Tani Coyote
Son of Huehuecoyotl
- Joined
- May 28, 2007
- Messages
- 15,195
Worldbuilding Thread
Welcome to Another Terra, Empires and Nations (or ATEN for short). The way to send orders is fairly standard: just tell me what you want your spies to do (if applicable), what you want your soldiers to do (if applicable), and what you want to spend your money on. You can send me a default set of spending percentages in each of the fields to use in case you miss orders or don’t want to do them; you can change these percentages between turns.
Here’s a basic explanation of what each stat is; I’m going from left to right on the stats sheet. Questions are welcome.
Stature is a measure of every country’s overall clout in the world. It is for the most part symbolic, but it does affect how NPCs look at you, the same way a state in our world would probably give what the United States wants more weight than what a microstate wants. Stature is determined by a mixture of factors such as economic and army size, with some bias towards having a navy. The rankings do sometimes carry additional perks like so:
Score 15.01+: Hyperpower
Score 10.01-15: Superpower
Score 2.51-10: Great Power (increased chance of WMD discovery)
Score 1.51-2.5: Emerging Power (unlocks ability to purchase stocks and give out loans; chance of WMD discovery)
Score 0-1.5: Minor Power.
Diplomatic summits are how many NPCs you can contact in a turn. These do not accumulate and must be used in that turn; having a much higher stature than other countries leads to an increase in the number of summits you can conduct. These are just the number of countries you can contact, not how much you may do with each (you can sign as many agreements as you want with a contact, the other willing). This scarcity of diplomatic actions is meant to encourage the creation of a sphere of influence. These are only for NPCs; you can contact as many players as you want per turn. Investments are unilateral and do not count as a summit.
Provinces are self-explanatory. They don’t mean much, generally.
The five columns – Organics, Minerals, Secondary, Energy, and Tertiary – are classes of economic production. The amount of these goods you produce, combined with global prices for them (visible at the far bottom of the list of nations) has a hand in your economic size. Without serving you a plate of Greek salad, try to avoid shifting yourself too lopsided to either one; each one is consumed by your nation, and you must import what you do not have at home. You can adjust production to suit your needs (more secondary goods, for example, helps with building up an army); simply instruct me in your orders to shift production towards a single field of your choice. You will gain 9 units in that field and lose 10 across all the others.
Some more economic stats: Population is self-explanatory. More people require more food to feed, but they also are useful in building a larger military. Infrastructure is a measure of your country’s overall communications network and basically how conductive your state is to foreign and domestic commerce; every 100 points put into Infrastructure will raise this by 1. Human capital represents the number of people with skills and education in your populace; they raise demand for tertiary goods, as those with more wealth and education invariably want higher-end goods.
Some military stats: Mobilization basically is a detail of how prepared you are for war (i.e. how much your state devotes to militarism). It determines how many units can be recruited (manpower) and how many weapons your state builds (arms production); the latter is also controlled by how many secondary units you produce per turn. Excessive mobilization (about >5% at peace and >10% during war) will drag down one’s economy. There is finally your arms stockpile, which doesn’t decay and sits idle until you’re at war. During a war, you can rapidly go through it, thus opening the opportunity to buy foreign weapons. Land units cost 1 manpower each, while naval/air units cost 0.5 each.
Back to economics. Your home economy is simply how much of your GDP is produced from domestic production and consumption, while exports/imports is exactly as it says. These two are added together are multiplied by your tax rate to determine your part of your national income; lower taxes than the global average lead to a net inflow of investment and vice versa. The rest of your national income is gained from client revenue (money gained from privileges in overseas countries, to be detailed down below), stock revenue (from your country’s overall investment portfolio), and miscellaneous sources (i.e. tribute from a defeated foe). There is finally your national debt; there’s no limit to how high it can go, but banks limit how much they will lend you, and excessive debt will lead to economic consequences.
Onto the trade sheet. Every country has a value of “1” with others to indicate that goods are flowing between them smoothly. You may unilaterally alter this value to anywhere from 0-1 if you wish (representing tariffs, quotas, embargoes) and may sign treaties to increase it from any decimal up to 2. Once you go beyond 1, you may unilaterally lower it, but raising it requires further treaties. These numbers basically represent how much you trade with that country versus others; you can use them to pick favorites, accordingly.
Next up are military units. Each come with their own sets of stats; artillery attack and defense are used prior to an engagement, while direct attack and defense are used during it. Having a higher attack in either category than the opponent’s defense is ideal, as they ultimately determine victory and casualties in combat. Some units have specific traits beyond these stats: on land, armor and infantry occupy territory, while artillery bombard any province on your borders. At sea, carriers are responsible for carrying up to five of any land or air unit type, submarines can torpedo trade ships as well as military vessels, destroyers increase the chance of finding submarines, and all naval units can enforce a blockade if they are unopposed. In the air, bombers can target anywhere 5 provinces from your borders or the coastline (if on a carrier), while fighters intercept them and each other.
Geopolitics is a simple sheet. It marks your relationship with every NPC (grade of 1-100, top portion) and also how much you have invested in that country (bottom portion). Investments generate client income, and you start with investment in every country. Further investments will help with relations; bear in mind hostile states will freeze or even repossess assets. Basic idea of relationships and their meaning:
0-20: May or may not want to blow you up. Ex. Iran and Israel
21-40: Often tense, but not usually hostile. Ex. Russia and America
41-60: Neutral.
61-80: Generally friendly. Ex. France and America
81-100: Very friendly. Ex. America and Britain
The stock market serves as a vehicle for profiteering. Each company has 100 shares for simplicity, most of which are held by the major powers (and their citizens), but you can always buy more. Buying and selling will determine the price next turn, and you can always offload your shares for a nice profit. Acquiring 51% of a company, whether on your own or through an alliance with other major shareholders, allows you to monopolize the dividend rate (the percent of company profits paid out each year to shareholders) and the placement of branches (which grant a small economic bonus). Countries desperate for cash may repossess the assets of a corporation in their country, but this comes with penalties as your country is deemed unsuitable for business.
Banking is a record of all the major banks of the world; only a select few countries serve as creditors and players can set their national interest rate as they wish. The assets of your bank are yours to borrow and pay back as you will, though default carries severe penalties on future borrowing as well as economic growth; you will also lose investments overseas, as you must put them up as collateral. Debt is best used as a tool for emergency funds, not a piggy bank to be regularly dipped into. You must acquire the consent of another country’s player to take funds from their bank. The debt owned by each country can be seen right of the “total outlays” column; by default no bank will loan more than 10% of its credit to a single debtor.
With the stats sheet out of the way, let’s get to more standard rules and procedures:
Spending
Your total amount available for spending is your “Nat’l Budget” column with the addition of any debt you take out. It may be spent on the following categories:
-Military units (prices seen on the Military page; you must have unlocked the technology for bioweapons and nukes to buy them; you will be PMed if you have done so). Units cannot be used on the turn they are built, though new units (at a disadvantage due to not being fully trained) will defend your last province if it is all you have left.
-Army Techs (there are four and each improves what it says on the tin – Offensive Army, Defensive Army, Naval, and Air). Technologies increase the effectiveness of your troops without increasing the amount of weapons you must supply them with; they are a good alternative to raising more units accordingly.
-Education (increases demand for tertiary goods, also helps with discovering new technologies)
-Healthcare (decreases mortality rate, thus leading a higher population)
-Infrastructure (every 100 gold grants a single Infra point; infrastructure tech also determines economic growth per turn)
-Stock spending (you can specify which stocks or leave it to my best judgment)
-Espionage spending (you can specify which countries; lack of specification will result in investment in your home soil)
Diplomacy
Your diplomatic summits determine how many NPCs you can interact with per turn. There is no limit to the number of agreements you can make with that NPC on that turn. War declarations and peace treaties do not count as a summit. You can make pretty much any agreement you can think of, though alliances, non-aggression pacts, and trade agreements are the most common. Funding one side of an NPC conflict counts as a summit; anything that requires interaction with an NPC will generally count as a summit.
Technologies cannot be sold, but they can be stolen via espionage.
Espionage
Espionage missions are done 48 hours after the update; send a separate espionage orders PM within that time for it to count.
If you have espionage points in a country (they do not count the turn they are created, to prevent zerging), you may conduct espionage against that country, with chances determined by relative investment. The number of countries you can conduct espionage in per turn is the same as the number of summits you can hold; you have an unlimited amount of actions that can be done in each country, but bear in mind this will split your investment. Most missions are not reported unless it’s something special, and there’s no chance of discovery; the list of missions is as follows:
-Steal Plans. Lists the opponent’s tech levels and also grants you knowledge of their spending/espionage for the turn.
-Sabotage WMD. Damages some of the opponent’s weapons, but leaves them oblivious. If the mission succeeds and there are no WMD to sabotage, you will be informed that they have no weapons.
-Destabilize market. Hits the opponent with a one-turn recession; bear in mind recessions can spread.
-Detonate suitcase WMD. Self-explanatory.
-Sow discontent. If successful, can trigger anything from some annoying protests to a full-blown civil war.
-Steal technology. If successful, you will acquire your target’s highest technology over you.
-Counterespionage. Hunts for other spies in the country.
-Conspire. Will assist any other spies in the country against the government.
-Defend government. Will protect the government against foreign attack. Useful for protecting your closest clients and allies.
Spies not sent on missions stay on defense and protect your presence in the country.
Automation Policy
If a player must go on extended leave, I request they inform me of such and give me a list of their spending priorities. After two updates without any communication, a player will be placed under my care; it cannot conduct espionage or any form of foreign relations while in this state. After three updates, I will send you a PM asking how you’re doing; if you do not respond, I will give you a strike on my “index.” If you have three strikes on my index due to constantly going AWOL, I will request permission to ban you from joining my games from a moderator. Everyone has real life issues, but if you must leave, tell me. It’s disruptive to just quietly leave, and it’s a habit I do not condone.
I think I covered everything. A FAQ section will be posted in the next post. First update inbound.
Welcome to Another Terra, Empires and Nations (or ATEN for short). The way to send orders is fairly standard: just tell me what you want your spies to do (if applicable), what you want your soldiers to do (if applicable), and what you want to spend your money on. You can send me a default set of spending percentages in each of the fields to use in case you miss orders or don’t want to do them; you can change these percentages between turns.
Here’s a basic explanation of what each stat is; I’m going from left to right on the stats sheet. Questions are welcome.
Stature is a measure of every country’s overall clout in the world. It is for the most part symbolic, but it does affect how NPCs look at you, the same way a state in our world would probably give what the United States wants more weight than what a microstate wants. Stature is determined by a mixture of factors such as economic and army size, with some bias towards having a navy. The rankings do sometimes carry additional perks like so:
Score 15.01+: Hyperpower
Score 10.01-15: Superpower
Score 2.51-10: Great Power (increased chance of WMD discovery)
Score 1.51-2.5: Emerging Power (unlocks ability to purchase stocks and give out loans; chance of WMD discovery)
Score 0-1.5: Minor Power.
Diplomatic summits are how many NPCs you can contact in a turn. These do not accumulate and must be used in that turn; having a much higher stature than other countries leads to an increase in the number of summits you can conduct. These are just the number of countries you can contact, not how much you may do with each (you can sign as many agreements as you want with a contact, the other willing). This scarcity of diplomatic actions is meant to encourage the creation of a sphere of influence. These are only for NPCs; you can contact as many players as you want per turn. Investments are unilateral and do not count as a summit.
Provinces are self-explanatory. They don’t mean much, generally.
The five columns – Organics, Minerals, Secondary, Energy, and Tertiary – are classes of economic production. The amount of these goods you produce, combined with global prices for them (visible at the far bottom of the list of nations) has a hand in your economic size. Without serving you a plate of Greek salad, try to avoid shifting yourself too lopsided to either one; each one is consumed by your nation, and you must import what you do not have at home. You can adjust production to suit your needs (more secondary goods, for example, helps with building up an army); simply instruct me in your orders to shift production towards a single field of your choice. You will gain 9 units in that field and lose 10 across all the others.
Some more economic stats: Population is self-explanatory. More people require more food to feed, but they also are useful in building a larger military. Infrastructure is a measure of your country’s overall communications network and basically how conductive your state is to foreign and domestic commerce; every 100 points put into Infrastructure will raise this by 1. Human capital represents the number of people with skills and education in your populace; they raise demand for tertiary goods, as those with more wealth and education invariably want higher-end goods.
Some military stats: Mobilization basically is a detail of how prepared you are for war (i.e. how much your state devotes to militarism). It determines how many units can be recruited (manpower) and how many weapons your state builds (arms production); the latter is also controlled by how many secondary units you produce per turn. Excessive mobilization (about >5% at peace and >10% during war) will drag down one’s economy. There is finally your arms stockpile, which doesn’t decay and sits idle until you’re at war. During a war, you can rapidly go through it, thus opening the opportunity to buy foreign weapons. Land units cost 1 manpower each, while naval/air units cost 0.5 each.
Back to economics. Your home economy is simply how much of your GDP is produced from domestic production and consumption, while exports/imports is exactly as it says. These two are added together are multiplied by your tax rate to determine your part of your national income; lower taxes than the global average lead to a net inflow of investment and vice versa. The rest of your national income is gained from client revenue (money gained from privileges in overseas countries, to be detailed down below), stock revenue (from your country’s overall investment portfolio), and miscellaneous sources (i.e. tribute from a defeated foe). There is finally your national debt; there’s no limit to how high it can go, but banks limit how much they will lend you, and excessive debt will lead to economic consequences.
Onto the trade sheet. Every country has a value of “1” with others to indicate that goods are flowing between them smoothly. You may unilaterally alter this value to anywhere from 0-1 if you wish (representing tariffs, quotas, embargoes) and may sign treaties to increase it from any decimal up to 2. Once you go beyond 1, you may unilaterally lower it, but raising it requires further treaties. These numbers basically represent how much you trade with that country versus others; you can use them to pick favorites, accordingly.
Next up are military units. Each come with their own sets of stats; artillery attack and defense are used prior to an engagement, while direct attack and defense are used during it. Having a higher attack in either category than the opponent’s defense is ideal, as they ultimately determine victory and casualties in combat. Some units have specific traits beyond these stats: on land, armor and infantry occupy territory, while artillery bombard any province on your borders. At sea, carriers are responsible for carrying up to five of any land or air unit type, submarines can torpedo trade ships as well as military vessels, destroyers increase the chance of finding submarines, and all naval units can enforce a blockade if they are unopposed. In the air, bombers can target anywhere 5 provinces from your borders or the coastline (if on a carrier), while fighters intercept them and each other.
Geopolitics is a simple sheet. It marks your relationship with every NPC (grade of 1-100, top portion) and also how much you have invested in that country (bottom portion). Investments generate client income, and you start with investment in every country. Further investments will help with relations; bear in mind hostile states will freeze or even repossess assets. Basic idea of relationships and their meaning:
0-20: May or may not want to blow you up. Ex. Iran and Israel
21-40: Often tense, but not usually hostile. Ex. Russia and America
41-60: Neutral.
61-80: Generally friendly. Ex. France and America
81-100: Very friendly. Ex. America and Britain
The stock market serves as a vehicle for profiteering. Each company has 100 shares for simplicity, most of which are held by the major powers (and their citizens), but you can always buy more. Buying and selling will determine the price next turn, and you can always offload your shares for a nice profit. Acquiring 51% of a company, whether on your own or through an alliance with other major shareholders, allows you to monopolize the dividend rate (the percent of company profits paid out each year to shareholders) and the placement of branches (which grant a small economic bonus). Countries desperate for cash may repossess the assets of a corporation in their country, but this comes with penalties as your country is deemed unsuitable for business.
Banking is a record of all the major banks of the world; only a select few countries serve as creditors and players can set their national interest rate as they wish. The assets of your bank are yours to borrow and pay back as you will, though default carries severe penalties on future borrowing as well as economic growth; you will also lose investments overseas, as you must put them up as collateral. Debt is best used as a tool for emergency funds, not a piggy bank to be regularly dipped into. You must acquire the consent of another country’s player to take funds from their bank. The debt owned by each country can be seen right of the “total outlays” column; by default no bank will loan more than 10% of its credit to a single debtor.
With the stats sheet out of the way, let’s get to more standard rules and procedures:
Spending
Your total amount available for spending is your “Nat’l Budget” column with the addition of any debt you take out. It may be spent on the following categories:
-Military units (prices seen on the Military page; you must have unlocked the technology for bioweapons and nukes to buy them; you will be PMed if you have done so). Units cannot be used on the turn they are built, though new units (at a disadvantage due to not being fully trained) will defend your last province if it is all you have left.
-Army Techs (there are four and each improves what it says on the tin – Offensive Army, Defensive Army, Naval, and Air). Technologies increase the effectiveness of your troops without increasing the amount of weapons you must supply them with; they are a good alternative to raising more units accordingly.
-Education (increases demand for tertiary goods, also helps with discovering new technologies)
-Healthcare (decreases mortality rate, thus leading a higher population)
-Infrastructure (every 100 gold grants a single Infra point; infrastructure tech also determines economic growth per turn)
-Stock spending (you can specify which stocks or leave it to my best judgment)
-Espionage spending (you can specify which countries; lack of specification will result in investment in your home soil)
Diplomacy
Your diplomatic summits determine how many NPCs you can interact with per turn. There is no limit to the number of agreements you can make with that NPC on that turn. War declarations and peace treaties do not count as a summit. You can make pretty much any agreement you can think of, though alliances, non-aggression pacts, and trade agreements are the most common. Funding one side of an NPC conflict counts as a summit; anything that requires interaction with an NPC will generally count as a summit.
Technologies cannot be sold, but they can be stolen via espionage.
Espionage
Espionage missions are done 48 hours after the update; send a separate espionage orders PM within that time for it to count.
If you have espionage points in a country (they do not count the turn they are created, to prevent zerging), you may conduct espionage against that country, with chances determined by relative investment. The number of countries you can conduct espionage in per turn is the same as the number of summits you can hold; you have an unlimited amount of actions that can be done in each country, but bear in mind this will split your investment. Most missions are not reported unless it’s something special, and there’s no chance of discovery; the list of missions is as follows:
-Steal Plans. Lists the opponent’s tech levels and also grants you knowledge of their spending/espionage for the turn.
-Sabotage WMD. Damages some of the opponent’s weapons, but leaves them oblivious. If the mission succeeds and there are no WMD to sabotage, you will be informed that they have no weapons.
-Destabilize market. Hits the opponent with a one-turn recession; bear in mind recessions can spread.
-Detonate suitcase WMD. Self-explanatory.
-Sow discontent. If successful, can trigger anything from some annoying protests to a full-blown civil war.
-Steal technology. If successful, you will acquire your target’s highest technology over you.
-Counterespionage. Hunts for other spies in the country.
-Conspire. Will assist any other spies in the country against the government.
-Defend government. Will protect the government against foreign attack. Useful for protecting your closest clients and allies.
Spies not sent on missions stay on defense and protect your presence in the country.
Automation Policy
If a player must go on extended leave, I request they inform me of such and give me a list of their spending priorities. After two updates without any communication, a player will be placed under my care; it cannot conduct espionage or any form of foreign relations while in this state. After three updates, I will send you a PM asking how you’re doing; if you do not respond, I will give you a strike on my “index.” If you have three strikes on my index due to constantly going AWOL, I will request permission to ban you from joining my games from a moderator. Everyone has real life issues, but if you must leave, tell me. It’s disruptive to just quietly leave, and it’s a habit I do not condone.
I think I covered everything. A FAQ section will be posted in the next post. First update inbound.
