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What is the Space Empires III Ladder?
 The Space Empires III Ladder was designed as a realistic alternative to unsubstantiated role-playing. The ladder provides a bit of framework to the SE3 community in the form of a few guidelines for pbem warfare as well as providing the first "meaningful" alliance system. This original SE3 Ladder site was created and maintained by Warlord Adamus now its an automated website maintained by Prince Vendetta and Marauder, with the permission of it's founder, Warlord Adamus. The Se3 Ladder also unites a community of SE3 fans so they can meet, challenge, and roleplay their respective empires created on their own.

What should I do before I join?
 First of all joining the SE3 Ladder is joining a community. You should plan to be an active participant and not join "because it looks neat" or to cause trouble. There are instances of people joining and setting up an empire on the Ladder and then never to heard or seen from again after a couple weeks. This action disrupts the community since "dead" empires are not preffered members.
First thing to do before seriously joining the Ladder is to read the Ladder Rules. This will tell you how the Ladder system works and will give you an idea of what is expected of being a ladder member. You can follow this link to Ladder Rules re-posted on this site here.
Many of the Se3 Ladder members own the fully registered version of Space Empires III so unregistered owners should purchase the complete version from Malfador Machinations. Since this will provide all members with the best gameplay.
You can only have one empire join the ladder since having multiple empires is considered cheating on the Ladder. Think of a unique empire name and provide some history of your empire and people so you can post it on the Ladder website. Having knowledge of HTML and the use of graphics editors (like Paint Shop Pro) will allow you to even post your empire's emblem and a picture of your species.

Another factor to think about is what kind of empire or species will you be? Agressive, peaceful, nuetral, traders, mercenaries, and so on....its up to your imagination and creativity.

Now that I joined what do I do now?
 Once you have joined the ladder go ahead and check out your own empire and add any additional information such as history, cultural traits and so forth. I recommend that you use a different email address specificaly for SE3. This will make things easier for you in the long run since there can be a lot of communication between ladder members at times. The first thing I recommend is to look around the ladder at other empires and start proposing treaties. You should be very cautious as to who you propose treaties with. Since you are a new member to the ladder, others will formulate a general opinion of you, by whom you align yourselves with. You can of course change your treaties but it's much wiser to pick treaties you'll stay with.

How do treaties work?
 You should have a general idea already from playing Space Empires III by yourself. Basically it is the political stance you have between your empire and another. This is often the basis of role-play within the ladder. Treaties also affect your "influence" rating on the Ladder as well as the amount of territory you control. By proposing a treaty you can establish a type of realtionship you wish to have with another empire. When treaties are proposed to you via email on the laddder, its your decision as to wether to accept, reject, or counter-propose. Your actions will be sent to the proposing empire and they will respond as they see fit. A word about Partnerships and Military Alliances; you should make these important treaties with empires you trust and are willing to work towards a mutually beneficial alliance with each other.

What's Hypercomm Central?
 Hypercomm Central is a SE3 Forum with the purpose of serving the SE3 Community especially the SE3 Ladder. Here you can post messages and read what's going on in the SE3 Community. You have to register as either a global or local user. The instructions are simple and can be found on the forum itself. This forum is where you'll see the active SE3 Ladder members, read about wars, Ladder information and other SE3 topics. Most members have a picture and symbol that you can view when reading or posting messages. Its recommeded that you learn to use this simple feature as it enhances the role-play aspect of the ladder. The link to Hypercomm Central is http://server2.ezboard.com/bhypercommcentral

How do you wage war with PBEM?
 In order to wage war you should be familiar with the proper way to declare war per the Ladder Rules. A legal and proper war declaration is posted in Hypercomm Central and e-mailing the opponent of the action. You have an announcement of challenge, amount of territory involved with scale of conflict, date of challenge, any allies assiting you, and an your e-mail address to determine a start date and starting techs. You should also request a moderator to make sure everything is setup correctly and without bias. A moderator can be found by requesting one on Hypercomm Central. It is essential that you have a .emp file created as well as a shipset to play with. You should .zip the file before sending it to the moderator to avoid corrupting files.

Do I need an Empire website?
 No, you don't need an empire website. Usually the more popular and more influential empires DO have websites. The websites all vary in quality and content. By creating an empire website you are letting others learn more in depth information as well as seeing how keen you are at website design-an indirect indicator of your empire's strength.

What's the Shipset Archive?
 The Shipet Archive is a website that holds all the Ladder members shipsets that are officially used in PBEM warfare. The Archive was created by Grand Mausic Yith Saulkar of the Pyrochette Empire. It is now controlled by Emperor Varma Valiant of the Star Warriors Empire. At the Archive you can view other Empires war fleets which are often unique and original. You should try to create your own shipset and add it to the Archive ASAP. Doing this is being a good SE3 Ladder member so go for it.The link is www.vendetta.net/archive/index.html

I just want to fight wars and not join the ladder.
 If the SE3 Ladder is not for you but you still want to have fun playing multiplayer PBEM warfare, then you should join the Borg Collective. The Borg Collective was created by the Star Warriors Empire and is a great place for finding other SE3 players. The link is www.vendetta.net/borg/index.html

What's all the talk about GDI, CC, and LoE?.
 Galactic Defense Initiative, Chaos Contingency, and League of Empires are the 3 main Great Alliances. GDI and LoE are generally peaceful empires and CC are generally aggressive empires. Many SE3 Ladder members are aligned with one alliance that appeals to them. Politics, RPG, and Pbem's occur between these great alliances and are often the source of serious competition between se3 ladder members. This is not to say that empires not part of any alliance is any less active, powerful, or interesting. Joining any alliance is a big commitment to newbies. You can make lots of enemies quickly but at the same time you benefit from the alliance. A newbie should consider to what extent they'll support a certain alliance. But if they are serious about joining one, they should choose wisely. Consider the ability to get along with alliance members as equal to thier experience in Pbem warfare. Other newer alliances that are being established are the FIST and FOFT.

How do I make my own shipset and empire symbols?.
 You can use a number of free programs such as pov-ray, moray, MS paint and the more expensive programs like Lightwave. Finding SE3 shipset templates are easy. Just visit the SE3 ladder archive and you can download it there. Some advice to keep in mind. Try to be unique with your empire symbol, compare other shipsets and learn how they used techniques such as shading and shapes, keep a general theme or consistency in the look, and don't plagerize! other people's work. That can really ostracize you from the se3 community. Also learn to resize, fill, deform, copy, and paste; this will make things much easier in designing shipsets.

I need to ask more questions to learn more.
 You can e-mail me at devorae@mail.com. I recommend getting AOL IM. Many SE3 fans use it. ICQ is good too. Make sure to get the latest version, ICQ beta 99. ICQ isnt used as much but it is still valuable to those who don't use AOL IM and you can even transfer turns in pbem games, therefore speeding it up. Above all be polite to other se3 fans...you'll see that they will be more willing to give you a helping hand.