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What about a 20th century ModernPowers?

posted by PMYA on ModernPowers

I think we briefly talked about this before the start of season 2, but decided not to do it because it would mean people would need to know certain bits of history.

I noticed there is a sub doing something similar on Reddit, /r/ColdWarPowers. Rather than it being more difficult to do than the normal ModernPowers, I think it might actually eliminate a lot of issues we had moderating it. For example, there is no way anyone can dispute something we know to be historically accurate, whereas people had all kinds of interpretations over stuff happening right now, and it was even worse once we got 20-30 years into the future.

The basic idea is we would start at the very beginning of the 20th century and go from there. The main difference between this and the current version of MP would be that certain historical things would definitely happen, no matter what players did. Both world wars, and maybe stuff like the great depression would still happen without any chance to stop it from happening, but they could play out in different ways. If we were going to do this, we would need to write a different ruleset, with a list of things that would definitely happen in-game.

There were also less countries in this time period too, so we wouldn't need as many players. There are probably 30 countries that would be worth playing as at the beginning of the 20th century.

I think we briefly talked about this before the start of season 2, but decided not to do it because it would mean people would need to know certain bits of history. I noticed there is a sub doing something similar on Reddit, /r/ColdWarPowers. Rather than it being more difficult to do than the normal ModernPowers, I think it might actually eliminate a lot of issues we had moderating it. For example, there is no way anyone can dispute something we know to be historically accurate, whereas people had all kinds of interpretations over stuff happening right now, and it was even worse once we got 20-30 years into the future. The basic idea is we would start at the very beginning of the 20th century and go from there. The main difference between this and the current version of MP would be that certain historical things **would definitely happen**, no matter what players did. Both world wars, and maybe stuff like the great depression would still happen without any chance to stop it from happening, but they could play out in different ways. If we were going to do this, we would need to write a different ruleset, with a list of things that would definitely happen in-game. There were also less countries in this time period too, so we wouldn't need as many players. There are probably 30 countries that would be worth playing as at the beginning of the 20th century.

11 comments

[–] Lord--Gaben 1 points (+1|-0)

I would like this. It seems much easier to make tech progress since we know what actually gets invented, and we didn't really have good wars in MP. It seems like something new, and I like that.

[–] PMYA [OP] 1 points (+1|-0)

We are going to need a completely different battle system. Halfway through season 2, we adopted an automated rolling/asset loss system that made battles a lot quicker and easier to do. It also took different kinds of assets and terrain into account, but it was still very basic.

For example, I send 5 good tanks, 2 bad planes and 100 average soldiers into a built up area to fight. The defender has an urban area and defender bonus. His 3 bad tanks will lose, his 3 good planes will win, and his 100 average soldiers will also probably win due to his bonuses.

There is no strategy involved at all, and the side with the better assets is going to win, a vast majority of the time anyway. The only time a bad army ever made a significant dent in a better one was ISIS vs USA in season 1, and that was only because I rolled a ridiculous amount of 10's against @BoujeeBagels.

If we are going to do this, we will need different battle systems for WW1 and WW2, because the combat is incomparable. Ideally, I would like to incorporate a Hearts Of Iron style approach to combat, but that is extremely complex and we will need to think about optimising it to a level where it is doable on a large scale with many fronts. I also think we will need a different way of keeping time. In the event of large battles happening on many fronts, I think we should slow down time for everyone, rather than freeze the battle and have it go on for about a year because the rolls are taking too long.

I will think on this and make a post with some ideas for a new battle system later.