Pre-CNES: Flowers on the Working Title

[Crezth]

Well, Thlayli, if or when some cultural submissions start coming in I will agree with you. Such as it is, it doesn't seem to be in anyone's interest to do so; this is what I mean when I say it isn't part of the game's appeal.

I maintain that you can still direct the construction of the narrative, with or without player input, but I'm going to be focusing my own efforts on finishing the rules.

 

[Thlayli]

Alright. I'm trying to collect as much input as I can so I can make something that will be acceptable to everyone.

I'll generally go along the lines of what I wrote in my last cultural post, except creating specific cultures and nation-states now.

If someone has a specific nation-concept that they really want me to work into the background, I will.

 

[Crezth]

That is kind of what I was hoping for. Sorry to change things so abruptly on you. Thanks.

 

[Starlife]

I understand the concern, but the appeal of this NES isn't really in constructing semi-believable historical contexts for a new world. To wit: I really shouldn't care if Not-Italy is next to Not-Japan.

Gah. You lost me here.

 

[Crezth]

Just for clarification: send all culture-related stuff Thlayli's way. Sorry for the confusion. >_> *huddles in a corner and continues writing code*

 

[Lord_Iggy]

CNES Beta: Flowers on the Working Title - Patch 0.1.1

CNES Patch 0.1.1 Is now live! This patch features several bug fixes, as well as balance changes for the tundra and desert biomes. Be sure to check out the full patch notes below to learn all about the latest changes.

Spoiler Updated Climate Map :

General

* Terrain biomes have been redistributed to better match the predominate climate of each represented territory.

Map

* The desert at the northeast corner of the inland sea of the western continent and touching the central ocean has been altered to plains. This is to account for the fact that this terrain has two fertile coastlines and a more arid interior.

* The two interior desert territories in the northern continent have been altered to boreal forest, to account for decreased rates of evaporation at higher altitudes.

* The two coastal desert territories south of the eastern archipelago have been altered to tropical rainforest, to account for the decreased rainshadow, high-precipitation coastal regions and orographic precipitation on the windward side of the inland mountains to the south.

Balance

* Tundra will no longer spawn giraffes.

* Undeveloped deserts no longer generate the most food of any terrain type.

* Rainforest terrrain generates new resource: tropical disease.

Bug Fixes

* Fixed a crash involving placing polar bears and penguins in the same territory. Penguins now instantly kill polar bears without requiring a combat resolution round, as intended.

 

[Circuit]

How could they not?

 

[Terrance888]

There should be an island or two between the West and South continent, just saying, if there will be a Classical Expansion zone there.

 

[Angst]

Thlayli: A culture idea I had was an industrial empire building pyramids of steel rather than towers of it, along with steel sculptures of ancient rulers to prettify their cities as well as a polytheist pantheon and each of its region's thousand factories being devoted to a local deity; basically, it's Industry-Monging-Not-Egypt-With-Temples-Rather-Than-Factories. Is this a good starting point? Then of course they would have God Emperors and pray to good favor in regards of production; basically worshipping the industry complexes as giant machines in the work of their gods.

 

[Terrance888]

What would they worship before factories and how they got there? Maybe they worship the idea of production, so the Potter and Blacksmiths will be the first priests? Later they can move on to Alchemists and Artisans, then early Workshops and Drydocks.

 

[Angst]

Yeah stuff like that. I actually imagined they could worship workshops in general in the old times.

Another case could be that a proto-futurist cultic philosophy movement converted the royal courts in the 17 century with ease due to a Hinduism-esque multitude of deities thousandfold, which then eased the transition of a polytheist temple infrastructure from the feudal era to the industrial-religious complexes of the industrial era.

EDIT: I like the second one more.

Feudalism and earlier: Thousand-god pantheon.
Age of Enlightenment: Futuristic philosophy cult begins talking about machine gods as small gizmos emerge and scientific discoveries are rampant.
Industrial age: The God-King is approached by the philosophers that explain the "true" interests of the gods - that they must, like the God-King, help human progress towards Glory. Each deity apparently has personal interests in regards to production and furthering of human (and therefore royal) wealth. The God-King is convinced, converts into Rafuturism (or whatever we call it). He then writes and publishes The Way of The Hammer to his peoples, declaring all gods to be part of the industrial machines. Opportunistic entrepreneurs claim gods rampantly to ensure they have the best and most favorable ones; the workers of their facilities must pray each morning etc.
Late industrial age: The Way of The Hammer is published in all nations of this culture, each God-King claiming to be a god of progress himself, therefore a legitimate Patron of Glory. Each factory that is built is supposed by priests to be the manifestation of a new or an old unused god. The whole workforce is converted and farmers begin to assume each of their fields must be gods too.

Everything is Egyptian-style, of course.

 

[Thlayli]

I like this a lot. It actually fits somewhat with a Celtic-esque culture group which I was going to put on the northern side of the northern continent. I'd planned on them having a polytheistic faith, and it could be an interesting take on technological druidism.

 

[Crezth]

It has a very cool sort of Adeptus Mechanicus motif to it.

 

[Thlayli]

As I'm writing this background, I have some preliminary geographic proposals for all y'all:

By tomorrow I should have Part One of the background done.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Uurethak is a truly ancient rainforest civilization from the lakes region inthe southern rainforests of the western continent. Agriculture first developed in a nomadic form, where Uurethakus would set fire to an area of rainforest, then plant tubers in the area and move on. Several months later, they would return to harvest, supplementing their diet with hunted meat and foraged fruits.

As more species came to be domesticated, Uurethak became more settled, building hilltop fortress cities and waging war amongst each other. Paddy farming, making use of grains imported from the inland sea, became widespread, furthering the development of urban cultures. Powered by the trade of the rich resources of their rainforest home, and periodically united by war, Uurethak developed into a resplendent and fantastically wealthy civilization. Early dynasties governed based on the simple idea of might making right, while middle dynasties drifted towards a philosophy of being stewards of the Uurethakus, governing in order to maintain a stable environment for their people. This general philosophy has proven to be the dominant government of Uurethak for much of its history, although there have been several diversions, most of them fairly short lived, when priestly classes have taken control and established a more theocratic model of governance.

Uurethaku faith developed out of a primal appreciation for the bounty of the earth. This early faith was ultimately codified into a religion celebrating Miehak, a goddess of Earth, Wealth, Beauty and Health. Theocratic and militaristic periods of Uurethaku history saw this religion develop a strong tradition of conquest and missionary activity, while more peaceful and contemplative times have seen reversions to a more protective and motherly view of Miehak, one who promotes serenity and balance in the world.

Uurethakus possess a strong preponderance towards stone construction, brilliant and garish jewellery, and colourful clothing. Their kingdoms, initially isolated in the jungle, were often viewed by outsiders as alien and exotic primitives, even though Uurethak tends to be one of the more advanced nations in its region. However, once the various jungle kingdoms had been united and began to exert much heavier influences on its neighbours, what had previously been exotic became increasingly normal throughout the central regions of the western continent.

 

[Lord of Elves]

It's been explained to me that now is an appropriate time to make nation/culture submissions, or that's how I understood it, so here:

Ayrs-av-Amrohuur
State united by a powerful monarchy which delegates power and leadership to an equally-influential nobility descended from a line of various clans and tribes. Monotheistic religion is the primary unifier of the people of Ayrs-av-Amrohuur, or the Amrohuur, which the monarchy wields as a political device to bludgeon rebellion and dissent. Russian-style agricultural serfdom subservient to the nobility. The decaying and archaic aristocratic, monarchical apparatus is upheld by a large military based around religious dogmatism. Not-Russia with an Arab/Islamist aesthetic, cultural and political change is subject to heavy resistance from the established power structure. Potentially the aggressor towards many of its neighbors, military powerful but culturally and politically backwards compared to other nations. Potentially a church and clerical structure is either subservient to or in symbiosis with the army, which pervades all aspects of domestic life and politics, enforcing religious doctrine culturally and politically. The monarchy may or may not adopt the airs of its more sophisticated neighbors in diplomacy and outside its borders, so as to play down the “barbaric” aspects of the Amrohuur culture.

 

[Crezth]

Naval Units

Naval units engage in combat very similarly to ground units. The rules are generally the same for engagements, except of course that all engagements only occur in sea squares. There are a few additional considerations to make for naval units, however.

Splash Damage

Despite Battleships having the splash damage ability, naval units are unaffected by splash damage. This means bombers, heavy bombers, and battleships only do damage as directed by their normal attack when fighting against naval units.

Submarines

Subs are a special kind of naval unit that have the ‘Dive’ passive ability, which lets them avoid hostile fire from any unit which does not have anti-sub capability (at the start of the game, only destroyers and other subs have this capability). If an engagement were to occur between only subs and only, say, battleships, the subs would remain unharmed by the battleships and yet still fire off three heats’ worth of attacks. Keep this in mind when sending those behemoths of the sea around unescorted.

Bombardment

Destroyers and Battleships can engage in bombardment of any coastal region. This allows them to carry on one of two missions: port destruction or shore bombardment (the latter of these is elaborated on in the Special Rules section). Port destruction allows each attacking destroyer and battleship to roll 1d6. On a roll of ‘6’ for a destroyer, ‘5’ or ‘6’ for a battleship, any ports in the targeted region start razing. Bombard orders can only be carried out in a coastal region that is bordering the naval province where the bombarding unit is located.

Carriers

Carriers can act as a location to rebase aircraft to. Carriers can base 3 biplanes, fighters, or jets in this way, OR 1 bomber or heavy bomber. If a carrier is destroyed and it was a base for any flying units, those flying units are forced to rebase as normal. A carrier that is involved in a sea-to-sea battle will always benefit from air support from the air units that it is basing, even if those air units are involved in another battle at another time.

[...]

Shore Bombardment

Destroyers and Battleships can lend their guns to ground battles in coastal provinces. They add additional attacks to the side that they are supporting, however cannot be targeted in return. Victory is not contingent on their survival in any fashion, however their involvement can sometimes tip the scales in their favor. Bombarding destroyers and battleships have no targeting biases except versus air units; they will never attack air units unless there are no other targets. Battleships can deal splash damage when engaging in shore bombardment, in addition to their normal two attacks.

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Spoiler Naval Units :

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I have not yet finished the naval combat module for the code, however it is coming along. I predict full finishment... whenever. It's quite a bit to still manage and I need copious free time. I feel good about this weekend though. Still, I wanted to give you guys *something* to gnaw on, so here it is.

I've been tweaking a lot of the ground units behind the scenes, but have decided against showing you guys updated stats or anything until the units are discovered in the course of the NES. Still, the essential qualities and traits of the units as shown in the "complete" units list a few pages back are preserved. However certain individual stats may be reduced or increased to accommodate for potential changes due to techs. When the NES is launched, the only units shown on the front page will be those buildable by any faction; those not yet currently buildable, either due to insufficient tech or not being alien enough, will not have their unit cards shown on the front page. Adjustments to those unit cards based on tech will only come once every faction has researched the techs giving those adjustments; in other words, the unit cards will show the baseline stats.

Finally, I've decided to keep the tech tree text-only except for indicating which factions have researched which techs. There will be a nice-looking graph, or nice-looking faction cards, showing who has researched what and what is it that people have. It will be all pleasant and well-organized and stuff. Yay.

Let me know what you guys think.

 

[Angst]

What program are you using to make those sexy cards and graphics?

 

[Daftpanzer]

*nods* Just one thought, could land artillery be able to duel with battleships in shore bombardment scenarios? I know it would get complicated to work out who fires at what, but I think it would be cool to have some kind of ability to fire back.

 

[Crezth]

What program are you using to make those sexy cards and graphics?

Photoshop. It's a dreadful waste, I know, but there it is.

*nods* Just one thought, could land artillery be able to duel with battleships in shore bombardment scenarios? I know it would get complicated to work out who fires at what, but I think it would be cool to have some kind of ability to fire back.

*shakes head* 'Fraid not. If you don't control the seas, your best bet for getting those boats out of your face is to use air power.