. Due to intense subterranean nano-activity, it causes all underground structures to be destroyed. This includes: Mines, Cellar, and Bunker.

November 24th
Production has been rearranged.

Overflow now happens at the start of production, followed by pollution calculation, then mining/refining/manufaturing, etc. This means you get to keep all your post-production goodies, you only lose objects when you go into production in the red. (That is, you have more objects than storage.) It also means that your new Pollution affects your current-turn production, rather than next turn's.

Basically, everything makes ten times more sense, and is far more benficial to players. I mean, why was it never like this before? Hey, maybe it wasn't! That's right.. things have always been this awesome. The before-time was just a terrible dream...

Also, I've put freshly-minted palantir explosions imbetween factory production and tithing, which means if you get a Palantir off the assembly line that turn, you won't get tithed +1.

Why not quickly review the full order? Just so you're down with it. You know.

More very cool additions planned soon. Hard-pressed coastal dwellers and n00bs.. your time has come.

November 23rd
If you have an Academy and are not in Anarchy, you no longer get one free "n00b Coal" each turn.
Conversely, if you have no Academy or are in Anarchy, you get your free coal.

The goal is to bring back Coal miners. Terraforming may become more costly soon, so talk to your Nano-technician today!

November 22nd
Fascism now hates every type of government including Fascism, and every government hates Fascism right back.

This means Fascists will always have expensive outposts, increased tithes, and they can always steal Tech Levels, except from Anarchists who have a specific clause protecting them against this. The same is applied to them from other governments.

Theocracy has improved: Theocrats are now lucky. Any negative random production event has a 20% chance of not happening. This includes food rotting. Since bad events happen less often, good events will happen more often. Maybe there is someone up there after all!

November 21st
It's now possible to steal technology through military domination.

If you successfully land exchange with an opponent of higher Tech Level, yet within 5 Tech Level of you, while your government hates their government and they hold your palantir, you gain one Tech Level and they lose one.

Anarchists cannot steal Tech Levels, or be stolen from.

The docs now describe Doomsday Devices, the final race. Click here to read.

TheOilAgeIsOverPages1-182.pdf

This document put me in a panicked state of mind for a few days, and some of that still lingers. I think we should become very dedicated to conservation, as a species.

This game depicts a magical fairytale land where resources just keep on appearing. In the real world, we aren't so lucky.

November 18th
The Player View page is now much more informative.

November 16th
Anarchist governments can now attack other anarchists.

November 15th
The IWI, frustrated in their efforts to suppress all this battling and mining of late, have concluded greater payoffs are required for those privateering nations that dare fire the first shell.

Bounties can now be collected on all Top Ten players every cycle. Once a bounty has been collected on a player, their name will be listed on the Warfare page as well as in the events to avoid confusion.

Encouraging war on the other end of the scale, idle players with the slashed naught now give +1 Tithe Object, as well as the reduced attack restrictions. The time before this occurs has increased to 7 days.

Player view now shows modest combat statistics. (These were started only recently, so are not complete from the beginning of the game.) More information may be forthcoming on this page, as well as grandiose titles for particular achievements.

You must be at least Tech Level 3 before you can broadcast across the Battle Mines continent. (Send messages to everybody.)

November 13th
The impact of Firepower is now much more profound. The following activities will never reduce your Coal below your Firepower:
Trade, refining, manufacturing, and overflow.
If you want to do any of these to the point of having dangerously low Coal, you must set your Firepower low in advance. The following events can still reduce your Coal below your Firepower:
Tithing, war, any manually activated event (such as construction or academic research.)

Distant Warfare now costs one Coal as well as one ICBM. That's one Coal to launch an ICBM, offensively or defensively.

Spies now report the number of turns of vassalage/mastery remaining for their hosts.

November 12th
Players who have been idle for longer than 5 days will have their double daggers idle icon replaced with a slashed naught. These players have the x4 building attack limit waived; The IWI will not protect them any longer.

Fascism has been strengthened again: They now tithe the usual amount from Anarchies, after hatred and their normal bonus. (1 Tithe Item, base.) This was previously one item less.
Anarchy gets Fascism's old bonus: Double scrap from warfare.

November 11th
The trade system has been vastly improved.

No longer can other players cancel your trades. The trade will only go away when successfully taken (if non-repeating,) or when you yourself cancel it. If a trade is invalid (due to supply or firepower), it will be italicized on the trade map, to let others know it isn't currently available. You can also offer any trades you want, not only those you have available.

This means you can post a trade in advance for next cycle, as well as easily planning your buy/sell strategies. Everything is awesome starting... Now!

November 10th
Wars with no hits scored are now draws. (Previously, the attacker won by default, as iuewen noted after his triple bitchslapping.)
Set your details on the Player Setup page. Change the name of your homeland!
Cookies are now persistent, for 2 weeks.

November 8th
Fascism has improved: They now get scrap like everybody else.
There has been much linking to the docs throughout the interface.

November 7th
Uranium can no longer be used to construct Cannons.
New players will rarely start with Sand, Uranium even more rarely.

November 6th
Greenhouses are now a basic building.
Sand/Glass can no longer be used to contruct Warehouses.
Discarded materials now cause only half the amount of pollution, rounding up.

November 2nd
During production, players will now always get a free Mine, Cannon, or Warehouse, if they have none respectively.
Also, the IWI will often give Aid to low-building players if they have none. I'd be interested to see if someone can set up a method to scam the IWI for Aid and flood the market.
This is for you, Cirdan! Don't quit good buddy!

October 31st
3 important changes: Overflow mechanics, Weather, and Pollution.
Two minor changes:
1) Base chance of Greenhouse production is down to 40%.
2) Fascists collect only two less tithe objects from Anarchists, rather than none. (Overall, due to Government alone, Fascists now collect 1 Tithe Object from Anarchist.)
Bug reports to me please.

Overflow

Your inventory will never overflow outside of production anymore. Instead, when your number of objects rises above your capacity to hold them, the "Free Space" number in your inventory will become negative. Even during land exchange, your citizens will pitch in and help lug all your objects to the new homeland, no matter how few warehouses it contains.

Overflow still happens during production, but only if the weather is rainy or stormy.

Weather

Weather systems have been introduced. There are five types of weather: Sunny, Cloudy, Windy, Rainy, and Stormy. The current weather and the forecast for next cycle are shown on the Communication page. Weather has several effects as it is changed during production (the upcoming weather having the actual impact) and some effects during play imbetween productions.

Sunny

Production Modifier +1 for all
Greenhouses receive +20% chance of producing Food

Cloudy

No effects.

Windy

Combat accuracy -10% for all
Miners that produce Sand lose one during production as it is helplessly blown into a neighbor's territory. A random neighbor is the benficiary.

Rainy

Overflow happens
Greenhouses receive +20% chance of producing Food
Cannons may rust, but Warehouses will not burn down

Stormy

Overflow happens
Production Modifier -1 for all
Combat accuracy -10% for all
Cannons may rust

Graphical weather reports coming soon!

Pollution

Your Pollution starts at zero. Each production, your Production Modifier is reduced by your Pollution level. Every time you discard an object, food rots, or you lose an object to overflow, your "new" Pollution is incremented. At the end of each production, your Pollution will be recalculated as the average between your old Pollution and new Pollution, rounding down. This value will again slide your production down, but not until the following production.

For example: Bill has 1 Pollution. He discards two bauxite during his turn. One Food rots during production. Pollution gives him a -1 Production Modifier. The weather is sunny. His new Pollution is:

New Pollution = floor ( (Old Pollution + Rotted Food + Discard + Overflow) / 2 )
= floor ( (1 + 1 + 2 + 0) / 2 ) = 2

The next turn he discards nothing and no Food rots, but Pollution gives him a -2 PM. It rains and Bill overflows 10 Objects.

New Pollution = (2 + 0 + 0 + 10) / 2 = 6

Next turn Bill will have a -6 PM, and so on.

October 30th
Just a quick note to let you all know, I'll be in Edmonton from November 1st until the 5th. Edmonton is the land not only of cows and oil, but also BPLlama and Assmonster, so that's cool. BP has Civ 4, about which I'm fairly excited. I may not be around to immediately fix bugs or answer questions, so keep notes for me.

When there's time, I have some prejudicially cool additions to make, based partly on suggestions from several of the staunchest players. One foreshadowing statement: Watch the skies.

Peace y'all.

October 29th
Did you not notice?

The setting for Battle Mines is an island in the enormous Sea of Rust. The water's not much good for drinking, but plant life can derive some meagre sustenance through it.
For each Sea tile adjacent to a player, their Greenhouse has a +10% chance of producing Food each round. For example, a typical side-map player would have 3 neighboring Sea tiles, for a final (50% + 3 x 10% =) 80% chance of their Greenhouse producing Food.

October 28th
Vassals cannot initiate attacks until they have worked off all but four (4) cycles of their current vassalage.
I changed some of the tech bonuses around. No more Perma-cannon at level 3.
Max Firepower is now 12, not 10.

October 23rd
Enter your description on the policy page! Put in anything you like: contact info, threats, long-standing trade offers, enemies, grudges, manifestos, and so on. Anyone can read it just by clicking your name.

October 21st
Outposts now cost 1 Coal, in addition to the usual Glass costs.

October 18th
The firepower setting now has an extra impact on the game: Any offer you make involving coal will be cancelled when it is accepted, if it would cause your coal level to dip below your firepower level.
Set your firepower low in advance if you want to trade away a lot of coal. Trades you actively accept are unnaffected by this rule. Firepower must be a number between 1 and 10, just because damnit.

The cost of reserach for Technocrats is only 14 objects, not 15.

October 17th
There is a new menu page: Academy.

On this page research can be done, permitting that your nation has an Academy built and is not in the throes of Anarchy.
Research increases a new measure of nations: Tech Level.
Researching each Tech Level costs 15 objects. Tech level 1 costs 15 of the object occupying the 1 slot in the list of objects, in value order. (Coal, Bauxite, Pig Iron, Sand...) Tech Level 7, for example, costs 7 Steel.
Each Level of Tech adds one to your score. It also conveys some new intrinsic upon your empire which cannot be revoked. Exactly what these new intrinsics are not revealed in the documentation, suffice to say they are listed as you discover them and are the same between players.
Tech Level also gives an advantage in local warfare: For each level of Tech you have beyond your opponent, their accuracy is reduced by 1%, and vice-versa. For example, if you engaged a Tech 12 empire while at Tech 2, you would be at -10% accuracy.
Two abilities have been revoked until proper research has been done at the academy: Terraforming, and incite revolt for spies.
Check the docs for several new sections/clarifications. Particularly, the intrinsic abilities of your Battle Mine have been categorized as "Perma-mines" and "Perma-cannons". You start with 3 Perma-mines, and 0 Perma-cannons. These numbers can be improved through research. Holds, improved with Hull Upgrades, are of course the final aspect of your Battle Mine which will never be revoked.

I just watched a documentary broadcast on CBC. It's called "The World According to Bush". Check it out here.

I think it's an important one to watch, especially for good American people. Your government has seriously gone way too far.

October 16th
IWI Crackdown, (did you fill out the correct form?) Motherfuckers.

Those illogical fusspots down at the IWI have come up with a new way to "punish" us Battle Miners: An extended bounty system! Check it out in The IWI and Bounties section of the docs.

In light of these changes, the "Most Vassals" scores have been reset. Congrats to xade who had attained a big fat 10, admittedly under different game rules. Current vassals will now only count x1, not x2, to overall score.

Fascists now receive +1 tithe item from each vassal. Instead of getting double scrap, they get none.
The Production Modifier for Capitalism has been relaxed from -4 to -2, still +2 for an Office Tower.
Anarchists will never pay any tithes to their hated rivals, the Fascists.

Aid packages can now be used by people with 15 buildings or less, up from 10.

October 14th
I found the original of a song I like. Battle Mines makes reference to it on the Policy page. Leaping into action, I stuck it boldly to the man by ripping the song from the CD, encoding it, and uploading it to share with my friends.

Should be jailed for this... you guys know what to do.

Pop Will Eat Itself - Def.Con.One

Ten to doomsday, moving fast,
Heads up! Mind that blast.
No time to sleep, it's Defcon One.
Can't get no sleep as the ticking ticks on.
No time for fear, it's Defcon One.
No time to eat but get me some:

CHORUS
Big Mac, fries to go.
Get me Big Mac, fries to go.
Get me Big Mac, fries to go.
Get me Big Mac get me fries to go.
Watchman!
We love you all.
Hup! Hup! Heads up!
Ground floor, coming up.

How sick is Dick?
How gone is Ron?
How sick is Dick?
How gone is Ron?
What's the time? It's Defcon One!
Say, what's the time?
Just get me some:

CHORUS x 2

Goodbye city, hello moon.
Hands up! Vote Doctor Doom!
You know it makes sense, it's Defcon One!
Hey what's occuring? What goes on?

It's the only choice.
It's the only choice.
So get me some:

CHORUS

Replace Big Mac with Food, add the voting system from GoG, and it sounds like they're just plain old singing about Battle Mines. I think it should be the theme song.

Here's an interesting tidbit I found: "This song is about the graphic novel Watchmen by Alan Moore (comics and Moore were popular with PWEI and appear in other songs as well). 'Big mac, fries to go' refers to a point in the graphic novel where a character is eating just that before the end of the world."

To round it off, here's a cool site: Songs About Nuclear War from the Eighties

October 12th
Look at the awesome ads Google assigns to this page. Don't you guys want to invest in Uranium?

October 8th
BigLooser, a very specific and much admired UW alumni, has written a Perl script to show trends in the value of all objects.
See: igor/price_rel.gif
(The y axis is value with respect to Coal, the x axis is # of trades involving the object.)
And: igor/igor_stat.pl

October 7th
Think of it gentlemen: Atomic Energy

Reactor. Advanced Building. 2 Aluminum, 1 Diamond, 1 Enriched Uranium.
The Reactor has a Fuel level which starts at 10, and maxes out at 100. Fuel is not an object.
10 Fuel can be added on the Construction page, at a cost of 1 Uranium Ore.
Fuel will be used during production in preference to Coal. (1 to 1.) It can power the Refinery and the Factory.
All other activities still require Coal.
If your Reactor is destroyed in warfare, the ensuing meltdown will take out 6 additional buildings.
(Combat damage is an important victory factor in Local Warfare, but not in Distant Warfare.)

Capitalists and Technocracies will now be tithed one extra item when they are vassaled.

October 6th
Religion has come to Battle Mines.

Church: Basic Building. 2 Steel.
If a new master has a church and his vassal doesn't, the base duration of the vassalage will be two (2) cycles greater.
If a new vassal has a church and his master doesn't, the base duration of the vassalage will be two (2) cycle less.
Theocracies gain a +10% accuracy bonus if they have a church.
This bonus goes up to +30% if their opponent also has a church.

Simply put, the theocrat's displeasure with people worshipping at a temple other than their own sharpens their aim.

October 5th
Communist spies now report the exact units of Coal in a victim's inventory.
Their chances of surviving unexpected bombardment have gone back to 50%, however.

Empires with less than three buildings will revert to Anarchy during maintenance.

There is a new Factory Item: Aid. (2 Food + 1 Aluminum + 1 Steel + 1 Coal)
Aid can be invoked on the construction page by anybody with 10 buildings or less. It gives one Mine, one Cannon, one Warehouse and one Refinery, within expected build limitations. If it doesn't give a Refinery, another Warehouse will be given instead.

Greenhouses will now produce before factories, so you can try to anticipate what you might be able to make in the factory.

October 4th
I've introduced some symbolism on the map replacing the corresponding text.
This will save on a lot of map space, and as an added bonus will make the game yet more arcane to outsiders.

Governments

Anarchy

Bureaucracy

Capitalism

Communism

Fascism

Monarchy

Technocracy

Theocracy

Industrial Style

Green

Laissez-Faire

Nominal

Let me know what you think of them, good or bad.

October 3rd
Communist spies now have a 75% chance of surviving bombardment, up from 50%.
The Theocractic accuracy bonus in local warfare has increased to an imposing 20%.

September 25th
Food can now be used on the Warfare screen to bribe masters and vassals.
If you are the master, one food will increase your vassal's thrall by one cycle. As a vassal, one food will reduce your vassalage by one cycle, though you cannot cancel it entirely.

September 24th
Object value order has changed slightly:
Coal, Bauxite, Pig Iron, Sand, Food, Aluminium, Steel, Glass, Diamond, Uranium Ore, Enriched Uranium, Diamond Drill, ICBM.
The inventory display has been reordered. Do not be alarmed.

There is a new Advanced Building: Greenhouse.
Greenhouses cost 3 Glass and 1 Aluminum to build.
They are three times more likely than a normal building to be destroyed in combat, due to extreme fragility.
Greenhouses have a 50% chance of producing one Food each cycle. (Free. No coal required.)

There is a new Item in the game: Food.
In the harsh landscape of Battle Mines, food is scarce and useful for coercing the populace of nations to your cause.
Food cannot be used as munition in combat, it will be ignored.
If there is any food in your inventory at the start of production, there is a 25% chance that one unit of Food will rot away. Events will notify you.
Food will have several uses. For now, the cost to change government switches from one Glass to one Food. The cost to incite revolt also changes to one Food. (You spy will still be removed.)
New players start with one Food.

The cost to change Industrial Policy has switched to one Aluminum and one Steel.
The combat shielding of Technocracies no longer extends to their Academies, but the new Greenhouses are fully covered.

September 23nd
Theocracies now gain a 15% accuracy bonus in local warfare, up from 10%.
Capitalism is going back to -4 base production, +2 for Office Tower. The reason for this change is one of Capitalism's other properties. Being invulnerable to revolt is a very powerful feature in light of a recent change to Anarchy, that being the lack of facilities provided by the Academy, specifically the use of Enriched Uranium in combat. It's potentially a very powerful government type, so I must take it down a notch.

September 22nd
The IWI has announced it will return one confiscated ICBM to whichever player defeats the highest scoring player in local or distant warfare. After the bounty is awarded, there won't be another available until next cycle.
Number of Advanced Buildings now counts x2 towards Score.

September 21st
A player's spy in the land of the player they are attacking will not be killed.
Communist spies have a 50% chance of surviving unexpected bombardment. (Up from 25%.)
Check out pictures of all the BM buildings in the Graphics section!

September 20th
The way spies die has changed. They're no longer weeded out in maintenance. Instead, they are killed when the nation they are spying on is bombarded. They will report the combatants before perishing.
Communist spies have a 25% chance of surviving bombardment.
Spies can now detect if an empire has no coal at all.
Overflow will never discard your last coal even if it's your LVB. Refineries, factories, and combat will still use it.

September 19th
A new manufacturing policy allows players to choose the Item that a Factory will try to make during production.
The cost for spies to instigate revolt has changed to 1 Glass.
The cost of a Cellar has changed to 3 Aluminum.
The cost of a Bunker has changed to 3 Steel.
The cost of a Diamond Drill has changed to 2 Diamond, 2 Aluminum, and 1 Coal.

September 15th
There's a new basic building, Cellar, costing 1 Aluminum and 1 Steel.
Having a Cellar causes Coal to take up half as much space in your inventory.
The +5 max Warehouse bonus for Coal tiles has been abolished.

September 14th
Combat has been radically changed.

Forget about the concept of rounds in combat; Now it's more like a single volley of cannon-fire from each side, using none, some, or all of your cannons.
You have a new policy setting called Firepower. This setting determines how many of your cannons will fire, in offensive or defensive combat. Firing cannons is still subject to the constraints of ammunition and coal.
The winner of combat is determined by A) Whoever has buildings left, and secondly B) Whoever did the most damage.
Base combat accuracy has been reduced to 60%.
Telescopes now give only a 10% accuracy bonus.
The governments of Theocracy and Technocracy have had their effects altered.
See the docs under Combat and Government to check on these changes.

September 13th
Hi guys. I'll give game updates here. Makes more sense than in the ephemeral messages of the Radio Room, right? Why did I not think of it before? Grumblecakes! Moving on.
Of late, the cost to change both government and industry has changed from 1 Aluminum to 1 Glass.
Coming soon: A large alteration to the nature of combat, so stay tuned.

Pablo Picasso
L'Homme au Piano
Ink Drawing, 1914

Preface - Paulo Freire: Pedagogy of the Heart