The game screen is your interface with the world of Vox Imperium. It has been divided into eleven areas:
- The Cursor
- Your Score
- Inventory
- Tile Analysis
- Unit Picker
- Actions Pane
- Home Base
- Your Empire
- The Marketplace
- Your Messages
- Event Log
The cursor is your main means of interacting with the world. With it you select units and move about the map. The cursor has two functions:
- Left-Click, which re-centers the map about the target and selects it
- Right-Click, which selects the target without re-centering the map
This area indicates your current score, defined as:
- 1 point for every square of territory within your borders
- 1 point for every Outpost
- 2 points for every Settlement
- 5 points for every Town
- 10 points for every City
The inventory panel displays the current level of resources for your empire.
The tile analysis pane describes the production potential of this tile. For example, if a worker was stationed on this tile, every pulse he would have a 95% chance of producing a Poor Food resource, 4% chance of producing a Good Food resource, and a 1% chance of producing a Rare Food resource.
Note: there exist tiles whose percentages do not sum to 100%. In these cases, there exists a chance where the worker or building will produce nothing.
The detail button (“?”) will open up a panel showing the movement costs for this tile for any of the game’s units, as well as displaying the movement and attacking penalties that can be incurred in various directions. The attack and defense modifiers are also shown.
When there are multiple units on a single tile, the unit picker allows you focus on an individual to issue commands. The most powerful unit in the stack always shows on the world map.
The actions pane shows the details for an individual unit: its name, its owner, and how many are present. Additionally, if you own the unit, a list of actions will be displayed. Note that not all actions are accessible on all tile types. For example, docks cannot be built inland.
Also, surrounding conditions may dictate whether or not a command is available. A lumbermill cannot be built on a tile that produces no wood, and it cannot be built within the production radius of another production building (farms, lumbermills, mines, cities).
The detail button (“?”) will pop up a short description of the individual command.
This button quickly returns you to your home base, should you ever get lost moving about the map.
The Empire screen gives you vital information about your territory. It lists your current estimated income and breaks it down by resource type. It lists your units and buildings and reports the current state of trade with other empires.
The Marketplace allows you to sell your excess resources for gold, which you can then trade for more useful ones. Prices rise and fall according to demand, and the market’s supply of resources is limited, so if no one is selling there will be nothing to buy!
The Messages screen gives you access to the Vox Imperium internal messaging system. With this you can communicate with the neighbors, forge treaties, or coordinate attacks on strong opponents!
The Event Log screen keeps a record of what has happened in the game -- it lists your attacks and who has attacked you. It shows who has traded with you and how much you made. It also shows all reports of sabotage from throughout your empire.
