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Paths of Civilization

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Gunpowder is actually one of the more plausible things she could have discovered, compared to some of the stuff people came up with in-thread. Metallic sodium for example is just insane.
Distillation is possible, I guess, though pretty unlikely. Would be totally awesome though. Pure-ish ethanol alone is very handy to have when developing chemistry and chemistry related knowledge. It's also a simple, and pretty effective, disinfectant, if not that great for wounds.

In the interest of avoiding full hereditary rule as much as possible:
[X] Attempt to finish her mother's work
 
DakkaMania said:
Nope. A distillery exploding is an actual danger if improperly handled even for small ones. I'm no expert myself, but friends of mine do distil and talked about it. And the amount they distil at a time is maybe 100l (that is, how much goes into it at once, they refill multiple times).

Assuming that a larger vessel is easier to build with the tools available, she may have been able to blow it up like that.
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A distillery explosion is usually steam-based, which can set alcohol on fire after/during the explosion as the hot distillation equipment shrapnels. In her case, maybe alcohol and other things, even other pressurized vessels. Not typical but actually very plausible given that she's working from basically inferior materials and no knowledge of chemistry. She wouldn't necessarily take the danger seriously enough. Normally people build up too much pressure by mistake, she might do it just to see what happens.
 
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Romv said:
Gunpowder is actually one of the more plausible things she could have discovered, compared to some of the stuff people came up with in-thread. Metallic sodium for example is just insane.
Distillation is possible, I guess, though pretty unlikely. Would be totally awesome though. Pure-ish ethanol alone is very handy to have when developing chemistry and chemistry related knowledge. It's also a simple, and pretty effective, disinfectant, if not that great for wounds.

In the interest of avoiding full hereditary rule as much as possible:
[X] Attempt to finish her mother's work
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Someone could compile a list of candidate substance/chemical reactions.
Guile said:
So spend econ, which lowers our martial. Put up a bunch of walls or aqueducts.
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Expand Economy could bring us back to 14.
 
Romv said:
In the interest of avoiding full hereditary rule as much as possible:
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You know, I do find it funny that people are willing to accept less competent leaders in order to avoid having inherited power instead of a more meritocratic system.

I understand the line of thought behind it, it's just hilarious to me. It's kinda like how you fight wildfires by setting certain parts of the forest on fire.
 
Lilithium said:
Sacred prostitution - Wikipedia

Welcome to the history that hardcore prudes and moral watchdogs don't want you to know about!
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It's totally a legit way of getting blessings of gods.:ogles:

Serves to tie the population and influential members of a faith closer together. Some may argue it's too close, but that is what naysayers also quote.:p

Besides the servants of the gods are being cared properly as they are also the main caretakers.

Some versions of it have the gods partake in the process so it's not a pimp/prostitute relationship. More of a mutual..... uplifting beneficial union.:ogles:
 
pblur said:
Fyi, it's impossible to get higher than around 70% ethanol via distillation. The vapor pressure gives you an equilbrium around there
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I know, that's why I said pure-ish and not pure. It's higher than 70% though, if you distill several times.
Also, there's ways around azeotropes, like adding another component that alters the properties of one of the constituents for example.
 
Kiba said:
Ethanol is a fuel, right? It's only viable if biofuel production does not displace production of food.
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It's a bit early to use it as a fuel source and can easily be extracted from the pressed grapes as those retain some alcohol after fermentation and have no other use except using them as fertilizer, which you can still do after extracting the alcohol.

Demand won't be all that high either at the start owing to the price. The tools we have should make it fairly difficult to make a distillery. But once it scales up, we get a fairly amazing trade good. That is, once we figure out how to make that stuff drinkable and to separate out the parts that cause blindness.
 
*Quietly add another foodstuff target.
  • Potato - vodka and super bountiful
  • Maple syrup - sugar high
  • Rice - versatile, from food to other uses
  • Corn - fuel and huge yield
  • Bamboo - food and versatile material
  • Mulberry - food and feeding silkworm
Have we been pearl diving or taming clams?
 
I'm kind of baffled about why people are voting for more Alchemy. The same Alchemy, in fact, that killed our last Hero.

Is it that you're more worried about foreign entanglements (allying with the HK against Persia) or winning the war too good and eating a chunk of Hath than you are Rulwyna possibly killing herself? Or worried that the other options will lead to stability drops?

Or are you worried about heredity and don't want to have the daughter of a King be King? (Bit late on that one, we've had that before when the kids weren't even properly Heroes).

Is it that you're convinced explosions (whatever they may be, gunpowder or dust explosions or just heating some kind of flammable liquid in a kiln or blast furnace) are worth the cost?
 
VoidZero said:
*Quietly add another foodstuff target.
  • Potato - vodka and super bountiful
  • Maple syrup - sugar high
  • Rice - versatile, from food to other uses
  • Corn - fuel and huge yield
  • Bamboo - food and versatile material
  • Mulberry - food and feeding silkworm
Have we been pearl diving or taming clams?
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Maple syrup, Potatoes and corn are in the not!Americas
Bamboo and Rice are far to the east,
we probably only have Mulberry
 
Guile said:
I'm kind of baffled about why people are voting for more Alchemy. The same Alchemy, in fact, that killed our last Hero.

Is it that you're more worried about foreign entanglements (allying with the HK against Persia) or winning the war too good and eating a chunk of Hath than you are Rulwyna possibly killing herself? Or worried that the other options will lead to stability drops?
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Nobody wants to be dragged in political intrigue of another kingdom, or fighting an endless war in the Lowland.

PLP said:
Maple syrup, Potatoes and corn are in the not!Americas
Bamboo and Rice are far to the east,
we probably only have Mulberry
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Friends, we need to break out of that strait!
 
Guile said:
I'm kind of baffled about why people are voting for more Alchemy. The same Alchemy, in fact, that killed our last Hero.

Is it that you're more worried about foreign entanglements (allying with the HK against Persia) or winning the war too good and eating a chunk of Hath than you are Rulwyna possibly killing herself? Or worried that the other options will lead to stability drops?

Or are you worried about heredity and don't want to have the daughter of a King be King? (Bit late on that one, we've had that before when the kids weren't even properly Heroes).

Is it that you're convinced explosions (whatever they may be, gunpowder or dust explosions or just heating some kind of flammable liquid in a kiln or blast furnace) are worth the cost?
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I did vote for contacting the HK, but I wouldn't be especially disappointed by science winning as seems likely. I see an alliance as a way to gain significant political power, at the cost of partially compromising our values with theirs. Probably worth it to cover the lowland threat, but I understand if others feel differently.

Also, I'm concerned that the HK won't like her. According to their standards, she's no princess; she was born out of wedlock and isn't necessarily the heir. They might not see marriage with her as anything like alliance.
 
Kiba said:
Someone could compile a list of candidate substance/chemical reactions.
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*raises hand*

Naptha. Not sure on the specifics of synthesis so I can't say either way.

Greek Fire. Could be any of pine resin, naphtha, quicklime, calcium phosphide, sulfur, or niter. Though how we would get niter I don't know, we don't have a natural mineral source.

Steam Explosion. Very feasible, though the description is a little strange. We have copper vessels and could have been heating water and boom vessel explosion.

Still Explosion. Similar to a steam explosion and of similar ease, but more volatile in my estimation due to the alcohol.

Dust Explosion. Easily doable, though begs the question of what Lol's was doing with a fuck ton of dust. Also probably not powerful enough.

Gunpowder. Easy to find if we have a source of saltpeter/niter, since we have charcoal and potentially a source of sulfur because of our alchemy. However, we do not have a source of niter, except through sheer blazing nigh impossible luck in our cow manure.

Other flammable liquids. A slew of other chemicals that make things burn and possibly go boom.

Other types of BLEVE. Other vessel rupturing experiments gone wrong.



As you can see there are multiple possibilities. Out of all of them one commonality is that whatever this is it is frightening enough to use for religious authority or inspiring awe even if it is a cute novelty to modern folks. Other things are usable in more ways but it really depends on the material.
Adhoc vote count started by BungieONI on Jun 16, 2017 at 4:36 PM, finished with 55966 posts and 108 votes.
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So, with this vote seemingly settled, we should probably make plans for next turn in light of the latest information, but before AN throws us another shiny ;)

I figure we probably have a breather. Hath fight will likely continue as is, but with no current nomad threat (yay for peaceful contact with old friends!), we have a chance to properly reinforce the north. And we have to burn Econ and Martial. So... maybe this is a chance to really get benefits from Defensive policy? And being at war, that should be a free switch.

We could also either build the NE March - perhaps integrating the nomads in some way? - or partially integrate West Wall while it isn't threatened. March might be better, because the integration boosts Econ and Martial, which are too high ATM. And another March = more actions!

I expect we'll need the remaining action for a main war against the Hath. Whether that's enough will depend on whether we can indeed build better walls, whether we still have a hero King, and what the HK manage to do to the Hath before then. We have lots of Martial, though, so main war should be pretty effective regardless.

What other thoughts do people have?
 
ThrawnCA said:
So, with this vote seemingly settled, we should probably make plans for next turn in light of the latest information, but before AN throws us another shiny ;)

I figure we probably have a breather. Hath fight will likely continue as is, but with no current nomad threat (yay for peaceful contact with old friends!), we have a chance to properly reinforce the north. And we have to burn Econ and Martial. So... maybe this is a chance to really get benefits from Defensive policy? And being at war, that should be a free switch.

We could also either build the NE March - perhaps integrating the nomads in some way? - or partially integrate West Wall while it isn't threatened. March might be better, because the integration boosts Econ and Martial, which are too high ATM. And another March = more actions!

I expect we'll need the remaining action for a main war against the Hath. Whether that's enough will depend on whether we can indeed build better walls, whether we still have a hero King, and what the HK manage to do to the Hath before then. We have lots of Martial, though, so main war should be pretty effective regardless.

What other thoughts do people have?
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Main salt gift to the friendly nomads
 
Guile said:
I'm kind of baffled about why people are voting for more Alchemy. The same Alchemy, in fact, that killed our last Hero.

Is it that you're more worried about foreign entanglements (allying with the HK against Persia) or winning the war too good and eating a chunk of Hath than you are Rulwyna possibly killing herself? Or worried that the other options will lead to stability drops?

Or are you worried about heredity and don't want to have the daughter of a King be King? (Bit late on that one, we've had that before when the kids weren't even properly Heroes).

Is it that you're convinced explosions (whatever they may be, gunpowder or dust explosions or just heating some kind of flammable liquid in a kiln or blast furnace) are worth the cost?
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It would feel like a waste if we did the alchemy thing and didn't follow up on it. I expect that typical our answer to a failure that isn't clearly a systematic failure is going to be to try again.
 
ThrawnCA said:
I assume that's instead of building the March?

Makes sense given their history :D. Getting them to stick around like before has comparable benefits to a March.
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I'm really interested to see how the action costs will change.

Also supper glad currency is spreading without too many problems.
 
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