ProctorSilex
Chieftain
I haven't seen a thread about this, though I'm sure some modders already have ideas on the topic.
A caveat: I've only played the last public release 3.0.1, and even then I may have missed some features. I write from what I've experienced in the half dozen or so games I've played of WTP.
The way that natives and slaves are treated in this game bugs me. I may start another thread about natives, but my contention for slaves is that the mod needs meaningful slave revolts and for the revolting slaves to not just stand around waiting to be recaptured. I've seen that @raystuttgart has implemented slaves, the children of slaves (ethnically correct populations), and slave hunters & slave masters in the mod. I haven't played the latest release yet, but I think they're good additions -- and I agree that not including them is a disservice to historical truth (i.e. whitewashing). However, I also think that slavery could be addressed much more meaningfully in this mod -- because as it stands, slaves are basically the same as cattle.
In a sense, this might correspond to how contemporary colonial authorities saw slaves, as a resource or as a machine... but I think there are potential game concepts out there that would be both more nuanced and more fun. Concepts which should attempt to convey some of the real horror of transporting enslaved people across the sea for hard labor -- and the consequent furor of those people's attempts to free themselves.
My main gripe is that escaped slaves mill about at the periphery of your territory waiting to be recaptured. Whereas historically, escaped slaves made for the hills, forests and marshes to start hidden communities away from colonial authority: they were really escaping. Examples abound -- see the Jamaican maroon communities in the rugged "cockpit country" of that island, Brazilian palenques, hidden slave homesteads in the Great Dismal Swamp in North Carolina/Virginia, the six politically distinct Maroon communities in Guiana, among numerous others. Oftentimes these communities, which resisted capture by colonial authorities, became autonomous agents in the shifting terrain of colonial politics. For example, the Jamaican maroons, when the island was under Spanish rule, worked with the British to expel the Spanish -- and then defended themselves against the British when they took over. Maroon communities have also had their own complex political and economic relationships with indigenous groups.
Sometimes runaway slaves would be adopted into indigenous communities. In many cases they would adopt the local communities' customs, and sometimes hybrid Afro-Indigenous cultures arose. See the Black Seminoles or the Garifuna, though there must be numerous examples unrecorded by history. In other cases, native groups might be under pressure from European colonists to return fleeing slaves. There's an opportunity here for deeper gameplay with natives, too.
Another gripe is that even (armed!) revolting slaves sit by placidly until the player sends a unit to dispatch them. Even then, they're not much of a threat -- at most, an annoyance. Whereas slave revolts were huge, economic and existential threats to the colonial order. Haiti is a perfect example -- it is still being punished to this day for having dared to claim its liberty from the French slave masters.
So, with all that background, here are some ideas for game concepts. I have no modding experience, but I'll try list then in order of (as I understand it) difficulty of implementation.
A caveat: I've only played the last public release 3.0.1, and even then I may have missed some features. I write from what I've experienced in the half dozen or so games I've played of WTP.
The way that natives and slaves are treated in this game bugs me. I may start another thread about natives, but my contention for slaves is that the mod needs meaningful slave revolts and for the revolting slaves to not just stand around waiting to be recaptured. I've seen that @raystuttgart has implemented slaves, the children of slaves (ethnically correct populations), and slave hunters & slave masters in the mod. I haven't played the latest release yet, but I think they're good additions -- and I agree that not including them is a disservice to historical truth (i.e. whitewashing). However, I also think that slavery could be addressed much more meaningfully in this mod -- because as it stands, slaves are basically the same as cattle.
I don't find the most thematic thing to have 30 events related to resources, when all of them are essentially get X, win Y. I really like board-games, and I find the theme-approach on some mods (and this does apply here) sometimes the same than the one found on euro-games. It's just a thing pasted over the mechanics, were you could easily swap names/graphics and things would work the same. And it's fine, I know what I play when I play an euro-game.... but then I don't like when someone tells me such game is so thematic when it clearly is not
The same for the slavery events lately added, which essentially are get free slaves. Why? There is zero story about it. Zero moral implications. Zero theme. They could be ships, cows, chairs or gold, I could not care less.
AND THIS IS ACTUALLY pretty anti-thematic. They are people, slaves are humans. Not objects. Not gold. Not ships. But the theme is set in a way I could not care less about getting 5 slaves or 1000 gold, because there is no difference. And here come the "economic sims" vision, slaves currently are just objects. There is no theme attached to it, a real story, real events, decisions, or a moral choice. Player has no choice over it, the entire game incentivizes slaves as a strategy, since the only focus is economics. It's just a math problem to solve. And please don't point me to the "revolt" feature. It's just a countermeasure for the economic sim, there is still zero theme around it. And this is clearly shown in other related-features like the "slave hunter promotions".
In a sense, this might correspond to how contemporary colonial authorities saw slaves, as a resource or as a machine... but I think there are potential game concepts out there that would be both more nuanced and more fun. Concepts which should attempt to convey some of the real horror of transporting enslaved people across the sea for hard labor -- and the consequent furor of those people's attempts to free themselves.
My main gripe is that escaped slaves mill about at the periphery of your territory waiting to be recaptured. Whereas historically, escaped slaves made for the hills, forests and marshes to start hidden communities away from colonial authority: they were really escaping. Examples abound -- see the Jamaican maroon communities in the rugged "cockpit country" of that island, Brazilian palenques, hidden slave homesteads in the Great Dismal Swamp in North Carolina/Virginia, the six politically distinct Maroon communities in Guiana, among numerous others. Oftentimes these communities, which resisted capture by colonial authorities, became autonomous agents in the shifting terrain of colonial politics. For example, the Jamaican maroons, when the island was under Spanish rule, worked with the British to expel the Spanish -- and then defended themselves against the British when they took over. Maroon communities have also had their own complex political and economic relationships with indigenous groups.
Sometimes runaway slaves would be adopted into indigenous communities. In many cases they would adopt the local communities' customs, and sometimes hybrid Afro-Indigenous cultures arose. See the Black Seminoles or the Garifuna, though there must be numerous examples unrecorded by history. In other cases, native groups might be under pressure from European colonists to return fleeing slaves. There's an opportunity here for deeper gameplay with natives, too.
Another gripe is that even (armed!) revolting slaves sit by placidly until the player sends a unit to dispatch them. Even then, they're not much of a threat -- at most, an annoyance. Whereas slave revolts were huge, economic and existential threats to the colonial order. Haiti is a perfect example -- it is still being punished to this day for having dared to claim its liberty from the French slave masters.
So, with all that background, here are some ideas for game concepts. I have no modding experience, but I'll try list then in order of (as I understand it) difficulty of implementation.
- Escaped slaves should at least try to make their way to native settlements. When they arrive, they could either join the natives, at which point the natives would either send them back, giving the player a relationship bonus, or adopt them into their community. This would give the player more of an incentive to capture escaped slaves before they're gone -- and it would feel like slaves are really escaping.
- Slave revolts should be bigger and badder, depending on number of player cities, number of slaves, health, happiness, etc. This would tie in with parts of the latest update such as Crime and Law. Revolting slaves should be tougher, with a bonus in rough terrain and marshes. They could try to form a stack, and once they reach a certain number they might actively try to free other slaves and attack the player's infrastructure. À la Underground Railroad.
- Abolitionism: story events which lead to all slaves becoming freed slaves, and the player being unable to buy new slaves from Africa. This could be pushed by the king, giving a relationship bonus if the colonies agree. (Aside from England outlawing slavery early in the 1800s, there's not really a historical precedent for this, but there's no reason it couldn't have happened -- see David Graeber & David Wengrow's The Dawn of Everything, wherein the authors suggest that the intellectual between French Jesuits and Wendat statesmen sparked the Enlightenment.) If the player abolished slavery, then declaring war on other colonies could cause their slaves to rise up too. I think there is an element of storytelling that could be explored in this mod with events other than economic rewards, into which this kind of abolitionism concept could fit.
- When slaves escape, they could take some tools, sailcloth etc. with them and become settlers. Or a new profession, Maroon. Maroons would try to found a quilombo, or maroon settlement, in rough terrain some ways away from the player. This would probably entail making a new Maroons civ, which I understand takes a ton of work. However, this would open the door for diplomacy with the Maroon faction, who could be allied with against other players etc. Assuming an increasing number of maroon settlements over the course of the game, this would also be thematically resonant. The Maroons could either be a native-type (Seminole, Garifuna, Gullah-Geechee) or a colony-type (think Haiti, Quilombo of Palmares) civ. Or, they could be multiple civs, one corresponding to each colonial power... but that's probably overkill :^) This idea I think has some meat to it.
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