Comment Thread : RELee's CounterIntuitive USA AAR or What I Did Last Summer

[Capt. Kiwi]

Sorry to hear about the lack of a demo, but I believe that the wait will be worth it. It's a solid release. It's not perfect, but really solid.

You compare the 1.1 version of v2 with the 1.1 version of v1 and, well, there IS no comparison in my opinion. v2 blows it away.

It could quite possibly be the 20th before I get the free time to download... I shouldn't really be on here now even

1.1 of the original was crazy. The Italian and German unifications did anything that didn't vaguely resemble the historical route, for starters. That sent Europe off in all sorts of crazy directions, and hence the world. Sweden had a mad penchant for grabbing Namibia, and don't even start on the Crimean or Opium wars... And that's not even looking at the economic system or balance. So yes, I'm looking forward to 1.1 of this, whenever I get to it

 

[Arilou]

Some kind of "We have more than 50 influence points in..." notification could be useful, no?

 

[safferli]

Some kind of "We have more than 50 influence points in..." notification could be useful, no?

There is.

 

[Baneslave]

Some kind of "We have more than 50 influence points in..." notification could be useful, no?

There is the square... thingy on the diplomacy header at the top of the screen.

Edit. You can see it in this screenshot:

 

[Rommel22]

Very nice AAR and makes me want to get the game, which I will most likely do. Reading the AARs is almost like a tutorial of sorts, including yours, well done RELee.

Please post more, I am interested in the way you run the country, low taxes, no taxes on the rich, a true conservative fashion, and it seems to be working out for you.

When I get the game, I will do the same except run it in a more Socialist way and see how that turns out. Though I am guessing to do so, one would need to have a different type of government or a differently composed upper house, instead of conservatives, have liberals or socialists.

By the way, is there a way to promote Atheism in a country. I noticed in one of your screen, the POP screen, it shows as 1% of the POPS have Atheism on their mind, or something they are concerned about. I hope I am explaining it well enough for you to understand what I mean. Can this be raised or lowered?

Anyway, keep it going, interested in seeing more.

 

[RELee]

Very nice AAR and makes me want to get the game, which I will most likely do. Reading the AARs is almost like a tutorial of sorts, including yours, well done RELee.

Please post more, I am interested in the way you run the country, low taxes, no taxes on the rich, a true conservative fashion, and it seems to be working out for you.

When I get the game, I will do the same except run it in a more Socialist way and see how that turns out. Though I am guessing to do so, one would need to have a different type of government or a differently composed upper house, instead of conservatives, have liberals or socialists.

By the way, is there a way to promote Atheism in a country. I noticed in one of your screen, the POP screen, it shows as 1% of the POPS have Atheism on their mind, or something they are concerned about. I hope I am explaining it well enough for you to understand what I mean. Can this be raised or lowered?

Anyway, keep it going, interested in seeing more.

Honestly, I could tax more aggressively than I did, since early in the game taxing efficiency is so low. Setting 100% taxation results in about 23% effective taxation, I believe, but that just seems wrong for 19th century America, so I simply don't do it. Even so, I'm sure that con and mil would rise a bit faster even with the lowered efficiency.

As for influencing things like atheism and so forth, the old election events/decisions are still in the game, albeit modified and improved from the v1 events/decisions. And it is about influencing rather than control. Other countries besides the USA can probably be more quickly influenced to your socialist preference, but patience and modified game play should get you the results you want, just later in the game than you might prefer.

I have one more day of posting, then I will be done. I've timed them to end on Thursday, since I don't see much use in running any more past then. Plus, the task of posting an AAR becomes boring after a while. I would rather be playing.

 

[safferli]

Honestly, I could tax more aggressively than I did, since early in the game taxing efficiency is so low. Setting 100% taxation results in about 23% effective taxation, I believe, but that just seems wrong for 19th century America, so I simply don't do it. Even so, I'm sure that con and mil would rise a bit faster even with the lowered efficiency.

Actually, CON is increased more by lower taxes, as it increases by a lot if your POPs get their luxury needs.

 

[RELee]

Actually, CON is increased more by lower taxes, as it increases by a lot if your POPs get their luxury needs.

Well, that makes sense since socialists typically don't know what's good for them.

Just kidding.

 

[Rommel22]

Wait so if your taxes are too low, that's not good either? POP wise anyway?

 

[Darkrenown]

Oh it's good for the pop, it's not always good for the state to have high CON pops though. Depends what you want to do.

 

[RELee]

Wait so if your taxes are too low, that's not good either? POP wise anyway?

Well, I suppose it's bad from a socialist point of view, right? Don't know. You need to be talking to someone that plays with your game style.

Or, maybe I'll test that later tonight.

 

[Rommel22]

Well, I suppose it's bad from a socialist point of view, right? Don't know. You need to be talking to someone that plays with your game style.

Or, maybe I'll test that later tonight.

Hmm interesting, I guess it just depends on how you play or what you do want to accomplish. Would be fun to experiment with. I am guessing though a high CON Pop in your state may not be a good idea, am I right?

 

[RELee]

Hmm interesting, I guess it just depends on how you play or what you do want to accomplish. Would be fun to experiment with. I am guessing though a high CON Pop in your state may not be a good idea, am I right?

That is the premise that I'm working on, true. I'm thinking that leaving CON to grow without intercession results in an early ACW. Playing that way got me to 1855 in my AAR without the ACW, which seems to be a feat to strive for in this version of the game, from some of the posts I'm reading. I'm working on the premise of CON as represented in v1, of course. Low CON results in a pop that is not really aware of this needs and tends to vote based only on ideology. Higher CON values makes a pop more aware of issues, and tends to cause them to go more liberal. A more liberal population causes the schism for issues like slavery to be more pronounced, in v1 at least (yeah, I know the ACW was scripted in v1, you know what I mean).

 

[Nikolai]

There is.

Not exactly. The one you're thinking of only tells about the road to sphere. After friendly, it doesn't notify you before you're at 100. So you need to check out for when you can expell other GPs after that.

 

[RELee]

Not exactly. The one you're thinking of only tells about the road to sphere. After friendly, it doesn't notify you before you're at 100. So you need to check out for when you can expell other GPs after that.

Hey! If they automate everything, there's no need for a player.

 

[Kriegsspieler]

Well, that makes sense since socialists typically don't know what's good for them.

Just kidding.

Hey, careful now. Vicky always was the great demonstration of the historical inevitability of the social welfare state. Marx wasn't so far off the mark, it turns out!

That is the premise that I'm working on, true. I'm thinking that leaving CON to grow without intercession results in an early ACW. Playing that way got me to 1855 in my AAR without the ACW, which seems to be a feat to strive for in this version of the game, from some of the posts I'm reading. I'm working on the premise of CON as represented in v1, of course. Low CON results in a pop that is not really aware of this needs and tends to vote based only on ideology. Higher CON values makes a pop more aware of issues, and tends to cause them to go more liberal. A more liberal population causes the schism for issues like slavery to be more pronounced, in v1 at least (yeah, I know the ACW was scripted in v1, you know what I mean).

I'm wondering some about this myself. Everything that fires off during the period covered by the demo (which is what I have access to, obviously) conspires to drive CON up pretty fast, with only the "Gag Rule" to put a temporary lid on it. It makes me wonder whether in handsoff games the ACW invariably tended to break out "early" or not.

 

[Rommel22]

I'm wondering some about this myself. Everything that fires off during the period covered by the demo (which is what I have access to, obviously) conspires to drive CON up pretty fast, with only the "Gag Rule" to put a temporary lid on it. It makes me wonder whether in handsoff games the ACW invariably tended to break out "early" or not.

From reading other threads, it seems impossible to prevent. One person actually had the North Revolt instead because he was appeasing, keeping the South happy instead. So no matter what you do, it seems you will end up with the ACW, be it the South Revolting or possibly even the North.

To be honest, I think there should be a possibility in preventing it all together... good politics, no? Agreed, should not be easy, but should be possible. Unless it already is, but no one has been lucky enough to prevent it yet.

It seems as though this game is almost a science lab for political and how-to-run-a-state theories. Grand!

 

[Baneslave]

From reading other threads, it seems impossible to prevent. One person actually had the North Revolt instead because he was appeasing, keeping the South happy instead. So no matter what you do, it seems you will end up with the ACW, be it the South Revolting or possibly even the North.

It is possible. There is two events that set flags for the actual ACW event. First event is triggered by any slave state having more than 5 average CON and the second by any non-slave state having more than 6 average CON.

If you successfully keep your CON low enough and manage to turn slavery illegal through Upper House you evade the civil war.

 

[Kriegsspieler]

From reading other threads, it seems impossible to prevent. One person actually had the North Revolt instead because he was appeasing, keeping the South happy instead. So no matter what you do, it seems you will end up with the ACW, be it the South Revolting or possibly even the North.

To be honest, I think there should be a possibility in preventing it all together... good politics, no? Agreed, should not be easy, but should be possible. Unless it already is, but no one has been lucky enough to prevent it yet.

It seems as though this game is almost a science lab for political and how-to-run-a-state theories. Grand!

For my part I would agree with you. If I had a chance to design all this from scratch, I would want to allow for the possibility of preventing the ACW. But interesting question is, how would you make it cost a US player to take that road? Because if you don't have something be a real cost for maintaing the peace, then you allow the USA to grow powerfully during a period when it ought to be wracked with the consequences of secession and mobilization of its labor force. One obvious possibility would be that retaining slaveholding would have consequences down the road.

 

[Baneslave]

For my part I would agree with you. If I had a chance to design all this from scratch, I would want to allow for the possibility of preventing the ACW. But interesting question is, how would you make it cost a US player to take that road? Because if you don't have something be a real cost for maintaing the peace, then you allow the USA to grow powerfully during a period when it ought to be wracked with the consequences of secession and mobilization of its labor force. One obvious possibility would be that retaining slaveholding would have consequences down the road.

4 minutes apart, but did you read my post above yours?