Abaddon
Deity
Gah, why use that eye-bleeding glowmap?
It amazes me that apparently nobody ever thinks to deselect the color key when flood-filling colors so you don't wind up making it look like ass by rearranging it.
It amazes me that apparently nobody ever thinks to deselect the color key when flood-filling colors so you don't wind up making it look like ass by rearranging it.
Base Level
Tech Level
-
Epic Points
Leadership Points
Wealth Points
-
Government
Society
Religion
Unity (of people, overall)
Stability (of government in particular)
Civil Rights
Political Rights
-
Army Size
Army Structure (inc leadership and training)
Army Weapons
Artillery (for sieges, probably replaced by air force stat later on)
Navy (abstracted to one stat)
-
Culture (arts, entertainment, public monuments)
Science (education, rate of tech progress)
Infrastructure (roads, buildings, ports etc)
-
Food (demand/surplus)
Population
Materials
Goods
Luxuries
Research
Global
Technological Clade: Name
Description:
Pure:
Applied:
A technological clade is a culture and system of accumulated knowledge descending from a common root. The old NESing idea of each state being an island in terms of its knowledge base is pretty damn stupid outside very specific periods (WW2 being the only one to come to mind), everything shades into each other being on the fringe of a technological culture just means you have to pay more for the good gear. In my NES there is only one clade: European Enlightenment, which by the time of the setting (mid-19th) has greatly overpowered and engulfed the other technological clades to an extent that they are negligible, or can be described in reference to the European Enlightenment clade. If someone was to use this ruleset for pre-1750 NESing you would naturally have multiple clades of knowledge. Naturally each clade has a description of its general methodology and culture, as well as a listing of what is encompassed by it in the pure and applied fields of knowledge. These will obviously not be exhaustive listings, but enough so that players can hang it onto the OTL of what's possible an not, as well as noting surprisingly advanced/******ed developments. Clades advance as a mass if nation A has 50 times the research capacity of B then then the clade as a whole will advance by 51 units a decade, but B will only be slightly less capable than A at most.
Example (the one in the NES will be better )
Technological Clade: European Enlightenment
Description: Broadly similar to 1850s OTL
Pure:Less developed socio-economics (no Marxism), Better 'Evolution' Knowledge subverted into earlier faux-racial theories.
Applied:Better Telecommunications and Artillery
National
Clade/Position(Descriptor)
Exceptional Developments:
Research Facilities(description)/Size/Quality/£Cost
Intelligence(Formality)/Reputation/$Size(regionalisms)/Operational Quality/Analysis Quality/Strain/Overhead$
$-Significant Espionage Operation (Description/Cost)$
(remember everything delimited with $ is secret)
Here we have the stats for each nations individual knowledge base, beginning with their clade membership and their position within it. Position can have several different values, the basic of which is 'Normal' indicate that nearly all of your competencies falls within the main clade description. Then there is 'Cutting Edge' where a good portion of your knowledge is more advanced than the main part of the clade, though things that are cutting edge will soon become commonplace within a few updates. Then there is 'Lagging', 'Fringe', and 'Outsider'; the former indicates a nation with a poor higher education and sluggish economy that finds it difficult to implement the new developments of the clade, whilst the latter two indicate nations that are only loosely connected with the advancing clade, and do not really contribute to its overall advance (Lagging(e.g. Russia)>Fringe(e.g. Persia)>Outsider(e.g. Pre-Meji Japan)). For the three lower categories the technologies main body of the clades 'Applied' knowledge, are available but cost considerably more cash and effort, and 'Pure' knowledge is even harder. In summation, being cutting edge is nice, but not that great, but you really don't want to be lagging or lower.
Exceptional developments lists anything your nation can produce that is either significantly better or worse than your position might indicate along the lines of 'Bigger Ship Guns', 'Superb Sociology', 'Dryland Agriculture'. These will both pop up randomly based on your level of education/activities or can be explicitly developed via a policy. Over 2-4 long updates they will of course flow into the main knowledge of the clade and will no longer be listed under your stats.
The 'Research Facilities' line is for state organised, permanent, institutions for research and development that are outside of a nations higher education system. They are different from policy goals to produce a certain application, and will chug along independently of the main government (though you can of course offer suggestions or overall directives), increasing the rate of random positive exceptional developments, the development of the clade as a whole and lowering the cost and time of related policy goals. The first entry is a list of what kind of research facilities you have, the types available being listed in the clades description. Naturally as my NES will begin in the mid-19th century very few will be available, in fact only 'NavalConstruction' will be there at the start. The size and quality will just be descriptors, as obviously what counts as big or small will change over time, though there will be some hidden values underlying them to produce the rate of development. If I demean it necessary (and the NES lasts into the 1930s ) this may be split into multiple lines of the same format for major research branches.
Then we have the intelligence services, starting with the services name and formal status. Nearly nations did maintain formal intelligence and espionage services until the early 20th century, and its for this reason Intelligence is held separately from the military. Types of formality include: Spymaster, Political Connections, Diplomatic Adjunct, Military Adjunct, Contractor, Ad Hoc, Review Committee, Special Police, Service, Multiple Services, or combinations of the former. Any except the last four will be listed in the public stats as 'None', but are generally more inept, and the last three are not available to the European Enlightenment Clade as the NES starts. Then you have descriptions of the size, operational quality (going out and doing things e.g. assassination or theft), analysis quality (Dear Mr President, India has been invaded by unknown forces wearing black masks, they constantly receive new supplies from the South Atlantic and speak Portuguese when interrogated, but we have no clue where they are from...), and the good old strain and overhead. Until formal services are formed the overheads will be negligible. Finally there is a secret list of major operations the nation is undertaking (more for the mods benefit than the players), with descriptions and costs.
Example Stats for the KoSFN
Clade/Position: European Enlightenment/Normal
Exceptional: Naval Engines, General Medicine
ResFac/Size/Quality/£Cost: Academy of Naval Construction/Tiny/Fine/-
Intelligence(Formality)/Rep: Diplomatic Adjunct/Minimal
Spoiler :
Size/OperationalQ/AnalysisQ/Strain/£: Tiny/Dreadful/Good/None/-
Significant Espionage Operation (Description/Cost)
-The St Petersberg Company (Close eye on Russian internal politics and movements/£1 per update)
Demographics
Population/Growth Rate/Subregions
Core Identity/Minorities (Notes)
Standard of Living/Life Expectancy/Literacy Index/Education Index/Inequality Index/Rough unemployment Rate/£Overhead
Technical Education/Higher Education
Road Coverage/Rail Coverage/Port Infrastructure/£Maintenance
The demographics listing should all be quite self explanatory. It starts with the gross population, a rough percentage growth rate (note this is an estimate for the next turn, actual growth may vary due to randomness, immigration and emigration), and the population of the various subregions listed in the economy section (these won't be named, but this section will be immediately under the economy one). Then comes the core identit(y/ies) of the polity, and significant minorities. These can be ethnic and or religious categories, and the notes section describes special circumstances of the minorities (like slavery). Then you have the human development line, with a standard of living descriptor, a numerical life expectancy and % literacy rate, an education rate (a gross enrolment ratio), a measurement of inequality based on the Gini index but mainly produced by fiat, an unemployment percentage, and the amount of money government services are using to maintain these (though government services are far from the only thing effecting them). Finally you have descriptions of the size and quality of the nations technical and higher education, that are linked to some hidden numbers that effect economic growth and the generation of exceptional developments, as well as the maintenance of the military and infrastructure. Finally the infrastructure line details the quality of the road network, the coverage of the rail network, and the quality of the ports, again split into economic regions and with a listing of maintenance costs. Infrastructure will obviously have an effect on growth, trade and war-making.
Note you can skimp or lower any of the maintenance costs if you want to give you more money to play with in other areas, and the quality might not degrade, or only degrade slowly to the other level you'll just have to find out .
Example of the KoSFN
...
*Major Internal Region/Description/Value
Baltic Region/Raw Materials Extraction and some commercial centres/£460
North Sea Coast/Base of Merchant and Fishing fleet, some extraction/£150
...
Demographics
Pop/Working/GR/Subregions: 7.2m/2.4m/1.0%/1.3+5.9
Core Identity/Minorities: Protestant Swedes/Protestant Finns and Norwegians
SoL/LE/LI/EI/II/Rough UR/£Overhead: Poor/40yrs/0.99/0.4/5%/£10
Technical Ed/Higher Ed: Very small but adequate/Very small but excellent
Road/Rail/Port/£Main:Very Poor,Okay/None,Poor/Great,Very Good/£10
Been doing too much evolutionary biology?clade
Can you give an example? Are we just talking regions?If someone was to use this ruleset for pre-1750 NESing you would naturally have multiple clades of knowledge.
So is research capacity actually quantified like that, just not in the stats?if nation A has 50 times the research capacity of B then then the clade as a whole will advance by 51 units a decade, but B will only be slightly less capable than A at most.
Will you be sending PMs to everyone every turn with this stuff, or will we have to ask first?(remember everything delimited with $ is secret)
A few long updates, I assume.things that are cutting edge will soon become commonplace within a few updates.
So this line should be secret as well?Any except the last four will be listed in the public stats as 'None'
Intelligence(Formality)/Rep: Diplomatic Adjunct/Minimal
This is per year, not per update, right?a rough percentage growth rate
One of these two is missing from your sample stats...an education rate (a gross enrolment ratio), a measurement of inequality based on the Gini index but mainly produced by fiat
I would assume that these map directly to Infrastructure Maintenance and Social Maintenance, but the numbers don't seem to match up. Where are the other £20 of infrastructure and the other £5 of social spending, and for that matter the other £31 of military maintenance? And I'm not sure where funding for the espionage comes from--it doesn't seem to come from policies, as that funding is already used up...the maintenance costs
Been doing too much evolutionary biology?
Can you give an example? Are we just talking regions?
So is research capacity actually quantified like that, just not in the stats?
Will you be sending PMs to everyone every turn with this stuff, or will we have to ask first?
A few long updates, I assume.
So this line should be secret as well?
Okay, next section. Before I start I should note that your links back to previous posts are broken (they all link to the research post): you need to change the post number in addition to the post count.
This is per year, not per update, right?
One of these two is missing from your sample stats...
I would assume that these map directly to Infrastructure Maintenance and Social Maintenance, but the numbers don't seem to match up. Where are the other £20 of infrastructure and the other £5 of social spending, and for that matter the other £31 of military maintenance? And I'm not sure where funding for the espionage comes from--it doesn't seem to come from policies, as that funding is already used up...
...and we're done. Will read timeline and apply in the next day or so, of course; any chance we could get a 1-paragraph summary for the big picture?
Because there is nothing wrong with it?
I love Symphonies style, but I wish you used another version of this map. The one with calmer seas
And it also looks as ugly as sin.