IOT Developmental Thread

[Ailedhoo]

I was just joking around
Didn't think you guys would take it seriously.

Sorry: chat is venomous in its nature.

On subject of Fallout: Europe or Russia I am looking forward to it.

 

[Civ'ed]

Bloody hell guys, does it really matter what games people play? Some people enjoy StoryIOTs, some people enjoy StatIOTs and some enjoy both. Does it really matter how people have fun?

If you aren't playing a spreadsheet sim/fairy tale book you ain't doing it right, circle the appropriate.

 

[Ailedhoo]

Overall...

Now we must return this thread to its purpose, such as talking about the wonders of Fallout Europa/USSR!

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

Now I have a question, Any suggestions to make the map seem less empty without having massive nations at the start.

Aliens, Raiders and Fawkes, oh my!
Aliens, Raiders and Fawkes, oh my!
Aliens, Ponies and Fawkes, oh my!

 

[Ailedhoo]

Will there be flame troopers with smiles?

Spoiler Nod joy :

 

[Polyblank]

Guys, guys, I had a brilliant idea. FTLIOT.
That said, I am still doing PolIOT, just a bit later than I intended because of a busy time schedule.

 

[TheGryphonPrince]

I'm all for a FTLIOT.

 

[Terran Empress]

Fallout IOT From Russia With Love (or what ever I decide to call it) Pre Dev Diary One

Ok, Ive been working on a map all day, Ive decided if you can't tell from the title it will take place in the former USSR and a decent chunk of Eastern Europe

Spoiler :

^ is the current map

Explanation:

White is Current claimable lands

Light Grey are lands in limbo, they are not gone but are not part of the claimable lands yet.

Dark Grey are lands that are either going to be unplayable and will not effect the game, or lands that are unplayable and will affect the game (unseen NPCs and stuff)

Black lands are lands that are not playable, impassable, and (currently) WILL NOT affect game play.

you might have also noticed that there are a couple of thick black boarders, these are mountain ranges, they are impassible and nations cannot "communicate" over them, and as such cannot establish control through a mountain range, and must go around them.

The lands in limbo are divided into 4 areas.
Trans Ural
Tundra
Sweedish
Eastern Central Europe

I want some feedback on what everyone thinks should be kept and what should become blacked out.

Dark Grey is most likely going to become blacked out at some point but some lands will most likely continue to influence or affect the game with events and stuff.


Edit:

Spoiler :

^this is a new and updated map, Black will not affect the world and cannot be traversed over, White can be claimed, and Grey Cannot be claimed but can be interacted with and could possibly have stuff going on that you can interact with, note some things might change a bit with the blacked out areas, if it does probably around syria, but tbh, im not sure tehre woudl be much stuff going on in the middle east

 

[SouthernKing]

Hmm, if you're going with a post-Soviet thing I think you should draw the western edge of the white territories at the Iron Curtain - so all of East Germany, Czech, and Yugoslavia should be white. Austria, West Germany, and bits of Northern Italy should thus be light gray I guess

 

[Double A]

I really don't like how the Urals are just this black blob and a bit of Siberia to the east of them is dark grey.

It'd be pretty neat if you used a map with custom borders because I really don't see modern ones being preserved. That sounds like quite a bit of work, though, so I won't much mind if you pass on that. Still, maybe you could just crop it so there's some sort of ambiguity about the lands? Like the further from the center of the map you get, the more HERE THERE BE DEATHCLAWS there are instead of actual landmasses. Do not want to see Africa, for example. It makes everything feel too global, and at this point, a state shouldn't know much beyond its neighbors.

 

[Sonereal]

Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest.

Isaac Asimov


[YOUTUBE=10]EIVgSuuUTwQ[/YOUTUBE]​

At the turn of the twenty-first century, the decades old ideological divide between communism and market capitalism failed to dissolve, as each camp maintained strength in stability in the turbulent years of the last quarter of the twentieth century. "The end of history" partisans in both camp claimed was upon humanity never came, and so, the earth continued to spin, the sun rose in the morning, and the world moved on. Capitalism and Democracy were no longer bound at the hip in the eyes of Western citizens who, increasingly, saw industrial capitalism give way to automated capitalism.

Automobile and Steel gave way to the Computer and Robot. The standard of living across the Third World rose dramatically in the early years of the twenty-first. Social strife plagued parts of the world, but the march of progress was undeniable.

Behind the Iron and Bamboo Curtains, tensions cooled as the People's Republic of China and USSR took divergent paths to improving the standard of living of their citizens. China's economic reforms and gradual opening of foreign investment, and its entrance into the international markets, turned China from a purely centrally-planned venture to a country with competing private and public firms. The Soviet Union, meanwhile, stagnated throughout the last twenty-five years of the twentieth century before the Gorbachev Reforms threw the Soviet Union on a new trajectory which would breath new life into the flagging camp.

It is 2049. The world is filled with competing ideas on religion, society, and the political-economy, and with that, the Cold War has all but ended. The "Rise of the Rest", new technologies, and a changing global economy has given power to regional powers that weren't afforded to them in the twentieth century. This is the era of the automated factory, integrated military systems, the maturation of drone technology, cybernetics, and transnationalism.


INTERNA UNIVERSO PLANNED FEATURES

• A Cyberpunk Aesthetic
• Dynamic Investment and Global Economy
• Fleshed out 21st Century Cyberespionage
• Wars over land, sea, air, and space.
• RoR-styled Open Orders
• This Map

I made a promise I would run one more serial IOT before going full Frontier, so here it is.

 

[Terran Empress]

Ok taking the suggestions from AA here is the basic map still using regular boarders.

Spoiler :

And here is one with some ambiguity with lands

Spoiler :

i also did some editing with the blacked out areas, as I don't think Arkhangelsk should be a no go area

 

[Tyo]

Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest.

Isaac Asimov


[YOUTUBE=10]EIVgSuuUTwQ[/YOUTUBE]​

At the turn of the twenty-first century, the decades old ideological divide between communism and market capitalism failed to dissolve, as each camp maintained strength in stability in the turbulent years of the last quarter of the twentieth century. "The end of history" partisans in both camp claimed was upon humanity never came, and so, the earth continued to spin, the sun rose in the morning, and the world moved on. Capitalism and Democracy were no longer bound at the hip in the eyes of Western citizens who, increasingly, saw industrial capitalism give way to automated capitalism.

Automobile and Steel gave way to the Computer and Robot. The standard of living across the Third World rose dramatically in the early years of the twenty-first. Social strife plagued parts of the world, but the march of progress was undeniable.

Behind the Iron and Bamboo Curtains, tensions cooled as the People's Republic of China and USSR took divergent paths to improving the standard of living of their citizens. China's economic reforms and gradual opening of foreign investment, and its entrance into the international markets, turned China from a purely centrally-planned venture to a country with competing private and public firms. The Soviet Union, meanwhile, stagnated throughout the last twenty-five years of the twentieth century before the Gorbachev Reforms threw the Soviet Union on a new trajectory which would breath new life into the flagging camp.

It is 2049. The world is filled with competing ideas on religion, society, and the political-economy, and with that, the Cold War has all but ended. The "Rise of the Rest", new technologies, and a changing global economy has given power to regional powers that weren't afforded to them in the twentieth century. This is the era of the automated factory, integrated military systems, the maturation of drone technology, cybernetics, and transnationalism.


INTERNA UNIVERSO PLANNED FEATURES

• A Cyberpunk Aesthetic
• Dynamic Investment and Global Economy
• Fleshed out 21st Century Cyberespionage
• Wars over land, sea, air, and space.
• RoR-styled Open Orders
• This Map

I made a promise I would run one more serial IOT before going full Frontier, so here it is.

Hereby endorsing this post

 

[SouthernKing]

Albanii: Omega124
Location: Upstate New York
Economy: 0/10
Unity: +2
Civilization: -3
Administration: -3
Authority: +1
Culture: Yorker (Imperial, Alleghenii)
Religion: Zoroastrianism (Catholic, Rust Cult)
Military: 5 Infantry, 2 Cavalry (7/10)
Description:

I may compress this into a spreadsheet, I may not. I'd honestly prefer not to.

Some of these stats should be taken with a grain of salt. They matter less or more depending on how settled you are.

Location: Obviously, where the core of your people are located at a given time. This is by no means fixed, and if you're not entirely civilized and you wish to, you are able to migrate to greener pastures. There are no claims as other games might have - if you want to expand, you'll either have to fight or migrate.

Economy: There are two numbers here, income and treasury. Since you start off as a possibly nomadic tribal federation without an established administration, you also start off with no sources of income (though you will start with income). So how do you get funds, you ask? There are many ways. The most obvious - and perhaps the biggest in lump sum terms - is loot from cities or towns you raid and sack, which goes directly into your treasury. This works, but can be sporadic, and loot can easily run dry. You can demand tribute from conquered peoples, which gives you income, but creates resentment. Or you can sell yourself to a parishioner or someone else as mercenaries, which also gives you income. Once you start civilizing, you'll be able to levy proper taxes and obtain a firm, established source of income.

Unity: A scale from -3 to +3, this represents the general cohesiveness of your leadership over your warbands and overarching government: +3 represents complete control by a strong, decisive leader, while -3 represents virtually no central control whatsoever. Low unity can lead to other leaders challenging your authority and trying to take over control, while higher unity will naturally give you better, more decisive leadership.

Civilization: A scale from -3 to +3, this represents how sedentary and settled your people are. +3 represents a fully settled, urban society like Holy Louisiana, while -3 represents a purely nomadic society constantly on the move. The lower it is, the quicker and further you can migrate. Higher civilization, however, will lead to better incomes, better technology,and all the fruits these things give. If your civilization level is 0 or above, you cannot migrate.

Administration: A scale from -3 to +3, this represents your ability to adequately manage the lands you control. Consistently low administration will lead to depopulation and famine and devastation as order breaks down. If you're just in it for loot, then this stat won't matter much to you. Nevertheless, keep this in mind if you have intentions of creating an empire in the vein of Holy Louisiana. Higher administration leads to better income as it is easier to collect taxes.

Authority: A scale from -3 to +3, this represents the amount of control you have over the people in the lands you control. This is separate from Unity in that while that represents control over the warriors and, this represents the people themselves who are under your rule. Low authority causes rebellions as the people see opportunity to assert their demands. Higher authority will make the people more...wiling...to provide their tribute to you.

Culture: This is the culture group your people come from. That of you and your leaders are listed first, while any significant minorities are listed in the parenthesis. If there is a majority not under you control, then said majority will be listed in bold.

Religion: Same as Culture.

Military: I'm working on this one, hold on.
1 Infantry is 2 EP, 1 Cavalry is 3 EP.

 

[Sonereal]

​

Imperium Offtopicums are map-oriented. Some games have come and gone that didn't need or didn't use a map, but for the majority of games, maps are even more central than stats, and players will spend a long time looking at maps when writing orders.

Spoiler IU Map; Warning: Large :

One of the larger problems with some of the newer rulesets is that the map isn't as important as it used to be in pure RIOT-economic rulesets. While taking provinces may increase your population, industry, economic score, or whatever the particular game is using, the vast majority of provinces outside of ones overlooking key waterways are treated as irrelevant.

Interna Universo has three maps: Political, Terrain, and Resources.

The Political Map will be the most used map for most players. Controlled territory, occupied territory, restless territory, rebelling territories, and other province types are showed on the map and marked instead of being left color coded. The map, may, get crowded with country names in some areas, so there will be a blank version of the political map as well. Besides showing special territories like the ones above, fortifications and major cities will be placed, as they will be on the Terrain map as well.

The Terrain Map comes from Victoria 2. The terrain map is important when planning combat operations since defenders receive bonuses defending certain types of provinces. Furthermore, some provinces, such as mountains, reduce the number of troops that can be engaged on the front at once, giving an additional bonus for smaller forces. Finally, terrain, as well as your national infrastructure or the infrastructure of occupied territory, is important in determining the amount of supply that can reach troops in combat.

The final map is the resource map. There are five resources present on the resource map: Food, Raw Materials, Energy, Rare Materials, and Crude Oil. All five form the backbone of a country's industry and economy, with the latter's demand on the decline, but still relevant. The resource provinces you control increases your ability to produce those type of resources. However, all countries are able to produce all types of resources to a degree, but are just very ineffective without backing technology or control of provinces.

 

[Terran Empress]

Its up

 

[Double A]

Ok taking the suggestions from AA here is the basic map still using regular boarders.

Spoiler :

And here is one with some ambiguity with lands

Spoiler :

i also did some editing with the blacked out areas, as I don't think Arkhangelsk should be a no go area

That's looking better, but I still think there's too much information conveyed. In NV and FO3, there are really only rumors outside of your immediate area, right? The rumors had a much better foundation in NV than FO3 because more land and less nukes than DC, so that seems like a decent model for most of Russia.

Moscow and other large cities would probably be uninhabitable to a very large degree but I don't advocate blacking out the whole province. That's always been an awful IOT tradition. Maybe a black dot or something if you really have to indicate that, but flavor stuff would be fine with me.

 

[SouthernKing]

Spoiler :

Parish borders. Of course this map is awful so this'll change but these are basically them.

 

[SouthernKing]

Spoiler :

Minus fixing the stray pixels there's the map.

 

[Sonereal]

[YOUTUBE=10]CDzTKn0WTiM[/youtube]​

Numbers are hard, and I'm rusty.

Going into this, I had a general idea of what I want to do. I had a resource map, and I wanted resources to matter, but the resource system I wanted to use really didn't gel with the other systems I wanted to you. Hours later and no progress had been made until, finally, I caved and grabbed Rebuild of Revolution.

Rebuild of Revolution was, easily, my favorite ruleset I ever made. There were a lot of moving parts and it worked well enough that nobody actually...knew how to powergame it. There were flaw, one fatal. The investment engine, the system that decides where all that juicy investment dosh was supposed to, collapsed catastrophically and I still don't know why that happened. For those not familiar with the game, Rebuild of Revolution divided the economy into a public and private sector, with the former generating revenue directly for the state with a large inefficiency penalty and the latter being taxed. Untaxed private sector dollars were used as investment, and where it went internationally was based on a lot of weighting based on a country's tax rate, political party, and economic fluctuations (the game ended, after all, with the Great French Recession).

The system was a baby, and like babies, was unwieldy, messy, and died before it turned five. Only with the power of of !!science!! was I able to revive the ruleset, delete a vast majority of the original Excel sheets, and start from near scratch. The new workbook is cleaner and works better than RoR's, and actually doesn't take twenty seconds to open.
-----

There's a lot of things about trade in real life that is totally fun in theory, but totally a pain in the ass to implement. So, here is what is in the game trade wise.

• Exports/Imports
• International Investment
• International Ownership of Capital
• Bastardized tax, tariff, and saving effects on investment
• Etc

Net exporters under this model build up stocks of foreign capital, which has income earned on it. Interest rates have a major effect as well. In the example, there are five equal countries (in terms of infrastructure, labor force, public capital ownership, private capital ownership, and saving rates). Three countries have the same middle-of-the-road tax rate. One country has a substantially lower rate. Another has a substantially higher rate.

The country with the lower rate is the leading exporter, and its net foreign investment is positive. The three middle-rung countries have net exports equally nearly zero. The low-rate country is the only net importer, and foreign countries are accumulating assets within that country faster than that country's capitalists are accumulating assets abroad.

Does this make complete sense? Well, the leading exporter has the lowest rate of return on capital investment. The leading importer has the highest rate of return on capital.

Throw in geographical and political modifiers, tariffs and import subsidies, and state subsidies to industry and the picture gets more complex. The leading exporter raises taxes and suddenly its exports are up and imports down, and everybody else is a net importer. That same country imposes 100% import subsidies? Suddenly some countries gain breathing room.

What if the major exporter suddenly increased its infrastructure by a massive amount? Productivity rises, interest rates go up, and all of a sudden that country is a net importer with every other country a net exporter.
-----

Overall, the system is a cleaned up, streamlined, and more powerful version of the trade system used in RoR. No player's country is an island and large economies can exert considerable influence on smaller economies.

Of course, smaller countries with access to key resources can always shift the tide. As a final example, lets say that in the five-country model, we give Saudi Arabia all six of the oil provinces in the Middle East (and we're assuming no one else has any resources).

Saudi Arabia is clearly the leading exporter, right? Well, not exactly. The amount of capital in Saudi Arabia doesn't change overnight. Interest rates go up, and Saudi Arabia becomes very attractive to invest in. Saudi Arabia actually becomes a net importer and imports the capital it will need to bring its economy up to speed. As more capital is invested, the return on capital will fall, and soon, Saudi Arabia's fortune will flip. Instead of foreigners accumulating assets in Saudi Arabia at a greater rate than Saudi Arabia's accumulation of assets overseas, Saudi Arabia may end up being the big guy in the world flushed with exports and buying up assets from America to Switzerland.

The game doesn't follow the old model. The old model being I build X factories in my country this turn which will produce a flat 20% return on my investment a turn. The actions of your neighbors will have an impact. With that being said, like RoR, most of the backdoor stuff will be hidden from you anyway.