New NESes, ideas, development, etc

[Niklas]

I am almost done preparing to Start my Second attempt at moderating. a week, maybe two at most.

so I though I'd toss out the Idea out first, and let it stir around.

I'm going to be running an alternate world Fresh start with a slight Sci-Fi twist.
the twist? it's a colonial world of a galactic civilization that fell. several remients of which remaining in orbit (including an orbital ring). there are also evidence on the planets surface of their former existence.
North King, you know one of the artifacts on the surface, since you helped with the map. please do not speak of it.

so, any thoughts on this?

No thoughts were given, but... what's the news on this? Sounds like a really interesting plot twist. And more than two weeks have passed, so...

 

[Lord_Iggy]

NK's still working on the map.

 

[Erik Mesoy]

1. The alternate history starts in 31 BC. The Battle of Actium results in a major victory for Mark Antony when a storm destroys most of Octavian's fleet before the battle. Mark Antony's soldiers receive much-needed supplies and are able to break through Octavian's fortifications one month later, destroying his army in a costly battle.

This results in a cease-fire between Mark Antony and Octavian, and the subsequent permanent division of the empire. A major revolt takes place in Numidia Superior, which soon spreads to Numidia Inferior, Africa, and Mauretania. The revolting territory was defended from attack by Octavian when Mark Antony used his large navy to, yet again, destroy the Roman navy and stop them from landing troops in Africa.

The Roman army in the north is heavily damaged by the battle of Teutoberger Forest. A major revolt is started in North Gallia/Belgica by the governor of Belgica, which with the help of the descendents of the Gauls defeated 50 years earlier, spreads to much of northern Gaul.

And Judea is able to defeat the local Roman leadership and form the new country of Judea.

The NES would start in 20 AD, and would focus on Europe, the Middle East/Western Asia, and North Africa.

Burning question: What happens to Mister Messiah five-ten years hence? Most althists I remember either diverge so far before Jesus that his appearance is moot due to a severe lack of Jews, or diverge some time later. But in 20 AD, he might already be born but not yet active, depending on when Judea became independent. (Surely thanks to the Judean People's Front and the People's Front of Judea. )

I'll be watching this interestedly if it starts.

 

[Head Serf]

Jesus! I completely forgot about him... Well, he could have fled to another country and started his teachings there... (Galatia? Parthia?)

 

[Cannae]

Jesus! I completely forgot about him... Well, he could have fled to another country and started his teachings there... (Galatia? Parthia?)

I think that it should be ethopia. That would make the most amount of sence to me.

 

[das]

Why would he leave? He'll either remain in obscurity (like most other wandering prophets out there) or get executed for disturbances, but even then, I'm not sure if Christianity would be able to develop into something greater than just another Jewish religious movement amongst many without the Roman Empire.

Ofcourse, it also depends on exactly how does Judea work out. I must say that it's independence is dubious at best; Egypt is way too close by, and is generally much more wealthy and powerful than Judea. Against that, the greatest leaders and religious zeal aren't much in the long-term. And this is not counting the various divisions within the Jewish camp, as well as the Greek "fifth column" in Judea.

 

[The Strategos]

Ofcourse, it also depends on exactly how does Judea work out. I must say that it's independence is dubious at best; Egypt is way too close by, and is generally much more wealthy and powerful than Judea. Against that, the greatest leaders and religious zeal aren't much in the long-term. And this is not counting the various divisions within the Jewish camp, as well as the Greek "fifth column" in Judea.

Not to mention the fact that Herod the Great was a loyal ally of Antony (well he was until he became a loyal ally of Octavian). And considering he was "the Great" I am sure he could hold onto his kingdom until his death ~4 BCE, just like he managed to do in similar convulted politics during his OTL life. So no rebellion can happen before 4 BCE.

Then, of course, the Egyptian-Romans would have to march north and depose Herod Archelaus (or perhaps they would have favored Herod Antipas to begin with) bringing with him the loyalty of the Jews, who hated Archelaus. So no successful rebellion can happen before 6 CE.

At this point, in OTL the Romans placed their own governor of Judea, but considering Egypt Rome would be more sensitive to Judea and need their support more, they would probably place Antipas on the throne, who being kind-of Jewish himself, would be able to defuse much of the Jewish-Egyptian rivalry.

Regardless, even if Egypt makes every political blunder imaginable, I agree with das that they would have the resources to crush a Judean revolt, so it doesn’t matter that much anyway.

 

[Erik Mesoy]

Why would he leave? He'll either remain in obscurity (like most other wandering prophets out there)

Doubtful. If anything, he'd get more attention because the Jews would take the independent Judea as one of the major signs of the Messianic Age beginning.

or get executed for disturbances,

Sorta like in reality?

but even then, I'm not sure if Christianity would be able to develop into something greater than just another Jewish religious movement amongst many without the Roman Empire.

Sounds like the basis for an althist of its own.

Ofcourse, it also depends on exactly how does Judea work out. I must say that it's independence is dubious at best; Egypt is way too close by, and is generally much more wealthy and powerful than Judea. Against that, the greatest leaders and religious zeal aren't much in the long-term. And this is not counting the various divisions within the Jewish camp, as well as the Greek "fifth column" in Judea.

But in the short term, the Jews can put up a hell of a fight. OTL, they slaughtered so many Roman occupiers in various rebellions-cum-wars that the Romans brought in troops from ridiculously far away (up to Bulgaria) to put down the revolts. Or so I vaguely remember from sources which I can't coherently quote. Does Egypt have a comparable amount of territory to pull troops from? I don't think so.

 

[das]

Doubtful. If anything, he'd get more attention because the Jews would take the independent Judea as one of the major signs of the Messianic Age beginning.

Yes; he'll have much more competition that way. In any case - as long as Christainity remains a local phenomenon it will be forced to compete with several far more powerful movements.

Sorta like in reality?

Exactly.

Sounds like the basis for an althist of its own.

Not really, for reasons already stated.

Does Egypt have a comparable amount of territory to pull troops from? I don't think so.

Yes, its troops are much less overstretched and Judea will be a bigger priority from the start due to its proximity to Alexandria, plus the Egyptians are much more familiar with the situation; I don't think they'll make nearly as many political mistakes. Granted, in case of a general Jewish religious uprising the going will be tough, but I think the Egyptians would still be better suited for this than the Romans.

 

[Dachs]

Yes; he'll have much more competition that way.

Uh...how could he have more competition than he had in OTL?

 

[Erik Mesoy]

More eschatological preachers.

 

[Dachs]

More eschatological preachers.

I meant competition as the Messiah; as things were, weren't there loads of folks popping up all over the place claiming to be the Messiah - even more than usual anyway?

 

[Erik Mesoy]

Folks popping up and claiming to be the Messiah are often eschatological preachers. Jesus could have a lot more competition for the simple reason that Judea has become independent.

Personally, I think it would be interesting to see Jesus as a more Jewish messiah in this althist, cleaving closer to the Law as it was written in Ye Ancient Times, and being more supportive of the Pharisees and Sadducees and whoever the third party was whose name I can never remember.

 

[Head Serf]

Well, I don't know how to make it work, but I'd like Judea to be independent for the NES. If anyone can think of a way to make that plausible, I'd be all ears.

How would this map do for the NES?

Spoiler :

 

[Metaliturtle]

An independent Judea could come from a popular revolt along religious lines if some of the higher leaders in the Roman Army were to convert first and create a sense of brotherhood with the people of Judea. Good luck finding a way to do that though...

 

[TheBladeRoden]

Well, I don't know how to make it work, but I'd like Judea to be independent for the NES. If anyone can think of a way to make that plausible, I'd be all ears.

How would this map do for the NES?

Spoiler :

That map makes my vitreous humor boil

 

[The Strategos]

Well, I don't know how to make it work, but I'd like Judea to be independent for the NES. If anyone can think of a way to make that plausible, I'd be all ears.

Judea was independent until 6 CE. All you have to do is fiddle with Herod the Great's will, which is not a hard task considering he changed it several times and make someone besides the hated/incompetent Herod Archelaus king. So, for example, make Herod Antipas king at Herod the Great's death in 4 BCE, Egypt-Rome won't interfere with a profitable client kingdom. Since Antipas didn't die until almost 40 CE, when the NES starts, he will easily be alive and kicking.

Now if you want Judea as an independent non-client kingdom, you have to go back to the mid-60 BCE before Rome turned Judea into a client kingdom, because, well, Judea didn't have a realistic chance of complete, non-client status independence after that.

How would this map do for the NES?

There are much better maps out there. This one has the advantage of already having Roman-era cities placed on it, while I have on my hard drive the original blank map version of this one (open spoiler box), which covers more area, though it does not currently have cities.

 

[Luckymoose]

I just had the sudden urge to do a Video Game Studio NES. I wonder if it is possible. It would require stories and creativity on the players part. I the mod would be NPC companies, including the console or PC software makers.

 

[LightFang]

A business NES! Sounds interesting.

 

[Luckymoose]

Economy: The money you use to do everything comes from several places the most important being sales of your own games. Other areas to get money from the big game companies who own the consoles. These companies can fund your new projects and buy exclusive rights to your studio. Merchandise from the games also may bring in sales but that is not included in the rules and only judged by stories and orders. You can also take out loans at banks.

Financial income can lower or raise your employee confidence as well. So the levels of income will be separate from actual amount of money coming in. Which will be determined by me in the Updates. These levels are.

Beyond Help-Poor-Not Bad-Average-Above Average-Growing-Booming

A price chart will also be made and updated as things go along. All money is represented by dollars which are not in anyway equal to real dollars. $1,000 income an update is good for an average company in this game.

Bank/Loans: In this game you may take out loans. These loans may only be in the form of $1000, $5000, and $10,000 dollars. After you take out a loan the interest on it increases by $1000 every 2 turns. So watch out for outstanding loans. I have to of course grant you the right to take out a loan.

Game Studios: This is the studio you run. You make games and possibly with enough money a console of your very own. Every thing you do is around your game studio/company.

Big Companies: These are the Nintendo’s of this industry. They have big chunks of the market share and will buy exclusive rights to games and studios to keep it there. Players can play as these but they are limited and making another one will take a lot of time and patience.

Stories: Stories to this NES are the back bone of it. Stories are your main way of telling me what you are doing. Besides short orders. In these you do everything from Press Conferences, Advertising, Website Announcements and other things.

The Shows [Updates]: The updates are based around quarterly gaming events such as E3 and TGS but named differently for this NES. These will be my review and adding up of your studios stories and orders for the turn. Each update or show will have one Best of Award which will give you a bonus of $1,000. So work hard and you can get a boost over the competition.

----------------------

Games: Video games are your main source of income and the way to make these is with money and stories. The way these develop is based on the age old projects system. I will give you a time scale for development in the form of turns to complete on basic funding of $500. You may speed up the process by one extra turn by spending an additional $750. But only one extra a turn as it takes time to develop games.

Advertising: This is done with stories and backed up and expanded with money. Different levels of advertising cost more money and only advertise one thing at a time.


Confidence: This is the confidence of the people working at your studio. This is effected by a few things. Income level, success of sales and direction of development. This is important because the better employees may leave if you have a lower confidence level.

Employee Artistic/Programming Level: This cannot be directly increased by money and only through stories and game development. It has a few levels which are as follows.

Bad-Not Bad-Below Average-Average-Above Average-Good-Excellent-Shigeru Miyamoto

This level can be effected by confidence, stories and artist buy outs. The latter costing a lot of money to pull off.

Tech. Advancement and Design Engines: These two things are very important to your studios ability to keep up. Tech. Advancements mainly apply to the companies with a console. The Design Engines are going to be based around the console technologies and will be based on your ability to fund the advancement of it. It has a slider of 1-10.

Last Generation(1-3)-Current Generation(4-8)-Next Generation(9-10)

Be creative in your spending on this. Research and buying tech from other people.

Reputation: Just like Tech this one will use a slider of 1-10. It can only be increased by stories and succeeding with releases. 1 meaning everybody thinks your business is junky and not even the porno stores want your product, and 10 meaning you do the Ritz Carlton shame.

Customer Satisfaction: This is on a scale of 1-10 as well. 1 being they don’t like what they are getting and 10 being they can’t wait to go buy more.

Production Costs: This will be the costs you have to pay to meet the demand or come close to the demand of your product. I will update it in the stats every turn.

Employee Costs: Are the same as Production costs, only you pay their wages to keep them happy. You can increase this if you like to get happier employees.

Any ideas on how to improve this?