Rules (Draft)

[Guinness]

Below is the "Alpha" draft of the N4 rules. It is incomplete. Details and especially figures are likely to change. I'm posting it here to give everyone an idea of the general direction, and so you can see what is generally fully baked, and what we still have a lot of work to do on.

[Guinness]

Economy

Drawing up the economic rules, we had several aims:
Economy figures should be in broad agreement with OTL numbers
Design a rule where trade is important, and blockades have noticeable effect
Limit military sizes by maintenance cost
Get the system consistent, but as simple as possible while fulfilling these aims (KISS: Keep It Simple at Start)

Size of national economies is represented by the value of annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The governmental sector collects a portion of this GDP in taxes, spends it running the bureaucracy, education, improvement of infrastructure, maintaining the military and some discretionary spending (and whatever I omitted from this list). As Nverse concentrates on the naval aspects, the only expenditure a player needs to control is the "discretionary" and military spending. Rest of the governmental spending is assumed to be beneficial to the economy. For sake of simplicity, stimulating effect of military spending is omitted.

A starting nation in 1880 has a total population of 35 million, and a corresponding GDP of N$3,333 [million]. With the baseline 3% tax rate this gives an annual military expenditure of N$100 (the [million] omitted for convenience).
The population and GDP would be broken down into provinces at player's discretion.

The average GDP/capita would be N$95 in 1880. This roughly equals to $2000 in Maddison's tables. The most advanced provinces have a GDP [per capita] of N$200. Agrarian regions with poor agricultural production and no mining have a GDP of N$50, and subsistence economy in poor colonies has a GDP of N$25.

Details of national industrial capacities are ignored. Player nations are at a similar level of industrial development, eliminating the need for further differentiation.

The main national industries are located in the country proper. Overseas holdings exist to support the domestic industry, not to provide competition. Overseas holdings cannot be industrialized and assimilated.

GDP, Taxation and growth

Population growth is assumed to be a flat 1% annually.

The effective GDP of the nation is the base GDP of the home country, increased by trade factors and colonial income. The more money is diverted into military spending, the lower the domestic GDP growth. Taxation refers to the military spending. The chosen taxation baseline of 3% allows a 3% annual GDP growth rate. The following table describes the relationship between tax rate and GDP growth:

Tax Rate                    GDP Growth
----------                  ------------
0%                          4.5%
0.5%                        4.25%
1%                          4%
1.5%                        3.75%
2%                          3.5%
2.5%                        3.25%
3%                          3%
3.5%                        2.5%
4%                          2%
4.5%                        1.5%
5%                          1%
5.5%                        0.5%
6%                          0%

Nations cannot change military spending arbitrarily in peacetime.
The maximum tax increase is 0.5 percentage point (i.e. from 2.5% to 3%). In wartime expenditure can be doubled from the previous year.
In regular economic climate, the economic growth must keep pace with the population growth, otherwise there would be political unrest in the nation. That means 5% max tax rate at 1% growth.

Railroads

Bought outright, standard gauge railroads cost $10 per 300km. Narrow gauge is half the cost, but have half the capacity.

In industrialized areas, railroads need not be purchased. They will develop naturally as required by market factors, etc. During war, railroads near the front lines will be built as a function of army logistics, so similarly their purchase would not normally be required.

Railroads built in semi-civilized and un-civilized areas generally have less immediate return on investment than those in fully industrialized areas, and therefore often have to be subsidized. A subsidized railroad costs $4 per 300km for standard gauge and $2 per 300km for narrow gauge.

Railroads which have no reasonable expectation to provide return on investment must be bought outright.

Trade

International trade is the lifeblood of nations. The volume of trade between industrial nations accounts for 20% of the total economy - split evenly between exports and imports. Half of this trade is short-distance, within a continent, and carried by rail or coastal vessels. The other half of this trade is "long-distance", between continents.

This maximum trade volume generates 20% of GDP (and taxes). Seaborne trade is carried by the Merchant Marine of both trading partners. A given trading partner can account for up to a quarter of the total trade.

The default long-range trade distribution is split between the two other industrialized continents. Only the major trading partners need to be defined, taking up to 10% each of the GDP.

Trade with semi-civilized nations
There are two differenced from the industrial trade. The first is that the merchant marine is provided by the industrial partner. Second, the trade must be established first. Write a story on getting a trade treaty from a given nation. Or write a story to force a given nation to open their market. You can also force the semi-civilized nation to stop trading with a given partner. The max. trade volume is 5% for the industrial partner, and 20% (monopoly) for the semi-civ partner.

There is no inherent limit on how many such trades a nation can pursue otherwise.

EXAMPLE

Kingdom of NPstain has an economy of $400 a year.  Playerabia wishes to establishe a trade agreement with said nation.  A series of stories is written and the moderators judge the story to be worth 5% trade deal between the two nations.  So 400 * 0.05 = $20.  Playerabia has an economy of $4000.  When figuring tax income Playerabia's economy is assumed to be its economy + the value of such trade agreements.  If the trade pact with Npstain was the only trade pact that Playerabia had then for tax purposes its economy is treated as 4000 + 20 = 4,020.

Colonial trade

Colonial trade refers to trade with overseas holdings, previously uncivilized states or conquered semi-civs. After a target nation is conquered, colonial administration and communication lines (merchant marine) needs to be established. The cost of establishing a colony is the same as the size of the local economy. Trade of any colony would be dominated by the mother nation. The colonial trade volume is 20% of the economy, but it contributes only to GDP growth, the MM is required to maintain tax/tariff income.

Example:
A colony of 1.2 million people has the GDP of $60. It takes $120 to establish colonial administration. This colony would provide $60 bonus to the national economy, and $1.5-$2 tax per year.

Trade routes

Each nation should map their major overseas trade routes, with one port per trading partner.


Merchant Marine

The size of the national merchant marine (MM) is determined by the volume and distance of trade routes. It is assumed that shipping firms can buy ships necessary for new trade routes. Establishing colonial administration includes the cost of subsidizing new ships.
A small percentage of the MM are passenger liners that can be used as auxiliary cruisers. There are much fewer large liners than OTL, as there is no migration from Europe to North America.

Commerce raiding is represented by two mechanisms. The first is the direct economic damage of ships and merchandize sunk. The second is that raiding and blockading decreases the efficiency of the trade route, requiring more ships to sustain trade, and there would be unsold goods that would be sold at a reduced price. There are some detailed rules, but they are omitted here.

Army Acquisition and Maintenance

There are the following types of military troops.
a/ Regulars. The enlisted personnel are professional soldiers.
b/ Conscripts. The enlisted personnel are past their basic training, serving the remainder of the 2-3 year army service. A nation with conscription should have 0.5-1% of the total population in such units.
c/ Reserves. These divisions are mobilized only for war. As the enlisted already did their service, these divisions function just like other conscript divisions after the first weeks of war.
e/ Colonials. They are locally raised troops, up to 1% of the colonial population, otherwise they are treated as conscripts

Army cost and annual maintenance

It takes a year to create a new military unit. The setup cost is covered by the first year of maintenance.

Maintenance per corps (50,000):

Regulars: $9
Conscripts: $5
Reserves/Colonials: $1

An example army might have 10 corps, for a total of 500,000 men in uniform:
Regulars: 2 corps x $9 = $18
Conscripts: 3 corps x $4 = $12
Reserve/colonial: 5 corps x $1 = $5

Total maint. cost: $35

A corps at the baseline 1880 tech level costs $10 to build. Future army tech levels will be more expensive to construct, but cost the same to maintain. Upgrading a corps requires paying the difference between the old and new tech level.

Forts and fortifications:

Forts cost 3 times as much as infantry corps to build, but have the same cost to maintain as a regular conscript army unit. For instance an 18 citadel fort system is equivalent in manpower to a corps. It costs $30 to build, but normally costs $5 to maintain, if staffed with conscripts. Like infantry units, forts can be upgraded by paying the difference in cost between tech levels.

Naval infrastructure and maintenance

Slipways cost about half of drydocks. Base maintenance is 2%, ship maintenance is 1-5-10%.

Naval base
Naval bases contain shipyards, drydocks, and infrastructure necessary to run the fleet detachment based in the port. A naval base cost $2 for every 10,000t of (normal) support capacity.
Base maintenance: $0.2 for every 10,000t of capacity

Shipbuilding infrastructure
Shipbuilding can be done at drydocks and slipways. While a drydock can have other uses, slips are cheaper and do not have maintenance costs associated with them.  It is important to note, that as heavy industry is limited to the "homeland" territories, ships cannot be built at overseas ports.

Slipways
Slipways can only be built in the homeland. A slipway of X m length costs X^3/600 – less than half of a drydock capable of taking a ship with L:B:D of 21:3:1.

Drydock
Drydocks are used for periodic maintenance, repairing damage and performing larger overhauls.
A drydock costs as much to build as the largest ship (with a block coefficient of 0.6) it can accommodate.

Miscellaneous:
Docks for small vessels (lighter than 1,000t and shorter than 80m/300') are assumed to be present in "reasonable" numbers at naval bases, and no accounting of them is necessary. This limit would increase at a later time.
For regular maintenance, you need one drydock that can accommodate the largest ship based there, and an additional "large enough" drydock  for every 20 large (over 2,000t or over 80m/260') ship.
You need extra drydocks for major repairs and ship reconstruction.
Drydocks can be lengthened, for the cost of the capacity increase.
Expanding a drydock in beam/draught require relocating/demolishing some existing infrastructure, which cost half the existing capacity of a drydock.

Examples
As 1m3 seawater weighs 1 long ton (within a %), a 150m long, 20m wide and 8m deep drydock costs 150x20x8x0.6= $14.4
Extending the length of an 8000t drydock by 25% would cost 10-8 =$2.
Extending a 8000t drydock to a 16,000t one would cost (16-8)+8x0.5=$12.
Drydocks cost 10% (i.e. $0.10 for every 1,000t capacity) to maintain.


Ship Construction and Maintenance


Ship construction
Regular naval ship construction cost is $1 for every 1000t of normal displacement.
Submarines, torpedo boats, destroyers and auxiliaries are priced differently.

Ship Maintenance
Some of the ships can be put in reserve status, up to 20% of the total base capacity.
Ships: 1% cost in reserve, 5% regular and 10% deployed
Note: drydocks and bases cannot be put on reserve. If they are not paid, the capacity is gone.

Fleet of 400,000t
Ship construction: $20 (20,000t)
300,000t ships in regular maintenance:  $15
100,000t in reserve: $1
Drydocks: $6 (60,000t capacity)
Bases: $10 (500,000t capacity)
Total naval expenditure: $52

Ship Design Guidelines

Ships will be designed using Spring Sharp 3.

Ships cost are based on SS3's normal displacement.

Ships are constrained by technology levels attained by their constructing nations.

Ships may be constructed for export at whatever price the buyer and seller care to negotiate.

(there is much more to come here)

Research

Research is spent on maintaining sufficient infrastructure and personnel to follow a given line of research. We call these establishments. A nation can only maintain one establishment for every $1000 of GDP. So at startup, a nation with a GDP of $3333 can have 3 establishments. Each establishment costs $5 per year to maintain.

At game startup, the following establishments are available for research:

Capital ships - battleships and 1st-2nd class cruisers, armor and shells
Jeune Ecole - Torpedo Boats, 2nd-4th class cruisers, torpedoes
Naval Propulsion 
Guns, gunnery and fire control - includes army artillery
Submarines, Torpedoes and mines
Infantry weapons and organization
Human Intel
State Security

As the game evolves, more will become available.

There will also be a tech tree. The tree will be revealed as the game progresses. When a new tech is revealed, a nation will have had to have been supporting it's required establishments to gain that tech breakthrough immediately. Some techs will require only one establishment, some many more. Nations who have not been supporting the required establishments will not gain that tech for the number of years specified at time of reveal. The baseline "catch up" time will be 5 years, but some breakthroughs may last longer, some shorter.


Initially Revealed Tech Tree
Years are: Years everyone can get it/Years only those with required establishment can get this. Establishments required are in (parens)

Naval Propulsion:
Baseline: Engine year: year laid down, 100% coal, simple expansion engines only
1890/1885: Engine year: year laid down, 100% coal, vertical triple expansion engines (Naval Propulsion Establishment)

Shipbuilding Materials:
Baseline: Iron ships, overall strength of 1.2 required
1890/1885: Early steel ships, overall strength of 1.1 required (Either the Capital Ship or Jeune Ecole Establishment)

Armor:
Baseline: Composite armor.
1890/1885: Harvey Nickel Steel armor, protection +1. (Capital Ship Establishment)

Artillery:
Baseline: Max muzzle energy 1900 million lb.ft^2/s^2
1890/1885: Max muzzle energy 2500 million lb.ft^2/s^2 (Guns gunnery and Fire control)

(There is likely more to come here too.)

[Guinness]

A picture of what stuff would cost:

Naval Constr.           $1/1000t(normal)
Naval Maint.            $0.10/$0.05/$0.01 per 1000t
Drydock Constr.         $1 per 1000t capacity
Drydock Maint.          $0.10 per 1000t capacity
Naval base constr       $0.20 per 1000t capacity
Naval base maint        $0.02 per 1000t capacity
Baseline Army Constr.   $10 per corps (or the cost of 1 10k ton BB)
Baseline Fort Constr.   $30 per 18 cit. fortress (or the cost of 3 10k ton BBs)
Army Maint.             $9/$4/$1 per corps (or per 18 cit. fortress)
Baseline Fort Maint     $10 for 18 citadels (or the same as one corps)
Railroads(per 300 km)   $10/$4 to buy, $0.50 to maintain (for purely military railroads)

This is all based on a baseline GDP of $3333 and a baseline budget (at 3% taxation) of $100.

[Guinness]

Now with gigantic font size in pre-formatted tables for the hard of seeing.

[Carthaginian]

OK... not exactly getting the whole way that the rules are set up.
Can we have some possible clarification on the following:

1.) Research Establishment
How does this work, precisely? We can only have three types of ships we can build? That's a joke... right? Ship types were often copied quickly by one nation or another after they were first being built- and we can only pic three type sof ships to start with?
Also, we have to build up 1/3 of our basic starting national power to get another one? How are we actually supposed to build an effective fleet- I mean, how long will it take to grow our nation by 33% and try to build a different type of ship?

That is damnably stringent the way it seems to be written.
We won't be able to advance fast enough... PERIOD.

2.) Define 'reasonable number' capabilities for small ships:
Either you can or cannot have enough capability- and it needs to be defined. 'Reasonable Numbers' is just too vague. If we can afford to have prices that involve cubing and square roots and mid-level econ classes... well, it seems that this is intentionally too vague.

3.) Drydock cost:
We're using CUBIC METERS OF SEAWATER cubed as to how to price things? PLEASE explain exactly why this is and exactly why do we need to get something this complicated?

[Guinness]

Research establishments:

You start out specializing in three. This has no direct constraint on what you can build. What it does constrain is what breakthroughs you get when.

For instance (and this is entirely hypothetical): you might need to have been researching naval propulsion and capital ship architecture to be able to build a Dreadnought one day.

Now there isn't *that* much penalty if you aren't researching all the right establishments for a given tech. The first date listed on the nascent tech tree is the "first get" date. This means that only those supporting the required establishments get that tech at that date. Everyone else gets that tech at the second date listed, which is generally 5 years later.

Drydock costs:

The easy way: sim a ship of the length, beam, and draft that is the size of the drydock you want. Use a block coefficient of 0.60. The normal displacement of that hull would be the tonnage used for your drydock cost.

Reasonable numbers complaint:

The whole idea here is to cut down on the bean-counting for small ship construction. Reasonable numbers here means that we expect that your navy will have automatically built the number of small docks necessary to maintain small ships, assuming that you have built enough naval bases to support your total tonnage.

I'm merging this with the stickied rules draft thread. There is no reason you can't comment or ask questions there.

[Carthaginian]

I'm merging this with the stickied rules draft thread. There is no reason you can't comment or ask questions there.

I wanted the RULES to be separate- perhaps even locked.
For lack of better words- I was going to treat them like RULES and not 'rules.'

[Guinness]

Sadly, that's not what they are.

[Valles]

I continue to regard the 'enforcement' of 'Nation' vs 'Colony' and the limitation of research budgets as bad ideas. That having been said as courteously as I can, I'll return to silence on the subject.

I like the economic rules in general, and am very pleased with the 'establishment' model for research. The rest, I can work with quite handily.

Overall? Thumbs up and thank you.

[Darman]

I like the establishment model for research as well.  Will tech trades be allowed?  And how might they work?  Would one need to "digest" the incoming shared technology like in N3? 

[Guinness]

As of now there would be no tech trades. We've thought of the idea of joint establishments, but as of right now if we were ever to allow that idea, it would likely be many years down the road in the sim. Technology exchange in any meaningful way just didn't happen that often before World War I otl.

Now, one idea of the whole system is to make arms exports more straightforward, so there's no reason that if you have a certain tech before most other players, you might not profit from that lead through direct export construction.

[Darman]

Very true.  I had forgotten that tech trades seemed to make export construction almost nonexistent. 

[ctwaterman]

We did have reasons for most of the things we fiddled with even if Mike and P3d had to explain them to me in short sentances now and again... :-[ :'(  Or it might have simply been me tuning out the economics discussions and reducing what they were saying to Blah Blah Blah... Germany... Blah Blah... 1860... Blah Blah Blah... England 1870.. Blah Blah X tons of steel...

Or something like that.... :o  Anyway they put alot of effort into the Economic sections and I think its going to work well especially if we let you all fiddle with it and do some modeling which will either prove, disprove, or do something to someone pet theory on the subject.

Anyway read, think about what Guinness Edited and wrote, and slaved over examples of and ask questions.  Questions are good they get answered and they make us think about what we said as well.

[Carthaginian]

Guys, we just wanna know when we can play.
Rules are here- and whether or not we agree really isn't the point. At some point, the rules will have to be set and we'll all just have to nut up and deal with it. I was the first one to ask questions here... but I'll also say that I'm ready to put any doubts that I have behind me, trust the Mods and just play.

So, who's willing to put their doubts behind them, say 'good enough really is' and just start building ships and blowing shit up?

[Tanthalas]

Im with Carth, while I dont exactly agree with all the rules they are what they are and im ready to get this thing rolling.