Jason The King
Deity
ORDERS FOR TURN TWENTY-THREE DUE BY 12:00 NOON PST THURSDAY, JANUARY 28TH
Introduction
So what better way for a recent-graduate unemployed-moocher-bum to spend his time then to launch a new NES?
This NES will begin with the age of exploration. As you can see, it is a random map. The first continent, named Astoria, serves as the Old World in this timeline. Because I want you to have a somewhat customized civilization to lead, you will get to create a civilization and then I will set up the main portion of the NES according to a brief lapse in time (ITL the classical and medieval ages were brief) and short descriptions for each nation.
The rules will be much like EQ’s ruleset from ABNW. Though I want you to be creative with your spending, anything you do may increase your EP, grant your technologies, etc.
Ruleset
Government
The government of your nation is important for a variety of reasons. Holding elections, having regime change and your government in general will effect the rise and fall of stability and economy in your nation. For democratic nations, you must determine your party names, or you’ll be stuck with the generic following: Socialist, Liberal, Moderate, Conservative, Reactionary. One can assume that elections happen regularly in a representative country, but they will only be mentioned if there is a dramatic change in power.
Economy
Economic Power: (Total Points Generated a Turn)/(Banked)/(spent on economic growth)
Instead of the previous workings of Industrial Capacity, we now have Economic Power, which represents all elements of the economy, not just industry. Economic power (or points, whichever you prefer) is spent on all other elements of your nation: economy, stability, military, and projects.
You can increase your economic power by spending 1.5x your current economic rating rounded up. In other words, if you have 4 EP, you have to spend 6 on growing the economy to get to 5 EP a turn. For some, this may be slightly different, see protectorates below.
Stability
Stability is a new and expensive addition to EQ's rulesets. This represents the overall social integrity of your nation, and its liability to collapse. To upkeep your level of stability, you must dedicate an amount of EP equal to your stability level. In other words if your rating is 10, you must spend 10 to keep it that way. If you do not, your stability will decline by 1 point each turn. Paying the upkeep will not halt stability drops caused by random events or enemy interference. It only stops the annual regular drop.
The Stability rating goes from 0-12, and the lower it is the more likely you are to have internal disorder and civil strife. In order to increase your level, you merely have to spend the number equal to the level above the level you are at. In other words, in order to go from 10 to 11, you must spend 11 EP. Increases only rise at most 1 a turn from this method in spending. Keep that in mind.
Needless to say this is not very good for the smaller economies of the world. In the weakest of economies and societies, regime change and turmoil is frequent and bloody, but there is an alternative. If you wish to sacrifice your full independence and economic growth, you may become a vassal or join a protectorate. See below for more details on that.
Some types of government have more overt samples of stability than others, but that in no way means that they are less stable than people at the same level.
Manpower
Manpower is vital for creating your army. The more people you have, the more the manpower grows each year. It may be possible to raise manpower by passing reforms on the army and even through luck. When you mobilize, your standing manpower is doubled from reservists called up. WARNING: when you demobilize, the added manpower is subtracted. If you go into the negative, it'll have a DEVASTATING effect on your economy and stability.
All army units (not navy or airforce) can be demobilized for their full manpower cost, though the ep cost is not recoverable.
There is a limit to how much manpower you can use in one turn. You may only call up 50 manpower-worth of units per turn, to represent the amount of time and money it takes to assemble and recruit large numbers of men.
Also, if your manpower gets too low, you could suffer a decrease in EP to reflect the fact that you are pulling all your men from the fields to fight in your army.
Military and Mobilization
Mobilization and total war is a key element of modern warfare. Therefore I introduce a revised version of mobilization. If you wish to declare mobilization in the course of a major conflict the following things happen:
1. You can no longer spend your economy on stability efforts or projects.
2. You receive double amounts of units for price investment, meaning 1 EP and 5 manpower gets 10 Infantry Regiments rather than 5. This represents improvement in production and military logistics. This ONLY occurs for land units, not naval units.
3. Doubles amount of manpower you have on hand (not the amount you produce).
Upgrading Units
While you don’t have to upgrade your units after every new technology research, it may be a good idea to spend some money on them every once in a while. This would refresh their tactics, update their weapons (more so if you don’t spend any money) and reorganize the military structure.
Military Unit Types
You may have noticed that when some units are researched they are given a unique name, either by the player or by me if the player does not specify a name. Even though units may be created with the same tech, that does not make them equal. Different classes of ships or other vehicles can be different in quality even if the same tech unlocked them. A variety of factors determine what makes a unit better than another nation's. This includes the overall techs you have researched, the specialization of your tech research, if it was a solo project or if many contributed, and most importantly, your nation's military quality in the type of unit's field that you've researched.
Research Cap and Technology
EP can be spent towards researching technology. There are three types of technology: army, navy, and domestic. Each nation has a cap on how much EP can be spent on each technology type per turn. This cap can never be surpassed, and is based upon the capabilities and history of your nation. These caps are rigid but not frozen – they can be altered over time, though it is a long-term process and rare. The caps are based on the following:
1. Basic history and trajectory of a nation. If a nation has a far-flung empire of colonies, or is an island-based nation, then it is likely to have a higher navy tech cap. A nation that is constantly at war and maintains armies can have a high army cap, and so on.
2. Projects. Projects can raise or lower a cap, based on their content. For example, an Army Academy can increase cap. Do not expect caps to be increased with every completed project.
3. Already-completed technology also has a bearing on caps. If a nation constantly researches domestic techs, than that builds upon each other, possibly leading to a higher domestic cap.
The stat will be organized as such: Army Cap/Navy Cap/Domestic Cap. So a stat that looks like 4/5/2 will mean the cap for spending into army research is 4 per turn, into navy research is 5 per turn, and into domestic research is 2 per turn.
There is no “cap of caps.” That is to say, you may have as large of caps, in each category, as the education and research powers of your nation can hold.
Technologies CANNOT be shared, traded, or sold.
For each new army or navy technology researched, you will have to upgrade your old units to this new technology. The cost is half the normal price (for example, 1EP for up to 10 infantry regiments). To upgrade, for example, infantry that is two levels behind (so say Infantry II to Infantry IV), you will first have to upgrade to the next level (infantry III), then the next turn you can upgrade to the final level.
Of course, upgrading is not mandatory. And you may still build obsolete units for their upgrade costs. For example, if you are on Infantry IV, 1EP can get you 10 Infantry III units, or 15 infantry II units, etc. Standard manpower costs apply.
It is expected to have some obsolete units in your army, though if you are normally operating (say, 3-4 turns) with, say 50% of your forces outdated, than this can have a negative effect on your quality.
Unit Design
A nation may pay for and design unique units that can be built instead of the standard units. These units will be listed on the front page, and will include specialty stats that set them apart from the standard units and other unique units. The cost is 20EP per design, and must be paid in full upfront (you can bank and save, but no partial payments).
The quality of a newly-designed unit will depend on the quality of the related military stat (so navy quality would pertain to new ship designs etc), the technologies you have researched, and other factors pertaining to your nation. Please reference what type of unit you want, how it is unique, and give a small description of it in your orders when you design it. And remember to NAME it please.
Right now, it is only possible to design ships, firearms, and cannons.
Projects
Projects are the equivalent to wonders in this NES. You may devise any sort of Great Project you please, as long as it fits with your nation and capabilities. Simply inform me of the project and your intended goals for it, and I will give you a price.
Protectorates
Unlike in the original A Brave New World, Protectorates (or vassalages) are not merely an alliance anymore. They are an extension of a larger empire over smaller nations and provide benefits to both the big country and the little one.
For the country under protection they receive one major benefit: they only have to pay half of the listed stability upkeep costs to reflect the security of having a larger protector. The trade-off is that it costs double the price to increase your economy (to reflect foreign economic domination) and you are more susceptible to stability changes and losses in your protector’s country.
For the nation which protects, you receive chances to gain control over parts of your protectees’ economies, as well as the obvious political benefits of dominating more of the world. In some cases it may be less expensive long term to manage a protectorate than to directly rule a fast empire.
Colonies
A colony can be established by sending a military detachment to a desired location, naming it, and then conquering it. Colonies can be small and serve the purpose of an on-call port for merchants in the area, or they can be large and represent an economic institution (sugar industry, spice industry, etc). They can also be colonies of settlers who wish to just start anew in a fresh land. Most colonies will begin at a cost, costing the mother country both EP and military to maintain. However, if the colony grows and prospers, you can turn that loss into gain, both in manpower (native and settler populations) and EP. The mere prestige of ruling a colonial empire may outweigh any adverse economic affects associated with them. Dismantling a colony can have a devastating effect on your prestige and stability.
Companies/Corporations
Companies can be established to help manage and run a colonial empire. Companies, unlike the mother country, can operate at a loss in the short term. They are treated as separate entities, but are not allowed to conduct foreign policy. They can raise private armies and navies, tapping into the same manpower of the mother country. They can establish colonies in their mother country's name without permission.
Companies incur the costs and benefits of the colony, only passing on select taxes to the mother country.
Income: (Income earned from colonies)/(Financing from banks/shareholders) = (Total Available Funds to Spend each turn)
Orders, Tips, and Updates
If a question is asked in which the answer is clearly in the above ruleset, I will not answer it and will ignore you until you figure it out.
Orders in on time will always help you.
While stories or elaborate economic growth programs are no longer needed for a nation’s success, I’m not discouraging them. If you do programs, projects, and so forth and tell good stories, there may very well be rewards for your efforts.
The Update time will always be at the top of the thread in this post. Therefore I will not ever answer the question: “when is the update?”
If anything is not clear or confusing above, please let me know and I will strive to fix it. If you have questions which are not clearly answered here, I will be more than willing to add a section on this page to prevent future confusion.
My greatest recommendation for any new NESers who join is to pay attention to the whole updates, not just your part. You never know what opportunities you may find.
Introduction
So what better way for a recent-graduate unemployed-moocher-bum to spend his time then to launch a new NES?
This NES will begin with the age of exploration. As you can see, it is a random map. The first continent, named Astoria, serves as the Old World in this timeline. Because I want you to have a somewhat customized civilization to lead, you will get to create a civilization and then I will set up the main portion of the NES according to a brief lapse in time (ITL the classical and medieval ages were brief) and short descriptions for each nation.
The rules will be much like EQ’s ruleset from ABNW. Though I want you to be creative with your spending, anything you do may increase your EP, grant your technologies, etc.
Ruleset
Government
The government of your nation is important for a variety of reasons. Holding elections, having regime change and your government in general will effect the rise and fall of stability and economy in your nation. For democratic nations, you must determine your party names, or you’ll be stuck with the generic following: Socialist, Liberal, Moderate, Conservative, Reactionary. One can assume that elections happen regularly in a representative country, but they will only be mentioned if there is a dramatic change in power.
Economy
Economic Power: (Total Points Generated a Turn)/(Banked)/(spent on economic growth)
Instead of the previous workings of Industrial Capacity, we now have Economic Power, which represents all elements of the economy, not just industry. Economic power (or points, whichever you prefer) is spent on all other elements of your nation: economy, stability, military, and projects.
You can increase your economic power by spending 1.5x your current economic rating rounded up. In other words, if you have 4 EP, you have to spend 6 on growing the economy to get to 5 EP a turn. For some, this may be slightly different, see protectorates below.
Stability
Stability is a new and expensive addition to EQ's rulesets. This represents the overall social integrity of your nation, and its liability to collapse. To upkeep your level of stability, you must dedicate an amount of EP equal to your stability level. In other words if your rating is 10, you must spend 10 to keep it that way. If you do not, your stability will decline by 1 point each turn. Paying the upkeep will not halt stability drops caused by random events or enemy interference. It only stops the annual regular drop.
The Stability rating goes from 0-12, and the lower it is the more likely you are to have internal disorder and civil strife. In order to increase your level, you merely have to spend the number equal to the level above the level you are at. In other words, in order to go from 10 to 11, you must spend 11 EP. Increases only rise at most 1 a turn from this method in spending. Keep that in mind.
Needless to say this is not very good for the smaller economies of the world. In the weakest of economies and societies, regime change and turmoil is frequent and bloody, but there is an alternative. If you wish to sacrifice your full independence and economic growth, you may become a vassal or join a protectorate. See below for more details on that.
Some types of government have more overt samples of stability than others, but that in no way means that they are less stable than people at the same level.
Manpower
Manpower is vital for creating your army. The more people you have, the more the manpower grows each year. It may be possible to raise manpower by passing reforms on the army and even through luck. When you mobilize, your standing manpower is doubled from reservists called up. WARNING: when you demobilize, the added manpower is subtracted. If you go into the negative, it'll have a DEVASTATING effect on your economy and stability.
All army units (not navy or airforce) can be demobilized for their full manpower cost, though the ep cost is not recoverable.
There is a limit to how much manpower you can use in one turn. You may only call up 50 manpower-worth of units per turn, to represent the amount of time and money it takes to assemble and recruit large numbers of men.
Also, if your manpower gets too low, you could suffer a decrease in EP to reflect the fact that you are pulling all your men from the fields to fight in your army.
Military and Mobilization
Mobilization and total war is a key element of modern warfare. Therefore I introduce a revised version of mobilization. If you wish to declare mobilization in the course of a major conflict the following things happen:
1. You can no longer spend your economy on stability efforts or projects.
2. You receive double amounts of units for price investment, meaning 1 EP and 5 manpower gets 10 Infantry Regiments rather than 5. This represents improvement in production and military logistics. This ONLY occurs for land units, not naval units.
3. Doubles amount of manpower you have on hand (not the amount you produce).
Upgrading Units
While you don’t have to upgrade your units after every new technology research, it may be a good idea to spend some money on them every once in a while. This would refresh their tactics, update their weapons (more so if you don’t spend any money) and reorganize the military structure.
Military Unit Types
You may have noticed that when some units are researched they are given a unique name, either by the player or by me if the player does not specify a name. Even though units may be created with the same tech, that does not make them equal. Different classes of ships or other vehicles can be different in quality even if the same tech unlocked them. A variety of factors determine what makes a unit better than another nation's. This includes the overall techs you have researched, the specialization of your tech research, if it was a solo project or if many contributed, and most importantly, your nation's military quality in the type of unit's field that you've researched.
Research Cap and Technology
EP can be spent towards researching technology. There are three types of technology: army, navy, and domestic. Each nation has a cap on how much EP can be spent on each technology type per turn. This cap can never be surpassed, and is based upon the capabilities and history of your nation. These caps are rigid but not frozen – they can be altered over time, though it is a long-term process and rare. The caps are based on the following:
1. Basic history and trajectory of a nation. If a nation has a far-flung empire of colonies, or is an island-based nation, then it is likely to have a higher navy tech cap. A nation that is constantly at war and maintains armies can have a high army cap, and so on.
2. Projects. Projects can raise or lower a cap, based on their content. For example, an Army Academy can increase cap. Do not expect caps to be increased with every completed project.
3. Already-completed technology also has a bearing on caps. If a nation constantly researches domestic techs, than that builds upon each other, possibly leading to a higher domestic cap.
The stat will be organized as such: Army Cap/Navy Cap/Domestic Cap. So a stat that looks like 4/5/2 will mean the cap for spending into army research is 4 per turn, into navy research is 5 per turn, and into domestic research is 2 per turn.
There is no “cap of caps.” That is to say, you may have as large of caps, in each category, as the education and research powers of your nation can hold.
Technologies CANNOT be shared, traded, or sold.
For each new army or navy technology researched, you will have to upgrade your old units to this new technology. The cost is half the normal price (for example, 1EP for up to 10 infantry regiments). To upgrade, for example, infantry that is two levels behind (so say Infantry II to Infantry IV), you will first have to upgrade to the next level (infantry III), then the next turn you can upgrade to the final level.
Of course, upgrading is not mandatory. And you may still build obsolete units for their upgrade costs. For example, if you are on Infantry IV, 1EP can get you 10 Infantry III units, or 15 infantry II units, etc. Standard manpower costs apply.
It is expected to have some obsolete units in your army, though if you are normally operating (say, 3-4 turns) with, say 50% of your forces outdated, than this can have a negative effect on your quality.
Unit Design
A nation may pay for and design unique units that can be built instead of the standard units. These units will be listed on the front page, and will include specialty stats that set them apart from the standard units and other unique units. The cost is 20EP per design, and must be paid in full upfront (you can bank and save, but no partial payments).
The quality of a newly-designed unit will depend on the quality of the related military stat (so navy quality would pertain to new ship designs etc), the technologies you have researched, and other factors pertaining to your nation. Please reference what type of unit you want, how it is unique, and give a small description of it in your orders when you design it. And remember to NAME it please.
Right now, it is only possible to design ships, firearms, and cannons.
Projects
Projects are the equivalent to wonders in this NES. You may devise any sort of Great Project you please, as long as it fits with your nation and capabilities. Simply inform me of the project and your intended goals for it, and I will give you a price.
Protectorates
Unlike in the original A Brave New World, Protectorates (or vassalages) are not merely an alliance anymore. They are an extension of a larger empire over smaller nations and provide benefits to both the big country and the little one.
For the country under protection they receive one major benefit: they only have to pay half of the listed stability upkeep costs to reflect the security of having a larger protector. The trade-off is that it costs double the price to increase your economy (to reflect foreign economic domination) and you are more susceptible to stability changes and losses in your protector’s country.
For the nation which protects, you receive chances to gain control over parts of your protectees’ economies, as well as the obvious political benefits of dominating more of the world. In some cases it may be less expensive long term to manage a protectorate than to directly rule a fast empire.
Colonies
A colony can be established by sending a military detachment to a desired location, naming it, and then conquering it. Colonies can be small and serve the purpose of an on-call port for merchants in the area, or they can be large and represent an economic institution (sugar industry, spice industry, etc). They can also be colonies of settlers who wish to just start anew in a fresh land. Most colonies will begin at a cost, costing the mother country both EP and military to maintain. However, if the colony grows and prospers, you can turn that loss into gain, both in manpower (native and settler populations) and EP. The mere prestige of ruling a colonial empire may outweigh any adverse economic affects associated with them. Dismantling a colony can have a devastating effect on your prestige and stability.
Companies/Corporations
Companies can be established to help manage and run a colonial empire. Companies, unlike the mother country, can operate at a loss in the short term. They are treated as separate entities, but are not allowed to conduct foreign policy. They can raise private armies and navies, tapping into the same manpower of the mother country. They can establish colonies in their mother country's name without permission.
Companies incur the costs and benefits of the colony, only passing on select taxes to the mother country.
Income: (Income earned from colonies)/(Financing from banks/shareholders) = (Total Available Funds to Spend each turn)
Orders, Tips, and Updates
If a question is asked in which the answer is clearly in the above ruleset, I will not answer it and will ignore you until you figure it out.
Orders in on time will always help you.
While stories or elaborate economic growth programs are no longer needed for a nation’s success, I’m not discouraging them. If you do programs, projects, and so forth and tell good stories, there may very well be rewards for your efforts.
The Update time will always be at the top of the thread in this post. Therefore I will not ever answer the question: “when is the update?”
If anything is not clear or confusing above, please let me know and I will strive to fix it. If you have questions which are not clearly answered here, I will be more than willing to add a section on this page to prevent future confusion.
My greatest recommendation for any new NESers who join is to pay attention to the whole updates, not just your part. You never know what opportunities you may find.