The Minister of State is the largest and most diverse of the ministerial departments. It has the widest range of commands and responsibilities. This ministry is responsible for everyday civic affairs and the all-important city treasury incomings and outgoings. It is responsible for managing the civic services (see CITY HELP SERVICES) and budgeting the city's trade, earnings, expenses through the state treasury. The State Minister is responsible for city planning including the construction of civic buildings (see HELP CONSTRUCTION) and civil defence. The State Ministry also contains the Trade Ministry which, though led by its own Minister, is considered "under" the auspices of the Ministry of State.
The Minister of State should be one of the most regularly present citizens (though often its role is blended with the duties of the Prime Minister, to share an otherwise considerable burden).
Aideship rank within the State Ministry is also one of the most powerful and liberal in the whole city government, since it straddles the wide and varied mandate of the ministry's responsibilities. It is advisable to keep a smaller number of Aides than many ministries but to ensure those chosen are wholly trustworthy and spread across as much of the day/timezones as possible; to give the State Ministry a representative present to meet any and all necessities.
Historically, the State Minister's close ties with trading and treasury affairs has led to its appointment coming from one of the creative professions (e..g. the Loremaster or Ranger/Druid). The State Ministry has access to all of the central "city government" commands: CITY, TRADE, SHOP and ESTATE in addition to its own crucial STATE command.
State Minister, aides and those with authority over civic services and civil defences gain the following commands for ministerial management. Individual services are documented in CITY HELP SERVICES.
Syntax: STATE MINISTRY and STATE OFFICES.
Gives you an overview including facts and figures and specific setup summary, covering all active State Ministry services and their ongoing presence in your home city and sphere. This is available to most citizens of stature but is more detailed for those with proper authority over the services themselves. Full disclosure is for those in authority only and is only available within the appropriate government office/chamber; type STATE OFFICES to discern the proper office locations for civic affairs.
Syntax: STATE <service> ON/OFF.
This command is for those with authority over the civic services only and activates or disables an entire service. If a service is active, your homeland benefits from all it can offer but must pay the expenses; if the service is disabled it will cost nothing but no benefits will be enjoyed. Typing SERVICES tells you what is active and which are disabled.
Syntax: STATE DEFENCES/DEFENDERS.
Takes a rollcall of home guards in and out of barracks, tallying the numbers available for civil defence and giving you a breakdown of where they are being used and from which source (untrained legion, service personsel, permanent guard) they are derived. STATE DEFENDERS goes through all home guards and tells you where they can be found including barrack specifics. NOTE: only actively used when the "guards" civic service is active.
Syntax: STATE LOOK.
Focuses on your current location, to survey active State Ministry services affecting the locale and inform you of specifics like whether a sentinel is watching, whether a city watchman is policing as part of his beat, etc.
Syntax: STATE HOME <target>.
Commands the target (who should be one of the ministry or city personel or militia) to return to their home base or barracks. This is particularly useful when cleaning up the streets after an enemy incursion has brought out large numbers of home guards to fight those intruders (when you have an active "guards" service).
Syntax: NOW on its own.
Issues the order (equivalent to SERVICE NOW) to bring all civic service specialists to work your current location. They will then carry out any maintenance, upkeep or improvements due. NB: something similar is automatically performed regularly on all locations watched by sentinels or patrolled by city watchmen on their policing beat.
Syntax: STATE EXPENSES.
Shows you the expenses incurred by individual civic services and civil defence with greater detail shown when you type STATE EXPENSES from one of the key ministry offices or council chamber. See OFFICES for a list of your homeland's key ministry/council offices and OFFICE <office> to move rapidly to or between government locations.
Syntax: STATE DEFENCES and STATE DEFENDERS.
Review the civil defence "home guard" personel both military and ministry with STATE DEFENCES giving you the summary and total numbers, and STATE DEFENDERS showing you the actual guards/militia and their whereabouts.
Syntax: STATE LOGS.
Activity and occurrences of note are logged by sentinels and, depending on the service and event, apposite civic personel. This command gives you a rundown of the logs available for detailed perusal.
Syntax: STATE LOG HERE and STATE LOG <sentinel>.
Those of appropriate rank can read the contents of a log by paying a visit on the sentinel or civic CCC responsible and typing STATE LOG HERE. One can also read logs without having to visit the sentinel by standing in a ministry or key civic office and typing STATE LOG <sentinel>. Remember to include the sentinel/CCC number.
The order of reading to become familiar with civic services/civil defence management is HELP STATE (this one) then CITY HELP SERVICES and then STATE HELP followed by HELP <service> designating the specific service. The sum of these should leave you well versed in how to setup, review and manage the various services. It is worth taking the ten minutes required to go through the help info since good use of the services can save thousands of man-hours work and spare every citizen the misery of preventable death and pillage.
