GODSTAR - a Science Fantasy Civilization Quest

[ScottishMongol]

So in planning the next turn I have discovered a problem of my own doing: point inflation. As you gain more research points your ability to knock out a ton of technologies at once increases. So I'm making a minor change to how research points work.

Each technology now has a point value that will need to be met in research points to unlock. You can either spend several points at once to further your progress in a single turn, or you can split them up. So, if these are the technologies available:

Tech A (0/1)
Tech B (0/1)
Tech C (0/2)

Then plans can either look like this:

[] Plan 1
-[] Tech A (1/1)
-[] Tech B (1/1)

OR like this:

[] Plan 2
-[] Tech C (2/2)

The next turn coming out later tonight will reflect this.

 

[Potato Anarchy]

Also I was rereading again and put together some changelogs and lists to help people picture what we've developed, how, and how much, etc.



Technology Gain By Turn

Spoiler

Turn 0:​

Chose 'Watching the stars' over 'improving the spirit' or 'the flow of energy' as the core of our religious lodge practices. Chose 'Riddle of Steel' over boat-building or solar power.

Not explicitly techs per se, but definitely techlike at a minimum: watching the stars seems to have given us at least Tier 1 astrology, and the description of 'improving the spirit' sounds a lot like two different techs we first saw on Turn 4 instead - Astral Projection and Funerary Rites. At a guess, 'the flow of energy' also corresponded to two techs, like Leyline Network and something else we haven't seen yet.

Turn 1:​

Material Techs: Water Management
Social Techs: Apprenticeships, Courier System, Oral History (Tier 2)
Exotic Techs: Astrological Architecture, Astrology (Tier 2), Alchemy (Tier 1), Mine-Temples

Turn 2:​

Material Techs: Waste Management
Social Techs: Permanent Councils, Schools, Taxes
Exotic Techs: Calendar, Rituals, River Spirits, Tree Spirits

Turn 3:
Gained +1 MatSci point (via Schools). Gained +1 SocSci point (via Permanent Councils). Gained +1 ExoSci point (via Rituals). First multi-point techs appeared.​

Material Techs: Optics, Mathematics (Partial: 1/3)
Social Techs: Tribal Levy, Universities (2), Religious Orders (Partial: 1/2)
Exotic Techs: Magic of Metal, Monuments, Spirits of the Dead (3)

Turn 4:
Gained +1 MatSci point (via Universities).​

Material Techs: Roads, Mathematics (Completed 3/3)
Social Techs: Art Patronage, Civic Ceremonies, Justice (2)
Exotic Techs: Funerary Rites, Leyline Network, Machine Spirits (2), Magic of Light and Shadow

Turn 5:
Gained +1 SocSci point (via contacting Sanctuary). Gained +1 ExoSci point (via Leyline Network). First sanctuary action options appeared.​

Material Techs: Gunpowder Weapons (Tier 2), Solar Power*, Wind and Water Power
Social Techs: Merchant Guilds, Military Logistics, Professional Soldiers, Religious Orders (Completed 2/2), Writing
Exotic Techs: Alchemy (Tier 2), Astral Projection, Sacred Geometry*, Wake the Land

Turn 6:​

Material Techs: Industrial Chemical Production, Study Sanctuary's Labor-Saving Devices, War Machines*
Social Techs: Craft Guilds, Espionage, Labor Councils
Exotic Techs: Animal Spirits, Factory-Temples, Spiritualism, Study the River Spirits

Turn 7:
Gained +2 MatSci points (via Industrial Chemical Production, continuing electrification/fuel/industrialization). Final sanctuary action options appeared.​

Material Techs: Hydrogen Fuel*, Physics, Trains
Social Techs: Industrial Production, Promotion by Merit, Reparations
Exotic Techs: Hunt Down Wild Spirits, Purify the Land, Study the League of Strength's War Magics

*Completed with Sanctuary Actions.

Turn 8:
Gained +1 MatSci point (via Physics, continuing electrification/fuel/industrialization). Gained +1 SocSci point (via ???). Gained +1 ExoSci point (via ???).​

Material Techs: Genetics, Gunpowder Weapons (Tier 3), Rocketry
Social Techs: Hospitals, Philosophy, Universal Magical Training
Exotic Techs: Esoteric Writing, Magical Healing (Tier 2), Study the River-Dolphins

Turn 9:
Gained +1 ExoSci point.
​

Material Techs:
Social Techs:
Exotic Techs:

All Technologies Gained

Spoiler

Genetics, Gunpowder Weapons (Tier 2), Gunpowder Weapons (Tier 3), Hydrogen Fuel, Industrial Chemical Production, Mathematics, Optics, Physics, Roads, Rocketry, Study Sanctuary's Labor-Saving Devices, Solar Power, Trains, War Machines, Waste Management, Water Management, Wind and Water Power

Art Patronage, Apprenticeships, Civic Ceremonies, Craft Guilds, Courier System, Espionage, Hospitals, Industrial Production, Justice, Labor Councils, Merchant Guilds, Military Logistics, Oral History (Tier 2), Permanent Councils, Philosophy, Professional Soldiers, Promotion by Merit, Religious Orders, Reparations, Schools, Taxes, Tribal Levy, Universal Magical Training, Universities, Writing

Animal Spirits, Astrological Architecture, Astrology (Tier 2), Alchemy (Tier 1), Alchemy (Tier 2), Astral Projection, Calendar, Esoteric Writing, Factory-Temples, Funerary Rites, Hunt Down Wild Spirits, Leyline Network, Machine Spirits, Magic of Light and Shadow, Magic of Metal, Magical Healing (Tier 2), Mine-Temples, Monuments, Purify the Land, Rituals, River Spirits, Sacred Geometry, Spirits of the Dead, Spiritualism, Study the League of Strength's War Magics, Study the River-Dolphins, Study the River Spirits, Tree Spirits, Wake the Land

Techs we're implied to have but haven't been called out explicitly: Astrology (Tier 1), Magical Healing (Tier 1), Study Sanctuary's Vehicles (implied picked up via joint study of War Machines)

Technologies Sorted By Arbitrary Categories From Most to Least

Spoiler

Public Works is now tied up with Spirit World for the extended theme we've put the most points into, followed very closely by Industry. Reconstruction as a single-turn project used more points than about half the themes I list, including such mainstays as astrology and trade.

Public Works (21): Art Patronage, Courier System, Hospitals (3), Hydrogen Power (5), Roads, Solar Power (5), Trains (2), Waste Management, Water Management, Wind and Water Power
Spirit World (21): Animal Spirits, Astral Projection, Factory-Temples, Funerary Rites, Hunt Down Wild Spirits (2), Machine Spirits (2), Mine-Temples, River Spirits, Spirits of the Dead (3), Study the River-Dolphins (3), Study the River Spirits (3), Tree Spirits, Wake the Land

Industry (17): Apprenticeships, Hydrogen Fuel (5), Industrial Chemical Production, Industrial Production, Solar Power (5), War Machines (3), Wind and Water Power

Social Specialization and Organization (11): Craft Guilds, Espionage, Labor Councils (3), Merchant Guilds, Oral History (Tier 2), Professional Soldiers, Promotion by Merit, Religious Orders (2)

Warfare (13): Espionage, Gunpowder Weapons (Tier 2), Gunpowder Weapons (Tier 3), Military Logistics, Professional Soldiers, Promotion by Merit, Rocketry (2), Study the League of Strength's War Magics, Tribal Levies, War Machines (3)

Exotic Infrastructure (9): Astrological Architecture, Leyline Network, Monuments, Purify the Land (3), Sacred Geometry (2), Wake the Land
Medicine and Health (9): Genetics (3), Hospitals (3), Magical Healing (Tier 2) (3)
Natural Philosophy (9): Genetics (3), Mathematics (3), Optics, Physics (2)

Reconstruction (8): Hunt Down Wild Spirits (2), Purify the Land(3), Reparations (3)

Exotic Materialism (7): Alchemy (Tier 1), Alchemy (Tier 2) (3), Esoteric Writing, Magic of Light and Shadow, Magic of Metal
Knowledge and Education (7): Apprenticeships, Oral History (Tier 2), Philosophy, Schools, Universities (2), Writing
Necrotechs (7): Astral Projection, Funerary Rites, Mine-Temples, Spiritualism, Spirits of the Dead (3)
Trade (7): Merchant Guilds, Roads, Trains (2), War Machines (3)

Government (6): Civic Ceremonies, Espionage, Justice (2), Permanent Councils, Taxes

Astrology (4): Astrological Architecture, Astrology (Tier 2), Calendar, Rituals
Daily Life (4): Animal Spirits, Study Sanctuary's Labor-Saving Devices, Universal Magical Training (2)

Multi-Species Integration (3): Study the River-Dolphins (3)
Space Travel (2): Rocketry (2)
Social Universalism (2): Universal Magical Training (2)

Last updated: Beginning of Turn 10, before the vote.

 

[ScottishMongol]

Here's a map of the known world. To explain what you're looking at:

The planet of Paradisea has at least one large inhabited continent, this one. There may be other continents or landmasses but you aren't aware of them yet.

The League of the North: Reindeer herders, seal hunters, and fruit trench cultivators, you don't actually have official contact with them and are only vaguely aware they exist.

Islander Folk: The lighter purple indicates places that share Islander culture but are less organized/more isolated than the seafarers who regularly trade with the mainland. They're also establishing a system of treaty ports at strategic harbors and islands. You otherwise don't know much about their culture, government, etc. Your landlocked nature means you don't have any direct contact with them, but you'll be able to amend that soon.

Sanctuary: The dark green indicates Sanctuary and its allies, the light green indicates tribes they have cultural influence over - that influence may vary from tribe to tribe but generally they look more towards Sanctuary than Whiteclay.

League of Five Shields: This will be revealed in this turn's rival reports but basically the Tech Barons fumbled a roll, the tribes they were attacking got a saving throw and managed to pull off an effective guerilla campaign and united into a defensive league. You'll have options to open diplomacy with them in future turns.

 

[ScottishMongol]

Map update + New World reveal

 

[ScottishMongol]

AN: I thought this might help the decision.

***

A Warrior Society is fundamentally an organization of elite warriors with special magical traditions, known as "war magics". A tribe can have multiple societies, each with slightly different traditions, iconography, and abilities, but there are constants. Warrior Societies recruit from within their tribe and have close relationships with each other, ensuring they coordinate as a whole across the League. Some have friendly rivalries which express themselves in efforts to outdo each other in battle, or in the sporting events/ritual war exercises that characterize the Warrior Societies during peacetime.

Warrior Societies support their members through a mix of loot, donations from family members, or donations from the tribe as a whole, depending. With recent improvements in logistics, governing Councils have taken up much of the slack. There are some families which have a tradition of sending members to Warrior Societies, but there is nothing that could really be considered a "Warrior family" the same way there are merchant families or Mechanical families. It's still considered an honor to support a family member who's a member of a Warrior Society.

When you join a Warrior Society, you undergo a ritual initiation, a test of toughness and strength, and you leave your home to live with the Society. Because of a number of cultural factors Warrior Societies are mostly, although not solely, composed of men. You kind of have to be considered pretty butch to be a woman in a Warrior Society.

As mentioned, members of a Society live, eat, and train together to build close fraternal bonds, as well as undergoing rituals together. These rituals primarily involve group dancing, augmented by costumes, chanting, music, and other ritual components. In battle Warriors wear ceremonial battle regalia which doubles as a psychological tool as well as serving actual magical components, which means unless a Society is specifically dedicated to stealth tactics, a Warrior can be easily identified by their regalia on the field. Warriors count their victories and kills and amass prowess and rank within the Society through this. A Warrior's personal magic is also said to increase with their victories, meaning a Society's leading and most veteran members are also its most powerful.

There are plenty of rituals, each for individual components of the war magic they rely on, but the most important involve going to and coming home from war. When going to war, Warriors will mantle themselves with war magic which improves their strength, stamina, and shields them from harm. When coming home, Warriors undergo ritual cleansing in order to remove the stain of killing from their souls, usually also undergoing a period of isolation as a group while they heal from any psychological trauma.

In addition, as your society has transitioned to a professional army with Warriors serving as your officer corps, some war magics have emerged which are more concerned with individual leadership rather than battlefield prowess - stiffening the resolve of the men under your command, or making it easier to issue orders to them through magical messages, for example.

 

[ScottishMongol]

Map update. Couple notes:

You're depicted as holding the former LoS territory because you de facto control it, although opinion there is overwhelmingly in favor of joining you.

There are other people living in the New World, but you don't know anything about them so that part of the map is blank.

As usual, a lighter shade indicates cultural or political influence without direct control.

 

[ScottishMongol]

Updated map for the current turn, showing your recent expansion and the Islanders' economic sphere of influence.

 

[ScottishMongol]

Expeditions are a new project which can be taken as a Diplomacy Action.

On Paradisea, the Expedition to the New World serves as a taste of what is to come; in the next phase of the game, Expeditions will take place to other planets and star systems.

An Expedition is not just a journey of discovery. An Expedition is a fact-finding mission, a diplomatic mission, and a mission of colonization, one which will attempt to establish first contact and then permanent relations with anyone on the other side. Of course, some Expeditions will discover uninhabited worlds, but there are still rewards to be had from this.

An Expedition will be given wide latitude to shape the mission as they see fit; to make alliances, make agreements on behalf of the League, to establish colonies and settlements (provided of course they can do so with the consent of the locals - if there are no locals, establishing a colony becomes much easier). The Expedition is meant to discover the facts on the ground and make a decision that will shape the long-term goals of the League regarding the situation they discover; this opens up future diplomacy, perhaps even integration.

Expeditions come with risk; after all, you may arrive to discover hostile locals who attack without provocation, or the Expedition may decide to aid local allies against their enemy. Preparing for this eventuality, Expeditions will include a military element and will have protocols which include rules of engagement, and a return home should the Expedition's target prove too dangerous for the mission to conclude.

Of course, Expeditions also have scientific and cultural aspects, and it is entirely possible they will return with fascinating new data, samples of new plants and animals, lost technology, an emissary from some foreign civilization, or riches. They will, in some cases, leave behind a population of colonists which will act as an extension of your civilization, in time perhaps maturing into full members of an interstellar League.

 

[ScottishMongol]

Someone asked for an explanation on how the League's economy worked and it seemed pertinent to the vote.

1) Debt, the First 10 Turns

In the preindustrial League, people operated on a complex system of social debt. Financial debt is a very precise and detailed concept, social debt is more nebulous. You provided goods and services out of the expectation that at some point you will be repaid. Reputation is a big part of this; if you were prosperous, you shared your bounty with all your neighbors, so that if you suffered from disaster, people would remember this and come to your assistance. You also had regular debt jubilees which served to level the playing field and reset the system. This was coupled with regular festivals in which people were encouraged to redistribute their wealth, which both earned them social capital and served to reduce inequality. As urbanization grew and people began to accumulate more wealth, this started to break down, so you implemented more direct methods of wealth redistribution like taxation and government requistions.

2) Merchants and Currency

Merchants do not actually produce things, craftsmen-Mechanicals or laborers do. However, merchants are responsible for moving this stuff around and distributing it; your average merchant family thus includes a lot of people we would consider working-class like longshoremen or teamsters, the difference is they're the younger members of the family and are expected to graduate out of that position and move to one of the cushier jobs older members have.

The thing is, currency is useful in certain ways. Everything has a monetary value, and while prices fluctuate at least everyone agrees you can exchange anything for currency. This is good if you're dealing in bulk goods.

To use an example: I make hammers and you gather berries. You might not always need hammers, but I always need berries to eat. Under social debt, you give me the berries because I'm the guy who makes all your hammers. Under a currency system, both hammers and berries have a monetary value, so we can just pay for everything.

You can see the positives and negatives in each system.

Merchants tend to work on contract; a family will provide a mine with all their supplies in exchange for their metal, then will trade that metal to craftsmen in exchange for tools, then give those tools to miners and foresters, then give that food back to everyone else. Every so often the local council will requisition supplies for a public works project, or tax the surplus, or a debt jubilee will lead to contracts being reset. Your legal system deals a lot with people renegotiating contracts which happens from time to time.

3) Changes

Increasingly, the family is a less important vehicle of social organization. Urbanization and mass social movements have meant that many people exist outside the extended family unit (although the family is still quite strong culturally and socially). They are organized by guilds and labor councils, which provide insurance to their members among other things, replacing the aforementioned system of social debt. They're also more reliant on state programs which are run by Historian-bureaucrats. Merchants are still powerful, but increasingly reliant on state infrastructure like the railway system.

4) Sanctuary and International Finance

Sanctuary has currency. They also have a complex system of finance and wealth redistribution inspired by Islamic jurisprudence. You didn't spec into any of this in integration, which means you have an internal trade barrier; in Sanctuary, they use money, but money isn't accepted by merchant families in the rest of the League, so Sanctuary's merchants work on contract internally and buy and sell with currency when dealing with the Islander Folk. The League does have a quite sizeable reserve of foreign currency which they use in trade, because it's easier that way. If a merchant family wants to buy, say, tropical hardwood from the Islander Folk, they'll use money to buy it, then once it's in the hands of the family it goes out on contracts.

 

[Etranger]

​

People were asking about what the solar system looked like on Discord, so I thought I'd post this for everyone's edification.