IOT Developmental Thread

[Sonereal]

While I was contemplating my navel, I had an idea.

An IOT spanning from just after WWI into the far future, with divergent tech paths and strategic and tactical options depending on your tech choices. Conventional C&C-style super-tanks and UAVs and railguns, biotech's zombies and genetically engineered creatures, Supreme Commander-esque nanotech's robots and field fabrication units, and Fallout-esque nuketech's nuclear artillery, nuclear battleships, nuclear-armed satellites . . . .

Rise And Fall Of Empires.

Expect a start in the fairly near future, unless people really would rather I wait, in which case I'm willing. It's going to have a large unit-list and take place on a non-earth map. It's also going to be more or less a player-driven IOT, with me there just to calculate battles, update da map and adjudicate disputes. People keep track of their own nation's stats and such.

Can you say Mammoth Tank vs. ACU vs. Tarrasque?

-L

At some point, it seems like the best thing to do is to give a list of generic units and let players customize them. That super tank for instance? Maybe it's a Mammoth Tank or maybe it's an Imperial Rhino.

RAFOE is up!

Simply because I'm bored and a few people talked me into not waiting

-L

You fool! You gave me no warning!

 

[Double A]

Or maybe it's an AT-AT.

By the way, why does biotech get no artillery?

 

[Lighthearter]

Did I say no arty? I said limited arty - didn't I?

-L

 

[Tani Coyote]

I'm not going to touch this with my ten-foot !!SCIENCE!! pole.

You don't need to. My Enerjak story - the Grandfather of All Monsters - already features a 99.9% "male" race that has reproductive capability and whatnot. And I'm prohibited from waging wars of aggression until all female rulers are dead.

But that's not for discussion here.

I meanwhile, intend to cook up something awesome. Sons of Mars II has too few provinces. I need to streamline the NPC process yet maintain the lovely income/expenditure model.

 

[Double A]

Either less NPCs or more provinces.

 

[Tani Coyote]

More provinces. IOT: Aftermath looks freaking awesome with its power projection capabilities.

 

[Arakhor]

Yeah, I thought that Expansionist would be a poisoned chalice, but I didn't expect to get only two turns out of it!

 

[Tani Coyote]

I'll find some way to make things better come the Quadripolar World game, I assure you!

My basic outline would have plenty of NPCs, with players collectively governing the four superpowers: USA, Empire of the Rising Sun, European Union (basically an extension of the German Empire; Britain is one of the few free European states left and it's crumbling), and the Soviet Union.

Of course, players would be allowed to take charge of minor nations, but they better know it'll be uphill from there.

Gameplay would be focused on power projection and manipulation rather than "build huge army of d00mzorz and conker half zee plan3tz!"

There'd likely be an industrialisation/population chart of some sort, but simplified.

Trade agreements would need to be simplified of course, at least for NPCs, to provide sanity.

Basic outline - it may be insane, but I long since gave up giving a damn:

-World War I; the United States joins on the side of the Central Powers and scoops up most of British America. The pressure on the Allies forces Europe to its knees, as Germany overwhelms France.

-Post-bellum, the British Empire remains strong, but Germany has set about dissecting the rest of Europe, and controls satellites stretching from France to the Ukraine. Germany has, accordingly, become a sponsor of decolonisation as a PR move; most of the former French Empire is now a litter of German puppet states, and the slowly shrinking British Empire risks going the same route!

-Japan continues its historical course of conquest, but without World War II in Europe, Japan has built up a powerful base, creating it's Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere undeterred.

-The USSR has gone the historical route, but is nowhere near as strong as our timeline due to limited resources (1/3 of the historical USSR's people are in German hands) and no WWII to give the Russians an iron grip on Europe.

It may be more accurately described as a five-power world rather than four-power one, given Britain's status as an either-way power... it might crumble, or it might find some way to salvage itself.

Not sure of the timeframe, but I'd imagine 1980s+ to make decolonisation in vogue.

 

[Omega124]

Britain is one of the few free European states left and it's crumbling

DO. WANT.

An independent Britian facing a united EU is a wet dream of mine.

 

[Tani Coyote]

It's funny really; despite World War II not happening, Germany is at the same crossroads as World War II - Britain on one flank and Soivet Russia on the other...

Now the million dollar question: will whoever manage Germany succumb to Hitler's idiocy and wage a two-front war?

This map is a prototype, and will not be used(it was made months ago when this concept first came about). But it gives a general idea of the political situation. The United States and USSR, by having the largest homelands, logically have the greatest potential. Japan and Germany will have to tread carefully to maintain superpower status.

Britain's primary concern, well, apart from the fact it's surrounded by three hungry monsters, will be fending off anti-colonialism. It will start off prominent, but is likely to fade away, with or without good management.

...same goes for the Ottomans, who I forgot about. They too continue to exist, but are likely to collapse.

I intend to eliminate most sea zones; they will exist primarily to make orders easier to see, rather than a "instant naval transportation" anywhere.

 

[Omega124]

What about that Unified Nordics (Minus Finland)? That has more provences that Germany has, and they aren't even considered a secondary power?

 

[Double A]

Germany has 3 colonies, and Scandinavian is really f-ing cold.

 

[Tani Coyote]

Indeed, there'd be a measure of economic development.


And, as was said, the map isn't going to be used... it's a general idea above all else.

 

[Double A]

Yeah, wasn't it obvious Omega? I mean, can you imagine North Carolina and West Virginia in the same province? It's not like it's the entire Eastern Seaboard. That's just too crazy to ever work. We'd have those hicks running for their sheep.

 

[Aiolos]

Does Japan own China?

 

[Double A]

Parts of it, yeah. China's kinda pissed.

 

[GhostWriter16]

I'd like to see Japan lose part of China and have a Chinese resistance.

 

[Double A]

You want one of the lesser superpowers to have problems?

 

[Tani Coyote]

Does Japan own China?

Great East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere and all that jazz, yo.

You want one of the lesser superpowers to have problems?

Well, I did say Germany and Japan would have more structural issues since they're based on large, coercion-based empires, rather than the USSR and USA, which have large homelands of their own.

 

[Prospo]

Is there a chance for a minor power to snag a great power spot? Like France for instance?