Considering how the number of our action slots has remained the same in terms of governing the amount we get, I think it's more likely to be the latter than the former, which combined with our rush builder traits should help a lot. After all, planning ahead usually helps with logistics.
Possible. There are many ways to grant a bonus. For instance we finished Law early due to a crit on the megaproject progress roll. If we got a Planning bonus to megaprojects then they'd grant us actions/cost reduction simply by increasing the chance of double progress.
Wouldn't it be more likely to increase, especially as some of those megaprojects do have some utility in increasing crop yields, such as with the damn and the irrigation to come with it? Plus, compared to the other civs we aren't as heavy into agriculture as they are, such as locking down corn or possessing any of the very fertile farmland.
Some, but things like:
-Raising warriors
-Constructing and maintaining artificial hills
-Constructing and maintaining dams
-Constructing and maintaining temples
-Constructing and maintaining roads
-Constructing and operating kilns
All of these cost 'committed' manpower, which reflects mechanically as a food deficit, as we have more and more people engaged in work which produces no food directly.
While certainly SOME projects increase food, many of them are a net decrease.
So, are you saying we shouldn't try to innovate after this, and try to get copper smelting, and then bronze working as it is too inefficient with this core message?
Because I'd rather we not be last to the party on this or be left at the mercy of our foes on this.
Please stop trying to put words in my mouth to vilify the point.
Under the Planning/Conservative/Stability model, the idea would be to gain a large relative advantage over other states through extensive megaprojects and infrastructure, such that the initial boost Bronze gives isn't enough to overcome your advantages, especially if you stole copper before that. Bronze gives a couple of steps:
-The initial wave is going to be bronze weapons. Higher quality weapons that treat existing armor like its not there, which is easy to repair as well after damage...we have those. Blackswords do similar things. So coupled to brick walls and artificial hills, we're too hard to crack defensively, though offense will be a problem. We should aggressively steal the tech one way or another. Trade imbalance is a good one.
-The next wave is bronze tools. This is when wagons, chariots, battering rams, etc all become feasible, while population swells from the work efficiency. This is the point where we really want to capitulate if we hadn't already stole the tech by then. We would be comparatively losing actions every turn because everyone else does things more efficiently
-The final wave is when they get bronze armor, at which point why are we still resisting? All hail the new overlords!
Remember, its
vastly easier to techsteal off neighbors under this trait than to homebrew tech, because someone else already tested it.
But successful techsteal requires your own intellectuals to understand how it works, so you still need to pursue innovation or you won't be able to copy the idea because you don't have anyone who tries to do weird shit for a living.
That sounds...prohibitive in terms of casualties. Are ladders truly that hard to build in sufficient quantities?
I know we aren't likely to get battering rams or siege engines anytime soon, let alone something like undermining, but aren't there other methods we could use?
Ladders really are difficult to build. You need the following to build a siege ladder:
-Cut two long, reasonably straight lengths of strong wood.
-Cut many short lengths of less strong wood
-Join them to each other.
Now try to do this with stone or bone tools. You'd need a guy making new tools for every 2 guys sawing the wood, because they keep breaking their tools. You need another 6 guys to keep them supplied in flint or bone, as well as food. Thats just sawing the logs into shafts.
Then you need to join the wood. You can use plug and socket methods, but that just increased the amount of sawing you need to do eightfold to drill a socket for the crossbars. You can use leather or twine ties, but thats a lot of leather and its really not meant to hold big burly men rushing up the ladder armed with sharp things at high speed, you'd see breakage a lot. You can use glue, but if the weather is wrong the whole force dies.
Battering rams are
easier than ladders. You just need to be able to:
-Cut down a reasonably large and sturdy tree.
-Mount something hard on the hammering end so the wood doesn't shatter from the forces. Or you can tie a bunch of leather sheets to it and hope the wall is thin
-Cut a bunch of handholds
You could theoretically do this in the stone age, but its again, manpower intensive as hell at every step.
You could use fire. Pile up a lot of tinder around the wall, then set it on fire to make the mortar crumble, but how are you going to get it there while under fire?
You could make a wooden shelter to attack the wall slowly from under cover, but it'd be heavy, expensive, slow, and they could set it on fire.
I mean, because this is a Justice value, something we are implementing into law, it could have two aspects to it. My thinking was that since this Core Message seems to contain an entirely different value inherent in it on its own, perhaps it would fuse with retributive justice to form another maxed out value like with Supernal Symphony:
The point of making the laws was to figure out how we should orient our society and make laws to tailor that. The planning aspects, while a key part, don't necessarily address the justice part of it, which is what the Laws were originally drafted to address. That is why I think it is more likely to be part of a new combined Value then a tier 1 value that was just created.
It could be, but its not likely to be much different in the downsides.
Not to mention only Balance of People and Spirits really works for a Justice type value
