Multipolarity II - Game Thread

[filli_noctus]

So, we're talking Activision levels of evil then?

 

[Double A]

EA is currently worse than Activision.

 

[Tani Coyote]

You all love me, you know it.

===

So with TSR and TUG running I'm already forming the concepts of MP3. I will be trimming a lot of things to simplify it (granted MP will always remain my most ambitious project that didn't fall into itself), so here's your chance to make your voice heard:

Are there are any techs, features, etc. that really need revision?

I'm not spoiling what I've done so far, since I don't want to build up hype yet.

Also: alternate timeline is a MUST, but should it be on Earth or made up world?

 

[christos200]

Earth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! King george and china shall return!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[filli_noctus]

I would go fictional, that way no one is in anyway constrained to preconceived notions (although they can always import their genocidal dictators through magic/hyperscience/mcguffins if they so desire).

 

[Tani Coyote]

If we see a repeat of historical tensions in an alternate timeline... I swear. I shall send the locusts on the wind. I shall send a hail of burning ice on every field and on every town.

 

[topsecret]

If we see a repeat of historical tensions in an alternate timeline... I swear. I shall send the locusts on the wind. I shall send a hail of burning ice on every field and on every town.

Only the people causing those tensions, please.

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

Are there are any techs, features, etc. that really need revision?

Ban sneak attacks. Seriously.

Also: alternate timeline is a MUST

Earth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! King george and china shall return!!!!!!!!!!!

but should it be on Earth or made up world?

NEW WORLD PLOX



Before I start on the epilogue proper, I've got some backlogged RP I mean to get out of the way first. Bear with me.

This was intended for two turns ago:


The Union was back on the high seas.

No sector of the military had been so utterly devastated by the cataclysm as the Federal Navy. The Schism had cost it the northern shipyards and portions of the fleet, both scuttled to prevent their capture. The general upheaval forced the remaining ships into the nearest friendly ports, where they were salvaged for critical machinery. Nearly all the schematics survived, fortunately, although with the newest classes based on pre-Cataclysm industrial capacity, the likelihood of returning what was once the pride of the Pacific to its former prestige within even twenty years seemed nigh-impossible.

Guangdong proved invaluable to facilitating the first steps back into the water; even if its own naval ambitions were modest, the country’s financial and industrial clout assured the expertise for getting the Union-leased drydocks fully operational. The joint venture had stimulated crucial high-skill jobs in both states, and as China’s economic prospects brightened, Xining looked to partner with other coastal governments for identical projects.

The launch of reconstituted First and Second Fleets could not have come at a more fortuitous moment. Even if neither Philippine government publicly voiced its antagonism, there was a general understanding that the two states were on the barest of speaking terms. The recent uprising in the Republic might provide enough motivation for the South to hazard a strike, and given the usual suspects’ sustained assault on UN functionality, international intervention might not arrive in time. After consultation with the Director-General, the Prime Minister held an emergency session of Parliament, and a motion to send peacekeepers was ratified. The call for an intervention force was then floated through every embassy in the region, but alas, only Sumatra was in a fit state to respond.

To Karađorđević’s “regionalists”, the motion would have confounded. The Philippines were thousands of kilometres from Xining, not especially noteworthy, and had no diplomatic relations that would prompt such an intervention; to commit troops to such a faraway state during such turbulent times at home seemed illogical. But then, that was regionalist logic. Katter could spew all the venom he liked, but the international ideal was not dead; and now that Russia had made its global designs unmistakable, the embers of solidarity were quickly stoked back into full flame. Besides, pragmatically speaking, China had little to lose and everything to gain: support for the Philippine government at such a critical juncture would almost certainly facilitate future relations.

The fleet had made the whole venture possible. They were old designs—like so much else, downscaled out of industrial necessity—but the ships had proven themselves before, and what few vessels the rebels had scrounged were outclassed either way. The flagship was new: akin to what the 20th-Century Germans called “pocket battleships”, it was a frigate with the firepower of a battlecruiser. Outfitted with the latest radar and sonar suites, half of which were experimental, that one ship alone had cost a third of the years’ budget. The admiralty didn’t expect it or the rest of the fleet to see action: its only real purpose was to escort the transports. Nevertheless, after over a decade of land-lock, there were more than a few seamen eager to show off, and sailing into a foreign port with a shiny new boat was the perfect way to do it.

As the First Fleet made its way to Manila, a man was sitting in his office back in Xining, thumbing through the schematics that were intended to be laid down twenty years ago. The Leviathan-class was his favourite, even if it was ambitious almost to the point of impracticality. In brief, a submersible battleship, built from that new alloy developed back in 2853 so it could withstand deep-sea pressure despite all its nobby bits. Armed with torpedoes, surface guns, and a SAM complement, if engineering could figure out how to rig a flight deck it would render almost every other vessel obsolete. Scale models suggested it would work, but preliminary prototypes had thus far proven prohibitively expensive.

Another bizarre design he’d dug up was the Hydra-class, a floating fortress masquerading as a full convoy. It was the modular catamarans taken to their most absurd extreme, resembling a drowned UFO more than a naval vessel. The ship was surprisingly well-designed from a structural standpoint, but proved so large that it was impossible to build the thing without a dedicated, uniquely-tailored assembly site, and none of the coastal countries were in a fit state to establish such a facility. It was actually cheaper than the Leviathan-class, although even his eccentric mind couldn’t figure out how anyone had been inspired to actually draft such a thing.

He flipped back to the humbler blueprints. R&D might have proven its generous funding wasn’t for naught, but at the end of the day, the fleet was always carried by the “stock ships”; besides, with the innovations of last century, even the escorts were packing more strategic firepower than cruisers half a millennium ago. If the spy network was to be believed, a pack of their little sea wolves could still outclass entire battle groups of most of the rest of the world. For now, quantity trumped quality, not that the latter was lacking.

According to the Director-General’s memo, the fleet wasn’t needed for front-line engagement, after all...

 

[Osmowstroyer]

What about PUBAD(Peru)?

 

[BSmith1068]

Ban sneak attacks. Seriously.

Yeah. Make declarations of war mandatory at least 48 hours before orders lock, with some room for ally response declarations within 24 hours of lock.

And yeah, Swahili would have joined in the fun this turn, so you could count my relatively large army (and clients) in on the war.

 

[NinjaCow64]

I'm happy with an alternate timeline/continuation as long as it is on Earth. If you want to ban nations that have been done already if we're doing an alternate timeline, I'm okay with that. But please use some sort of Earth map. There aren't many maps that can contest with it's beauty or wonderfullness. It would be a shame to see MP III move away from our beautiful planet.

 

[Jehoshua]

It must be Earth I thinks, it just wouldn't be the same destroying and nuking an inferior artificial world.

Oh and pre-emptive divs on Italy

 

[hoplitejoe]

I say keep sneak attacks but add some sort of tangible disadvantage, like armies have half the strength.

 

[Mosher]

I say we go on the Mobius map

 

[Patriotic_Fool]

It must be Earth I thinks, it just wouldn't be the same destroying and nuking an inferior artificial world.

Oh and pre-emptive divs on Italy

Pre-emptive divs on the Soviet Union area, and for the red province color.

You simply can't have the USSR without USSRed!

Suggestions!

>A simpler stock system: I saw the stock system in MP2 to be too useless and bulky to work. At the end of this game, turn 7, the most anyone had was a 10% stock total through massive combination/alliances. Stocks were too expensive, increased too much, and overall there were too many total stocks. I'd like to see the mechanic redefined, tweaked, or changed.

>Better troops: This a simple concept. I explained to you, lovely fox, that the math simply did not add up when it came to troops, navies, and air forces. Troops can take and capture provinces, and their sheer number and tech factor into victory. Air forces have a 25% chance of killing a troop or bombing citizens. Why would I ever be compelled to use an air force? I could get the 2% *escorting* bonus from air, OR I could buy 4 armies, and affect my chance for victory and the provinces I'm taking.

As for navies, I think they're great as a blockading, anti air, and overall sea unit (not much else you can do), but I'd like to see a tweak of their bombard ability. They should do more industry damage (I think they had a low % chance of killing 1 industry point). Why would I use a 10 income unit to have a 1/4 chance to deal a 1 income damage? If the damage was 5 industry, it'd be more useful for a blockading nation. They could starve their opponents, bomb citizens, and whittle away at their industry.

>Surprise Attacks: Don't remove this. Maybe the war mechanic needs tweaking so that 12 units can't take 20-30 provinces from defection. I personally think that wars' usefulness was nerfed with the expensive war penalties. If you remove surprise attacks, the last advantage is removed.

Note that the defender has a 10% innate advantage, and by simple logic can allocate troops to defend borders next to a nation that expanded next to them and increased their troop count by 60 troops in one turn. War is not flawed, players just can't see the signs. Keep in mind that I never got to finish Partitionania, despite my high tech and troop count.

Over all, I think the surprise attack mechanic is fine. Maybe add some sort of espionage related deal, where you can disable defenses, or you have to repurpose roads before you attack via espionage. Had mosher reacted instantly when I invaded, Partitionania/Angola could have repelled me easy. The only reason I didn't end up seceding taken territories and surrendering is because nobody helped Partitionania until it was too late..

>WMD Tech, and tech in general: I think the steal tech ability needs to be removed, or changed to you only stealing a certain tech. Take me for example. The USSR, at turn 3 or whatever, had the most nuke tech out of anyone. Ridiculous amounts at the time.

What happens? Two nations steal my tech, get HALF of it, and get nukes immediately. I ended the game without nukes (4 turns later?).

This is literally unacceptable. Where in history has a nation stolen half of a technology and gotten that technology before the nation that they stole it from? It's like if North Korea stole half the plans for a nuclear weapon, and managed to refine the materials, complete the plans, and beat the USA 20 years before the USA even got nukes.

I think the WMD/chance deal should be changed. I don't see why we shouldn't pay 200/200 for stage one WMD, then another 300/300 for stage 2, etc. The amounts don't have to be exact.

A person who invests 300 one turn and neglects industry, then has another player steal that same tech, get 150 of it, and then get nukes before them is just not fun.


Eh more to come, when I think of em. I know that alot of ya'll will be like "of course he's saying these things, they hindered him in the game". The same rules that apply to me during MP2 can apply to YOU during MP3. They need to be fixed now

 

[Tani Coyote]

The Universe Game has a "disable early warning system" feature. In order to stage a Red Alert 2-style surprise invasion, you'll need to disable the enemy's radar and such.

Based on how the idea works in TUG, I'll see whether or not to ban sneak attacks.

I am definitely ditching regional allocation of troops. Dear God just no.

 

[Patriotic_Fool]

So how will troops work? If you're colonizing in Africa, your troops can literally not defend..

 

[Krzowwh]

I elect for a non-fictional non-Earth setting.
Given the extremely large number of provinces, maybe players should invest into control over whole regions instead, and only the top three or so will have any actual control? It may be a crazy idea, but it is an idea.

 

[Double A]

Sneak attacks and banning them entirely are too extreme. We need a penalty that makes sneak attacks not possibly worth less, but incredibly risky. This is just a basic idea, but if you want to do a sneak attack, you have to send orders 2-3 days in advance. Tany rolls a die. If it fails, the attack is revealed to the defender (which would really screw over the attacker).

 

[Patriotic_Fool]

Naw no point in a die roll, 2-3 days in advance. I usually send invasion orders like 5 minutes before lock.