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I do have one thing to say though... sequel! Maybe use Hearts of Iron 2 and mod the game to give yourself roughly the same borders.
 
Kampf_Machen said:
I do have one thing to say though... sequel! Maybe use Hearts of Iron 2 and mod the game to give yourself roughly the same borders.
You mean something like this? :D

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Actually, I've been very slowly working on an HOI 2 conversion, but it's a very complicated task, and there are things outside of the Paradox universe conspiring against my project (in short, the need to make a living!).

I do hope to still continue this, but it's going to be contingent on some freelance projects getting me a bit more financially secure. Anyone need to hire a freelance writer? :rolleyes:

We'll see, and I'll keep you posted.

Thank you for your interest!

Rensslaer
 
That monster Germany with only 192 IC? Very conservative figure you got there.

I just wonder what you want to accomplish in a Hoi - conversion. I'd love to see it for sure, but do you want to kick France again? Invade England again (can't remember, but I'm positive you did that too)?
 
rhynoclemmis said:
That monster Germany with only 192 IC? Very conservative figure you got there.

I just wonder what you want to accomplish in a Hoi - conversion. I'd love to see it for sure, but do you want to kick France again? Invade England again (can't remember, but I'm positive you did that too)?

Even now he will be able to totally dominate Europe after several years of IC building :D And I must say that hoi2 map looks rather unattractive compared to Vicky.
 
Rensslaer? Have you given yourself cores on your European lands? I'm lookin' forward to the AAR myself.
 
Rensslaer said:
Actually, I've been very slowly working on an HOI 2 conversion, but it's a very complicated task, and there are things outside of the Paradox universe conspiring against my project (in short, the need to make a living!).

I do hope to still continue this, but it's going to be contingent on some freelance projects getting me a bit more financially secure. Anyone need to hire a freelance writer? :rolleyes:

We'll see, and I'll keep you posted.

Thank you for your interest!

Rensslaer

Sure, I'd love to hire you, I just need to achieve financial independence for myself first. Feel like hiring a political/PR consultant? ;)

I do look forward to that eventual day when we're both rich men with nothing to do but write AARs (in your case) and read them (in my case). :cool: Until then...
 
rhynoclemmis said:
That monster Germany with only 192 IC? Very conservative figure you got there.

I just wonder what you want to accomplish in a Hoi - conversion. I'd love to see it for sure, but do you want to kick France again? Invade England again (can't remember, but I'm positive you did that too)?
Actually, the setup was that Germany would find itself faced with various strong- to medium-power enemies -- a fascist alliance of Italy, France and Spain, the Pacific power of Japan, and the communist power of the Soviet Union -- and basically have no allies, the US and UK rather having no interest in helping out a country which (because of wars with Germany in the early decades of the 20th century) they pretty much considered an enemy as well!

As for the IC, I think that's accurate. I meant to influence it somewhat, but not sure how much in what ways. I hadn't gotten to that point yet.

Edzako said:
Even now he will be able to totally dominate Europe after several years of IC building :D And I must say that hoi2 map looks rather unattractive compared to Vicky.
I have to agree -- the HOI map is too utilitarian. Vicky maps were the best!

Kampf_Machen said:
Rensslaer? Have you given yourself cores on your European lands? I'm lookin' forward to the AAR myself.
Hmm... Now, I have to admit it's been a long time since I've been involved in the guts of the HOI code, but I don't remember there being Cores in HOI. Am I wrong? I guess it would make sense to have them, but I don't remember. If there are, then perhaps that's the problem. I'll add those cores, and maybe that 192 IC number will go up substantially.

VILenin said:
Sure, I'd love to hire you, I just need to achieve financial independence for myself first. Feel like hiring a political/PR consultant? ;)

I do look forward to that eventual day when we're both rich men with nothing to do but write AARs (in your case) and read them (in my case). :cool: Until then...
Well, I'm sort of a political/PR consultant myself, so maybe we could team up. You and I could fight it out in the board room, and whoever came out the victor, our candidate would win! :rofl: Cyrus, I'm so sorry I haven't gotten back to you on that foreign policy discussion. It sounds like we agree on alot, and yet there's just no time for me to discuss these things. I have too many other priorities. I figure I've got about 7 jobs right now, if I count the book projects and the various freelance things. :eek:

At least these book projects don't threaten to fire me if I don't finish! I just don't get paid. :rolleyes:

That would be fun, actually, working on public relations and politics together!

Thank you, everybody, who's been reading lately! It's really fun to see the viewcounts start heading upward again! I'm always glad to hear comments from anyone who has something to say, no matter whether you've finished the work or not.

I'm always curious what people enjoy the most -- what characters, what scenes. Sometimes these things vastly surprise me, like when Joachim Longanecker was voted the favorite Vicky AAR character by a majority in the AARLand Choice!

Rensslaer
 
Yeah, you need to add cores to your European lands to get the full IC.
 
I've let this AAR's viewcount drift toward, reach, and surpass 200,000 views this past couple of days, and I knew I should say something, but just wasn't sure what. Then I realized the obvious -- besides 200,000 views, this is also the 4th Anniversary of this AAR's conception!

Looking back on this AAR's history, I'm a little bit stunned!

Please forgive me for spending time, and lots of space, writing a tribute to the AAR, yes, but also and especially to those key people who have sustained me, especially in the beginning.

First off, there's a fascinating statistical thing... I had probably 33,000 views in my first year, and probably twice that my second year, so that when the story ended, after 2 years of writing, I had achieved about 100,000 views. That's remarkable, and yet humbling, because I know I owe so much to the people who were reading to get me there.

But the second most startling thing I discovered is, after having averaged 50,000 views per year while I was writing the AAR... I've had approximately 50,000 views per year SINCE finishing the AAR!!! I was at 150,000 in June of 2007, and I've just reached 200,000 in July of 2008.

The fact that so many people -- averaging 4,000 views per month! -- are still reading this really knocks my socks off, and makes me really appreciate your attention and readership!

I remember what a struggle it was to get it off the ground in July of 2004, when I started it.

I have a special remembrance of those hardy souls who trusted a "nobody" writer to start an AAR about Prussia -- a country which, frankly, seemed to have been too boring to write about. There were some classic Prussia AARs, but it's like that was a fad that had passed, and so there hadn't been anything recently, that I could recall. My style was also really different from much that had been seen before. Quite an experiment!

And let this be a lesson for new, budding, perhaps unconfident writers out there -- if you doubt that it was a struggle to get it off the ground, I was practically writing for myself that whole first month. I'd already introduced my major recurring character, French agitator/minister/President/Emperor Louis Napoleon, and had written 4 scenes with him, had already fought a war with Austria, and invaded Peru and China... And, yet, Coz1, JoshWeber, Lord Greven Q White, Stnylan, Hawkeye1489, Nicomacheus and Heretic were my ONLY readers who'd posted more than once or twice! Draco Rexus and Cornelius (two more regular posters for a long time) had only just arrived!

Two months in, I'd just barely increased my readers above the core you see mentioned above. I still wrote, simply because I was loving my game, and I was enjoying the feedback, and having an excuse to write stuff and not get bored with it, for a change.

There -- two months in -- is when I got into the really dark phase of a war with France that it really looked like I was going to lose! And at that same time, I approached the possibility of bankruptcy! And, yet, I kept writing...

I had always thought those things, more than anything else, really got people interested in reading and posting. After that, the AAR seemed to take off. The rest is history. Or alt-history, anyway...

But, looking back now, I realize I only picked up another half-dozen more posters in the next month! I had fewer than a dozen people posting regularly, besides me, a full 3 months (and 20 pages) in. Folks such as Von Lippe, TekCor, and Rey (was El-Ray, I'm darned sure, at one time!), those mentioned earlier, and a few other occasional posters, really sustained me through those early months! Then, Ghostwriter showed up toward the end of that 4th month, and never left -- a tremendous reader and encourager! And Anonymous4401 wasn't far behind. Prussiablue, Jack99, NA Kirievsky, BBBD and Rocketman came gradually in the months after that. Even one year in, and beyond, it's interesting to note how many of the readers/posters were the same few loyal people. Thanks, guys! :)

I didn't realize I'd taken a 2-month hiatus there, between the beginning of December 2004, and the beginning of February 2005! But my dear friends stuck with me until I had my new job underway, and could resume writing. I really, really appreciate that!

Oddly, that break in the action appears, in retrospect, to have been the point where I was able to sit back, reflect upon what I'd done, and look to the future, turning what had been an elaborate AAR into a serious, richly detailed, novella of sorts. I planned out my story 10 or 15 years into the future, figuring out major themes, and subplots -- THIS was where I began to have LOTS more fun writing the AAR than I was having playing the game! And, of course, that's what really needed to happen to make it what it ultimately became.

After 1 year, I'd filled perhaps 40 pages. The next year would cover twice as many, because my updates and dramatic scenes became exercises in character development and tapestries of interwoven storylines -- LOTS of fun to write! And lots of learning about the craft of writing, helped along by my kind readers, who, if not outright telling me, showed me what they liked via their comments. That helped me develop, a lot, as a writer!

There's lots more to say, but I've gone on way too long already. There are many, many more people to thank, and I hope you'll forgive me for not going through a complete fan-history... ;) Please just know you're remembered fondly!

As a last comment, in this dreary-long post, I'd like to credit Lord Durham for his founding of The Ink Well -- a place for writers/AARthors to advertise their AARs and personalize their writing credits. I strongly believe the surge in readership of my AAR in the last couple of months has been driven by this reader-aid, because my postcount had languished for some time, once this AAR fell to the 4th page of the Vicky forums! :eek: Suddenly, once the Ink Well opened, readership started picking up again. Nice work! :)

Thank you to everybody who has ever read my AAR, to those who have taken the time to comment -- there are more of you than I could possibly stop to thank, but I appreciate every comment! -- and to those people who are still reading, including whoever is moving my postcounts 100 views a day, sometimes!

I loved this AAR, and I loved entertaining people with it! Umm... I can't say much of detail, but please rest assured that you have not heard the last of this storyline, or these characters! :rolleyes:

Bless You All!

Rensslaer
 
Congratulations Kami!

Hi (Pietr Von) Renssl(e)aer

It has been a thrill readin trough your AAR! Finally finished reading it (and a lot of comments).
Amazing how you used the personality of the different characters to determine the path of the nation. Started reading your Sforza AAR, and thought THAT was good, but WOW did i get surprised reading this!!

And congratulations gamewise. It was well played. I did especially like your strategies/tactics in war. Very efficient.

And do you have any plans of creating a future AAR with a similar writingstyle?

Kami

PS What does DOW stand for ?
 
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This was the first AAR I followed the whole way through on the Paradox forums, it was what convinced me to buy Victoria, and stay on the boards. I can say with confidence- this is easily the best AAR that has ever graced these boards, and will probably remain as such, for years to come. :cool:
 
Kami said:
Hi (Pietr Von) Renssl(e)aer

It has been a thrill readin trough your AAR! Finally finished reading it (and a lot of comments).
Amazing how you used the personality of the different characters to determine the path of the nation. Started reading your Sforza AAR, and thought THAT was good, but WOW did i get surprised reading this!!

And congratulations gamewise. It was well played. I did especially like your strategies/tactics in war. Very efficient.

And do you have any plans of creating a future AAR with a similar writingstyle?

Kami

PS What does DOW stand for ?
Wow, Kami, Thank You! And welcome (late) to my favorite story!

Thank you about Sforza, too! I do enjoy playing and writing about that (just finished playing a while in that scenario just a moment ago, actually). But narrative drama and the characters and elements of this story were really my love.

My main effort for writing fiction right now is to get a book or two published. I'm working on that now (very slowly). But I do have, in the back of my mind, an idea for an EU 3 AAR of narrative style, which would be exclusively a writing exercise for me. Based, roughly, on the Babylon 5 story concept (in EU 3, of course). I'll explain more if I ever get around to it.

DOW refers to a Declaration of War.

Thanks again for your encouragement! I appreciate it!

Iron_Skull said:
This was the first AAR I followed the whole way through on the Paradox forums, it was what convinced me to buy Victoria, and stay on the boards. I can say with confidence- this is easily the best AAR that has ever graced these boards, and will probably remain as such, for years to come. :cool:
Iron Skull, thanks for the memories! I remember your comments and encouragement! Thank you! I appreciate your support, and your flattery, though there are certainly others whose writing is comparable and beyond -- look to Coz1, Stnylan, Director and The Yogi (to name just a few). Their works will be in the various librAARies. Hope you've been enjoying Victoria!

Thanks again, guys!

Rensslaer
 
Hmmm I only just realised I have made a terrible lapse. I forgot to award you a Lord Strange Cookie of British Awesomeness, for both this AAR and Fire Warms the Northern Lands. Here it is :

Lord Strange, Thank You very much! :D I'm quite honored, and I shall display it proudly.

Rensslaer
 
Hi, exelent AAR! Congrats.
Are you going to continue it in HOI?

Cheers

Welcome, Purilacroix! Thank you very much for taking the time to read this tome! Always great to see a new reader, even long after the fact.

I had made some effort to upgrade the story into HOI 2, and still have a half-done Mod for it. But eventually I decided rather than put so much effort into writing a continuation into World War II that I should instead put that same effort toward getting something published.

Ironically, that inclination has gotten sidetracked three times now by writing a wide variety of documentation (Manuals & Strategy Guides) for new Paradox products, most recently for HOI 3. But I'm still gradually working on getting something published. We'll see.

Also, I'm going to be starting a 90% gameplay, 10% dramatic fiction AAR for HOI 3. Watch for it in my sig.

Thanks again!

Rensslaer
 
*pokes AAR alive* How about doing an HOI 3 mod instead? :D
 
*pokes AAR alive* How about doing an HOI 3 mod instead? :D

Thank you, Ciryandor, and welcome!

I have so run out of time to work on anything like this that I really cannot, though I do still think about it. There's always that temptation there.

But really if I were to go back to this story and/or an expansion into World War II (which I've thought alot about), it would be to get it into shape for publishing. And that's not an unrealistic possibility.

For Paradox, I have 2-3 HOI 3 AAR ideas, which I may do at some point.

Outside of Paradox, I have about 7 book projects which I'd really like to get to at some point. One or two I'm working on slowly. That's really where my priority must be -- getting published outside of here.

On the idea of a conversion to HOI 3... The roadblock I ran into with HOI 2 (I actually almost got it modded, and ready to play) was with two things: modding the AI fronts, and modding the events and other biases so it wasn't expecting France and England to be allied, or didn't hardcode certain historical events.

In HOI 3 I wouldn't have so many problems with the hard-coded events, but I'd still have trouble modding the AI, which I don't really know how to do very well (I mean that's a challenging task for the AI guys at Paradox! -- too many "Ooh, I didn't expect the AI to respond that way" moments). Plus I'd have to re-do all the stuff that took me a couple months to do -- OOBs and all that.

It'd be fun, but I can't expect to have time.

Thanks again!

Rensslaer
 
Just read through this all. Great job! It might be my favorite AAR. Are there any other AARs (besides your own, I'm already checking out the Sforza one) that you would recommend?

Thank you, Orser! I very much appreciate that!

To make a list of AARs that I could recommend, presuming you're looking for fiction writing, not gameplay, there are some that leap to mind, though I know there are also two or three others which I should recommend which I'm not going to remember. There are some magnificent writers here!

Here is a list of great AARs off the top of my head:

Stnylan's In Memory of France (not included first for no reason -- this is a GREAT work!)

Coz1's Into the West and For the Glory of Persia

Director's A Special Providence (I think I may even be missing Director's best work -- this is the only one I've extensively read)

RossN's The Patriot's Sword

FJ44's Dawn in the East

The Yogi's The Eagle and the Lion and Empire of Fu Manchu (TheYogi has lots of great writing -- pick any of them, because I'm not certain these are his best -- I also can't remember which ones, for sure, I've read)

Draco Rexus' For King and Country

Again, I'll repeat -- this is only a partial list of the highest quality AARs! I'm sure I've forgotten some great ones!

Thanks again for your interest! I hope you'll catch my Castles in the Sky AAR, though it's nowhere near finished.

Rensslaer
 
Hey! Just saw that the Crystal Palace (featured in the update below) will be part of the graphics for Victoria II! Most cool. This is a tremendous representation of the period.

Rensslaer

April, 1851

The soldier who stepped from the carriage cut a remarkably handsome and well-built figure, standing tall in riding boots, a plumed hat, and an impeccably crisp blue and white officer’s uniform. This Potsdam Guards colonel was young, for an officer. At twenty, he was impossibly young for a colonel.

While an older, more grizzled officer climbed out of the carriage behind him, Friedrich Wilhelm Nikolaus Karl -- Kronprinz von Preussen -- stood transfixed on the gleaming crystal palace which towered over them. It was a looming facade of steel and glass, and it reached expansively into the distance in either direction from where they stood. This is the future, he thought -- for England as well as for Prussia, if I have anything to say about it.

crystpal.jpg


Similarly dressed, in a blue uniform with considerably more medals, Feldmarschall Erich von Halberstam’s attention was momentarily drawn to the same magnificent sight that held the attention of his young companion. But Halberstam, who now had the honored assignment as the Kronprinz’s personal tutor on matters military and otherwise, gently placed his hand on the young man’s shoulder. “The Prince is waiting, Your Majesty.”

Indeed, the distinguished Prince Albert, husband to the mighty Queen Victoria, stood at rest nearby, in a resplendent red and white uniform, at the end of a red carpet amidst a flock of several of his staff. His face was stolidly stern and composed -- perhaps a bit rebuking -- but the Kronprinz thought certainly he had detected a momentary quirk of the Prince’s mouth. Mayhap he was privately amused at having been upstaged by the architecture. Or perhaps Friedrich was simply transposing what he would have expected of the Prince Albert he remembered from prior years.

Prussia’s relations, not with England, but certainly with the Prince, had turned decidedly cold since the 1847 annexation by Prussia of his home country and birthright, the Principality of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Surely, that was why the Kronprinz was being received here, rather than at Court.

But upon acquiring the Kronprinz’s rapt and somewhat embarrassed attention, Prince Albert smiled benevolently and addressed him in perfect German. “It is my pleasure, Crown Prince Friedrich, to welcome you to ‘The Great Exhibition of the Works of All Nations.’”

crystpalint.jpg


Their meeting proceeded cordially for a time as Albert led them into the vast enclosure and began to showcase its masterpieces. But soon, the atmosphere warmed, and progressed toward the happily friendly relationship they had maintained before. This was no trucial meeting of adversaries -- it was rather the congress of two kindred spirits who could not be separated by the twelve years’ difference in age, or by the sins of one's father.

The Prince, with always the keenest interest in matters of science and technology, was eager to explain to Friedrich that the enormous structure contained a million square feet of glass plate. And the exquisite samples of all the world’s latest technologies excited them both. There was a scale model of an early exploring ship, a working example of a new design of steam engine, a Jacquard loom, daguerretype photographers, and a couple of men demonstrating their artificial limbs. There was even a bizarre device called a “Tempest Prognosticator” that divined the approach of a thunderstorm by harnessing the animal reactions of jars filled with leeches. And, too, there were the sights and sounds of a world full of diversity and color.

And soon, as always happened between these two, their conversation turned to the English constitution, and to detailed questions of law and politics in what Friedrich regarded as the most advanced government of Europe.

At length, the two men found themselves isolated in a maze of mirrors built to entertain and confuse the most clever of minds. In a moment when the two paused alone, nevertheless seemingly surrounded by a legion of princes in every direction, Friedrich turned to Albert. “I wish to express my most sincere regrets for the rude way in which your family has been treated by mine.”

Prince Albert was struck dumb for a moment, and reasoned through a complicated rush of emotional reactions. Finally, he said, “Thank you. I hope you know that it is not my wish to become estranged from Prussia. And I do appreciate that my family was not completely dispossessed of their rights. It is still my hope that my country will someday be free again.” He turned to Friedrich. “When you are King, one day, I know that you will be a good King. It is my hope that you will then remember my wish, if it has not been granted beforehand.”

“Of course,” Friedrich replied, in a tone that invested his statement with the force of a noble promise. He smiled. “But first you will have to do me the favor of again calling me Fritz.” They laughed, and then they were back at trying to find their way out of their trap.

transept2.jpg
crystalball.bmp
transept.jpg


After several hours of exploration, which hadn’t yet begun to encompass the whole 13,000-booth exhibition, they retired to Albert’s palace. There, Friedrich was presented for the first time to the Empress, Queen Victoria, and they had a pleasant conversation over a 15-course meal. There, the royal son Bertie inquired with interest upon Fritz’ recent military training, and his elder sister Vicky -- very pretty, even at eleven years of age -- asked impertinantly about how much influence Premier von Kauperke had in Fritz’ father’s court.

Later in the evening, Fritz was forced to inform Albert that his visit was being unexpectedly cut short. “Feldmarschall von Halberstam received a courier tonight, with sealed orders. We are to return within three days.” He weighed how to explain. “I trust this news will not leave your immediate family, but it appears we are to have a reckoning with Denmark over Schleswig. I know this must be a sensitive issue for you. I know why we are doing this, but at the same time I wish we were not so often at war.”

Albert considered the floor, gravely. “I understand completely what is at stake in Schleswig, and I sympathize. I do not even, in principle, oppose the growing movement toward German unification, though I wish it were not at the expense of the smaller countries. You must know that the eyes of Europe are growing bitter over the methods Prussia has employed. You risk much each time you take up arms. How I wish your father would act in greater concert with England, as a friend. Our court grows wary of Prussia’s motives.”

“Of that I am completely aware,” Friedrich agreed. “But my counsel is not very welcomed at my father’s table. I am still young. And we are of different worlds.”

Fritz and Albert enjoyed hunting, riding and boating over the next couple of days, and then it was time to go.

At his departure, Kronprinz Friedrich was impressed and amused to see Princess Vicky approach him. Standing straight, and addressing him with an imperial bearing, this young noble expressed, “My mother says that England cannot take an official stand on your government’s actions.” She nodded her head firmly, as if to emphasize, but continued in a different tone, “But, she also says that the German people have every right to be free from heavy-handed Danish rule.” Another significant pause added gravity to this statement, too. “Fritz, please do me the favor of taking this with you to represent my wish for your success, and your safe return.” Young Vicky extended an elegant, lacy kerchief. The Queen and Prince stood nearby, clearly very proud of their precocious princess.

Friedrich leaned close to Vicky with a beaming smile. “Thank you for your kind gift, my princess. I will keep it with me always.” Then he exchanged a glance with Albert and the Queen, thanking them for their kindness. And he joined von Halberstam in the carriage for their important journey.