STAZNES 8 ~A WALK IN HELL~
Welcome, comrades. This is the eighth installment in the usually odd, sometimes short, always fun (for you guys anyway) staznes series. Its my second stab at a completely realistic setting, this time in a timeperiod I have been itching to see modded for years...1860.
The most noticeable conflict of course is the American Civil War, but do not worry, there is much more to the world than this. France is trying to revive an Empire and may find that meddling in other countries affairs could be troublesome *cough* Mexico *cough*. Germany and Italy remain on the precipice of unification, at the point where it could still be botched under the right leadership. Japan has begun its Meji Restoration while China has begun its regular cycle of decay and rebellion. Spain is looking to kick off its "Scientific Expedition" in South America soon and hell, who knows, Britain might get involved in world affairs too.
So yea, pick a nation and have a good time. This NES will not be dictated by a realism police but do try to keep it somewhat feasible. A simple explanation will usually do the trick in convincing me. I plan to update this weekly, and do not pester me whilst I update. I am 16 years old, I think I know when Saturday is
Oh, and PLEASE DO NOT POST UNTIL I SAY!!!!
Players, stories, orders, NPCs, barbarians, updates, map, countries
Players - unlimited. Please only join if you trully have the time to PARTICIPATE, and that doesn't simply mean telling me to "grow economy" at every turn.
Stories - not necessary, but very encouraged. For good (and FULL-LENGTH, i.e. two-three lines will not be considered one) stories, I will give out story bonuses (but not as generous as in ITNES I). Don't forget that stories create atmosphere like nothing else (apart from good, precise, in-depth updates perhaps, but that's not my specialty I'm afraid).
Orders - orders in a list. Ideally, they should be precise and easily-understandable, because I'll have to deal with lots of them; naturally, they will probably be quite long anyway because you people rarely trust your buerocrats and generals for some reason. In democratic and other councillary forms of government (such as Feudalism), you'll have to take the opinion of your council into account; sometimes, depending on your nation's constitution, it might even take matters into its own hands altogether. This, by the way, is one of the reasons for you to send orders a day before the deadline, so that I have time to inform you if the council disapproves of any parts of your orders; the other reason is that it just makes things easier for me. Oh, and note that some of the actions you order might inadvertly have sideeffects, positive or negative.
NPCs - lol, considering theyre NPC, I will play them, kinda. Same as the NPCs in all other NESes of late. Some will roll over rather easily, some will be harder to fight than PCs...
Barbarians - as not all of the world is civilized yet (most is), the barbarians will be there. Not innovatively, they will be light gray and have no stats. They will have their names written on them, unless I forget to do that. And many of them are likely to attack you and try to eat you; others only want to be left alone, and when somebody tries to change that they will... well, they'll try to eat whoever tries that too. The barbarians are NOT to be underestimated, some of them could bring out a horde of ferocious warriors five times larger then your army (okay, maybe not).
Updates - Updates come on Saturdays (unless I say otherwise), yet the orders have to be sent in by Friday barring emergencies. I live in Texas (Central Standard USA time), orders are due at 7:00 pm. Updates will consist of non-military events (political, economical, etc), military events (including violent rebellions, not just wars), random events (random events - people who write good stories get good random events, often related to what theyre writing about. And there is also always a bad random event for a random nation, lots of them), spotlight (a more detailed description of something that happened) and ooc (OOC comments and death threats).
(boldened to make sure you people actually notice it this time)
Map - I will use the current version of the collectively-improved "Jason map". I will put in cities (black circles), fortifications (line of black squares) and rebellion areas (dark gray area within nations). A capital is a city with white borders; an economic center is a city with red borders (a capital economic center will have a combination of the two).
Countries - pick a NPC or start a rebellion or just clamour incessantly for independence (hey, it worked in OTL...). Also, please read your nation background, and dont act uncharacteristically. There are no alliances at the start, but there are some traditional allegiences, as mentioned in the nation backgroudns; to go against these allegiences is sometimes necessary, but is almost certainly an unpopular thing to do.
NATIONAL TEMPLATE
Nation Name
Capital:
Ruler:
Government:
Centralization:
Tech. Level:
Army (Training):
Navy (Training):
Economy:
Size (points required):
Leadership (Military/Civilian): /
Infrastructure:
Education:
Living Standards:
Culture:
Confidence:
Projects:
Nation Background:
Government
Government - is your form of government. Now note that I DONT want the Sheep2s [insert nation ever played by Sheep2 in a non-Fresh Start NES here] syndrome in this NES. You are free to change your government, and explain it how ever do you want, but that can piss off followers of the previous governments, and might lead to nation-wide riots, or even a civil war. Also, keep it historical. That is, you could invent your own government, but it must make sense for YOUR nation of THAT time. You could consult me about that.
Centralization
This is one of the most important issues of politics historically and today. A centralized state is, on one hand, more stable, and can command its resources more efficiently; but, on the other hand, it is very vulnerable to attacks on the center and is unlikely to be popular among the various minorities, whereas a decentralized state is less stable, less united, but is harder to destroy from within and indeed is more defendable.
You usually (barring random events or unforeseen consequences of your actions) could change your centralization "slider" once per turn, and ofcourse only move forward or backward a level. However, do know that changes are unlikely to be welcomed by those who like the way things are AND ofcourse those who want to move in the opposite direction...
League-Loose Confederation-Confederation-Loose Federation-Federation-Tight Federation-Unitary with Exceptions-Unitary-Uberunitary-More Unitary-Overcentralized
Technology Level
Will use the age system. It is the same as in other NESes of other people, ofcourse the ages are not identical. They will advance at their own pace, though nations with higher education are likelier to advance to the next age. This, for the most part, begins in Early Industrial Age, but on the bring of a breakthrough.
Also note that though I brought up analogical technologic levels of OTL, they aren't entirely identical, and ofcourse there is a chance that technology will advance faster, slower, or even in a different direction than in OTL.
Middle Industrial Age: approximate analogy - 1840-1880.
Late Industrial Age: approximate analogy - 1880-1916.
Early Modern Age: approximate analogy 1916-1940
Middle Modern Age: approximate analogy- 1940-1970
Late Modern Age: approximate analogy- 1970-?
Military
That will, as of now, consist of army and navy (later to be joined by air force). These will be number-based as it gives more versatility. These will be represented in divisions and squadrons (at a later date, I might also add "capital ships" as a separate part of the navy).
What will you have in it? Anything that you can have in it, according to your tech level; if you aren't sure about something, just ask me for clarification. If you just invented some sort of a weapon, you will have to invest some money to re-equip your army/navy with it; the training will also probably drop, due to the unfamiliarity of the weapons. Each stat-growth will increase any part of military by 5 (however, there could be exceptions). But know that if you have too large an army, your economy will probably suffer, as will your confidence; ofcourse, both could be, sometimes, restored by succesful military campaigns, or perhaps campaigns of propaganda back at home. If you grow your military too fast, your training, and later your military leadership, will suffer.
UUs - one per nation, but can be changed at any point (though the newly-demoted UU units will not be happy). I will keep a list of them, somewhere. Could be land, sea, or air at a later point. They will be separated from other units in the stats. They are grown as normal units. Remember to keep them REALISTIC. If the amount of UUs exceeds the amount of regular units, they will begin to drop in quality, morale and also in loyalty as their commanders, often being rather arrogant and ambitious (hey, they aren't commanders of an elite unit for nothing), will probably try to use their power base in one way or another.
Irregulars - local militias and simple civilian population that, for whatever reasons, took up arms - most often in rebellion or to defend against an invader, though there are exceptions - they aren't good for much that isn't guerrila warfare, though they can also be a neat diversion, and professional cannon fodder. They aren't too reliable, and often are rather hard for you to control; then again, they are also best left uncontrolled - they fight even worse when away from home, and, on the other hand, if at home they'll probably know what to do better, with their knowledge of the situation and the terrain.
Training - it is done in levels. There are separate training stats for army, navy and fleet, and it is grown with eco. points. UU is assumed to be one level higher then the average training level for its branch. If your army grows too quickly, there will be a chance of training level lowering.
None-Rabble-Semi-Rabble-Tolerable-Normal-Better-Good-Very Good-Professional-Elite
Conscription will give you a certain amount of conscript divisions that you could specify if you want; ofcourse, conscription, especially in democratic countries, tends to be quite unpopular, especially the large-scale variety...
As a certain Corsican once said in OTL, an army marches on its stomach. Logistical support is necessary for any real military operations, so you will probably have to invest 1 eco. point into each such operation, whether offensive or defensive; if involving a particularily-large army (or navy), or if taking place in a difficult territory with little chances for local resupply, you might have to invest more than one eco. point. And if its a large army somewhere far away in the middle of a desert... things get interesting.
Economy
The NES2 V Economy System is based on a mixture of my old ideas and those of some other people.
Economy levels still play the vital role. However, the amount of economy points that you have differs from level to level (if you get a negative amount of them, I will decrease a random stat per negative point); it is also influenced by random events and by economic centers (cities that are either trade centers, industrial centers or capitals of agriculturally-rich provinces); each of the latter provides one eco. point per turn to whoever holds it at the time (i.e. if it is on occupied territory, the occupier receives the eco. point). To grow economy (i.e. to advance from one level to another), you have to a) not spend your eco. points, apart from those received from eco. centers, on anything else that turn and b) to point out what exactly are you going to do to grow it (note that eco. growth might not always be succesful, depending on what you do and how things fold out).
Eco. points could (and should) be spent on growing military, miscellanous stats (see below), logistical support for the military and on continuing projects. Speaking of the latter, you could also invest a whole eco. level into a project to speed it up by two turns.
Eco. points cannot be banked.
Eco. levels still could be "sacrificed", i.e. converted into 6 eco. points each. Only two eco. levels could be sacrificed per turn.
Creation of economic centers also requires the investment of at least one eco. point into some specific development programs, most of the times anyway.
Depression (-2)-Bankrupt (-1)-Recession (-1)-Very Poor (0)-Poor (0)-Not Bad (+1)-Normal (+1)-Good Enough (+2)-Growing (+2)-Rich (+3)-Very Rich (+3)-Richer (+4)-Richest (+4)-Economic Powerhouse (+5)-Monopoly (+6) (after Monopoly, you get Monopoly+x (+6+x), where x is the amount of economy levels beyond Monopoly)
Size
As proposed by Disenfrancised, though somewhat altered by me. The larger your country is, the more money you will have to spend to grow any particular stat. You could invest money into stat growth over time if your country is large enough; in that case, the stat will still increase, but only in some, probably central, parts of the country.
Small (1)-Medium (2)-Above Medium (3)-Large (4)-Huge (5)-Gargantuan (6)-Half the World (7)
Miscellanous Stats
Those four/five stats below are all grown with eco. points, but, like with growing economy itself, you are supposed to point out what exactly you are doing.
Leadership
Whether military or civilian, leadership is an important factor. Competent military leaders will succesfully carry out plans or will even attain some successes on their own without orders; competent buerocrats will greatly help all government programs and assist the development of the land. But incompetent generals will even with the best plan stagger and blunder, while incompetent civilian administrators will embezzle funds and otherwise will be corrupt. So, this is quite crucial, and cadre preparation thus should be an important priority. Note that sometimes it is best to give specifics when growing this stat (meaning, how EXACTLY are you training your new leaders - what military doctrines should be emphasized, for instance, what stance should your buerocrats take on the various rebels, et cetera). When you expand your army radically, your military leadership will suffer; when you expand your territory, the civilian one will.
None-Imbecile-Moronic-Stupid-Incompetent-Barely Tolerable-Tolerable-Competent-Better-Good-Brilliant
Infrastructure
Roads, bridges, boats - all things used for transportation of goods and men - are listed under infrastructure. The higher is your infrastructure, the easier it is to move your (or enemy) troops across your territory; also, infrastructure could sometimes slightly grow economic benefits from trade centers, and it is a must for maintenance of a high culture level in large empires, as well as actually maintaining your grip on faraway provinces.
None-Dirt Paths-Pathetic-Barely Tolerable-Tolerable-Improving-Good-Efficient-Very Efficient-Great-Excellent
Education
This is just how your people are... educated, I guess. Obvious enough. With a good education, you have better chances of receiving a miraculous invention. You could design better walls and siege engines, and ships for that matter, with higher education. The higher education, the more chances you have to develop some technology.
Once someone reaches Enlightenment education, he becomes much more likely to reach the next age as soon as it becomes possible at all. When he does, he loses two education levels.
None-Dumb-Illiterate-Tolerable-Literate-Educated-Well Educated-Perfect-Academic-Enlightenment
Living Standards
This is pretty simple. The higher your living standards are, the happier your population is; the lower, the tougher it is, because of the tougher life. Living standards drop easily, due to economic weakness and war; they are raised as any other economic stats are raised, but the more they are raised the more greedy your people get for more. To create a classic revolutionary situation, raise the living standards somewhat and then neglect them and let them drop.
None-Slums-Very Low-Low-Barely Tolerable-Tolerable-Normal-Higher-Very High-Splendid
Culture
NOTE: NO LONGER CAN BE GROWN BY ECONOMY DIRECTLY.
This is how culturally strong, patriotic and unified your nation is. A nation with strong patriotism is less likely to fall into a civil war, and its people would resist most invaders and otherwise help their government. This also influences army morale. A nation with weak patriotism is unlikely to be as resistant to outside threats, there will often be rebellions and defections.
None-Divided-Untrusting-Average-Strongly Cultured-Devoted-Patriotic-Hyperpatriotic-Jingoist-Uberpatriotic
Confidence
NOTE: NO LONGER CAN BE GROWN BY ECONOMY DIRECTLY.
People can be fiercely unified and patriotic, but they will not necessarily like their ruler - in fact, a strongly
cultured nation with little confidence in its leaders can, in its cultural unity, lynch the rulers and fire their remains from cannons. Into the huge pot filled with boiled sharks. Not that the rulers will care by then...
Lynching-Hateful-Resentful-Barely Tolerating-Tolerating-Respecting-Admiring-Loving-Nation Personified
Investments
Wait! There is even more stuff you could waste your treasury on! Particularily, you could invest it, in the form of eco. points, into all sorts of programs - for example, you could invest them into the development of some technology (NOTE - it MUST be something conceivable for this time. You probably will have to consult me about this too... :sigh: ), though the success will depend not just on the amount of money invested, but also on your education level and on chance. Sometimes it could take quite a while. Or maybe you could invest it into a colonial venture. Or into some nice idea that you have, such as a jungle-clearing program that might increase infrastructure, and, in long-term, economy. This is also one of the few ways you could increase culture and confidence using money.
Note - in no case is success - or, at least, complete success - guaranteed. But its possible.
Detirioration
Over time, all your stats will detiriorate. This can be sped up by many factors, such as war, rebellion, neglect, low economy (not just with a minus eco. point, though the lower the "better"), et cetera. You could delay this by investing money into maintaining your current stats, the more money the less your stats will detiriorate.
Projects
Local equivalent of wonders (that name is inappropriate in most NESes, as these are often modernization programs, national revival and other PROJECTS, not just huge and magnificent buildings). You tell me what it does, I tell you how long do you build it. You will have to invest an eco. point once each turn for the work on the project to continue You can sacrifice an econ. level to speed it up by THREE turns, or invest 2 additional eco. points to speed it up by one more turn. Note that there is a limit - you can only invest one eco. level per turn, and accordingly only 6 extra eco. points per turn. The exact time it takes to build a project will depend on too many factors to list here.
Nation Background
To better fit in as the ruler of your country, you will have a brief history of each country here.
Welcome, comrades. This is the eighth installment in the usually odd, sometimes short, always fun (for you guys anyway) staznes series. Its my second stab at a completely realistic setting, this time in a timeperiod I have been itching to see modded for years...1860.
The most noticeable conflict of course is the American Civil War, but do not worry, there is much more to the world than this. France is trying to revive an Empire and may find that meddling in other countries affairs could be troublesome *cough* Mexico *cough*. Germany and Italy remain on the precipice of unification, at the point where it could still be botched under the right leadership. Japan has begun its Meji Restoration while China has begun its regular cycle of decay and rebellion. Spain is looking to kick off its "Scientific Expedition" in South America soon and hell, who knows, Britain might get involved in world affairs too.
So yea, pick a nation and have a good time. This NES will not be dictated by a realism police but do try to keep it somewhat feasible. A simple explanation will usually do the trick in convincing me. I plan to update this weekly, and do not pester me whilst I update. I am 16 years old, I think I know when Saturday is
Oh, and PLEASE DO NOT POST UNTIL I SAY!!!!
Players, stories, orders, NPCs, barbarians, updates, map, countries
Players - unlimited. Please only join if you trully have the time to PARTICIPATE, and that doesn't simply mean telling me to "grow economy" at every turn.
Stories - not necessary, but very encouraged. For good (and FULL-LENGTH, i.e. two-three lines will not be considered one) stories, I will give out story bonuses (but not as generous as in ITNES I). Don't forget that stories create atmosphere like nothing else (apart from good, precise, in-depth updates perhaps, but that's not my specialty I'm afraid).
Orders - orders in a list. Ideally, they should be precise and easily-understandable, because I'll have to deal with lots of them; naturally, they will probably be quite long anyway because you people rarely trust your buerocrats and generals for some reason. In democratic and other councillary forms of government (such as Feudalism), you'll have to take the opinion of your council into account; sometimes, depending on your nation's constitution, it might even take matters into its own hands altogether. This, by the way, is one of the reasons for you to send orders a day before the deadline, so that I have time to inform you if the council disapproves of any parts of your orders; the other reason is that it just makes things easier for me. Oh, and note that some of the actions you order might inadvertly have sideeffects, positive or negative.
NPCs - lol, considering theyre NPC, I will play them, kinda. Same as the NPCs in all other NESes of late. Some will roll over rather easily, some will be harder to fight than PCs...
Barbarians - as not all of the world is civilized yet (most is), the barbarians will be there. Not innovatively, they will be light gray and have no stats. They will have their names written on them, unless I forget to do that. And many of them are likely to attack you and try to eat you; others only want to be left alone, and when somebody tries to change that they will... well, they'll try to eat whoever tries that too. The barbarians are NOT to be underestimated, some of them could bring out a horde of ferocious warriors five times larger then your army (okay, maybe not).
Updates - Updates come on Saturdays (unless I say otherwise), yet the orders have to be sent in by Friday barring emergencies. I live in Texas (Central Standard USA time), orders are due at 7:00 pm. Updates will consist of non-military events (political, economical, etc), military events (including violent rebellions, not just wars), random events (random events - people who write good stories get good random events, often related to what theyre writing about. And there is also always a bad random event for a random nation, lots of them), spotlight (a more detailed description of something that happened) and ooc (OOC comments and death threats).
(boldened to make sure you people actually notice it this time)
Map - I will use the current version of the collectively-improved "Jason map". I will put in cities (black circles), fortifications (line of black squares) and rebellion areas (dark gray area within nations). A capital is a city with white borders; an economic center is a city with red borders (a capital economic center will have a combination of the two).
Countries - pick a NPC or start a rebellion or just clamour incessantly for independence (hey, it worked in OTL...). Also, please read your nation background, and dont act uncharacteristically. There are no alliances at the start, but there are some traditional allegiences, as mentioned in the nation backgroudns; to go against these allegiences is sometimes necessary, but is almost certainly an unpopular thing to do.
NATIONAL TEMPLATE
Nation Name
Capital:
Ruler:
Government:
Centralization:
Tech. Level:
Army (Training):
Navy (Training):
Economy:
Size (points required):
Leadership (Military/Civilian): /
Infrastructure:
Education:
Living Standards:
Culture:
Confidence:
Projects:
Nation Background:
Government
Government - is your form of government. Now note that I DONT want the Sheep2s [insert nation ever played by Sheep2 in a non-Fresh Start NES here] syndrome in this NES. You are free to change your government, and explain it how ever do you want, but that can piss off followers of the previous governments, and might lead to nation-wide riots, or even a civil war. Also, keep it historical. That is, you could invent your own government, but it must make sense for YOUR nation of THAT time. You could consult me about that.
Centralization
This is one of the most important issues of politics historically and today. A centralized state is, on one hand, more stable, and can command its resources more efficiently; but, on the other hand, it is very vulnerable to attacks on the center and is unlikely to be popular among the various minorities, whereas a decentralized state is less stable, less united, but is harder to destroy from within and indeed is more defendable.
You usually (barring random events or unforeseen consequences of your actions) could change your centralization "slider" once per turn, and ofcourse only move forward or backward a level. However, do know that changes are unlikely to be welcomed by those who like the way things are AND ofcourse those who want to move in the opposite direction...
League-Loose Confederation-Confederation-Loose Federation-Federation-Tight Federation-Unitary with Exceptions-Unitary-Uberunitary-More Unitary-Overcentralized
Technology Level
Will use the age system. It is the same as in other NESes of other people, ofcourse the ages are not identical. They will advance at their own pace, though nations with higher education are likelier to advance to the next age. This, for the most part, begins in Early Industrial Age, but on the bring of a breakthrough.
Also note that though I brought up analogical technologic levels of OTL, they aren't entirely identical, and ofcourse there is a chance that technology will advance faster, slower, or even in a different direction than in OTL.
Middle Industrial Age: approximate analogy - 1840-1880.
Late Industrial Age: approximate analogy - 1880-1916.
Early Modern Age: approximate analogy 1916-1940
Middle Modern Age: approximate analogy- 1940-1970
Late Modern Age: approximate analogy- 1970-?
Military
That will, as of now, consist of army and navy (later to be joined by air force). These will be number-based as it gives more versatility. These will be represented in divisions and squadrons (at a later date, I might also add "capital ships" as a separate part of the navy).
What will you have in it? Anything that you can have in it, according to your tech level; if you aren't sure about something, just ask me for clarification. If you just invented some sort of a weapon, you will have to invest some money to re-equip your army/navy with it; the training will also probably drop, due to the unfamiliarity of the weapons. Each stat-growth will increase any part of military by 5 (however, there could be exceptions). But know that if you have too large an army, your economy will probably suffer, as will your confidence; ofcourse, both could be, sometimes, restored by succesful military campaigns, or perhaps campaigns of propaganda back at home. If you grow your military too fast, your training, and later your military leadership, will suffer.
UUs - one per nation, but can be changed at any point (though the newly-demoted UU units will not be happy). I will keep a list of them, somewhere. Could be land, sea, or air at a later point. They will be separated from other units in the stats. They are grown as normal units. Remember to keep them REALISTIC. If the amount of UUs exceeds the amount of regular units, they will begin to drop in quality, morale and also in loyalty as their commanders, often being rather arrogant and ambitious (hey, they aren't commanders of an elite unit for nothing), will probably try to use their power base in one way or another.
Irregulars - local militias and simple civilian population that, for whatever reasons, took up arms - most often in rebellion or to defend against an invader, though there are exceptions - they aren't good for much that isn't guerrila warfare, though they can also be a neat diversion, and professional cannon fodder. They aren't too reliable, and often are rather hard for you to control; then again, they are also best left uncontrolled - they fight even worse when away from home, and, on the other hand, if at home they'll probably know what to do better, with their knowledge of the situation and the terrain.
Training - it is done in levels. There are separate training stats for army, navy and fleet, and it is grown with eco. points. UU is assumed to be one level higher then the average training level for its branch. If your army grows too quickly, there will be a chance of training level lowering.
None-Rabble-Semi-Rabble-Tolerable-Normal-Better-Good-Very Good-Professional-Elite
Conscription will give you a certain amount of conscript divisions that you could specify if you want; ofcourse, conscription, especially in democratic countries, tends to be quite unpopular, especially the large-scale variety...
As a certain Corsican once said in OTL, an army marches on its stomach. Logistical support is necessary for any real military operations, so you will probably have to invest 1 eco. point into each such operation, whether offensive or defensive; if involving a particularily-large army (or navy), or if taking place in a difficult territory with little chances for local resupply, you might have to invest more than one eco. point. And if its a large army somewhere far away in the middle of a desert... things get interesting.
Economy
The NES2 V Economy System is based on a mixture of my old ideas and those of some other people.
Economy levels still play the vital role. However, the amount of economy points that you have differs from level to level (if you get a negative amount of them, I will decrease a random stat per negative point); it is also influenced by random events and by economic centers (cities that are either trade centers, industrial centers or capitals of agriculturally-rich provinces); each of the latter provides one eco. point per turn to whoever holds it at the time (i.e. if it is on occupied territory, the occupier receives the eco. point). To grow economy (i.e. to advance from one level to another), you have to a) not spend your eco. points, apart from those received from eco. centers, on anything else that turn and b) to point out what exactly are you going to do to grow it (note that eco. growth might not always be succesful, depending on what you do and how things fold out).
Eco. points could (and should) be spent on growing military, miscellanous stats (see below), logistical support for the military and on continuing projects. Speaking of the latter, you could also invest a whole eco. level into a project to speed it up by two turns.
Eco. points cannot be banked.
Eco. levels still could be "sacrificed", i.e. converted into 6 eco. points each. Only two eco. levels could be sacrificed per turn.
Creation of economic centers also requires the investment of at least one eco. point into some specific development programs, most of the times anyway.
Depression (-2)-Bankrupt (-1)-Recession (-1)-Very Poor (0)-Poor (0)-Not Bad (+1)-Normal (+1)-Good Enough (+2)-Growing (+2)-Rich (+3)-Very Rich (+3)-Richer (+4)-Richest (+4)-Economic Powerhouse (+5)-Monopoly (+6) (after Monopoly, you get Monopoly+x (+6+x), where x is the amount of economy levels beyond Monopoly)
Size
As proposed by Disenfrancised, though somewhat altered by me. The larger your country is, the more money you will have to spend to grow any particular stat. You could invest money into stat growth over time if your country is large enough; in that case, the stat will still increase, but only in some, probably central, parts of the country.
Small (1)-Medium (2)-Above Medium (3)-Large (4)-Huge (5)-Gargantuan (6)-Half the World (7)
Miscellanous Stats
Those four/five stats below are all grown with eco. points, but, like with growing economy itself, you are supposed to point out what exactly you are doing.
Leadership
Whether military or civilian, leadership is an important factor. Competent military leaders will succesfully carry out plans or will even attain some successes on their own without orders; competent buerocrats will greatly help all government programs and assist the development of the land. But incompetent generals will even with the best plan stagger and blunder, while incompetent civilian administrators will embezzle funds and otherwise will be corrupt. So, this is quite crucial, and cadre preparation thus should be an important priority. Note that sometimes it is best to give specifics when growing this stat (meaning, how EXACTLY are you training your new leaders - what military doctrines should be emphasized, for instance, what stance should your buerocrats take on the various rebels, et cetera). When you expand your army radically, your military leadership will suffer; when you expand your territory, the civilian one will.
None-Imbecile-Moronic-Stupid-Incompetent-Barely Tolerable-Tolerable-Competent-Better-Good-Brilliant
Infrastructure
Roads, bridges, boats - all things used for transportation of goods and men - are listed under infrastructure. The higher is your infrastructure, the easier it is to move your (or enemy) troops across your territory; also, infrastructure could sometimes slightly grow economic benefits from trade centers, and it is a must for maintenance of a high culture level in large empires, as well as actually maintaining your grip on faraway provinces.
None-Dirt Paths-Pathetic-Barely Tolerable-Tolerable-Improving-Good-Efficient-Very Efficient-Great-Excellent
Education
This is just how your people are... educated, I guess. Obvious enough. With a good education, you have better chances of receiving a miraculous invention. You could design better walls and siege engines, and ships for that matter, with higher education. The higher education, the more chances you have to develop some technology.
Once someone reaches Enlightenment education, he becomes much more likely to reach the next age as soon as it becomes possible at all. When he does, he loses two education levels.
None-Dumb-Illiterate-Tolerable-Literate-Educated-Well Educated-Perfect-Academic-Enlightenment
Living Standards
This is pretty simple. The higher your living standards are, the happier your population is; the lower, the tougher it is, because of the tougher life. Living standards drop easily, due to economic weakness and war; they are raised as any other economic stats are raised, but the more they are raised the more greedy your people get for more. To create a classic revolutionary situation, raise the living standards somewhat and then neglect them and let them drop.
None-Slums-Very Low-Low-Barely Tolerable-Tolerable-Normal-Higher-Very High-Splendid
Culture
NOTE: NO LONGER CAN BE GROWN BY ECONOMY DIRECTLY.
This is how culturally strong, patriotic and unified your nation is. A nation with strong patriotism is less likely to fall into a civil war, and its people would resist most invaders and otherwise help their government. This also influences army morale. A nation with weak patriotism is unlikely to be as resistant to outside threats, there will often be rebellions and defections.
None-Divided-Untrusting-Average-Strongly Cultured-Devoted-Patriotic-Hyperpatriotic-Jingoist-Uberpatriotic
Confidence
NOTE: NO LONGER CAN BE GROWN BY ECONOMY DIRECTLY.
People can be fiercely unified and patriotic, but they will not necessarily like their ruler - in fact, a strongly
cultured nation with little confidence in its leaders can, in its cultural unity, lynch the rulers and fire their remains from cannons. Into the huge pot filled with boiled sharks. Not that the rulers will care by then...
Lynching-Hateful-Resentful-Barely Tolerating-Tolerating-Respecting-Admiring-Loving-Nation Personified
Investments
Wait! There is even more stuff you could waste your treasury on! Particularily, you could invest it, in the form of eco. points, into all sorts of programs - for example, you could invest them into the development of some technology (NOTE - it MUST be something conceivable for this time. You probably will have to consult me about this too... :sigh: ), though the success will depend not just on the amount of money invested, but also on your education level and on chance. Sometimes it could take quite a while. Or maybe you could invest it into a colonial venture. Or into some nice idea that you have, such as a jungle-clearing program that might increase infrastructure, and, in long-term, economy. This is also one of the few ways you could increase culture and confidence using money.
Note - in no case is success - or, at least, complete success - guaranteed. But its possible.
Detirioration
Over time, all your stats will detiriorate. This can be sped up by many factors, such as war, rebellion, neglect, low economy (not just with a minus eco. point, though the lower the "better"), et cetera. You could delay this by investing money into maintaining your current stats, the more money the less your stats will detiriorate.
Projects
Local equivalent of wonders (that name is inappropriate in most NESes, as these are often modernization programs, national revival and other PROJECTS, not just huge and magnificent buildings). You tell me what it does, I tell you how long do you build it. You will have to invest an eco. point once each turn for the work on the project to continue You can sacrifice an econ. level to speed it up by THREE turns, or invest 2 additional eco. points to speed it up by one more turn. Note that there is a limit - you can only invest one eco. level per turn, and accordingly only 6 extra eco. points per turn. The exact time it takes to build a project will depend on too many factors to list here.
Nation Background
To better fit in as the ruler of your country, you will have a brief history of each country here.
