Imperialism 1870 v2.0 PBEM

[PinkyGen]

There has been increasing rumors of trouble in France. The eccentric ruler, Napolean III, has grown increasingly unpopular, and many critics have spoken out against him. One of the most vocal is a relatively political unknown PinkyGen Letrec. Though Napolean III remains in charge of the government, it remains to be seen how long that will last, or if there will be another French Revolution, and a new French Republic.

Meanwhile, all we seek to do is trade and be merry.

[PinkyGen]

Forgot the save.

[JamesJKirk]

Apolyton's still messed up, can you send it to me?

[germanos]

Hot News

ok for those experiencing problems with images not showing and links not working, try changing your forum style to one of the "ULTRA _ SPECIALS"

This will end your misery.

For details on the definite cure of the problem, visit the Community forum and thread "is Apolython sick again?"

[JamesJKirk]

Thanks for the advice germanos

Bismarck Dismissed, Unknown Takes Reins
Following the unification of the vast German Empire, Kaiser Wilhelm dismissed his longtime Chancellor, Bismarck, citing the warmongering course he seemed on which he seemed intent. In his place, the Kaiser tapped an Austrian, Von Hötzendorf, for the spot. Hötzendorf immediately cancelled many armaments projects initiated under Bismarck and replaced them with orders for trade goods to be sent around the globe, some of which have already been sent. Following the completion of the next batch, Hötzendorf promised to use the profits from the sales to boost spending on German infrastructure.

[JamesJKirk]

Also, can we come to some resolution on the tech trading issue? German development in the near future will depend on transfers of certain technologies to it.

[Darius871]

I'm neither for or against, whatever you guys want. The fact is that with strong research cooperation between empires, Republican governments for all civs, and aggressive conventional trading, this game will finish off the tech tree by 1880, if not 1875. With a ban on tech trading, technological advance would be roughly realistic (at the expense of the lesser civs). As Russia's ally I'd benefit from tech trading, but I'll leave the decision to you guys. Let's just have a simple vote:

Pinkygen:
Germanos:
JamesJkirk:
Darius871: abstain
conmcb25:
academia:

[germanos]

Lets BAN tech-trading

[JamesJKirk]

Well if Japan is willing to completely ban it, then I can't really insist on trading. It's a ballsy move on Japan's part, so I'll vote to ban also

[PinkyGen]

I'm for the ban as well. Sorry Russia, trade a lot.

[Darius871]

Good news! I 'certain someone who wishes to remain nameless' has found the equation which determines the amount of beakers reaped from a trade route, and is editing it to 1/5 the normal amount as we speak.

Problem: it is in the .exe file, not the .scn or .net files. Therefore, each of us will have to have the edited executable. This should be very simple, although I don't know whether the first two players will have to go again or not.

[conmcb25]

Well I vote FOR tech trading but Ill be the minority, so if we ban, thats fine by me.

I know this is a dumb question but why if we are banning tech trading do we want to vastly reduce the amount of science one gets from it? Wont that screw Russia and Japan even more?

[Exile]

Hmmmmmmm.

Just spotted this thread.

I'm here to inform you that the Agent/Spy unit certainly CAN bribe cities and units. Matter-of-fact, this unit can do everything the default Spy can do (and then some). I've done it multiple times as the USA and Britain. I would, however, suggest a ban on stealing tech. If you grab the wrong one at random, it could obsolete units that you might not want obsoleted.

[conmcb25]

Hi Exile! Thanks for popping in. What do you think of tech trade banning, and Darius's proposal and my reply above?

I'd like to hear from the scenario creator if you dont mind! Thanks

[Exile]

Well . . . . .

To begin with, you gentlemen have far more experience than I do with MP. You'll have to use your own judgement about tech trading. I allowed this in the game because it certainaly did occur historically. The key here is restraint. Something very few avid gamers seem to recognize. It was done, but on a limited scale. So perhaps some house rules involving limits might be a good idea. But the conclusion that, if everyone goes nuts w/tech trading the result will be that everyone zips through the tech tree by 1875 . . . is valid. That can certainly happen. But then, maybe that's what would have occurred--a global war well before the historical outbreak of WWI. Alternately, it would be a simple matter to greatly increase the cost of the Mfg Goods unit. If it takes much longer and costs much more to create, then of course the result will be a decrease in the rate of tech acquisition. The reason I made these units so inexpensive was that I wanted them built. Lots of them. I wanted to focus the scenario on international trade and its importance during this period. So how do you FORCE a bunch of recalcitrant Civ2 warmongers to actually build and move trade units? You do what I did. Make tech extremely difficult to acquire by increasing the paradigm as high as possible. And yes, the paradigm CAN be increased further, but only at the risk of screwing up the way the game works and possible crashes which is something I am unwilling to do. Here again, the hard-coded limitations of the program place a ceiling on the numbers available.

One silly little idea that I use when playing SP games is to arrange annual "Colonial Conferences." During these conferences, tech trading occurs. And the reality is that I usually play either Britain or USA and I use these conferences to bribe the AI players into not attacking me by giving them techs. In a MP game, the conferences could have an entirely different purpose--to limit tech trading.

The Barbs in version 2 are VERY much more powerful than in version 1. Additionally, they appear at random in various places and run amok. IIRC, playing at King level does not increase any numbers, but playing at Prince level decreases numbers. This might not be advisable. Also, playing at King gives the unrest numbers that I intended. However, these unrest numbers could be altered and then the Prince level of play could be maintained. My own advice is not to play at Prince.

Just in case anyone is worried about the Agent/Spy unit, it's only generated by events (as previously pointed out), and the interval is 150! My experience with this is that getting one of these units is a RARE thing. An entire game can occur without receiving a single one.