I am thinking of writing a small aboriginal australian modification. Since Australia is such a comparitively boring area of Victoria, usually staying British and nothing else, never gaining enough population to be of much use in terms of producing stuff, I thought it might be an interesting idea to create a wholly fictional modification based around Australia supporting a large population of Aborigines, probably around 10 -20 million or so as the game starts.
Australia has had very little to offer in terms of native animals or plants to offer to human produce. In fact, I believe the only native species of plant to be domesticated for human consumption was the Macadamia nut, and that was only in modern times. Yes I realize the Australians were among the most backward societies on Earth technologically, but this is simply a matter of having less than anyone else on Earth had to work with in terms of producing food. So the key to this is simply that the Australians had some native grains or animals that worked within the terms of their environment... so that while neighboring New Guinea had a population in the millions on a much smaller land area, Australia would have one of about 10 - 20 million, much less per square mile, simply because of how dry Australia is and how unsuitable for agriculture much of it is. Still, Australia in the real modern world is underpopulated for it's size and produces way way more food than it needs, exporting things like rice to China. So there's no reason to think that with the proper resources it couldn't have supported a large population.
Now comes the question... how would the society be structured? I'd like the modification to include a number of interesting events akin to those that exist for Japan, Persia, China, etc... whereby the country could modernize. How advanced should it be so far? What should it's contacts be like? Should the colonial powers have established footholds on it like India, or should it be relatively free of them like East Asia? Should I give them a religion of their own, like rename Confucianism or some other unnamed religion, or just make them Pagans? How advanced should they be? How big should the population be and where might it be centered? I am thinking S-E Australia obviously... since that's the most fertile part, but who knows? Should it even be one country, or maybe split into two? If they do manage to civilize, how should they proceed? Imperial expansion into New Zealand and Indonesia perhaps? Alliance with Japan?
I'd love to hear any ideas for it, and it's such a simple mod to make, just replace a pop file and include the new country. I'd have to get a new flag designed, but that is simple and trivial in the end. What I am most interested in is fleshing out how Aboriginal society might have progressed if it had been able to advance much further on it's own, then turning that into a fun modification to play that will spice up what is usually a very boring corner of the world.
Australia has had very little to offer in terms of native animals or plants to offer to human produce. In fact, I believe the only native species of plant to be domesticated for human consumption was the Macadamia nut, and that was only in modern times. Yes I realize the Australians were among the most backward societies on Earth technologically, but this is simply a matter of having less than anyone else on Earth had to work with in terms of producing food. So the key to this is simply that the Australians had some native grains or animals that worked within the terms of their environment... so that while neighboring New Guinea had a population in the millions on a much smaller land area, Australia would have one of about 10 - 20 million, much less per square mile, simply because of how dry Australia is and how unsuitable for agriculture much of it is. Still, Australia in the real modern world is underpopulated for it's size and produces way way more food than it needs, exporting things like rice to China. So there's no reason to think that with the proper resources it couldn't have supported a large population.
Now comes the question... how would the society be structured? I'd like the modification to include a number of interesting events akin to those that exist for Japan, Persia, China, etc... whereby the country could modernize. How advanced should it be so far? What should it's contacts be like? Should the colonial powers have established footholds on it like India, or should it be relatively free of them like East Asia? Should I give them a religion of their own, like rename Confucianism or some other unnamed religion, or just make them Pagans? How advanced should they be? How big should the population be and where might it be centered? I am thinking S-E Australia obviously... since that's the most fertile part, but who knows? Should it even be one country, or maybe split into two? If they do manage to civilize, how should they proceed? Imperial expansion into New Zealand and Indonesia perhaps? Alliance with Japan?
I'd love to hear any ideas for it, and it's such a simple mod to make, just replace a pop file and include the new country. I'd have to get a new flag designed, but that is simple and trivial in the end. What I am most interested in is fleshing out how Aboriginal society might have progressed if it had been able to advance much further on it's own, then turning that into a fun modification to play that will spice up what is usually a very boring corner of the world.
