Blue Monkey nudged me to remind me that I'd promised to publish some of the background work I'd started on my own Barsoom Mod. Inasmuch as the chance that I'll ever get around to completing that project anytime in the next few years is growing less and less likely, I submit my humble plans to this thread to use as you wish. This could get lengthy, so sit back and smoke 'em if ya got 'em.
1. Techs
All of the Techs in these sample tech trees either appeared in Burroughs' Barsoom stories, or were strongly suggested to exist based on the text. Just one is my own invention, as I note below. To create this, I relied extensively on
lists of Barsoomian technology I found online.
Era 1
Most of Era One is self-explanatory, tending to promote military and scientific discoveries early, and cultural achievements later. It begins with
Ancient Secrets,
Canals, and
Religion, the remnants of times lost. Then the player can research
Theoretical Mechanics, which will lead to
Hydraulics and allow Defensive Housing to be built. After the player learns the ancient arts of
Optics he can learn
The Eighth Ray, which, with
Commerce will allow the Player to build Airships.
About the Rays: While the Burroughs books describe the Rays' effects, he understandably doesn't go into detail about what they are, scientifically. That allows me to fill in the blanks myself, so I did. This is the order of the Rays that I came up with:
1st Ray - White Ray - Spectrum
2nd Ray - Black Ray - Anti-Spectrum
3rd Ray - Infrared
4th Ray - Ultraviolet
5th Ray - Radioactive
6th Ray - Radio
7th Ray - Gridley (subspace) Rays
8th Ray - Gravity
9th Ray - SunRay - photovoltaic power
To understand the relationship that Barsoomians have to light, imagine if, on our world, early man had discovered optical lenses before discovering fire. How much more would we know about light than we do now? I've thought that if I wanted to turn this into a Science victory, I would include one more ray - perhaps a temporal Spacetime Ray, which could create the sort of wormhole that John Carter fell into (accidentally activated?) in the first place.
Era 2
In Era Two, the tech tree divides between Air techs (
Aerodrome, etc.), Science techs (
Education, etc.) and
Challenges, the latter reflecting how very important 'The Games' were to the Barsoomians. The games enable the player to get to the
Council of Jeddaks (analagous, perhaps, to the way that the ability to shine on television or sports can lead to the halls of power in our own society). It is amazing to note that
all of these modern-sounding technologies appeared in the Barsoom stories.
Era 3
Era 3 is a short but intense era of technological innovation that culminates with interplanetary contact (
Gridley Waves). In this era are also some powerful (
Laser Cannon), useful
(Robotics) and awesome (
Megaships) techs with good unit potential.
Era 4
In Era 4 the science is pumped up to 11, while the details are still very much Barsoomian. Here we find the only tech that doesn't derive directly from the books: The
Tur-Jed, meaning God-king or Emperor. I imagine it being a government that removes all restrictions.
In my next post I'll discuss my ideas for Improvements and Wonders.