A New World was dawning, the Dusk of the Old World but a distant nightmare. New dreams and hopes were born, and new stories could be told. And thus, a new story did arise. One of the Haskanara, the communal greed. The Men of Lactosia, of wisdom and philosophy. The sidhe, of terror and awe. The Kodama, in their halls of leaves. The anaNoku of kiDano, of skull and strength. Of other survivors and their new neighbors.
The New World was dreaming, of plights and perils. It was hoping, for riches and refuge. Its creatures and cultures were in a stir. Events were unfolding, wars and wisdom born anew. Who might rise, who might fall, in this Dawn of a New World?
This is the game thread for the Dawn of a New World game. Discussion should ideally take place in the
discussion thread.
Game rules. Mostly shamelessly stolen from Nirur Torir, who took them from Vanigo:Each turn represents one year. You direct city production, research, and military units, and may provide as much detail as you like. More detailed plans may give you bonuses to random rolls, so try to be a bit more in-depth than "three guys mine the hills, and I'm building a library"!
Turns will last roughly three days each. If a turn is missed, the minimum food will be produced, and everyone else idles.
Your city starts with 10,000 people. Each 1000 people generate 1 labor and consume 1 food. Labor points may be used to work the terrain surrounding your city, producing resources, or used in the city to build or staff buildings. The primary resources are food, wood, and stone, along with various ores. Other resources exist, but you won't know about them at the beginning of the game.
Your city is surrounded by 18 tiles of varying terrain types. Rivers and special resources (like ores, luxury foods, or magical reagents) can be found in some tiles. Each tile can be fully worked by one labor point, providing the appropriate resources for the terrain type and any upgrades there.
Labor may also be spent on construction (in or out of the city) or on manning buildings.
Unused resources apart from food will automatically be stored. Standard warehouses can store 20 resources of each type. Resources may be used in the same turn they are produced. Extra resources over the storage limit are given away to the populace.
Some buildings are made in the city itself, like a smithy, library, or shrine. Some of these have modest staffing requirements and provide a constant benefit. A generic shrine, for instance, gives a passive bonus of 10 spirituality luxury points. Others allow new types of labor to be performed in the city. A smithy allows ores to be processed, for instance, and a hall of learning allows labor to be spent on research.
You may also construct terrain upgrades. These generally increase the resource output of the tile they are built in. Plains, for instance, can be irrigated to raise their food output from two to three. Most upgrades are mutually exclusive - you can't build a quarry and irrigation in the same tile - but a few, like watermills, are 'free'.
The attitude of your citizens is very important! The happier your people are, the more immigrants you attract and the faster your population grows. What's more, at very high and low morale, their productivity is affected. Morale ranges from one to ten, with a base of five, and can be adjusted by many factors. The effects of morale are as follows:
Morale:yearly population growth
1:-4%, -30% production
2:-2%, -20% production
3:0, -10% production
4:2%
5:4%
6:5%
7:6%
8:7%, +10% production
9:8%, +15% production
10:10%, +20% production
Some luxury goods can be consumed for morale bonuses. Each luxury good may be converted into 10 luxury points. Every 1000 population requires 1 luxury point for a morale bonus. Luxury goods of the same type beyond the needed amount provide no benefit, so you can only get a +1 morale bonus from a single type of luxury good; different types are needed to get further bonuses. If you have more than three luxury goods, further bonuses become harder to get; each additional point of morale takes two different resources.
The most common luxury good is clothing, available by refining wool produced by hills. Your people can scrounge for furs and such to keep themselves dressed, but they're happier if they don't have to.
As your population grows, room becomes increasingly sparse. Overcrowding reduces population growth and morale as follows:
15,000+ - -2% population growth
20,000+ - -3% population growth, -1 morale
25,000+ - -4% population growth, -1 morale
30,000+ - -5% population growth, -2 morale
35,000+ - -6% population growth, -2 morale
+5,000 - -1 morale extra
Every civilization has a few citizens with unusual skills and aptitudes. They may be great military leaders, ingenious engineers, wise sages, or any number of other things. Leaders can provide bonuses to appropriate activities - a sage can lead research efforts in your hall of learning to speed your research, for instance. Possibly more important, however, many buildings cannot be built or operated at all unless you have an appropriate leader available. Without a general, for example, a military school cannot be built, nor can it be used while he is away. Other structures only require a leader to be built - building a huge castle requires a skilled engineer, but once it's done he can move on to other things.
Leaders of the same class have the same basic abilities, but each also has their own special ability. You may not initially know what this ability is, however; it must be discovered either by putting the leader in an appropriate situation or through a random event. Alduf the Sage might be a brilliant teacher of magic, giving bonuses to your wizards, but you might not know it if you never put him in charge of a magical college.
To create a military unit, you must be able to equip them - typically this means creating weapons at a smithy or military workshop. Almost all units may be trained in a single turn, and will be ready to move out on your next turn. Initially, you may only train one unit a turn, but there are ways to increase this limit. Military units draw personnel from the population of your city. Most units consist of 100 population. Units with heavy equipment, such as knights, may require more population to help carry their equipment while traveling. They can be left out, but the unit will travel more slowly.
Simple wooden weapons can be made with 2 labor and 1 wood for a unit's worth, and wooden shields also take 2 labor and 1 wood.
Most units may move a couple hundred miles a turn in known territory - they have a year to do it in, after all! Supplies may be an issue on long journeys, though, so be careful. Also, exploring uncharted territory is much slower. Major battles (including all PVP) takes place in a combat sub-turn at the end of the regular turn.
During combat, players will PM their tactics to me. Conditionals are allowed. Example: My archers will set up on a hill. My swordsmen will be in front of my archers, screening them from attacks. The cavalry will be behind the hill, waiting for a good opportunity to charge. If flanked, my archers will attempt to get away, while my cavalry charge the flankers. Otherwise, my cavalry will attempt to charge the enemy archers.
Units have ratings for attack, defense, range, health, movement, and morale. Special abilities may be learned through a year of training. The exact combat formulas will remain secret. Units will fight at reduced efficiency as morale drops, and units that have 'broken' lose the benefit of any known abilities.
Units will gain experience, and eventually increase their morale. They may be trained for a year to gain the "trained" level of experience, but further levels require combat experience.
Naval units are generally small enough to navigate rivers, although they receive a 50% bonus to attack and defense if at sea. If designed to be too large for rivers, they'll receive a 100% bonus at sea. Each naval unit will be able to transport at least one standard military unit.
As noted earlier, each 1000 people consume 1 food a turn. If extra food is available, it provides morale bonuses - each extra food gives 2 luxury points.
Famine can easily be disastrous. If there is not enough food, your city's population drops by 1000 every turn and morale is reduced by two until the situation is resolved.
Military units consume double food. That is, a standard unit of archers with 100 population will consume 200 food per turn. If forced to forage in the wilderness (Extended global travels without supplies), they'll lose morale and possibly health.
Excess population beyond a 1000 mark will add into a sort of labor pool, to the nearest 100. This will continue to increase each turn. When it reaches 1000, the population will be considered to have an extra 1000 people for the next turn. They'll produce more labor, require food, use luxuries, and be taxed just like a normal 1000 people. This extra will be noted in the turn text.
Initially, your people don't use money much. This changes once you research Trade. Money is used mostly for upkeep of military units and for trading. Each 2000 people produce 1 money in tax income, and each military unit requires 1 money in upkeep costs. Before trade is researched, you may only support three military units.
Research points are produced primarily with labor spent at the Hall of Learning. You may tell your researchers what you want them to work on, but they may surprise you from time to time. Plus, there is a large random component to research speed, so don't assume much.
The technologies given below are a basic technologies to get people started. As the game progresses, you may need to make up new technologies, either by giving a name or a desired effect. In any case, it's advantageous if you state which of your existing technologies you think can be used as prerequisites of the new technology.
The 18 tiles surrounding your city are available for production, but tiles being used for production may need to be protected. Enemies can keep you from working tiles, and may also destroy improvements in them. Units in your city may be ordered to defend terrain tiles, or not, as you prefer. Walls improve the strength of your units when they're defending any tile they enclose, but are of no use outside them.
Your tiles may be referred to by number as follows: The tile directly above your city is tile 1, and the remainder of the inner ring is numbered 2 through 6 clockwise. The northmost tile is number 7, and the rest of the outer ring is numbered 8 through 18 clockwise.
Civilizations with an appropriate technology can produce settler units by spending 5 labor, 5 food, and 5 wood. This also reduces the city's population by 5,000. Settlers move like military units, and can be expended to produce a colony or town, depending on the technology used.
Colonies take 10 money in startup costs, and represent relatively small settlements dependent on their parent city for most production. They grow slowly, and require steady upkeep costs (2 money a turn for starting colonies), but send resources back to their parent civilization based on their location. Colonies with little or no farmland may require steady food shipments, as well. Colonies initially have no ability to raise military units, and rely on their parent city for protection.
A player may only control one city at a time, although the possibility exists for independent towns to loosely align themselves with a player, trading resources for protection.
Random events will probably occur as the game goes on. These can be beneficial or harmful. Bad harvests, raiders, abundant harvests, or traveling merchants are a few possibilities. There is no way to prevent them, but bad harvests can be negated by having a granary with enough food stored. Raiders won't be able to do much if there is an army defending the town.
Colonies will have separate chances of random events.
Horses, similar beasts of burden, and slaves, have a few uses. Two maybe be turned into a labor point for the express purposes of working terrain or improving it. They may be eaten if times are hard, for +1 food. With the proper training, horses or beasts of burden may be used as part of a military unit, for cavalry.
Horses or other beasts of burden may be gained through random event, exploration, or raiding. Building a horse farm with them is advised, so that more may be trained.
Certain animals, such as elephants, are so powerful that they are considered great beasts. Great Beasts require other technologies and improvements than other beasts of burden, and are stronger when used in military units. Units using great beasts cost 3 money in upkeep rather than 1. Before Trade is discovered, a single great beast unit would take the room of all allowed military units.
Animal and great beast production cannot be improved by mills or most other buildings and terrain improvements.
Magic is a powerful force in the world, and a civilization that can harness it can reap powerful advantages. Many magical technologies work pretty much like other techs - they unlock new structures, equipment, and special bonuses. Others, however, require caster units to take advantage of. These spellcasting technologies work as follows:
Each spellcasting tech is linked to a magical resource. Once you have a casting tech and the associated resource, you can create a mage school. This requires, in addition to normal building materials, two units of any magical resource you know how to use.
With a mage school, you can train caster units for two magical resources and three labor. A caster unit is a small group of highly-trained, highly-paid professionals, and creating them has no significant impact on your population. Each caster unit is limited to a single school of magic, set when the unit is created, and must be created with the appropriate resource. Caster units can cast any spell of their school that you know, although their power per turn is limited. A spellcasting tech will give you at least one spell of that school, and further research can reveal more. The MP of a caster unit depends on the school of magic and unit experience, and can usually be improved with further research.
Caster units, like some leaders, are often attached to military units. Caster units have no direct combat ability (unless they have a spell that grants it to them), so they should be protected; they are at great risk if sent away from your cities alone. If their unit gets involved in battle, caster units can use pre-combat buffs to improve their allies, or they can cast combat spells to damage and weaken their enemies. (Or, of course, a mixture of the two.) A caster unit cannot be attacked directly unless they are first separated from any units escorting them, but alone they can be easily destroyed by any military unit. Direct damage spells may be targeted on casters; against such attacks they have four defense and five health, modified by experience. (Caster-on-caster battles tend to be fast and mutually destructive.)
Most caster units have an upkeep cost of three money. This represents both their salaries and the cost of supplying them with spell components. Before Trade is discovered, a caster unit would take the room of all allowed military units.
Author
Topic: Dawn of a New World game thread (Year 26; Evil Eye) (Read 17712 times)