das said:
As to warfare, I believe I already have mentioned the idea of having separate military updates. I'm not sure if my present idea for the implementation is any good, though, so any suggestions and especially criticism would be helpful (so that I could try and find a way out of the problems that you point out). My idea is to have two-three (depends on how many end up being necessary) military mini-updates before the main update that would sum things up and put them in the greater context. Basically, one is supposed to first send main orders and military orders for the first "phase"; after that, if a drawn-out conflict begins, I would post a mini-update describing the early action in those drawn-out conflicts and describe the present situation, complete with an army positions map and updated military stats (for everyone, so that nations could try and intervene, or launch a new war in the light of a new distraction). Then the second and if need be the third, the latter being followed directly by the main update. I think this makes more sense than having the military updates follow the main update, as it is clear that the outcomes of the military action would always greatly influence the overall end-turn situations in all the countries; and I would not want to just merge them, because in spite of this not being a wargame it would go against the principles of historical realism to oversimplify warfare and the diplomacy tied to it. Still, I could see this making for a very tight updating schedule (personally I plan on spreading the entire process out over approximately two weeks; that still will require a great amount of commitment on the behalf of the players, but I think that's a good thing; at worst, some people will have to master the fine art of NPCing instruction).
I really like the idea of rolling out an update in pieces and the obvious piece to start with is war. If a turn is five years long, then the wars can be developed on an annual basis as called for by player’s orders. Maps showing the gains as losses during each year of campaigning can be posted. Then at the end, the full update shows the final disposition and all the non war related action is summarized. I tried such an approach in BirdNES 1 near the end and it worked pretty smoothly. It forced me to change the way I updated to go year by year (rather than by area), which was better for storytelling anyway. As needed, I contacted players and gave them a chance to adjust their plans. Das, you are talking that a step further and formalizing it by posting stats and creating a new order phase for any player to get involved. I like that too. And I said before, it forces you into an “eternal updating” mode.
If turns are longer, say 100 years, the ordering of things gets more complicated. Nation A starts a war in year 10 against B and C, Meanwhile B had planned a war against D for the year 30, and C was going to attack A in 75. Stopping the turn for new orders can unravel the plans and spending for several nations. If an early war creates significant changes, players are going to want to change orders. One answer is, of course, shorter turns.
It seems that your goal is to tie war more closely to its correct place in time and allow payers more control of how they respond when war happens as you get to show how the wars affected the final outcome of the turn. Sym D’s “focus points” are similar to “initiative points” that were used in old board war games to determine the sequence of actions. Spending more “initiative points” than your opponent gave you the “first strike” in the next round of actions. In a five year turn scenario here are some questions to consider:
1. How should the spending options for a player be altered from what is typical now (allocate it all up front) to reflect a need to be responsive if war comes later in the turn?
2. What are a players’ permitted options for responding to an unexpected war?
3. How will a player’s responses to war affect other planned spending?
4. If a “focus point” system is used, then how will those be generated?
5. Should players have two or three budgets and spending tables for each turn? Military budget, economic & social budget, and focus or initiative point budget.
Focus or initiative points could be used to gain a “timing edge” or could be converted to spending (for troops) as the player determined. A typical turn might now precede something like this:
1. Order sent
2. 1st war announced
3. 1st war player spend and response
4. Posted update with new stats
5. 2nd war (or continued 1st war) announced
6. 2nd war player spend and response
7. Posted update with new stats
8. Final war resolution
9. Final update with new stats
