Pre-EkoNES: Fall From Heaven

EkoNES: Fall from Heaven​

Concept

Welcome to EkoNES, the third Fall from Heaven based NES.

EkoNES begins around 100 years after the end of the Age of Ice. Mulcarn fell in an explosion of icy blizzards which swept across Erebus, annihilating the Amurite, Doviello and Illian Empires, and scattering their people. But of course, it had to get worse before it could get better, and when the blizzards, which lasted for three and a half years, finally cleared, Erebus was a new world. During the next 100 years the land began to thaw, and people and animals emerged from their cave homes, blinking their eyes in the harsh light of Morning. The Age of Rebirth had begun.

In EkoNES players will each play a faction from the Fall From Heaven 2 mod for Civilization 4. As such all players are expected to have a reasonable amount of knowledge about the setting. EkoNES will revolve around diplomacy and short stories, both from the players and the moderator (Game Master). Players may modify their faction away from the cannon lore of that nation if they wish to, as long as the absolute basics are the same. For example, you can have a Bannor republic, as opposed to a Theocracy, but your population may not be made up of elves. The Bannor are a human nation. For further examples, see Immaculate's excellent series of stories based on his Amurite Empire in FFHNES 1. The idea is that each player is role-playing a leader (or collection thereof) who is leading their civilization to greatness after the retreat of the ice after the Age of Mulcarn.

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Players will need to be committed, as occasional short stories are expected and provide bonuses to your nation. Players need to be able to send orders every week, as updates will be weekly. Players that do not send orders are at risk of being replaced if such behaviour continues.

There is going to be a slight learning curve for players, particularly ones that were not involved in the previous NESes, however if you are willing to give the time to understand the rules and mechanisms of the game I think you will find EkoNES an enjoyable experience.


The Map



The coloured regions show the starting locations of my NPC's. You may now choose a region to be your home region, which is where you capital settlement will be. This can be changed at a lter date if required. I reserve the right to move you to preserve game balance.

Cultural Stability

Cultural Stability is a very broad concept. It represents the strength and unity of your culture as a whole. It is increased by anything that helps bind your people together and decreased by anything that draws them apart into seperate factions.

Having a strong culture can inspire your lands to revolt or mobilise against an enemy, whereas if the conquering nation has a much higher Culture level then the lands they are oppressing, people there are more likely to allow themselves to be subjugated and assimilate into the aggressor's culture. This is the main effect of Culture, although it has many other lesser effects too. Culture can be increased with ''Culture Buildings'' such as Temples, Artist Studios and Gardens.

Culture provides an alternate route to military conquest to become a great nation, as a highly cultural nation will be a fairly unattractive target for conquest.

The average of culture and government approval +50% gives the regional Stability stat.

Government Approval

This has similar effects to Culture, however the effects and causes of it are more short term. Obviously, some groups of people are going to approve of the Government's actions more then others, so you can assume this rating is an average value.

Player's Average Government Approval will be public knowledge. Where each player is on the scale will be displayed in the public stats section of the thread.


This rating effects things like Troop Morale and Random Events among other things, and can be increased by complying with Targets or requests set by the people, buildings like Inns and Public Baths and the general Actions of the player.

Workforces

Workforces are a balance mechanic essentially, which forces the player to make certain choices. Many improvements and buildings require a workforce to be ''bought'' as well as the base cost of the actual improvement. The cost of workforces increases fairly quickly with every workforce you buy, which effectively limits the amount of buildings or improvements you can build in the settlement.

Many players may want to specialise certain regions to take advantage of a rare resource found in that area, this could mean that they would have to forgo potentially important region upgrades, such as infirmaries and temples.

Productivity

Unlike both of it's predecessors, Production capability, or ''Productivity'', is going to be a national stat. This means that it is contributed by via buildings and events, and can be spent anywhere in the Empire. Productivity can never be stored. Productivity can be spent on buildings, projects and other things, if you do not have enough production to build it in one turn you can invest point into a Construction project and finish it in later turns. All buildiings also have a gold cost that must be payed fully in one turn. Production can be provided by Buildings like Smithies, Improvements like mines, events and specialists.

Tax Rate

EkoNES will allow for variable tax rates. The 5 categories of tax are:

Very light: Domestic Commerce Income multiplied by -50%. 10% Approval Increase
Light: Domestic Commerce Income multiplied by -25%. 5% Approval Increase.
Normal: No Change, Standard Tax Rate
Heavy: Domestic Commerce Income multiplied by 25%. 7.5% Approval Decrease.
Very Heavy: Domestic Commerce Income multiplied by 50%. 15% Approval Decrease.

Amounts of gold gained or lost from improvements are rounded up. Running light taxes regularly can increase your Culture rate, whereas running high taxes regularly can decrease it.

The Very Heavy and Very Low Tax options are unavailable until the ''Currency'' tech.

I may change the Tax mechanic so that it runs on a formula, what this would basically do is allow a player to choose the tax rate specifically, so things like +40%, or -25% would be possible, and provide the appropriate increase/decrease in Approval.

Resources and Trade

Gaining Resources, Natural and Manufactured

Many settlement upgrades (improvements and buildings) provide a resource as part of their effect. Improvements have a basic, non-resource-providing version, which provides some effects, such as food for a farm or productivity for a mine. These require a workforce to run. However, if you were to add an additional workforce to the improvement, let's say it's a mine, you could specialise it to produce a minable resource available in the region. You will know what is available before hand, as all regions have a certain amount of natural resources. If there is a choice of two mineable resources, you can choose which one you want (you can always specialise another mine to mine the other). Let's say you pick gold to specialise the mine as. You will now have a ''gold'' resource listed in the resources and trade section of your statsheet, which provides 5% extra gold per turn. Resources provide their benefit in all settlements you control, so in reality the gold is providing 5% extra gold in every settlement you own, every turn. There are many, many resources available in EkoNES, each with a stat box that can slide neatly into your resource sheet when you acquire it.

Many buildings also provide a resource. However, these usually require you to own a resource (either by producing it yourself or importing it). Continuing with the above example, you may now want to build a Jeweller's Workshop, allowing you to create gold jewellery. Luckily, you have recently made a discovery that allows the construction of these buildings, so you go ahead and build one, also training a workforce to run it. (as this is a building, it only needs one workforce, not two). To make gold jewellery, the jeweller uses gold. This halves the effect of the gold to 2.5% gold. Resources have their effects halved when they are either converted into something else, or exported elsewhere. Anyway, you now also get a Gold Jewellery resource, which provides 10% gold and 3% approval in each of your settlements. So in total, you now have 12.5% gold and 3% approval, a big increase from the raw Gold resource's original output.

Specialising more mines as Gold mines will provide you with more gold resources, resource effects stack so with every extra resource that's 5% more gold all over. Having another gold resource available allows you to build another Jeweller's Workshop (in another settlement, you can't have more then one of the same building in a single settlement), which would let you convert another instance of gold into gold jewellery, netting you a bunch more money. An instance of a resource being used to manufacture something else cannot be exported elsewhere, although you could always export a third instance of gold if you couldn't build any more jewellers.

Import and Export

Trade is important in EkoNES, in fact it is crucial. If you have a trade route (more on them later) with another player you can trade resources with them. You do not lose the effects of the resource you export, but the effect is halved. However, your trade partner will get the full, 100% effect of the resource you are giving them. Likewise (assuming you have a neutral economy), you will get the full effect of the resource they are exporting to you, so overall, you get more goodies if you're trading.

Economy types

You can choose how tightly you control trade in your nation. You do this by choosing to have a ''Closed'' economy, which assumes that your government strictly controls what goods your people have access to, as well as similar things such as immigration, an ''Open'' economy, which assumes you have very little control over these things, or a ''Neutral'' economy, which assumes you do keep some tabs on what comes in and out of your nation, but not so strictly that trade can't flourish. The effects of the various economy types are:

Closed: All imported resources have their effects multiplied by 0.5, the cost of conducting an espionage mission against you is divided by 0.5. All settlements provide 40% extra espionage points.

Neutral: No effect

Open: All imported resources have their effects multiplied by 2, the cost of conducting espionage missions against you is divided by 2. All settlements provide 10% extra gold.

Also, your economy type dictates how explicit your public stats are. Economy types provides the player with an interesting choice to make, should you adopt an Open economy and let free trade fill your coffers to the brim, or should you adopt a Closed economy and protect your secrets from the watchful eyes of your enemies. Changing your economy type causes temporary instability, and imported resources provide no effect at all on the turn you switch.

Trade Routes

In EkoNES trade routes work very differently from how they worked in its predecessors. Traderoutes need to be established between two players, who both pay a certain amount of gold. The price for a new traderoute increases depending on how many the player already has, and how long the trade route will be. The trade route can be across land once ''Caravans'' have been discovered, and across the sea once ''Merchant Fleets'' have been discovered. Traderoutes have a limit of how many resources can be traded across it, and they can be upgraded to allow for more. Once a route is established, the two factions are linked and they can exchange as many resources as the level of the route allows, having a route between them also allows them to exchange Gold, food or productivity. There will be a map showing the traderoutes of Erebus, which can be disrupted and pillaged by the nasties of the world. For this reason, you should try to make sure you can defend the route. On the first turn that a resource crosses a traderoute they do not provide any effect, this is to encourage people not to change them every turn, which is annoying for everyone. Also, if a traderoute was for some reason interrupted, on the first turn after the resources do not provide an effect, as it takes a while for large numbers of merchants to build up the confidence to make the journey again. If no resources cross a traderoute for a few turns the route can dissapear, and a new one would have to be established if the two players wanted to trade again.

Land Routes:

Beaten Track: 2 resource limit
Stone Road: 4 resource limit (requires a stone resource)
Highway: 6 resource limit (requires a stone resource)

Sea Routes:

Small merchant fleet: 3 resource limit
Large merchant fleet: 6 resource limit


Discoveries

Making discoveries is how your nation progresses and develops technologically. Generally you can't really control what your people discover, but having more research points banked increases the chance of discovering something. All discoveries have a ''research cost'' which is how many research points it costs to make a basic idea, such as a metal lock, a reality. When the discovery is made, it's cost will be deducted from your stockpiled points. Quite often, you will make discoveries based on what you have been focusing on lately. For example, if you've just built a load of farms, then you have a load of farmers, and one of them is bound to notice sooner or later how he water collects in a ditch at the bottom of his plot which he can use to water his crops during the dry season, and has the idea that maybe, if someone could dig a few more ditches, everyone would have enough water and the harvest would be better for everyone. Thus, irrigation ditches are born.

However, continuing with my theme of player creation, the players can send me ideas for discoveries that they would like to make, with some possible effects, such as a new civic or building (note: individual discoveries provide less benefits then techs do in FFHNES). You will have to pay a small amount of gold for this privilege, but I will then balance the discovery and at some point in the near future, usually as soon as you can meet the tech point cost, you will discover it. Players are expected to do this fairly often, and should be inventive. If you want to improve your mining, do a little research into ancient to medieval mining techniques and draw inspiration. Alternately, you could make up your own way of improving mine output, but these must be realistic and believable. Player-designed discoveries will not usually be discovered independently by another player, but they can get their hands on the knowledge in other ways. (See Discovery Spread)

I have a few ideas mapped out for discoveries throughout the game, but the majority will be designed on the spot, and either provide new things or improve old ones. I'm sure that some of you are a bit dubious about the effects this will have on game-balance, but I stand by my belief that it will only increase balance. For example, if espionage has proven to be over-powered, I can prevent discoveries providing more espionage points, and I could throw in a new one that provides a building reducing the number of espionage points you get in exchange for providing another benefit. I could not do this if I had a player teching quickly up the espionage line, getting more and more goodies and unbalancing the game.

Whenever you want to create a new civic, unit, building, or mage spell, you have to do it as a custom discovery.

Discovery Spread

Discoveries cannot be traded in EkoNES. Not ever. However, occasionally players will simply receive discoveries from their neighbours, this is the result of traders and immigrants bringing knowledge with them to your people, similarly you can get a certain amount of research points towards a discovery, which reduces the amount of research points you have to save to research the discovery, and makes you more likely to discover it when you do have enough points. Discoveries are more likely to leak in this way depending on how open your economy is, and are more likely to spread to plyers you have traderoutes with.

Agents can infiltrate (or simply visit) another player's settlement, for a price in espionage points, and hopefully come back with some knowledge. The more points you pay the more likely you are to steal a discovery, or research points towards one. This isn't necessarily a hostile action, and you could choose to allow your allies' agents to visit your settlements for this purpose. However, it may not be successful, particularly if the settlement has counter-espionage buildings, or the target spent espionage points to try to catch enemy infiltrators.

Random Discovery

Occasionally you will simply make a discovery without any research or experimentation, meaning that you don't even pay research points for them. The entire discovery system is meant to make technological development seem more random and spontaneous, which I think is much more realistic then a gamey tech tree.

Fertility

Every region has a fertility rating. This is basically a multiplier that is added to the output of farms so that farms in highly fertile areas produce more food then farms in less fertile areas. The base output of a standard farm is, at the moment, 10 food per turn, fertility can reach as high as 200% and as low as 0%.

Not every region has to be hugely fertile, areas low in fertility often have other benefits such as high mineral wealth, which could net you a gold resource for example. Other regions can act as a breadbasket and produce food for these regions. There are also other ways to produce food that are unaffected by fertility. In particularly fertile regions, farms will almost always be the best way to produce food, which is vital to feeding and growing your population.

Fertility can decrease as a result of over-farming, and can increase or decrease as a result of buildings, projects, rituals, events, etc etc.

Making your Faction Unique

All factions start off equal, but you are generally rewarded for making yours unique. This can be done in a variety of ways.

Stories

Short stories provide information about what life is like in your nation amongst other things. They don't have to be hugely long, although the longer they are the better. You will occasionally get a small cultural stability bonus for stories, but don't expect it all the time. A player that puts particular effort into stories and orders will be slightly less likely to receive bad events.

Unique Buildings and Units

These help provide additional flavour for your nation. They must be equal to their replacement building, and must replace another building or unit (some possible exceptions). Basically, they can provide additional benefits for a higher cost, or different and equal benefits for the same cost.

Civics

Like both of the previous FFH based NESes, EkoNES will use ''civics'' to represent the government of the nations. Each nation starts with only two civics, but this is increased to three and then four at certain techs.

For civics, I have decided that they will be predominantly player-designed. I want to allow for as much free will as possible. There will be various generic ones at certain technologies, but mainly they are a method for the player to design their civilisation.

Players will design a civic that they want, with some suggested benefits and penalties. All civics must have both pros and cons, and the size of the benefit is directly linked to the size of teh penalty. Some civics I will disallow due to tech levels, you cannot have a theocracy without relevant Priesthood related techs, but you could have something like ''Shamanism''. As your culture develops you may switch your civics to the standardised ''Theocracy'' civic, as well as a unique ''God-fearing'' civic that provides extra benefits to priest specialists and increases production by 10% but makes high crime levels (sinners), and other religions cause greater culture penalties.

Civics can be anything at all that describes and makes your civilization unique.

All Player created civics must fit with the FFH theme. They are all specific to the player that created them, although similar civics for different players are allowed. You should bear in mind how developed your people are when designing a civic, although I am prepared to be slightly lenient with this.

The Aether and Arcane Casters

Similarly to Immaculate's system of leylines, EkoNES will have an Aether map. This is a map which the players will not be able to see, which shows the mana which flows beneath Erebus. You can ''prospect'' for mana in your settlements once you have the appropriate discovery, which has a chance to create a ''Rudimentary Node''. It is much more likely to create a Rudimentary Node if the settlement where the prospecting is taking place is near a place where two (or possibly more) flows are crossing, or if the flow is a ''strong flow'' (see below). If the node is at a crossing point, the node will only produce one of the mana types present. Which type you get is chosen randomly.

Mana Nodes provide their corresponding mana type, and also a passive effect. Their passive effect may not be consistent or permanent, and may not always be beneficial. The passive effect would usually be something appropriate to the mana type, or another nearby mana flow which affects Erebus by, I guess, temporarily hi-jacking the node. Passive effects scale with the development of the Node.

Strong Flows produce a greater passive effect then normal flows, and can even provide a passive effect without a Node being present.

The most important idea of the Aether map is that it isn't fixed. Disturbances in the Aether caused by Node-building, spell-casting, rituals, projects, random events, or similar can alter the mana flows in the nearby vicinity or all over the world. This can change the strength of flows, cause passive new effects, or change the area the flows affect. The Aether is ''anchored'' around Nodes, but Nodes can become temporarily or permanently inactive if the Disturbance in the Aether is strong enough.

When you have a rudimentary node you get one free spell. This can be improved to a Stone Circle, where the player gains another free spell. More free spells can be gained as the Node improves further. Multiple nodes of the same mana type do not provide more free spells but do increase the amount of that mana available for channelling.

Additional Spells can be discovered through the discovery system or through events, as can upgrades to current spells. When a spell is upgraded it remains in it's un-upgraded form as well (eg. Basic Fireball, Large Fireball), allowing you to maintain a low-level version of the spell for low-level casters.

Spells require a certain level of Channelling Skill to use. The first available casters have an Channelling Skill of 0.5 which means that they can only cast the weakest of spells.

Heavenly Disposition and Religious Casters

Every faction will have a disposition value for the Idol(s) that they are associated with. This shows how much the Idol (Gods/Angels/Spirits/Ancestors/Demons etc) approves of you. You can assume that the disposition of Idols not listed in your stats is Neutral, but they will be listed with a disposition once you do something to please or anger them. Disposition can be increased by building temples dedicated to that Idol, spreading their religion, or just doing things that please them. Going to war with an Idol's favourite Faction is not going to please them.

Having a high Heavenly Disposition can cause your God to reward you, and increases the strength of your casters, a low Disposition does the opposite of course. Idols will occasionally set you Tasks, which you can choose to do in return for a reward.

Religious casters are far less predictable then Arcane Casters. They have not spent years of their life studying the theory and precision of spell casting, but in deep meditation communing with their God, and studying scripture. The power of their spells is controlled by their Idol's Disposition towards their faction, as well as their Channelling Skill. When the Idol's disposition is high, a religious caster can cast more powerful spells then an arcane caster of the same Channelling Skill.

Religious Casters do have ''Spells'' but the stats and description of them are more vague, as they can be affected by their Idol's disposition. Religious Casters do not need their spells to be upgraded as they are more powerful when the caster has a higher channelling skill anyway.

You get a religious spell free with the first Temple of each level that you buy.

Unlike Arcane Casters, religious casters cannot cast multiple spells which add up to their channelling skill level. Religious casters use their whole channelling skill on whatever spell they cast, this means that they are potentially less versatile.

Projects

When planning a project you should discuss with me what you want to achieve and how you plan on doing it. I will not allow projects that I see as beyond the technological advancement of your race, or if it takes the game in a direction I'd rather it didn't go (Nuclear Warfare is a no-no). However, if I think something is too advanced for you, we can always work out which discoveries will need to be made which will lead to the project being able to be completed, which you can then target. For example, if you wanted to create a large sewer complex beneath your city, you would need to have some idea of Sanitation, how it is better not to wallow in your own excrement, as well as knowledge of Engineering and Stone Working, as well as any other discovery needed to build the basic ''Subterranean Sewers'' Building. When you suggest a project, please don't expect to be able to build it straight away, unless you are sure it is within your capabilities.

When you design a project, I will not give a specific cost and effect. You will tell me what you are basically trying to achieve with this Sewer Complex / Festival / Hell Gate extravaganza, and it will probably have an effect along the lines of this idea, however there is always the chance that it would do something else too, which could be good or bad. For example, a Festival Project could boost approval, just as planned, but it could have also had the side effect of attracting immigrants from other nations, which gains your city a population point. Tensions between the immigrants and local people could increase over the next few turns, causing street fights and the burning of a small shop set up by one of the immigrant families. This could cause stability penalties and unhappiness. Alternately, these immigrants could bring with them fascinating traditions and practises which increase the city's vast range of cultures and faiths, increasing culture further. The exact effect, and what it leads to will partly be decided through mod judgement, partly through how much gold and production you spent on it, and partly through the dice. The effects of projects will tend to scale with technological advancement, so that when they go well they are better then what else is on offer.

If your nation receives a random event on the same turn as you complete a project, it will likely be tied into the project. It is perfectly possible for a project to be a colossal waste of resources, or it could be the best thing since sliced bread. You just don't know.

I will always give you a minimum cost for the project, such as 15 gold and 30 production. However this is just paying for the barest of bare minimums. It is very likely that something will go wrong, such as a hostile demon breaking through your newly created hell gate and running amok, and if everything does apparently go to plan, the effects will be minimal - One measly Imp coming through the gate before spontaneously combusting as a result of exposure to sunlight. If you want your project to work well you should spend more resources on it, write a story or a detailed plan of how it should be constructed, or preferably a mixture of both things. Once a project is complete it's unlikely that that will be the last you hear from it; events in the future, both positive and negative, could be linked to the project.

I think that being unable to predict exactly what will happen as the result of completing your pet project will make the game more realistic and unpredictable. You could end up losing your investment, or even causing damage to your situation, or you could end up getting far more for your money then if you had invested in silly things like buildings and improvements. It's always a risk.

It is possible to capture a project when invading another player, which can have a variety of effects depending on what it is you are actually capturing. Sometimes projects will take multiple turns to complete due to a high production cost.

Rituals

Rituals are the magic equivalent of projects. They cost gold, production (sometimes) and most importantly, tech points. They also require at least one arcane unit, which cannot do anything else until the ritual is complete. The more arcane units taking part the stronger the effects on the ritual. The strength of the ritual is also increased by the strength of the arcane unit. Rituals are repeatable, and can have effects in your land or an opponents. Again, you won't always know what you're getting, and the price I give you will only be a minimum price.

General Information

With the Culture and Espionage mechanisms I'm hoping to provide alternate routes of play to a purely militaristic strategy. You could spend your gold on Espionage or Culture buildings, as opposed to military units, both of which will allow you to become powerful, despite being weaker in terms of military strength to other nations.

Do people think this will be enough? Is there anything else needed to make these routes as attractive for players as the militaristic route?

I'm hoping the Minor Town addition will provide a very interesting mechanic. They are cheap enough in their early levels for the player to want to mass-produce them where ever they can, which means they need more land, and they are expensive enough in their later levels to make real prizes for an invading nation.

Reservations

Group A: The Players

Immaculate - Luchuip
LDiCesare - Balseraphs
Thomas.berubeg - Clan
Killerclowns - Sheaim
Diamondeye - Hippus
Kenkrajen - Lanun
Masterofdisaster - Elohim
Algeroth - Malakim

Group B: Stand-in Players

hbar
orangelex
vruchten
Seon
TheJopa
Northen Wolf
Darksaber1
Tyrs
Charles Li
Kyzarc Fotjage
merciary
Babelfish8000

Stand-in players will fill the place of any player that drops out, taking over their nation. They will also take control of an NPC if and when I decide to give them a player. They will also fill any minor (usually temporary) roles that may occur, such as a rebel group or cult. When a place becomes available I will post in the thread and pick randomly using an RNG to choose between multiple applicants. If the role is a secret one then I won't say what the role is until a player has been selected. Only that player will know what their role is at that time.

STAND-IN PLAYERS REQUIRED

Thread is now Open to posting.

Any and All input greatly appreciated.

I'm so excited you finally posted a thread for this.

1) do not wait until either i or thejopa is done. start NOW.
2) are we going to start with more then one city?
3) will there be NPC races?

more questions/comments to come i am sure.


@hat icon

EDIT: signing up, reserving the 'chirp

1) I couldn't possibly start *Now* . Surely you'd rather wait until the NES is at least half-ready?

2) I will probably give people a certain amount of starting gold like you did, and leave it up to the players how to spend it.

3) Heh heh heh Oh yes. Definitely.

I think waiting for the other NES is silly unless you want to restrict those who get to play in these FFHNES.

Also, why does this world have a restriction on how many nations can be played?

In, In, IN!

Does tax rate also affect Governemtn approval?

thomas.berubeg said:

In, In, IN!

Does tax rate also affect Governemtn approval?

Click to expand...

Yep definitely, it says so under the Tax Rate sub-heading. It is increased by low taxes and decreased by high taxes.

Abaddon said:

I think waiting for the other NES is silly unless you want to restrict those who get to play in these FFHNES.

Also, why does this world have a restriction on how many nations can be played?

Click to expand...

There will be a set number of players who can play at any one time, most probably seven. This limit is mostly because this is my first NES, but also because all the players have to play as one of the FFH civs, and I want each player to have a range to choose from and not feel forced to play as one or the other. Non-player civs will in general not be civs from FFH.

It's just how these things work.

Could you not imagine a civil war, resulting in two nations, but the same base civ?

Yes. The Svartalfar and Ljosalfar .

Players are free to take their nation in whatever direction they want, but they absolutely must play as one of the original civs.

This is because plenty of people will want to write stories, to make their own mark on their nation. But at the end of the day, some players won't want to, in this case the mod and the other players have the base flavour and lore of the FFH civ to work with instead. this prevents having boring, featureless nations that such players often create in other NEses.

But with that in mind, couldn't you have as many players as want to play, merely some playing as the same base civ but as now seprated nations?

I agree with Abaddon, Many civilizations have seperate city, or even Nation states. Talk about the Estrusians, Greeks and other Civilizations.

Abaddon said:

But with that in mind, couldn't you have as many players as want to play, merely some playing as the same base civ but as now seprated nations?

Click to expand...

I'm not sure I understand. The limit of 7 players is because this amount has proven to be sucessful in the previous NESes. There are 21 FFH civs. The limitting factor is mostly because this is my first NES, and because I don't want to bite of more then I can chew.

I agree with Abaddon, Many civilizations have seperate city, or even Nation states. Talk about the Estrusians, Greeks and other Civilizations.

Click to expand...

This would be represented with civics, not seperate players.

Oh, i thought there were only 7FFH civs.

I'd suggest that you are not too strict with the limit, just see how much interest is generated.

Wasn't 7 just a random result of who wanted to play

To highlight this addition above:

Ekolite said:

With the Culture and Espionage mechanisms I'm hoping to provide alternate routes of play to a purely militaristic strategy. You could spend your gold on Espionage or Culture buildings, as opposed to military units, both of which will allow you to become powerful, despite being weaker in terms of military strength to other nations.

Do people think this will be enough? Is there anything else needed to make these routes as attractive for players as the militaristic route?

Click to expand...

Abaddon said:

Oh, i thought there were only 7FFH civs.

I'd suggest that you are not too strict with the limit, just see how much interest is generated.

Wasn't 7 just a random result of who wanted to play

Click to expand...

If enough interest is shown I will reconsider the limit, or possibly add additional playeers later on in control of former-NPC's. Alternately, these people will form a reserve list to fill the places created by anyone who has to drop out.

Looks like a lot of fun.
I will join if anything is open. If not then i will lurk on the reserved list waiting for a dropout.

Consider posting in the main FFH forums. This could be a great way to get new people interested in NESing (and yelled at by their wives).

About time, Kol. Looks interesting.

Sadly, I'm not yet positive if I will join this latest FFHNES endeavor. I'd like to, but time constraints will most likely keep me at a limit of two nations at a time. Perhaps that will change as you get closer to actually releasing, though.

Thats a shame; you are fun to play against/with.

Its also good in that it allows new players to try the FFH NES format.

EDIT: I reread your post and i realized you might still be playing. I Hope You Do . You are are a cunning rival and you write well.