Keep in mind that that means always locking ourselves out of an action. If something catches fire we'd only have two secondaries to fix it.
On the other hand, rushing means stability costs or stagnation via our provinces not being able to advance.
Perhaps I am underestimating stuff, but statues shouldnt require much innovation to look decent as you can just copy stuff 1 to 1 from a model. All the 2d stuff is probably going to look terrible though.
You are definitely underestimating.
 
Naw, a pyramid/ziggurut is about as uncomplicated a structure as you could build at all. Less a feat of engineering and more a feat of logistics.

The interesting part of a pyramid for us is that it forces our people to learn how to be efficient with labor (because at that scale you need to be clever to move all that stuff). Which is an important lesson as our current source of cheap labor are the half Exiles.

And historically, lack of manpower was a major driver of innovation. I doubt we want to get there through a plague.
 
It shouldn't be that hard to copy some techniques, especially because due to our open borders immigration policy we should have pilfered quite a few art techniques from our neighbors, especially now, in the wake of a drought.

After all if we can get Bronze from an immigrant shouldn't we also get some art and sculpturing techniques?
Harder than you think. Fine artisans are usually prized resources, much like Bronzeworkers. We usually only take in one or two every 2-3 refugee waves.

The main issue is that Ymaryn art is...severe. We tax most luxuries unless you can justify them to have a practical use.
Perhaps I am underestimating stuff, but statues shouldnt require much innovation to look decent as you can just copy stuff 1 to 1 from a model. All the 2d stuff is probably going to look terrible though.
Actually, quality stone statues are very difficult and time intensive to make for skilled labor, but we're cheating because we have Alabaster, so we can make plaster to the rough shape and carve that
 
The interesting part of a pyramid for us is that it forces our people to learn how to be efficient with labor (because at that scale you need to be clever to move all that stuff). Which is an important lesson as our current source of cheap labor are the half Exiles.

And historically, lack of manpower was a major driver of innovation. I doubt we want to get there through a plague.

Despite having the most people of any polity, our labor force are already one of the most expensive in the world.

Half-exiles are on principle are not slaves, and they get paid like everyone else. Nobody can buy or sell slaves.

Our farmers are also yeomen, skilled archers and woodsmen.
 
Keep in mind that that means always locking ourselves out of an action. If something catches fire we'd only have two secondaries to fix it.
Those periods are typically unpredicatble though, and if they occur during or right after rushing a megaproject the consequences are much worse.

If it is in the middle of rushing a megaproject, our provinces will be locked into continuing the megaproject and not supporting our efforts (like how they helped us with the evolution of observance), or we need to pay a secondary to switch off megaproject support and continue the megaproject ourselves (which makes the whole process action negative compared to slowboating the project).

If the megaproject has just completed, we'll have just burned through a large portion of our stats (for example, 5 econ and 5 art) and we will be just getting around to putting out any small fires that occurred during the construction of the megaproject right when a true disaster hits.
 
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Despite having the most people of any polity, our labor force are already one of the most expensive in the world.

Half-exiles are on principle are not slaves, and they get paid like everyone else. Nobody can buy or sell slaves.

Our farmers are also yeomen, skilled archers and woodsmen.
It's part of what makes the Ymaryn the Ymaryn, the idea that they are the elite, excellence is in their blood and excellence has always been expensive
 
I assume they make bad slaves. Too much used to 'no slaves with us'.
I don't think there are any Ymaryn slaves around at the moment, the last time anyone managed to capture Ymaryn citizens for slavery was during the Great Nomad War (and even then they had to escape quickly leaving most of their gains behind) almost two centuries ago.

Considering we are averse to slavery I doubt Ymaryn would allow other Ymaryn to be traded even if they were half exiles
 
I don't think there are any Ymaryn slaves around at the moment, the last time anyone managed to capture Ymaryn citizens for slavery was during the Great Nomad War (and even then they had to escape quickly leaving most of their gains behind) almost two centuries ago.

Considering we are averse to slavery I doubt Ymaryn would allow other Ymaryn to be traded even if they were half exiles
Would our values compel us to rescue/buy slaves back?
 
Especially since we've stayed out of wars and kept to ourselves. There has been little opportunity to make a Ymarynian into a slave.

I find that our people would be excellent slaves. It has been brought beforehand (by veekie I believe) that we would be so due to our hardworking values, dislike of disruption, and beauty due to lack of pox markings.
Would our values compel us to rescue/buy slaves back?
Considering the kerfuffle in chasing after the nomads when they raided, yes.
 
I dont know. All the pictures I can find of statues made way BC look a bit rough and sometimes dont get proportions right but there is nothing that looks silly the way two dimensional depictions of humans still looked during the early medieval age.
Then you do it.

With zero experience, lack of education, subpar tools, on top of your masonry job and no expected payout.

I'll wait here to see how you do.
 
Would our values compel us to rescue/buy slaves back?
Considering all our neighbors aside from the Highlanders* (who use a bastardised version of our half exiles that instead creates a permanent hereditary second class citizen population) utilise slavery, I don't think we would let them enslave Ymaryn, but due to our isolationism we wouldn't interfere with slaves in their territory, we'd set slaves who come into our borders free, like black slaves who escaped north from the southern states, but we wouldn't actively try to set them free or make a big deal out of it.

*I just realised how much swapping there has been between the Highlander and us. They use a different version of the Half exile system, use our provincial style government format, and they seem to emulate Crow somewhat with their Black Eagle king of the gods
 
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I'll point out that AN said Diplomacy and Economy would combine and calve out a Wealth stat, not that they would cease to be tracked stats. It'd be Diplomacy, Economy, and Wealth, with Wealth probably being a track for the amount of gold/silver in our economy since the money supply is a big concern independent of agricultural and industrial production.
Improved yields. Also, since you are going into the Iron Age the things that will produce currency will start cropping up, at which point part of Diplomacy and Econ is going to calve off and join to form Wealth and things will be simplified.
 
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I assume they make bad slaves. Too much used to 'no slaves with us'.
Ymaryn, would make GREAT slaves overall. Our people are used to trusting and obeying authority, willing to work hard and long without further instruction.
Would our values compel us to rescue/buy slaves back?
Except our values would say to rescue the slaves even if we had to set the whole slaving polity on fire. Little bit rabid.
I dont know. All the pictures I can find of statues made way BC look a bit rough and sometimes dont get proportions right but there is nothing that looks silly the way two dimensional depictions of humans still looked during the early medieval age.
That's because a statue had to be planned. You need to know the stone, how it chips and fractures, then you need to know EXACTLY how you were going to work from the whole stone to the desired shape, and maintain accuracy to your measurements the whole way.

And if you hit a flaw in the rock or miscalculate? The whole thing is deformed and you have to start over or recalculate everything and shave it down one full dimension. You need steel tools, geometry, paper, and measurement/marking tools in a wide variety
 
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Ymaryn, would make GREAT slaves overall. Our people are used to trusting and obeying authority, willing to work hard and long without further instruction.
Also we'd make very valuable sex slaves if we allowed people to enslave us. Ymaryn being very beautiful in comparison to all other peoples standards at this time
 
I dont know. All the pictures I can find of statues made way BC look a bit rough and sometimes dont get proportions right but there is nothing that looks silly the way two dimensional depictions of humans still looked during the early medieval age.
It's been theorized that the reason why medieval paintings look "off" isn't due to a lack of technical knowledge or skill on the part of the painters, but rather that it was considered the "correct" style to use (for a modern, if silly, example imagine that we had several hundred years of cubism being the only sponsored style).
 
It's been theorized that the reason why medieval paintings look "off" isn't due to a lack of technical knowledge or skill on the part of the painters, but rather that it was considered the "correct" style to use (for a modern, if silly, example imagine that we had several hundred years of cubism being the only sponsored style).
It's very easy to go from an adaptation for limited tools and techniques to Traditional and Right way. Older statues tended to have exaggerated assets(enormous eyes and ears) to make what you were depicting more obvious, and perspective took a while to figure out.
 
It's very easy to go from an adaptation for limited tools and techniques to Traditional and Right way. Older statues tended to have exaggerated assets(enormous eyes and ears) to make what you were depicting more obvious, and perspective took a while to figure out.

So we'll need to import Not!Greek Sculptors.
 
Uh, Balanced Policy's boosted Econ Expansion is the only thing keeping the Economy cost of True City up at present. We'd have crashed Econ otherwise.
It LOOKS low, but it's not actually nearly that low since True City is currently generating 4-6 Econ Slots every turn from churn
It's not necessary to keep it on balanced. We can change to another policy and have a slower increase with a normal Expand Econ if needed.

AN has also stated that overflow into Econ can consume Econ Expansion. This is probably one of the ways that the Xohyssiri have been maintaining their True City during the Golden Age with their relative lack of farming technology. As it is, we shouldn't expect to maintain the True City without more technological advances.

In an ideal situation, some of our normal actions would consume much more Econ than we get refunded into Econ Expansion (through Econ:Econ Expansion efficiency or overflow) and we would use action heavy projects to cycle Econ back into Econ Expansion.
 
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