Hi guys, I haven't posted for a while as I've been distracted by other things. Also, EUII 1.09, and by implication Interregnum, still isn't available for the Mac, so there's a limit to how much I can contribute to specifics without being able to load up and get a feel for things. But here's a general suggestion on tech policy:
First, we shouldn't assume there's any meaning in the words 'latin', 'muslim' etc when it comes to tech groups in the world of Interregnum. Basically the five tech groups are:
A: Very Fast
B: Fast
C: Standard
D: Slow
E: Very, very, very slow
No cultural connotations at this stage, just faster and slower.
Second, instead of worrying about individual countries' shifts in technology, we should focus on whole regions and trends. This can all be coordinated in an event file, 'techgroups.txt' or whatever, that is full of events for every country to shift it up and down according to the prevailing trends and that country's DP sliders. This would mostly be for moving countries around that don't have their own special techgroup events already.
Thirdly, although techgroups.txt would give a kind of benchmark for the majors, majors don't have a 'right' to any particular tech group - it depends on the choices they make. So they should have events shifting them up or down relative to the surroundings - eg if Cordoba is 'naturally' in A early on, a shift to B is in response to uninnovative behaviour, while if it usually ends up in C, merely staying at B could be a big achievement.
A is for countries which are undergoing a burst of innovation and progress that most of their competitors are unable to match. This shouldn't be handed out lightly to anyone, European or otherwise, and it should be easy to lose A status by historical traumas or a loss of the highly innovative conditions. So a stable Mutazelite Cordoba or a highly innovative Sunni Cordoba might well be A, while one racked with instability or on a jihad against internal heretics is likely to lose its A status. Genoa could start A in the Renaissance, to allow it to 'catch up' with all the knowledge it's getting from the Muslim world and beyond (which would start from a higher base than Genoa).
B is for countries which encourage innovation, or manage average technological development despite being poor. Note that this is NOT a good description for much of Europe in the 15th century, but it does fit much of the Muslim Maghreb for instance.
C is the standard for a country with averagely rich provinces, average propensity to develop technology and so on, or some combination which amounts to the same thing.
D is for countries which have societies with relatively little capacity for change (eg some of the nomadic Central Asian hordes), or which have very rich provinces but fail to translate that into a technology boom (eg historical China and India).
E is really harsh, and should be for countries which have no real motivation for innovation internally and/or are totally isolated from innovation in the rest of the world, whether by geography or a self-imposed attempt to remain 'pure' in the face of innovation. Eg the Aztecs would be E until the Old World arrives, and if they decide metalworking and so on are foreign abominations, they can stay E; but if the Old World arrives and they at least trade with them somewhat, they should move up to D after a while.
Finally, we shouldn't use tech groups as a proxy for initial technological advancement. We should directly give the more advanced countries extra levels of tech, and if necessary make the early tech levels quite expensive so this advantage counts for something. For example, parts of India are much more advanced in terms of infrastructure than the Hansa in 1419, but the Hansa probably has more potential for innovation. So Indian countries start with extra levels of Infra and the Hansa start with little (given they're building a country from scratch), but the Hansa would likely catch up and surpass India eventually by having superior tech groups. This cuts both ways, for example Cordoban armies were far more advanced than Aztec ones even in 1419, so the Aztecs would likely start at tech 0 and need a lot of work to get to 1, while Cordoba might start at 4 say.
First, we shouldn't assume there's any meaning in the words 'latin', 'muslim' etc when it comes to tech groups in the world of Interregnum. Basically the five tech groups are:
A: Very Fast
B: Fast
C: Standard
D: Slow
E: Very, very, very slow
No cultural connotations at this stage, just faster and slower.
Second, instead of worrying about individual countries' shifts in technology, we should focus on whole regions and trends. This can all be coordinated in an event file, 'techgroups.txt' or whatever, that is full of events for every country to shift it up and down according to the prevailing trends and that country's DP sliders. This would mostly be for moving countries around that don't have their own special techgroup events already.
Thirdly, although techgroups.txt would give a kind of benchmark for the majors, majors don't have a 'right' to any particular tech group - it depends on the choices they make. So they should have events shifting them up or down relative to the surroundings - eg if Cordoba is 'naturally' in A early on, a shift to B is in response to uninnovative behaviour, while if it usually ends up in C, merely staying at B could be a big achievement.
A is for countries which are undergoing a burst of innovation and progress that most of their competitors are unable to match. This shouldn't be handed out lightly to anyone, European or otherwise, and it should be easy to lose A status by historical traumas or a loss of the highly innovative conditions. So a stable Mutazelite Cordoba or a highly innovative Sunni Cordoba might well be A, while one racked with instability or on a jihad against internal heretics is likely to lose its A status. Genoa could start A in the Renaissance, to allow it to 'catch up' with all the knowledge it's getting from the Muslim world and beyond (which would start from a higher base than Genoa).
B is for countries which encourage innovation, or manage average technological development despite being poor. Note that this is NOT a good description for much of Europe in the 15th century, but it does fit much of the Muslim Maghreb for instance.
C is the standard for a country with averagely rich provinces, average propensity to develop technology and so on, or some combination which amounts to the same thing.
D is for countries which have societies with relatively little capacity for change (eg some of the nomadic Central Asian hordes), or which have very rich provinces but fail to translate that into a technology boom (eg historical China and India).
E is really harsh, and should be for countries which have no real motivation for innovation internally and/or are totally isolated from innovation in the rest of the world, whether by geography or a self-imposed attempt to remain 'pure' in the face of innovation. Eg the Aztecs would be E until the Old World arrives, and if they decide metalworking and so on are foreign abominations, they can stay E; but if the Old World arrives and they at least trade with them somewhat, they should move up to D after a while.
Finally, we shouldn't use tech groups as a proxy for initial technological advancement. We should directly give the more advanced countries extra levels of tech, and if necessary make the early tech levels quite expensive so this advantage counts for something. For example, parts of India are much more advanced in terms of infrastructure than the Hansa in 1419, but the Hansa probably has more potential for innovation. So Indian countries start with extra levels of Infra and the Hansa start with little (given they're building a country from scratch), but the Hansa would likely catch up and surpass India eventually by having superior tech groups. This cuts both ways, for example Cordoban armies were far more advanced than Aztec ones even in 1419, so the Aztecs would likely start at tech 0 and need a lot of work to get to 1, while Cordoba might start at 4 say.
