Hungry Cities –TBNES2
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v438/Hedgehogey/city_of_london.jpg

'It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried-out bed of the old North Sea.’

The Sixty Minute war is in the past, The brutal conflict between the American and Chinese Empires have left the world a burned out wreck, North America a twisted and poisonous land, a dead continent. The rest of the world has fared nearly as bad. New mountain ranges were ripped from the ground by the weapons of the Ancients, and the ash thrown into the air by the horrific war cooled the earth.
Life survived, though, as it always does.
From the ruins, new civilizations grew: the great Nomad empires, always moving, always travelling, waging war with armies of nearly invulnerable resurrected men. These “Stalkers” hunted and were destroyed in great wars between the Empires, Fading only with the fall of the Nomad empires.
Still, life survived.
To help the city of London escape the great seismic shifts, and later, the hordes of Stalkers, the Engineer Nicholas Quirke mobilized the population. Working tirelessly, armies of workers laboring, in the heart of London was built a great vehicle, a large city on wheels. Dubbed London, this city was crowned with the last building that made London, London. On the top tier, where Quirke lived, St. Paul’s Cathedral was placed.
With great fanfare, London began to move, exercising its great jaws to devour what remained of the Static city it was leaving behind, extracting fuel and resources from the ruins.
Soon, the other surviving European cities, even small suburbs, took to the wheels. Soon, though, the unthinkable happened. Cities, starving for fuel, turned on smaller cities, and, so, the Practice of municipal Darwinism was born.

HUNGRY CITIES – TBNES II
A mortal engines Nes, based on the series by Philip Reeve

Please do not post.

Rules:

Setting:
Each player will, at the start, control a traction city. This city will travel around the map, trading and hunting with other cities.
Technology is very low, think steampunk. Radios exist, but no heavier than air flight, no computers, etc…
The world is a burned out wreck, wasted and poisoned. For now the game is confined to Europe.

Resources: Used to buy things and move.
Speed: arbitrary number representing the speed of the city. Without tactics or mitigating circumstances, a faster city will be able to escape a slower one.
Size: The larger a city is, the more it can devour, but the more resources it consumes. City size is increases through spending resources: Each level costing, in resources, the cube of the number of that level. All cities start at size 3
Old Tech: Occasionally, through events, players may gain pieces of old technology, though much will not work anymore.
Trade: through trade, cities may be able to acquire pieces of old tech or resources. Trade is limited to adjacent cities until the development of Airships, after which, cities will be able to create fleets of trade ships.
Districts: Cities may wish to devote resources to building districts to gain a slight edge over other cities. these districts are dependant entirely on the player's imagination, though SOME WILL BE VETOED! No "giant laser gun installed in the top tier able to blast other cities!"
These may be things like Historian's guilds, Engineering districts, Airports, the guts, etc...
the number of districts allowed are based on city sizes.
4 tiers = 1 district
5 = 2 districts

Player Map:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3571/3392509656_7692938a60_b.jpg

All Cities Map (coming soon)

Stats:
While each city, for now, is roughly the same size, each city has a distinct advantage, based on the books and it’s history.

Tractions cities:
Anchorage - crezth
Arkangel - masada
Breidhavik
Helsinki
Kivitoo
Wolverinehampton
Reykjavík - T_F
Benghazi
Bordeaux-Mobile
Cairo - Charles Li
Chidanagaram
Cittamotore
Gutak
Jagdstadt Magdeburg
Juggernautpur
Kom Ombo
London - vertinari118
Manchester - BananaLee
Montpelier
Motoropolis
Murnau
Nizhny Novgorod - Vruchten
Panzerstadt-Bayreuth
Pandzerstadt-Linz
Panzerstadt-Winethur
Panzerstadt-Weimar - DarthNader
Paris
Prague
Traktiongrad
Xanne-Sandansky
Zimbra


Raft cities:
Brighton
Grimsby
Marseilles
Perfume Harbour
Puerto Angeles
Zeesdadt Gdansk



There are countless suburbs for you to hunt.

Choose a city.

For now, there will be a limit of 10 players.

Claiming Panzerstadt-Bayreuth.

The concept of melting down cities for fuel seems thermodynamically impossible - don't argue with me on this, I just spent 7 hours on the a bloody lab report about just that.

Now, that having being said - I absolutely love steampunk so put me in for either London or Brighton

Cairo!

First the communities of Nile! The the dense areas of Palestine!

The concept of melting down cities for fuel seems thermodynamically impossible - don't argue with me on this, I just spent 7 hours on the a bloody lab report about just that.

are you taking a seminar on "thermodynamics for mad scientist, aiming on world dominance"?
:thumbsup:

i would have interest in launching steampowered katyushas from Nizhny Novgorod :)
actually i do knew someone from there personally :D nice russian girl...

The concept of melting down cities for fuel seems thermodynamically impossible

Confirmed, however it's still a fun premise.

I want to see more of the rules before I commit myself to it.

are you taking a seminar on "thermodynamics for mad scientist, aiming on world dominance"?
:thumbsup:

Not really, I looked at a boiler for half an hour, took measurements and then spent 7 hours crunching numbers and fudging results to get something that made sense.

How involved is this going to be? It sounds awesomely interesting, but I'm fairly short on free time at the moment.

Provisionally: Reykjavík sounds interesting.

Arkangel ftw [Mortal Engines was quite fun to read].

I read the books quite a while ago but still I'll take London as long as it hasn't been blown up.

Hmm, tentatively reserving Anchorage. I still want to see more information however.

I'll be putting up more complex rules in the Next few days.

It shouldn't be all that Involved, T_F... nothing too bad.

What do people think of this Formula to determine the resource cost of movement:

Resource Cost = (Size^2)(speed)/(efficiency/2)... I think it seems balanced, for now.

all those numbers (Size, efficiency will be determined in your stats, and will depend on the city and special projects.

Additionally,

Addition of the Rules:
Districts: Cities may wish to devote resources to building districts to gain a slight edge over other cities. these districts are dependant entirely on the player's imagination, though SOME WILL BE VETOED! No "giant laser gun installed in the top tier able to blast other cities!"
These may be things like Historian's guilds, Engineering districts, Airports, the guts, etc...
the number of districts allowed are based on city sizes.
4 tiers = 1 district
5 = 2 districts
etc...

Traction City: just had to send this link to one player, so, here it is for everyone. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traction_City)

Glad I got Anchorage. =P

Well if at a later date I can create my own traction city I will join. Otherwise I will not find the interest to play in this.

Sweet. ^_^

How much freedom in changing things drastically will we have? For example, if I started out as a normal rolling and hunting city, would I (with a lot of work) eventually be able to change to a flying trading city? I just love the idea of Airhaven.

The engineer in me needs to know more about the traction city - or even the raft city.

What engines does it use? What sort of population does it sustain? How large are these cities? Are they completely made of steel/aluminium/carbon-fibre? Etc. Also, why doesn't the traction city have a big f-off gun to stop other cities and break them down there without having to "eat" other cities? What sort of resources are we talking about? What sort of waste? etc.etc.etc.

Raft cities seem easier to imagine simply because water can support so much and within manufacturing limits, you can produce a propulsion system for a raft city.

But yeah, any place with more details (for free)?

As punishment he is sent to work in the city's Gut for the night, to ensure that any valuable historical artifacts found in Salthook are not burned up for fuel with the rest of the [captured] town.

IIRC there were huge "ovens" in center of the town...

What was the "pirate" town in the first book, that tried to attack non-mobile-settlement by swimming, but failed, where main character was held for a while? Sorry Only have short memory and can't recall, but it was interesting :)
Before it is revealed what that is, Shrike is run over by a speeding town, which Tom and Hester narrowly avoid being run over by.They board the town that was chasing it and find that it is a pirate suburb, and they are taken captive.

That pirate suburb, could I get "my hands" on that?

Well, what are towns made of? The useable energy available in a blob of steel is pretty minimal to be honest.

EDIT: Just want to note that I still WILL play this game - cities om nom nom-ing others just has that appeal :D

Well, what are towns made of? The useable energy available in a blob of steel is pretty minimal to be honest.

That is to say, unless these cities are all made of high-yield fuels (like coal or wood) the realism is almost nil. It is impossible to burn down every part of a city like you would a pile of coal, because the yield from, say, steel or concrete or stone is so little as to be laughable as a source of fuel.

An argument from volume does no better because the energy to burn aforementioned steel, concrete and stone still needs to be drawn up.

This idea would work if every town was equipped with a Mr. Fusion (a la Back to the Future) and got the energy from other towns via nuclear power, but that's not exactly "steampunk" is it?

I have no idea how this will work, but could well dive in after an update or three...

Umm... It's Fiction?

specialized suburbs and the like will come at a later date. Each city will have some specific advantage which will appear in your stats. (but that's not to say it's as rigid as "ONE CITY IS BETTER AT HUNTING)

Yes, through projects and research, the tree for which I will upload soon, a city may become Airhaven.

I am well aware of this. Either way I need to see the NES run before I put in the effort to play myself.

abaddon, our posts were x-posts. I was replying to other posts :p

I fully understand your reservation at joinging. :)

If I join, this is me! :p

http://steelcloset.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/howls_moving_castle1.jpg

lovely movie :)

What do people think of the formula on the previous page.

it seems fine to me, i just don`t feel like a reliable source if it`s about such mechanisms, i`m so nooob :D

Seems fine to me. Am I allowed to have London or not?

Yeah. First post (or whatever post has the city list...) is edited to show who has what city.

That pirate suburb, could I get "my hands" on that?

Turnbridge Weels.... looked it up for you.

Maybe later, I'll PM you, if your still interested, for a "guest appearance..."

My post was the first to request London. Banana Lee was still choosing.

Yeah, BananaLee has Brighton. (the only Player Raft City)

Lemme Calculate!

Resource Cost = (Size^2)(speed)/(efficiency/2)... I think it seems balanced, for now.

For slowest and smallest. Resource cost is 1/2
R = 1^2(1)/(1/2)

For 5 Size, 2 Effieciency and 2 Speed it is 50 Resource
R=5^2(2)/(1/2)
R= 50/1
R = 50

In this formula Speed is less important then Effieciency.

Size(Squared) Times Speed
Divided by (Efficiency Divided by 2)

S*S*T/(E/2)

I think the formula is in addition to being good in and of it's own right is also scientifically sound. Expenditure over efficiency is a clever way to go about determining cost.

But i'm also trying to develop a formula to bring in resources for the town, naturally. Not enough to really do much, but enough to sort of survive in a pinch, with a lot of sacrifices. the bulk will come from hunting, but cities should be able to produce some...

Turnbridge Weels.... looked it up for you.


Thanks!


Maybe later, I'll PM you, if your still interested, for a "guest appearance..."

Means I don't get to play (ah BananaLee no nomnomnoming my city yet!), but i get to appear just for purpose of decoy, so big bad cities could hunt me. Sounds fine to me.

Can my name be fixed so there is no space.

Also, when can we expect a map to be up?

Can my name be fixed so there is no space.
Done :)

Also, when can we expect a map to be up?

Soonish.

I am going on a German exchange for a week and so if I do not send orders et al I am just in Germany; I have not quit.

I am going on a German exchange for a week and so if I do not send orders et al I am just in Germany; I have not quit.

COME SEE ME IN TALLINN DAMMIT!!!

About the map...seas will be dried up and stuff...meaning there will be more landmass?

I am going with my school not on my own. Otherwise I would accept your offer. I realise that you are probably not serious but I thought I would reply anyway.

I am going with my school not on my own. Otherwise I would accept your offer. I realise that you are probably not serious but I thought I would reply anyway.

I was being very serious.

I am going on a German exchange for a week and so if I do not send orders et al I am just in Germany; I have not quit.

where to in germany are you going?

Koln. I use the German spelling as I cannot remember how to spell it in English. The o should have an umlaut.

Köln, hmm... that`s quite a beautiful town, i`m always passing it when i`m paying a visit to the town where i grew up...
I`m just not too much into the beer they have there. It`s ok, but it doesn`t really have any flavor... :)

Also known as Cologne in English - I've got a mate who lives there. Popped over here for a few months in our fencing club.

Has a nice Cathedral, which was used by allied bombers to navigate to Berlin, which is still being rebuilt after a couple of hits.

Has a nice Cathedral, which was used by allied bombers to navigate to Berlin, which is still being rebuilt after a couple of hits.
Mmmmm something told me there was no way this conversation could have gone on without someone bringing up the war. I should drink on it.

COME SEE ME IN TALLINN DAMMIT!!!

About the map...seas will be dried up and stuff...meaning there will be more landmass?

Most likely. the british Isles will be attached to the mainland, etc...

Then what seas would I be exploring?

A lower level sea... it's all still there in the books, I just imagine it a little further out. it wouldn't take much of a drop in ocean levels to connect england to the continent (IIRC)

Mmmmm something told me there was no way this conversation could have gone on without someone bringing up the war. I should drink on it.

yeah, there is more about germany and cologne than the war... like the famous carneval or the csd for everyone who is into that...

Meh, IIRC that is 10 Miles from Dover to Calias.

It is a shallow sea there. Maybe have it be narrow enough for cities above size X and speed Y and wide enough for Rafts under Size A and faster than sizw R :p

Map uploaded (only player cities)

Can I switch from Bayreuth to Wiemar? I intended on being in Germany...and I didn't know Beyruth was Beirut (I know...i r dum).

Hmmm.. THere's very very little sea for me to move about in - I'm thinking if I should switch to Manchester instead..

Alright... Will make those changes tomorrow.

are we free to make up the "socienty/goverment" of our city, or are we bound to how it`s prescriped in the book? I mean can i for example choose if my city is "putin style democratic", stalinistic, czaristic or even followes the ideas of Bakunin...?

Go for it... Each city should be as unique as possible, and one way to do that is for players to create specific traits for thier cities.

Actually... that's a good idea. Can everyone Email/PM what they wish thier city to Emphasize?

Also, A prequel to mortal Engines is coming out soonish, set as london goes Traction. :D

Can I switch from Bayreuth to Wiemar? I intended on being in Germany...and I didn't know Beyruth was Beirut (I know...i r dum).

Can this be changed please? I can't wait to flaunt my new DEUTSCHEÜBERGROßKRIEGSTADT!

Actually... that's a good idea. Can everyone Email/PM what they wish thier city to Emphasize?

I assume you mean government style given the context, but can you confirm that?

Not jsut government, though that's important... general flavor (eg, in the books, Brighton is a Bohemian town, an artists resort, while Airhaven is a trade hub...

DarthNader's and BananaLee's Changes are both done, in first post. (not on map, though...)

Yay for triple post!

anyway, please PM me your email addresses along with your specializations.

I'm missing alot of email addresses.

Maybe some people don't really want to throw their e-mails around helter-skelter. Haha

Am I Helter-Skelter? I pride myself on my integrity and strength of will.

thoguh for alot of money, i'll sell them to Advertising companies...

Yes, Thomas. Yes, you are. :p

Maybe some people don't really want to throw their e-mails around helter-skelter. Haha

than they could just sign up a one purpose only email adresse...

Emailed how my city looks like.

If you see domes in the distance, you can feel doomed!

Palermo Sicily please?

Sure... PM me your Email and city specialization, please.

Last Chance, evreyone, or I conclude that this does not interest you. :sad:

anyway, I was bored so I modelled a traction City

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3404/3413360456_99fcba4a44_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3377/3412555013_d0ab4d2e99.jpg?v=0

Come on guys!!! Send him the stuff!!
Let`s get this thing rollin!!

I would send something...but I am unsure about what exactly to send.

i just send him my emailadress and how i think my city would be like. one or two lines. then he send me what he thought what bonus would fir to that. i said great, i like it... thats it

Nice model.

Yup, I sent pretty much what vruchten sent - an email address and a line or so about what the city's like.

Come on guys, it's a great idea - don't let it die before it even starts!

Why
must
we
use
email?

what
is
wrong
with
pms?

Anarchistic Collective of Nizhny Novgorod
http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/821/anarchietransparent.gif

"They [the Marxists] maintain that only a dictatorship—their dictatorship, of course—can create the will of the people, while our answer to this is: No dictatorship can have any other aim but that of self-perpetuation, and it can beget only slavery in the people tolerating it; freedom can be created only by freedom, that is, by a universal rebellion on the part of the people and free organization of the toiling masses from the bottom up. ”

— Mikhail Bakunin, Statism and Anarchism

1. We are the Anarchistic Collective of Nizhny Novgorod.
2. We highjacked and liberated the traction city of Nizhny Novgorod to make sure this incredible invention in neigther in the hands of the tzar nor in those of the authoritarian marxists.
3. We will use this opportunity to build on it a society, free from churches, kings and slavery. Where every men will live in wealth and freedom.
4. We will use this massive dome of freedom to steamroll all authoritarians.

Anarchistic Collective of Nizhny Novgorod
http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/821/anarchietransparent.gif

"They [the Marxists] maintain that only a dictatorship—their dictatorship, of course—can create the will of the people, while our answer to this is: No dictatorship can have any other aim but that of self-perpetuation, and it can beget only slavery in the people tolerating it; freedom can be created only by freedom, that is, by a universal rebellion on the part of the people and free organization of the toiling masses from the bottom up. ”

— Mikhail Bakunin, Statism and Anarchism

1. We are the Anarchistic Collective of Nizhny Novgorod.
2. We highjacked and liberated the traction city of Nizhny Novgorod to make sure this incredible invention in neigther in the hands of the tzar nor in those of the authoritarian marxists.
3. We will use this opportunity to build on it a society, free from churches, kings and slavery. Where every men will live in wealth and freedom.
4. We will use this massive dome of freedom to steamroll all authoritarians.

I ponder how you keep your city from being overwhelmed by crime, and selfishness. How does your city distribute wealth, and prosperity without crime. There must be some form of government in place. If the resources are split evenly without crime, then your Communist ;)

I would join but I dont want to play an European city. And I also do not wish to send an email when I could just send a PM. Sorry.

I ponder how you keep your city from being overwhelmed by crime, and selfishness. How does your city distribute wealth, and prosperity without crime. There must be some form of government in place. If the resources are split evenly without crime, then your Communist ;)


No we are no Communists, because we`ll just socialize the means of production but the wage system will be based on the amount of labor each one performs. By this we are following the ideas of Collectivist anarchism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collectivist_anarchism) which differ from those ideas of anarcho-communism.

Note :Performance (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collectivist_anarchism#Performance)

In real life application of the collectivist projects were quite successful, sources during the Spanish Revolution noted that in the Catalan region,

"In distribution the collectives' co-operatives eliminated middlemen, small merchants, wholesalers, and profiteers, thus greatly reducing consumer prices. The collectives eliminated most of the parasitic elements from rural life, and would have wiped them out altogether if they were not protected by corrupt officials and by the political parties. Non-collectivised areas benefited indirectly from the lower prices as well as from free services often rendered by the collectives (laundries, cinemas, schools, barber and beauty parlours, etc.)"

SO each one gets paid what he earns? Isn't that pure Capitalism?

SO each one gets paid what he earns? Isn't that pure Capitalism?

no because the means of production belong to the collectiv,
and aren`t privatly owned... which would be capitalism..

you know, for political economy there are lots of different theories. you can`t just say this would be either communist, capitalist or something inbetween. there is more to it than two dimensions.

on the other side your not that wrong. because both "pure capitalism" and anarchism are based on a strong individualism.

anyway, i`m not that really deep into the material, and it`s not that i can explain the whole system of anarchist-collectivism to you... so if you really interested than check out "Mikhail Bakunin".

I have heard of certain communities which share all things, and everyone gets the same thing no matter their work, is that collective communist? But I see the difference you stated between privately owned capitalism and publicly owned collectivism.

Pure capitalism, libertarianism, and anarchism are all in the same political neighborhood.

so, is this going to happen?

I have only 4 sets of emails.

Can we do it with 4 people?

I'll take Paris if this is still alive.

Just noticed this, I always liked steampunk and have been meaing to read this series (along with several others), I'll take Breidhavik

i`m still in

Why why why WHY did you bump this?!

sorry? I'm new here, should I have just let it die? It sounds like such a cool idea, though...

i think you done good by bumping it. it does sound like a cool idea. and as long as it is not officially called dead, my hope prevails...
it didn`t even start yet, and maybe we can start it with different people now, people who can organise a email adress ;)

It could be a fine idea, but if the mod doesn't post for 14 days without notice...then its dead.

Well... it kind of is dead now.

I neither have the motivation anymore, nor do i have the time (as I'm now running a NOTW)

I'll think about starting this again after that game is over (And you'll all be the first to know)

Sorry,
thomas

This is all Immaculate's fault. I've been lurking in the NES forums all day instead of doing real work, waiting impatiently for the update (for FfHNESII) and digging through the NES closet, pulling out all sorts of skeletons...

Well don't do that. Join ABNW2 or MilarNES. Both are quite active and can use more players.

And there's always BirdNES