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Post by Deleted on Nov 1, 2016 5:05:57 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Nov 5, 2016 8:11:45 GMT
Announcement on Statistics
Please note that initial statistics contain generalized artillery numbers because of the difficulty in finding accurate models. When the military list is made fully available to you, you will have the option of procuring specific models and designing any should you choose to do so. As far as the naval statistics are concerned, they do not note ships that are currently being constructed. All ships laid down before 1 January 1898 will be commissioned per RL timelines. You are required to subtract their tonnage from your tonnage capacity. It is your responsibility to notify a moderator when a ship that was laid down pre-round ought to be commissioned.
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Post by generalvikus on Nov 5, 2016 11:35:16 GMT
Hi guys,
We've powered through a lot of the work that still needs to be done, and now everyone has their military stats in their nation forums, along with their land and naval production capacity and their economic statistics, including the budget.
We'd like to invite you to begin setting up your national threads, including your action threads, national news, press office, and defense ministry in the defense ministry section (for most countries, this should include their budget allocations and full disclosure of all procurement. Even Germany, for example, needed budget appropriations to be approved in the Reichtag, so the information was relatively open). While you're at it, why not write an initial pre-round national news article on a historical event to give us a snapshot of your nation at the start of the game?
We're still working on the systems for armies and land combat, but since everyone has a full list of their current ships, their tonnage and capital slipway limits, and their budgets, you may now begin to plan out naval construction if you wish. Remember, there are no guarantees on when the first Dreadnought will come about, but there will at the very least be another generation of pre-dreadnoughts between now and then.
You can also use your military stats to create an Order of Battle.
If you have any questions, ask myself or Eric rather than consulting the 'getting started' section, as the threads there are out of date.
Enjoy, and I hope everyone's excited as we are about getting under way!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 6, 2016 2:22:58 GMT
Announcement on Budgets
The budgets will require annual adjustments form players. As it stands, the budget is accurate for 1898, but defaults to either a growing surplus if you start with a surplus, or a growing deficit if you start with a deficit. In both cases adjustments will have to be made. So long as these adjustments aren't huge, the effect on GDP growth will not be big. So please keep the need for these adjustments in mind!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 6, 2016 4:17:22 GMT
Beginning of the Round
Congratulations! Your patience has paid off. The round has officially begun!
The reason we took so long to get this round going is that we’ve done a considerable overhaul of the forum’s systems.
The changes revolve around our new attrition system, which aims to do more to represent the nature of modern industrialized warfare. In wartime, each nation will have a spreadsheet which keeps track of their men, equipment and supplies – provided by your fine admins, free of charge – How much they produce each month and how much they lose will largely determine the outcome of their individual battles.
You’ll now have to use your land production capacity to produce supplies and infantry equipment for your troops as well as other equipment like artillery and machine guns. This will allow for a much more interesting sort of industrial warfare, as the game will now factor in supply shortages, or having more equipment than men, Russian style – or, conversely, you may benefit from careful stockpiling and prioritizing your equipment for offensives.
Our aim was to increase the focus on the industrial, productive aspect of total war between great powers. We hope that these systems will make a significant improvement to the game experience, and will be equally applicable for future rounds. Other changes include the simplification of the naval production system and various other, more minor things.
To learn all about the new systems, we recommend you check out the military units section, which includes guides for land and naval production. If you have any questions, please go ahead and ask us rather than spending too long looking – it may be that there are some systems that we have simply forgotten to explain.
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Post by generalvikus on Nov 7, 2016 11:50:03 GMT
Ongoing Wars
So, while doing research on Spain's military stats I found that it had almost 300,000 troops deployed in Cuba fighting a war against the insurgents there. Takeaway: colonial wars can fly under the radar, but all those troops are still going to have to be supplied with supply units, and their deployments are going to have to be taken into account in the Spanish OOB. Could all the colonial powers to check to see if they're currently being bothered by any pesky native rebellions? If so, make sure you're supplying whatever troops are involved.
Status Update
Another interesting point was that half the Spanish troops deployed there were irregulars (militias, mercenaries and the like) and it's something I'd like to address in the game systems, as it's going to be important for a certain hand-collecting monarch. Will be looking into that in the near future!
Still on the 'to do' list are giving everyone national stats:
- International Popularity - Domestic Popularity - Prestige (new mechanic, thought it would be fitting for the period!) - Army/Navy/Intelligence ratings
And providing everyone with a special reports thread, which will give you intel reports and other miscellaneous reports that we want you to have.
Finally, as expected we've already begun to revise the systems by overhauling the old shiypyard / naval capacity mechanic, which lasted for all of one day. Please, keep your eyes out for future announcements, because the changes we make may (and already have) affect people's actions!
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Post by generalvikus on Nov 7, 2016 12:06:03 GMT
Production Threads:
Hey guys,
Instead of submitting your military production as military actions - which would get really hectic in a major war - please create a military production thread in your national forum. This should include:
___________________________________________
Current Land Capacity Used / Total land capacity Current Naval Tonnage Used / Total Naval Tonnage Current Capital Slipways Used / Total Capital Slipways
Current Land Production Unit - Production Points - Price ($)
Remember, anything you produce with land equipment is delivered on a monthly basis. In wartime, you should divide your annual production capacity by 12 to get your monthly production, and then give information about what you're producing each month - this information will go into your production / losses table.
Current Naval Production Ship - Tonnage - Capital Capacity used (if applicable) - Price ($)
_____________________________________________
For almost all countries, all of this information should be copied and pasted into your ministry of defense thread in peacetime, but obviously not in wartime.
Finally, so far we've had five actions submitted - and four of those have been military actions. I'm proud of you all, we're off to a good start!
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Post by generalvikus on Nov 8, 2016 1:32:10 GMT
It's really great to see the amount of actions coming in, but I'd just like to warn everyone that since my final exams are currently in progress, I won't be very active over the next week, so please bear with us and expect the turnaround on the actions to be longer than normal. Things will improve after this week!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 9, 2016 1:51:20 GMT
Month Change
Please note that the month has been changed to February. Any actions that have been left will hopefully be addressed soon. If they are time-dependent, their results will happen as if they were processed in January.
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Post by generalvikus on Nov 10, 2016 7:30:20 GMT
National Stats
Every player nation should now have national stats - let me know if you don't. They all still need to be updated to reflect any changes due to actions.
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Post by generalvikus on Nov 10, 2016 23:35:15 GMT
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Post by generalvikus on Nov 11, 2016 12:35:30 GMT
IMPORTANT - Military costs adjusted, and other military matters
We realized that the monetary costs for supplies, infantry equipment and horses were way too low. Supplies now cost 15 times as much, while the cost of infantry equipment and horses has doubled. You can see all the changes in the updated land production thread.
Please remember that everyone must have a single thread in their national forum which details all your production and foreign purchases, your current used naval and land capacity, and your current defence budget. Unless you have a non-Parliamentary government, (Russia and Turkey from memory), all this information must be also included in your defence ministry thread. Military secrets may be negotiated with myself or Eric on a case-by-case basis, but the general rule is you can hide something small (like a new experimental gun) but not something big (like a warship).
In wartime, you are entitled to do away with your defense ministry thread.
Also remember that if you decide to calculate production on a monthly basis, all your production for that year must be calculated on a monthly basis. If you decide to do it yearly, you will only take delivery of everything you produce in that year at the year's end.
Also note that production points are a simple abstract of all the competing public and private defense concerns in your country. They cannot all produce one type of equipment. They also cannot all be used for the products of a single company. Use common sense when determining your production.
On a related note, since machine guns are still experimental at the moment, even if you purchase the technology from one of the two nations that have companies which produce them (the UK and US), it will still be some time before you can produce them in large numbers. It may be that you'll be required to invest money in developing production facilities for new technology like machine guns, but I'll get back to you on that one.
Note that we are still yet to assign training levels for everyone's troops, and the troop training system needs to be completely overhauled. For the moment, please do not train any troops - that includes training new ones or increasing the training of current ones - because the current system really is broken and needs to be replaced.
As I said earlier, our systems are still a work in progress and need some more polish - that's the price we paid for starting as early as we did. I'm glad that the round is up and running, and extremely happy with the current level of involvement - every player was online today! Please, bear with us while we continue to refine the systems, and hopefully everything will be set in stone soon.
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Post by generalvikus on Nov 12, 2016 10:55:08 GMT
World Map
I've created a new board called 'world map' which links to a high quality map of the world in 1898 that you can zoom in on to take a closer look at different parts of the world to see individual cities, colonies and such. Note the large unoccupied area in Africa, which is to be resolved one way or another this very year!
This may only be a stopgap measure; we might come up with a different map that can be modified as colonies are formed and territory changes hands. For now, though, this should at least give you a good idea of how the world is different now to how it was in 1914.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 16, 2016 6:33:50 GMT
Updates
Just as a heads up, we have reviewed and updated recruitment and added the cost for adding additional land production points. Please review these and adjust your procurement plans. Any questions should be directly addressed to us.
Tomorrow we will be processing the remaining actions, addressing some outstanding matters (such as the crisis between the US and Spain, the Serbian Coup, and Bosnia), and moving forward the month.
Additionally, I have decided to take control of Russia after Patria's resignation. We hope to fill France in the near future. Another one of my goals for tomorrow is to also address matters as Russia to help the game move forward.
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Post by generalvikus on Nov 17, 2016 12:07:46 GMT
Update
Since I just finished school, you guys can expect things to speed up from now on; thank you for your patience!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 23, 2016 23:40:58 GMT
Return & Updates
Hello everyone - I'm back in full force after being away over the weekend at a conference. I'm looking forward to processing some actions from all of you. Hopefully we will be able to include a number of random events, though understanding that some of you (including me!) will be celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow, activity might still be a bit slow in terms of picking up.
With regards to the month change, it has been significantly delayed this time because of the Spanish-American situation involving the USS Maine. I will provide both players the opportunity to respond to the breaking news, and will then proceed to change the month so that the game can continue without a hitch.
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Post by generalvikus on Nov 26, 2016 15:24:01 GMT
Changes to Military Production and Military Ratings
Hi guys,
We're still ironing out some bugs in the military production system - only to be expected, since this is our most complex system and the biggest departure from the old systems. I've changed the monetary cost of supplies, which as many people have noted was way too expensive and was obviously the result of some mistake on my part. The new cost is $6,250. Please go ahead and retcon any purchases you've made so far to reflect the new cost.
I'm also looking at revising the cost in production capacity for infantry equipment, which is also much too high at the moment. Once I resolve that, I'll post an updated table in the land production thread to reflect the new values.
Everyone has now been provided with an army and navy rating in their military stats thread. Please note that the highest values, for Germany and Britain respectively, are 50 and 50, so don't be freaked out by a low value for your country. These ratings reflect the fact that the military thinking of the time really wasn't caught up to military technology.
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Post by generalvikus on Nov 30, 2016 8:10:55 GMT
IMPORTANT: MORE CHANGES!
Hey guys,
I've found the first source I've seen that lists the peacetime and reserve strengths of the belligerents at the start of World War I. I'm going to use those ratios for each nation and current conscription laws where applicable to calculate a much more accurate number of reserves for each army. It's not perfect, but it'll be a big improvement.
I've also made a big change to land production. Since switching from older single shot weapons to modern bolt action types was a big part of the arms race in this time period, I've split infantry equipment into equipment and small arms. Each nation chooses which weapon to produce (you can include more specialized weapons as well in a sort of 'package') and can then produce them for a fixed monetary and production point cost. Better weapons will greatly improve the performance of your troops, and upgrading old ones should be a priority.
On that note, I'll also be adding a new category of starting artillery - bronze/iron artillery - which was still being used by some European nations and was vastly inferior to the modern steel artillery that began to be developed in the 1870s.
The biggest change is the cost of infantry equipment and weapons in production points, which has decreased massively. Note that one unit of small arms and infantry equipment and weapons is now enough for 100 men, and the cost has also changed. This will enable infantry to be equipped at a much greater rate relative to the production of other items, and the balance should now be a lot more historical.
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Post by generalvikus on Dec 3, 2016 1:40:19 GMT
IMPORTANT: FRENCH PLAYER URGENTLY NEEDED
Hey guys,
As the eastern crisis is now close to the point of no return, we absolutely need a player for France before things move forward any further. Anyone who is willing please contact me immediately. For now, we're going to remain in April, both because of the major crisis and because France needs to be filled.
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Post by generalvikus on Dec 3, 2016 9:51:30 GMT
OTTOMAN PLAYER ALSO NEEDED
Same deal as above, now Litos has stepped down we need a new Ottoman player before we can move forward.
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