Rules (Draft)

[snip]

I third this. Thets load the guns and fire.

[Darman]

Sorry to rain on the parade of seconds thirds and fourths but I've got a question about army corps.... can we divide them into smaller units, send detachments off to do odd jobs etc?

[Carthaginian]

Sorry to rain on the parade of seconds thirds and fourths but I've got a question about army corps.... can we divide them into smaller units, send detachments off to do odd jobs etc?

Yeah- should be no problem there... the combat strength will just be divided accordingly IMO.
You can have questions about the rules that can be answered and still want to move forward... I have some questions, but I'm more than willing to get them answered on the fly.

[Darman]

I'm all for moving forward,  and answering questions as w go

[Guinness]

I'm traveling a lot this month again. A couple of issues have already been pointed out, and there are a couple of things glaringly missing.

All that written, how about we point to September 1 as the date we start in-character play? We'll prioritize what we need to build nations at startup, to allow enough time for that work to start. That means (mostly) finalizing ship design guidelines.

[ctwaterman]

*yikes*.....

Ok Ok... I see excitment but lord the reason Alpha draft was used it because there are whole sections still missing from the Rules.  I agree we need to start working on moving forward.  But I will be gone away from PC's from Wed thru Sunday this week.  I think you can use the Guidelines above to start building things sort of a wish list.

Then once we finish the Shipbuilding Guidelines we can finish this up and get started.  But honestly I agree that a Sept 1st official start is more obtainable and reasonable a deadline.

Charles

[Walter]

From August 8 until September 11, I will be in Canada so don't expect me to flood the board with all kind of stuff right away. Hope you don't mind that. I will dump some of the stuff on my laptop, and if I have reasonable access I can do a few things before September 11 (though I seriously doubt that there are Wi-Fi hotspots on top of the mountains (and it is a real pain to drag the aditional weight of the laptop along on trails :) ))

[ctwaterman]

What no Cell Towers and Hot Spots on top of a Mountain.... what is the world comming too.... 

[Walter]

Don't forget that I am going to Canada, not the US*. ;D

* Not quite true. After the Abbotsford Airshow, if all goes to plan, I will be visiting the Pima Air Museum in Tucson, Arizona.

[Carthaginian]

I'm traveling a lot this month again. A couple of issues have already been pointed out, and there are a couple of things glaringly missing.

All that written, how about we point to September 1 as the date we start in-character play? We'll prioritize what we need to build nations at startup, to allow enough time for that work to start. That means (mostly) finalizing ship design guidelines.

This just killed two players with one stroke- TC and Snip have both said that life won't let them participate if we wait that long. Several more players have not posted in weeks. We are stagnating... very quickly, it seems.  The longer we sit, the less people there will be playing. How many people will begin to loose interest in another month- or quite possibly more? How many might have other things pull them away from the all-important start-up period? What things are missing, and how much work has been done with them.

What is there that just absolutely cannot be done by, say, end of next week?
Which things that are 'glaringly missing' that cannot be put in 'in working form?'
What things that are 'glaringly missing' can actually be done without at start-up- or entirely, for that matter?
How can willing players be used to assist in speeding the process? I'm no mod and great and almighty God knows I wouldn't choose to be, but I am willing to dedicate some spare time to getting things moving. I'm sure there are others who feel the same way- why not put that to good use?

This isn't a challenge, this is a plea- we the players are begging the mods to let us do whatever it takes to get things moving fast enough that we do not loose people. :'(

[snip]

To clarify my position a bit more. I start classes on the 29th of next month. Given that it will take a week or two for me to get into the swing of things, September 1st is about one of the worst possible dates for me. Then to add to the fun, I start up swimming again the last week of September. That leaves me about a week in September that I can guarantee that I can be active. Since every single design I had just got chucked out the window with the new rules on composite strength, I basically would have a week to get my cards in order including designs (assuming that I wait until the final rules come out to start any official designs). That is a bit to much.

As far as missing or inactive players go, has anyone seen Barcaii, Delta Force, and PyscoWard? There are three new NPCs. How many more NPCs are going to come up before we get this thing started? How can the rest of us help?

[Ithekro]

All we need is what we are allowed to do at setup, how much funding can we use (per year going backwards or lump sum, whatever) for setup, and what we have to have done (players) before start date.

The most intensive part of the sim is setting up your country.  After that it is at whatever pace and can be used to rest from a day's school or work.  After start up the intessive parts are sim reports usually.  Writting can be stressful but that is usually ones own choice.  Simming a new ship can be stressful, but again, you only do it as needed.  Country setup is required.

Rules on how to advance economically, combat, trade, and the like will be for once things get going, as you don't "need" them to build the country up to 1880.  They are handy if one wants to fiddle with things while setting up (adjusting taxes and trade routes during past wars and doing spurts of construction for actual roleplaying reasons rather than just to build ships, for example), but they aren't strickly needed until after every country is setup.  The rest of the stuff is for the first sim report...which is shortly after setup is completed.

Speaking of sim reports...what level are we using.  3 months, 4 months, 6 months, or a year, for each report?  All the rules so far have been based on money, but what about time?

[Korpen]

As far as missing or inactive players go, has anyone seen Barcaii, Delta Force, and PyscoWard? There are three new NPCs. How many more NPCs are going to come up before we get this thing started? How can the rest of us help?

I talked with Barcaii not that long ago. So he should not be written off, suspect some players are simply waitning to see what happens.

[Tanthalas]

@Ithekro I tryed to find it again but had no luck, I do however remember someone tossing around the one year figure.

[Nobody]

Well Carthaginian, I for example, would have loved to help with the economic and merchant rules - even if I would have had no say in it - but no one was interested.

That said, I have to say it looks good and generally sound. However, I think that the trade and colonial rules are missing some vital information. I also think that splitting trade between close and long range at 50:50 is too strict(I would propose a lower limit of 25 maybe 33% for either). One important bit is also missing from the general economic rules.

I like the tech idea, but this draft leaves too many questions: like how often can I change between the establishments, how long do I need to have it before I can profit from it. Also is 3 out of at least 8 really enough? Or the other way around: do I really need them if can have only 3 and the difference is only 5 years?